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My Search For The Church
(Part 1) [click to download] Back
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Here Jack Chronicles his search "for a manifestation of Church
that would reflect what I had read in the New Testament about
it" as God challenged his preconceptions about church and
stretched him to live differently.
Excerpt:
"I felt the Spirit say that church life as I had known
it was to go to the Cross, to die, totally expire and be buried.
Then, and only then would God give us new resurrection life,
which He so desires us to have. There would be no new wine
church life until the old had completely run out. I saw that
our fiercest temptation also concerns going to the Cross.
We will protest, like Peter, very religiously and very spiritually,
'God forbid, Lord, that will never happen to our church or
our fellowship. Put our beloved programs and projects to the
Cross; do to death our wonderful charismatic services; let
our music and drama groups die, and our teaching times expire?
Never! Don't you know, Lord, they are all about you.' And
I heard the Lord say, 'Get behind me. You are a hindrance
to me.'"
"These days marked the greatest transition of my life as a
Christian, a beginning of the dying out to church as I had
known it, to allow God to reveal Church as He would have it.
That death has not been sudden and clean, but slow, sometimes
painful and progressive. The religious habits of a lifetime
and the mind-set of years do not expire easily. The months
that followed were not easy, but we constantly received encouragement
from the Lord in various remarkable ways, and over the past
three and a half years we have been coming to a new understanding
and experience of the Body of Christ. What we perceive as
yet dimly, and what we are experiencing encourage us not to
look back, but to press on."
My Search For The Church
(Part 2) [click to download] Back
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Jack's journey continues as he shares what he has learned
about the church that God is building and how he now lives
in that reality every day:
Excerpt:
"No longer am I a member of any religious organisation.
My name is on no church roll here on earth. I do not "go to
church." I have no Minister or Pastor in the official sense,
and church services , for me, are a thing of the past. How
then, you may well ask, can I profess a longing for the Church
? What is my relationship to the Church ? My answer would
be that I believe I am now more in the Church than I have
ever been, and for this position I have sound New Testament
confirmation."
The Crucial Question
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Excerpt:
“It required the explosive of revelation from the Holy
Spirit to bring down the entrenched strongholds in my mind
of traditional views of the Church, and to begin to raise
up, in their stead, God’s view. What a day it was when that
happened to me, when, as it were, the moment of detonation
arrived, and I began to see and understand for the first time
something of the wonder of the Church as the Father intends
it to be, and I walked away for ever from the rubble and dust
of the now-exploded old conceptions to which I had clung for
so long.”
The True Vine [click
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Excerpt:
"Now Jesus was making the amazing claim to be the true
vine, replacing that degenerate plant that had failed to fulfil
God's purpose. Through and in Him God would raise up a people
who would bring forth much fruit for His glory. The true vine
was Jesus and those who belong to Him in organic union." I
am the vine, you are the branches." When the truth of that
simple sentence begins to dawn upon our hearts it will utterly
revolutionise our conceptions of Church. It is a death blow
to all institutional Christendom. As individuals are incorporated
into Christ, as they abide in Him and He in them, so they
become, as branches, integrally part of the Vine. The life
flowing in the branches is the life of the Lord Jesus. The
branches have no autonomy, no vitality apart from Him. Severed
from Him they can produce nothing. The Lord Jesus is the root
stem branches leaves and fruit of the Vine. His life pervades
every part. Of the Church it is true that "Christ is all and
in all" (Colossians 3:11), and that it is “the fullness of
Him who fills all in all." (Ephesians 1:23) These truths are
staggering. The Church is Christ in living union with His
people.
How may we enter into the experience of life in the true vine?
How may this living organism, wholly vitalised by the Lord
Jesus be rediscovered and restored? We will only make this
rediscovery when we are willing to let go of the other, the
humanly organised and the institutional. While our hands are
full of that other we cannot receive the true. We need to
come to zero point! "Apart from Me you can do nothing."
Leadership
In The Church - Part I [click to download] Back
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Excerpt:
"In this living organism which was the Church there was
order, as there is in any living thing. It was not anarchic.
Part of that life-rooted order was in the realm of leadership,
but never was leadership confused with headship. The sole
Head was the risen, exalted Lord Jesus Christ exercising direction
and authority through the Holy Spirit and humbly obedient
people. There were no denominations with their pyramidal hierarchies,
no Pope, no Archbishops, Right Reverends, Presidents or super-star
Pastors. No para-church organisations existed. There were
Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, elders,
deacons. Now 1 Corinthians 12:28 says,” God has appointed
in the Church" these various functions. They were all exercised
by men gifted through the life of the Holy Spirit within them,
functioning under the direction of the Head, and raised up
by Him. They did not appoint themselves, or choose themselves.
The life of the Holy Spirit flowing freely
within the new-born Church produced its structure. It is most
important to recognise this order of things, life producing
structure, and not structure producing life. One of
the fundamental errors of modern church life is to think that,
if you can imitate New Testament structure, you will have
New Testament life. But it has become very evident that simply
to have men designated Apostles, Pastors, Elders etc. does
not of itself give rise to such life. Giving men these titles
does not automatically reproduce the New Testament equivalent,
because, as we have shown, the churches of today do not reflect
the one Church of the New Testament."
Leadership
In The Church - Part II [click to download] Back
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Excerpt:
"Is it not evident that present church divisions and denominations
have grossly distorted the Church as it was first created
by the Spirit? This is one of the reasons why I believe God
has called me to come completely out of all these confusing
systems, to cry to Him to restore His way of Church, and to
hold myself in readiness to obey him, come what may. More
and more are the Christians who are being led to take this
step. As yet they are widely separated, but increasingly they
are being joined together by the Holy Spirit. There is a sense
of expectancy that God is moving, and that there will be again
on earth a heavenly Church, without earthly headquarters or
organisational hierarchy, but with the functioning structure
of a living Body, depending on the One appointed by God to
be "Head over all things for the Church which is His Body,
the fullness of Him who fills all in all." In such a Church
I have no doubt that true elders will emerge, and that the
five-fold ministries of Ephesians 4:11 will be restored."
A People
For His Name [click to download] Back
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Excerpt:
"I believe the Lord is confronting us with this foundational
statement concerning His Church. As we stand in the light
of this revelation of a God-initiated, God-glorifying- community,
taken out to bear none but His name, how tawdry and grubby
our divided denominations seem in their efforts to extend
their respective domains. How we need to have engraved on
our hearts this simple, yet so perfect definition of the Church,
"A people to bear His name." How quick the great apostle Paul
was to rebuke the Corinthian believers taking to themselves
other names. "Is Christ divided?" was the agonised cry rung
from his heart. (1 Corinthians 1:12-13.)"
Ephesians [click to
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Excerpt:
"All of us, when we read the Bible, tend to do so wearing
coloured spectacles. The colour of these glasses depends on
our church affiliation, or on our doctrinal stance. The spectacles
serve to blind us to those things in Scripture which do not
line up with our way of thinking, and to emphasise what accords
with our own particular denominational or theological background.
I am personally aware that this has been true in my own life,
and I have changed the colour of my glasses a number of times,
finding, each time, truths which had been hidden before, and
fresh meaning in things which I had previously thought, mistakenly,
that I had fully understood. No doubt I am still seeing through
spectacles which are not totally clear and free of colour,
but, having laid aside all church system associations, and
coming to the Epistle to the Ephesians afresh, it has again
been my joyous experience to see some of the truth of this
wonderful Epistle of the Church in new and exciting ways,
and I find myself saying, “Why didn’t I see that before?”
And I realise that it was because it had been obscured by
those very spectacles I have been referring to.
Could there be any more comprehensive revelation of the utterly
complete provision which Christ has made for His Church? These
glorious facts lay the axe at the roots of all institutionalism,
of all human headship and control, and call us into a relationship
of simple faith-dependence on Christ our Head, secure in His
love, His constant care and provision, and looking to Him
to fulfil His word to present to Himself a Church resplendent
in beauty and holiness. Where are those who are willing to
come out of the ecclesiastical organisations and institutions,
putting away dependence on men and casting themselves in self-abandonment
into the arms of the wholly-sufficient Husband of the Church,
His body of which, by grace, we are members? Only those who
have the courage so to do will be in a place to prove the
truths of this altogether blessed revelation. Are you ready
to say, “I will” to this Husband?"
Jacob [click to download]
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Excerpt:
"If you are homesick for the true Church of the New Testament,
chafing under the manipulative demands of the religious system
to which you belong, stay until you hear clearly for yourself
the Shepherd’s voice “Come out!” But, when you have once heard,
let your response be as Jacob’s, instant, decisive and irrevocable.
I cannot stress these things too strongly. Mere frustration
with the church or something like a personality clash with
the pastor, or boredom with the religious routine, these do
not justify getting out, and will not provide enduring motivation
for the long road home. Jacob only got out after God had so
commanded and assured him “I will be with you.” It is solely
when our coming out is one of obedience to the heavenly call
that we have the strong assurance that the Lord is with us.
Any other basis of leaving may see you on your own and struggling
to survive. Many have made shipwreck by leaving on insufficient
grounds. On the other hand, I also know some who have heard
the call, knowing that it was from God, but have not obeyed.
They have said to me things like, “I can see what you are
saying is true, but I cannot take that road.” Sadly they remain
the captives of the systems they serve.
We Are Pilgrims on a Journey
So, at last Jacob was on the long road home. This brings me
to another important point. On stepping out from the institutional
church I am not instantly home. There is a journey to be made,
a pilgrimage in which we will be under the discipline of the
Holy Spirit to prepare us for the fullness of that to which
we have been called. I was impressed in spirit by something
I read some months ago about the difference between “wanderers”
and “pilgrims”. Pilgrims have a goal in their hearts. They
are prepared for a hazardous and lonely trek. They will not
give up until they arrive. Wanderers however lack that driving
motivation. They are easily diverted and side-tracked. They
try this and try that, and they arrive nowhere. It is my observation
that some who no longer go to church are simply wanderers.
They have no clear view of the goal. They are spiritual vagrants
drifting aimlessly from place to place, trying this and that,
and they may easily be inveigled back into the service of
Laban. Jacob was from this point on a true pilgrim. True,
God had yet much work to do to overcome the natural strength
of the man, his reliance on his own schemes and plans, but
the journey had begun."
Meeting Together
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Excerpt:
"Jesus said, "Wherever two or three are gathered together
in my name, there I am in the midst of them." The verb, "gathered"
is in the passive mood. Do we trust Jesus to do the gathering,
or do we arrange gatherings? We are finding that, as we allow
Jesus to do it, He provides times and occasions of rich intimate
fellowship and times of mutual encouragement, quite often
when we have not expected it. I look forward to the time when
there will be a restoration of that original creation of God,
a pure unified Church, unified, not by the ecumenical schemes
of men, but by the Holy Spirit of God, released in fresh Pentecostal
power among us. Then, I have no doubt, there will be large
"family reunions", joyful gatherings with wonderful fellowship,
but no religious services conducted by men. These gatherings
will be creative events directed and orchestrated by the Holy
Spirit."
Forerunner [click
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Excerpt:
"All this has its parallels in what I believe God is calling
us to. The day will come when those who have been receiving
the word of the Lord in the wilderness will become a voice
crying, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”, and people, moved
by the Spirit of God will come, eager to hear. They will be
people who have come out from the Jerusalems of men’s denominations
and religious systems, as well as non-religious people who
are hungry for reality. At such a time we may well be surrounded
by many enquirers, and our task will be to call for repentance
and to direct people to the Shepherd. He, the Good Shepherd,
and the Great Shepherd of the sheep, will call His own by
name and will bring them out of the multiplied folds of Christendom
into His flock. Peoples’ security will then no longer be in
the safety of the organised folds, but in the person of Jesus,
leading His flock. All John had to do was to prepare people
to hear and follow Jesus. It was not his ministry to tell
folks to come out of the folds, nor is it ours. Jesus Himself
will call His people out. Ours will simply be to be gate-openers
for Him."
Fellowship [click
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Excerpt:
"I have recently been stimulated to look into the original
New Testament meaning of the word “Fellowship”. The stimulus
came from various sources. Firstly it came from the question
that is so often asked when Christians meet one another, “Where
do you fellowship?” meaning of course where do you go to church?
Secondly I hear Christians talk sadly, and sometimes disparagingly,
of this one and that one who “is not fellowshipping”, meaning
they do not go to church. Thirdly, I have been wondering about
the designation of Christian organisations as “Fellowships”.
In the minds of the vast majority of Christians this word
“fellowship” implies belonging to some organised Christian
body and regular attendance at its meetings. This all caused
me to ask myself, “What do the New Testament Scriptures really
mean by the word, ‘fellowship’?"
Caleb [click to download]
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Excerpt:
"It is my conviction that we are entering a time of testing
for those who have come out from the familiar old territory
of the systems of Christendom. If you like, we are at a Kadesh-barnea.
What is going to be revealed here is what is in our hearts.
Our Father has shown us in His word a Church and a Church-life
radically different from that which we see in the denominational
organisations collectively perceived as “the church.” Such
revelations are given in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, or
in 1 Corinthians 12-14, or in 1 Peter 2:4-10, and of course
in such a vivid way in the early chapters of “The Acts”. Have
these revelations been burned into our spirits? Are we going
to cling with the fiercest tenacity of faith to what God has
said? Are we going to hold on whatever happens around us to
the belief that what God has promised He is able also to perform,
and that there is an experience of Church and of fellowship
that far transcends anything we knew in that old and tired
system. If the ancient Scriptures concerning Caleb have anything
to say to us it is supremely this: only those of the Caleb-heart
will make it through to the promised inheritance. May I ask
is your heart settled, as was Caleb’s?"
Whose Pasture
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Let The Bridegroom
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Zechariah [click
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Man has an inveterate need to measure and demarcate. He wants
to define, to limit, to bring everything within the bounds
of his human understanding, to organise and to control. It
is this "measuring line" mentality which has quenched
the Spirit so often, when God has moved to revive and renew.
Just when the fresh life and vitality infused by the Spirit
begin to burst beyond the predictable bounds of previous experience,
someone steps in with some doctrinal or organisational measuring
line. Before long the life is confined and boxed in and quenched
within the boundaries of another denomination or organisation.
There is a strong warning here for us. If we are going to
experience restoration God's way, we must be prepared to throw
away our measuring lines. God will not confine Himself to
the limits of our conceptions.
God's Family [click
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The Way Forward [click to download] Back to Top
Hosea [click to download] Back to Top
New Temple [click to download] Back to Top
AMOS, THE PEASANT-PROPHET [click to download] Back to Top
Signs and Wonders [click to download] Back to Top
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