Thoughts On The Path Ahead - Mission & Spiritual Gifts

There is a connection between the work of ministry and the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer to fulfill the Great Commission mandate. The Spirit energizes His people and His church with the gifts. It is our responsibility to be in active partnership with the Spirit to identify and understand these gifts. Each person is given at least one gift, but there are times when there is a  lack of evidence of a gift/s because of adverse circumstances. God expects a return on His investment with each believer becoming fruit-full. These gifts are important both individually and corporately. Within the church, the top three gifts (based on importance in accomplishing God’s purposes) are (1) The Evangelist/Apostle – He or she will pioneer the cause; (2) Preaching; (3) Teaching. It is important that every church devotes resources to gift identification, development and deployment. This is why Paul told Timothy not to “neglect the gift” within him (1 Timothy 4:14).

Another key component of the church is the role of Prayer. Robertson McQuilkin said it well as he referred to the Holy Spirit as “the One with the knowledge of all factors involved in any situation. He alone has the wisdom to make the right decisions and the power to carry through the decision” (101). Why then would not the church/individuals pray? After all, there is a promise behind the command to seeking God – He promises that we will find Him. Christ through His Spirit aloe provides salvation, sanctification, renewal, guidance, provision and power (102).

How to Walk In Fearless Confidence | Myles Munroe

The Bible & Divine Authorship

The Bible testifies of itself to be the Word of God, therefore we can trust its veracity and faithfulness (2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; John 17:17; Titus 1:2). No other book can truthfully make this claim. The all-powerful and wise God “employed many persons to labor in distant ages, and in different departments, producing in their various compositions a revelation of His will, complete in all its parts, and distinguished by the most perfect unity, without the shadow of discrepancy redundancy, or deficiency”^[1]. It is of supernatural origin. Its claim to be authentic is one of inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility. Not just part of the Bible is of divine origin, but its entirety – “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

The Wrong Way To Winning - James 4:1-10

James was hot! He’d usually address the brethren with a “My Brothers.” Not now. He was ready to whip them (his Jewish Christian brethren) into shape. No doubt there were many striving for position within the church considering the mix of poor Christians and rich overlords in Palestine and Syria. Verse 3:1a infers as much: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters.” While all men will fail, the path for the believer is submission to Christ and his love. Why treat each other as enemies, allowing illicit wants to consume our thoughts and actions? These fights James describes come from a desire to please oneself; “inner sensual lusts/pleasures that wage battle in our hearts.”[1] Folks were so consumed by these wants, that they would do just about anything to satisfy their desire. The battle within was the source of murders, contentions, frustrations, fights (v. 1-2).  Ideally what was needed was a healthy dose of trust; a “fidicia,” the “placing of one’s trust in God revealed in and through Jesus Christ.”[2]

Unity, Oneness & Strength: What To Do About Those Two-Faced Christians (1 Corinthians 10:1-10; Ephesians 4:1-5).

Can you picture Christians acting in this manner?

Divisive, Factional, Superficial, Slanderers, Judgmental, Carnal, Nominal, Holier-than-thou, Flirting, Vulgar, Inconsiderate, Provocative Immoral, Incestuous, Unrepentant, Loose, Litigious.

At first glance, the words above seem to fit the non-believer, but the Apostle Paul was dealing with these issues in the Corinthian Church. How is it possible for Christians to behave like this? Paul assigns Christians to two camps – spiritual or worldly (1 Cor. 3). The spiritual Christians were the ‘mature’ believers, and the worldly/carnal he designated as ‘immature.’ It is the fighting and factionalism found among them that Paul addressed in chapter 3:1-4. His issue with the Corinthian brethren was the use of their spiritual gifts for “self-centered purposes rather than building up the body of Christ.”[1] We would like to gloss our eyes over and pretend such people do not dwell among us; closer to home, the words above could very well describe our own character.

Just think about it for a minute – Christians fighting against each other; Christians with a thirst for taking each other to court; Christians elevating themselves above each other (title hungry); desiring and taking of another’s husband or wife; Christians who are unrepentant about living in a carnal state. There is nothing new under the sun folks. The Apostle Paul had to deal with these issues in his time, as we do now. Still, Paul’s assignment is to build up the brethren, calling for “unity, oneness and strength” in Christ Jesus. By the time we get to chapter 9, he uses racetrack and boxing metaphors to stress a unifying principle – The Christian life is a race, a fight, but it is imperative that folks be built up in the faith, that we demand a commitment to Christian living, or risk disqualification:

Vision for a New Year_ by Dr. Myles Munroe

Ecumenism - Any Hope For 21st Century Pluralistic Culture?

The goal of ecumenism (objective organic unity of Christian denominations) has been highly elusive for the church. During the last half of the twentieth century many Christian denominations have made great effort to develop closer relationships and understandings. Mergers were realized among groups such as the Methodists, Presbyterians and Lutherans. Still, ecumenism remained an un-ending series of high hurdles to cross over (as was the case with plenary sessions of the Consultation on Church Union 1960). I believe ecumenism as we envision it to be will continue to be elusive in America, especially since the idea of America has been built upon pluralism and the freedom of religion. It is Christ’s wish that we come together (Jn. 17:21), though the path is difficult (not impossible).

The Seven Power Keys For Planning Change | Dr. Myles Munroe

Dr. Myles Munroe - Kingdom Faith - Successful Living Beyond The Tests_clip2

Dr. Myles Munroe - Kingdom Faith - Successful Living Beyond The Tests_clip1