Restoration of the Church - A Progressive Reality

Topic: Restoration of the Church – A Progressive Reality

                  

Greetings Sons of God:

When we speak of the restoration of the church we tend to deal with the surface of the meaning but lack understanding to the process by which God is actively, today, restoring the church.   Becoming one with Christ through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ through the cross is the beginning but once we are one with Him there is a process to bring full restoration.  Currently in 2016 we see the decline in moral and the continuing rise in the orphan spirit in our world.  However, God is working in restoring the church.  Now for many who have not entered into the grace of the Apostolic Reformation there is a feverish prayer for the Lord to return quickly and rescue us from the torment of this time.  The Bible tells us that fear has torment but perfect love casts out fear.  The church must make a mindset shift into the grace for today and build the House of God upon the order that the Father has established by His Son, Jesus Christ.  So in this teaching series we will look at how God is restoring the church and we will look at some biblical history to help show.  I promise you will not be disappointed and it will help clear up some blurry vision we maybe suffering from that may hinder us from moving with proceeding Word of God which is full of grace and truth. 

Lets lead off with a definition of restitution and then I will give you the foundational scripture and we will proceed from there. 

Restitution: the restoration of something lost or stolen to its proper owner.

Acts 3:19-21: Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 

So it is clear by the Scriptures that Jesus will be received, held and retained until the restitution of all things.  Now when we talk about restitution we tend to only talk about one of the seven characteristics of God that we as believers are to all possess and that is Lordship or dominion.  We always talk about restoring our dominion and yes that is part of it but there is so much more before we get to that that this series will address.  Let us start with the fact that the purpose of Jesus coming, His ministry, death and resurrection is to show us who we are, what we are called to be doing.  But we cannot just arbitrarily start doing what we want?  There is process and order and the order begins with the restoration of the church to her proper order, place and most of all condition.  All three must be satisfied before Christ returns.  The Scriptures declare the importance of the restoration of the church, the Sons of God:

Romans 8:19-21:  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.  For the creature was not made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 

Psalm 82:5,6:  They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.  I have said, ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High. 

So while we are waiting for God to do something, God has equipped us through his grace and by spiritual fathers to mature us to the stature of the fullness of Christ that these Scriptures may be fulfilled.   This is about our faithfulness and obedience to His order and His culture to bring about the restitution of all things for the return of the Lord. 

In the next message we will discuss the very first step in restitution

Peace and Grace,

Calvin Calhoun, Jr.

Generational Blessings

Role of the Spiritual Father

Today’s Focus: Generational Blessings

Scripture: Isaiah 9:6; Matthew 28:18-20; Genesis 25:5; 28:1; Genesis 49; 1 Timothy 5:8

Greetings Kingdom Citizens

One of the unique attributes and concepts we see in the Bible, in particular the Old Testament is what is called the generational blessing.  It is and always has been God’s intentions to pass along the blessings from a father to the son.  Let’s look at some of these:

Genesis 25:5: Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac

Genesis 28:1: And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

Genesis 49 (Entire Chapter): Jacob blesses His twelve sons.

So the blessings of a father are to be handed down to the sons.  As those sons grow and mature, then they hand down the blessings to their sons and so on.  This way the purposes of God will increase and mature.  A spiritual father, John Metcalfe gave this wonderful example and I would like to use it here:

The ancient builders of cathedrals in Europe would begin the work by planting acorns first.  They knew their grandsons would need to harvest the oak trees to complete the roofing on the great buildings. 

This means these fathers were looking ahead and planting blessings for the generations to come.  This is why the scripture says:

1 Timothy 5:8: But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel

The concept of the generational blessing is that the son takes from the father and builds.  Are we generationally blessing the sons of God today?  Sadly we are doing it on a very minimal scale and let me explain.  The church, who are the believers, not the building is supposed to be a family.  We are the House of God.  Now, what God designed and what we are doing for the most part are two separate things producing two completely different results.  In denominational religion we have children who are born into it and all they know is the denomination and so whatever the denomination teaches, that is all they know.  If the denomination has been doing conferences for 50 plus years and does it the same way, as that child grows “in the denomination” they become a part of the machine and simply continue what the fathers have already ordained.  For a great example, let’s go back to the builders of the cathedrals.  That is like my father, planting the acorns and then when I grow up, I plant acorns but nobody is building the building.  So it is a circle of ways established by the denomination and many may not want to admit it but they themselves are not maturing the sons.  Their goal is to bring in as many members as they can. So the denomination simply reproduces itself and not mature the son, they mature the denomination.  Now let’s look at God’s way of doing it and look at it’s results.

God sends His Son and gives Him 12 sons to start the Holy Nation.  In turn His Son, Jesus is also a Father (Everlasting Father, Isaiah 9:6).  After discipling and maturing those sons, He hands the ministry over to them and tell them to continue the ministry by making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20).  What this does is grow the House of God but not just in numbers.  As those 12 (Mathias in place of Judas) distributed bread and wine and matured their sons, those sons come to maturity and father other sons.  Now what God does is He reveals more and more of Himself to every generation so the maturation does not stick with a 500 year old revelation but there are eternal truths being revealed to continue to prepare the Body of Christ for the return of the Lord.  Hence God is bringing His fractured Body to order.  To walk in the ways of the Lord, it requires a believer to fast and pray. The reason I say this is because, if you have grown up denominationally then the denomination is in you hard and it requires God to separate the traditions of men from His ways.

To be honest, I do not know how you put God’s way of maturing the Body in an institutional church when it is predicated on fathers and sons.  Are we willing to give up the machine and do it God’s way?  There is grace in doing it God’s way.  Are we willing to give up the titles and allow God to manifest His gifts through us as we mature?  Are we willing to be fathered and discipled in the ways and nature of the Father? 

In the next message we will look at how do we migrate from the institutional mindset to the household mindset.     

Peace, Love and Grace,

Calvin Calhoun, Jr.

Results and Consequences of Consistency and Inconsistency

Role of the Spiritual Father

Today’s Focus: The Results and Consequences of Consistency and Inconsistency

Scripture: John 5:19; Ephesians 6:4

Greetings Kingdom Citizens

Why is the world the way it is?  Simply, a lack of fathers. When there is a lack of fathers there is a lack of discipline and order in the lives of children.  Now we left off the last message with John 5:19 where Jesus says whatever I see the Father do, I do.  This is the model, to be one with the Father.  In our society today many fathers can care less what their sons are doing.  They just let the children grow to be what they want to be. Many fathers allow the children to go uncheck just as long as they are not aggravating him.  Now what is so bad about this is when you mix religion in it.  So now we have a child that see the father pay no attention to them, let them do whatever they want, yell, scream and fuss all the time when he gets aggravated but on Sunday he is the pastor or deacon of the church screaming hallelujah and praise the Lord.  The children see a Sunday man and a Monday through Saturday man.  The children can pick up on this inconsistency and know that the way their father is living is wrong.  Hence you have children that grow up and say “I do not want to be like my father”.   This is a very devastating mindset to have because even though the child has a biological father, the child feels fatherless making them an orphan mentally in a house with a father.  Now I am specifically not dealing with mothers because most times it is the fathers that are lacking and for the sake of this series we are looking at spiritual fathers. 

Now that we know the mindset of the children is an orphan even though they are living under their father’s roof, what is the mindset of the father?  He is an orphan too!  A father like this is only concerned about his own interests and he has learned how to run, hide, and shift blame (remember Adam in the Garden).  His premier motivation is to possess, acquire and control.  Sounds just like the culture of the orphan. So now we have an orphan trying to father a orphan.  That will not work. There is really not a focus on the spiritual growth of the children to bring them into adulthood, the father has handed that down to the pastor and the school system.  Huh?  Yes, where do you think the term “youth pastor” even came from?  I have not found anywhere in scripture where God said ordain a “youth pastor”.  But I do know that the scripture clearly says:

Ephesians 6:4: AND YE FATHERS, PROVOKE NOT YOUR CHILDREN TO WRATH: BUT BRING THEM UP IN THE NURTURE AND ADMONITION OF THE LORD. 

So whose responsibility is it to bring and rear the children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?  THE FATHERS.  Now this means the fathers must be spiritually lead and be mature to do this. This means we cannot live by the “do as I say, not as I do rule”  this breeds hypocrisy.  But we must live by the rule “do as I say and as I do” just like Jesus was lead by the Father.  This relationship and maturation is a hands-on experience and one that God will not allow you to delegate your responsibility to another.  What is a shame is that the father who chose not to step up will send their children to a church house.   Please pay attention.  Because they lack spiritual maturity and discernment, they will drop the children off at the church and then go back home.  Never mind that they are teaching damnable heresies in the church.  Never mind if they are teaching that homosexuality is ok because God loves everybody and everything.  God designed the maturation process of natural children AS WELL AS HIS CHILDREN to grow through fathers. This is why spiritual fathers are the answer for the world today because they put on display the exact representation of the Father so that the sons can mature.  This way of living promotes the “do as I say and do” culture because the spiritual father is connected and has been matured by the Father and the counsel and ways being demonstrated are the same ways and nature demonstrated by the Father.  When there is consistency then there is credibility and then there is growth and maturation.  This is the desire for the spiritual father to be an example unto the sons.

In the next message we will look at generational blessings of the fathers.

  

Peace, Love and Grace from the Father,

Calvin Calhoun, Jr.

The Father's Desire

Role of the Spiritual Father

Today’s Focus: A Father’s Desire

Scripture: Matthew 3:13-17; John 5:19

Greetings Kingdom Citizens

Growing up as a young boy in my parent’s house, I can distinctly remember times when my father was always introducing me and my brothers to family.  I remember saying “man, dad wants us to know everybody” and at the time I did not think I would remember anybody because there was so many.  My father would speak about the past and the way things were and how His father raised him.  I can even remember times when we stepped out of line with family and how any and everybody could have disciplined and punished us.  Hey, I can remember hearing my dad say “If he acts up, blister his butt”.  Now I am being real about this but my father was huge on respect for your elders outside of your immediate family.  I remember times when my dad would say: “Hey guys I am proud of you”.  But one thing I do remember distinctly is that he did not accept failure on any level.  He believed that we could be the best and anything and mediocre was not acceptable.  He pushed us hard and sometimes it did not work because of our personalities but nonetheless he pushed because he loved.  As a young man I did not understand it all but now as I have grown I can appreciate what my father was doing and how he desired that we carry on the family name and take it to the next level, never forgetting the foundations that were laid by those before us.  I said all this and I am sure that many of you can relate but unfortunately, and this saddens my heart, some cannot because there was no father in the home to discipline and hold these things down.  The role of a father in these days is more crucial than ever and with two sons, I am understanding more and more the importance of focusing on the spiritual growth of my family. 

When we talk about spiritual fathers, we have stated that it is a mature son of God demonstrating the ways and nature of the Father. Now just like it was my father’s desire for me to take the family to the next level and take it past where he and his brothers brought it, so is it with the spiritual father. There is a since of pride that a father receives when their son is achieving and growing beyond the heights that they made it to. The spiritual father delights in this same thing.  The spiritual father’s role is to mature the sons.  He desires and longs for the children that God has assigned him to mature to learn from him and then take it to the next step in preparing the sons for the return of Christ.  The pride he has comes from a loving heart and affection for the sons.  Now the sons know that the fathers love them because it is evident in the time spent in teaching and nurturing the son.  The sons obedience to their fathers bring honor to the house and joy into the father’s heart.  A great example of this is our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ.  Let me show you!

Matthew 3:13-17: Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him.  But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?  And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.  Then he suffered Him. And Jesus when He was baptized, went straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from Heaven, saying: THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED

The Father was extremely proud of His son for His obedience and submission unto Him.  Jesus understood that to be one with the Father, He must be submitted, spirit, soul and flesh to Him.  In being one with the Father there is a consistency brought to the Earth in this fact:

John 5:19: Verily verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

This is the consistency a spiritual father must demonstrate.  In the next message we will look at the results of inconsistent fathering on the natural and spiritual level.

Peace, Love and Grace,

Calvin Calhoun, Jr.