SOUNDING OUT:
On Fire for God (Part 5 of 5)
We have been looking at the foundation
of an fervent attitude that springs from a genuine and
vital spiritual relationship with God. We are
in the process of searching out five activities that
the Word identifies as springing from a proper attitude
and approach to life. We will see the importance of:
1. Prayer and
Praise
2. Reading the Scriptures
3. Speaking the Word of God to Others
4. Giving of our Abundance
5. Fellowshipping with like minded believers.
The Greek word prothumos
is a key to unlock God’s heart on these activities.
The last few weeks we looked at the first four, and
this week we will look at the last of the five. We find
the fifth of our key activities in the next use of the
words in the prothumos word family.
I Peter 5:2:
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the
oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly;
not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind [prothumos].
I Peter 5:1-11 is music
to the ears of a leader in God's ministry. Anyone who
walks with God, is a leader in one sense, for you lead
people to Him, one at a time. We all may pastor people.
Sometimes we call it undershepherding.
Does this take heart? Surely, and you have heart,
because the real you is prothumos. As you hide
the Word in your heart and open your heart to people,
you will be opening God's heart to them. Many will respond
affirmatively (Proverbs
27:9).
Philippians 1:3-8:
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4 Always in every prayer
of mine for you all making request with joy,
5 For your fellowship in
the gospel from the first day until now,
6 Being confident of this
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in
you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
7 Even as it is meet for
me to think this of you all, because I have you in my
heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence
and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers
of my grace.
8 For God is my record,
how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus
Christ.
We have the hope of Christ’s
Return. Until that time, we should enjoy the fellowship
of other saints. We should develop a keen awareness
of the Christ in others. Since we are going to spend
eternity with each other, we might as well get to love
and appreciate each other in the meantime. Thessalonians
2:1 uses a Greek term to describe the return of Jesus
Christ. A Scripture in Hebrews 10:25 is the only other
occurrence of that identical word in the texts, and
it refers to the regular fellowship of the believers
before and until Christ’s return! What a great
comparison between the gathering together at Christ’s
return and the gathering together of the believers in
the meantime!
Hebrews 10:25:
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together [“assembling
together” is in the Greek, episunagôgê],
as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:
and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching
[the hope of Christ’s return].
II Thessalonians 2:1:
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together [“gathering
together” is in the Greek, episunagôgê]
unto him
The fellowship we have
with one another should be the sweetest thing this side
of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every Christian
should at least consider their home as a possible location
for a church fellowship. Envision people coming to the
Lord at our homes. Picture deliverance within those
walls that we know so well. We should keep our homes
as examples of order and warmth; a healing haven ready
to receive people with godly hospitality.
We are to be “body-builders,” building
up the Body of Christ. When our groups get too large,
we simply split, rise up other leaders, and grow across
the world within home units. Our vision should be the
outreach of God’s Word over our world. It all
begins in the home unit!
1 Timothy 3:15:
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou
oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which
is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground
of the truth.
1 Corinthians 16:19:
The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla
salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is
in their house.
Philemon 1:2:
And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier,
and to the church in thy house:
Psalms 133:1:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity!
That's heart (so is II
Corinthians 7:3; 8:16).
So when we develop a prothumos mind-set, we
will be involved with those five activities:
1. Prayer and Praise
2. Reading the Scriptures
3. Speaking the Word of God to Others
4. Giving of our Abundance
5. Fellowshipping with like minded believers.
Those ACTivities
provide prACTical production. Doing
them gets the job done.
I John 3:18-22:
My little children, let us not love in word, neither
in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
19 And hereby we know that
we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before
him.
20 For if our heart condemn
us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart
condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we
keep his commandments, and do those things that are
p/easing in his sight.
You build more and more
spiritual momentum. What else is there to do? Why coast?
You will eventually come to a stop. As you plunge prothumosly
into these activities your prothumos heart
is more and more manifest.
Proverbs 15:15 says, "... he that is of
a merry heart hath a continual feast." Life can
be a prothumos party. You can cook on the Word
without fear of getting burnt (out).
It's simple. All you need to do is speak in tongues,
study the Word, witness, give financially, and fellowship
with God's household. We should be ready and willing
at any time to engage in these activities. That's how
we will see the first century Church in the twentieth.
We should be predisposed to move in these categories,
and pursue opportunities to do so as they arise. Our
resolve will also guide us to their fulfillment as we
determine the way we should go.
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