THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

"He will guide you into all truth."
JOHN 16:13

Since Jesus is the Truth, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth by increasing Christ. The Scriptures that tell us about Jesus are inspired by the Holy Spirit. The ability to understand those Scriptures is given by the Holy Spirit. The fruit that comes from abiding in Jesus is the result of the Holy Spirit.

If you learn anything concerning Jesus and His Irresistible Kingdom by reading this book it will not be because of me. My ability to write is a gift of the Holy Spirit so that Christ will be increased; likewise, your ability to read and comprehend what is written is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And when I stop writing, and you stop reading, and we go forth to put into practice what we have learned, we will do so by, through, and because of the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father has given, to lead us and guide us deeper into Christ.

A CHALLENGING STORY

Friends, let me share a story with you as related to me by a Canadian friend who spends significant time in India. His last trip there was earlier this year during which time he met an Indian brother with a very challenging testimony. This brother, whose name is Randeep, was a nominal, Christian who identified himself as such simply because his parents were Christian and he was not a Muslim or Hindu.

However, his mother became an ardent follower of Jesus and felt to go to an area in Northern India near the border with Tibet. Her family felt she was crazy and refused to go with her so she went alone. Two years later Randeep and his Hindu wife decided to visit her. While Randeep was walking along a street he saw a Hindu priest trying to cast evil spirits out of a totally demonized woman who was writhing on the sidewalk. As he walked past, he heard a voice command him to pray for the woman and set her free. He kept walking arguing with the voice that he did not know what to say. Again the voice came commanding him to help the woman and said, "Do you not think I can manifest myself through anyone on this street should I choose to do so?"

He walked back and as he did so heard the priest telling the woman to bring certain offerings to the temple. Righteous anger rose up in him and he rebuked the priest for laying more burdens upon the woman and then laid his hands upon her to pray. To his amazement, for the first time in his life, he began to pray in tongues and the woman was set free.

The next morning he woke up to the noise of a crowd milling around outside the house. He became afraid that something had gone wrong with the woman and they were there to beat him up. So his mother went out to see what was going on. They asked her, "Does Jesus lives here?" "Yes He does.", was her reply. So they invited the crowd into the house and prayed for them all. That was the beginning of seven years of great grace and miracles.

Soon his mother was saying to Randeep that he needed to begin to teach the new followers but his question was what to teach them? Knowing it was Jesus who had spoken to him, he began to read the gospels to find out who Jesus was and what He did. Reading that Jesus had twelve disciples, he did the same and began to follow Jesus with them. Realizing that their state had twelve districts, after three years with his disciples, he sent them to start all over again in each of those twelve states. That was fifteen years ago and now this movement has baptized over 150,000 plus those baptized by other teams they have trained.

Once he had sent out his twelve disciples Randeep needed to start over again and seeking to obey Jesus in Luke 10 he moved to a new city and began to walk the streets. After three months of praying, walking, blessing the city and seeking a man of peace, a man came to him and said, "I have seen you walking by day after day. Why?" Randeep explained what he was doing and the man asked him to come into his home to pray for his sick wife. Jesus healed the woman and that home became the house of peace for the beginning of a new multiplication of the generations of Jesus Christ.

As my friend interviewed many to understand the dynamic of the movement, one phrase was repeated over and over. The phrase? "The Holy Spirit spoke, the Holy Spirit moved me, the Holy Spirit led me..." These believers had been connected to Jesus by the Holy Spirit. They had not been connected to a human leader, to a book, to a doctrine, to a system- they had been plunged deep into relationship with Jesus.

It is sad that one of the challenges this movement has to face is from western missionaries who have come to them and charge them with not planting "real" churches since they have no buildings, no bible schools and no paid, professional clergy. How can they be so blind? Jesus forgive them. How do these followers of Jesus respond to that charge? "We are simply following the example and words of Jesus. We are healing the sick, casting out the demons, raising the dead, baptizing those who believe, making disciples who do the same and forming communities of disciple who meet where ever life happens. Where is your fruit?"

We are challenged again about the simplicity of following Jesus
Jesus you capture our hearts again and again
Steve & Marilyn

www.harvest-now.org

Why Denominations Cannot Complete the Great Commission

Hello Friends
I would encourage you to click on this article from David Watson,http://www.davidlwatson.org/2009/09/10/why-denominations-cannot-complete-the-great-commission/ He begins the article by listing his denominational credentials but as a simple church planter/trainer in the Muslim world he has a very practical, biblical perspective. Be challenged!

Since mid July we have enjoyed Canada but it will soon be time to get back to Central Asia and Europe. This will be our first trip to Tajikistan so that is more visas, more flights, more cost and more challenge. Would you pray about helping us with the finances for this trip?

Your partnership in prayer and finances is deeply appreciated.
Every blessing in this new fall season
Steve & Marilyn

Why Denominations Cannot Complete the Great Commission
First of all, I am not anti-denominational. I spent more than 15 years as a denominational employee and 10 years in various denominational church staff roles, and have been a member of the same denomination’s churches for 50 years. So, please reserve your judgments until you finish reading this article.
What distinguishes a denomination or denomination-like church is the insistence that all related churches and any churches they start adhere to a particular and peculiar perspective and associated practices related to the Bible, as well as their particular church history. All denominational churches are Bible-based and history-based. They may require a strict or loose adherence to their doctrine and/or practices. Their doctrine, however, is at best a subset of what Scripture has to say, and at worst contain extra-Biblical teachings and practices based on their church history. All worship styles, leadership styles, and governance styles are mostly extra-Biblical, even though all denominations will claim a Biblical background for their practices.
All denominations and denomination-like churches exclude or minimize certain passages in the Bible and highlight other passages that support their views. They will often play the “interpretation” game when challenged with passages from the Bible that do not support their doctrine, or they may even redefine those passages as “spurious” or not really Scripture, or not relevant today.
In almost all cases denominations and denominational-like churches will raise their historical extra-Biblical beliefs and church practices to the level of Scripture. Some denominations openly embrace this practice. Others deny it, but in practice affirm it. I’ll let you look at your own denomination and determine where your beliefs and practices are in light of the whole counsel of Scripture. (Hint: Look at the doctrines and/or practices on which you are unwilling to compromise or look at the doctrines and/or practices for which you criticize others.)
And herein lays the problem. When we look at the attendance records of any given denomination, even in state church countries, we find that a small percentage of the population even attend any particular church. In most cases this number is only 2 to 5 percent, even in countries with state churches. Everyone who wants to go to a particular church is already attending. Everyone else knows something about that church and chooses not to attend and not to be a part of organized and religious Christianity.
So, no matter what denominational stance is comfortable to you, it will only appeal to about 5% of the population, at most. And everyone who is interested is already a member, most of whom only attend on special occasions.
So, what makes us think that any one denomination or even all denominations working for the Great Commission can succeed in reaching the world for Christ? We have had 1600 years of denominational Christianity, and best case numbers of those who call themselves Christian put us roughly at 1/6th of the world’s population. And we know that only about 20% of so-called Christians ever participate in any kind of church on a regular basis.
If we keep doing what we have always done, we will keep getting the same results. Denominational approaches to the Great Commission have not succeeded in 1600 years or the 492 years since the Protestant Reformation that began in 1517. The reality is that Christianity does not have a good name in most of the world. We have made Christ like us, which are the vilest form of idolatry, instead of becoming like Christ. What makes us think that anyone wants our religion? They have seen it at work, and have rejected it. And the heart of Christian religion is denominationalism.
Another barrier that results from denominationalism is that leaders must go through extensive educational and indoctrinational processes before they are qualified to lead. This bottleneck precludes any hope of completing the Great Commission before another generation dies. All the seminaries, theological schools and Bible schools combined cannot produce enough leaders to finish the task. The denominational education and indoctrination processes make it impossible to fulfill the Great Commission. We have come a long way from First Century illiterate fishermen entering new people groups, nations, and cities and starting a church within months and then moving on. With the loss of simplicity we lost the ability to replicate leaders quickly and move through people groups efficiently. By over training and over managing new believers we stop the process of replication that could reach a nation and a world.
Jesus left eleven men, some of whom doubted, standing on a hilltop. Some were illiterate. Others were rebels. All would be considered ill prepared to fulfill the task Christ gave to them and the Church. If Christ deemed these eleven-very-marginal-leaders fit enough to carry forward the Great Commission, perhaps we need to rethink what we are doing.
CPM is about doing what was done in the First Century. Give the Gospel to a people and teach them to obey it. See them become faithful Disciples of Christ. Leave them to struggle in obeying the Word of God in their own context and history, developing their own unique practices for worship, leadership, and governance within the confines of Biblical obedience.
When denominations forget their differences and get back to planting the Gospel instead of their doctrines, we may have a chance to complete the Great Commission. When we turn to making Disciples of Christ instead of converts for our denominations, we may have a chance to complete the Great Commission. Until then we will be doomed to repeat the mistakes of our forefathers. I prefer to learn from mistakes, not repeat them.
When denominations and denominational-like churches begin to plant the Gospel, make obedient Disciples of Christ, and forget their own pet doctrines and practices, we will see the Great Commission fulfilled in a generation. When denominations and denomination-like churches do this, they will see their own denominations grow as never before, because they will become relevant to the people as they serve them in obedience to the Word of God.
In the mean time, I will keep working with lost who want to know the Creator, and help them to become obedient Disciples of Christ who will take seriously the planting of the Gospel, the making of Disciples, and the salvation of a generation.
Blessings!
David Watson
Irving, Texas

RANDEEP'S TESTIMONY

Randeep's Testimony

A story from India that was shared at the 2007 Asian House Church Conference. Signs and wonders resulting in 3,500 house churches planted…

When he was 22, in 1994, Randeep, then a nominal Christian with no real desire to follow Jesus, was walking down the street of his home town in the state of Himachal Pradesh. He saw a woman who was rolling on the ground screaming. He recognised that she was demonized, and sensed God saying to him that he was to pray for her. However, he had no desire to do so and walked on, until again he fancied he heard God talking to him. This time God said "I can easily get someone else to pray for her - but where would that leave you and your salvation?" He then prayed for her, and she was instantly completely healed and restored to her right mind.
 
Later on that evening, when he was at home, he heard a commotion outside. There was a crowd of about 70. He was very nervous. "It must be a crowd of Hindus upset because I prayed for that girl," he thought. However, a voice sounded out, "Does Jesus live here?" He opened the door to speak to the crowd. "I am a Christian", he said. It turned out that the crowd had heard about the girl who was healed, and had brought many to be prayed for. Randeep was scared to pray for them, because he thought that if he prayed and nothing happened, they would think him a fake and beat him up, so he declined to pray. But his mother said, "If they want you to pray for them you'd better pray". He told her if she was prepared to accept the consequences, he would pray. She agreed - and when he prayed for the people, every one of them was miraculously healed! He started to form house churches amongst those who believed, and in the years since this miraculous start, 3500 house churches have started as part of this network, which now has 120 full-time church planters and 300 volunteer workers. This is only one network in India, which is seeing many of these movements spring up. He told us much more of his experiences, which also include costly persecution and beatings. But the Lord has been faithful to bring him through each trial. He and his co-workers also shared key teachings and understandings which they believe have been instrumental in God's move in India.