Doing The Stuff:101 Rides Again

Ephesians 4:11-12
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry (serving).

Saturday night at VRC was a "family night"...
Couple of visitors but, all in all, mostly the core group that are faithful to come and give of themselves every Saturday night.
I had a feeling that it might turn out this way since Saturday was the 4th. 
I like the way the meetings are changing and becoming more and more intimate. I made the comment that it has a "living room" feeling to it. People are comfortable enough that if they feel they have something to share or add to the message, they can do so. If a question comes to their mind, they feel they have the freedom to ask. That is what I envisioned the meeting would become when God first stirred my heart to start it. A place where "Body Life" could take place. 

The message was on finding the "Spiritual Goshen". A place where we could stand against the winds of change that are sweeping our country. In Scripture, Goshen was as physical place of land located on the Northern side of Egypt. In Genesis 45:10 where Joseph picked out this land for his family to dwell in. We read "You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you and your children, your children's children, your flocks and your herds, and all that you have." A famine was coming on the land and food would be scarce. Joseph knew that if he could get his family to Goshen, they would be safe and be in a place where they could be provided for.

We need such a place today.
Goshen, for me, is that place that I must find where I am connected to Christ on every level. The place where my faith is fully on Him to be my portion and provision for everything I need to face, work and live in this world today. It isn't a place where I can run and hide from the world. It isn't a spiritual monastery where we can escape. No, we've been called to live and interact in this society...in this culture. We have been called to BE salt and light to a world that doesn't know Jesus. Goshen is all about me abiding in Christ, and allowing Him to abide in me through the Holy Spirit. 
But in order to do so, I am going to have to learn some new things that will be expected of me. Some new ways of looking at old ways, if you will.

When I first came to the Vineyard, the motto was "Equipping to serve". It comes from the one of the core belief's that the Vineyard adheres to....that everyone get's to play, or serve in the Kingdom of God. There aren't any A teams, or B teams..definitely no C teams. We all are to be equipped to do the works of Christ as we encounter daily those in need.

Back in 2000 / 2001, I felt led to start a meeting where we could help train people to enter into this "doing the stuff". Help to understand how to hear God....to discern what His desire is when you are ministering to someone. We help them to see the dynamics of prayer and how, when we pray, are entering into an on going communication between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our goal is the here the will of God, and then pray in back through the direction of the Holy Spirit.  What I thought was going to be a 10-11 week meeting, turned into a 40+ week meeting and a group of people went away from those meeting with a new confidence that they could minister to others. That it was a call that was given to them and not just the clergy. Mission accomplished.

Last Saturday night, after our meeting, I took the core group outside of the building and read a portion of Scripture from Ezekiel 37 (The valley of Dry Bones)....I felt that God was using this passage to highlight the plight of those still in addiction. They were dead spiritually.....more than dead, they were D-E-A-D! Dry...no life at all, and we were to read the passage outside and declare it. As I approached the last verse, after the bones had been reconnected and flesh and muscle had covered them. God commanded Ezekiel to call the wind to come and bring breath to this mass of now what was dead bodies. The wind came, it entered the corpses and they came to life. The verse said that they stood up and that they were an exceedingly great army. Wow! What a picture...dead men and women brought back to life by God. They were an army.

But a few days later, it hit me.
They might have been an army, but they had not been trained to fight.
Numbers alone mean nothing if training hasn't occurred. 
This is when it came to me that there needed to be a place where such training could take place.

So we are going to resurrect the "DOING THE STUFF:101" Teaching.
On Wednesday, August 19th, we will begin teaching on how to do the works of Christ.
Our meeting will meet in the large room at Gadsden Vineyard. It will begin at 6:30 p.m and run for one hour each week. It will be interactive and here's the good part. We will make mistakes, we will miss what God may be telling us...but in the process we will learn. I want to personally invite you to join us if this is something that has been burning on your heart. We are going to try and make CD's of the meeting available for those who may not be able to attend. I'm sorry, but at this point we will not have a nursery available for those who may have children.

This is not going to be a rapid fire meeting where we rush through the teaching. It will be slow and methodical as we try to find out place in the kingdom work of God. Pray about joining us on Wednesday, August 19th for Doing The Stuff: 101.
You do not have to be a member of VRC or Gadsden Vineyard to attend this meeting.

God on you...
mb