The Emperor Has No Clothes

A friend of mine was offered some miracle soap recently. Apparently it heals cancer, and only costs £59. They were not offered this at a late night infomercial or by some New Age quack. No – but at their local Pentecostal church, not in the middle of a foreign nation but right here in England.

Another friend of mine described their recent visit to a church as exhausting. The offering was almost three hours long, and if you gave over £1000 then the speaker promised you would receive a special anointing for breakthrough.

It just beggars belief that such manipulative, deceptive practices should still be in place to raise money. It just shows how far the church has fallen from the blueprint found in Scripture. The fivefold ministry is designed to equip the saints, not exploit the saints.

Now I am not against offerings, I am not against raising money, I am not against prosperity teaching or preaching – I believe that if you give, it shall be given to you pressed down, shaken together, running over. But there is a world of difference between raising money to minister, and ministering simply to raise money.

But the problem is worse than exploitative con-men in the pulpit peddling the gospel! The problem is the immaturity among many Christians that they give people like this so much authority in their lives! Because people fail to understand that Jesus has paid the full price for their salvation, their anointing, their freedom, their ministry, their financial freedom, they spend their live going to conference to conference looking for the magic pill that will solve their problems when they already have the power and love of God living inside them because of Jesus.

You do not need to give £1000 to receive an anointing. You already have an anointing inside you. Give £1000 not because of guilt or fear or desperation, give it out of love because you have chosen to. Spend time developing your own relationship with the Lord, so you can be led by the Spirit rather than driven by exploiters.

The Completed, Perfect Work

What Jesus did on the cross was complete in every aspect and perfect in every respect. He died, taking into Himself all of our sin, our sickness, our shame, our poverty, our rejection and our inferiority. He died far quicker than the Roman soldiers believed possible because he never died from crucifixion, He died because of what He took on – the sin and sickness and shame of the entire universe. No wonder Isaiah when looking into the future at the cross said he was marred more than any man. Why did He take that all on Himself? So He could give you His life. His righteousness. His health. His glory. His prosperity. His acceptance in the Beloved. His victory. Now, as He is so are we in the world. We are born again, we are more than conquerors, we have free access to God, we have peace with God and we have right standing with God. Not because of works, but because of God’s grace. This message is the gospel. This is the good news that is the power of God for salvation. You cannot get a better message than this. Any message which is not good, which is not about what Christ HAS DONE, is not gospel. So many people want to go around trying to break the curse, pray so God will accept them, work hard so they can be blessed. They have missed the point of Christ’s death and resurrection! Jesus became forsaken on the curse so you could be accepted. He became accursed, damned, and God-forsaken on the cross, so you could enjoy life, be blessed with every single blessing and know that God would never leave you or forsake you. What Jesus did on the cross was so awesome, it really is almost too good to be true. It does need a revelation to grasp the enormity of it. Religion hates this message. It likes to cling to its rituals, its amazing good works, its awesome prayer ministry, its self righteousness. Today, take your mind off of your goodness or badness, and place your thoughts on the complete work of Christ. Consider Him. Consider His grace.

Heal the Nations 2013

On the 15th March 2012, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said “Gather the Generals, it is time for my people to be equipped and trained to do the works of their destiny and their ministry.”  Heal the Nations is part of my response to this call.  

So many Christians have never seen the sick healed, let alone seen one healed through their hands.  So many Christians do not know their destiny.  So many people are living their life one day at a time, trying to make it through life when Jesus came to earth to offer every human life in abundance.  It is time for the church to understand how much Jesus loves them and how much He has actually done for them on the cross.  It is time for us to stop living below our inheritance and start living what we actually are: kings and priests of our God.

Heal the Nations is a powerful, grace-filled Christian conference that is built on one thing: what Christ has done for us at Calvary.  It will be based in Dagenham, and gather speakers from around the world to come and impart their wisdom and revelations to the body of Christ.

During every meeting there will be exciting, inspiring worship.  During every meeting there will be dynamic children’s ministry.  During every meeting there will be powerful preaching and teaching of the Word with signs and wonders following.  We expect to see hundreds of salvations, healings and people getting set free, set right and set up for life!

 

When is Heal the Nations?

Wednesday, July 24th 2013 – Sunday July 28th 2013.

 

Where Is Heal the Nations?

The final venue is still being determined, we are obviously keen to minimize the price as much as possible.  But rest assured the venue will hold at least 600 and have facilities for you to ensure that you can find out about the conference speakers, get some delicious food and wander around and meet the people who are there.

 

Why is it called “Heal the Nations”?

Our church is called Tree of Life Church.  In the book of Revelation it says the leaves of the tree of life are medicine to heal the nations (Rev. 22.2, NLT).  We believe as a church that it is our responsibility to ensure that our country hears the good news about Jesus.  In the east of London where our church is situated, there are many different nationalities.  Our heart is to see a church that is truly inspirational by being truly international.  At the moment there are fifteen nationalities in Tree of Life Church, and we welcome people no matter what their background.  In an area in which the BNP are prolific, in which racism is a real event, we want to build a community that actually does heal the nations.  

Healing is our right as a Christian: to be healed physically, to be mature emotionally and to be ablaze spiritually should be normal for a Christian.  To be part of a community that brings healing to the wider nation is part and parcel of being in the family of God.  This is why this conference is called “Heal the Nations!”

Silence is Golden

I am sitting here late at night and the whole family is asleep. The house is exceptionally quiet, and it is very pleasant. Don’t get me wrong – I love being the father of four, but there is not often I have a chance for a little still!

But that got me thinking about Elijah and his desire to encounter God. God wasn’t in the earthquake and God wasn’t in the fire. God was in the still, small voice.

Yet it seems to me that within the charismatic world all we do is about the earthquake and the fire. Fire conferences, fire clubs, fire meetings, shake the nations songs and worship, the whole lot. We are all looking for revival, all looking for that next explosion.

What if God isn’t in the revival? What if God isn’t in the conference? What if God isn’t in the explosion?

What if God is in the still and the small? What if God is in you baking a cake for your lonely neighbour? What if God is in the encouraging text to the discouraged Christian? What if God is in you turning off the dull insipid TV programme and reading a chapter or two of the Bible and thinking about His love and grace?

We all admire the spectacular, but what if in our search for the spectacular we are missing the supernatural. There was no healing meeting in the book of Acts. Peter healed the beggar on the way to the church, and then saw salvations. We would have taken the beggar to the meeting, and made him listen to I AM THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE a thousand times because we think God is in the FIRE, not in the small voice: I have something, and I am going to give it to you.

Philip walked away from the revival and the joy and the healings to go and minister to one hungry man reading the Scriptures who wanted to know the Messiah.

Paul interrupted his letter to the Philippians, his favourite church, to ensure a couple of ladies were speaking to each other.

Maybe you don’t have the skills to change a nation, but you can change one person’s life. Today (or possibly tomorrow as it is pretty much bed time here) you could take a small, still, peaceful action and lead someone into a better life.

I am not against numbers, I am not anti-numbers. I was told by God to move to London and build a church of thousands. But this week we took our Living Church (house church, cell, whatever label suits you) and broke it into two groups. It went from one group of 13-15 to two groups of about 6. And the testimonies from the two groups were exponentially more than the testimonies from the one. Why? Silence. The still and the small. People could share issues, people could discuss, people weren’t afraid to share their soul.

Sometimes loud is awesome. But God was in the still. So why are our churches sometimes the least quiet places on the planet?

Today I ask you: just for a day, don’t beg God for fire or for an earthquake in your life, but just listen to the still and the small and follow that. I believe that in the long run you will see more results than just sitting and expecting an earthquake to throw everything in your lap.

Time and Eternity

Just read a cartoon where a little girl asks “What will this new year bring?” and the response is “365 opportunities”…

My first thought (well, actually, my first thought was doesn’t this little person know about leap years!, but my first thought that bears repeating and thinking about…) was this: the year doesn’t bring anything. The year is totally inanimate. All these people predicting 2012 are predicting nothing because 2012 is not a living thing.

You are a living being. I am a living being. We are created in the image and likeness of an awesome God. God is a living being. God can bring you something, a friend can bring you something. But the year cannot.

Nothing is going to magically change in your life because the calendar date has changed. (This isn’t a ra-ra message, I know!). Nothing is going to be different because the year is 2012 not 2011.

What changes is us. We change. For some people 2012 is going to be the worst year of their life. Because of the choices that they make, the things they say and do, this year is going to be a tragedy for them.

For other people 2012 is going to be the best year of their life. Because of the choices they make, what they say and do, this year is going to be a year of victory, of joy and of life in abundance…

I remember about 6 years ago being forced by a friend to listen to this “mighty prophet” prophesy about the new year. This guy was in a large football stadium and his prophecy went like this:

“Next year, some people are going to be better off, others will be worse off. Next year, it will go well for some, for others not so well.”

Now, that’s not the Biblical gift of prophecy – that’s hamming it up like Mystic Meg. That’s covering all your bases to cover yourself.

But do you know, although he was wrong to masquerade it as a “prophetic gift”, this guy had real wisdom: some people are going to have a great year, other’s are not.

So when you next hear a prophetic word for 2012 (And I am NOT against prophetic words, I have received a prophetic word for 2012, and I have typed out Dave Duell’s and use it to stand on) realize this: if you don’t make the right choices, your year will be worse. No matter what… you need to make good decisions, you need to choose life.

What sort of choices are good choices this year?

1. Bible. It is the Word of God. It is the only source of unpolluted wisdom in the world! Get that into your eyes and ears and you won’t struggle with condemnation any more because you will know that you are righteous. You don’t read your Bible to get standing, you read it to get understanding. Find out what is yours and you will never let anyone steal it from you again.

2. Good Friends. Bad company corrupts good character. This year, take a good look at the lives of your best friends. Do you want to be like that? Well, unless you change friends you will. That is simple.

3. Good Books. Read books about heroes, about your career, about faith. Let yourself be inspired.

Enjoy!

2012: The Year of God’s Grace

Before the prophets finish scouring the dictionary for words that rhyme with twelve, I just want to affirm that 2012 is going to be:

The year God shows you love no matter what you do.

The year God’s grace abounds more than your sin.

The year you are blessed with every spiritual blessing.

How do I know?  Because it is the same every year!

New Year’s Eve Celebrations

This is going to be the end of the best year yet, and the beginning of one that is even better.

Come join us in celebrating the goodness of God in 2011 and enjoying the goodness of God in 2012.

Saturday, 31st December, 2011: 9pm – 12.30am

For more information, http://www.treeoflifechurch.org.uk

If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments

John 14.15 says “if you love me, keep my commandments”. I believe this is the single most misunderstood and misused Scripture in the New Covenant. 

It sounds strange to ears of grace, and has lead to some of the most harsh, legalistic teaching I have ever heard. When I was a new Christian in the Baptist church, this verse was used as a weapon to double beat all us new Christians with. It was like boxing – the old one, two. It was used in terms of any kind of sin as well as any external behaviour such as hair length or Sabbath keeping. 

Beat One: you have sinned and broken God’s law. Beat Two – and this is the sucker punch that really hurt – the reason you sinned is because you don’t actually love God.

This kind of thinking is behind the Amplified’s horrific translation of this verse: if you really love me, obey my commands. In other words, whenever you sin it is because you don’t REALLY love God. 

I deal with so many people who have been beat with this verse to the point of doubting if they are even a Christian because they have sinned, so how can they REALLY love Jesus!

Because this verse is used in such a harsh way, some people have tried to explain it away. Some people read it backwards “if you love me, then you will (naturally) obey my commands” or replace the “if” with “since” to lessen the blow. But to be honest, the Greek simply does not allow this at all. The verse is simply this: “If you love me, obey my commands”.

So what does it mean? Well, there are two keys that help us understand this verse and find out what it means.

Firstly, Jesus here is not talking about hair length or the Old Covenant. He says “If you love me, keep MY COMMANDS”. What are Jesus’ commands? They are what He has just been talking about in John 14.1-14: do not let your heart be troubled, believe in Me, ask in My Name, Do Greater Works.

Secondly, the verse must be understood in context. This verse immediately follows the section that says that we can do the miracles Jesus did and get all our prayers answered, and immediately precedes the section that says that Jesus is giving us the Holy Spirit freely.

The problem is that whenever we talk about answered prayer, working miracles and the Holy Spirit, people automatically get into legalism. They think they have to do something to get their prayers answered. They think there is a minimum holiness rating for working miracles. They tell you the Holy Spirit won’t inhabit a dirty vessel.

By saying “If you love me, obey my commands” Jesus is saying there is no other motivation or reason to do what He says than simple love for Him. If you love Jesus, then do what He says. But don’t obey to get your prayers answered – God will answer your prayers anyway. Don’t obey to be a miracle worker, you already are a miracle worker. Don’t try and clean yourself up so the Holy Spirit can fill you. The Holy Spirit is so gracious, gentle and pure that He can easily fill a dirty vessel! If He can converse with Cain immediately after he stabbed and murdered his own brother, the Holy Spirit can speak to you just the way you are.

What Jesus is doing in this verse is saying there is only one reason to obey Him: simple love. Anyone who tells you that you should obey Jesus to get filled with the Spirit, to get power, to get your prayers answered is a LIAR. 

There is only one reason to obey Jesus: simple love. He loves you so much that even when you don’t obey He still answers your prayers, you can still work miracles and you can still relate to and fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

This verse was never given to stir up legalism but to eliminate it. By fellowshipping with us and allowing us to operate in His power whether we are living right or not, then there genuinely is only one reason left to follow Him: because we love Him.

The Mandate for a Grace Filled, Guilt Free, New Testament Church

Arthur’s messages during our Restoring Leaders conference have really challenged me and lifted my thinking.  He is possibly the single most powerful Bible teacher in our generation (yes, I know I have said something superlative there and I have considered my thoughts and words carefully).

Something he said several times was this: we have to take a stand.  And that is so true.  It’s all right claiming that we are a grace church, and that we are a church that take the New Covenant and the complete work of Christ seriously, but then when it comes to worship we sing “I’m so hungry, so desperate, I’m going to the enemy’s camp, I surrender all” when it’s nothing to do with “I” but with “HIM”.  This Sunday I determined to only select songs that would be appropriate in heaven – that led to me rejecting a huge number of songs.  Well over 80% of what is written today is about us, about begging God, and about “warring with the enemy”.

That is not the worship of heaven and it should not be the worship of the redeemed either.

Then we have the offering and we beg and plead for money and make prosperity something you have to “DO” to be prosperous, when prosperity is rooted in the redemptive work NOT IN OUR ACTIONS!

No – I am taking my stand.  This Sunday.  If I lose 1/2 the church, then that is what will happen, but Tree of Life Church is a New Testament Church.  We are not going back to the law.  I have already dealt with a lot of this in the series I did on Witchcraft in the Church, but I am going back to this ground and staking a claim.  The foundation of our church is God’s grace as found in the complete redemptive work of Jesus.

No more do to be.  No more heavy burdens.  No more guilt, no more fear, no more shame.  No more condemnation.  No more law – law was our master until grace set us free.

That nagging, doubting, harsh voice inside you – IT’S NOT GOD!  He loves you.  He adores you.  He only has thoughts to prosper you.  He isn’t angry at you, and he isn’t mad at you, and He isn’t out to get you.  

When people say it’s greasy grace: GOOD!  We need to slide in, we couldn’t even walk in through the door of works, none of us could!

When people try and make you feel ashamed because you preach and believe grace and that the law is over, let them know: you are NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL!

I’ll let you know how it goes.  I believe it will go awesome because God is initiating it, and God is in it. And our church are a bunch that just want to know His Word so they can know Him better.