Legitimate and Ilegitimate Ministry

I wanted to right a blog to all of my young preachers and those aspiring to ministry.  there is an alarming trend of people entering into ministry and callings through the back door.  I have never seen an age of more self-appointed prophets, pastors, bishops, apostles, evangelist, and so on.  Your ministry must have a DNA that can be traced.  I am afraid of people that declare that they only hear from God and have no accountability on the earth.  there are some that say that I don't need any validation from man but only from god.  I believe that this is wrong and dangerous.  Paul stated that "we have many instructors in Christ but few fathers."  God has placed fathers in the body to train, discipline, and chasten.  there are many young preachers who are getting their training from Youtube and TBN and don't have a real impartation from an Apostolic father.  When you get your sights fixed on the spotlight of ministry but not on the foundation of servanthood you are headed for a difficult path.  I don't believe that you can correctly pastor a church if you have never cleaned one.  the heart of ministry is servanthood and you need to serve "under" before you can be "over".  Everybody in scripture even Jesus subjected himself to an earthly authority.  When Jesus validated his ministry he had to got o John the baptist who was the spiritual headship of that time and be baptized of him.  John felt uncomfortable but Jesus said "suffer it to be so".  In order to have a "Legit" ministry you have to be under someone that is "Legit".  Many feel that this is not important but when I go to the doctor one of the first things that I look for is where he or she went to school.  I look for the degree or certificate.  I will not trust a doctor who just wanted to be a doctor but never subjected his self to the training.  In my ministry I was trained by my apostolic father, I was endorsed as an "exhorter, licensed as a minister, ordained as an elder, and appointed as a District Elder.  What i'm saying is that other men besides myself felt that I qualified for the offices that I held.  If you are operating illegitimately, then how can you raise spiritual sons.  Bastards never last in ministry and they never reproduce anything but little bastards.

Fathers pass down spiritual DNA, they open doors, and they discipline their sons.  My pastor opened my first doors but other fathers that were connected to him opened future doors.  I would never depart my father and seek another because I only have one.  Some are changing fathers every year look for a hook-up.  You don't need a hook-up, you need a father.  Some of you young preachers are not being fathered but you are in  foster care looking to be adopted.  Growing up as a boy there were men richer than my father, smarter than my father, and more prestigious than my father but none of them loved me like my father.  If God has given you a spiritual father then be faithful and obedient and god will prosper you.

David had a crazy father in Saul but David was so faithful that he would not kill the man who was trying to kill him.  One of the last prophecies in the bible was that the father hearts would be turned to the children and the children to the fathers.  Lets turn our heart to the authority that God has established so that we can received our divine inheritance.

Could You Not Tarry One Hour?

This is the question that Jesus asked his disciples right before he was arrested and crucified.  It was a lack of prayer preparation that caused the fear and anxiety that led to them abandoning Jesus.  There are so many people in the body of Christ that are struggling due to the lack of prayer.  How can we survive the constant barrage of satanic influences if we do not prayer.  Many in the body of Christ have turned prayer into a religious exercise and totally ignore the true power of prayer.  Prayer is our divine pleasure and opportunity to have relationship with our creator.  Prayer is not a written computer program to be memorized and played over in our heads.  Prayer is a divine release that comes from our spirit.  Oh what a joy it is to have a conversation with the one who saved, redeemed, and delivered a miserable soul like me.  Growing up in church we sometimes learn to pray by observing how others pray.  This is not the best way to learn prayer.  Its almost like trying to get to know your spouse by eavesdropping on the conversation of another couple.  Prayer is supposed to flow like water.  No vain repetitions, repeated cliches, or memorized jargon.  God talked to Abraham as a man talks to his friend.  THAT'S THE PRAYER LIFE I WANT.  Sometimes in church prayer meetings I watch people who are done praying in ten minutes because they ran out of things to say but prayer is more than talking; it's about relating and knowing.

Prayer is about:

• Praise
• Waiting
• Confession
• Scripture praying
• Watching
• Intercession
• Petition
• Thanksgiving
• Singing
• Meditation
• Listening
• Worship

Can you do all of that in 10 minutes?  I can't.  Spend some quality time with God.  Learn how to be still in prayer and focus all your attention on Him.  Who wants to have a romantic date and the other person can't be still?

Pray is OUR pleasure

It's time to go back to Church

Sunday, September 18th 2011 is "Back To Church Sunday" at Refuge Temple of Christ in Lockport.  We welcome you to rediscover church again.  Many people have left church for many different reasons but god wants you back in fellowship with His people.  There are many excuses for not going to church but there is no excuse for missing out on God

Just blessed

I was just giving some serious thought to the fact that we are blessed.  When we look at the news and everything that happens in the course of a day do you ever wonder why all of it passed over you.  People face devestating tragedy everyday and most of it never personally touches us.  I thank God for His angels that watch over us day and night.  I dare you to let your mind go back to a time where you almost lost your life and see if you have a praise.  The other day I missed a major deadly accident by just a few feet.  I thought about it all day and imagined what the funeral would have been like, who would do my euology and who would be taking care of my family.  I cherish today and that god he allowed me to see it.  I have no reason to complain for truly God has been good to me.

I think about the awesome companion that God gave me and I give Him praise.  A wife is truly a gift from God and she can not be substituted or replaced.  I have three healthy beautiful children who are the image of God's goodness.  What more can I say than "I'M BLESSED

People are our Business

Ministry is a customer-based business and Yes ministry is customer based.  Many Christians are trying to serve God and avoid human interaction at the same time.  This can not be done.  God called us to bring the gospel to the world not to yourself, not to the people you choose but to the world.  Many of us go through life experiences whereas we are hurt by people but that is never an excuse to get away from the true mission which is to serve God by serving one another.  When I think about the things that people have done to me I began to think about the garbage that God had to put up with in me.  I don't have a right to hate, I don't have a right to be judgemental, and I don't have a right to isolate a person who has done wrong.

Jesus had a solution for those who did him wrong he declared "Father forive them for they know not what they do".  Forgivesness is one of the highest acts of worship and it makes you at one with God.  I feel holy when i am forgiving and beigng forgiven.

Many people walk around with a victim mentality.  This mentality loathes in self-pity and low self-esteem.  It is easy for people to remember all that was done to them but their memory becomes cloudy when they think about the hurt they may have caused in their live.  When I wanted to play the victim the Lord caused me to remember when I was the perpetrator.  I got real humble when I thought about the damage that I have done in the course of my life and all i can say is "thank God for the blood".  Never let temporary circumstances keep you from developing meaningful relationships.  sometimes we don't realize how important people are to our survival.  It takes years to forge great friendships but they can be torn down in one day.

I enjoy people because they are my business.  I have no time to make enemies but a lifetime to make friends.  There is a hurting world out there and many just need a good friend.  I challenge you today to love people as Christ has loved you.

Signed,
Your Friend

Division in the Church

Someone posed the question to me in Bible Study:  "What causes division in a church?"  I can up with threee main reasons even though there might be plenty more.

1. Immaturity-There are many out there in the body of Christ today who have just not grown up yet.  Maturity is essential for a healthy congregation.  When children rule the result is oppression.  Immature Christians focus on things that don't matter.  They are the type of people who strain at the gnat and swallow the camel.  Spiritual immaturity has nothing to do with chronological age.  The worst thing to see is older immature Christians.  When an immature christian gets offended they will literally take their ball and go home like a child.  We must understand that the church was not established to cater to our personal needs but it was the vehicle that Jesus established to further the Kingdom of God.  When I was a child my older brother and I did not get along but when we became men we put the childish things behind us.  We can still disagree but nothing comes between us being brothers.  People leave the family of god everyday because they were offended by another child in the house.  When my brother and I would fight I never left my father's house because of it.  Why?  BEACUSE IT WASN'T HIS HOUSE IT WAS DADDY'S HOUSE.  Why would you leave your spiritual father over an issue with another child.  We must check our attitude at the door when we become disciples of Jesus Christ.  The love that Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 13 was a love for the spiritually mature.  Division will stop when people decide to grow up
2. Carnality-You can be a Christian and still be carnally-minded.  When the church is so pre-occupied with the matter of the flesh then the church is weakened.  Romans states "that to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Gutter gossiping, murmuring, complaining, judging, and fault-finding are all products of a carnal mind.
3. Selfishness-Me me me me me me me me me me.  Selfish people are determined to get their way at all cost.  It doesn't matter who they hurt, how they live, or what they say as long as their selfish ways are pleased.

The early church grew so fast because the people had all things common.  They were busy caring for others.  They even established deacons so that they could help others more effectively.  The church is strongest when flesh is weakest.

Have Church Organizations Lost their Usefulness

In an age where the coming of Christ is soon and the war on the church is so severe is it not time that the church moves to be the most effective force on the planet.  As some of you might know I am a second generation pastor and preacher.  All I ever knew through my whole life was church.  I have no regrets about it.  The church gave me a solid upbringing and God gave me a spiritual father who preaches and teaches the pure Word of God.  I have also been part of an organization my whole life and I have had some wonderful experiences and opportunities being a part of the organization but now I am left in a place wondering if it has a place with me.  I really don't believe that denominations and organizations were a part of God's divine strategy of the building of His mystical body called the church.  In the study of the early church it appears that the church was built on the family structure.  that is why we address each other as brothers and sisters.  the Apostle Paul was a spiritual father to the men and women that followed him.  They loved him as a father and he loved and cared for them like children.  Great people proceeded from the family of Paul and the other Apostles because of the great love that they had for the church.  If Christ died to make me a part of His family than why should I be pressed about growing in an organization.

I do believe that the church has been called to be in divine order but i also believe that the Word of God has addressed that order.  In some organizations the development of leaders is done like a pyramid  scheme.  The more people you get to join the greater you move up in rank or the greater amount of tribute that you pay to top officials the greater opportunities are provided to you. 

I would like church leaders to read this without getting seriously offended because if it offends you than you are guilty.  Why should a church pull money from its treasury to give to a group that doesn't care whether the ministry lives or dies as long as they are paying their way.  If you represent an organization that only takes and never gives then that is exploitation.  When an organization takes money from the local church and that church has no say so as to how resources are spent than that is taxation without representation and a famous patriot said that "taxation without representation is tyranny.  This type of conversation does not come up too much because grown men who are leaders of their own churches have been made to fear the powers that be.  I am tired of people being labeled rebellious just because they disagree with the powers that be.  I write this blog with a heavy heart because I love the church and i love the fellowship of the saints but their needs to be a reformation of the entire body of Christ.  I am not going to leave my present organization because god has ordained me to birth change.  My father has taught me that you can not change anything standing on the outside but you must get involved.

I have been pastoring for almost thirteen years and I have asked God to make me a true spiritual father because I am tired of seeing another fatherless generation.  We have seen the effects of a society where fathers are absent.  do we think that it is any different in the spirit world whereas children are being born spiritually and there are no fathers.  Organizations are raising up foster children.  They will not take on the full burden of parenting but they will take the resources that the foster children provide.  There are pastors crying out for fathers and their voices have not been heard except by their true father.

I am not saying that all organizations are evil or bad but we must examine the structure carefully and make sure that the structure is designed to feed the children and not just bless the parents