Self-Audit of a Committed vs. a Cultural Christian 

1. If your Master came to seek and to save that which is lost, are you doing the same things as His follower and making the angels rejoice? (Luke 19:10; 15:7,10)

2. If your Lord came to destroy the works of the Devil and the first sign of a believer is that he can cast out demons, how much damage are you causing to the demonic kingdom? (1 John 3:8; Mark 16:17 Math 16:18; Eph. 6:10-18; 2 Cor. 10:3-5)

3. If the agenda of the Chief Shepherd of your soul is to “gather the sheep who are not of this fold,” have you added any lost souls to His fold lately? (John 10:16; 1 Peter 2:25)

4. If your Best Friend has given you a new commandment to love each other as He has loved you so that the world may believe in Him, is the world responding to Him because of your loving relationships? (John 13:34,35; 15:14,15)

5. If your Saviour has commanded you to go out two by two to be His witness and make disciples, have you discipled any nations lately? (Luke10:1-2; Acts1:8; Matt. 28:19)

6. If your Father has chosen you to be fruitful, loaded with abundant fruit that remains, do you have any permanent fruit to your credit to qualify you as His disciple? (John 15:8,16)

7. If the Owner of the keys of Heaven and Hell has handed over the keys of the kingdom to you, how busy you are locking the door to Hell and opening the doors to Heaven? Or have you misplaced the keys? (Matt. 16:19; Rev. 3:7; Luke 11:52)

8. Your High Priest offered His own blood to make you a priest and a king. Are you offering Gentiles as a sacrifice to qualify you as a priest and reigning as a servant ruler? (Rev. 5:10; Heb. 9:12; Rom. 15:16)

9. If the King has appointed you as His Ambassador to reconcile His creation, have you opened any embassies lately in your neighbourhood, worksite or downtown? (2Cor. 5:17-21; Rom. 8:19)

10. If your Yahweh loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten son that none may perish, how much are you giving to save the perishing? (John 3:16; 2 Pet. 3:9)

There are many challenges the Lord has set before us. Most of us need to work hard to change an empty label into the genuine article.

If this simple formula of going out two by two and making disciples is followed, then an unstoppable chain reaction will result and within one generation the gospel can reach the most inaccessible parts of the world. You can bypass the religious wheelers and dealers and open your own account by discipling lost souls. And the angels in heaven will get into praise and worship mode (Luke 10:1; 15:7,10). 

The smallest ekklesia has two families and the largest has three. After that it is time to multiply. The Antioch ekklesia had six and they sent two of them as missionaries (Matt. 18:18-20). 

You have a choice. You can go to the remote boondocks and gather lost souls and the heavenly angels will start hip hopping. Or you can go to church on Sunday with ninety-nine other fruitless Christians who clang their own cymbals and sound their own brass. Presumably it is the other variety of angels who are delighted to tango with them. Yeshua is only interested in gathering the wheat, not the chaff (Luke15:4-7;1 Cor.13:1; Matt. 3:12). 

Yeshua command Peter to feed His sheep. The sheep are not fed weekly, but daily out in the pasture; then only they will reproduce. The barren ones are sent to the butcher (John 21:15-17).

Muslim Jehadis train young people to die for Allah. Seminaries train people to maintain the status quo. This produces congregations who want to hog all the blessings for themselves. On the other hand, short term, church planting seminars empower ordinary people and release them to be a blessing to others, which is the core agenda of the ekklesia (Gen 12:3). The ekklesia must produce world conquerors and not church hogs. 

Praise Yahweh for the six hundred Christians worldwide who die every day while reaping the harvest. (David Barrett)

Nothing will happen until the church fulfils her mission of training the thousands of shepherds we need. We are not thinking about a city with large churches but communities saturated with (house) ekklesias. The best place for training is the extended family because the success of a pastor here does not depend on his ability to deliver great sermons to large crowds but in the sincere communication of truths that can be replicated in one after another within a small group context.  (Daniel Gonzales Garcia) 

Watch the Downline: Many multi-million businesses bypass the hierarchy of middlemen, the dealers who eat up the lion’s share of the profit, and instead deal directly with the client on a profit sharing basis. All you have to do is to mobilize just two clients and watch the “downline” grow by making sure that every disciple makes two disciples. Very soon the cheques begin to come to all the participants. 

Your income depends on your downline. When that stops, so do the bucks. Paul’s strategy was to equip, empower and exit, but always keep in touch through visits, letters and agonizing for his downline, individually and by name.

Jesus started His ministry by discipling just two fishermen. He asked them to go out two by two and make disciples. In the short span of three years of ministry, He had thousands of disciples (John 1:40; Matt 18:18-20; Acts 13:1-3; 2 Tim. 2:2). Peter and John, the two, made disciples all over Palestine and Samaria (Gal. 2:7-9; Acts 8:14). Paul and Barnabas made disciples wherever they went and turned the Gentile world upside down (Acts 13:1-3; 17:6). 

Not Just Teachers But Spiritual Parents: The most enduring relationship, even in heaven, is that of Father and Son. Yeshua called Yahweh His Father. Yahweh changed Abram, the “father of a clan” to Abraham, the “father of nations” (Gen 17:5). Yahweh changed Sarai, the “princess of a family,” to Sarah, the “mother of all believing daughters” (1Peter 3:6). Paul called Timothy his spiritual son. He told the Corinthians, “You may have ten thousand instructors but I am your spiritual father because I have begotten you.” He did not teach them as a brilliant scholar but as a loving father (1Tim. 1:2; 1 Cor. 4:15; 1Thess. 2:11). The key differentiator is that while a spiritual father invests in his children so they can become better than him, a teacher has no such burden (Gen. 17:6; John 14:12,13). The Devil’s tactic is to destroy families, the primary unit of Yahweh’s blessing. Faulty parenting disintegrates families by diminishing the role of fatherhood. The original church was a family ekklesia. We are called to be spiritual parents in order to birth spiritual children.

Every ekklesia must reproduce herself, just like each family does. Reproduction cannot be delegated to others. Sarah outsourced to Hagar and created a huge problem.

Identity Crisis: Israel was to be a kingdom of priests to all the nations of the earth because Yahweh said, “For all the earth is mine.” They miserably failed to understand the concept of “the priesthood of all believers for all the nations of the earth.” Instead they built Jewish ghettos called synagogues, which Yahweh never mandated, all over the world—not unlike modern day church buildings. The church has completely failed to comprehend that she needs to pastor the whole city and the nation and not just cater to the whims of Christians. The two billion Christians of the world have been sent the wrong signal—that they are worthless laity. The concept of “the priesthood of all believers” is foreign to them. The idea that the ekklesia is an “Assembly of Royal Priests” who will reign on earth for a thousand years has not percolated into their minds (1Peter 2:9; Rev. 20:6). 

Most Christians have yet to open their portfolio of saved souls. Many set secondary goals of reading more Bible or praying more, rather than the primary goal of birthing spiritual children.  

Yahweh’s vision is to have all nations, tribes and tongues standing before his throne and worshipping him. For this purpose He sent Yeshua, who died to make us priests and kings.

The function of the priest is to offer the Gentiles as a sacrifice. The function of the king is to bring community transformation through godly governance. There are millions of Christians in the world, but very few realize that they are priests and kings. 

The refugee Christians from Jerusalem, the so called laity, discipled and planted ekklesias in Cyprus, Phoenicia, Cyrene and Antioch and even as far away as Rome, long before Paul and Barnabas got there (Acts 11:19-26; Romans 16:7). There are zillions of non-Christians from all over the world in Diaspora in the Christian world. All options must be explored to reach and disciple them. 

The game has changed. Top down society is dead. The predominant power has shifted into the hands of us nobodies. Our big sleep has ended, our seventeen hundred year nightmare is over, and we are launching the final transformation of the earth. (James Rutz)

Most churches do not comprehend Yahweh’s comprehensive vision of making disciples, baptizing them, equipping and sending them on to plant gardens of hope. They have a splintered vision and put roadblocks in front of the next step. “Christians only” interacting in a house church produces a lot of heat but no light. A collision with dissidents generates sparks, opens their eyes and lights up their path and expands the kingdom.

We need to give up the divisive denominational designations of being called Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals and Baptists. Even calling oneself a Christian should be a thing of the past. We should simply be called “Followers of Christ and His royal priests.” That defines our form and function. Many Christians are just gyrating with no sense of direction. Sadly, most Christians do not even know that they are in a race (1Cor 9:24-26).

Instead of just preaching to the converted, the church should be chasing the Devil out of town all the way to the Gates of Hell and equipping royal priests to reign on earth for an eternity.

The Law of Averages: An average Christian heads for church on Sundays while the Great Commission Christian goes where Christ has not yet been named. While a nominal Christian goes to listen to sermons, an authentic Christian goes to make disciples. While an average evangelist preaches to Christians, Philip and Paul preached the gospel to the heathen by expelling unclean spirits, healing the sick and baptizing new believers (1Thess. 1:5; Acts 8:5-7, Rom. 15:19-21). A celebrity evangelist mesmerizes and hypnotizes organized crowds of gullibles and makes a fast buck in the bargain but leaves no permanent fruit. Unlike these glitter bugs, a small time apostle reasons with a ragtag bunch of people, causes turmoil in their lives, often comes back beaten and broke, but leaves behind a discipling ekklesia. The great evangelist Billy Graham found that the majority of the people who were churched without face-to-face discipling after his crusades lasted less than a year (Acts 14:19-23; 16:13-15; 20).

Yahweh does not care a damn about your degrees, doctrines, denominations or celebrity status. He is looking for people who do not limit a limitless Yeshua in the church but candidly and passionately share their faith anywhere and everywhere .  

The Church Needs Ideological Catharsis: The church must change from a “bless me” to a “bless all the families of the earth” ideology (Gen 12:3). For too long the church has been languishing in the comforts of a warm cocoon—sacred buildings, Sunday schools, prayer cells and Bible study classes. She needs to shift into the boardrooms, factories, business places, parliaments, government offices, hospitals, schools, labour unions and the homes of sinners where the rubber meets the road (Malachi 1:11). How can the sordid and corrupt environment of these institutions change unless the church penetrates them? The church already has an infrastructure of Christians in most places. All it needs to do is to equip, network and operationalize them. For too long, equipping has been left to the seminaries, which are infected with spiritual inertia and liberal beliefs. Yeshua conducted daily seminars on the streets; Paul shared the whole wisdom of Yahweh in the market place while making tents. He planted his first ekklesia in the palace of the Governor of Cyprus. The church needs to shift to the realities of the market place and invade the hostile political, economic and social strata of society and the rest of the secular world (Acts 13:7-12).

The church must stop churching people to fill the pews and coffers. There is enough money locked up in the church’s bank accounts to evangelize the entire world, but for the sad fact that it is all budgeted for non-essentials. (Nathan Shank)

The Dang Community Model: On Christmas Eve 1998, an anti-Christian mob torched sixty-eight bamboo churches in the Dang villages of Gujarat state. They did not harm the concrete traditional church building in the city, because “nice people come here every Sunday and sing nice songs, but do not convert anybody.” But they despised the little bamboo ekklesias because people went there and got converted. Since then, the Dang Christians have gathered with the whole village and the village council, which often has many non-Christians, and asked their permission to build a worship centre. They not only obtained permission but also cash, bamboo and the goodwill of the community. The church now belongs to the whole village community and not just to the Christians. The Hindu nationalist state government spent millions trying to reconvert them without success. The little bamboo ekklesia looks so weak and fragile, and that is precisely her strength because it protects her from being proud, insolent and secure. Yahweh’s strategy has always been in small bytes rather than in one megabyte (Deut. 7:22.). We must not despise these little ekklesias because today, the discipling of the nations is taking place on a mega scale in them (1Cor.1:26-30; Zech 4:10; Obad. 1:2).

Nothing immobilizes a church faster than gifts from an outside agency for a church building and the salary of the pastor. It also creates interdenominational and inter-religious rivalries.

The Power of One: The church needs to shift from having a competitive culture to having a collaborative one. If an ekklesia plants just one other ekklesia in a year, now there are two. The next year, two will become four and so on. Thus in one generation, over one thousand organic ekklesias are planted. By the end of ten years, the first ekklesia has planted only nine new ekklesias—not an impossible goal. But for this to happen, intentional training, empowering and monitoring is essential. Yonggi Cho, the leader of the largest congregation in the world in Seoul, South Korea, would rather miss the Sunday service than the midweek meeting with his Cell leaders, because that is where the growth and multiplication are.

Whatever it takes, Yahweh wants to see people from the four corners of the earth standing before His Throne and worshipping Him. Nothing more and nothing less. If you are not doing anything about it then for Heaven’s sake, get out of the way because you are only occupying space.

Every ekklesia needs to set ekklesia planting goals because setting goals means committing to do something. If you do not take even that basic step, you will send uncertain trumpet sounds and the battle will be lost even before it began (1 Cor. 14:8). Every disciple represents a thousand disciples and every little ekklesia can multiply and reproduce thousands of ekklesias (Isa. 60:21,22). Every day we should hear the good news that a multiplying ekklesia has been planted in the market place, in a government office, school, college, hospital, business, police station, bank, airport, stock market or beauty parlour—wherever humans happen to be (Acts 16:5). 

To finish the task, we change from abstract theology to applied theology, from Bible study to Bible application, from oratory skills to discipling skills and from concepts to best practices. 

The Power of Agreement: “If two of you agree as touching anything, My Father will do it.” All power in heaven and on earth is made available to mini but mighty duos when they are in agreement about fulfilling Yahweh’s agenda. The most powerful combo for decimating evil and transforming social, political, economic and all other equations, is going out two by two, just as Yeshua sent them to the Judean villages. The early ekklesia was a huge success because they were of one accord (Matt. 18:18-20; Luke 10:1; Acts 5:12). 

When the Holy Spirit leads organic ekklesias, no formal training is necessary. After his conversion, Paul did not go to Jerusalem for instructions (John 14:26; Gal. 1:15-18). However, it is best if facilitators meet frequently for cross pollination (Heb. 10:24,25). Apostolic coverage is an added advantage and helps avoid glitches. This cutting edge strategy is simple and costs nothing. A new convert should not head for the pew as the conversion must be “apostolic,” to go and multiply and be a blessing to others. 

The Ekklesia is the Authentic Government:  Nebuchadnezzar, the great Gentile emperor, found out the hard way that the Most High Yahweh rules in the affairs of men (Dan.4:17; 30-37). Yahweh ruled Israel through prophets until Saul became king and wrecked the system (1Sam. 8:7). Yahweh is the  owner and the ekklesia is His government. She must equip His people to reign on earth (Rev. 5:10; 20:6; 22:5). She must abandon her policy of non-interference in human affairs and redefine global politics and economics. If she does not, the Dragon is happily doing it anyway. 

Even though the ekklesia is not of the world, she is very much in the world and her mandate is to install and run the legitimate geopolitical Government of Yahweh (Isa. 9:6; John 17:16; 1John 5:18,19). She must set the ground rules and police the last mile to see that “His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.” The Scripture is the only barometer for measuring the kingdom values of governance and the ekklesia is the sole repository of truth, justice and life with dignity. She must learn to act as the authentic government and become involved in every important human affair, be it social, political, justice, economic, ecology or any other (Isa. 59:14-16).

This is not advocating Emperor Constantine’s state/church merger model, where the clergy became the magistrates and birthed the Catholic Church. It also does not mean having an evangelical President with the Bible in one hand and a nuke bomb in the other. Like the prophets of the OT, the ekklesia must speak prophetically and boldly to rulers, “Thus says the Lord”. 

The secular government enforces the “rule of law” which is not the same as the “rule of justice.” The law can be manipulated in favour of the rich—they rarely get convicted. The OT laws were replaced with a higher order of love. The ekklesia is pitted against the fruit of the flesh. Bribery, corruption, exploitation, inequality and injustice must be replaced with the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, equality and dignity.” Godless politics has led us deep into communal chaos and violence. We, as the keeper of law, must usher in righteous governance by replacing private plunder with public good.

An attitude change is required for fellow pilgrims of other faiths who are looking for the heavenly city. (Heb.12:22,23)

The Generic Christian: Billions of dollars have been invested in traditional churches to convert generic Christians into fruitful Christians, but the return has been just peanuts. The Sunday morning service does not save sinners, discipling does. Churches need to be converted into discipling hubs because discipling is the core job description of every Christian, and we should be clocking the highest level of return on investment, operational efficiency and productivity. A Spirit driven Christian must fly like an eagle and unleash the ekklesia all over the place, conquering towns and cities and nations for Yeshua. 

The test of a man’s conversion is whether he has enough Christianity to convey the message of the kingdom to other people. If he hasn’t, something is wrong. (Samuel Shoemaker) 

Instead of prayer walking and annexing territories for Christ, the church is suffering from an overdose of religiosity and lives in a fantasyland. Its people are sleepwalking in a perilous minefield.

Notice outside the Church Pharmacy: “Inconvenience regretted. Disposing of all old stock of outdated, generic lay-Christians and replacing them with more potent varieties of Royal Priests, Ambassadors, Apostles and Prophets.”

There is no such thing as a generic Christian (layman). Ethical pharmaceutical companies check the effectiveness of every pill, while fly-by-night companies manufacture drugs without testing them, thereby jeopardizing the lives of sick people. Similarly, the quality and potency of every Christian must be checked, otherwise the lives of sin sick people will be in jeopardy. 

Caution: All drugs have a limited shelf life. Similarly, a generic Christian has a limited pew-life after which, like the out-of-date drug, he must be buried six feet underground.

While it is biblical for the apostles and prophets to receive double honour (1Tim. 5:17), we must debunk the claim that only professional ministers and fulltime, salaried missionaries, can evangelize Planet Earth. If business women like Lydia, Priscilla and Phoebe could take the gospel to Europe, and other merchants and craftsmen of the earlier centuries could take the gospel to the ends of the earth without any cost to the church, then there no reason why tentmakers cannot do it today. All we have to do is to wake up the slumbering foolish virgin (the church) and top her up with oil (the Holy Spirit), trim her lamp (become a light unto the Gentiles) and prepare for the coming of the Groom (Matt. 25:1-13). With the traditional churches imploding from within and hitting rock bottom, Yahweh is doing a new thing. The little ekklesias are already dictating and scripting a dramatic, global paradigm shift in the way the ekklesia ought to be. It is time to change.  

Inheriting Planet Earth is the Agenda: Yahweh chose Israel to rule the nations (Exo. 19:5,6). The Joshua generation defeated thirty-one kings of Canaan. These kings were also priests of particular demon gods who actually ruled the city (Joshua chap 12). Joshua allotted land to each Oikos (family). They were to crush the enemy, plunder, possess and enforce righteous governance by imposing Yahweh’s laws, and rule as priests and kings. The elders of households functioned as priests and sacrificed animals at home on festivals like the Passover. Yeshua shed His own blood and restored royal and priestly functions to the believers who are to reign on earth by demolishing demon gods like the princes of Tyrus, Persia and Greece who control the city through human agents. Yeshua declared, “I will build my ekklesia” in Caesarea Philippi, the most idolatrous city to which foreign ambassadors brought their own gods. We also need to go to the idolatrous parts of our cities and build His ekklesia there (Rev. 5:10; Eph. 6: 12; Dan. 10:13,20; Eze. 28; Matt. 16:13-19; 1Tim. 2:8; Rom. 16:20).

Joshua Vs. Moses Generation: While in Egypt, Israel had become idolatrous with slave mentality. They were spiritually, mentally and culturally grasshoppers. They would have never understood the concept of “kingdom of priests to the nations” and had to be destroyed in the wilderness. The Joshua generation, on the contrary, was raring to go and take possession of the Promised Land. 

The Indian church today consists mostly of low caste Dalits. Having suffered oppression and slavery, it is incapable of understanding the “Royal Priesthood.” Their children, however, are celebrating liberation and heading out into the world as doctors, engineers, professionals, business managers and entrepreneurs. They are ready to take on the world but they need Joshuas to synergize them.

Ekklesias need to be planted (Christ incarnate in His Body) in the form of healthy, outreaching gatherings of believers, so that there is an ekklesia within practical (can go to) and cultural (would go to) distance of every person, in every class and kind of society. (Bob Waymire)

Nebuchadnezzar / Grasshopper Syndrome: The church has rejected the heavenly Manna and lusted for the leeks, onions, melons and garlic (Num. 11:5). They are stuck in the wilderness of the church compound and refuse to go and possess their Canaan (inheritance). The entire church generation suffering from grasshopper syndrome and their leaders afflicted with Nebuchadnezzar syndrome, “I have built this place with my great might for my own glory”, are likely to be lost in the church cemetery instead of the battle field, unless we find Joshuas and Calebs. The church has lost her destiny as the inheritor of the kingdom. If only a fraction of the millions of global Christians realized that they are Royal Priests, chosen from the foundation of the earth to rebuild desolate cities into Gardens of Eden by sharing the whole wisdom of Yahweh from house to house, Yeshua will then come and drink of the new wine and we will inherit the Gentiles and possess the earth (Dan. 4:30; Luke 22:18; Isa. 11:9; 54:3).

The modern church simply made bad choices and got fatally infected with the virus of false doctrines. It is time for a decent funeral and make a fresh start based on Yahweh’s agenda.

A Clergy Free Church: The NT model of clergy-free, building-free and sermon-free churches will free up billions of dollars, empower millions for the priesthood of all believers and make world evangelism a practical reality. It will tear down unbiblical structures and reinvent the church. Nominals will fall by the wayside but the remnant will thrive. The Chinese ekklesia was persecuted till she had no more structure left and had to go underground. The consequent exponential growth produced the purest and largest ekklesia in the world, although this is now threatened by denominational megabucks from the West and S. Korea. 

Royalty Functions: The priestly function of offering Gentiles as a living sacrifice leads to numerical growth (Romans 15:16; Psalm 51:17), while the royalty function leads to world conquest, “Thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth.” The Devil arrogantly said, “All these kingdoms belong to me and I give them to whomsoever I like” (Luke 4:5). Yeshua did not bother to tell him that He had authorized His ekklesia to dismember the demonic kingdom (Matt.16:18,19).

Because we have jurisdictional authority to decree and declare, the Devil can have only as much power and space on earth as we allow (Luke 10:19; 1John 5:18-21).  (Beverly Pegues)

Yeshua the King’s strategy for ushering His kingdom on earth is to plunder the possessions (people) of the enemy (strongman) (Matt.12:28, 29) using a multi-pronged attack: 

1. Enforcing abstract theology into practical outcomes for the lost people on the street. 

2. A direct door to door home delivery system of salvation. 

3. A supply line (disciples) to reach wherever the consumer happens to be (Mark Chap.5; 3:14). 

4. Changing a purely sacramental and devotional religion into providing salvific and mercy ministries to the needy. Now every believer is a Royal Priest.  

Access to salvation is a fundamental right of every citizen. The present church structure denies that right. The church needs to build an infrastructure that provides a door-to-door delivery system to ensure that this right is a reality and not an elusive myth.

“The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ” is the agenda of the ekklesia (Rev. 11:15). 

The Platform Ministry: A growing ministry is to take foreigners for a ride by eulogizing them on a platform. The organizer gathers an impressive crowd. Handicapped by language, the honoured guests do not know that the audience is hired. The audience goes back with the impression that the project is foreign funded and money changed hands without them getting their share of the pie. 

The Road Map: Yeshua came to restore the kingdom of Yahweh on Planet Earth. But the kingdom cannot come without planting ekklesias, and the ekklesias cannot be planted without making disciples, and disciples cannot be made unless we go and seek and save the lost (Acts 1:6; Matt. 16:18; 28:19; Luke 19:10).

A frog in the well is worthless, but in the garden he protects the harvest by devouring all the harmful bugs and insects.

The global kingdom of Yahweh is the composite sum total of all the little kingdoms possessed and reigned over by each individual Christian. Yeshua cannot be the King (with a capital K) of kings unless there are kings (with a small k). There is no such thing as a Christian without a kingdom (king+domain). It is fatally flawed policies and practices that have deprived Christians of their inheritance (Acts 11:26; Rev. 5:10; 19:16).

Revival is not for churching the unchurched and increasing membership and money, but for unchurching the churched and sending them out to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Yeshua does not go to church on Sundays. Every day He goes with those who nibble at the demonic kingdom, confirming the word with signs. We must go as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and make every knee bow and every tongue confess that Yeshua is Lord (Mark 16:20; Phil. 2:10,11). 

Yeshua’s task of saving sinners did not finish with His full and final sacrifice on the cross. Even today, He is interceding nonstop for sinners (Hebrew 7:25). The kingdom of Yahweh cometh not with observation (sitting in the church) but with violence (spiritual warfare) and the violent (intercessors) take it by force (Matt 11:12). With the right strategy, sinners should be breaking down the doors to enter the kingdom (Luke 16:16).

The institutional church (IC) and the NT ekklesia are based on two completely different paradigms. While the IC focuses on maintenance, the NT model has an expansionist agenda.

The Ekklesia Has a Geo-Political Agenda: The Muslim agenda to rule the world is biblical. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” and then explode the Islamic demographic bomb. The Hindu agenda is to rule the world through yoga and idolatry. The Communist agenda is to rule through the barrel of a gun. The Buddhists’ agenda is to rule through the occult and meditation. Even Gays have an agenda to rule by legally criminalizing the Bible and the church. All are noisily claiming victories but in reality they are suffering from severe attrition and declining fast.

Islam since the 9/11 attack on the US Trade Center; Hinduism since the resurgence of Neo-Buddhism after the Independence of India; Buddhism since the Communist take over of China; Communism since the Tienanmen Square massacre and the fall of the Berlin wall, resulting in the dismemberment of Russia and the Gays since the HIV pandemic; are all going through alarming ideological and demographic erosion all over the world.

Sadly Christians, the earth inheritors, are unaware that the ekklesia is the only legal authority that must provide godly governance on earth. Yahweh does not want the heathen to rule over His people (Joel 2:17; Dan. 2:44). The ekklesia must break and consume and possess all the kingdoms of this world and set up the eternal kingdom. Then comes the end, when Yeshua delivers the kingdom to the Father, who will hand it back to us, the saints of the Most High (Matt. 16:18; Isa. 9:6; 1 Cor. 15:24; Dan. 2:44; 7:18, 27).

Yahweh started His ministry by planting a garden and has given us the ministry to possess the earth and to make it into a garden flowing with milk and honey (Gen. 2:8; Isa. 61:11; Joel 3:18).

Number Crunching: Impressive numbers of missionaries on the field, big budgets, large number of graduates graduating from Bible schools or broadcasting to thousands, do not necessarily result in a significant change in the religious landscape. Thailand, for example, has all these but little harvest. In fact it has become the sin capital of the world. Numbers only add to arrogance and pride. Indirect methods of evangelism such as schools, hospitals, acts of mercy, literature distribution, in general, do not work. Most missions function with an institutional mindset and are badly managed. The productivity of pastors and individual missionaries is abysmal. Their report card should include the number of souls saved, baptized, flocked, equipped and then sent out to replicate themselves.

Many agencies passionately offer tools and wares such as literature, films, discipleship manuals, electronic Bibles etc. They are so gung-ho about their products as the only solution to world evangelism that they cannot see the total picture beyond their noses. However, we must realize that these resources are just tools. They are not the total solution and can never replace one on one discipling. Many come to teach discipleship courses but back home they cannot even fill their own living rooms. 

Five quality believers will chase a hundred and they will chase ten thousand enemies. On the other hand, only two enemies will put ten thousand nominals to flight (Lev. 26:8; Deut. 32:30; Isa. 30:17). If you want money, power and glory, then go for a mega church but if you want quality performers, then focus on equipping small number of competent and committed world changers.

Yeshua’s ministry was local, “To the lost sheep of Israel.” But He commissioned His disciples to go global and find the other sheep who are not of this fold (Math. 15:24; John 10:16; Rom. 15:20).

The Genius of Yeshua: The genius of Yeshua’s strategy was to invest Himself primarily in “team building” of world changers who would “do greater works than Him” (John 14:12). He left to us the “greater work” of discipling the nations, flocking them in homes to be mentored and sent out as fishers of men. Initially he helped them to catch plenty of small fish, but later on He upgraded the tactics and helped them to catch 153 big fish. Nicodemus, the Centurion, the Ethiopian treasurer, Lydia, Phoebe and the governor of Cyprus were all big fish with the capacity to carry the movement forward. It is time the missions changed their priority from catching little fishes to catching great big fishes (Matt. 12:30; John 10:16; 17:18,20; 21:11; Gal. 2:2). 

It is easy to evaluate yourself. If you are good soil, then you should be bringing forth thirty, sixty and even a hundredfold fruit. No point in sowing good seed on bad soil (Matt. 13:1-23). 

Astonishingly, Yeshua asked His disciples to launch out into the deep when catching the small fish, but for the big fish he simply asked them to let down their net while they were in shallow water. It requires a huge attitude change on our part. Catching big fish is actually easier provided we have the right tools and techniques (Luke 5:4; John 21:6).

On the Day of Pentecost, the birthday of the ekklesia, under the power of the Holy Spirit, 3,000 families were added to the ekklesia. Later on, unnumbered multitudes were gathered. Finding, discipling, flocking and mentoring multi-ethnic, multi-generational, Gentile-centric teams are “greater works” that Yeshua promised (John 14:12).

Training someone without the objective of him training someone else who further replicates himself immediately, is a waste of time. (Jay R. Caven)

Yeshua sent out thirty-five teams of volunteers to the Judean villages with clear instructions and crisp “do’s and don’ts” for making disciples and planting ekklesias (Luke10:1-9). We need to repent for not equipping volunteers to do greater exploits—just like we do with our biological children to do better than us. Paul never came back empty handed after preaching, but only after birthing ekklesias and leaving them in the hands of the sons and daughters of the soil.

Most of the things we do as a church are irrelevant as they are not related to His command, “I have set you to be light to the Gentiles for their salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isa. 49:6). 

Membership of a church does not make anyone even remotely eligible for a free ticket to heaven. A “believer”, believes in Yahweh’s promises that he can expel demons and heal the sick (Mark 16:17,18). But a healing ministry alone will not help because it focuses on the body and not the soul. Yahweh is glorified only when acts of mercy are converted into lasting fruit. Good works, without discipling them into the kingdom, are futile. He will say, “I don’t know you” (Math. 7:22,23). Moses and Aaron were punished with death because they failed to glorify Yahweh, even as they provided water to the thirsty Israel at Meribah. (Deut. 32:48-52)

People of other faiths also do acts of mercy. Therefore when we do good works, they must be done with a message and a method that people can understand and imitate and with a clear invitation to repent and receive new life.  (Galen Currah)

Bypass Surgery: Yahweh bypassed the religious elite of the day to announce the birth of Yeshua. Instead, He spoke to the Magi, the Gentile astrologers. The Jews had been waiting for the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem for a millennium, but completely missed the event because they were busy with the temple activities. Even the visit of the Gentile priests caused no flutter among them. 

For exponential growth invest in pagan priests. 

Heathen priests exert an enormous influence. Saint Patrick (AD 500) went from one sun worshipping Druid priest to the next until the whole of Ireland was converted in his own lifetime. Porgeirr Porkelsson, a Norse pagan priest followed Christ and Iceland converted as a nation on a single historic day in 1000 AD.  

Christians who are not bringing heathen brethren as an offering unto the Lord out of all nations, to make them priests and ministers, so that all flesh can come and worship Him; are worshipping a different god (Isa. 66:20,21;23; 60:1-7). 

The William Carey Model: William Carey was a scholar and came (AD 1792) from a reading culture. His simplistic thinking was to put the printed Bible in the hands of the people, who would then automatically be converted. However, the vast majority were illiterate, a great mismatch. A few high caste Brahmins, the only literate people, promptly converted to Christianity in order to get plum jobs as head clerks, teachers in colleges and schools and top administrators in the British government. Once the British left India, their conversion stopped and now Bengal is one of the most resistant and least evangelized states. The ekklesia planting movement never took off because it was not based on character and obedience, but on the wisdom of the flesh which is the graveyard of all our modern seminaries and missionary methods because it is divorced from the realities of the harvest field.  

Evangelists, pastors, teachers and moneybags build church buildings with dead bricks but apostles and prophets build the edifice with living stones, with Yeshua as the cornerstone. 

Joseph, Esther, Nehemiah, Daniel and others went as young slaves to very hostile, idolatrous countries where they served powerful Gentile Emperors. They faced jealousy, imprisonment, sex scandal and violence. Their names were changed, asked to eat polluted meat and drink alcohol, married off to pagans, lived with occultists and sorcerers and forced to worship idols. But through integrity, righteous living, defiant prayer, fasting and effective use of both spiritual and secular gifts, without compromising, they rose to the top and boldly modelled godly governance in extreme heathen situations. We can never be a blessing inside the church. For that to happen, each one of us needs to find his/her own Babylon. 

Blessing is never for selfishly appropriating it for oneself. In the Scriptures it is nearly always associated with fruitfulness and multiplication, “Be fruitful and multiply...”  

We are not sure what the clergy make, but we do know for sure that the disciples make disciples. It is the disciples who turned the Gentile world upside down. In the NT, the word “disciple” comes three hundred times, “believer” nine times and “pastor” merely once (Eph. 4:11). 

The Print Culture is a Stronghold: There is a massive disconnect between the four billion non-literates of the two-thirds world and the literate, cerebral Christians. The print culture does not necessarily translate into witnessing Christians. Bible lovers do not always love the lost people. Most new converts experience and testify about Christ before they read about Him; “But this I know, that I was blind and now I see” (John 9:25). Yahweh does not speak only from the pulpit but in a myriad of other ways (Heb.:1,2). Knowledge from books and electronic media can be acquired in isolation. Non-literates require relational dynamics to hear the gospel through stories, songs and dialogue, a completely different paradigm. Written literature is worthless for them. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Yahweh” (Rom.10:17). 

The best way to communicate the gospel is through storytelling, illustrated picture books and audio-video etc. Yeshua was a master storyteller and taught nothing without parables (Matt.13:34). If it worked for Yeshua then surely it can work for anyone. House groups are the best place for converting someone into an effective “Oral Bible.” All the major religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam spread through storytellers. As billions will remain illiterate into the foreseeable future, it is the storytellers who will change the story of this world.

Cosmetic Curriculum: Hundreds of Bible schools train thousands of pastors through structured curricula. These pastors have little impact in terms of the penetration of the Gospel among the higher castes, Muslims and Buddhists who primarily communicate through stories and poems. Disregarding the popular story culture has been a disaster. 

The Bible is Yahweh’s storybook. On the road to Emmaus, Yeshua narrated from Moses through all the Prophets and the eyes of His two followers were opened. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter told the story from the prophet Joel to the spiritual Son of David and three thousand were baptized. Stephen told the story from Abraham to Solomon’s Temple; this resulted in persecution and the rapid spread of Christianity. Paul told his own story everywhere; he read heathen poems in Athens and turned the world upside down.

Comparative religion, missiology and all the other academic add-ons have only a cosmetic effect as they deal with concepts and not with praxis. We will accelerate the spread of the gospel if we produce effective storytellers so that the billions of non-literates worldwide will hear within their own culture, context and language. This might be too traumatic for the people embedded in the print culture, as it requires a complete paradigm shift in the way we equip leaders. Yeshua did not send scholars to give lectures but disciples as His witnesses to go and inherit the ends of the earth.

The Whole Bible is the Book of Acts: The Bible is not a book of academic theology or philosophy, but it is primarily a book of action. It starts with the creative acts of Yahweh and ends with the creation of the new earth and heaven. The Ten Commandments, the ceremonial laws, the bath of purification, the sacrifices, all the feasts and the ministry of the prophets were prophetic acts. Many of these will continue even in the new dispensation when everyone goes to Jerusalem to worship the King and celebrate the festival of Booths and offer sacrifices (Heb. 8:5; Zech. 14:16,17).

Evangelism is an abused word. To some it means tract and film distribution, to others just sharing the gospel. Yeshua, Peter, Paul and Philip’s evangelistic efforts resulted in thousands of baptisms.

Yeshua was evaluated by John the Baptist. He validated His claim to Christhood not through mere words but by His acts: “Go and ‘show’ John that the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised and the gospel is being preached.” He was crucified not just for His utterances but also for His acts of challenging the religious leaders and turning over the money tables. He capped it with his prophecy of the destruction of the Jewish Temple building and the declaration that His house was open to all nations (Matt. 11:2-6; Mark 11:17).

Yeshua’s primary method of training the twelve was team building “that they might be with Him” (Mark 3:14; Luke 6:15). They saw Him healing, delivering, teaching, demolishing opposition and baptizing. Our evangelistic efforts should result in Satan fall like lightening, being hit by a bolt out of the blue (Luke 10:17-19).

Yeshua is our model evangelist. His mission was to win the lost, build up the believers, equip labourers, multiply disciples and model the kingdom. We need to evaluate all our preaching formulas, evangelistic methods and training techniques against that of Yeshua’s so that the world may believe (Luke 4:43;10:1;John13:34,35;17:21). (Ngul K.Pao)

We are not here to populate a distant heaven but that “Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done ‘on earth’ as it is in heaven.”  Yeshua was crucified not only for His words but also for His acts, which if all written down would fill the earth (John 21:25). Like our Master, we also need to validate our faith through acts that incarnate the holistic reign of Yahweh on Planet Earth (Matt. 6:10; 16:27; 1Cor. 2:4,5).

We should stop plucking the soul out of the Body and spiritualizing it. To justify our calling, we should be busy writing our own Chapter 29 of the Book of Holistic Acts. 

What in the world are we preaching? Yeshua came preaching “the good news of the kingdom of Yahveh” (Luke 4:43). This expression comes 122 times in the synaptic gospels, 90 times from the lips of Yeshua. He taught us kingdom prayer (Matt. 6:10). He asked us to seek the kingdom first. His last act on the cross was to take a sinner into the kingdom (Matt. 6:33; Luke 23:43). All His parables relate to the kingdom. He taught about the kingdom to His disciples for forty days after His resurrection. Did they get it? No. They asked Him, “When will you restore the earthly kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:3,6) However, as soon as the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost, they got it. Sadly, most churches have yet to get it and when they get it, they will not only speak in tongues but will also baptize 3000 people into the kingdom.

Yeshua Was Himself a Mobile Seminary: Whereas we train eloquent orators for the pulpit, Yeshua trained his disciples to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the ordinary men and women on the street. He conducted roadside and in-house seminars all day and every day. Yeshua asserted, “Today, tomorrow and the day after, I will conduct healing and deliverance ministry on the street.” Yeshua said, “I will build my church.” At the end of His ministry, He left behind a church of transformed lives without buildings or rituals. We need to model that church (Luke 13:32,33; Math 4:23-25).

Yeshua, the Tree of life, was accredited on the basis of miracles, signs and wonders (Acts 2:22). Seminaries, the Tree of knowledge, are accredited on the basis of academics. The vast majority of the ekklesias are planted after power encounter, spiritual warfare, dreams and visions and not after intellectual discourse or anointed sermons. 

His disciples preached the kingdom through healing the sick, delivering the demonized and made disciples. Paul preached through signs and miracles from Jerusalem to Illyricum (Acts 5:12-16; Rom. 15:19)

Paul says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). He further says, “Things you have learned from me, received, heard and saw in me, do” (Phil 4:9). “Doing” is entirely missing from our theological paradigm whose aim is to train scholars. The theologians need to learn the skills to become extraordinary fishers of men. We need to “perform the word” (Jer. 1:12); “do the word” (Deut 30:14); “the Lord working with them and affirming the word with signs and wonders” (Mark 16:20). David prayed, “Teach me to do your will” (Ps 143:10).  Evangelization and discipling are two sides of the same coin. It is having the fish in the bag that makes you a fisher of men—not just sharing the gospel.

2000 years after Yeshua’s warning that the harvest is ready, the labour crunch continues to be a scandal of global magnitude. Training theologians, who are irrelevant to the needs of the men and women on the street, is a cruel joke on the lost people.

Every Christian needs to acquire spiritual warfare skills needed for possessing his/her eternal inheritance: Based on Acts 26:17,18)

1. Open the eyes of the heathen

2. Turn them from darkness to light

3. From the power of Satan to Yahweh

4. That they may receive forgiveness of sins and 

5. An inheritance among the saints (Acts 26:17,18).

For maximum effectiveness, any training should be very practical and interactive with times of sharing tools, resources and case studies, and making culture specific Church Planting Movement plans. Presentations should include “best practices” in evangelism, boldness upgrading, contextualization, overcoming “stuckages” (where missionaries get stuck and cannot move to the next level), the use of volunteers, security and developing saturation strategies. (Craig Harris)

Joshua went out to possess the land of Canaan and chided Israel, “How long are you going to wait to possess the remaining Yahweh given land?” The church needs to be sharply rebuked for not possessing the land that the Lord has given her (Josh. 18:3; 11:23).

Do not try to change the world by yourself. Share talents with a person of peace who will multiply it and then rule over ten cities. 

Yeshua is outcome oriented and He will reward you according to your performance (John 9:4; Matt. 16:27). His style was to “do first” and then teach afterwards (Acts 1:1). This is very different from the banal platitudes doled out to us today from every platform. Organic ekklesias rather than seminaries are to be the hub for training disciples (2 Cor. 6:16). Yeshua Himself was the message, the school and the curriculum, the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2). 

Potato Power: The potato is the most popular vegetable and is found equally on the plates of the rich and poor of all nations. It is versatile, with the ability to meld and gel to create a huge variety of yummy dishes to please every palate, from chips to spuds and even vodka. Apart from minerals, it is full of calories that provide power (energy). No wonder the United Nations chose 2008 as the “Year of the Potato.” Likewise, the pew potato (layman) has all the ingredients and the potential to reach every segment of humanity. Sadly it has been allowed to rot and made fit for the garbage can.  

The Opium of Morning Devotion: Within the comfort of their own home, many Christians faithfully pray, study the scriptures, listen to divine music and read motivational daily lessons from their favourite booklets. By the time their devotion time is over they are spiritually doped. The Devil then sends them a strong delusion about their self-righteousness. They are now ready to hang their spirituality behind at home and go out for their daily business with zero spiritual impact on the world outside. 

Christ, on the other hand, climbed a hilltop at the crack of dawn from where He could see and pray for the city. He resonated with the Father, agonizing in prayer for the world, for His disciples that they might be one, for the lack of labourers in the harvest field and other burning issues related to the kingdom. By sunrise, He was ready to go into the world to empower His disciples, demolish the gates of Hell and extend and expand the Kingdom. A devotion which includes an early morning prayer walk, is a powerful time for resonating with the Father’s will, armouring yourself with spiritual weapons, then exercising your legal authority of imposing the kingdom agenda on Planet Earth. A devotion should not be open ended, but purpose driven and goal oriented so that by the end of the day you should be able to see how far you have extended the boundaries of the kingdom (Matt.6:9-11; Mark 1:35-39; Luke 13:33-35; 1John 5:14,15).

A cavalier and casual attitude towards the lost serves no purpose other than that of the Adversary. Learning kingdomization principles, best practices and discipling skills should occupy a healthy space in every believer’s daily agenda. 

Crusades are a Stronghold: Mega crusades are mega disasters as the mega-stars cater mostly to Christians who go for their own healing and deliverance instead of conducting mini healing and deliverance ministries in their own neighbourhood. When they do not receive their healing, they wait for the next crusade. In spite of astronomical claims, crusades have a minimal impact on church growth because they make no disciples and therefore have little lasting fruit. Today, there is more healing and deliverance conducted by the first generation of new converts in villages every day than by all the mass-merizers put together, who do not model the kingdom with their lifestyles. Much more could be done if the megabucks wasted on jamborees could reach the feet of the apostles out in the harvest fields (Rom.10:13-15).  

Critical Pathway: Discipling is not a one-time event but a rapid systematic process like a nuclear reaction. Yeshua went to the fig tree looking for fruit “out of season” (Mark 11:13). He said that the harvest no longer has to wait another four months, but is ready now (John 4:35). 

Paul trained Timothy to be instant. The gospel spread from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria and beyond at an incredible speed. The old paradigm of waiting for fruit in due season is no longer applicable (2Tim. 2:2; 4:2). Paul carpet-bombed the land with the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, including Damascus, Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia and Rome in just fourteen years’ of ministry.  (Rom.15:19,20). 

Today, the old paradigm of institutionalized churches baptizing on Easter Day and planting a few churches here and there is gone. Asia, Africa and South America are baptizing every day and planting ekklesias by the thousands.

There are several reasons for the dramatic changes:

1. A change of paradigm that the impossible is now possible. 

2. Unity among ekklesias pursuing a common vision rather than their own agendas. 

3. United and strategic prayer, prayer walking and concerts, along with dreams and visions.

4. Empowering of indigenous leaders from the two-thirds world.

5. Non-formal training. 

6. Goal setting. 

7. Completion thinking. 

8. Greater openness among other faiths. 

9. Persecution. 

10. The power of information and technology. 

Yahweh is doing some amazing things around the world today—very different and more significant than what we have seen in the past. What was impossible just a few years ago (or at least seemed impossible) we now talk of as very possible. (Steve Steele)

Paul, a theological scholar and a Pharisee, only became an effective missionary after he had learned discipling skills from Barnabas for a whole year in Antioch. He went to Cyprus, visited a synagogue at Paphos and established a Jewish ekklesia. He then went straight to catch the biggest fish in town, fought a spiritual battle, blinded the eyes of Elymas the sorcerer and opened the eyes of Governor Sergius, made him a disciple and changed Cyprus forever (Acts 13:6-12; Prov. 25:5). 

Like our Master, the greatest complement we can be paid is to be called “a friend of sinners.” We are called to shun sin but not sinners. How else can you change the world? (Matt. 11:19)

Paul’s ConsistenPaul trained Timothy to be instant. The gospel spread from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria and beyond at an incredible speed. The old paradigm of waiting for fruit in due season is no longer applicable (2Tim. 2:2; 4:2). Paul carpet-bombed the land with the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, including Damascus, Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia and Rome in just fourteen years’ of ministry.  (Rom.15:19,20). 

Today, the old paradigm of institutionalized churches baptizing on Easter Day and planting a few churches here and there is gone. Asia, Africa and South America are baptizing every day and planting ekklesias by the thousands.

There are several reasons for the dramatic changes:

1. A change of paradigm that the impossible is now possible. 

2. Unity among ekklesias pursuing a common vision rather than their own agendas. 

3. United and strategic prayer, prayer walking and concerts, along with dreams and visions.

4. Empowering of indigenous leaders from the two-thirds world.

5. Non-formal training. 

6. Goal setting. 

7. Completion thinking. 

8. Greater openness among other faiths. 

9. Persecution. 

10. The power of information and technology. 

Yahweh is doing some amazing things around the world today— very different and more significant than what we have seen in the past. What was impossible just a few years ago (or at least seemed impossible) we now talk of as very possible. (Steve Steele)

Paul, a theological scholar and a Pharisee, only became an effective missionary after he had learned discipling skills from Barnabas for a whole year in Antioch. He went to Cyprus, visited a synagogue at Paphos and established a Jewish ekklesia. He then went straight to catch the biggest fish in town, fought a spiritual battle, blinded the eyes of Elymas the sorcerer and opened the eyes of Governor Sergius, made him a disciple and changed Cyprus forever (Acts 13:6-12; Prov. 25:5). 

Like our Master, the greatest complement we can be paid is to be called “a friend of sinners.” We are called to shun sin but not sinners. How else can you change the world? (Matt. 11:19)t Missionary Method.

1.Paul always went to the synagogues first to extract the Jews and planted a Jewish church. They knew the scriptures but did not know that the Messiah had come (Acts 13:5; 17:1,10; 18:4, 19).

2.Then he would go to the Gentiles and power preached, through healing, deliverance and spiritual warfare with the local strongholds like Diana of Ephesus, the python spirit of Philippi, and so on. The Messianic Jews then mentored the Gentiles.

3.He would share the whole wisdom of Yahweh from house to house and publicly. Suffer persecution and leave (Acts 9:15,16;13:42-50; 20:20,27; 14;3; 2 Cor. 12:12).

4.He stayed in a strategic place and nurture multiple generations of disciples and then leave. Then his disciples went and proclaimed the gospel everywhere. (Acts 18:6-11; 19:8-10,22).

5.Later he would revisit them or send apostolic teams or write letters and appoint local elders (Acts 20:17; 14:23; Titus 1:5-9; 2Tim. 2:2; 1Thess. 1:8;). 

The Nimrod Syndrome: The fascination with bricks and mortar is not new. Nimrod built a tower to keep people from being “scattered over the face of the earth,” in direct rebellion to Yahweh’s command to “be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.” The modern day church buildings are a replica of Nimrod model, complete with confusion of communication between them. Yahweh wants us to scatter, not be confined in one place. Unlike the modern day, upward academic migration into oblivion, Paul’s cutting edge strategy focused on downward scattering to keep the growing edge growing. The harvest is at the growing edge, so neglecting it is a poor evangelistic strategy. 

The urgent task before the ekklesia is to make every Christian a disciple maker, and every disciple an ekklesia planter, and every Christian home a house ekklesia. (Alex Abraham)

Modern people live in an age of moral erosion, pollution, job related stress, terrorism and double standards, with a disposable income to finance this lifestyle. They cannot be saved in the traditional church because they live out their busy lives in malls and multiplexes, far removed from the church orbit. To be relevant, the church needs to constantly relocate herself to where the harvest is.  

For where your house is, there shall your ekklesia also be. Every child of Yahweh can have an ekklesia in his house. (Molong Nacua)

Love is a Bilateral Covenant and not just a Doctrine: All denominations are based on certain divisive doctrines, but the Christian faith is based on the person of Yeshua. He is the doctrine, “If you continue in My word, you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31,32). The early ekklesia was a runaway success because they were of “one accord” (Acts 1:14; 2:1,46).

To finish the task of world evangelism, Yeshua sanctified His disciples with the truth and released them (John 17:15-20). 

There are nineteen commands of Yeshua. The “love commands” He gave us are all kingdom expanders. Love the Father (Matt.22:37); love your neighbour (Mark 12:31); love your enemy (Matt 5:44) and love each other (John 13:34,35). To love only the Father is religiosity; to love only your neighbour is socializing.  If you do not ove your wife then your prayers will be hindered (1Peter 3:7). If you do not love your enemy then you cannot be perfect. The “one another’s” are mentioned over fifty times, and the house ekklesia is the best place for practicing them (Rom. 1210; 13:8).

Love is a bilateral covenant. There is no point in singing “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so” and conveniently forgetting that the Yeshua also tells you, “If you love Me then you will keep My commandments-Go and make disciples, baptize, equip and send” (John 14:21,23,24; 15:10,12; Matt. 28:19). 

The Fractured Mandate: After forty days of mountain top experience, Moses came down with the mandate written on stone tablets. The tablets were broken because Israel was already worshipping another god. Yahweh had to rewrite the mandate but first there was a painful cleansing. Three thousand were killed by the Levites (Exo. 32:28). Now Yahweh is writing His mandate on the hearts of the people. But first the church must repent. The mandate is no longer Law but Love (Heb. 9:10, 11). 

Embedded in this love mandate is obedience. “He who loves me keeps my commandments” (John 14:15). All these “love” commandments are fulfilled in obeying the Great Commission, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, equipping them (making them obedient) and sending them (as the Father has sent me so I send you) (Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8; John 20:21).

Yale and Harvard started as seminaries who taught students to have treasure in heaven. Today they are the top business schools. Their graduates influence global politics and economics to have treasure on earth which thieves steal and moth corrupt (Luke 12:31-34).

Yahweh is pouring out His Spirit on all flesh—men, women and children. He is now using ordinary men and women in small house ekklesias, short-term training courses and temporary networks of missions to catch the greatest harvest of all time.

The Golden Command to love Yahweh and our neighbours can only be fulfilled through the Great Commission (Luke 10:27). Authority and function must pass on to reformed sinners. 

The corporatization of our churches will embarrass even industry, which, because it is based on competition, gloats over success at the expense of others. It is founded on the world’s oldest motive—profit at any cost. The corporate culture of “winner takes all” must give way to a relational model of caring and sharing. (Basant Pawar/Richard Howell)

Praise and Worship as a Stronghold: Bishop Gregory of Rome, a disciplined man, did not like the Spirit-led, messy, organic ekklesias. In the 5th century, he organized worship through the “Order of Worship” consisting of a chant (now praise), followed by scripture lessons, a small sermon, announcements and dismissal (the Catholic Mass). This unscriptural Gregorian “Order of Worship”, is faithfully followed by all regardless of their doctrines. 

In an organized church, the pastor is an event manager. Spirit-led, spontaneous worship is out, and the man-made Gregorian Order of Worship is in. Meanwhile in an organic ekklesia, the discipling of seekers is the authentic praise and worship. 

In a Jewish Bet Midrash (house of study), popularly known as pilpeliya (hot pepper), people sit facing each other with the open Torah and literally yell at each other. In the Open ekklesia of the New Testament (1 Cor. 14:24-26), every one, including a non-believer speaks freely and frankly. The result is that he falls prostrate and repents, “Yahweh is truly amongst you,” thus adding new believers daily. The sacrifices of Yahweh are a broken spirit and a contrite heart (Acts 2:46,47; Psalm 51:17). 

In the OT, the Jews offered animals as a sacrifice for the expiation of their sins. The Jerusalem Temple was called a “House of Slaughter (sacrifice)” (2Chron. 7:12). How could Yahweh smell the acrid stench of burning fat and flesh and call it sweet smelling aroma? Simply because a soul that sinned had been saved from   real hellfire and brimstone. Now as Royal Priests we offer Gentiles as offerings, slain by the sword of the Spirit (1Peter 2:9; Rom. 12:1; 15:16; Heb. 4:12).  Ekklesia is now the altar where sinners are sanctified to be acceptable as sweet smelling offerings to the Father (1 Cor.14: 24,25; Isa 66:20; Mal.1:11).Entry into the Temple precinct without a sacrifice was prohibited to Jews during the three feasts (Exo. 23:14-16). The first time the word “worship” occurs in the Scriptures is when Abraham went to offer Isaac as korban (sacrifice) (Genesis 22:5).

Sacrifice (Latin: sacer facere) means to “to make sacred”. In Judaism and other religions, the sacrificer was redeemed by making a sacrifice but the victim perished. Now in Christ both we, the sacrificers and the repentant souls we offer as sacrifice are made sacred and redeemed. Yeshua himself was the sacrificer and the ultimate sacrifice. 

Worship without making disciples is a travesty of His command and what we do in His name in the church is a farce. 

Most Christians give lip service on Sundays and call it worship. The other six days of the week, body, mind and spirit are devoted to the worship of Mammon. Yeshua wants a daily offering of both your body and mind, outside the church, as a reasonable sacrifice (Heb.13:13,15; Rom. 12:1,2). In Athens, Paul’s spirit was stirred by the rampant idolatry he saw. He disputed with the Jews in the synagogue on the Sabbath and daily with the Gentiles in the market place. Yahweh does not need Sunday only Christians but 24x7 marketplace Christians (Acts 17:16,17).

Any human strategy can be short circuited through fasting, prayer, sackcloth and ashes and the effective use of gifts. 

The time and location has now shifted from the Jerusalem Temple to, “From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, incense (prayer) and pure offering (sanctified sinners) will be offered in Gentile homes” (Mal 1:11).  “Yahweh heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds.” The highest form of worship is not electric powered decibels inside the sacred buildings but Holy Spirit powered salvation of souls in the “ekklesia without walls” (Rev.5:9-10; Rom. 15:16; Psalm 147:3; 51:17; Luke 19:10; 15:7,10; Dan. 12:3; James 5:20). 

Offering sacrifices is central to worship. Cain, Abel, Abraham and their descendents offered them (Gen. 22:5; 2 Chron. 7:12; Deut. 16:16). Now the ekklesia is the altar where Jews (Isa 66:20,21), Gentiles (Rom. 15:16; Isa. 56:6-8), Muslims (Isa. 60:6,7) and even eunuchs (Isa 56:3-5) should be offered until Yahweh’s agenda, “All flesh shall come and worship Me” is fulfilled (Isa. 43:9; 52:10; 66:23).

The Ekklesia Must Pastor The Whole City: It is not necessary to go to church to connect with Yahweh, especially when your city is going to Hell. Discipling is connecting with people intellectually, socially, emotionally and spiritually. Why die like a worm inside a cocoon when you can stretch out and fly like a butterfly, cross-pollinating fruits and flowers and converting the desolate city into a fruitful garden? A pastor must shepherd his flock throughout the week to see that they are restoring their fallen city into Yerushalayim, the city of peace (Isa. 60:14, 21).

The traditional church is undergoing a planned obsolescence. It is being replaced by new wine in new wineskins. 

Redemption is not just for individuals but the whole of creation is travailing for the sons of Yahweh. Sadly, many do not even know that they are sons of Yahweh and are too busy to worry about the open rape of creation. Good intentions, visions and dreams are not enough. We must own our dreams and chase after them. Faith is not just a personal thing but is for sharing and thereby changing others’ faithscape. Inner reality without outward expression is worthless. “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (1 Pet. 3:15; Luke 6:45; John 1:12; Rom. 1:8; 8:19; 10:9,10).

Christianity is not about going to church but going to each house in the village and saying, “Peace to this house” (Luke 10:5).

Are You a Failed Pastor? If you are biologically mature, then you have all the chemistry to start a family. Similarly, if you are spiritually mature, you have all the gifts to start a “Shalom Bayit” or “House of Peace” and to offer peace offerings (Luke 10:6). If this is not happening, something is seriously wrong with your spiritual DNA. It would be better to change your mentors because the concept that you are a pastor, ordained to convert the secular into sacred, and accountable for the souls of the neighbours, workmates and fellow pilgrims that constitute your parish, has never been conveyed to you. You have failed to feed and shepherd them into the kingdom. They have no pastor other than you. You need to fix your chemistry with them and convert sceptics into your disciples (Gal. 6:4-6; Eze.3:18-21). 

The central point of worship in the OT was not the singing of endless songs with stringed musical instruments, but the offering of four-footed animals as a sacrifice. No one was allowed to come empty handed to the Temple (Deut 16:16).

The system has not changed much. Now you are a Royal Priest, made so by the blood of the Lamb, not by being ritualistically “ordained” (Rev. 5:9,10). Your business is to offer not four-footed animals, but two legged Gentiles (Rom. 15:16). Converting a “House of Prayer” into a “House of Zebach (sacrifice)” (Mark 11:17; 2Chron. 7:12; Mal. 1:11) is the core strategy given to every disciple by the Master himself (Luke 10:5-9). The more sacrifices you offer, the more fruit will abound in your account (Phil 4:17). 

The fruit-laden Gentile Samaritan woman did not sing any choruses. Fruitless, noisy churches have never heard “Be still and know that I am Yahweh. I will be exalted among the Gentiles” (Ps. 46:10).  

Calling a Royal Priest, a “Layman” is as much an outrageous act as calling him “Reverend,” a sacrilege of the worst kind. 

The Tragedy: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s “priesthood to the nations” had publicly challenged the might of the powerful Gentile king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, by defying his golden idol in the presence of his princes, governors, captains, judges and the rulers of the provinces. A visibly shaken and humbled Nebuchadnezzar issued a royal decree to people, nations and tongues that they should worship Yahweh of the Jews and became the greatest evangelist of the Old Testament (Dan. 3:29). 

Many Diaspora merchants and craftsmen who were present on the Day of Pentecost went and evangelized the greater part of the East travelling as far as Persia (Iran), India and China via the Silk Roads (Acts 2:5-11). Arbela and Edessa in northern Mesopotamia, Urfa in Turkey, Baghdad in Iraq and Cananore in India were all trading cities that provided a strategic springboard for the spread of Christianity. By AD 225 there were twenty bishoprics throughout the lands of the Magi. While Eastern Persia remained Buddhist, central Persia became Zoroastrian and the Western Jewish Persia converted to Christ until a merchant woman named Khadija married Mohammed, the founder of Islam, in the 7th century CE and changed the religious and political canvas. After the church’s insistence on using Syriac, a Semitic language like Aramaic, rather than using the local language, and its orthodoxy, ritualism, intolerance and ruthless exploitation, the draconian Islamic Sharia (law) came as a relief. The sons of Ishmael (Muslims) then overran the Bible lands including Jerusalem (AD 638) and decimated the followers of Isa Bin Maryam (Christians) for a millennium (Habak.1:5-11). 

The Messianic traders planted more ekklesias in history than the missionaries, who merely went and strengthened them.

9/11/2001 Boomerangs: The fundamentalists greatly rejoiced at the demolition of the World Trade Centre. Since then, the media has highlighted only violence and negatives. But in reality, the Bible lands are on the boil because the Egyptians, Iraqis, Iranians, Afghans, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Sudanese, Saudis, Kurds, Turks and Ethiopians are turning to Christ in numbers unimaginable, the majority since 9/11. Mongolia alone grew from five Christians to 50,000 first generation Christians in just one decade. There is a mushrooming of house ekklesias because of radio, satellite TV and Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of Christ, which is seen as anti-Semitic. However, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, as people are seeing dreams and visions of Isa Al Masih and coming to Christ in large numbers. (Joel C. Rosenberg)   

  

Soon Gog and Magog will attack Israel for the apocalyptic war. Before that happens we must raise up the tabernacle of the greater son of David in the Bible lands which are currently in the possession of the Jehadi sons of Ishmael  (Isa. 60:6,7; Amos 9:12). 

According to the Quran, no one can be a perfect Muslim (surrendered) without acknowledging the divinity of Isa Al Masih. However, the established church is the biggest obstacle to their doing this. Identifying with it can be both futile and fatal. Abraham offered a ram for Isaac. It is now time for the multitude of rams of Kedar and Nebaioth, the sons of Ishmael, to be offered on the holy altar, to glorify His house of glory (Isa. 60:6,7). We need culture sensitive “People of the Book” who can disciple them, using their sacred texts as bridges. (Abul/Asgar Ali)

Our Jewish Inheritance: Yeshua was a Jew. He only had the Tanakh (Old Testament) and fulfilled all the Ten Commandments of the Torah. Yeshua had come to fulfil the Covenant, not to destroy it (Matt. 5:17,18). He wept over Jerusalem and said that He would not return until the Jews say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of Adonai” (Luke 13:34,35).  Yahweh said that the Jews are the apple of His eye (Zech. 2:8). Notwithstanding that, the Jews suffered the worst persecution in history. We can blame them for being responsible for the murder of Yeshua and bringing a curse upon themselves, “Let His blood be upon us and upon our children” (Matt. 27:25), but that is neither helpful nor Christian. 

Sadly, the Christians were silent during the worst holocausts, inquisitions and pogroms, and at times they actively killed the Jews through the Crusades and in other horrible ways. Today the Jews are a house divided. The Reform Jews focus on Yahweh, the Orthodox on the Torah and the Conservatives on Israel. Most Zionists are secular. Whatever the shade of their faith, they are all united on possessing Aretz Yisrael, the land of Israel. Paul said the Gospel is for the salvation of the Jews first, and that all Israel will be saved. All the early churches were Jewish and it was only later the Goyim (Gentiles) were added. Paul says that the destiny of the wild Gentile church is inextricably tied up with the Jews as we are grafted onto the cultivated Jewish olive tree and draw life-giving sap from her roots. Today there are about 20,000 Messianic Jews in Israel and probably half a million worldwide (Rom. 1:16; 11:17, 26).

The Feasts of the Lord were ordained by the Lord. They were not just for the Jews but have their fulfilment in the church: 

1. The Feast of Passover was given to Israel but it depicts the Messiah’s death on Calvary for the sins of the world. Clearly, its provision goes beyond Israel. 

2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was given to Israel but it depicts the fact that the Lord’s body would not decay in the grave. Again, a crucial Church doctrine.

3. The Feast of First Fruits was given to Israel. It depicts the Lord’s triumphal resurrection. It is because He lives that believers also live.

4. The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) was given to Israel but it depicts the birth of the Church through the New Covenant. Believing Jews and believing Gentiles become one in the Messiah.

5. The Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12:1-3) was made with the father of the Jewish nation but it is the source and wellspring of every blessing the church possesses.

6. The Davidic covenant (2Sam 7:8-16) was made with Israel’s king, but it is the basis of the Messiah’s return as the Son of David to take his rightful throne as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

7. The New Covenant was made with Israel (Jer. 31:31; Matt. 26:28), but the Church has entered into its provision for salvation.

8. The Lord’s Table was initiated with the elements of the Jewish Passover, with Jewish disciples, but it is an ordinance of the Church.

9. The command to evangelize the world was given to the eleven Jewish disciples (Matt. 28:16-20), but it is commonly known as “The Great Commission of the Church.” 10.                                  The Church is built upon the foundation of Jewish apostles and prophets. Yeshua, a Jew, is the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20). 

(Marvin J Rosenthal - The Feasts of the Lord, published by Nelson)

There are seven mandatory feasts ordained by the Lord. The four Spring feasts have already been fulfilled in Yeshua. 

1. Passover was fulfilled when Yeshua was offered as the Pascal Lamb. The Communion service is only a memorial. 

2. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Jewish family has to remove every trace of leaven, a sign of corruption from the house. The church needs to do the same.

3. The Feast of Firstfruits reminds us that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it cannot multiply (John 12:24). 

4. Shavuot: Pentecost (fifty), is the name given by the Christians. The Jews call it Hag Ha Katsir, “The Feast of Reaping and Gathering the harvest” based on Exo. 23:16. On that day Yahweh gave the Torah (Law) to Israel on Mount Sinai and Yeshua gave the Holy Spirit to the ekklesia to “reap and gather the harvest”. The Book of Ruth is read extensively on that day as her life was related to gleaning the harvest. It is a day when people like Ruth, a despised Moabite, should be saying to us,“Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.” Pentecost should be celebrated with dip-tizing people by the thousands. (Ruth 1:16)   

The three Feasts yet to be fulfilled are: 

5. The Feast of Trumpets depicts the second coming of Yeshua when the church will be raptured in the twinkling of an eye and the wicked will be judged (1 Cor. 15:52). 

6. The Day of the Atonement comes 15 days after the shofar is blown, a period of grace for repentance before the Book of Life is closed forever (Zech. 12:9,10; Rom. 11:25,256; Matt. 25:31-34). 

7. During The Feast of Tabernacles, the Jews erect temporary booths and live in them for a week reminding them of their stay in the wilderness. The Messiah will one day tabernacle among men, wiping away their tears and ushering in the new Kingdom. This Feast will be celebrated throughout eternity, as all flesh will go to Jerusalem to worship the King (Rev. 21:3-7; Zec. 14:16-18; Isa. 66:23).

It is time to junk the unbiblical man-made Christmas, Good Friday and Easter and restore the original Yahweh ordained “My Feasts” and their deeper significance in the church calendar (Lev. 23:2).

The scriptural symbol of ultimate peace, tranquillity, security and abundance of fruitfulness is a man sitting with his neighbour under his own vine and fig tree (Micah 4:4; Zech. 3:10).

The age old disconnect between the sons of Isaac and Ishmael cannot be solved by keeping the communal pot boiling as the present rulers are doing. Messianic Jews and their bloodline cousins, the Messianic Arabs, must come to each other’s homes and eat Challah, the double braided bread offered at the temple, symbolic of the intertwining of Jews and Gentiles. World evangelism will not happen without factoring in the redemption of the Jews. (Rom. 10:19;11:11; Acts 20:20,27). The Gentile church must provoke the Jews to jealousy and pray for Jerusalem’s shalom to bring back Mashiach Ben Dawid to sit on His Father’s throne (Ps.122; Act 2:30).

Christianity is a corporate manifesto and is not just a personal, feel good program. Israel had a strong sense of ethnic identity and peoplehood. It is not, I/Thou but We/Thou. (David H. Stern)

Organizational Strongholds: Missions build structures believing they will last forever. But once they lose their first love for Yeshua and survival becomes their aim, He chooses others to finish the task. Institutions have to find resources for salaries, pensions, housing, education, medical care, travel, death relief etc. “To our shame, the US churches give only two cents out of every dollar for overseas missions, which is less than what they gave during the Great Depression” (Gene Edward Veith).  

Institutions also require an electoral process for electing their officials, where money, muscle, booze and other sins abound.  Today, the Lord is using volunteers and short-term networks to finish the task.  Election by handpicked ballot is scriptural, cheap, time saving and effective (Acts 1:26).