MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL APP: BUILDING ACCORDING TO PATTERN

Revival according to Watchman Nee, can be described as a Divine Visitation which leads to the recovery of the full expression of the Body of Christ and manifestation of the testimony and supply of the Body of Christ. 

The night-time travel in the wilderness of spiritual backsliding, unto the Dayspring of a dawning Revival, necessarily is a journey that begins at the valley of realization where a re-awakening experience comes upon us. The re-awakening that we have lost our cutting edge. The next stage in the journey is a passage through the plain of recovery where spiritual possessions are redeemed. Thirdly, is the hill of restoration where the Church distinctive again is preserved and sanctified by the Spirit of Holiness. And finally, the Church is carried by the self-same Spirit to her pre-destined abode of ascension life, upon the lofty heights of the top of Mount Zion. The duration of the night-time while waiting again for a palpable dawn of tangible outpouring of the grace of the Holy Spirit, in Church history has been a variable “x”. We can only pray that in our contemporary case, the LORD in His mercy will cut our waiting time short in His Righteousness. 

We believe that for the imminent Revival of faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, the local church assembly and all other groups in the household of faith must become platforms for revival. Such a need is glaringly obvious. A minister friend decided he has had enough of ministry and he took an indefinite “Sabbatical” leave from his local church. In writing to encourage him I mentioned to him that I have two other recent examples who left ministry in similar circumstances: one was an evangelical from same denomination as himself but in a distant county, and the other a senior pastor of Pentecostal stream. All of them are ministers indigenous in their own native land. In my letter to him, I wrote inter alia:  

“…It would appear that the sense of disappointment felt as the ‘Restoration Movement’ and other revival enquirers waned in their zeal in the late 1980’s; followed by the dousing of the surge of expectation of a spiritual re-awakening at the dawn of the new millennium; all of these culminated in something akin to spiritual apathy, felt first in the Church and then in the world around us. The fact that we have ‘lost the axe head’ is somehow apparent to the world, who are questioning our relevance. In order to intellectually and physically answer a question that deserves Divine revelation, the Church engaged in various trials of ‘new’ initiatives, projects and ideas; end-less conferences, seminars and courses which lead inevitably to exhaustion. And then we have tensions in the local church felt by the leadership, as the congregation is pulled in various directions by novel ideas streaming into a deluge proportion from the corporate and social media, about what the Christian ought to be and what the Church ought to be doing. How does a servant of God handle all these, without suffering a burn-out?” 

Dear reader, while my personal take on these contemporary issues and how we got to where we are, as a generational Church might not have been your personal experience, I hope you will have identified some historical facts there, in my analysis. Moreover, the Church has to re-discover her mission in the world and to the world; which primarily is take the battle to gates of Hell and prevail; and thus establish the righteousness of God on the earth. When we seek first the Kingdom of God, most of what seem to be on our prayer list now will become mere add-ons unto us. For the Church to do this, we need to go back to the first principles. And that is the purpose of the articles and materials on this Mystery of the Gospel App.

Haggai 1:2-6
2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.
3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?
5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

Hebrews 8:5
5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Exodus 40:32-35
32
 When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the Lord commanded Moses.
33 And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.
34 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 

2 Chronicles 5:13-14
13 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord;
14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.

Above Scriptures give a concise synopsis of the overarching purpose of this ‘App’. Denominational, institutional and organisational empire building has affected our understanding of the concept of the Church as the Body of Christ and Bride of Christ, and we being members of that one Body as well as members of one another in particular. While everyone is busy building their own houses, the Church as the invisible, mystery single community has been neglected. Yet the Church of Christ is one Body and the Church is bound together by one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all. The Heavenly call therefore is for us to repent and return for Revival to come again: to build the contemporary Church according to Divine Pattern. Every time the Church is built according to Pattern, God always comes in His Glory to visit His people. We saw that at the completion of the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness which He completed perfectly in every detail and minutiae “as the Lord commanded Moses”. Similarly, we saw that same day the temple of Solomon was completed according to the Pattern shown to David on Mount Moriah, the Glory descended. Anytime, anywhere, any-day when the people of God again repent and return and decide to build according to Divine Pattern, the Fire of Revival will blaze again. God will never fail to keep His own part of the Covenant. This is our quiet assurance and inspiration. 

We will be challenging the Body of Christ to eschew denominational, institutional and organisational denominators that have divided us. As many as are numbered in the Book of Life belong to the mystery Body of Christ and should not be denominated and fenced off one another, if our definition of Revival holds any water. And there are Biblical patterns of doing this which will also look pragmatically to assuage fears of ‘organisational injury or flock loss”. We will highlight and prioritise the propagation of the full Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, as well as biblical instructions on being a disciple of Jesus and making disciples for Jesus to follow Jesus. The prophetic studies are to locate our position in time and space as it relates to Divine prophetic calendar. We also have articles and media directed at menfolk to take their priestly position. We have a tab dedicated to professional perspectives in offering insight and solutions to spiritual, psychological and physical challenges facing our young people. Each and every one of the sections have one purpose: to point you to our LORD Jesus Christ.   

Once more we welcome you and hope your visit to this App will be fruitful and memorable. Amen. 

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