I wanna share something God put on my heart and has had it there brooding for quite some time... I've prayed, studied and observed the church in the book of Acts for quite some time now and have to say that to date I have never seen a church in our current day and age that even comes close to what that church was and did. This church was a total explosion of the power, love and grace of God and grew exponentially on a daily basis. Just stop and think about that for a second... daily. This church didn't just have a structured religious Sunday service and a midweek bible study - it operated 24/7. The doors never closed. It was a place of prayer, refuge, help, love, peace, inclusion and family. The leaders there had a problem they had to resolve and do you know what that problem was? The leaders of the church were so busy waiting on tables giving out meals that they couldn't do the "normal" church functions. I'm not sure about you but I haven't seen that sort of problem in a church for a long, long time.
Leaders that willingly humble themselves and serve others. Leaders actually down on the peoples level. Just like Jesus hey. You see, these leaders actually got it. They actually understood and took hold of what Jesus said and did and ran with it - and God blessed it massively! Servant hood... plain an simple. There were no exalted positions, no hierarchy, no big salaries or fancy chariots rocking up in the car park before church. People would actually give up their riches to help each other. Can you imagine that? People would actually sell houses and land and give it to the church not so the leaders could get rich, fat and lazy but so that it could be distributed to help those who actually had need. It's what God wanted the Kingdom of Heaven to look like and because they captured the heart of God and made it real - God blessed it powerfully. People flocked to it and wanted to be a part of it because they didn't need to be convinced of Gods love by some fancy, hi-tech stage show presentation - they actually felt God's love the moment they arrived. The love was real. It moved, healed, gave and spoke. It looked like Jesus.
One of the biggest things that God revealed to me about the original church in Acts was this. Equality. No one was any better than anyone else. Love was the binding force that leveled out all of the useless positions that we so often see in the church today. Yes, I said useless and I won't apologize for it. Those given power by God are given it to help others - not themselves. Jesus taught this in Matthew 23 when He said to us "Call no man Father because you only have one Father and He is in Heaven, Call no one teacher because you have one teacher who is Jesus." Jesus also went on to say that we are simply brothers and sisters - equals. Sinners saved by the grace of God and that we exist simply by His grace and of no merit, effort or achievement of ourselves. Can you imagine a place where anyone could walk through the doors of a church and was accepted because of God's love, grace and mercy and not because of the acts that they had to prove to those in power? That place existed once and God used that church powerfully like a wildfire in that corner of the globe... we need that again. We need to capture that heart again. A heart that thinks, feels, sees and acts like our Father does. A heart that shows love, mercy and grace to all and where selfish ambition, greed and self exaltation dies at the door. It's time the real church arose, woke up and showed the world what true love is!
Leaders that willingly humble themselves and serve others. Leaders actually down on the peoples level. Just like Jesus hey. You see, these leaders actually got it. They actually understood and took hold of what Jesus said and did and ran with it - and God blessed it massively! Servant hood... plain an simple. There were no exalted positions, no hierarchy, no big salaries or fancy chariots rocking up in the car park before church. People would actually give up their riches to help each other. Can you imagine that? People would actually sell houses and land and give it to the church not so the leaders could get rich, fat and lazy but so that it could be distributed to help those who actually had need. It's what God wanted the Kingdom of Heaven to look like and because they captured the heart of God and made it real - God blessed it powerfully. People flocked to it and wanted to be a part of it because they didn't need to be convinced of Gods love by some fancy, hi-tech stage show presentation - they actually felt God's love the moment they arrived. The love was real. It moved, healed, gave and spoke. It looked like Jesus.
One of the biggest things that God revealed to me about the original church in Acts was this. Equality. No one was any better than anyone else. Love was the binding force that leveled out all of the useless positions that we so often see in the church today. Yes, I said useless and I won't apologize for it. Those given power by God are given it to help others - not themselves. Jesus taught this in Matthew 23 when He said to us "Call no man Father because you only have one Father and He is in Heaven, Call no one teacher because you have one teacher who is Jesus." Jesus also went on to say that we are simply brothers and sisters - equals. Sinners saved by the grace of God and that we exist simply by His grace and of no merit, effort or achievement of ourselves. Can you imagine a place where anyone could walk through the doors of a church and was accepted because of God's love, grace and mercy and not because of the acts that they had to prove to those in power? That place existed once and God used that church powerfully like a wildfire in that corner of the globe... we need that again. We need to capture that heart again. A heart that thinks, feels, sees and acts like our Father does. A heart that shows love, mercy and grace to all and where selfish ambition, greed and self exaltation dies at the door. It's time the real church arose, woke up and showed the world what true love is!
