Kingdom Chat Week 30: Participating in the fellowship of the Spirit – Bring something to fellowship
It is always exciting to lead the Kingdom chat. This week, we will be encouraging each other to participate in Kingdom building without looking down on our abilities.
Brothers and sisters, what should we say then? When you come together, each of you brings something. You bring a hymn or a teaching or a message from God. You bring a message in another language or explain what was said in that language. Everything must be done to build up the church. 1 Cor. 14:26 NIRV
The Church of our Lord Jesus Christ was never designed to be a celebrity circus or a one-man show, with a pyramid model, where you have one powerful leader and then followers are treated like grasshoppers waiting on this privileged individual to mediate with God for them. That was the set up in the Old Testament, but it ended with Jesus’ death on the Cross. We were forever united with Christ who had procured our eternal access and oneness with the Father. In the New Testament, Paul states in 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.” We have been called into the fellowship of the Spirit; we belong to the general assembly of the Church of the firstborn (Jesus Christ); we belong to the commonwealth of Israel. We are called priests and kings to our God. God spoke in Jeremiah 31:33-34 – “…but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Halleluyah! We are the fulfilment of this prophecy. God wants to teach us himself. Jesus was called, the child of the Holy spirit (Matt 1:18). He was taught by the Holy Spirit and He wants us to yield to the teaching of the Holy Spirit too, so He can work in us both to will and do according to His good pleasure.
This is why I get quite itchy when I see believers being taken advantage of by some people whom they refer to as prayer warriors or “prophets” or whatever titles they go by, who sometimes abuse the children God due to ignorance. These believers go around seeking for some miracles, hoping that God will answer them through these mediums. This is not to cast aspersion on faithful servants of God doing the work of God, interceding for and in agreement with other believers. But there are believers who want to perpetually remain as babies and hope that someone else will bring the blessings of God to them. Some people come to fellowship expecting that the Pastor will do everything for them – pray, intercede, give, even worship and prophesy for them, while they go out and continue their lives as usual without engaging with the Holy Spirit in them, so they can also be a blessing to others. Some have the misconception that the Pastor or minister is closer to God than they are, so they’d rather leave everything for him or her to do. NO! We are in this together. As Paul describes it in our opening scripture, every member of the church has something to add to the building of the Church. You do not have to look down on your abilities. Paul told Timothy not to despise his youth. Bring what you have to your Father’s business. No one has greater shareholdings than you do. I love how Jesus told his disciples in John 16:26: “In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
Jesus wants us to fellowship with the Father ourselves, so we can experience His love personally just as He loves Jesus. No believer is inferior to the other, we have equal access. What matters is how deep you want to participate. When you get into the assembly of believers, don’t act like a stranger, don’t wait to be pushed, NO! it’s your father’s house, so get in the kitchen and cook something. Bring you gifts, talents, resources, ideas, spiritual blessings to service and contribute to building the Kingdom. Same in this community, I will encourage you to be active, don’t hold back or feel shy, share your testimonies or whatever grace that God has given you so others can be built up as well. Take advantage of this community to influence your world.
Discussion:
What is your perspective about service in the Kingdom? Do you have a particular area that you are passionate about or have a gifting for? In what practical ways do you use or express this for the benefit of other believers?
I look forward to our usual robust discussion. Cheers!
- 10 Replies
What a remarkable post @michael! The fact that believers can easily remain babies in Christ expecting to reap the spiritual blessings from a pastor of “man of God” is just tragic. It’s truly a shame that we would ever think that’s how life should be! As you so carefully explained and showed in Scripture, we must put in our own spiritual work of personal consecration and service to others. That’s the only way to maturity. There are no shortcuts and there is no special impartation for spiritual maturity that you can get from someone else. It is and always has been a deeply personal process and requires a conscious decision to partner with the Holy Spirit. The spiritual leaders in your life are there to offer counsel, prayer and encouragement, and correction according to God’s word – but they are not the ones to mature you or get you whatever blessing you’re seeking. Phew, I really pray that the body of Christ would come to understood that! 😅
As for my service, I enjoy teaching and encouraging believers around me. I like to teach from the Word of God as well as practical life skills like financial management, career development or parenting that ought to be done in excellence because we are ambassadors for Christ.
I really enjoy getting to know people better in 1 on 1 conversations. I am the one who often listens more than I speak in conversation because I want to understand where someone is coming from and have a sense of what the Spirit is saying before offering any suggestion. I want to offer timely encouragement or wisdom whenever I can.
I also have administrative and management skills that I use to serve the local assembly. Keeping things organized comes pretty naturally for me and it’s only right to use my natural abilities to benefit the church.Thanks a lot @purposefaith for sharing. Quite instructive. Yes there are no shortcuts or special impartation to make one suddenly mature. We need to engage in the fellowship to be built up. We need to express our God-given blessings.
Thanks for the word @Michael. This was very encouraging especially for me because I often see myself struggling with getting out of my shell and expressing myself based off my culture and personality. I definitely believe our Christian journey is a personal race in which we can’t rely on anyone for that.
For my gift.. I will say hospitality. As I am an emotionally inclined person, I often enjoy connecting with believers or other people through care and support. I also love having constructive discussions with people outside the faith and in to rub minds and I greatly enjoy those. I pray to God to reveal more gifts as I continue in the faith and learn 😊How wonderful, Elyon! Thanks for sharing. I can attest to those gifts you mentioned. I have seen you use them in service to God to bless people around you. 😊
Thanks@elyon for sharing. I can say that I’m in the same boat as you. A bit introverted and just prefer my comfort zone😁. But as I get to fellowship with believers, I look out for that niche that I fill and then I realise that people like us have great grace when we tap into depths of ourselves.
Thanks @michael for this instructive post. The scripture you read is one of the verses that caught my attention while growing up in the Lord back in the day but as I made my way through the journey of faith, the reality I saw in the Christian setting was totally different. Although some churches have tried to operate this way, either through small groups, house fellowships etc but more needs to be done to redirect the church to Christ’s original intention for kingdom service and maturity. Our human ego likes the spotlight which is why pulpit ministry has become synonymous with Christian fellowship and believers are ok with it because it takes the responsibility of growth from them and places it on one man. But let’s continue to pray and persevere through this global movement we are pioneering that God will begin an awakening of our society to to true kingdom culture.
Surely! I can attest to that.This is why we do what we do. We trust God for that paradigm shift in our time. Thank for sharing.
Interestingly, I preached this message last sunday in church and I was glad to see a young couple who had only recently joined our Local assembly, come up to indicate interest in being actively involved in different departments in the local assembly. In our local assembly, I do everything I can to make the service go smoothly and I’m not the Pastor. I do the drumming, conga, the technical or logistics and still preach or lead prayer or anything that I’m given to do. Because like I said, its my father’s house so I refuse to be cajoled to do anything. Its how we always did it as @phil4krist can attest to. We do everything so the church (which is you and me), can be built up.
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