Churches That Give Life

Life Giving Communication

We live in an age with the most amazing advances in our ability to communicate and as Christians it is right to take full advantage of these methods to share the gospel and spread our understanding of the Christian life. Our communication of the gospel and the Christian life is to two groups of people, the saved and the unsaved. It is however very important not lose sight of the most important aspect of our communication of the Christian message which has a unique element which cannot be found anywhere else.

Communicating to the Unsaved

We are the only people on earth who communicate a message to the dead or more correctly, the living dead. The Bible doesn’t use the concept of ignorance when dealing with the relationship of God and man, indeed it clearly declares that all are without excuse for not believing in God. Paul writes in Rom 1 v 20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, that the world we live on with all its complex beauty leaves us without excuse for not believing in God. The Bible always uses the concept of life and death when talking about the relationship of man to God, the unsaved to the saved or the old life to the new. John 5 v 24“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. talks of passing from death to life and Eph 2 v 1And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins says that through God’s salvation we who were dead have been made alive. This means that our communication methods are unique because our aim is unique. Jesus did not come to make bad people good he came to give life to the dead. We are not seeking to inform people that the Bible and the Christian faith is the only valid explanation for mankind and the way things are in the world in an effort to get them to agree with us so they can make a rational decision to follow Christ. We are not seeking to get people to choose a way of life that will give them the power to save themselves. We are seeking to give a message that will raise the dead by causing people to die to themselves and be born again to newness of life. The Christian life is a new life, not the old life made good. 2 Cor 5:17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new., Gal 2:20I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.. Comparing how Paul preached the Gospel at Athens and then at Corinth gives us a good contrast in communicating our message. It shows that the explanation method has a poor take-up rate. Acts 17 v 16 – 34. He had a few believe but he didn’t plant a church in Athens. When he got to Corinth which was his next stop he reflects on his experience at Athens and declares in 1 Cor 2 v 1 – 5 that amongst them he would he would preach nothing except Christ and Him crucified. Putting on a show or giving a good rational explanation can be part of our presentation to create interest but if that interest isn’t followed through with a word of life that raises the dead all we get is still born babies.

Saved

Although Christians are not dead we still have to remember our unique way of communicating because we are not just educating believers in the Christian life, even though there is a place for learning. Although we have life it is wrong to think that all we have to do is inform our minds as to how we follow Jesus and all will be well. The fact that many Christians look more like Lazarus bound in his grave clothes, rather than living free of those bondages, reveals to us that we need more than education to set us free. The renewing of the mind mentioned in Rom 12 v 1 – 2I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. is more than just knowing how to live the way we should. For the word to give us life it must take root in our hearts because that is where our faith is, which is why Paul prayed in Eph 1 v 18 that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. I believe that the truth that changes lives is something we see with our heart which when combined with the faith in your heart makes it become a real part of our daily living. That is what renews our mind. It is not getting understanding from the mind to the heart, it is seeing it in the heart and getting it to the head. The word for renew in Rom 12 v 1 – 2I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. is a noun not an adjective, our minds were renewed when we were born again which is why Paul says in 1 Cor 2:16For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. that we have the mind of Christ.

What I am sharing with you about Christian communication is that it is not so much about getting the right method to suit who you are communicating with but having the right approach in whatever method you use. We don’t want still births by getting people to use their natural understanding to be persuaded to make a decision for Christ and we don’t want believers to engage in lifelong struggles to overcome the flesh. Our communication has to be spiritually dynamic to either raise the dead to life or set the captive free. We don’t want the sort of commitment that the people in Jerusalem gave to Jesus on Palm Sunday Matt 21 v 8 – 9And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”. They were very enthusiastic but it didn’t last very long because it was for the wrong reason.

Examples

I want to give two examples of how we can effectively communicate with either the saved or the unsaved

Firstly the story of the deliverance of the Jews by Queen Esther. The devil didn’t know exactly who the saviour promised in the garden of Eden would be so he planned to wipe out the whole Jewish race to prevent him from being born. God arranged it so that Esther had been made queen so God had His women in place. Praise Him He can never be caught out. What a comfort that is for us. However there was a problem. Although Esther was queen she had no power to do anything about it because she could not go to the king unless he called for her. If she did and the king didn’t receive her, the penalty was death. At first she is reluctant but Mordecai persuades her to go so she gets all the jews in Shushan the capitol along with her hand maidens to pray and fast. She then declares that in three days time she will risk her life and go to the king unbidden. Not a good place to be in when you are saving humanity from the clutches of the devil. She takes the risk and God protects her as the king receives her. Now you would think that having victoriously overcome the risk of death she would make her request known immediately. If this was us we would want to make our request known straight away in case we didn’t get a second chance, but all she wants is a tea party which appears to have nothing to do with her mission. At the tea party she continues to avoid the real issue. She procrastinates even more with a request for a second tea party which is really running a serious risk of ruining the whole operation. Now this is really pushing your luck with a king like this who’s responses were very unpredictable and could be very violent. However, the second tea party is arranged where she tells all and deliverance begins. In this high risk strategy of delaying the moment for revealing the real reason for risking her life and going to the king we see the vital importance of listening to God through the complete communication process. What was crucial to the deliverance of the Jews was the fact that the events which set Haman up for a fall and enabled the Jews to be delivered took place between the first and second tea parties. Only God knew that the king would have a sleepless night and find out about Mordecai’s missed reward. If she had asked her question at the beginning she would have pre-empted God’s plan. Not only has the mission got to be received by divine appointment, it has to be executed in the Spirit as well. Many a prophecy has come to nought because of this issue.

Secondly the women taken in adultery. John 8 v 1 – 11 The communication of Jesus in this story was based on a very simple principle. I only do what I see the Father doing and I only speak what I hear the Father speaking. This means that His actions and words had their origin in God which meant they were the product of His close walk with His Father. They did not have their origin in His learning as a Rabbi or His accrued experience of life walking with His Father. They were directly out of the heart of God, just like Esther’s request for two tea parties. You can’t learn this sort of communication on a course or from a manual. No amount of training will give you the knowledge to deal with situations like these. They can only be dealt with by a close heart to heart walk with our Father. It is important to study ways of reaching people and trying to understand how they see life so our words are relevant to them but that studying must come from the Father’s heart. This will cause us to work with the Father instead of trying to get the Father to work with us. The Father knows intimately the needs and experiences of the people we are trying to reach. He knows how and what will reach their hearts and that is what we must deliver to them because we are after people’s hearts not their minds.

The Practice

In creation the Spirit brooded over the waters waiting for God to speak so that His speaking was the source of the action that produced the results. No matter how we plan to gather the people always have the heart attitude that as they come and as they get involved in the activities we have organised the Spirit is brooding over them and you are seeking to speak a life giving word to them. Producing spiritual life is a conception experience like the birth of a natural baby. When the seed enters the egg they become one and new life is born. The word of God must enter into us, we must receive it into us. For the word to do the work and accomplish the life God intends it to give it must come out of God’s mouth as well as ours Isa 55 v 11So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it..

I once worked on the prayer help line of Andrew Wommack Ministries. One day a lady phoned for prayer for her husband because they were having marriage issues. Right ‘off the cuff’ I gave her a principle that I had just recently learned. The result was that instead of praying for her husband I prayed for her to allow God to enable her to change and put into practice the principle I had just shared with her. I had a card from her a few weeks later testifying how that short incident had transformed her marriage. A pastor friend of mine had a dream in which he was preaching at a healing meeting. In the front row were twelve people in wheelchairs. At the end of the preaching he went along the line starting with the first and prayed for them all. None were healed. He then had the dream again but this time the praying was in a different order. As he went to pray he heard a number between 1 and 12 called out and he went to the number called. After the last number was called all were healed. When he asked the Lord what it meant the Lord told him that the second time of praying was in the order of the people’s readiness to believe so the success of the first healing had a positive knock-on effect as he prayed in the new order.

When we live like this we will experience the success of the early church where it says the Lord added to the church such as should be saved. This is the way we approach preaching the gospel and must be at the heart of everything we plan and organise with all the training that goes with it. The new covenant prophesied in Ezekiel and quoted in Hebrews says No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother saying ‘know the Lord’ because they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest, Heb 8 v 11None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.. Only the Spirit of God can give life so it is vital that we work with Him and speak the words that He wants us to speak even if they don’t always make logical sense to us; like Esther and her tea parties.