The Church Jesus is building 1

After Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ the son of the Living God, Jesus commended him and promised;"...on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades(Hell) will not overcome it."( Matt. 16:18) Organic church author Wolfgang Simson notes that Jesus did not say;" You will build my church " or even "I will build your church" but He Himself will build His church! Jesus will only bless the church/ekklesia which He is building and not our plans or projects, however sincere they may be!

What is the rock Jesus is building His church on? It is the revelation about Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God! This revelation is not just head knowledge or some superficial decision for Jesus, but is dependent on the mysterious work of God's Spirit in us. Embedded in this revelation is the concept of 'sonship'. To the believers He is the Messiah/Christ, but to the Father He is the Son! The true church will have a revelation of Christ and the outworking of that revelation is that believers will walk in an understanding of sharing His sonship. The church Jesus is building is not first of all concerned about titles, ministries, or anointings, but in relationship-that of intimacy as sons before their Father!

Jesus also said that Peter became a "little rock" because of this revelation(the Big Rock) and Paul said in Ephesians 2:20 that the church is build "on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone." Apostles and prophets(the true version!) are people who have received the revelation about Jesus and have been molded through the workings of God to present an accurate presentation of the Living Christ, both through word and in incarnating the Life of Christ. The result of their ministry will be an apostolic church which will incarnate(manifest) Christ in every locality and will in so doing bind the ruling powers of the heavenlies-and not only bind them but will become itself the ruling power in that locality! One of the biggest "gates of hades" for example, is prejudice against other races or religious groups, but where a church becomes truly apostolic, people of different races and religions will come together in the unity of the Spirit, reconciliation will be demonstrated(incarnated) and the prejudice and racism will lose it's stronghold on the minds of the people.

The only real hope of this world is the church which Jesus is building, and it starts with the church becoming truly apostolic and for that to happen the church must be given back to it's rightful Owner, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God!

Christ my life!

Oh, the glorious freedom of knowing Christ as my Life! He has become my only Life-He is my past, my present and my future! In Him, I have entered the reality of the New Creation. He has changed my world view because I see through all things to Christ! I do not see every other person as a vile sinner, but through that person and his/her actions I see the finished, perfect work of Christ on the cross. I see a person who just needs to awaken to his/her salvation which is already achieved in Christ-all we can do is to work with Christ in us to awaken this person to righteousness-this will only happen if the unrigteous experience acceptance and respect from us.

I do not see the church as some organisation, meeting or club of 'backscratchers' but as a bunch of Christ-lovers who have become loyal to only Him and a revelation of His Life in them!
I do not see Apostles and Prophets as mighty, charismatic personalities or gifted MD's but as simple men/women(what??) who have been through the mill of God's stripping and now breathes Christ and Him alone. They share Paul's apostolic burden to see Christ formed in local communities which will shake the powers of the air because they manifest the Life of Christ! (Ephesians 3:10) They do that because they flesh out Grace, Love, Joy , Peace, etc in communities who meet daily in various places, for various purposes and in fluidity of numbers.

I do not see tsunami's, earthquakes and other natural disasters as God's judgement on a sinful and deserving humanity, but rather as the birthpangs of the new creation because Jesus has already endured God's judgement for humanity as well as creation as illustrated by the crown of thorns which was pressed into His head-the curse which was on humanity and nature was put on Him! Rather than God's judgements on sinful humanity, natural disasters could be an indictment against the "House of God" which has not appropriated the fulness of Christ's finished work on the cross and is not in divine order. I believe that when Jesus is again acknowledged as the Head of the Church( not in absentia!) divine order wil be restored, the Sons of God will be manifested and creation will be delivered from futility and decay!( Rom 8:19-23)

Sons of Adam and Sons of God

There are really only two kinds of people on the earth, namely the sons of Adam and the Sons of God. The sons of Adam could be religious or anti-religious but they all eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Some more from the evil part and some more from the good part, but still the same old tree!(Genesis 2:9) The sons of Adam build their ethics on questions of right and wrong and like to be controlled by rules and laws; they are ruled by the senses, things which could be empirically tested and observed. They are very good at creating their own devices to hide their shame and nakedness. Religious effort, church programs, visionary projects and even charitable duties become handy "fig-leaves" to impress God or their religious/moral conscience.(Genesis3:7)

They may even go so far as to devise a pseudo- science based on naturalism to hide from the idea of God. If there is another way of looking at reality, like naturalism, than they do not need to face up to the chance of there being a God and if there is no God than they do not have to face up to their 'sinful' desires and inclinations. Scientific dogmatics and religious dogmatics may be appalled at discovering that they are really in the same bed so to speak! Their 'fig-leave' garments may look a bit different at first but it's really made from the same stuff.

On the other hand we find a growing number of people who have discovered how to feed on the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ! They have accepted God's covering for their shame and guilt; they have allowed themselves to be clothed in the garments of Christ's righteousness; they have trusted fully and unconditionally in the blood of the innocent! They got rid of the fig-leaves of religious effort, Law, Churchianity and the self-deception of human wisdom. They have learned how to eat the bread of heaven and nothing else but revelation can satisfy their New Creation-spirits. The Sons of God live in the consciousness of Sonship as the Pattern-Son lives His Life through them. The Sons of God are not concerned about titles, ministries and callings but they are concerned first of all about integrity before their Father and integrity in relationships with other people, always aware of Christ in them who wants to touch and impact the lives of human beings.

To the Sons of God church happens whenever and wherever two or three are gathered in His name; whether in a house, club, pub, around a barbecue or just a family meeting together. The Sons of God hate organizational instead of organic growth; professional and disposable relationships rather than genuine and lasting relationships; formal meetings for the sake of meetings(or the big preacher!) instead of vibrant and joyous celebrations of Christ's life together! The Sons of God want to see all of humanity come forth in their true destinies and therefore want to see people empowered to live in authentic relationships with Christ and one another, rather than being dependent on "ministries" for acceptance and spiritual growth.The Sons of God are hungry to be led by the Spirit at all times and refuse to be led by fads, moods and what seems to work at the moment.

The Sons of God are satisfied with obscurity at the moment and they have learned (mostly through trials and tribulation) to remain in their Sabbath-Rest(Christ) and trust Him to bring forth the manifestation the whole of creation is waiting for.(Romans 8:18-19)