“PASTORING, DISCIPLING, EVANGELIZING, REFLECTING CHRIST JESUS!”
By: J.Farrell Fisher, AUGUST 16-18, 2017
I know, after college and seminary training, that in church life there are “pastors” who are called, trained, and equipped in that ministry, but I also truly believe that every “born-again disciple” also has a pastoral ministry, whether in family, in social relationships, in school training, in neighborhood outreach, or in the business world.
Some say, “I’m trusting God,” when in reality they are “trusting” what their ‘flesh’ is dictating but with a “spiritual twist”, which is them deciding for themselves “how best I can please God”! They ‘trust’ their wits rather than His wisdom, their “best” which Christ crucified with their “worst”, rather than “Christ in me, my hope of glory”; they ‘trust’ what ‘fleshly men’ inspire within them rather than “guided by the Holy Spirit.”
But, sadly, ‘flesh’ sees ‘dead to one’s self’ to be a ‘hell of renunciation’ because of the all-consuming passion of doing what the ‘flesh’ dictates rather than what God “gifts” through the Holy Spirit! When it comes to ‘life significance, life purpose, life ministry’, it is never resolved through the personal self and one’s own wits, but in the secret chambers of the soul and heart that chooses only to serve on the marching orders of Holy God! “Lord, what would YOU have me to do?”
And be assured, ‘life ministry’ is never resolved in the light of one’s conscience, but in hearing, receiving, and walking in the words of the lips of Jesus as He tells you what He wants you to do.
There is a powerful passage of Scripture related to our subject found in Luke 18:18-27. It says: Now a certain ruler asked Jesus, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not steal’, ‘Do not bear false witness’, ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him,
“You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?” But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
Then Peter said, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
If the Lord Jesus says, “Come, follow Me”, and He has, the question for you and me today, right now, is: “Have I forsaken all to see that the eternal will of God in Christ is being manifested in this day and time in my life and family, “leaning not to my own understanding, but in my present walk through life giving Jesus His rightful place as Savior, Lord, and Administrator of my position in the, yes, PRESENT KINGDOM OF GOD?”
I was reading an E-Mail recently from Rev. Pierre Bynum as he introduced John 13:35, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another,” and he wrote to his “Praying Friends,” the following: Norman Grubb (1895-1993), British missionary, writer, and Bible teacher, wrote dozens of books, including:… “Howells was a Welsh coal miner who founded a Bible college and taught his students to pray. When the clouds of World War 11 gathered over Europe, Rees led his students in prayer over the Allied and Nazi air, naval, and land troop movements. These excerpts highlight their prayers that contributed to the Miracle at Dunkirk:
‘During the four years, previous to the outbreak of World War 11…the Lord was changing the burden on Mr. Howells from local concerns, centering on the development of the College, to national and international affairs. As he said, ‘The world became our parish and we were led to be responsible to intercede for countries and nations.’ We have also seen how the Lord was preparing in the company at the College a special instrument of intercession for the coming world crisis…
It was in March, 1936, that Mr. Howells began to see clearly that Hitler was Satan’s agent for preventing the gospel going to every creature. As he said later, “In fighting Hitler we have always said that we were not up against man, but the devil…
On the day of the declaration of war, he published the following statement: “The Lord has made known to us that He is going to destroy Hitler and the Nazi regime, that the world may know that it was God and God alone who has scattered the dictators..He will deal with the Nazis as He dealt with the Egyptian army in the time of Moses, God will cause Hitler to fall…!” AND HITLER FELL!
Life’s ‘wars’ today involve YOU, and YOUR victory in the world, flesh, and Satanic attacks, and I have no desire to minimize those wars at all, but to challenge you that just as Holy God dealt with Hitler, He still desires to be your Conqueror over the battle-fronts you face! And YOUR response? “Lord, what would You have me to do?” Or, I’m sure more consistent with Scriptural intent: “Lord, I need You, I surrender to Your Presence within me – in and of myself, I’m hopeless, but You in me, for me, through me, ARE MORE THAN CONQUEROR!”
Again, Luke 18:27, Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Then, in Verse 29, Jesus said to His disciples then and NOW, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
And, for you in your walk “for the sake of the kingdom of God”, I want YOU to examine YOUR calling relating to “Pastoring, Discipling, Evangelizing, Equipping, and Reflecting Christ Jesus.”
FIRST, IN THE “PASTOR’S CALLING”, UNDERSTAND THAT I’M NOT SPEAKING OF LEGITIMATE PASTORS OF LOCAL CONGREGATIONS, BUT OF SERVANTS OF CHRIST SET APART FOR THE CARE, SPIRITUALLY, OF A COMMUNITY OF THOSE THEY’VE PERSONALLY BROUGHT TO FAITH IN CHRIST !
In Matthew 5 Jesus began to equip His disciples in “Kingdom Character”! And following those first eleven verses, Jesus then said: Verse 13, “You, disciples, are the SALT of the earth…Verse 14, You are the light of the world…Verse 16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Oh, and then Christ Jesus “nailed” the pretenders when in Matthew 5:20 He said, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” IS THAT CLEAR TO YOU! Paul followed, in Romans 14:17, saying, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” [Would it shock you that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are one and the same?].
And the “Pastor’s Calling”, true born again disciples, born of the Spirit and the Word, are commissioned by Christ as, yes, His caretakers, overseers, messengers to the citizens around them of His desire to see them living in His Kingdom now! Do you just, maybe, might consider what Paul was saying when and what he said in Acts 26:22-23 that it has no relevance, meaning, or understanding to any ‘true’ disciples today? “Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come – that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”
What did Jesus say in Matthew 28:18-20? “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen?
In fact, before His Ascension, in Acts 1:8 Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And that’s individually to our personal limitations or callings bodily, but corporately together united in “mission outreach”, we have responsibility to the ends of the earth! When a ‘pastor’ never mentions evangelism and missions locally, nation-wide, and world-wide, well, you’re in a dangerous place!
SECOND, ONCE CONVERTED, EQUIPPED, AND TRAINED, ALL PASTORS, CHURCHES, AND, YES, INDIVIDUAL DISCIPLES ARE TO SEE THAT THE “NEW-BORN” ARE EQUIPPED, TRAINED, AND DISCIPLED! Interesting verse in Colossians 4:1 when Paul wrote: “Masters, (Introducers of the “lost” to “servant-hood” in Christ!), give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven,” to Whom I believe all disciples MUST give an account of their “equipping ministries” of those that they lead to faith in Christ!
It’s so similar to mothers and fathers in the natural who, having given birth, have the responsibility of caring, nourishing, feeding, cleaning and changing “messy diapers, guarding, teaching, training, and equipping, yes, children, with the necessities of a God-honoring life of growth and glory in Him!
“Making, equipping, training, preparing” new Christians is a holy and high calling, not only to pastors and assemblies, but especially the “spiritual fathers and mothers” who “plant the seeds” and witness the miracles of “new birth”!
THIRD, AND THE “NEW-BORN”, PERSONALLY TRAINED AND EQUIPPED, ARE TO BE MOTIVATED BY, ENCOURAGED IN, AND CONSTANTLY SEEKING TO BROADEN THE “HORIZONS” OF THEIR OPPORTUNITIES TO BE WITNESSES and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.”! It begins in the personal heart, of having met Christ and repented, to be fully trained in personal growth, but, at the same time, instilled with the calling personally, “You shall be My witnesses, My ambassadors, My messengers to all the needy around you.”
But, I often wonder how many ‘Christians’, in their redemption, see their present positioning as the opportunity of extending Christ’s presence to others, knocking on their hearts’ doors, and challenging them to follow Christ who loves them more than they love themselves!
In 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 Paul wrote: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.”
Paul wrote in Galatians 6:2-5 “Bear one another’s burdens (how ‘burdening’ to do you find in the lost conditions of those around you? Does it really concern you? And do you DO something about it?), and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.”
FOURTH, THERE IS THE AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY OF DAILY TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH UNTO ONE’S SELF SO THAT CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED IN THEM AND THROUGH THEM! Sad to say, I don’t know if much training and equipping takes place today about “the redeemed life unveiling Christ through them, and them taking personal responsibility, like Paul, “I die daily”, so that His resurrection Life may be manifested in and through my mortal flesh”. You “in Christ” are the temple or tabernacle, but “Christ in you is the hope of glory”!
Some ask about certain Christian friends apart from examining themselves, “Is Christ truly living within them?” It was Oswald Chambers who wrote: “The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me.” Choose to die daily to self, to the old sin-natured man, until the perfect presence of Christ finds full expression in YOU! We who are “in Christ” have nothing to boast about EXCEPT “CHRIST IN US” – and by dying daily to our old man, Christ is being honored as He expresses Himself through us!
In Bill Johnson’s book, “The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind”, (Published By “Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., PO Box 310, Shippensburg, Pa. 17257-0310), Pastor Bill wrote in his Introduction: “This book is an attempt to address a very abused subject – “the mind of the believer”. On one hand the mind has been cast off by some creating a mindless gospel that is emotionalism at best, and cultic at worst. They delight themselves in doing things without reason, thinking that only then is God pleased by their great faith. On the other hand there are those who have elevated the mind above its rightful place, creating gospel that has reduced God to the powerless image of man. This group lives in the illusion that they are spiritually safe because they only accept the things they understand, raising cultural Christianity to an elite status. They unknowingly embrace the very deception they hoped to avoid. The challenge before us is to give ourselves completely to the full purpose of God for the mind of man through the model Jesus gave us, thereby giving us access to His supernatural life style.”
Isn’t that Paul’s scriptural explanation in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 when he wrote: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and (still) does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…”, unless, or, of course, you no longer CHOOSE to live by His Indwelling Life because your world, your flesh, and your demon desires the ‘flesh existence’ rather than the “Overcoming Life of Christ”! Are YOU living the life “Reflecting Christ’s Presence” or the ‘thankless life’ that no longer has any desire, discipline, or determination to “live by the Life of Another, even Christ alone”? Is your present life of faith a life with the “living epistle written in your heart, known and read by all men”, written “not with ink but written by the Spirit of the living God” firmly inscribed in your heart, mind, and body? It’s time, my friend, BEFORE the end of your earthly time comes. And, remember, it’s Hell or Heaven, unbelievers bound or believers blessed, Satan’s chains or the Savior’s freedom! It’s time to settle your present and eternal “residence” in Christ or Satan! Amen?