I trust there is a generation coming, endowed with the Lord’s mercy and grace, which will yet again unveil His original intention and pattern of His plan for His people. This was prophesi1ed in the OT many times. (Psm. 24:6; Psm 110:3)
It will require a restoration of the foundation of what was lost in the teaching of Jesus Christ. It will require pure and genuine discipleship in the context of a life in the Kingdom by the Spirit, not in the context of a life circling around church institution. Rules and duties will have to be recovered.
Such teachings will bear several characteristics:
- They won’t be founded on Man’s traditions and rules, and end there. It will be Kingdom oriented.
- This teaching will not be based on human intellect, but by the Power of the Holy Spirit.
- This teaching will not be involved in building or perfecting a movement or reformation of the church system, but in releasing people into Kingdom life and reality.
- Such teaching will be a true return back to the New Covenant ministry, which is granted by the power and authority of the Lord to His disciples when He sent them out to disciple nations. (Matt 28)
New Covenant Ministry
2 Cor 2:4-11 [NIV]
4For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.
5If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. 7Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
2 Cor 5:18-19 [NIV]
18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Kingly and Priestly Office and Duty
Eph 2:19 [NIV]
19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,
Rom 15:14-16 [NIV]
14I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. 15I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Rev 20:6 [NIV]
6Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
This is post is _Part 5_ in the series Ministry Under the New Covenant. To continue with this series, click on Pt 6. To use this as a growth tool to better understand your own calling, you might start by reading the explanation of this series, Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3 and Pt 4.
Photo credit: GeoWombats