FAITH THAT WORKS (part one)

Too often, our Christian lives have been defined exclusively from a perspective of what once was and what currently is in our lives. The life of faith that Christ is calling us to though is one that celebrates the past (What God has done), that steps out in the here and now (recognizing what God is doing) but also believes God for the greater things yet to come! (responding to who God is!)

Faith is less something we have to have and is more a response to the revelation of God’s character! He is faithful! We have been called to have faith in the faithful One who has rescued us from sin and death, who is loving, changing and shaping us but who is also inviting us to partner with Him in establishing what is yet to come!

 Two phrases that I believe are helpful in us coming to grips with this life of faith we are called to are below.

IT IS MORE IMPORTANT WHAT GOD HAS SAVED US INTO THAN WHAT GOD HAS SAVED US OUT OF!

-The incredible account found in Exodus of the miraculous rescue of the Israelite people out of slavery and Egypt (what with plagues, a reluctant Pharoah, the angel of death and an entire sea parting as if mere curtains being drawn back to name just a small portion of it) is only just the beginning of what God had intended for His chosen people. God rescued them OUT OF Egypt and then took them on a journey INTO the Promise Land and the very same is for us!

IT’S LESS A QUESTION OF WHAT GOD HAS SAVED ME FROM AND MORE OF WHAT GOD HAS SAVED ME FOR!

-We are not merely just sinners saved by grace but we have now been called sons and daughters! Slaves can never dream much further than the end of the day, possibly the end of the week. But it is sons and daughters who are given the privilege and provision to dream as widely and as far into the future as possible. And that is what we have been called for! Not merely just to survive the world, but to change it! The life of faith is one concerned with the unseen and not yet realities, and believing God for them.

What is your vision of your future? Is it one where you are still battling with the same old sin, the same sickness, a similar financial situation, a still unresolved relational tension, an unchanged level of influence? Faith is allowing the God of the impossible to take our pasts and our present realities, and letting Him shape them into a glorious future.

Faith is calling out to us today to say boldly and believe without fear that, “I’M JUST GETTING STARTED!”

Deuteronomy.1:9-18

"The Appointment of Leaders"

In Moses' first great speech in Deuteronomy (chapter 1-3) he echoes God's call and heart for growth, advancement and increase for the nation of Israel, God's chosen people, by reviewing the nations history. Out of this emerge 9 verses where Moses reveals his heart and modus operandi in terms of governing the people and some interesting perspectives jump out at us. Below are some initial ones that may help shape our modern day journey of shepherding, leading and governing.

***“You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone”***
-Here Moses shows his trump card: his humility in leadership. Getting to the place where you know that the buck can no longer stop with you. Making sure that you are not the bottle-neck. Where you’ve allowed the role of a shepherd to have significant weight in your life (“burden”). If you haven't recognized your significant need for team, I'd suggest you havent embraced the significance of the "burden". The word “burden” used here not necessarily in the negative context. Moses is not saying it’s a burden he wants to give up, but he’s saying that it’s a burden too precious to him that he cannot do it alone.

***“The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as many as the stars in the sky”***
-Understanding that growth and increase are the very fabric and essence of God’s character. It is not just a man made desire in leaders hearts. This is God’s heart! And he brings it about! Increase is a sovereign work of God, not man orchestrated (“...but God brings the growth”)
-Understanding the Abrahamic significance in this statement (“the stars in the sky” Genesis 15:5) Moses had a heart that understood the context in which he lead out of. He wasn’t an isolated leader. He wasn’t on his own mission. He was building in accordance with the prophetic promises that God had given the people of Israel. That’s what gave him confidence to lead not
out of sense of false bravado, but rather out of humility, because God had ordained this and further increase.

***“May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised”***
-The burden didn’t intimidate him to shrink back and resort to what was comfortable. Leadership is embracing growth and the “burdens” it brings as a blessing not a frustration. He allowed God to set the ceiling on the growth not their strategies or their present capacities or situations.

***“But how can I bear your burdens and your disputes all by myself?”***
-humble enough to admit to his capacity without letting that set the agenda or the limitation.

-Admitting to your need for team is not a sign of weakness but of strength.

***“Choose some wise, respected and understanding men from each of your tribes and I will set them over you”***
-choose burden bearers, not burden identifiers. Those who can tell you where there is a lack or a need in your leadership set-up are a dime a dozen. But what is needed are those who will carry and share the burden with you and not just merely point it out.

***“So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you- as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal
officers”***
Moses was a man who understood capacity. He was able to determine others capacities because he had been humble enough to determine and admit to his own. Determine your own capacity and that of those who share your burdens and it will hold off burnout, frustration and miscommunication when it comes to expectations.

Tozer's Prayer

"Save me from the error of judging a church by it's size, it's popularity or the amount of it's yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet-
not a promoter,
not a religious manager,
but a prophet!
Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity.

Save me from bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay your terror upon me, O God, and DRIVE ME TO THE PLACE OF PRAYER WHERE I WRESTLE WITH PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS AND RULERS OF THE DARKNESS OF THIS WORLD.
Deliver me from over-eating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline so that I may be a good soldier of Christ Jesus...

And now, O Lord of Heaven and earth. I consecrate my remaining days to you; let them be many or few, as you will. Let me stand before the great or minister to the poor and lowly; that choice is not mine, and i wouldn't influence it if i could. I am your servant
TO
DO
YOUR
WILL.
and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame and I choose it above all things on earth or in heaven."

A Prayer of AW Tozer...

...and now a prayer of mine

Marks of a successful ministry

On the backdrop of the numerous leadership failings that dogged Saul as King comes this one haunting verse tucked at the end of chapter thirteen in 1. Samuel:

1.Sam.13:22
"So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them"

With the Philistines military dominance over Israel unquestioned, coupled
with them having outposts in several key surrounding, the Israelite situation
was precarious at best and yet the pursuit of arming their military somehow
seemed not to make it to the top of the agenda. In war-time no matter what
obstacles are in your way, I would imagine that weaponary must be attained for your army at what ever cost! But on reflection of this embarrassing verse, it clearly had managed to slip the leadership's priority list.

In our context where military agenda's have been swopped with establishing the Kingdom of God through local church advancement, the need for the people to be equipped has not changed one bit!

The job of leaders, of whatever capacity, is to EQUIP the army of God!

Our primary job as leaders is not to host good meetings or have "successful" Sunday and mid-week meetings. Nor is it to ensure great worship times, have the hottest marketing strategies, have our sermons go viral or to have "the best coffee around". Our job, responsibility and priority is to equip our people so that "ON THE DAY OF BATTLE" they will have the sword and the spear in their hands!

Eph.4:12 spells it out even clearer...

"...to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up..."

Are our wounded outnumbering our fighting fit? Are our counseling rooms fuller than our leadership trainings? Are our meetings more often "need" based over "commission" based?

Just thinking. Just asking the tough questions. Just wanting to be equipped.

Welcome to Zimbabwe

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege to head back to the country north of the Limpopo where I was born and raised up until half way through my teenage years. This was the second time I was going “home” in the last 8 and a half years since the Phillips family traded in the working out of ever increasing prices for ever decreasing amounts of supplies for the more stable South African rand (purely a move made out of fear that our lack of simple mathematic skills would cost us dearly in the everyday routine of adding some more zeroes to the exchange rate).

But almost a decade on, my heart was filled with huge measures of excitement as the plane landed in Harare, with me an older skinnier twenty something year old carrying a new currency and a renewed love for the people and church of Zimbabwe.

The week long visit had two purposes. Number one on the agenda was to speak at a week long A.C.E (Christian education system) convention where hundreds of high school aged students along with their teachers and parents came together from all parts of the country to have their annual week of sporting, musical, dramatic and academic competition. My role was to preach each night at the evening rallies.

The second reason was to continue in building relationships with men like Rob Chifokoyo (pictured here) who runs a non-profit called Dare2Serve which we partnered with to run a conference that ministered to several hundred people in Harare last year and who is presently in the process of implementing our model of Swop Shop which has worked so successfully here.

I also spent some time with various people from an incredible local church there called The Base who we are hoping to be linking and partnering with more and more into the future. The six months in between my first and second visit to this church has seen it move into their new building and almost double in congregation size. This local church is not merely surviving in the testing times they find themselves in, but absolutely thriving! They have decided to believe God and to trust Him for not just a safe, neat congregation and not even just their suburb or city. This is a church whose mission statement and heartbeat is “to be a gateway to the nations!” Any people who have set their hearts on a heavenly kingdom and are pursuing the width and breadth of the Call like they are will always catch my attention...and the favour of the Holy Spirit for that matter!

Check these links out, start praying and saving and join us later this year in Zimbabwe as we too aim to be a people who pursue the nations, the broken and the lost (your and my inheritance) with people of similar hearts! I believe our future lies with people like these...and this is just the beginning!

Dare2Serve: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Dare2Serve/234595256603066

The Base Church: http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheBaseChurch