My Church (eBook)

Dr. Kevin Drury (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
172 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-1348-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Like those before him, Jesus was given the blueprint from the Father that was used to build his indestructible church. He has stated that hell's gates would never prevail against his church, as it would be indestructible. With Kevin Drury's eleventh book, dive into the question to see if your church is being built according to God's blueprint.

Kevin Drury was gloriously saved in a Motel 6 second-story room in Yuma, AZ. Kevin was pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a Major League Baseball player at Spring Training in the San Diego Padres AA camp. Jesus had His dream for Kevin. It was April 1980 when Jesus metaphorically walked into Kevin's room one night and introduced Himself to him. Kevin immediately surrendered to Jesus and was born again by His Spirit. That encounter began the process of transformation that is ongoing to this day. Kevin is a passionate disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ who is passionate about discipling others to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Kevin believes Christ is Heaven's model and every Christian's role model for life and ministry. Kevin believes training, equipping, and activating Christians in the Biblical lifestyle of purity and power is paramount to the church Jesus is building growing up in all things into the Head of the church. Through the Revolution Movement, Kevin continues to follow Jesus while leading others to follow Him and discover His purpose for their lives. Kevin is the author of ten books: Welcome To The Wilderness, Leaving The Land Of Your Limitations, Christianity The Way Jesus Lived It, Promises And Prayers For Our Posterity. Sermon On The Mount, and Devotional For Disciples [Based on SOTM], Who Is The Israel Of God, Jesus and Jerusalem, Impact Of Impartation, and The Corporate Man. Along with the Bible, these books and other materials Kevin is writing are being used to equip the saints to do the work of Jesus' ministry. Contact Kevin at [e-mail] for information about his books, ministry, or to inquire about his availability to minister to you or at an event you are hosting.

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Like those before him, Jesus was given the blueprint from the Father that was used to build his indestructible church. He has stated that hell's gates would never prevail against his church, as it would be indestructible. With Kevin Drury's eleventh book, dive into the question to see if your church is being built according to God's blueprint. Just because a church or denomination has been around for a long time does not mean it has or will overcome the gates of hell. Do sin and illness run rampant in your church? Are signs, wonders, and miracles a regular occurrence? The answer to these questions can be telling and can reveal whether your church is one true to Jesus' blueprints.

Textauszug

1

Jesus: The Builder

“I will build My church!”

Have you ever asked someone what their church was like? Has anyone asked you what your church was like? When I pastored, I was asked that question a lot. Usually, what they were asking was, “Is your church Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, King James only,” or some other label to help them assess whether they wanted to visit or not, or just have a way to understand what they view church as being?

My answer was, “If Jesus did it or gave us permission to do it, that is what kind of church we are.”

Jesus said that He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. What kind of building is Jesus building? Is what Jesus is building even a building? Those are some of the questions we will investigate in the pages that follow.

Jesus only mentioned church two times. He mentioned the kingdom of God nearly fifty times and the kingdom of heaven nearly thirty times. Matthew is the only Gospel writer to use the phrase kingdom of heaven. So, Jesus was more interested in teaching kingdom values than church values. When Jesus did mention the church, He said that He would build it,1 and He wanted it to be kept pure.2

Here is Matthew’s context of Jesus’ statement that He would build His church.

Matthew 16

“13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’”

Jesus also referenced Himself as the Son of Man much more than He did the Son of God. Caesarea Philippi was located near the foot of Mount Hermon, which is now known as Northern Israel. Jesus was leading His disciples to a place of personal accountability. I find it interesting how He leads off His questioning them with, “Who do the people say that the Son of Man is?” They responded that the people said the Son of Man is one of the prophets from their history.

“14 And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ 15 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’”

Right then and there Jesus gets to the point of His pointed questions. “Who do you say that I am?” Who do you say Jesus is? It really does not matter who others say He is. What matters is who you say He is to you. Jesus is forcing them to face what they believe about their Messiah who “was to come.” And He continues to force people to decide who He is to them.

Have you ever witnessed to someone and they brought up some obscure, or hypothetical person who lives in the jungles of the Amazon, or some other remote place on the planet? When that happens to me, I always say, “I am not talking to them, I am talking to you. What do you believe about Jesus and what are you going to do with Jesus?”

Jesus takes this issue from a generality to a specificity. Has He done that with you regarding your relationship to Him? Jesus may start conversations with people in generalities, but eventually He gets to the point where He is poking them. My wife sometimes puts her pointer finger in the cartilage of my rib cage. Most of the time it is in fun but there have been times when she was after a specific response from me. Jesus does not have a boney finger, but He can and does stick His finger in places that force us to respond to Him.

Jesus said, “If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”1 Jesus has a finger, and He will get to stuff with His finger.

Jesus was putting His finger on something in the belief system of those He called to be His disciples. Disciples of Jesus are not just learners. Cults have disciples who learn the teaching of the founder of that cult. Disciples of Jesus want to become like Jesus. They are not just interested in what He says. They are interested in Him. What He teaches, or what He says to them, is the path in the process of becoming transformed by Him, not His teachings. Jesus’ teachings are to reveal Him to us. We do not stop with His teachings.

He said this to the Jews, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;”1 What are you learning about Jesus when you read the Scriptures? One thing you should learn is you are finished! If Jesus is your Lord, if you have been to the cross, then His finished work has finished you.

Paul’s revelation is this. “You are complete [finished] in Him [Christ].”2 When you couple that to this revelation, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren,”3 you realize salvation is a process that takes a person from spiritual bankruptcy [unsaved] to spiritual maturity. To me, that is what working out your salvation with fear and trembling is all about.

Christian disciples do not relate to a dead leader. Ours has been raised from the dead, and is alive and well in every realm in creation. The real issue is this: Is Jesus alive and well in you?

“16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”

Peter answered correctly. How he came to get the correct answer is critical to anyone understanding Christ’s real identity and purpose.

“17 And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

It takes a revelation from the Father to see who Jesus is. Natural observation and education will never do what God does through piercing through every false perception a person has about Jesus. Jesus immediately affirmed Peter, what he said, and how he received the information he blurted out. In essence, Jesus said, “You did not get this from studying the Old Testament or from anything that you did. You got this by a download directly from heaven.”

We need to be alert, attentive, awake, and aware of what heaven is constantly releasing to us. What God reveals to us about Jesus will lead us into a revelation of who we are in Jesus.

“18 I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.’”

Peter received a revelation from Jesus concerning his identity after God gave him a revelation of Jesus’ identity. You could say, “After Peter saw who Jesus was he saw who he was!” It is imperative to know who Jesus really is so we can be introduced to who we really are. I put it this way: Until you know whose you are, you will not know who you are. Until you know who you are, you will not know why you are. Until you know why you are, you will not know where you are. And until you know where you are, you will not know why you are where you are.

Peter said to Jesus after God revealed who He was, “You are!” Jesus then turned it around and said to Peter, “You are!” No one can become something or someone God has not called them, “You are!” The moment God says to you, “You are,” you are who He says you are even if you are not manifesting who He says that you are.

In the kingdom of God context, image is everything!

Having a correct identity and image is crucial to us manifesting who God says that we are. When God reveals identity to us, He is releasing His purpose for us. And that is crucial to being part of the church Jesus is building.

Jesus is so confident in who He is, He says of Himself, “I AM!” And He is the Head of the body, His church. Are you so confident in who you are, in who He says you are, that you can say, “I am?”

“I am God’s son [daughter]!”1

“I am royalty!”2

“I am strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!”3

“I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus!”4

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ!”1

“By the grace of God, I am what I am!”2

The moment we settle this issue in our heart everything else that conflicts with us, begins to settle. If you do not know who you are in Him, you need to stop the presses and press into Him. As you press into Him you will find you, because if Jesus is your Lord, you are in Him!

What I understand Jesus to be saying when He said, “I will build My church,” is this:

I will build My church My way!

I will build My church the way I want My church to be built!

I know how to build My church and I will build it to endure every attack hell brings against it!

He is the One who said, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.”3 We would do well to do it His way. For many years I believed that verse was saying, “God is so superior to you that you will never attain what He has.” That verse is not saying that. To me, that verse is an invitation to a promotion. To me, that verse is saying, “I am superior to you, your thoughts, and your ways, so why don’t you come up here and see what I see the way that I see...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.8.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-1348-2 / 9798317813482