Getting In God's Order

So far we have looked at God's overall goal for the church, that it perform five primary functions: worship, evangelism, relationship and accountability, maturity and service. God's call for any of our lives will these elements in it. We saw in lesson 3 how the church got off track over time and how God has been in the process of restoring His church to what He ordained her to be. He is making changes to get the church in proper working order. We look at what God is doing and think that He is doing a new thing. In truth, it is not a new thing, it is just new to us. God is renewing His church and restoring that which has been lost. God's pace in the restoration process has been accelerating. At first it stated slowly, but now it is happening much faster.

Let me explain this process. When a mother is ready to have a baby, the labor pains aren't that bad at first. But when she gets toward the end, the pain and intensity increase as the baby comes closer and closer to delivery. This is what we are seeing in the church today. God is moving much faster and the intensity is increasing. It's shocking and shaking. It's coming very quickly, very quickly. We've seen more happen in the past 10 years in the church then we've seen in the previous 25.

Let me tell you what's ahead. The intensity we've been experiencing won't let up until this thing gets delivered. And I believe the Lord is bringing His church to the place He wants it. You know how fast technology is moving. They're inventing stuff that's out of date by the time it hits the production lines. It's moving so quickly, so fast. That's simply an external thing of what God is doing in the Spirit. He's moving so fast, it's hard to keep up.

Some of you have been around for a little while. You know how the church used to be. Things just kind of stayed the same. We got in this mode and it worked for a while and we made a few adjustments here and there. All of a sudden, we started hitting the '70s and the revolution began in the '80s, that's when the labor pains really began to move and then we went into the '90s -- it's moving so fast we can't keep up.

God understands that, so He gives grace to the church. Remember about mercy and judgment? Mercy triumphs over judgment. God really shows mercy to us because we can't keep up, so what does God do? He births something new. It isn't new to God or to the church, but it's new to us. We look at that and say, "What in the world is that?" Here again, we have five things that we can judge it by and if it's doing those things then it's of God.

You can't contain what God is doing, neither can you label it in this hour that God is doing it. The things that we do have, we have these five purposes that don't change. But the way they will manifest now and they way they will manifest in the future may not look like what you perceive church to be.

All this new stuff is happening. But is it meeting the five purposes? If it is meeting them, then it is of God. The early church was fluid, it adapted. When it went to the Romans, it moved in a way that reached that culture. Likewise, God is going to reach our present-day culture. He's going to reach your city and this area and He's going to need you to do it, because you're the church. And when God begins to put something in your heart you can't just say, "Well, I haven't seen anything like this before," because it may not have been here before.

When God gives you something new, it will meet the purposes of God. And you can know it is God because it meets the purposes of God. And you can know it's not God if it doesn't meet His purposes. Do you remember that passage from Amos 9 (in the last lesson)? I like verse 13. It says, "The time will come, saith the Lord, when the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested." A time is coming when God is going to be pouring stuff in and we can't keep up. We will have to sort out how to manage and organize that thing? But, that's OK. We're looking forward to that. We've been planting a lot where we haven't been reaping and God is going to bless. He won't be mocked. We'll reap.

I want you to begin thinking about those five purposes. Think about the one that you relate the most to, and ask the Lord to give you a vision for this area. The thing that God calls you into may look like something you see around you -- but don't be surprised if it doesn't. It may not look how you thought it should. God is moving quickly in this thing. Don't feel that you have to stay up with everything. Don't feel like you have to know all that God is doing or what He's doing with you. God will make things clear to you when you need to know them, as you seek to participate with Him in what He is doing, as you seek to fulfill the call He puts on your life.

Since prayer and intercession are important to each of us, let's take a few moments to stop to pray in regard to what we have discussed so far:

Lord Jesus, I thank You that you have a call on every life reading this teaching. I thank You, Lord, that there isn't anybody who has been neglected. I thank You, Lord, that You have planned them, You have designed them, and You made them just like they are to fulfill Your purpose for their lives. Before they were born, You thought about them, You designed them.

Lord, You allowed us to go through a lot of things to shape us. But, Lord we ask You to fulfill them. Lord, I pray that we just look at the things in our lives and begin to judge those things whether or not they need to be in our lives and what things need to be put in our lives. Lord, as we look at things that don't give glory to You we know that they don't need to be there. Lord, take out what we don't need and put in what we do. Lord, I pray that You begin to narrow our vision into focus with Your calling on our life so we'll use our time and energy to maximize why You placed us on this earth. So that we can say no to things that will become a distraction to us and say yes to things that we need to be involved in.

Focus us, Lord. Oh Lord, I pray that You'll give us liberty in our minds as You restore Your church back to Your New Testament power, New Testament authority, New Testament order and New Testament life, like a river that flows, like a wind that blows. Wherever You blow, wherever You lead, we'll go. Father, forgive us for confining You with what we can do just because we haven't seen it. But, Lord put it in us today, thank You Lord. Let us see Your handy work on this earth and Lord, we bless You.