Dear Friends,
Many of you who are attempting to start a
home fellowship are struggling: it’s not going as well as
you’d hoped! Consider this: perhaps
your presuppositions about what you’re endeavoring to do
are faulty. In other words,
you’re trying to walk a new path while you’re still relying on your old prior experience.
We’ll discuss this shortly.
Just realize that the Hebraic foundations
that our Father is restoring are “new” to all of us
because we’ve all been ingrained with Hellenist,
man-centered concepts of religious practice! For each of us to
make His relational priorities an obedient, loving trust a way of life calls
for intentional changes to our previous ways. Your old
experiences will most likely be a greater hindrance than a help
as you press on ahead.
Our God is absolutely sovereign in His
timing and His orchestration of that which He chooses to reveal
to His people:
‘Now I
am announcing new things to you,
hidden things unknown to you, revealed now, not long ago; before today, you did not hear them: so you can’t say, ‘I already know
about them’ (Isaiah 48:
6b,7).
Let’s review a few key points that
may be hindering you.
1. It’s safe to say that your only
previous experience of Christianity has been within the
Nicolaitan religious system. The clergy domination, religious
programs and scheduled meetings that were required to make the
system run were the norm. However, a Hebraic home fellowship
has ABSOLUTELY nothing in common with these unbiblical
practices. So, you need to deprogram your expectations before you become part
of a fellowship family. The old ways will only impede!
2. In Lifebyte
42. Ministering
Spiritual Freedom To Others,
we’ve written about the three different types of
relationships you have: Positional-based, Activity-based, and
Value-based. (Please read the Lifebyte for in-depth discussion
of these.)
The most important and deepest type of
relationships you can have are Value-based
relationships. They emanate out of your heart, for you choose the people
with whom you want to share relational closeness. These
relationships are based on mutual
values that are important to
each of you.
Value-based relationships also in-volve a
significant amount of personal responsibility on behalf of one
another. The people in these relationships discover that in the
midst of their deepening care they also find that they intrude
on, inconvenience, and sometimes hurt each other. Yet
doesn’t this describe the interconnected
reality of the 54 “one
anothers” commanded to followers of Jesus in the Newer
Testament?
Three of the best examples of Value-based
relationships are these:
• becoming a follower of Jesus,
• joining in a marriage covenant,
• becoming part of a Hebraic
fellowship
family.
Many of you have expressed difficulty in
developing a sense of interconnectedness as a fellowship family. In order for
the extended spiritual family of a Hebraic-style home
fellowship to be birthed and to prosper in the Spirit, you must
develop Value-based relationships. This
will come into being only if you have the same mutual goals and
the willingness to work together to bring them into being. And, it’s at this point that many
of you have fallen way short.
Look at the people who are in your own
life. Outside of your marriage, if applicable, how many
Value-based relationships do you have? Most likely, few or
none. Why? Because you’re so accustomed to Positional and
Activity-based relationships which require little from you.
For instance, your family is a Positional relationship because you were born into it without a choice in
the matter. Your workplace is also Positional because the
relationships there aren’t the reason you go each day
— your work (and paycheck) are. Whatever values you have
in common with those in proximity are not the reason for the
relationship to exist.
In Activity-based relationships you participate with others in
whatever function or activity has been scheduled, whether a
meeting, a sports endeavor, or even a religious service. You
most likely have little or no contact with the other
participants in a meaningful way outside of the framework of
that particular activity.
The North American culture in general has
increasingly become relationally
fragmented as families have
relocated from their place of birth and have not made the
effort to fill in that gap with new relationships on a deep
level.
And, while people may have superficial contact
through Internet chats, intimacy and meaningful friendship have
diminished as individuals find themselves “wired”
in isolation from others with iPods, web surfing, and TV
fixation. Even toddlers are now ear-pieced away from
communication with others, growing into a generation clueless
as to how to relate on a personal level!
Given these hindrances, do you have a thorough
understanding of how to develop Value-based relationships? If not,
then some of you will try to start home
fellowship group or a home church group as an activity rather than
as a Value-based relational family who love and follow Jesus.
In other words, you’ll find yourself getting together for
scheduled meeting times with planned events and agendas, but
never enjoying im-promptu times together that people who really care about
each other have.
Also, if your intent is to establish a
home fellowship group or a home church group, all you have going for yourself is your prior Nicolaitan experience: you’ll recreate a Nicolaitan system that
happens to meet in a home instead of under a steeple. And
remember, God wars against systems which put a hierarchical leader
between himself and His beloved sheep (see Revelation 2:6,15).
Some of you will try to start a faith family gathering. Your only previous experience has been with the Positional-based family you were born into. Based on conversations with many
of you, your biological family is still sin-nature-based and
stronghold-controlled. And, without some dramatic changes in
your understanding of the Value-based relationships of a Hebraic home fellowship
of extended spiritual family, you’ll find that you
replicate your own prior family experience — including
the tolerated sin and generational strongholds that permeate
it!
When you consider forming either a home
fellowship/home church group or a faith family gathering, the
people who want to be part of what you’re doing will
bring along their own prior religious and family experience. Each person will look to build off their prior
experiences because that’s all they know.
You need a Holy Spirit-breathed
“paradigm shift”. Let’s review our
Father’s criteria for biblical fellowship as family in
Jesus:
1. Your fellowship with others must spur
you on to glorify our Father and Jesus through praise, worship,
and living testimony (1 Corinthians
10:31).
2. Your fellowship with each other must
spur you to grow in Christ’s likeness (see Philippians 2:12).
3. Your shared fellowship must spur you
toward repentance and the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13; 1 Thessalo-nians 5:12).
4. Your fellowship as extended spiritual
family must spur you to reveal Jesus to the lost in your daily
lives (2 Corinthians 5:18,19).
Prior to your regeneration, these criteria
of authentic fellowship wouldn’t have been a part of your
life. Even when you were born again, they probably were never
presented to you as a way of life. So how will you learn to walk in fellowship
according to this Scriptural path? You won’t, unless
you’re fully yielded to the Holy Spirit and intentionally purposeful in
making them foundational to your fellowship with others who
wholeheartedly follow Jesus as Lord of their life.
Applying the Hebraic Foundations Is Like
Going Through Boot Camp
Have you undergone any military training,
whether through boot camp or officer training? In either case,
the military establishment knew you needed total transformation to
be fully equipped to serve — and those drill instructors
persisted until you changed from a civilian mindset to a
military outlook.
Transformation is also the foundational issue in becoming a follower of Jesus.
We cease to be lord of our own life and instead become a child
and servant of the King of Kings. His purposes and goals become our purposes and
goals.
When you responded to the convicting
Spirit of Christ and entered Covenant with our Father through
the shed blood of Jesus, you became a spiritually-armed
participant in all-out warfare for the souls of mankind. This
is the biblical understanding of your role in overcoming the
sinful schemes and worldly compromise that imprison those who
are still in Satan’s clutches.
Was that made clear to you in your
previous Nicolaitan religious setting? Probably not, since most
religious systems are “consumer focused” —
putting on scheduled services and programs that make people
feel good about themselves.
Attending “just as you are”
despite whatever sin you might be entertaining is the
prevailing atmosphere of most religious systems. There’s
no call to repent — to confess your sins and turn from them
so that forgiveness and cleansing can be gratefully received.
However, religious system practices are
NOT of our Father! They emanate from men who want to evaluate
their success by satisfied numbers of congregants rather than
by total dedication to serve their King in the Kingdom of God.
Our Father sees you as His “children”, ambassadors
of His Son, and as His “soldiers” in the battle for
souls.
Let’s take a look at the nature of
the spiritual war that’s being waged within us and against us.
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and
strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul (1 Peter 2:11).
For the sinful
nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful
nature. They are in conflict [at war] with each other (Galatians 5:17).
That they will come to their senses and
escape from the trap of the devil,
who has taken them captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:26).
[Satan] was
given power to make war against the
saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people,
language and nation (Revelation 13:
7).
Many more passages address the warfare
readiness that’s required of followers of Jesus: a battle against both their own sin nature and
the schemes of the devil. Your
loving and obedient service to God as a follower of Jesus
and/or as one who shepherds our Father’s children will be
hindered if you don’t fully grasp His purposes for
fellowship in the midst of war.
True fellowship is a family of
“military minded” brothers and sisters who have
separated themselves from the compromise of worldly
“civilian” values and goals. “Soldiers”
in Jesus realize that hardship is a given, and that we need to
be ready to face it without grumbling or complaining so that
our Lord will find pleasure in our service to Him:
And the things that you have heard from me
among many witnesses, commit these
to faithful men who will be able to
teach others also. You therefore must
endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in
warfare entangles himself with the
affairs of this life, that he may please
him who enlisted him as a soldier (2
Timothy 2:2-4).
How Do You Become A Soldier?
The Hebraic way of teaching is first of
all a way of life application that’s based on role modeling. You
can’t just sit around studying Bible content and expect
people to change their lives because of what they’ve read
or heard someone say. It just doesn’t happen, especially
among men!
Numerous studies have revealed that males
are changed not by what they hear or read but by two
interpersonal means:
1) Personal interaction with
role models
2) Personal confrontation by older, wiser men.
Education only adds to a man’s
knowledge and puffs up his ego through information he’s
stored in his mind. He’s not
changed by what he knows.
God has created women differently,
however, in matters of personal transformation. Women are changed by
role modeling, education (such as what they read or hear), and,
to a lesser extent, by confrontation.
In both the physical as well as spiritual
sense, to be a soldier is a way of
life. Endurance as a soldier who
serves for a good greater than himself isn’t taught in a
classroom; it’s acquired through both careful training and role
modeling.
Hebraic teaching is analogous to military
training, intended to impart life
change to the disciple. And, the
discipler serves more like a drill instructor than a clergy
person who’s removed from the trenches of personal and
individual contact with the soldier.
A drill instructor is chosen to train
others because of his experience on the battlefield. The best
soldiers are sent to train the recruits. This is how every
recruit in boot camp gets trained — by the best qualified people of experience.
So if you desire to serve our
Father’s children as an elder/shepherd, your training
must flow out of your ongoing
transformed lifestyle which can be
seen and emulated by others. You can never lead merely by
repeating facts. A way of life must
be caught, not just taught.
Your qualifications to serve as a shepherd
to nurture and guide our Father’s children aren’t
based on the fact that you’ve arrived at some state of
human perfection! Rather, as you consider the stipulations for
elder leadership cited by Paul in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1,
these qualifications stand out in the man who has embraced the process of sanctification in his life.
What we mean is that you role model the
biblical process of sanctification by willingly by His grace
becoming more like Jesus in all your attitudes and actions. You
ever increasingly yield yourself to the Holy Spirit at work in
you, continuing to die to your sin-nature-controlled soul and
becoming a person of the spirit who is led by the Spirit.
If you role model an increasingly
sanctified life, you’ll be helping others to do likewise.
Paul made clear that it was more than his words that was
intended to be impressed upon the ones he was discipling. They
could readily observe and imitate his way of life:
Keep doing what you have learned and received from me, what you have heard
and seen me doing; then the God who gives peace will be with you (Philippians 4:9).
The Apostle revealed part of his own
sanctification process of embracing
hardship to encourage and
strengthen the followers of Jesus in Corinth (see 2 Corinthians
12:7-10). Note that God permitted Satan to harass this faithful
servant so that he wouldn’t rely on his own strength but
on God’s power.
Paul was able to recognize God’s
mercy toward him because he was familiar with His ways to bring
about change: “Not by might
nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zechari-ah 4:6). The Apostle wasn’t
ashamed to let others whom God was constraining from relying on
their own strength know what he himself was enduring.
So role modeling is one biblical method of
effecting change. Now ask yourself: If you are leading others
in the faith, and if you are rendering account to God on behalf
of others (Hebrews 13:17), what lifestyle and life choices are
they observing in you? A life that’s actively being
transformed and becoming more like Jesus? Or, a complacent
“I’ve already arrived and am satisfied” type
of life?
Do you hide from others the suffering and
hardship that sanctification is bringing into your life? Are
you ashamed that others may think less of you if you’re
suffering — that there’s something wrong with you
if you’re having to endure hardship?
Role modeling isn’t our Lord’s
only means of transforming His people into Christ’s
likeness. Another method of helping people change is through interpersonal discussion, an essential way of applying the Hebraic foundations
to your life. Only through
discussing with others close to you the varied facets of the Hebraic foundations
with the intent to make them a way
of life will you be changed. Discussion that leads to application is the
Hebraic method of pursuing truth.
In fact, the rabbis of the Hebraic Stream
taught that whenever two or three discussed God’s Word,
the Holy Spirit was with them to give understanding and
application. As we’ve written before, Jesus commends the
connection of mutual discussion and agreement by promising His
particular presence when this takes place:
I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed
in heaven. I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about
anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in
heaven. For where two or three come
together in My name, there am I with them (Matthew 18:18-20).
The presence of Jesus in your midst as you
pursue a life that’s pleasing to Him makes all the
difference in the world! Jesus Himself stirs you to put into
practice a way of life that befits service in His Kingdom! You
can’t just read about the Hebraic foundations; you need to
discuss with others that which our Father is restoring, with
the intent to make them your way of life.
We’re aware that few of you men who
are going through the materials we present are discussing them
with others to help one another walk in loving and obedient
trust as a way of life. Even fewer are role modeling ongoing
transformation into Christ-likeness so that others may learn
from your example.
How do we know this? Because in your phone
calls and e-mails, you never refer to any of the Hebraic
foundations as your starting point. You initiate your call or
e-mail from the perspective of your Nicolaitan religious experience or your biological family
background. Men, these are the
wrong foundations!
The generation that doesn’t
understand the mistakes of the past will
live to repeat the same mistakes.
Another hindrance for many of you men is
your own laziness about wanting to become more like Jesus. You
overflow with excuses and rationale about why you’d
rather complain than take action in response to the Holy
Spirit’s nudge. You’re like an insubordinate
recruit in boot camp who is always resisting the drill
instructor. These guys ultimately get tossed out of the
military if they don’t yield to change.
Few of you are deliberate about making
the time and effort to discuss the Hebraic foundations with
others, including your spouse. Neither the complacency of your
prior religious experience nor the experiences from your
biological family life are going to dislodge you from lethargy
or your personal comfort zone!
Your love for
Jesus must be seen
in the willing and intentional
determination with which you
desire to become more like Him.
Your militancy
as His shepherd must be seen
in your earnest pursuit
to help others do likewise.
Special Instructions for Older Men Who
Would Serve Our
Father’s Children As A Shepherd
I (Mike) am eager to help older men serve
as biblical shepherds of spiritual families. But I’ve
been frustrated by many older men, especially those who have
already retired or have been in key positions in religious
systems and feel they’re beyond any need for further
transformation. In their resistance to change, they act more
like Hardened Fools than as servant-leaders who are growing
into increasing Christ-likeness.
If you’re an older man who’s
reluctant to be changed, you’re jeopardizing your own
pilgrimage to salvation. How? Picture what you’re really
doing:
In denying your own need for ongoing
sanctification by the Spirit, you’re role modeling stubborn resistance for
younger followers of Jesus. Leading vulnerable lambs astray is
grievous to our Father:
And He said to His disciples, ‘It is
inevitable that stumbling blocks should come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were
hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that
he should cause one of these
younger ones to stumble’ (Luke 17:1,2).
My greatest area of fruitfulness has been
among men generally in their late 30s through 40s who are
either in the Wounded Stage or just approaching it. These men
realize they no longer want to be the striving warriors of the
past who weren’t there for their families. They’re
eager to be transformed into Christ’s character no matter
what the cost! Sadly, most look around their relational sphere
for older role models but find none.
[See Lifebyte
22. Obedient
Trust versus Reasoning, for more on
the stages of male development.]
You’ve probably discovered that so
many older men and women are inflexible, unwilling to cast aside old patterns of
thinking for fresh encounters with the Spirit. In other words,
their concept of discipleship is based more on studying Bible
verses for information’s sake rather than on being role
models of ongoing transformation that conform to and apply
God’s Word to their lives.
Sharing their lives with younger people
through regular ongoing, meaningful
interaction is foreign and
frightening to them. And what the younger people really need is
the whole life experience of a role model as were Jesus and Paul with
their disciples.
In our own extended spiritual family, Mike
intentionally interacts with the men and boys in particular
through walking, hiking, swimming, golfing, biking and fishing
together. (Some of these endeavors require aspirin and
arthritis rub afterwards!) But these times include wonderful,
purposeful conversations filled with teaching moments.
Mike also gets up very early at times to
meet the men for breakfast and pointed discussion of matters
pertaining to their families and workplace. He’s proactive as an
older servant of Jesus in making
himself available to the faith family for which he renders
account to God.
Sue gets together with the other women as
well as the young people to walk, hike, bike, shop, or just to
sit and converse. Again, these are times of intentional
discussion as well as prayer to-gether and lighthearted
conversation.
Both of us are proactive in initiating
contact throughout the week with our fellowship family. In
fact, we’re sharing in the home schooling and character
development of all the children as the onsite
“Grandpa” and “Grandma”!
Keep in mind that if you’re an older
man who is seeking to serve our Father’s children as an
elder/shepherd, you’re saying to both God and to them:
“By God’s grace I purpose that
my lifestyle and motivation are going to
help you grow in greater Christ-likeness and complete your
pilgrimage to a heavenly welcome.”
An important feature of discipleship is
often overlooked. It’s NOT a one-way street in which
everything flows from the discipler to the disciple. On the
contrary, in biblical discipleship
your ability to influence others is directly related to your
willingness to let others influence you. Even the children in our faith family have shared
things that have changed us!
• You need to be willingly
transformed by cooperating with the Spirit in growing in the
character God wants in you.
• You need to be joyfully willing to
change as needed to meet the needs of others and bring praise
to our Lord.
• Your love is seen in your welcome
willingness to be intruded on, inconvenienced, and hurt by the
people you serve.
Nothing less than your willingness in at least these
areas to be changed will do if you want to represent our
Father’s care for His people. But, if you’re
self-satisfied and complacent, alter that attitude —
don’t discourage the hopes and eagerness of the younger
people around you to love and serve their Lord with all their
might!
We’ve written our Going To The High Places Study
Guide based on Hannah Hurnard’s Hinds’ Feet On High Places to help you bring about the changes you need to
reflect our Father’s compassion and righteousness.
We’ve been grieved to discover that
some of you who’ve gone through the study guide neither
discussed the truths with others nor answered the questions in
each lesson with the desire to be changed. Still others have
dallied, put off going through the material or slogged through
academically but not allowed their heart and spirit to be
touched.
Just as Much-Afraid had lessons to learn
in order to be free of her own self-will, you too are in a
similar classroom. Keep in mind that you’re not prepared
to lead others onward until you’re willing in complete
trust to ‘jump off the cliff into the mist’ as she
did. In other words, you’re not equipped to lead and
guide God’s people if you won’t, through faith, allow yourself to be changed, and to go anywhere and do anything that the will of God requires of you.
This willing preparedness is the nature of
a true soldier who desires to please those over him. His will
is to obey their commands just as Jesus declared that His
brother, sister and mother were those who did the will of His
Father (see Matthew 12:50).
Certainly the Father we lovingly serve is
our gracious God and Master, not a demanding and roughshod
general. And because of the wonderful presence of the
indwelling Spirit, those who would truly “follow Jesus” are people who willingly yield to Him in love and walk
as He commands. In order to follow someone, you need to walk in the steps of
their will. As you follow Jesus, the Bible makes plain that you
WILL become more like Him!
If you’re an older man or woman, we
strongly encourage you to get out of the box of complacency and
jump wholeheartedly into transformation by the Spirit —
even if it means stepping into the previously unknown. Just as
Much-Afraid found, the Shepherd is at the bottom of the cliff
waiting to change you.
These questions are especially for you
older people to discuss with each other, and with the younger
people who are close to you:
1. What do your spouse and the young
people who know you think about your faith walk and how you
represent Jesus to them in your attitudes, actions and
lifestyle?
2. Is your Christian “faith”
based more on Bible knowledge, or on a trust-filled way of life
in Jesus that others can emulate?
3. If you’re married, does your
marriage relationship exude such Christ-like character that
younger couples seek to be like you and your spouse?
4. As an older man or woman, are there
younger men and women, respectively, whom you are helping to
serve the interests of King Jesus? Yes or No. If No, why not?
If Yes, how are you accomplishing this?
5. If you do have younger people in your
life whom you’re spiritually leading, ask them to list
the positives and negatives about their relationship with you.
What would they like to see changed in you that would help them
in their own walk?
6. In what ways have you had to change to
make yourself more available to disciple others? For instance,
have you taken up activities that are more suitable and
engaging for them? If not, why haven’t you made any
adaptations to accommodate and encourage them to interact with
you?
