Breaking Forth New wineskin

                           

   

                  Apostolic pattern for breaking forth New wineskin of the Spirit

Isa 54:3  For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Isa 54:4  Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

Isa 54:5  For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

14 KEY STRATEGIES OF THE APOSTOLIC PATTERN

1. Preparation – Acts 1:14-2:4 (cf. Luke 24:49-53): Praying for and seeking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the new task.

2. Priesthood of all Believers – Acts 2:42-47: Releasing the priesthood of all believers.

3. Power Evangelism – Acts 8:5-14: Signs and wonders can accompany the saving of many.

4. Purity – Acts 8:20-23: Purity of motive and deed. Not self-righteousness or legalism but a passionate love of the Lord.

5. Prayer – Acts 13:1-3: Finding the heart of God.

6. Participation – Acts 15:40-16:5: Team ministry and discipleship.

7. Prophetic Direction – Acts 16:1-2 (cf. 1 Timothy 1:18; 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6): Prophetic inspiration and impartation.

8. Potential Doors – Acts 16:9-10: great doors opening for effectual work (with opposition). Breaking into areas where the gospel has not been preached.

9. Praise – Acts 16:25-26: Opens the heart and the way for God to move.

10. Planting – Acts 17,18 and 19: Apostolic/Prophetic teams helping to train new leaders and plant new churches.

11. Provision – Acts 18:5 (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:9 and Philippians 4:15-18): Financial release to support the work.

12. Preaching – Acts 19:8-10: Proclaiming God‟s truth to a confused and dying society.

13. Pattern of Apostolic Ministry – Acts 19:10: Trans-local teams involved with local churches.     Building a model to multiply, i.e. base churches.

14. Pastoral Leadership – Acts 20:28-35: Servant Leadership, i.e. shepherd heart.

The apostolic pattern of Paul and his team is clear once we look at the New Testament as a whole book. Barnabas and Paul, together with their team, set up a base in Antioch. This was a multicultural community (Acts 13:1-2), which was training and releasing leaders (Acts 15:35). It was a church community of grace where people were being saved (Acts 11:22-27). From their base in Antioch, they reached out and preached, taught and appointed elders in the surrounding provinces (Acts 14:23). They were involved in planting new churches – Philippi (Acts 16), Thessalonica (Acts 17), Berea (Acts 17), and Corinth (Acts 18) – and in returning to existing churches to encourage the believers (Acts 14:21-26; Acts 18:23). Possibly Barnabas stayed in Philippi (Acts 16:40). Once Paul reached Corinth, which was situated on the outer limits of the sphere of influence of Antioch, he desired to plant a new base. He stayed in Corinth for 18 months and “some time” (Acts 18:11,18). We are able to read of some of the problems with division and doctrine that this church had in First and Second Corinthians. The church in Corinth, however, never became a base, even though it was in a wealthy city and the church was not lacking in spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 1:7). It had the „wine‟, but not the „wineskin‟, i.e. the gifts of the Spirit, but not the structure.

He used key cities with geographic, economic and political influence to establish key bases that could influence the surrounding area by planting churches and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Each church as it matured would then be a base to encourage believers, train leaders and plant new churches in its sphere of influence. Paul drew faithful men to make up his trans-local teams from each area (Acts 20:4). He also used both Jews and Greeks in his team. Paul used people in business (Acts 16:14; 18:2-3; Romans 16:3-5), civic leaders (Acts 19:22; Romans 16:23) and religious leaders (Acts 18:8 and 1 Corinthians 1:1) to help plant churches. Paul was based in a local church, but his ministry was trans-local. He was training others so that he could hand over ministry responsibility to them (Titus 1:5; 1 Timothy 1:3). He was moving on from where he had preached and aiming at where the Gospel had not been preached. This model is just as relevant for the church today. Each church has a sphere of influence, which it can impact and change. Each local church can extend this sphere of influence by sending out both short-term teams and by training and sending out church planters. Gods plan is that local churches be autonomous and governed by the shepherds who know the sheep. But God also wants local churches to work in partnership with Apostolic/Prophetic trans-local teams so that the church can be strengthened in faith and grow in numbers (Acts 16:5). Local leaders need to release trans-local ministries as God calls (Acts 13:1-4). Trans-local ministries need to release local elders (Acts 14:23). When we build according to the New Testament pattern, we will see New Testament results – i.e. not only local church growth, but also church planting in areas not yet reached. This is not a new hierarchy, nor super-apostles becoming the leaders of new super-denominations. Paul was against denominational divisions; Christ is not divided (1 Corinthians 1:12-13). The Lord is calling us to servant leadership, to give more than we receive (Acts 20:35) and to be “co-labourers” together with Him to build the church (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).

How can we tell when someone is being raised up for the prophetic

ministry?

Character and personality are important: God gave them to us, and He wants to express

something of His own heart through them A prophetic person will nearly always have an

above average ability to feel issues deeply – and then to turn ‘sight into insight’ and feelings

into prayer. In other words, much of a prophet’s work is done in secret, going to God

on behalf of men, before going to people on behalf of God.

Then, as John and Paula Sandford make so clear in their outstanding book The Elijah Task,

we do well to be aware that prophets are almost always trained and tested by means of

unusual twists and turns in their life, together with extended periods in the wilderness –

what Graham Cook calls PITS – prophets in training! Such challenges are necessary to develop sufficient maturity to enable them to exercise their ministry safely.

Stepping out

Like Jonah, those called to the prophetic ministry will usually be asked to step out at a certain moment on their journey, even to the point of having to stake their all on God’s ability to deliver.

There are times when prophecy requires direct action: it is a biblical norm. We must learn, at first hand, the absolute faithfulness of our God. Hesitation weakens our faith and

strengthens the hand of the enemy. As Derek Prince pointed out, God had a harder job persuading Jonah to fulfil his mission than He did in bringing sinful Nineveh to its knees in repentance!

Has He been asking you to step out on in some way recently?

If you are hesitant, remember that there will always be opportunities to doubt – especially

during those periods when everything seems to be going backwards. Nothing of lasting value is accomplished for the kingdom without courage.

The best of us is only a mixture, but those who persevere beyond the testings and setbacks

reach a greater fullness of the Lord’s wisdom, and are able to function with considerable

confidence in the precious ministry that is at the heart of the prophetic calling – just as Elijah and Elisha did.

Apostolic Teams

The New Testament shows us a number of teams that are involved in preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. We read of the Gospel expanding from Jerusalem to Rome as men and women went out in teams planting churches, establishing bases, training leaders and proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

This is the real key to understanding Paul‟s pattern and strategy. We begin to understand Paul‟s heart; his motivation for the Kingdom; the way he built the church with team ministry; the way he encouraged leaders to be shepherds, not to lord it over Gods people; the way he encouraged church followers to follow, to submit, to honour and obey their leaders so that it would be of value for them. Paul was not building a hierarchy. He was not building a democracy. Paul was building a fighting force to bring the Kingdom of God to the nations of the world. Paul worked with great men on his team. The church needs to do the same. There should be no hierarchies or democracies. There must be effective strategising that is able to challenge principalities and powers, not wrestling against flesh and blood but against Individual members of a team must act as a unit and cooperate with each other, something that clearly requires like-mindedness. This does not mean that teams should be made up of „yes‟ men who have no opinions of their own. There should be a godly liberty in a team that allows for freedom of expression. However, one cannot build an effective team with individuals who are following their own vision, or are working out a set of values that differs significantly from the rest of the team. Like-mindedness will promote agreement, and agreement is essential if a team is going to work together as one unit. Leadership teams are by definition made up of leaders, but each leader has an obligation as a team member to put his or her own agendas aside for the sake of the task that the team is assigned with. In unity we are far more effective than on our own. In other words, there is more advantage to putting aside those things that do not promote the task of the team than to insist on the fulfilment of our own dreams and desires. those principalities in heavenly places (i.e. those mindsets, ideas and arguments that come up against Jesus). Reasoning and vain imagination that exalts itself above God must be brought down. The church must pull them down with the preaching of the Gospel and with the living out of the Apostolic/Prophetic pattern, so that there is great victory in Jesus name.

Dangerline to breaking Forth

1. Petty Annoyances – Philippians 4:11

2. Conflict of wills – Galatians 5:13

3. Jealousy – Proverbs 6:3

4. Misunderstandings – Ephesians 4:31-32

5. Competition – 1 Corinthians 9:24

6. Criticism – Romans 2:1-3; James 2:4-17; Proverbs 11:13; 14:15

7. Sarcasm – James 3:1-17

8. Manipulation – Jeremiah 9:4-6

9. Selfishness – Matthew 16:24

Each of us must also develop our ability to work well with others, to relate properly to them, to be sensitive to them and their concerns, and to listen properly to what they have to say. In our actions, attitudes and decisions we are to be considerate toward others. Our assessments of them and attitudes toward them should be fair and loving. We are called to work together with others, not on our own, and we must therefore do everything that we can to learn the skills that will enable us to do this well. This does not mean that we are not to be strong in what we stand for. On the contrary, I believe that we should have strong convictions, but they should never cause us to be rude, abrasive, inconsiderate, unloving or independent in the context of the team.

Christian Character Results from:

Knowing God‟s Word: Psalm 119:11

Obeying His Will: John 14:15

Acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord: Acts 4:12