UNDERSTANDING GOD's KINGDOM ENVIRONMENT / PART 2

In part 1 I discussed kingdom environment, the definition for environment is simply “Surrounding influences” God’s influence and nature fills every part of an environment He has built and created.  Ephesians 1:23 says “His body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” If God’s full presence and nature is in an environment then understand that everything will be there for you to succeed and faith will activate in your spirit in His presence to hear his decree of what He envisions to do and what He wants to achieve in that environment.

Look what Jesus said to his disciples in Luke 22:29

29) “And my Father has appointed a kingdom and conferred it on Me, so do I confer on you the privilege and decree”.

Confer:

1.      Discuss something with somebody in order to compare opinions or make a decision,

God wants to have full communication with us to making the right decisions regarding His environment to achieving the purpose in which it was designed for and operating it under a kingdom system.

2.      Give honor or title or favor to somebody, God wants to reward us by allowing us the privilege of becoming steward leaders and that we would gain favor in His sight in over seeing His Kingdom realm here on earth so that we’re able to rule with him in the Kingdom of Heaven to come, as mentioned in Verse 30.  

Knowledge of the Kingdom System

The Lord wants us to understand how to maintain, manage and operate the Kingdom here on earth, just as the Father had conferred to Him and now wanting to confer on us.   The purpose of this is so that we will be aware of what He has put in position and in place through a royal authority that God’s Kingdom runs by, which is designed to nurture and equip people to branch out in and outside the church in serving others and spreading of the gospel Collectively and individually.  

Not Take Ownership but Partnership, Acting Like an Owner

Unfortunately some leaders assume they know what God wants in His kingdom environment, they bring an outside leadership mindset from their jobs thinking that’s how you run God’s business or Kingdom environment….WRONG!! How can you compare a material environment to a spiritual environment….there’s no comparison!

This type of approach will only frustrate a leader and those around him, only to find he has no followers or partnerships. We need to remember who owns the environment and who doesn’t.

Some church leaders run their church in a “God is Love, kumbaya”! Mentality now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for God is love type of fellowship with my brothers and sisters in the lord or a good “Kumbaya” around a camp fire, but that’s not what God designed His church to be like 24/7…PLEASE!  

Then we have church leaders who feel that their church is going to be a community outreach church only and expect all the leaders and congregation to jump on board with that, leaving no room for individual leadership growth. Now don’t miss understand me I truly believe that every church should reach out to their perspective communities in one way or another. When a church leaves no room for needed discipleship programs that would allow individuals to discover their potential then I guarantee, there’s going to be a problem. 

That may work for awhile but sooner or later these leaders are going to grow weary and become frustrated. They have not been given the opportunity to spread their wings in an area that they feel God is calling them to, only because they haven’t been equipped to do so.

I have visited the same churches from time to time only to see that through the years they pretty much have remained the same size. Now I know what you’re thinking, Joel size shouldn’t be a factor for making a good church… yes your right but there should be some evidence of leadership growth.  For example where are the Missionaries, Evangelists, Godly Entrepreneurs, Humanitarians, and Prophets and so on? The only thing that I’ve witnessed is a congregational revolving door, only trading new faces for the old ones.

Leaders have been guilty of taking ownership and not partnership with the Holy Spirit. God’s environment is not subject to any boundaries, or limitations of any kind.

One thing that God desires for us is to have revelation to understanding His purpose and perfect will.   His objectives and goals are in everything He does. The more knowledge we gain  of God the better off we will be, enabling us to see the bigger picture and finding it much bigger than ourselves.

Paul writes in Ephesians 1: 17-19

17)”I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit/of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better”.

18)”I pray also that the eyes to your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints”.

Ephesians 1:11

11)”in him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will”.

We’ve all be been called to go beyond the ordinary according to His plan that is conformity to His perfect will.

Environmentally Friendly

Hebrews 10:36

36)”For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away what is promised”.

God will always put us in different Kingdom Environments and each environment has its requirements by those who run them. I feel this is where the steadfast patience comes in for me, most of the time it’s having patience with those we work alongside with in leadership. Each appointed leader has a different approach to issues and matters that rise up in any particular environment. We as leaders  need to be constantly praying for guidance and the safeguarding of our hearts.

One thing that I’ve learned through the years of ministry that God has taught me is to become environmentally friendly. In other words, those who claim to love Christ ought to be enough for you to work alongside them no matter what they think or do.

If I know that God had called me into one of His environments and has entrusted me to be a part of it and having accepted it from Him, then I cannot simply walk away from it but persevere to seeing it through the end no matter how tough it may get or how it may seem my character is attacked.

Hebrews 10:35

35)”Do not; therefore fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward”.

Now God has given me a mandate to fulfill and that alone….is the bottom line and objective that I must fulfill and keep in mind at all times. It’s the very thing that will lead me into receiving the promised reward and should not allow anything or anyone to shake my God confidence in me.

I must have confidence that I have already been approved and entrusted by God because of the mandate and Spiritual gifts in my life. We must have faith and trust in the mandate given to us. Now that doesn’t mean we’re not going to make some mistakes along the way in the process of each environment that God has put us in. I’ve been promised by God that He would take me to heights where only He can take me; I’m not dependent on anyone but God to fulfill my mandate. Now if God was to tell me, Joel your done in this environment I’ve put you in…then I would have no problem walking away knowing and having confidence that I had fulfilled my obedience to Him and stood on the initial conviction without wavering to which I was called.

Hebrews 10:38

38)”But the just shall live by faith (My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it); and if he draws back and shrinks in fear. My soul has no delight or pleasure in him”.

There are a couple things I want to point out in this verse, I’ve already talked about Conviction in part 1 but I would like to point out Respecting & Conjoined.

1)      “Respecting man’s relationship with God”. Now as you already know many of us in ministry sometimes have different ways of approaching and doing ministry as well as doctrinal differences, but we must respect each man’s Godly relationship and how they may be guided through that relationship, but we all are working together because we’re all trying to accomplish the same spiritual goal and that’s pointing people in the direction of God and so on. 

Now, there are times I don’t see eye to eye on something’s with a leader but I respect their relationship with God so therefore that has to be enough for me to work alongside them and with others as well. Why? Because the overall objective and goal is accomplishing what God has envisioned for any of His environments or particular area of service that He has put us in and this outweighs anything on a personal level.  Again it all comes down to the initial conviction each of us received from the Holy Spirit and why we’re a part of any of his Kingdom environments of service.  It’s like Paul said, that he had to become all things to all men, sometimes we just need to become what the leader needs in order to fulfill the bigger picture, it doesn’t mean we have to like it or completely agree with it, just respect it.

2)      “Conjoined with it” If we have “Conjoined” ourselves with the nature of God that designed and structured the environment then our own human nature and anyone else’s nature for that matter cannot stand in the way of us fulfilling His purpose. Whatever evidence that reveals itself as God inspired through the leading of the Holy Spirit of things divine, noble and holy fervor born of faith then we are conjoined with it as God wills it in our spirit and to align ourselves with the spiritual structure He has put in place. It will enable us to catch the vision in order to fulfill the mission.

Each level of growth that we want to achieve is always going to require a paradigm shift of a renewed spirit …what I mean by paradigm shift, is a spiritual pattern of behavior of change. This is going to be needed for the next level; For example, in the book of Romans.

Romans 12:2

2) “Do not be conformed to this world of this age, (fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs), but be transformed (changed) by the (entire) renewal of your mind (by its new ideas and its new attitude), so that you may prove (for yourselves) what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect (in His sight for you)”.

Another great example of this renewed spiritual transformation is found in the book of Colossians.

Colossians 3:10

10) “Clothed yourselves with the new spiritual self, which is ever in the process of being renewed and remolded in the fuller and more perfect knowledge upon knowledge after the image the likeness of Him who created it”.

What this means is that there is an ongoing renewing process of spirit which will never cease in our walk with God.    The key purpose for this constant renewing is so that we will have a fresh perspective of insight or what we may call spiritual decrement through the Holy Spirit taking us through the process of less of us and more of God.   Once that happens we’re able to enter into the perfection of God’s knowledge that will allow us to sense and feel the likeness of God’s nature more and more.    We’ll begin to think like God causing our spiritual senses to becoming keener as to His perfect will for His environments and direction he desires us to go, to achieving the mandate of our lives for the Kingdom.  

Well, this concludes PART 2 I hope you have enjoyed and have been blessed by what’s been written here, if not, well all I can say is … I’ll pray for you J but seriously, I do hope it’s been an enlightenment to the heart of your spirit. No matter whether you’re a Pastor or involve in a level of leadership, I believe it applies to all of us.

In closing I would ask if you would help me spread these blogs to others that you think may be blessed by what’s been shared with you, please pass these blogs along especially to those you know are involve in leadership  in one form or another, that would be a great support to me and my ministry.

As always thank you so very much for taking the time to read my blogs, if you’re a Pastor reading this blog and feel that this would minister to your leaders of your church please encourage them to read it or print out my blogs, if you feel incline to do so.

If you feel I could be a blessing to your congregation and would like me to speak at one of your services, please feel free to contact me at jtorresministries@msn.com

Thank you and God bless,

Evangelist Joel Torres

MAINTAINING YOUR CALL THROUGH THE CONVICTION OF FAITH / PART 1

We have heard and have read in God’s word “Many are called, but few are chosen”, how do we maintain our call, how do we become one of the chosen.   One of the first things I would like to talk about  is “SPIRITUAL CONVICTION” I’m talking about the initial reason why you answered the call you feel is a divine appointment from God, through the years I have heard many say how they’re called to be in a place for serving in a particular area of ministry and boy… do they say it with such conviction, that God has spoken to their hearts that they are called to be a part of a movement of God that is stirring their faith and so on.

Everything that we do or hope for is by Faith now I believe there are different components and sides to faith, some Christians think of faith as taking a leap of faith which we all have heard of or something like that and only see faith as one sided.   Once we gain the understanding of what these spiritual components are, we’ll gain wisdom that will help us understand the reality of what we hope for in Christ.  

The one thing people fail to understand is not only commitment but flexibility of the heart and attitude adjustments will be needed. Transformation and humility are going to be the main requirements in order to fulfill what you think God is calling you to do and how He will justify to promoting you to the next level in your ministerial endeavourers.

Now why is it that many fail to stay the course and steadfastness in their callings, easy… simply something became a stumbling block and more likely is they themselves who block their own path to achieving their call or service they felt God called them to do.  I like what is says about Faith in Chapter 11 of Hebrews in the Amplified version of the Bible, “Now Faith is (the assurance the confirmation, the title deed) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the Conviction of their reality (faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses”).  

We must always stand on the initial CONVICTION we receive in anything that God has called us into.   Whenever God presents something to us and we feel what’s being presented to us as part of that mandate and faith is stirring in our spirit then we know it was not revealed to us by our own senses but through the HOLY SPIRIT.  We need to stand firm and never allow this spiritual conviction be shaken no matter what is challenging us in any environment we’re serving in, if we do this we’ll move in a God-ward motion like forward motion to fulfilling God’s perfect will.  

The conviction of the mandate in my life is what matters to me the most; it’s not whether I get or receive any monetary gain of any kind…God can give me those things any time He wants; the most important thing is how I complete each part of the divine mandate given me. 

 When people do not stay the course it’s usually because of pride or offenses, or the fear of what leaders may think or say about them that their confidence has been shaken.

 God gave us what I call, “God Confidence” which you can find this topic in Hebrews 10:35-38 which I’ll expound later in Part 2 under “Understanding God’s Kingdom Environment”.

There is Spiritual maturity that needs to take place in order to get where you envision to go, many Christians call it a test whatever you may call it, it’s required.    There are times that God may call you in a place that you were not originally intended to be a part of, what I call… “Sometimes You Don’t See The Fit” but because God can trust you and the gifts given by Him may be needed to fulfill the vision of what He has created in a new Kingdom environment, which will need your immediate attention.  What’s needed from us is partnering with the Holy Spirit giving God the total controlling interest of our lives so that our faith can have its way with us allowing us to feel and experience God’s perfect will for each and every purpose of those around us.

Look at what Paul wrote in Romans 8:28

28) “We are assured and know that God being a partner in their labor all things work together and are fitting into a plan for good to and for those who love God and are called according to His design and purpose”.

It’s not so much what you can do talent wise or how you fit in the scheme of things it’s the gifts that God had bestowed upon you that fit in His plan.   By Faith put your confidence in what he has given you and you will see what God has envisioned in His plan which was designed by Him to fulfilling His purpose.

“We don’t move by sight but by faith”

This concludes Part 1, I will continue with these thoughts in Part 2 entitled “Understanding God’s Kingdom Environment”