Going to the Next Level

This past Sunday we had the privilege of pastor Gregg Jackson being with us and ministering powerfully. Pastor Gregg is known for his acutely accurate prophetic anointing, and while that part of his ministry was great, I was very blessed by his teaching.


It was obvious that God was at work, because I had asked pastor Gregg to teach on a completely different topic, and he emailed me a few days before and asked if he could teach on something else. He felt like God was leading him in a different direction, and when he explained to me what he wanted to teach, I knew it was definitely divinely inspired, because it was right in line with what God has been speaking to us as a church for the last few weeks.


You’ll recall that a few weeks ago Kyle Brooks brought an inspired teaching about working together and being single-minded in order to accomplish much greater things than we could accomplish on our own. He used the people who were building the Tower of Babel as an example of the impossible becoming possible if enough people unite and have their minds set on the same vision.


The next week I followed up Kyle’s session with a teaching on developing a mission mindset for your life. I explained that we were made to accomplish something significant for the Kingdom in this life. Our lives are not accidents. We were designed with purpose in mind. Thus, we MUST be about our Father’s business and be occupying until He comes. And pastor Gregg’s teaching was the perfect follow-up.
Pastor Gregg talked about breaking out of the old and launching out into the territory where God desires to take us. That’s a romantic concept if we left it right there, but the reality is, which pastor Gregg elaborated on, is that taking the new territory requires being able to leave what is familiar and comfortable. We will never experience what God has in mind for us as individuals, families, and as a church unless we are willing to leave the familiarity of Egypt and launch out and cross the unknowns of the wilderness in order to eventually reach the Promised Land.


Okay, so what does that look like?


Glad you asked.


For starters, it takes being willing to be inconvenienced at times and set your personal agenda aside sometimes.


I can’t help but to consider the incredible sacrifices that the disciple Peter made when Jesus called him. Remember when Peter and his crew had fished all night and caught nothing? While they were cleaning their nets, Jesus wanted to borrow one of their boats so he could teach just off shore. That probably inconvenienced Peter enough, but then Jesus had the audacity to tell Peter to launch back out again after they had been busy cleaning their nets from a failed night of fishing. At first Peter expressed his exasperation with the request. But there must have been something about Jesus that compelled him. After a split second, he then said, “But at your command, we’ll launch back out.” The results? They caught a net-breaking, boat-sinking load of fish that was so immense that Peter knew he was in the presence of the divine. Amazingly, Peter left what surely was an incredible financial windfall in order to follow Jesus. He just up and left everything…all that he had worked for all his life. He made a dramatic change, and as a result he made history.


What about you? Are you willing to be inconvenienced – to have set your own personal agenda aside at times in order to follow Jesus wherever he may lead? Hold on! Before you answer, check your heart. Are you willing to lay down your life for the sake of the gospel, because that’s what Jesus said He requires of you. That may not mean that you have to literally die a martyr’s death, but it will often mean that you have to take up your cross and follow Jesus by refusing to give into the American "me-first" mindset. It will mean giving up your own identity to identify with Christ in a mission larger than yourself.


What that looks like in terms of your specific life calling, I can’t say. But one thing I can say is that God desires His people to unite into a move of humanity that makes history.


It’s exciting to me that God has begun a work with Blessed Life Fellowship that is brand new. We didn’t come into a church that already existed to make changes. We started something BRAND NEW THAT NEVER EXISTED BEFORE! While it’s hard work to start something from the ground up, it’s exciting at the same time, because we are on our way to impacting our culture in a new way.


Here’s something to chew on as I close this post: Columbus has become known as a very stodgy, religious community that is bound by tradition. Isn’t it great that God has called us to begin something that is non-traditional, new, and fresh? We are offering a message that is sorely needed in this very time, that God wants to bless His people, to give us hope and a future! THAT’S GOOD NEWS THAT THE WORLD NEEDS TO HEAR NOW MORE THAN EVER, AND GOD IS USING US TO MAKE THAT GOOD NEWS KNOWN TO OUR COMMUNITY!


And as a last point, let me also say that one of the largest churches in the Midwest, Southwest Church, in Louisville, Kentucky -- a church boasting 20,000 people, was started out of someone’s living room! So let’s not think small. As Kyle likes to say, God can save by few or by many! Anything is possible as we join hands in a divinely inspired mission!


Here we go!

Occupy Until He Comes

As an addendum to yesterday's message on creating a mission mindset for your life, I wanted to add some additional thoughts here that I did not have time to cover in the teaching.

As you know, the interpretations of end times prophecy are all over the map. There is pre-tribulation theology, mid-trib, and post-trib, and there is a group of people, including famous theologian R.C. Sproul, who believe that most of the prophecies in Daniel, Revelations, Matthew 24, and Mark 13, to name just a few, refer to events that have already taken place (i.e. Jesus' figurative return in the judgment of Israel when Rome sacked Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and completely destroyed the Temple, where not one stone was left upon another).

The reason I bring this up is because many modern Christians' views of end times events have crippled our ability to advance the Kingdom in our present age because of an escapist mentality. In other words, many Christians are waiting for Jesus to return and rescue them from an evil age instead of occupying the territory and doing the work of the Kingdom until He comes.

To 'occupy' is a military term meaning to advance against the enemy, take territory previously occupied by the enemy, and take up residency there where a new rule is set up. That's what we are supposed to be doing, NOT sitting aroud waiting for Jesus to rescue us.

Here's a sobering thought: While these are troubling times to be sure, there is no gaurantee that Jesus is coming back in our lifetime. So we had better be busy doing the work of the Kingdom while we are here. When we stand before the Great Bema Seat Judgment someday, it will not be an acceptable excuse for not using our time better to say, "I thought you were coming back any day."

Friends, if Jesus does come back in our lifetime, HOW MUCH MORE SHOULD WE BE ABOUT THE WORK OF OUR MASTER BEFORE HE RETURNS!

It's time to get busy getting before the Lord and asking Him to help you develop a vision and mission for your life, and then do something everyday toward that mission. It doesn't have to be grandiose; it just has to be Kingdom focused.