Healing or Revival for Local Church

In part two we are looking at Healing or Revival for Local Church. I would like to look at it in two separate parts but both connected. One the role of the individual and two the role of the leadership team in the healing in the local church.

Psalm 133:1 <A Song of degrees of David.> Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!2  It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;3  As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. (MKJV)

Unity is a powerful dynamic of Gods Kingdom when the brothers and sisters dwell together with a common vision, there God will command a blessing.

Q1/ Unity will bring a blessing to the local Church. (True or false)

You are free to stay and you are free to go, but if you stay you are not free to have a different vision for the local church or movement that is in opposition to the leader or leaders.

Lack of submission is a work that is not from God and it comes into the realm of Idolatry.

Q2/ Should you be in a Church and work against the vision of the leadership. (Yes or No)

If you read the word of God you will find many instructions if followed they will bring blessings, but then if you are reading them and God speaks to your heart their will be more blessings.

Q3/ The quickened word of God brings a greater blessing. (True or false)

How do we as the Church receive the blessings?

I had bought a set of swings for my first two daughters and I started putting them together but some parts were wrong. I failed at first so I decided to follow the instruction on the pack and found out that I was wrong and the parts were right.

Q4/ The instructional manual is to reduce the difficulties. (True or false)

If our local assembly is not moving we need to go to the instruction manual in other words follow the Bible.

Q5/ The Bible is to reduce the difficulties. (True or false)

Now we need to look at Hezekiah again and see where we the Church can learn.

Healing first for individual then the Local Church, following these two healings, things will happen quickly for the Nation.

2Chorincals 29:1 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled twenty-nine years from Jerusalem. His mother was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. (CEV)

Q6/ Verse 1 Hezekiah had a position of responsibility to God and the people. (True or false)

2Chorincals 29: 2 Hezekiah obeyed the LORD by doing right, just as his ancestor David had done. (CEV)

Q7/ Verse 2 Hezekiah in obedience to God followed the precepts of his ancestor King David. (True or false)

2Chorincals 29: 3 In the first month of the first year of Hezekiah's rule, he unlocked the doors to the LORD's temple and had them repaired. (CEV)

Q8/ Verse 3 Hezekiah open and repaired the door of the temple. (True or false)

2Chorincals 29 :4  Then he called the priests and Levites to the east courtyard of the temple (CEV)

Q9/ Verse 4 Hezekiah sets things in motion by calling the priest to assemble. (True or false)

2Chorincals 29:5  and said: It's time to purify the temple of the LORD God of our ancestors. You Levites must first go through the ceremony to make yourselves clean, then go into the temple and bring out everything that is unclean and unacceptable to the LORD.  (CEV)

Q10/ Verse 5 Hezekiah gives two directives. (True or false)

Healing for the Local Church

If the individual has studied the previous lesson and taken steps to go into the heart and lay it open before the Lord for cleansing with a good does of repentance, then you can come out of your bedroom and attend your local Church.

The individual must understand people are all at different position and therefore to bring a revelation about healing for the Church care must be taken. Your position in the Church may not be one of leadership and therefore it makes it difficult for you to bring a revelation, but don’t give up, keep it close to your heart until the time is right.

Q11/ If your vision is truly from God, God will make a way for you to be able to express it. (True or false)

A/ Responsibility

Responsibility of the individual

We as individuals should not give away our rights to another; we are the ones where the buck stops regarding our holiness and righteousness. It’s not up to the Pastor or any oversight to be responsible for our salvation.

It is our responsibility to maintain our relationship and fellowship with God, once we have done that we can move forward on solid ground.

Once you know who you are in God you can summit your vision to God and wait on solid ground. Most of us only get a little seed at first so waiting will allow it to grow in our understanding. Hold it and don’t blab it or lose it.

Responsibility of the leaders

No church leader has the right to stop an individual from having their own vision or any materials that are different to the material taught in the local Church and it may be good for some to view such materials for assessment of Biblical accuracy, but it would be wise for the individual to submit such materials or vision to the oversight for approval if you want others to view it.

Q12/ Submission is a key to authority. (True or False)

Just as the follower is to check on the preacher to see if they are following the word of God, so the preacher must check up on the doctrine too.

The leaders have burden to protect the sheep from the wolves that may come in and try to destroy the flock. This protection has to go into the realm of studying the word of God and assessment of doctrine that has been taught by previous generations to see if it is Biblical sound and it is consistent with revelation coming into the Church.  He also has to check if new doctrine is Biblically supported.

God has set in place a chain of command and it is most unlikely that God would not talk to His leaders first.

Q13/ God has set in place a line of command. (True or False)

Here we see that God has given Joshua the directive that all plunder is to come into the house of God, Joshua lets the people know and he has fulfilled his Godly responsibility.

The leader has the same responsibility as the follower to his own walk with God as stated in part one he has to go into his own heart and lay it before God too.

Joshua 6:18  And you surely shall keep clear of the cursed thing, lest you make yourselves cursed when you take of the cursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. 19 But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are devoted to Jehovah. They shall come into the treasury of Jehovah. (MKJV)

The leader needs to understand that any problems stop with him or her and not to blame anyone else nor take on anyone else’s mistakes but take step to solve any problem in the assembly.

Joshua 7:10 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Get up! Why do you lie on your face this way? 11 Israel has sinned, and they have also broken My covenant which I commanded them, and have even taken of the cursed things, and have also stolen and pretended falsely. And they have even put it among their own stuff. 12 And the sons of Israel could not stand before their enemies. They will turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become cursed. I will not be with you again, unless you destroy the one who is cursed from among you. 13 Up! Sanctify the people and say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. For thus says Jehovah, the God of Israel, A cursed thing is in the midst of you, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the cursed thing from among you. (MKJV)

Q14/ If the little sheep make a mistake the leader needs to bring loving correction. (True or False)

Joshua had to sanctify the people and remove the sin from the camp.

Repentance if not in the leaders’ prayer life it won’t be in the local assembly either and repentance is essential for active growth and healing.

It is the responsibility of the leader to seek God for the Vision of the local Church because God wants to talk to the leader first.

B/ Obedience

Obedience is a powerful dynamic in the Kingdom of God if followed with the right heart condition will bring about monumental effects.

Q15/ When leaders like Joshua and Hezekiah follow God great things happened. (True or False)

Hezekiah was the King and he told the priest to go into the inner areas and clean them and they did, then great things followed.

Now change the name Hezekiah to God. God tells us as leaders to do certain things will we do it?  The answer is yes, I hope.

The word of God is telling us as leaders to go in and clean the inner room and pray.

C/ Opening the doors of your Church (prayer and introspection)

A time of introspection for the leader and the local Church can be an uneasy experience because they need to assess if they are program orientated or Spirit lead.

A program is not necessary bad, but if it followed because it worked in another place, we need to go back to God and seek His direction for our own local assembly.

We need to take a step back away from the work of the ministry and check our motives, as we are the temple of the Holy Spirit we need to go into our own heart and do a little introspection in consultation with God.

It is the individual who opens there heart or keeps it closed to the moving of the Spirit of God as it is also the leadership of a Church who opens the door of the fellowship.

Psalm 139:23 Look deep into my heart, God, and find out everything I am thinking. 24 Don’t let me follow evil ways, but lead me in the way that time has proven true.

Here we see the psalmist saying

One look into my heart of my assembly

Two find out what our deep thoughts

Three help us to overcome our evil thoughts

Finally lead us in your ways.

A believer who wants to have all the blessings of God will be brave and pray these two lines of the psalm, but at no time is the believer forced to do this it is an act of personal responsibility to God.  The same applies to the local assembly.

Q16/ Do you want God, to look into the heart of the assembly? (Yes or No)

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (MKJV)

There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus and if our heart doesn’t condemn us then we are OK. 1John 3:21

Although we are Christians but if we act outside of Jesus and are doing things which aren’t pleasing to God we are not in Christ Jesus then the above doesn’t apply, therefore we are under condemnation.

To face our collective problem with God is a way out of darkness.

D/ Calling of God

God has called us into fellowship in the house of God; because it is in fellowship we can further see our motives and be an active member of the body of Christ. A person who says they don’t need to go to Church doesn’t have a full understanding of the teaching of Jesus Christ. A person in isolation is in a place of danger. The Church is also a place of instruction to bring a person to maturity.

Q17/ God calls us into one area of fellowship. (True or false)

E/ Directives

You don’t need God to appear on TV or the radio to make a national announcement that He wants you to remove from your heart that which is unacceptable or unclean and the reason for that is, His Word has already said that and we need to learn to obey Him.

Following a directive of God, will bring a blessing practicality of faith “do it”.

i/ Unacceptable

Attitudes of the heart

Are we doing things?

To have a big church and then people will notice us

To become famous

To become rich

To have power

To have control

To please someone else

Pride

To look upon the things that can entangle us, which are unacceptable should not be an issue of fear or condemnation but an issue of freedom. I believe we should look at our motives and take them to God in prayer; He is wonderfully gracious and forgetful.

Only can the believer go into his or her own heart but has to start with the leadership.

Q18/ If the leadership open their heart with repentance God will bring healing to the Church. (True or false)

ii/ Unclean

That which is unclean must also be removed.

God knew we were going to adopted someone else’s program without asking Him before we knew we had. We don’t need to give in to a programmed oriented management, but if we have, we need to take steps to re-establish lines of communication with our heavily Father He will lead us by His Holy Spirit in what we can implement.

Repentance needs to start in the House of the Lord with the leadership and I don’t mean with any one else because we are not the judge, the sheep will follow the head. I can only look at myself, but if you have not repented for a long time, now would be a good time to start.

By seeking God to show us the things in our church which are not pleasing to Him takes courage, because if He shows us something that needs removing we need to act on it or we will miss out on the blessings that He has for us and our church.

Some unclean thing I have seen in Church.

i.    Un-scriptural Songs, for example is Jesus and God glorified in the word of the song if not, is it scriptural based.

ii.    Experiential theology, which is not supported by scripture. “It worked for me it will work for you”.

iii.    Theology which connects the one and only God the father of Jesus with other gods.

iv.    People on the platform who are openly practicing behavior which is against the word of God. Committing abominations.

Why do I believe in the removal of the unclean things? Because I know HE won’t come unless repentance is happening.

I was off the platform and out of ministry for five years, because of my anger and going through a divorce. I wasn’t fit to be on the platform. God loves the sinner but doesn’t love the sin. I thank God for the quiet time I had, just with Him before I started preaching again.

Steps to gain His power in the local assembly

1.    Submit to the word of God

2.    Have a teachable spirit

3.    Submit to Gods leadership

4.    Submit to the vision of  God for your local

5.    Have a God given vision for the people

6.    Follow set Bible teaching materials

7.    Have only one God the lord Jesus Christ

8.    The leadership fulfill the vision of God for the local assembly

9.    Follow Jesus Christ

10.    Make a covenant with God and dedicate the leadership and the assembly to the serving of God and the fulfilling of the great commission of the Lord Jesus Christ  (A prayer of separation and consecration to God)

Q19/ A practical step to remove songs, which don’t fit scripture with repentance, will return the glory of God. (True or False)

Q20/ Should the leaders of the Church take responsibility for allowing these things to come into the Church. (Yes or No)

Conclusion

Following the above five steps A to E in practicality of faith it is a good platform for future healing, which will lead to rival of the individual, Church and the nation

We need a healing from the spiritual sickness of sin first before we can move any further. Spiritual sickness dwells in the heart of man and is in the heart of the Church.

The Glory of God can only dwell in a holy vessel; we need to remove the filth from the church.

Once this has taken place in the individual and the local Church the news will travel throughout the land.