Apostolic Team Ministry- Outside the Sanctuary Chapter VI Goal Setting ● The first thing that you have to do to accomplish anything is to have a goal. If you are going to accomplish a goal, then you must first have a goal! It is vital if we are going to embark on any type of ministry that we hear from God and receive instructions and direction. Then we need to begin to make a move in that direction. We have to have a goal and then begin to set a plan in motion to accomplish that goal. We also need to know what we are called, anointed and appointed to do in the work of the kingdom. ● The second thing is to apply faith and take steps to accomplish that goal. This is spelled out in a couple of very familiar verse in Hebrews 11:1-2. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Notice that faith and hope work together in the creative process. And actually, hope comes first and faith is what gives substance, or brings to pass the things that we hope for (our goals). Hope is just another word for dream or vision. God had a dream or a vision for all that He created and we were part of it! He took words that perfectly framed the image of that which that which was on the inside of Him in the form of His dream accomplish and then spoke His dream into existence! People that do not dream don’t accomplish much! Paul exhorts us to “be followers of God as dear children and walk in love”! I think that He wants us to be creative, even as He is creative by expressing the dreams that He places within us and by walking in love towards those who do not understand us. Our words set our Goals in Motion In James, Chapter 3, the James talked about how a rudder is what turns great ships in the direction that the pilot of the ship wants to go. In this teaching he compared the tongue to the rudder of a ship. So imagine that if you were the captain of a ship and you had charted a course from one place to another, the destination at the end of your voyage would be your goal or your hope. The actions you take to accomplish your goal are your steps of faith. You must take the necessary steps of faith to accomplish your goal or your ship is never going to leave the harbor. And so it is in the ministry. We have to get our ship moving! James taught that faith without works is dead. In other words, if you do not take any actions to accomplish your goals you will never go anywhere. So to arrive at any destination, you have to begin to move in that direction. You cannot steer a ship unless it moving! The Bible says that the steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord. God can only guide us as we begin to move in the direction that He wants us to go. Since the tongue is compared to the rudder of a ship, then it must also be of great importance to speak words that are in harmony with the direction that we want to go. Referring back to the first few verses of the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews, we can see that when God set out to accomplish His creation He chose words that perfectly framed the image of what He had on the inside of Him and the end result that He wanted to achieve. Then He began to speak them forth. He said, “Let there be light!” …and there was light! Romans 4:17 says that God calls those things which be not as though they were! When we know we have heard from God and our goal is set we need to begin to speak our goals and they will begin to be set in motion. Our words and our actions of faith work together to accomplish the things that we know are His will. At this point we need to also mention that there is an enemy who will also be at work to do everything in his power to stop, to delay or hinder what we set out to do. That does not mean that he has the power to stop us, or that he can… but he will try! But let’s not forget to factor in the power of God! If God says that we can, then we can! If God says to do a thing, then we can do it! When a captain sets sail for a destination he knows well that he may encounter storms that may try to sink his ship. Having this in his thinking he will do everything in his power to avoid the storms. If he is aware that a storm may be coming his way he is not going to continue in the direction of the storm. He will alter his course but still end up at the same destination. Storms and obstacles are part of life and have to be overcome. Let us go to the other side! We should never back off when we know that the devil is trying to stop us! If we know that we have heard from God there are times when we will have to press forward by faith with the knowledge that the gates of hell shall not prevail against us. Paul said that we are not ignorant of the devil’s devices. He will try to stop up our money situation, attack us or our families with sickness; he may even stir up problems within the church if we are pastoring. Years ago when we were pastoring, the Lord opened a door for me to go on a mission trip to Pakistan. We prayed about it and felt that it was definitely the will of God for me to go. Once we had set our faith to go it seemed that all kinds of obstacles were thrown in my way. A couple that we had put in charge of children’s ministry got out of sorts with us, left the church and began to do everything in their power to pull people out of the church. Before it was over they managed to draw seven families out. Then it seemed that the money dried up and we came down to within days of my departure before the money I needed for the trip came in. To make matters worse, the week before I left, on the way to church, our engine lost all of its oil as the result of a bad oil sensor and that left Glenda and the children without a vehicle when I was to be on the other side of the world for 21 days. What do you do when you know you are moving in one direction to do the will of God and all hell breaks loose to try to stop you? I’ll tell you what we did- we kept moving in the same direction and we did not back down when the devil attacked! In the gospels there is an account of a time when Jesus told His disciples to get into a ship and said, “Let us go to the other side!” They set sail and He went to the back of the ship and went to sleep on a pillow. He expected them to take Him to the other side. About that time a great storm arose and tried to sink their little ship. They went into panic mode, woke Jesus and said, “Don’t you care that we perish?” Jesus went to the front of the boat, spoke to the storm and said, “Peace be still!” And there was a great calm. ● Don’t let the devil stop you from doing what you know the Lord has told you to do! When we know that the Lord has spoken we have to be determined that we are going to go to the other side, no matter what the devil may try to bring our way! In our case, even though it looked like an impossible situation and it looked crazy to others that we would continue to move in the direction that we were going, we did anyway because we knew that it was the will of God for us at that time. When we did, God blessed us in spite of what the devil was trying to do to stop us. A family in our church said that God spoke to them and told them to offer Glenda the use of their second car the whole time that I would be gone. Also, the men of the church got together and decided to buy us another engine for our car and install it for us while I was gone. They did and when I returned it was running and ready to go! I was able to minister to many people in all walks of life in Pakistan. One man who was possessed with devils was delivered and called into the ministry. When the news of what happened spread we were called and asked to pray for a young man in a village about 130 miles away. We did and he also was delivered. Several years later my interpreter was in the States and I asked about the two men and of how they were doing. He told me of how the older gentleman was still in the ministry, but the younger man did not continue in the Word. He said that the demons entered back into him and killed him. How sad. While I was in Pakistan, Glenda continued to preach and teach in all of the services and also taught the Bible studies that we had going at that time in upstate New York. She had people saved and filled with the Spirit on one side of the world and I was seeing the same results on the other side of the world at the same time! Praise the Lord! If we had yielded to our human logic and our emotions instead of continuing to press into what we knew to be the will of God, we would have missed all of the excitement! Jesus had Goals We mentioned the importance of having goals if we are going to accomplish anything in life. I believe that this same principle is true when we minister to people in the name of the Lord. Isn’t that what Jesus did when people came before Him for ministry or to have their needs met? In almost every instance that I can think of when He ministered to people and worked a miracle I see where He first set the goal of what He wanted to accomplish when He ministered to them. When the blind men came before Him for instance, He said, “What would you have me do?” They said, “Lord, that we may receive our sight!” So, at that point, the goal was set that these two blind men would receive their sight. Once that was established, He took the necessary steps that He knew would get results for them. The same was true when he ministered to another blind man who came to Him crying out for mercy. The Bible says that He spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle and anointed the blind man’s eyes with the clay. Then He told him to go wash in a certain pool. There had to be some significance in the mind of this man with the clay and with that particular pool. Jesus must have known that his faith would become active when He did this and gave him this command. Before the water was turned to wine there had to first be a goal set for the water to be turned into wine. Before Jesus walked on the water to go and rescue His disciples, He set the goal to go to them. Before Lazarus would come forth out of the tomb, Jesus had to set the goal that Lazarus would live again. The goals were set in the heart of Jesus by what He believed to be the will of God for the people. Jesus said, “I only do those things I see my Father do.” This is why it is so important to be well established in the Word of God so we, like Jesus, can always know the will of God for the people who come before us for ministry. The Word of God reveals the will of God. Jesus said that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we will ask what we will and it shall be done unto us (John 15:7). So by being full of His Word we will know the Father’s will and we can be assured that the prayers we pray will be answered. 14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. (1 John 5:14-15) ● Jesus knew that His purpose was to destroy the works of the devil and so He did whenever He had the opportunity to do so. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power who went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38). ● His goal was to heal all who were oppressed of the devil. Jesus saw sickness and disease as satanic oppression. He believed that the oppressed should go free, so He did everything in His power to relieve everyone that He could of their oppression. Setting Christ-like Goals If we believe that it is not the will of God to heal all who are sick (as some teach in modern theology), then we will not have the same motivation or results that Jesus had when He ministered to the sick and oppressed. ● If we want to see the same results that Jesus had when He ministered to the sick we are going to have to think the way that He thought, believe the way He believed and minister the same way that He ministered. Jesus said that He (or she) that believes in me, the works that I do shall he (or she) do also, and greater works than these shall he (or she) do, because I go unto the Father (John 14:12). This scripture alone should set our goal to bring healing to all sick people and deliverance to all who are oppressed. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power who went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38) Principle #6 When we know we have heard from God and our goal is set we need to begin to speak our goals and set them in motion. Do not be deterred by any storm that would stop you from arriving at your destination.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 11:41:09 +0000
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