{"id":1390,"date":"2012-01-16T12:01:52","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T17:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.churchofthebeyond.com\/?p=1390"},"modified":"2012-01-29T18:59:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-29T23:59:00","slug":"gods-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/16\/gods-government\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty throng.<\/p>\n

Psalm 35:18<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God’s way for Christians has always been the local church. \u00a0And, I don’t mean the house church, primarily. \u00a0It is God that has set up pastors and leaders in the body, to equip and teach them, to bring them to maturity in faith (Ephesians 4:11-13). \u00a0Even the verse most commonly referred to in the support of the house church indicates both the meeting together in the temple courts as a great assembly as well as house to house, sharing meals (Acts 2:46).<\/p>\n

The passage from Ephesians 4 describing ministry roles has two very important aspects. \u00a0For some it is a job-description, detailing the calling of some and the role of their ministry. \u00a0For others, it could be likened to an street address for being trained. \u00a0Those who want to be equipped should find their way around such people that are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, because that is who God has given to do the job. \u00a0If you don’t see the job getting done, it could be that you are in the wrong spot!<\/p>\n

The purpose of His church is to demonstrate to the spiritual realms the surpassing greatness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. \u00a0It demonstrates, every day of its existence, the victory of the cross, showing forth the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, who the enemy killed, but whom God raised from the dead.<\/p>\n

A voice of one calling: \u00a0In the desert prepare\u00a0the way for the\u00a0LORD; make straight in the wilderness\u00a0a highway for our God.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 40:3<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There seems to always be works that God needs to do in the wilderness. \u00a0There seems to be no lack today of things that God is yearning to restore to the body of Christ. \u00a0In the recent past, God has been restoring prophecy. \u00a0Before that, he was restoring other things, such as holiness, the Baptism of the Spirit, or, in Martin Luther’s day, justification by faith alone.<\/p>\n

But, the desire of God for His Body has always been the church, the assembly, and, ultimately, a great congregation or a mighty throng.<\/p>\n

Jesus said that the world would know that we are His disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35). \u00a0This will never happen in a conference setting. \u00a0It will not happen en mass in a Healing Room scenario. \u00a0It will not come to pass throughout His body by only small groups, although that might be a part.<\/p>\n

One day, we will be known by our love again, as it was in the days of the original Apostles. \u00a0It will happen because we have obeyed the truth. \u00a0It will happen because we have died to this life, and have nothing to fear short of the Father.<\/p>\n

The voice of one is calling in the wilderness again. \u00a0There are many voices, and many disgruntled hearts. \u00a0Many have given up sound doctrine because they could find no real sense of direction. \u00a0Others have become so wounded and disappointed by what has or hasn’t come, that they have set down on the side of the road and stopped their progress. \u00a0Many others are waving all sorts of flags, saying ‘this is it’, ‘try this’, ‘try that’, ‘this will work’, or, ‘if we only get this (insert your favorite scriptural idea such as love, unity, nightly meetings, more\u00a0advertising, etc), then we will get this (insert some happy idea here, like healings, revival, miraculous, love, etc)’.<\/p>\n

The most difficult thing about today’s church is we have hundreds of voices, and thousands of voices, all crying out, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it”. \u00a0And while many have some truth, any claim of having “the way”, while still not possessing the results, unless it is a sound scriptural formula, is the definition of foolishness. \u00a0Some people say if we get unity, we’ll get miracles, yet we see them get neither. \u00a0Some say if we could be more loving, the Kingdom would come. \u00a0Yet, what they settle for in what they call love is not God’s definition. \u00a0Some people say we simply need more money to make our vision go forward. \u00a0Yet, God knows your address. \u00a0If you have to pull that many strings to get your promise, are you sure it’s not just an Ishmael?<\/p>\n

Yet, where have the results consistently been throughout history? \u00a0In those that pray, fast, and live holy,\u00a0consecrated\u00a0lives, often quite separate from the rest of society, although they may still reach out.<\/p>\n

In all of history, this is always where the power has come down. \u00a0It isn’t the only requirement, but it is always present. \u00a0God does not listen to sinners, plain and simple, and He does respond to our sincere prayers and fasting.<\/p>\n

Yet, God’s designation for local government has always been the Church for New Testament\u00a0Christianity. \u00a0He has and continues to use the conferences for His equipping, but even as it becomes the latest thing, the political maneuvering and\u00a0posturing\u00a0of egos is coming in right behind in the next wave of conference circuit speakers change their place. \u00a0Houses of prayer are springing up, but so much as they stay in a place separate from apostles and prophets and the other God-given leaders, they will always be out of place when it comes to the deeper equipping for righteousness and training in faith and the Spirit.<\/p>\n

God’s government springs from trust and relationship, through the faithfulness of a shepherd with the Father’s heart, who cares for the sheep. \u00a0Many have discredited church based on leadership or many other choices, many have tried to redefine church based on their own concepts, and many simply take it as it is, but never let it touch them.<\/p>\n

All this is about to change. \u00a0By the twinkling of an eye, in the breath of a shadow, the landscape of the church will change. \u00a0As in a flash, from sea to shining sea in America, and elsewhere as well, the reckoning of church will change dramatically in the years to come. \u00a0No longer will the church be viewed as powerless, and no more will the islands and factions be able to hold out against each other. \u00a0But as brother against brother changes to man to man, both standing in the truth that is being given, the country will reel under the power of the Almighty through the hands of men.<\/p>\n

Then the world will stand up and take notice, because, not from an outward change or an organization shift has something occurred, but by a transaction in the spiritual realm, the culmination of the blood of martyrs, the fasting and prayers of saints today and yesterday, as all the spiritual service offered up to heaven comes to a fullness juncture of time in the beginning of a new day for His proclamation of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

They will stand on street corners, and look, and see. \u00a0They will walk down streets talking. \u00a0They will look at one another with amazement. \u00a0Another enters a church, and is born again, instantly, dramatically. \u00a0Power encounters shift the atmospheres, and angels, in heaven rejoicing.<\/p>\n

The truth in the church will begin to shine, and no longer will the work of the cross be merely in words, and talk, but men and women with lives that at least to the world resemble that of Christ Himself (though all still continue to sin from time to time, but to the world, they may not be able to tell some of the more subtler sins in attitude and thought), and men will be changed by the working of the Spirit as He exposes and makes known their hearts. \u00a0The invisible realm begin to be changed in the church, as the revelation of the Gospel of the Kingdom begins to become known and lived, in the light of the fullness of the work of the cross, the efficacy of His blood, and the Love of the Father are known and embraced in increasing fullness.<\/p>\n

It is not a time for a partial message, or an excuse to bypass anything but full Holy Ghost possession, but it is time to\u00a0apprehend\u00a0that for which we were apprehended, and to learn faith, and to come alive (John 10:10).<\/p>\n

The Kingdom light is shining, and burning, and has been for nearly two thousand years. \u00a0Only, let the ears hear His message afresh, and let the armies of the Lord rise up, not in rebellion and disunity, but as His body, joined together by hearts of love, that the world might stop in its course, and tremble at the demonstration of Jesus Christ, the same, Yesterday, Today, and Forever.<\/p>\n

Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.\u00a0And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.\u00a0He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.\u00a0And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;\u00a0They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.<\/p>\n

Mark 16:14-18<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty throng. Psalm 35:18 God’s way for Christians has always been the local church. \u00a0And, I don’t mean the house church, primarily. \u00a0It is God that has set up pastors and leaders in the body, to equip and teach them, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[268,18,533],"tags":[5,585,587,583,586,582,14,54,1301,89,584],"class_list":["post-1390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-kingdom","category-revolution","tag-church","tag-conferences","tag-government","tag-great-assembly","tag-highway","tag-house-church","tag-jesus","tag-john-the-baptist","tag-kingdom","tag-love","tag-wilderness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2MdeJ-mq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/moses.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1390"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1972,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions\/1972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}