The best way to shepherd people – as see in the New Testament – is to give them a proper pattern of living Christ and magnifying Him; Paul fed his spiritual children not only with the word of God but with his own living of Christ (see 1 Thes 2, 2 Cor. 1-2). Nowadays many […]
The Flow of Life with the Ministry of Life out of and for the Magnificent House of God (2)
The ministry of life involves feeding, which is a supply for living. Paul told the Corinthians “I gave you milk to drink” (v. 3:2). Had they been mature enough to receive it, he would have given them solid food. This ministry is nourishment, not knowledge. We are ministers “not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). The Spirit nourishes. This nourishment comes from healthy words (1 Tim. 6:3) which are according to godliness, a life lived one with Christ to express God (1 Tim. 3:16). [continue reading online, a review of message 5 in the recent ITERO]
begetting through the gospel, feeding others with spiritual food, and building with precious materials
For us to build with gold, silver, and precious stones, we need to be constituted with the divine nature of the Father as gold, the redemptive work of Christ as the silver, and the transforming work of the Spirit as the precious stones. We as builders need to become these precious materials in order to build others with them and help them also become precious materials. We need to be transformed to be precious materials by being daily constituted with the Triune God, and we will be built into the house of God. Then we will be qualified to build the house of God with other believers as the transformed materials… [continue reading online]