TRANSFORMATION OF THE CHURCH: 1. RESTORATION OF HOLY SPIRIT POWER AND DIRECTION Continued

Last week we considered the working of the Holy Spirit in the individual believer.

This time we will have a look at His role in the church.

As we approach this controversial subject, I would simply ask that you put to one side preconceived ideas of 'how to do church', usually inherited from, or highly influenced by, those who have gone before.

In the church, we have a battle between letting the Holy Spirit guide and lead us in what we do, and operating the church in what leadership sees as 'good order'. In reality, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman (gentleperson to be PC!) who does not pressure us to follow His ways. Therefore leaders, by conscious choice or simply by default, generally follow their own, their churches, or their denominations ways, in operating 'their' (but should really be God's!) church.

We (say we) welcome the Holy Spirit during worship, but once it comes to sermon time, we take over, as we believe, consciously or sub-consciously, that the sermon will be of more benefit to our people than the Holy Spirit's ministering. It is likely true that we have spent a lot of time preparing 'our specific word' for our people and surely, it would be criminal not to present it!

The people too, are conditioned to this standard form of the particular church's services, responding positively to the normal routine. 1 Corinthians 24 is often used to justify these methods, But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

However, is this the 'leader direction' that God really wants? Is it how the Holy Spirit operates? Should everything be left up to the leader, or leaders?

If you take a closer look at this chapter it is quite clear that there is considerable 'audience participation' in the operation of services. Several people will speak in tongues, others will interpret, while still others will prophecy. What Paul was getting at was not that this should be so controlled so that only the leader/s can speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit. Rather, that there should simply be orderliness in doing things, with people respecting each other in how and when they do them.

Services then, should be people participatory, as led by the Holy Spirit, not as dictated by the leader of the particular meeting. The Holy Spirit is the teacher and guide of all believers, not just leadership.

Our current system stifles the working of the Holy Spirit amongst the people, to the extent that 'ordinary believers' either believe they have few, or no, spiritual gifts. If they do try to use them, they are all too often 'put in their place' by the church hierarchy. As I move between the worlds of the churched and the now, unchurched believers, I sadly yet clearly see both sides of the Christian coin.

While there are some who look for any excuse to leave the church, effectively go back into the world, the majority of the unchurched have been hurt by church leadership when truly led by the Holy Spirit to express views unacceptable to the leaders. They are therefore looking for alternative ways to express their relationship, both personally and in a group, with God.

There is, almost always, a difference between leadership direction and Holy Spirit guidance.

Next week we will look at some practical examples and see what we can learn from them to help us in our 'walk with Jesus'. My heart is not to criticize the establishment but to suggest ways in which we might do things better, to operate more in tune with Holy Spirit' ways.

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FROM THE WORD

GIFTS OF PROPHECY AND TONGUES

"Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified. Now, brothers, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the flute or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to me. 12 So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church. For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. In the Law it is written: “Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners
I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me,” says the Lord. Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers. So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

ORDERLY WORSHIP

What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God. Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. If he ignores this, he himself will be ignored. Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. (1 Corinthians 14:1-39)

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DAVID'S DOODLINGS

LEADERSHIP

156. In God, being led to lead is a calling. Leading when not led, guarantees an appalling mauling!

157. A Christian leader is but an ordinary person called to an extraordinary task. Both leaders and the led need to be reminded of this!

158. Worldly leadership builds up self, but godly leadership builds up others.

159. In God, understanding and sharing vulnerabilities is a sign of maturity and success, not an acknowledgement of failure.

160. In God, if you’re not led to lead, you’ll be bled to death.

161. To lead or be led? The difference is ‘a’ for attitude!

162. Only God has the required glue to attach ‘super’ to ‘natural’.

372. To be a leader in the world is difficult, in the church, impossible. However, with God's help, we can do the impossible.

373. God loves obedient leaders.

374. Leaders are not God - for only God is perfect.

375. Our leaders are not God substitutes. They too, make mistakes, just as we do.

376. Truly godly leaders are more precious than diamonds - and equally hard to find.

377. The Bible tells us that there is only one God. Some leaders need to be reminded of this fact.

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MORE GREAT NEWS FOR africa arise'!

This week we have placed the first of our clothing collection bins around our twin cities of Napier and Hastings.

This is a major event for us, as it means we can collect a lot more clothes, more easily.

The photo shows our first 'customer' A young girl walked along the street with her sister and saw the photo of an African girl and put her sweatshirt in the bin for her! Hope her mother didn't mind!

Start shifting into our new premises this week.

Find out more about africa arise' at...

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CRANWELL'S CARTOON

10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were
the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried
out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were
no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What
have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say
to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It
would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in
the desert!” 13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand
firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today.
The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD
will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 15 Then the LORD
said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites
to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the
sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the
sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so
that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through
Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.
18 The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory
through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.” 19 Then the angel
of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew
and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front
and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and
Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one
side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all
night long. 21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and
all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind
and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the
Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water
on their right and on their left. (Exodus 14:10-22)

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TUESDAY TEACHINGS

25 SPECIFIC COMMANDMENTS OF JESUS

continues with commandments related to 'Living the Christian Life.'

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LAUGHING AT OURSELVES

***Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused***

*** "Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others." ***

647. GIVING THANKS
A TEENAGER who had just received her learner's permit offered to drive her parents to church. After a wild ride, they finally reached their destination. The driver's mother got out of the car and said, "Thank you."

"Anytime," her daughter replied.

As the woman slammed the door, she said, "I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to God."

646. TOP TEN SIGNS YOU MAY NOT BE READING YOUR BIBLE ENOUGH:
10) The Preacher announces the sermon is from Galatians ... and you check the table of contents.

9) You think Abraham, Isaac & Jacob may have had a few hit songs during the 60's.

8) You open to the Gospel of Luke and a WWII Savings Bond falls out.

7) Your favorite Old Testament Patriarch is Hercules.

6) A small family of woodchucks has taken up residence in the Psalms of your Bible.

5) You become frustrated because Charlton Heston isn't listed in either the Concordance or the Table of Contents.

4) Catching the kids reading the Song of Solomon, you demand: "Who gave you this stuff?"

3) You think the Minor Prophets worked in the quarries.

2) You keep falling for it every time when Pastor tells you to turn to First Condominiums.

And the number one sign you may not be reading your Bible enough:

1) The kids keep asking too many questions about your usual bedtime story: "Jonah the Shepherd Boy and His Ark of Many Colors."

FREE DOWNLOAD: You can now download the book 'Laughing At Ourselves' in PDF format at LAUGHING AT OURSELVES

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FACTS FOR FUN

LAST WEEKS QUESTION: Is it true that turtles don't age?

ANSWER: It is strange, but true. After reaching maturity, a turtle's body
doesn't continue to age biologically. They manifest what is known as
'negligible senescence', that is they increase in chronological age without
exhibiting increased mortality. To put it simply: they continue to grow and
reproduce after reaching maturity, but show no evidence of 'senescence',
a fancy word for 'aging'. Turtles do die, of course. Eventually, they'll
succumb to disease, injury, or predators - but there have been reports of
turtles living for more than 100 to 200 years! (Need all this extra time to
get places.)

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: : Are fish more abundant in cold ocean water or
warm water?

Answer Next Week.

SOME FUN FACTS

290. THAT'S HEAVY!
A pulsar is a small star made up of neutrons so densely packed together that if one the size of a silver dollar landed on Earth, it would weigh approximately 100 million tons. (Couldn’t just pick it up and put it in your pocket. The stitching would give way!)

291. REAL BAD LUCK
A dog was killed by a meteor strike at Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911. The unlucky canine is the only creature ever known to have been killed by a meteor. (Not worth worrying about. But then one day…)

292. MORE VICTIMS
'Soldiers disease’ is a term for morphine addiction. The Civil War in America produced over 400,000 morphine addicts. (Same result as a bullet, just slower.)

A WORD PUZZLE FOR YOU

Make another word from this word using all the letters.

UNSOILED

Answer at the end of A David Musing

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BIBLE QUESTION - PAUL

20) Paul's companion on his early missionary trips was:

A - Timothy
B - Cornelius
C - Luke
D - Barnabas

Source: www.biblequizzes.com

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IF ONLY I'D THOUGHT OF IT!

"""OTHER'S SAYINGS TO ENLIGHTEN, AMUSE, OR BEMUSE"""

!!!!!!! If at first you don’t succeed, call it Version 1.0.

!!!!!! When you are young, you want to be the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. When you are older, you will settle for being the master of you weight and the captain of your bowling team.

!!!!! It’s a small world but I wouldn’t like to have to paint it.

!!!! I’m not cheap, but I am on special this week.

!!! I used to have a photographic memory, but it was never developed.

!! Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

! Analysing humour is like boiling a frog slowly. You can do it, but the frog tends to die in the process.

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MORE BIBLE RIDDLES

Thought we had done all possible Bible riddles in our last, very popular series. However, I have now found some more for you to enjoy, courtesy of Frank Schaefer of javacasa.com

Q. Who introduced salted meat to the Navy?
>
>
>
>
>
>
A. Noah - he took Ham on the ark.

Lots more riddles found at...

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LAUGHING AT LIFE!

98. YEAH, RIGHT!
In the office where I work, there is a constant battle between our technical-support director and customer-service personnel over the room temperature. The frustrated director, trying to get us to understand his position, announced one afternoon, "We need to keep the temperature below seventy-five degrees or the computers will overheat."

Thinking this was just another excuse, one of my shivering colleagues retorted, "Yeah, right! So how did they keep the computers from overheating before there was air conditioning?"

99. THE ULTIMATE
I took my 4 year old son, Josh, out to McDonald's for dinner one evening for a "guy night".

As we were eating our hamburgers, Josh asked "Daddy, what are these little things on the hamburger buns?"

I responded that they were tiny seeds and were ok to eat.

He was quiet for a couple of minutes and I could tell he was in deep thought.

Finally, Josh looked up and said, "Dad, if we go home and plant these seeds in our backyard, we will have enough hamburgers to last forever."

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BIBLE TRIVIA

THE LILY.......

although often mentioned in the Bible is very unlikely to be the flower we know today.

Adapted from: '1001 Surprising Things You Should Know About The Bible' MacGregor & Prys

Lots more 'God Facts' are found at...

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UNDERLYING SPIRITUAL MEANINGS OF NUMBERS

1-----God

2-----Witness

3-----The Godhead

4-----Earth/Man

5-----Atonement or Grace

6-----Fallen man

7-----Completion, Perfection, Maturity

8-----New Beginnings, Resurrection

9-----Eternal perfection

10----Trial and testing

12----Divine government

40----Trial and testing

50----Anointing

144---(12x12) New man in Christ, Ultimate government of God

200---Insufficiency

300---full deliverance

50x6=300-Anointed man

666---Man setting himself up as God

888---Jesus

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DAVID'S DOWNLOAD

A REVELATION OF……. 3 MIRACULOUS CONCEPTIONS

And how they mirrored aspects of the life of Jesus up to 2050 years before He was born. Our God is amazing!

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WAXING LYRICAL

Normally writing verse takes longer than writing prose. But not this time!

IN A HURRY!
Time is short,
Too much sport!

Bad attitude,
No gratitude!

Put Jesus first,
Develop thirst!

Do come aboard,
Jesus is Lord!

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A DAVID MUSING

All has been quiet on the Rugby World Cup over the past few weeks of pool play, with only a couple of upset results. This weekend however, the knockout stage began, with the 4 quarterfinals being played. In fact, as you receive this, the 4th one will be in its concluding stages.

It is 2am in the morning on Sunday, New Zealand time (12 hours earlier in France) when Australia and England kick off in their match. Australia were the overwhelming favorites. But in perhaps the biggest upset in World Cup history, England deservedly ran out the winners, 12-10. Amazing!

Five hours later, our beloved New Zealand All Blacks, universally recognised as the world's top team, commenced their match against a French side that looked only a shadow of its former glorious self. Half time. New Zealand led 13-3 and all was progressing much as expected. However, a pulsating second half saw the underdog French Tricolors run out winners by 20-18. Incredible! Impossible! Unbelievable! The former biggest upset lasted for only 5 hours!

Half an hour after the game finished, Kathy and I were off to church. Fortunately, we discovered that God was still the same, yesterday, today and forever! Only just though!

Well, now we concentrate on getting our shop up and going while much of New Zealand tears itself apart as the recriminations start to fly.

If only our conviction of sin was as great as our passion for rugby! One day it will be - again too late - the day of Jesus' return! It too, will be a shock to all! Will we be prepared to face the consequences better than the All Blacks today?

(Photo is not of yesterday's match.)

Until next week...

MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOU BLESS GOD.

His servant and yours

David Tait

Today's 'Word Puzzle' Answer: DELUSION

TODAY'S 'BIBLE QUESTION': Barnabas (Acts 13:2)

REPRODUCTION OF NEWSLETTER CONTENT

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ABOUT US

WALKING WITH JESUS MINISTRIES is a non-profit, non-denominational, Bible based ministry located in Hastings, New Zealand. A ministry dedicated to developing discipleship, fostering unity amongst God’s people to achieve the Great Commission, and in doing so, preparing for Christ’s return. It is securely based upon the foundational principles of the Apostles Creed while recognising the wide and rich diversity of beliefs amongst Christians in other areas. In accordance with the Lord’s direction, materials produced by the ministry are available, free of charge, to genuine enquirers upon request. The ministry is solely funded by donations, as the Lord provides. A list of materials available (plus some fun!) is obtainable and freely downloadable from our website
wwj.org.nz or by contacting us as follows.

Walking With Jesus Ministries
290 Flaxmere Avenue
Flaxmere
Hastings
New Zealand

Phone: (06) 8799 911 International (+64) 6 8799 911
Email: enquiries@wwj.org.nz
Web: wwj.org.nz

Our role is to bless and encourage those in ministry while promoting co-operation and unity of direction amongst the body of Christ, as emphasised 3 times by Jesus in His longest prayer, immediately prior to His arrest and crucifixion. "… so that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:12, 21, 23-4) Our website is currently being developed to encourage your participation one with another, to share resources, and to enable you to promote events and items of interest to the body as a whole – and have a smile while doing it!

For comments upon and contributions to this service, please contact
david@wwj.org.nz