Tag Archives: Disciple

You!

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Christianity, Disciple, Discipleship, Excellence, Faithful, LifeGiving, Mandate, Mature, Maturing, Message, Mission, Movement, Revolution, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Training, Transformation

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

“‘One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and [you] come, follow Me.’ But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.”

The rich young ruler was not as pious as he presented himself to be.

What makes a person rich in God’s eyes?

What does piousness look like to God?

While it is true that this is the only occassion in Scripture reveals Jesus said this to anyone that does not mean that we cannot, and should not learn the lesson of our possessions and the Person who blessed us with them.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus did not start with the 1st commandment, ‘You shall have no gods before Me?’

What is a god to God?

Now that you have been presented with that question what do you believe is the reason why Jesus started elsewhere within the Commandments in engaging this rich young ruler?

Unfortunately, there are still so many who serve possessions, positions, promotions and paychecks more than the God who calls them to abandon everything with, “[You] Come, follow Me!”

You say, “I do follow Jesus.”

Do you now?

What are you dragging along with you as you ‘follow’ Jesus that He believes is not beneficial to you really following Him?

In the NASB the word ‘immediately’ is used 80x in the gospels. 40 of those times, or 50% of the usages, are found in Mark’s gospel.

When Jesus speaks to you how long does it take before you obey?

When Jesus speaks to you do you determine when you will obey?

When Jesus speaks to you do you determine what you will obey?

What or who do you have in your life that you hold onto that is more important to you than following Jesus the way Jesus demands you follow Him?

You should really think about your answers!

You really should, now!

Receive and steward God’s passion, power, presence, priority, process, promises, protection, provision, pruning, purging, purity and purpose!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin
A Radical Spiritual Revolutionary and Follower of Christ Jesus
http://www.revolutionmovement.org

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You say you want a revolution? Join our Movement and turn your world upside down so God can sow you into the world to turn the world right side up!

Sheep Pen or Discipleship Den

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Disciple, Excellence, LifeGiving, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Training

Is your church the cool place to be or the correct place to be? Both places will result in a death. ‘Correct church’ will cause your flesh [carnal, selfish nature] to die so you can live in your divine purpose and ‘cool church’ will cause your destiny to die so that your flesh can live.

I feel it is time to release this word to those who call Jesus, ‘Lord’, but who are trapped in sheep pens instead of being raised to maturity in a discipleship den.

I have written and spoken often about the truth that society’s snowflakes did not start on college and university campuses in the late 20th or early 21st century. The snowflake syndrome began in seeker friendly and sensitive ‘spiritual’ environments in the mid to late 20th century where large pens were constructed to attract as many sheep as possible. Maybe the ‘spiritual’ leaders picked up on the post World War II hope for peace and the “let’s all try to get along” mentality.

Friends, if you will still call and consider me your friend, there can never be a spiritual detente with the devil. There will never be a cease fire with the fire of hell. There will never be a time to take it easy. And there will never be a season where the Holy Spirit will take a vacation from His vocation of equipping the saints for His mission, message, mandate and method of ministry.

Under the guise of “‘we believe” in the supernatural but we are not going to focus on it” or “how can we disciple people if they are not here” these under shepherds of God’s flock take them from the mountain of the Lord to the hill of man believing on the lower level of exertion they will find rest. If you compromise Biblical truth to trap people in your pen of coolness you will have to trick them with pseudo spiritual language so they will not discover the vastness of pasture that the Great Shepherd wants to lead them out to feed in.

David, the forerunner shepherd to the Shepherd was deceived out of his promised bride who was his soul mate. His virtuous bride was given instead to another man whose name mocked the man God had chosen to lead His covenant people. Merab [increase] was given to Adriel [flock of God] the Meholathite [meadow of dancing]. This marriage made in the mind of a mad man resulted in death of the offspring of Saul’s offense.

David handed the five sons born out of deception over to the Gibeonites [little hill] who “hung them in the mountain before the Lord” in the “first days of harvest” [2 Samuel 21:9]. This is a prophetic warning to every leader who uses deception to deprive true shepherds of their rightful increase.

Look at what Jeremiah prophesied about this type of leadership, “6 My people have become lost sheep; Their shepherds have led them astray. They have made them turn aside on the mountains; They have gone along from mountain to hill and have forgotten their resting place.  7 All who came upon them have devoured them; And their adversaries have said, ‘We are not guilty, inasmuch as they have sinned against the Lord who is the habitation of righteousness, Even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.'” [Jeremiah 50]

Anytime we reduce the mind of God down to the mind of men we open ourselves up to satanic seduction and devilish deception that will ultimately lead to someone’s destruction.

How can you tell if you are in the correct church? One way is to ask Jesus, the Head of the Church?

1 Corinthians 12:18

“But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.”

Have you ever considered where God desires you to go to church? Did you even know God has desires? Did you know God has desires for you? “[God], who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” [1 Timothy 2:4].

Salvation is not to get you into heaven as much as it is to get you into truth and to get Truth into you. Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way! I am the truth! I am the life!” The way to real life must go through “the truth.” Jesus came that we may have life and that [life] in abundance. Modern Christianity has reduced abundance to a life of comfort when its original context called for extreme sacrifice to fulfill divine purpose.

People flee “correct church” to go to “cool church” so they can escape the process of preparation to their purpose. While there is spiritual abuse that can never be tolerated or justified many accusations of mistreatment are nothing more than not being able to manipulate the people God has called them to submit their personal process to promotion to.

All of a sudden God ‘speaks’ to them to change addresses and their new address is usually with a leader who will never address their rebellion, immaturity and irresponsibility.

“Cool church” has all the programs a person or family needs. “Cool church” has the cool looking facilities. “Cool church” even customizes their services so no one will be inconvenienced in time or expectation of growing up. The messages are customized to the least mature or the least committed so as not to offend anyone.

Catering to a congregation [a collection of people in the same place] instead of assembling [placing people in their rightful place] sanctified saints these relevant revelers do a great injustice to the ones justified by the One who justifies all who by faith in and faithfulness to the Father live their lives.

Another way to tell if you are in ‘correct church’ is – are you becoming more comfortable or more comforted? Christ does not want us to be comfortable. He sent the Comforter to comfort us as we go through the process of dying to self so that we can pursue our divine purpose on purpose. The Comforter leads us into all truth. Too many Christians find their comfort level in the truth they have always believed and resist being established in present truth.

Jesus is the Head of the Church and He is the good Shepherd of the sheep. As Head of the Church He is Commander and Chief of God’s army of kingdom advancers. His kingdom suffers violence by those who refuse to live the que sera, sera Christian life. The status quo is sickening to those who desire destiny instead of sympathy. The Shepherd Jesus leads the sheep in and out of the fold [pen] to find pasture.

That sounds like an oxymoron to me. Why would sheep need to find pasture in the pen? The answer is found in the Greek words in the verse and in verse 3, “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

Here is what verse 9 says, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” Confusion comes in by not studying the Greek words in the verse. The same Greek word is used for the English translated words ‘enters’ and ‘go’. The words ‘in and out’ after ‘go’ are not in the original Greek. The Greek word is eisérchomai [ice-er’-khom-ahee] which means ‘to enter’ and ‘to go in and out’. The translators in verse 9 added ‘in and out’ because of the use of the word ‘enter’. Their interpretation, in my opinion, was biased.

I believe the translators would have been more accurate if they would have maintained the theme Jesus set in place in verse 3. Here it is again, “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

Shepherds lead sheep out to find pasture and lead them into the pen for greater protection. To me this is where the analogy of a believer in Christ Jesus as a sheep begins to break down. Sheep are basically dumb animals that need to be watched closely and led around or they will run off and get lost. In other words, sheep cannot think for themselves and keep themselves safe.

There are pastors [shepherds] who believe their people [sheep] are not capable of functioning without them. I was sitting in a service years ago when the pastor told his people, “You need me to be your pastor.” I was shocked! That kind of attitude proves the pastor has not empowered his people to mature. That attitude proves the pastor has taught his people what to think not how to think. That attitude proves the pastor needs people who are not as spiritually savvy as he is because he needs them to need him. That pastor served for his own needs not the needs of those he was supposed to be leading ‘out’.

Going back to John 10:3 we will find the words “them out” are not in the Greek. The Greek text ends with “leads”. Leads means – to lead out, away from, and to a goal. It comes from a root word meaning – abundance, exceedingly above and beyond. Jesus wants His ‘sheep’ to move out into the abundance that He came to give them. Jesus wants His ‘sheep’ not to stay in the pen but to reach their goal. What is the goal Jesus wants His ‘sheep’ to reach?

Paul tells us in Philippians 3:14 – ” I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Every believer’s goal should be Christ Jesus and the call of God that is in Christ Jesus. Nothing short of that is satisfactory for the true saint who is set apart to the purpose God has them on the planet.

Pen

A small enclosure where animals are kept, or where people are confined. A very restricted space.

God’s people are systematically herded into spaces where they are confined in their present level of maturity. This severely restricts them in them understanding their responsibility as believers in Christ Jesus. Even those who attend church in a large building with large open spaces are susceptible to the pen mentality of leaders who see people as sheep and not soldiers.

A great way to tell if your leader is limited in their understanding of their responsibility to lead is they allow their people to choose whether they will develop into disciples, and what timetable they will develop if they indeed ever do develop. Jesus did not leave maturing to chance. He immediately brought change to a culture that produced unproductive kingdom citizens.

Integration in immigration is critical to keeping the community of the believers pure and powerful. We are seeing how this has severely weakened our country [USA] as we have treated illegal immigrants as rightful citizens. If we have no common core values [a Constitution] we are not a genuine country. If we have no recognizable boundaries [borders] we are not a legitimate country. If we do not have a plan to integrate how can we expect to legitimately protect our land.

Terrorism does not have to be bombastic. It can be simplistic. A case in point is how in less than a generation in the USA people have become fearful of holding to, expressing and expanding Biblical Christianity into every sphere of influence.

The same is true in our church communities. If we allow people to come into our communities who do not have our common unity of core values then the level of commitment begins to drop to their level. This is especially true if we do not present to them the standard of excellence Christ expects of everyone and desires to hold them to.

What about the shepherds who have compromised God’s core values for the sake of their position, a promotion and a pay check?

“Our citizenship is in heaven” which means we must have, maintain and protect our common core values. Our core values are based in the Constitution of God’s kingdom, which begins with the Sermon on the Mount and the continued revelatory teachings of Jesus and those who followed Him in the first century.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5:48] – ” You are to be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Now, there is no timetable in that statement but there is a definitive goal of perfection. Well maybe there is a timetable. Jesus expected these men to mature to the place of fatherhood in the three years He would spend training them before He would ascend back to His Father’s side.

In most modern or post-modern churches the modern mindset of Christianity is perfection is not possible so full commitment to Christ is optional.

Look at what John the apostle said about personal responsibility and development.

1 John 2

“1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. 3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

In these verses we find four levels of personal maturity. They are ‘little children” in verses 1 and 12, “fathers”, “young men” and “children” in verse 13, “fathers”, “young men” in verse 14.

So we have little children, children, young men and fathers. You may be asking why have I listed children and little children separately? In the Greek New Testament there are four levels of maturity in the childhood stage of development. ‘Children’ is the third level and ‘little children’ is the fourth. Then we have young men and father’s. All four have distinct characteristics of maturity.

Let’s take a cursory look at the characteristics of each level of maturity beginning with the children level found in verse 13.

Children, according to John, are those who know the Father. Keep in mind this is the third level of maturity in the childhood stage of development. ‘Father’ is capitalized so John is talking about the heavenly Father. This is so critical to our understanding of the truths being presented in this Blog. Remember, Jesus said we are to be just like our Father. John is revealing that what makes it possible for Christians to mature to the perfection of Father is we know Him personally and experientially as children.

Next, in verse 1 John writes that little children can learn that sinning is not permissible. What does that do to your theology? Do you automatically begin to argue with what John wrote 2,000 years ago. Remember, John was the one who laid his head on Jesus’ chest and is known as the apostle of love. John said he wrote to the little children so they would know they “may” not sin. John did not say, “can not sin.” This is a huge truth that must be accepted and embraced in order to pursue such a possible feat.

John then addresses young men. These “young men” I believe coincide with the second level of maturity called sonship [sons and daughters]. These young men are strong. These young men have God’s word in them. And these young men have overcome the evil one. These young warriors no longer pray, “Deliver us from the evil one.” Now that they have progressed in maturity to the point that the devil prays, “Deliver me from these young men.”

Lastly, John writes to fathers who know God who is from the beginning. What beginning is John alluding to? Maybe John is talking about “in the beginning” of Genesis 1. Or maybe, as I believe, John is talking about knowing the God who has been with them the entire process of maturing from childhood to fatherhood.

The key verse to me in this wonderful chapter of 1 john is verse 6 which says, “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” John puts the onus on [all of] us. “If” we “say we abide in Him” then we “ought to walk in the same manner as Jesus walked.” That my friends separates genuine Christianity and genuine Christians from religious Christianity and religious Christians.

In the New American Standard New Testament we find the word sheep as it pertains to people 39x and the word soldier as it pertains to believers 5x. Once we move out of the Gospels those numbers change considerable to sheep 4x and soldier 5x. Paul the apostle is the only New Testament author connecting saints to soldiers. That may be because he saw his mission of advancing God’s spiritual kingdom in a hostile natural world as a military campaign. After all, the word ‘apostle’ is taken from the Greco-Roman world of military warfare.

Den

A wild animal’s lair or place of habitation. Our modern understanding of a den is a comfortable place where a person can pursue an activity in private. ‘Den’ comes from a Germanic word meaning ‘threshing floor’ which certainly does not present comfort. A threshing floor is a place where chaff is separated from wheat or some other grain used for feeding people. The process of threshing at times is violent in nature as the fruit [core of the kernel] has to be separated from the husk by crushing and then further separated by blowing wind. For this blog lets think of comfort as a place we feel at home being comforted by the Comforter in His making us uncomfortable in our call as Christians.

All Christians begin as ‘wild animals’ who need to be trained in righteousness. One of the main places of training is the proverbial threshing floor of discipleship where we are supposed to learn that purity and power are two main characteristics of a true Christian.

Discipleship is about becoming like the Lord who all Christians are to be discipled to.

Are you being discipled to the leader who lets you stay in your pen?

Or are you being discipled to the Leader who wants you to get out of the pen and be discipled in the den where threshing creates thriving and purpose gives you vision to endure the pain?

Are you being discipled to the leader who wants you to stay a child so they can feel important and even superior to you?

Or are you being discipled by a leader who is not threatened by your maturity and wants you to grow into manhood?

Your future awaits you but you will have to decide in the present what is going to die.

Will your destiny or your carnality die?

You ultimately determine your destination!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin

Keep HIS Passion, Power, Presence, Purity and Purpose!

The False Gospel Produces False Faith, Hope, and Converts

Posted on by under Bible, Discipleship, Excellence, faith, LifeGiving, maturity, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, teaching, Training

Is the gift of salvation more important to you than the God who gave it to you? Any new birth that does not lead to dedicated and selfless discipleship is a still birth.

There are those who believe that once a person gets “saved” they cannot lose “their” salvation. This is foreign to Old and New Testament theology.

The church is infested with people who say. “Jesus is my Savior” but who live their life as if they are their own Lord. This is because pulpits are infected with foolish preachers telling people all they have to do is come to the altar, repeat a prayer and invite Jesus into their heart to get saved. The Bible talks about the foolishness of preaching. This is in reference to how God has chosen to communicate His heart and message concerning His salvation that He gives as a gift to people. There is a huge difference in the foolishness of preaching and foolish preachers who create their own version of what God clearly communicates.

True salvation is activated when a person “believes in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead” and confesses with their mouth “Jesus is [my] Lord.” At the point where the person surrenders to the Lord Jesus Christ and submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ they lose all personal rights to their life.

“19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” [1 Corinthians 6]

As the saying goes, “Jesus is Lord of all or not at all!” The Bible does not teach ‘accept Jesus as your Savior by inviting Him into your heart.’

Romans 10:9,10

“9 [That] if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

This “confession” is not a prayer. It is a solemn declaration of surrender and submission! Prayer may play a part in the surrender and submission but the declaration of surrender is where salvation is activated. A person’s deep belief in the brutal sacrifice Christ endured that culminated in His outrageous victory over death, hell and the grave through His bodily resurrection is what the confession is based on.

Do you see the connection between a person’s heart and mouth? The mouth openly declares what the heart internally believes.

The whole “God is love” crowd that believes that the love of God gives permission for promiscuity and irresponsibility has created a false sense of security in the community of the saints.

Saint means a holy person so how can a holy person continue to live unholy lives with impunity?

Hebrews 3:12-14

“12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”

The writer of Hebrews, who I believe to be Paul the apostle to the Gentiles, throughout his letter warns Jewish believers in Jesus not to abandon Christ by returning to Judaism. You may be thinking that going back to a different form of the worship of God [Judaism] is not the same as going back into a life of sin. If that is your train of thought consider this next text carefully.’ This is not his first warning. In fact Hebrews is full of warnings such as this one, “1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” [Chapter 2]

The gospel of salvation is as old as the sin of man. In fact, it goes back into eternity past as Jesus is the Lamb [that was] slain before the foundation of the world before there was a man who sinned.

Let’s go back to the Hebrews 3 text and look at Paul’s dire warning to ‘believers’.

  • Take care, brethren – This call to take care is to ‘brethren’ which confirms Paul is talking to people he considered his brothers and sisters in Christ. Taking care means understanding by seeing the danger of deception. It also means to be mindful of your surroundings so that you can take appropriate action for your safety.
  • That there not be in any one of you – Individuals affect the corporate body positively or negatively. Obviously the concern here is the infection of Christ’s Body through individual lifestyle choices that are demonic and destructive.
  • An evil, unbelieving heart – What separates Christianity from Judaism is the heart. Going back into the Sermon of the Mount we see Jesus comparing what had been taught concerning outward appearances and actions to what He was teaching concerning what is going on in our heart. God sees and judges people’s heart! The Spirit confronted and convicted me some years back when He said this to me, “Your problem is you believe in a God you do not believe.” Ouch! Do you believe the God you say you believe in? We do not get to pick and choose what we believe out of all that God has said and continues to say. Jesus said to the Jews who believed Him, “31 If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” [John 8] Lasting freedom exists in continuing in His truth!
  • That falls away from the living God – I asked this question in the beginning of this blog – Is the gift of salvation more important to you than the God who gives it to you? According to Paul it is absolutely possible for a Christian believer to fall away from the living God who gave them life and eternal life. Therefore, if it is possible to fall away from God is it possible to hold onto ‘your’ salvation while you are falling away from God who gave it? I think not!
  • Encourage one another day after day, as long as it is called “Today” – I tell people often, “Tomorrow never comes because when the day we see as tomorrow comes it is called today.” Individual believers have the responsibility to encourage each other daily by warning them of the dangers of disconnecting from God’s heart. You don’t hear that taught in ‘today’s’ seeker sensitive church cultures. Many ‘brethren’ only receive goose bump giving encouragement. Paul does not subscribe to superficial, pseudo-spiritual seeker sensitive spin.
  • So that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin – The deceitfulness of sin hardens people, Christian or not. Paul is saying here that there is a deceitfulness attached to sin and that deceitfulness is as dangerous as the actual sin. Why? Because the author of sin is the devil who lives to deceive. The devil is a liar and has been from the beginning. If your pastor [preacher] does not warn you away from the deceitfulness of sin he is an agent of the prince of darkness, and like the prince of darkness is parading around like an angel of light. Can you say, “DECEPTION”?
  • For we have become partakers of Christ IF we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end – The proof we had a beginning of faith in Christ [faithfulness to Christ] is we live until the end faithful to Christ. There is not one ounce of truth to the “once saved always saved” or “Jesus is my savior but I am my Lord” in the Bible. “Those who endure to the end will be saved” means the saved endure to the end. There is an old saying that is, “How we finish is more important than where we start.”

The genuine gospel is not as appealing as the counterfeit gospel to those who want to say they are Christian and not live as Christ lived. I will end with these three ‘encouraging’ texts.

1 John 2

“3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

John 14:31

“So that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.”

Matthew 28

“18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”

John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, wrote both of the first two clear and concise texts. It is interesting to me that John says Jesus said His Father gave Him commandments to keep. That is how Jesus is able to require His disciples to keep all of His commandments and to teach others to keep them all too. Keeping God’s commandments are for the purpose of convincing the world we love our Father. Maybe the reason we are not convincing the world is because we are resisting the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Several key points to consider in closing – 1] We prove we abide [are] in Christ when we walk the same walk Jesus walked. We cannot claim to be in Christ living like the devil who rebelled against God. 2] Jesus commanded His disciples to move on, “let us go from here’ and then encouraged them by saying, ‘I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ 3] His being with us as we move on from where we are enables us to live the life He lived. If we do not live the life He lived we should be concerned that we probably have fallen away from Him.

Remember, God may not ever leave or forsake us but all the New Testament writers warn us not to fall away from God in their own way.

For HIS Glory!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin
His Hisstorymaker

Apostles & Fathers

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Disciple, Discipleship, Excellence, faith, Hard Work, LifeGiving, maturity, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, teaching, Teamwork, Training

There is much misinformation that misleads people in the area of apostles and fathers in the faith! I hope the misinformed will not continue misleading people, no matter how well intended they may be.

Just because someone is an apostle does not make them a father in the faith. There are a lot of apostles leading ministries and movements who are still children in the faith, and manifest childishness in their daily lives. If you are a genuine apostle you will genuinely grow up.

Even Paul, who was called an apostle from his mother’s womb, said he had to grow up spiritually. In fact, he said after he grew up he still had to make a decision to act grown up!

“When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11

Paul did not say when he became an apostle he put away childish things! He said when he became as man he put away childish things. One manifestation of childishness is the need to be needed. Needing attention is a core value of someone who is immature, insecure, and suffering identity and image issues. There are an abundance of leaders who serve for what they need which proves they are still in the childish, carnal, self-centered, self-absorbed level of maturity.

Just because someone is not an apostle does not eliminate them from being a father in the faith. There are a lot of believers with no 5 fold office call on their life who have matured to fatherhood. Some have had a great impact on my life as I developed as a disciple of Christ.

Maturing into fatherhood is the call to every believer in Christ, regardless of their call, mission, office or lack there of! And at the father level of maturity the person is not interested in their personal needs. Their need is to pour their life out for and into a person who needs mature leadership and direction to help them become a mature adult.

“You are to become perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” applies to all the disciples of Jesus of all ages! Perfect means perfect, not just mature and complete!

Fathering requires running with the person needing fathering in close enough proximity to monitor their progress, without impeding their personal creative expression. This allows the person being fathered to keep their eye on the father but not be encumbered as they run the race set before them.

The person needing fathering must be willing to enter into and embrace the process fathers put them in to develop them into a mature believer. The acceptance of that process verifies the person voluntarily accepts the person fathering them. If the person needing and or wanting fathering in their life constantly complains or resists the person and their process, they prove they are not ready for, or interested in genuine development as a disciple of Christ.

Every believer should look for and find someone who can father them without them needing to call them “father,” or the father being called their “father.”

Jesus said, “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.” Matthew 23:9

If a “father” needs to be called father to feel adequate, or accepted by the ones they are fathering, then that father has some serious father issues.

I think some who call themselves apostles need to quit worrying about who is, and where are the apostles. If God calls someone to the office of an apostle then God is handling that apostle’s progress into Their purpose! And if God wants one apostle to align with others He is perfectly willing and able to arrange that connection.

I believe there are apostles who take out of context Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 4, “14 I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. 15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.” Paul would reiterate the “imitate me” instruction later in chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians.

Paul did not say the Corinthians did not have many “apostolic” fathers. He just said they had an abundance of people teaching them, not fathering them. This tells me there is a difference in those who teach and those who father. All fathers teach but not all teachers are fathers, even to those they teach. Fatherhood is a maturity level and function, not an office or title. There is no office or title called fatherhood, except in the Catholic Church, which connects apostolic succession to fatherhood! This is, and should be rejected by all believers everywhere.

In addition, Paul, who operated both as an apostle and father to the Corinthians believers, demonstrated apostolic and fathering discipline when needed to those who chose to follow [imitate] his discipleship core value of following [emulating] the lifestyle of Christ Jesus. Purity is paramount in the development of a maturing disciple [son or daughter] of Christ. Discipling a person to Christ is the same as discipling a person to Father God. “The Father and I are one.”  Biblical fathering has everything to do with modeling Father God to the person being fathered so they will become like the Father who is perfect.

“Follow [imitate] me as [in the same way that] I follow [imitate] Christ [the ultimate leader]” should be the standard every kingdom leader lives by. Paul is saying he was following Christ so that he could lead people to Christ. All kingdom discipleship has that core value or it is not kingdom discipleship. Christ is the

Good gracious, Paul said he received, accepted, embraced, and developed his apostolic call, mission and revelatory message apart from the apostles in Jerusalem. He said it was developed on his sabbatical in Arabia.

Galatians 1

“11 For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; 14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. 15 But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus. 18 Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.” 

If Paul were alive today he would not be accepted into some apostolic brotherhoods by some of those who see themselves as the brotherhood’s gatekeepers. Paul went to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and James, not to surrender his apostolic credentials to them.

I think some modern ministers who consider themselves apostles, see themselves erroneously in that select group of original leaders who were called to the closed, select community of the apostles of the Lamb!

All the apostles, even the original 12 called personally by Jesus, volunteered their ministry connections! And the 12 did not require obedience to them as a qualification into the post apostle of the Lamb apostolic office. The nonsensical heresy called “the shepherdship movement” was debunked in the 1970’s. I am concerned some of its tenets still exist and its tentacles are still reaching out trying to entrap unsuspecting saints.

Honor and respect does not require connection or obedience! It is given and received voluntarily! And for that matter, submission is voluntary too. If someone demands submission run as fast as you can. That is called slavery!

Everyone should focus on their personal relationship, call, mission, mandate and message with the Apostle and High Priest of our confession who died, was raised, ascended, and called us into our respective relationships, call, mission, mandate and message for Him.

“Do not think more highly of yourselves than you ought” is a really good verse right now! Especially for apostolic fathers!

In conclusion, if you need a father figure in your life look for one who will look for your loyalty, not require your loyalty. Again, loyalty cannot be demanded. A father who looks for loyalty more than likely will demonstrate loyalty to you. Loyalty is discovered in disagreement just like faithfulness is discovered when there are other options to choose from. If you want and need someone to father you, you must accept the responsibility of being a child [son or daughter]. That responsibility includes but is not limited to recognizing and admitting you do not have all the answers and you volunteer to be parented.

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin

A Hisstorymaker

I’m A Dominionist! Are you?

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Excellence, LifeGiving, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Teamwork, Training

I am a dominionist who believes wholeheartedly in dominionism!

To the Christian critic of dominionism and its dominionist proponents, I have some questions?

Are you a defeatist who believes in defeatism?

  • Do you believe the prince of darkness will extinguish the Light of the world?
  • Do you believe the prince of the power of the air will defeat the One who created air?
  • And do you believe the prince of darkness will chase the citizens of light off the planet?

Are you an escapist who believes in escapism?

  • Are you looking for Jesus to come rescue you off the planet He loves?
  • Are you willing to relinquish the planet you are to inherit?
  • And are you resigning yourself to one day go to a place called heaven instead of every day being a vessel through which God wants to reveal and release heaven in earth?

Genesis 1:28 KJV

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.'”

Did you notice the writer of Genesis said God said, “Have dominion?”

What is the purpose in having something you have been given if you are not going to use what you have that was given to you?

Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give.” [Matthew 10:8] The context of that command was the preaching [revealing, declaring] of the present tense reality of the arrival and expansion of God’s kingdom on earth.

The manifestation of God’s kingdom of light materializes in the undoing of everything the prince of darkness has done, is doing or will ever do.

Original man’s original sin does not alter God’s original mission for men!

The failure of men does not cause God to fail nor does it cause the commission of man to partner with God to fail.

Jesus came along and along with many commands said this ~ “18 “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [Matthew 28]

Jesus literally said to His disciples [apostles] to go evangelize the world. Somehow through the corridors of time His command has been corrupted and His design has been diminished.

He said “Go and make disciples of all nations” and that has been reduced to hopefully get some converts in the nations.

I believe this is the same commission His first disciples [Adam and Eve] were given in Genesis 1 – “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.”

Fruitfulness speaks of successful productivity as well as successful reproduction in having children.

Multiply speaks of having children but more importantly their reproduction was to reproduce children who would love and serve God and His purposes for the planet.

Replenish speaks of cultivating a culture where the earth would constantly be filled with the fulness of what God intended when He commissioned His “man” to take Paradise to the planet.

Subdue speaks of using the authority God gave them to bring anything and everything not in subjection to God under the rule of God.

And then the command to ‘rule’ or ‘have dominion’ speaks of being the head, not the tail; being leaders not followers; being givers not borrowers; being those blessed by God to be a blessing for God in the earth He created for His people to inhabit.

The question then arises on how are we to rule or have dominion.

The how is through servant leadership, not physical force!

It is through leading people to the Lordship of Jesus Christ!

It is through leading them out of the land of their limitations into the land of plenty!

John said this, “When the seventh angel blew his trumpet, there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will rule forever and ever.” [Revelation 11:15 ISV]

People have placed this verse, and many others like it, into a future time. I believe Jesus began His rule on the earth when He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God and received His kingdom!

29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,  31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.” [Acts 2]

Luke writes that Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost that David prophesied the resurrection of the Christ included His being seated on David’s throne. That smacks down any doctrine that has Jesus returning to earth to sit on a physical throne.

And ~~~~

“41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 saying, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?’ They said to Him, ‘The Son of David.’ 43 He said to them, ‘How then does David in the Spirit call Him “Lord,” saying:44 “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘ Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool’ “?” [Matthew 22]

Jesus is quoting David in Psalm 110:1, which by the way can be found numerous times in the New Testament.

Jesus is on David’s throne as you read this blog and He began ruling the moment He sat down next to His Dad!

And He will continue to sit there and rule with His Dad until His enemies surrender and submit! However looooooooong that takes!

That knocks the “imminent return” theology out of contention in my mind!

And ~~~~

“9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,  10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” [Philippians 2]

And finally, look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 ~ “ 20 But, in reality, Christ has risen from among the dead, being the first to do so of those who are asleep. 21 For seeing that death came through man, through man comes also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For just as through Adam all die, so also through Christ all will be made alive again. 23 But this will happen to each in the right order—Christ having been the first to rise, and afterwards Christ’s people rising at His return. 24 Later on, comes the End, when He is to surrender the Kingship to God, the Father, when He shall have overthrown all other government and all other authority and power. 25 For He must continue King until He shall have put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that is to be overthrown is Death; 27 for He will have put all things in subjection under His feet. And when He shall have declared that “All things are in subjection,” it will be with the manifest exception of Him who has reduced them all to subjection to Him. 28 But when the whole universe has been made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also become subject to Him who has made the universe subject to Him, in order that GOD may be all in all.” {Weymouth Translation]

So, I am a proud card carrying domionist, and I believe in the total dominion, rule, and eventual subjection of the world to the Lordship of Christ Jesus, and then THE END will come!

And not a day before!

Keep HIS Faith! Keep HIS Passion! Keep HIS Purpose!

Dr. Kevin. M. Drury, DMin

His Hisstorymaker!