Posted: 07/12/2008 at 1:43am | IP Logged

"The next great venue and vehicle of kingdom expansion will be more business and home than religion. The kingdom of God is inseparable from all areas of life in the world and will never again be boxed up in segmented religious structures. God rules."

Hi brother Ron,

Father has been revealing this truth to me beginning late last year during a family vacation. It was actually the whole clan vacationing--our mom (my father is deceased), all seven sisters and our families, and our two brothers and their families.

As we were in the same place, we all went to the church which one of my brothers-in-law is pastoring. Five of us seven sisters are married to pastors. So this pastor brother-in-law sort of "proudly" introduced the other pastor brothers-in-law in the family. I felt a tinge of sadness as the four other pastor brothers-in-law (including my husband) stood up to smile at the congregation. The sadness was focused on my two brothers, who seemed to have been bypassed because they are "not pastors". They are, instead businessmen, one in an architectural business and the other in a garments business.

About six months later, my brother, who's in the garments business, was having business problems. While he was consulting me about it, Holy Spirit spoke to me, "Why do you treat your brother with kids' gloves? It's time he is confronted with the issues of the Kingdom." He was actually telling me about his money woes, his tax-paying problems, and his worries about not having enough to pay his workers rightly. And I was sort of skirting the issue of righteousness in business dealings because I felt he was not mature enough in the Lord.

When I heard what Holy Spirit said, it seemed like words began to flow through my mouth as I talked with my brother on the phone. I said, "You know, bro, Jesus said to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. If you do what you know is right concerning taxes and workers' salaries, the Lord will give you the money that you need to be able to do that, and to meet your family's and others' needs as well. But you can't rely on your business ability. I believe that God has called you to be a businessman in the same way that I've been called to be a "church worker". If a church worker (or any ordinary Christian) prayed for a sick person without depending on Holy Spirit to heal, do you think the sick would be healed? If someone called by God to be in business ran it without depending on Holy Spirit to supply all that he needs, do you think he would be able to stay in business and be righteous at the same time?"

My brother suddenly "saw". It's been months now and he is still struggling with the issues of the kingdom, but he is, I believe, on the right road.

And my other brother, who was there as I was talking to the other one on the phone, heard and, likewise, seemed to have discovered his calling. Actually, at that moment, I felt the three of us realized it wasn't only the "pastors' wives" in the family who have been "called". The two of them, my brothers, have as much been called--to be kingdom businessmen, that is.

Meanwhile, my "pastor" husband and I have begun to break out from the "religion venue" to the "home venue".

These things are really simple matters of the kingdom, but it takes revelation to break a religious mindset such I had, I guess.

God is sooo good!

Posted: 07/12/2008 at 6:14am | IP Logged

The time is so critical now, that we move from the compartmentalized thinking and life, into the seamless existence! 

For me it began somewhere around 30 years ago when I was a teenager.  The dual, no, not even dual lifestyle was nauseating to me. I was disgusted by the wide variance between what 'beliefs' our ultra conservative rigid doctrinally correct fundamentalist group believed and the way the lives were lived.  People I loved and had reason to love. 

After three major splits in the church which were fueled by spouse-swapping and Peyton Place type living running rampant, gossip, lies, hatred, hidden sins of abuse, molestation, drug and alcoholism in addition to the very different lifestyle and faces people put on in business settings and in the neighborhoods. 

I was defiled and felt violated at the behavior of church leaders to a man who was mentally deficient and who had a REAL wicked stepmother and brothers who fed him dog food in a dog dish outdoors and tied him with a leash and collar, not to name other things.  This man was one of the few who REALLY met Jesus and REALLY fell in love with Him and exhibited His nature and character.  There were a few bright lights there....and some church leaders mocked him and made fun of his stutter, they behaved cruelly to him.  They were so mean hearted toward his deficiency...he was full of sweetness and purity.  He was not wicked but fully transformed by Jesus.  He continually read children's bible story books (his bible) was soooo hungry for Jesus...

This affected my own house.  We sure knew quite well what to believe - we were well taught. 

It was not even dual - it was a very tiny compartment in our life.  Very few gave very much of themselves for others in any venue - financially, time, love, anything.  What was given by most was grudgingly and needing much recognition and reward. But it was not truly giving, it was really all taking. It was all self focused in one way or another...or should I say most of it.  It was all in order to meet some self want or need.  So it bore that fruit I mentioned above in full harvest.

I tend to cringe when someone says - I only have to give "this much" to God, right?  The rest I get to keep for myself, right?  Or even worse - I don't "have to" give anything to God in thus and such area...only because of the darkness I lived in.  I do realize that for a life in total surrender to Him, under HIS Lordship "my people will volunteer willingly in the day of MY power" and they will have God's laws written on their hearts and their nature will be changed so that they WILL not under or by compulsion, LIVE the law of God - the law of life...

Out of that God put me in with the first collective group who lived and breathed what your article writes of here.  Every one of us who had a job (which most of the elders did too) or a business - saw these as well as neighbors familys everything WAS an outworking of their faith.  A venue for the kingdom to be advanced.  The church came to be because men had started a business and in the business setting several people and their families had met the Lord.  And so on. 

This was a very incomplete manifestation and a beginning seed of what is written here.  I had coworkers and bosses in my job who were or who became Christians.  We did real ministry, evangelism, musical worship (one engineer was a professional musician before he met the Lord and he'd bring his guitar, I would sing and the people would gather.  Several of these became believers)  I saw real healings come about - gallstones dissappeared, cancer - those were the biggies - and a few of these new believers also came with me into our fellowship.  Others went different places.  But in the workplace we were all one together.  I started a break time prayer group to pray for revival in the company and we had a little mini-revival.

In the midst of all this though, God also had been unfolding to me year after year after year the embedded layers of division and compromise in my own heart and breaking that and transforming me. 

One huge area was the area Tere mentions in thinking that all that was going on was not "real ministry" but it was some lesser thing from actually being a "full time minister" - this is a total lie!

Most of the rest of the areas involve my own heart and where I was very divided in that my "beliefs" did not at all match or apply to my actual life.  I was headed for the same exact destruction I had seen among the older generation I was so disgusted with...I came actually quite close to it several times -- mostly over the edge.  And God loved me so that in His favor He made sure I got caught for EVERYTHING.  He clearly told me so I had no excuse....and then I was radically caught for EVERY deviation.  I couldn't get away with the stuff others could....

Today, however, is a different day and we do not have time for 30 or 35 years treks -- it's time and there's grace to be RADICALLY saved.  Those of us who have travelled the long road havea depth of understanding the new ones can draw from and should...

Posted: 07/13/2008 at 5:50pm | IP Logged

Amen Denise

Denise wrote:

Quote: The time is so critical now, that we move from the compartmentalized thinking and life, into the seamless existence!

Posted: 07/13/2008 at 7:04pm | IP Logged

Another new venue for Kingdom expansion -- wherever God opens a door.

Today, the youth were ministering at the church where I was. They'd just returned from a missions trip to Mexico. They're doing some video things, asked if anyone had any ideas to give them...instantly, I had about 4-5 ideas.

I've not worked much with youth before. However, I saw another way of expanding the Kingdom. We exchanged email addresses and they actually want my help with it, not just my ideas.

When we pray "More, Lord," He takes us seriously.

Ann