June 2004 Newsletter

Greetings in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ.

We are living in a very dynamic and historic time in the history of the church of Jesus Christ as we face the enormous challenges of the last days and prepare for the coming of the Lord. The Scripture exhorts us to be ready as we do not know the time of the Master’s coming. If He finds us giving "them food in due season" Matt.24:45, He will reward us as a faithful and wise servant.

The Word that God has given us to share is:

When we are saved we are babes in Christ and need to be fed the milk of the Word, but we are not meant to stay babies.  The next stage of our growth in the Lord is to be children who are being taught the Word. We become disciples, that is, learners, who are being taught the Word so that we become strong and begin to know our authority in Christ. We grow to become 'young men' in Christ who are able to overcome the wicked one, because the Word of God abides in us 1 Jn.2:12-14. Our discipleship has been successful – we have been taught the Word until it has taken firm root in us. The trained disciple is now able to teach others Heb.5:12. In other words, young men are the ones who are now ready to be trained and equipped to be ministers. And for a long time that is all we knew in the church! If we believed we had the call of God on our lives, we might have gone off to Bible school to be taught the Word and then entered into some ministry work.

In the natural children are sent to school for up to 12 years to be ‘taught’, that is, discipled, and then they go for training or straight into work. So it is in Christ! Jesus said "Go ye therefore and make diciples, …, teaching them …" Mt.28:19-20. After teaching comes specific training for the work of the ministry.

Our God-given task is to make disciples and to raise up workers for the harvest.

God's goal for all believers is maturity; becoming a son, receiving our inheritance, and then we will become fathers, having spiritual children ourselves.  God is bringing His church back to relational links, away from denominational and institutional organisations. God wants to give all of us a spiritual father, who cares for us, loves us and provides a spiritual covering that is real, enabling us to grow in the grace of God, receiving our inheritance and walking in a greater measure of grace and revelation.  My desire is for this to become real for you.

A third experience for believers to bring us into maturity

Recently we hosted a morning sharing session at Shiloh followed by a luncheon for pastors and leaders. About forty leaders joined us and we were able to share our experience and teach from the Word of God concerning ‘walking in our inheritance’. There is a clarity coming that there is a third experience for the believer. There is a fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles in our Christian experience even as there has been a fulfilment of Passover and a fulfilment of Pentecost [Weeks] in our Christian experience. This third experience is a receiving of the grace of sonship, to fully receive our adoption, to come to know Him who is from the beginning, our Father who is in heaven but who comes to indwell with His Son and the Holy Spirit Jn.14:23. The Feast of Tabernacles was to be celebrated in the Promised Land, not before. The Feast of Tabernacles is being fulfilled in the church at the end of the age as the church comes into maturity.

The third experience is to receive the grace to enter into maturity, to become a son, to receive the inheritance the Father has for us and now to go on to perfection. Perfection has always seemed an impossible goal but now made possible by God releasing His grace and anointing to empower and enable us to walk as sons, manifest sons, walking in the authority and love of the Father, which is the dimension of reality that our Lord Jesus walked in from the time of His baptism.

Transforming experiences

A few weeks ago I had lunch with some friends and a brother was there whom I had not met before. He heard me testify about leaders receiving the apostolic revelation during our recent trip to Africa. He asked me "What is the apostolic revelation?" As I began to share what God is doing, tears came to his eyes and he received prayer with the laying on of hands and had a transforming experience. I asked God to give him the grace to become a son, and He did. This brother is a changed man: he had been a Christian for many years; he says he has a profound love for his wife, which he has not had before; he now is able to say ‘yes’ to the call of God; he is now secure and at peace within himself and knows without a doubt, God has a future for him.

Another brother attended the luncheon at SHILOH last week. Two days later I was able to share a meal with him and his wife. He began to tell me his struggles over many years as a Christian and I was able to tell him God’s answer: to become a son, to receive the grace and revelation that God loves him as a Father. I then prayed for him and he had a transforming experience. This brother came to see us the next day, exuberant! He said he had awoken for the first time for years without a knot in his stomach and happy to get out of bed for a new day. I have seen him since and he looks different!

This third experience is a reality

It is God’s provision to enable His church, every saint, to come to maturity,

to receive the grace and anointing to become a son and walk in sonship.

So many Scriptures that speak of sons are suddenly becoming real and understandable, and we can begin to walk in the fulfilment of God’s Word. "For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God" Rom.8:19.

OVERSEAS MISSION

We ask you to pray for us as we consider important opportunities for overseas mission.

Myanmar: we are seriously considering sending a team in August to teach in a training school, and in

seminars for leaders.

China: two young people from SHILOH are working in China and we believe it is time to pay a visit. We are planning

to send a team in September.

Philippines: we have been asked to teach pastors and leaders in Mindanao as well as invitations to cities

in the main island; this is in October.

Nairobi, Kenya: we are planning a two-week apostolic training school for leaders in Nairobi in

November. We expect leaders will come from East and Central Africa.

These are days of great opportunity. Daily we are receiving e-mail communication from around the world; brethren are finding our website and writing to us, seeking fellowship, wanting to understand the apostolic revelation, wanting a spiritual father. We are asking the Lord "to raise up workers for the harvest"

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