THE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST

I love renewals, revivals and "moves" of the Spirit, and when they are birthed out of desperation for God, the end results are meaningful and long lasting. These kinds of occasions always build memorials honoring the memory of the event of God's total intervention.

However, I am amazed at the many, many people in Christendom who follow after signs, wonders and miracles in the hope that they will receive something from the hand of God outside of their own personal faith and belief. In other words, they are looking for something just to be handed to them without even exercising their own faith.


SIGNS AND BLUNDERS

Blunder: A serious mistake caused by ignorance or confusion.

Sign: A motion or gesture used to express or convey an idea, command or decision.


There are too many beloved genuine Christians who simply cannot perceive when something is ordered of the Spirit, and loosely base their intoxication of the event on the fact that there are miracles happening. Another rhetorical religious quote, which is often heard, is that "souls are coming into the Kingdom," as if this were something highly unusual! In our gatherings, I am pleased if and when there are unbelievers, and often give them an opportunity to give their lives to Christ. However, the true mission field is not within the walls of our safe gatherings, but all throughout the world, as Jesus Christ Himself showed us clearly. His "winning of souls" was done as He moved through cities, streets and cultures of His day.

His greatest opponents were the religious bigots in the synagogues that isolated all forms of inspiration to their forms, customs and ceremonies. Worship had lost its fear and trembling and had become a social occasion, rather than a moment of holiness. Jesus came into their gathering places and when any attempt was made to demonstrate the power of God for the benefit of those in need, they accused Him and even tried to kill Him. His daily walk with the lowest of society, as well as the rulers of the day, gave Him access to a diversity of cultures and beliefs, as well as a wide array of resistance.

TODAY

Today, many are trying to BUILD their churches, drawing people inside by advertising "signs, wonders, and miracles." The fact is, most people rarely have miracles in their personal lives, and so in an attempt to reach out and receive one, they are driven to even the smallest sign of breakthrough. Unfortunately, they often leave these places extremely disappointed because they may not have received what they hoped for. Sometimes the revival offered no more than a few people shaking with an occasional testimony of a miracle.

Thank God for the few miracles that do happen, and believe me, I also pray and teach those who come to my meetings to expect the miraculous, supernatural intervention of God in every place I go to minister. Even though we also see genuine manifestations in our gatherings, this cannot be the only reason we gather together.

WE SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED WHEN WE COMPARE OUR PRESENT SPIRITUAL STATE OF EXISTENCE WITH THOSE FROM THE PAST.

The Purpose and the Drive

Tragically, inspiration is isolated to the few breakthroughs in the various parts of the earth, and what is emerging is a false sense of inspiration coming from our egotistic purposes. A purpose that is driven by ego, will falsely inspire you and drive you to greater selfish desires. By nature, we are basically self-centered and desire nothing else than a gyrating strike from Heaven, a miracle in our body, and another shot in the arm to survive our present drought and famine of inspiration. Thank God if this happens to you when you attend meetings, but let me try and explain my personal conviction and what drives me to implement what I believe Jesus really desired for His followers to do.

The overriding importance of a disciple of Christ is not simply the content of their message, or even the display of miracles, but the overall spiritual experience they exemplify in every area of their lives. The follower of Christ is not a mere mouthpiece for God's message as some may suggest. They do not lose their own personalities as they become absorbed into God, but rather share the divine pathos through their own sharply aligned sympathy. A disciple's experience of God is actually characterized by communion with His divine consciousness, sympathy with divine pathos, and a deep concern by God for humanity. The follower of Jesus Christ is a WITNESS and should be able to make God audible to the world around them. The disciple hears God's voice, and putting their own opinions aside, should view the world from God's perspective. MAKING GOD AUDIBLE WILL MAKE HIM LAUDABLE.

What do I mean? When you truly become the voice of God and communicate His intentions accurately, it will result in God's praise and commendation from those who receive your message.

The Manifestaitions

When we come together, we should expect true manifestations of God's presence in our meetings and even more in our daily lives. However, we can't be willing to settle, as many Christians seem so willing to do, with just any claim of the "demonstration of God's power", which have often been in signs that have little, if any, significance. Many times, those who are sincerely seeking a breakthrough, are drawn in to these "signs and wonders" conventions and revivals, but in the end are disappointed when they realize that there is nothing really out of the ordinary happening. When we commune and interact with the Creator of mankind, we must expect to see His favor and intervention, as found in clear examples of the Ancient Manuscripts of the Bible and other historical writings. The Scriptures are filled with many incredible examples of how the miraculous can happen when a man or woman puts their trust in a word from God and are willing to step out of the boat and take some chances. I don't believe the appearance of gold, jewels, uncontrollable shakings, or other phenomena, as reported by some today, is worth settling for as a "revival" or "move of the Spirit".

Even a few deliverances or "decisions to follow Christ" are shallow comparisons to the works of our heroes of the faith, whom many times gave their blood for the breakthroughs and encounters with God that are documented in their incredible diverse journeys. The fact is, when we mingle with God, with His divine consciousness, we will also be profoundly impacted and motivated to become beneficial to those who are around us. That is what ministry is all about. In other words, the fruit of any work of God should be long lasting and able to impact our generation, and even generations to come. God forbid that we ever despise His work, no matter how great or small it seems to be in our perception, but we must have eternal fruit when there is a genuine encounter. Over the past couple of months, I have been asked by many people for my view regarding certain manifestations, movements, and even ministers involved in the current revivals.

In Matthew chapter 9, John approached Jesus to discuss an individual he had just encountered, who was casting out demons in Christ's name, but was not a part of their group. John went so far as to forbid the individual from ministering at all. However, Christ made it clear to John that he was focusing on the wrong thing. John was more worried about who endorsed this man and his ministry than whether or not God was actually using him to minister to the people. Although Jesus had not actually endorsed this person's ministry, which seemed to be most important to everyone, he told John they were not to forbid him!

38 Now John answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us."
39 But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is on our side."

Jesus wasn't as concerned about the endorsements this minister had, as he was the actual works that were being done. I will always support gatherings where people come together in the name of Christ to seek a divine encounter with God. I believe God loves to show up, show off, and take all of the credit. I am thankful for the miracles that happen in people's lives when God touches them as a result of these corporate gatherings. I will never speak a word against anyone who is doing the works of Christ or at least giving people a place to come together to seek God in prayer and worship, however, my endorsement of any particular revival or ministry is also not necessary.

The fruit or the continuing results of any true move of God will always speaks for itself. The "Upper Room" was the place where the disciples had a supernatural experience with the Spirit of God and were empowered for ministry, but they didn't stay inside that little room they were in! From that place, they carried the demonstration of the Spirit outside the four walls into the marketplace and turned the world upside down! That should be what follows any true "deposit" or "impartation" that comes from the Kingdom of God.

Start with the Basics

If we are to see something birthed or released from Heaven that will change our world, we must start with the basics that Christ taught about the Kingdom. We must pray for the Kingdom of God to come to the Earth, into our own world! The world will be shaken and even restructured in many areas when we begin to practice Christ's teaching regarding the Kingdom of God. Jesus said, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He did not tell them to pray for the King Himself to come. He told them to pray for the Kingdom to come. When He sent the seventy out, He told them to heal the sick, cast out devils, and then to announce, "the Kingdom of God is near you."

When He was approached by the Pharisees and asked when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied and said, "The Kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the Kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21) These are the words of Jesus Christ. When the Kingdom of God comes and His will is done on the Earth, it's not just spiritual changes that will occur, but it will impact every part of our world including the land, the economy, the governments, and the people. It's not about just building bigger churches.

We have to stop focusing on the cheap thrills that make us ineffective to the world around us, and look for the manifestation of His purpose for each and every Kingdom in the world. God wants you and I to make a significant contribution in every part of our world, including business, politics, science, agriculture, medicine, sports, music, entertainment, and of course, the family! We must learn to "ask" Him to do more than just bless our church or meetings. Christ's teaching on the principles of "Asking and Receiving" implies a great importance, on our part, to ask for much more than just enough to help us and our small group. If we only pray for miracles and interventions that will benefit our own families, ministries, or churches, and never seek God's intervention for our regions, nations, those of other cultures, or anyone outside our own walls, then we are still selfishly motivated. The only "move of the Spirit" we would be welcoming, will be that which will fall grossly short of God's intention of manifesting the Kingdom of God in all of the Earth.

You will never recognize Him when He comes; if He comes outside of what you have been programmed to believe He will look like, and it's possible you won't be open to Him, if you allow yourself to believe you've already found "the revival". No one will ever be able to copyright or exclusively claim the expression of God in any generation, because He simply refuses to settle into becoming the boring, mundane figure that religion has made Him out to be. Together, we must continue this journey to know and reveal Christ and His works to a generation that is sick and tired of religion.

The Church must go into the World

As you probably know by now, the world is not going to come to the church to get saved. We, as the Church, must go into the world, just as the light must penetrate the darkness. Jesus Christ never invited anyone to the temple to come and hear Him. In fact, He was usually thrown out of the temple. He stepped outside the realm of religious influence to touch those who were busy in the marketplace. Instead of standing on our pulpits with moral measuring rods, screaming curses at this sinful world, we should be building altars in the presence of unholy people, and offering Him praise. We should be offering Life and Living Water to an adulterous woman, instead of gazing at her with lustful eyes and then stoning her later. We should be filling fishermen's nets with fish and then presenting the truth to them, instead of shouting about the potential evils of their "great catch."

We should be met by demoniacs and lunatics at the entrance of a city, instead of being hailed by the politicians with red carpets. We should be commissioning new converts as the missionaries to the same regions where they were delivered, instead of indoctrinating them with irrelevant patterns and forms of religion, and then sending them to the "mission field." We should be expelled from the religious centers and temples for identifying the true enemies, (Luke 4:16-29), instead of being exalted as celebrities because of our "cliché preaching".

Go into all the World!

We cannot continue to focus simply on having 'revivals' in the church, while the rest of the world continues on its present course. 'Revivals' in the church are great, but if they do not produce a demonstration of the Kingdom of God outside the four walls of the church, they are pointless. It is time to follow Jesus, not only as we see Him in history, but also as He is presently revealing Himself. Where is He moving today? What is He saying? Where does He want us to go and what does He want us to pray about? He may lead us to go into some unusual places but it is time to go.

Mark 16:2 - "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation."

Kim Clement