We gather because Christ gave gifts to the church, and those gifts are how we grow into maturity. We come to give and to receive, reciprocating the anointing, because we all carry a gift from the Lord for the body of Christ. Every time we get together, it's a gift exchange.
Ephesians 4 gives the clearest picture of why we come together.
"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children." (Ephesians 4:11-14, NLT)
Christ gave gifts to the church: the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher. Why did God set it up this way instead of just telling me everything in my prayer closet? Because God set it up that way, and the sooner we stop fighting against how God set things up, the quicker we live in that easy yoke and light burden.
When we come together, we get to partake of those gifts, and what do those gifts do? They mature us. How many of us need to be built up, need to be steadfast instead of tossed around? You don't get there without the gifts Christ gave to the church. We need to partake of them, and that's why we come.
I'm thankful to receive from the gift, and it's clear to me that I carry the gift of the apostle that Christ gives to the church. I'm a gift deliverer, and delivering that gift to you is kind of like throwing food at you while I'm fixing my own plate at the same time. We didn't come here to eat lunch, even though by the end some of us are ready to get on with it.
The way you know a gift is active isn't a title someone claims, it's whether the people under that leadership are maturing. There's a lie that's gone around the body of Christ that says if someone is a real evangelist or prophet, you'll just know, they won't have to tell you. That's not true, and it's almost like the enemy wants you to disqualify anyone who identifies their gift so you won't receive from it.
Look at Paul.
"This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 1:1, NLT)
If anybody didn't need to prove himself, it would be the Apostle Paul, and yet he still told people plainly what he carried. If you Google how to know someone's an apostle, you'll read that they have to be an eyewitness of the resurrection of Christ. Paul wasn't an eyewitness of the resurrection, so what does that tell you about that qualification?
Another supposed requirement is signs and wonders, but that's not a qualification for apostles specifically. That's a qualification for believers. Those signs are supposed to follow all of us who believe, so don't push that off onto the apostles and let yourself off the hook.
The real indicator is this: is the body under that person's leadership maturing? Have you noticed that the things we used to fuss about last year, we're not fussing about anymore? That's how you know the gifts are active in your midst.
We're not waiting for the blessing to come, we've already been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we're united with Christ.
"This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God's holy people at No Limits Church, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ." (Ephesians 1:1-3, NLT)
It says Ephesus in the text, but we're taking that as written to us today. Why do you think Jesus prayed, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"? Because He already had it in heaven, and He was working on bringing it here the same way.
I already have all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms. Now it's my responsibility to believe it so I can see it here on earth. First I have to recognize I already have it, and not because I see it, but because the Word told me I already have it.
We take what's already ours in the spiritual realm and make it visible by speaking words of faith without doubt. The spiritual realm is more real than the physical realm because the spiritual realm created the physical realm. An invisible God spoke invisible words, and then what's visible came into reality from the invisible.
You have the authority to take what's in the spiritual realm and make it visible, and the way we do that is by speaking. Not empty words, not words of doubt and unbelief, not words backed by unsurity, but confident words. This is the Word of God and this is how it shall be, period, end of story.
God didn't say "let there be light" and then hope light would come. There was no doubt in it. You can have faith without doubt, because the faith of God is already inside you. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside you, so there's no lack of faith in your spirit. The problem is your mind, your thoughts, which is why we have to be transformed by the renewing of our minds for our faith to actually work.
If you've spoken to something and nothing happened, go back to that moment. There was some unsurity there, some wavering you didn't want to admit to. If there's not 100% confidence in what you spoke, there's wavering going on, and the Bible says don't expect to receive anything from God when you're wavering.
Doubt is what made Peter start sinking, not the wind or the waves. Remember when Peter asked Jesus to call him out onto the water. Jesus said come, Peter got out there and started walking, and then his mind got in the way and he started to sink.
Whatever you want to call it, doubt or unbelief, he walked out in faith, and the moment doubt crept in, he began to sink. What's interesting is that Jesus was right there with him, and even Jesus's faith couldn't override Peter's unbelief. Jesus still rescued him, but He had to touch him to do it.
That's why it's so important that when we need help, we run to the throne room of grace, because His hand is always there for us to reach out to. We get ourselves into trouble when we're sinking and, usually out of pride, we won't run to God and ask for help. We say, "But I was believing."
In those moments where you find yourself sinking, and you will find yourself there, it's important to wire your response to be "God, I need help." Whenever you lay down the whole trying-to-impress-God thing, this becomes a lot easier. If you're trying to impress Him with your faith when you really need help, you're just delaying your own answer.
God chose and loved us before we ever chose Him, and He did it because it gave Him pleasure, not because He was obligated to.
"Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure." (Ephesians 1:4-5, NLT)
There's so much about Ephesians that's identity for us. You need to see yourself as having every spiritual blessing, as holy and without fault, as loved because God chose to love you before you ever chose Christ. You need to see yourself the way God does.
Nobody twisted God's arm to get you into the kingdom. God's will is that not anyone should perish, and He made it so simple that if anybody goes to hell, it was not God sending them there, it was them sending themselves there, because God set a choice before them. He gave people the ability to choose, and He's bound to His own word since He gave us dominion over this earth.
Don't look at the foolishness that goes on in the earth and blame it on God. That's the free will of man making a mess of things. But God works all things together for the good of those who love Him.
"So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. He showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding." (Ephesians 1:6-8, NLT)
He gave us grace, kindness, wisdom, and understanding. If you see God as harsh, you need your mind renewed by this scripture today, because it just told us He has showered His kindness on us. We have to see God as kind and merciful, because that's who He is.
"God has now revealed to us His mysterious will regarding Christ, which is to fulfill His own good plan. And this is the plan: at the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ, everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan." (Ephesians 1:9-11, NLT)
He makes everything work out according to His plan. Nobody can mess it up, not even in the midst of the free will He gave mankind. Some of you need to get your attention off the mistakes you've made in the past, because God is going to work it out.
Instead of saying "I shouldn't have done that," say "God's going to work it out." Instead of "I wish I wouldn't have," say "He's going to rescue me, because He's showering me with kindness, and goodness and mercy are following me all the days of my life."
"So God's purpose was that we Jews, who were the first to trust in Christ, would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him." (Ephesians 1:12-14, NLT)
Don't discount the Holy Spirit, because He's your guarantee. If you don't have the Holy Spirit, you don't have that guarantee, and it's worth noting that blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the one thing Scripture describes as having no repentance from it. I love the Holy Spirit. I'm so grateful He's been given to us.
Paul prayed that we would have spiritual wisdom, a heart flooded with light, and a real understanding of the hope and power available to us.
"Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God's people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called, His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance." (Ephesians 1:15-18, NLT)
God looks at you and says, "My holy people. My rich and glorious inheritance." Our inheritance is getting our glorified bodies and spending eternity with Him. His inheritance is getting us, and God is looking forward to that union just as much, maybe even more, than we are.
One of our prayers should be, "God, help me match my expectation and excitement of that union to what Yours is."
"I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms, far above any ruler or authority or power or leader in this world or the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is His body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with Himself." (Ephesians 1:19-23, NLT)
If Paul had to pray this for the church, it's because we'd have a little trouble grasping the incredible greatness of God's power. His power isn't just power in general, it's power for us, for the benefit of the body of Christ. It didn't just raise Jesus from the dead, it took Him up and seated Him far above, not barely above, but far above, meaning there's no match for Christ.
Nothing in your life is big when you see it from His perspective. When you're up in an airplane looking down, houses look like specks on the ground. That's how we should see our challenges when we get the right vantage point, not impressed by what we're seeing down here.
Some of you just need to escape into prayer and say, "Jesus, I'm coming where You are," because down here it can look ugly and scary, but from far above it's just not impressive.
Christ is seated far above every ruler, power, and authority, so no problem, sickness, or opposing power gets to intimidate us. I want to read this same passage again, this time in the Amplified translation, because it stacks up even more descriptive language.
"For I always pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, of insight into mysteries and secrets in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints, His set-apart ones. And so that you can know and understand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in us and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, above every title that can be conferred, not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come." (Ephesians 1:17-21, Amplified Bible)
May we understand the immeasurable, unlimited, surpassing greatness of His power, not diminishing it in any way, but stepping into the fullness of it. May we actually measure up to the name we've been named, No Limits Church.
God has put all things under the authority of Christ. Did you catch that, all things? So whatever that sickness or situation is you're dealing with, God has put it under the authority of Christ, and Christ has already spoken over it: no.
"And He has put all things under His feet and has appointed Him the universal and supreme head of the church, a headship exercised throughout the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. For in that body lives the full measure of Him who makes everything complete and who fills everything everywhere with Himself." (Ephesians 1:22-23, Amplified Bible)
Within the body of Christ lives the full measure of Christ. I want us to value the body of Christ the way He values it, to see how full and complete it is, because it's His body, and everything we need is right here. Look around, it's right here.
I've noticed that God sends the right person across our path at the right time, weaving it together in a way that's impossible for us to orchestrate ourselves, and that extends beyond just the people who gather here, because the body of Christ is all the churches together.
The church is where the fullness of Christ gets released to us, and staying away from it heals nothing. God loves to load you down daily with benefits, and it pleases Him to do great things for you. The connection point between us and Him is faith, believing, and we have to believe He wants to do great things for us before that flow opens up.
He's already blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, but He wants it here, on earth as it is in heaven, and that's why we pray that prayer. This isn't a put-down on people who didn't see a healing or a breakthrough come to pass in this life. We're all working toward renewing our minds together.
If a loved one passed away while believing God for healing and it didn't come to pass, we don't go down the road of wondering why it didn't work for them, because that invites doubt and unbelief into your own life. Instead, our thought should be, "Lord, teach me, something was missed here, help me be more effective going forward," instead of blaming God. That's what humility sounds like.
The church is full of imperfect people. I've said things that made people mad, and I didn't even apologize, and that's not a reason to go tell the internet about your church hurt. I understand people hurt people, I've been hurt, you've been hurt, we've all been hurt, but we're all learning how to love better, and that's why we have to be patient with each other's faults.
Quit blaming other people for your hurt. Staying away heals nothing. It's true, you've got to be in the body, because that's where the help is.
God leads us, He never pressures us, and if you're feeling rushed into a decision, that pressure isn't coming from Him. The world pressures you all the time. Money, or the lack of it, pressures you. Peer pressure is real, and even your body will pressure you when you're hungry and trying to fast.
Have you ever noticed how God does not pressure you? He leads you, but He doesn't pressure you, and our biggest hindrance to being led by the Spirit is the pressure around us. It could be money pressure, a boss, or whoever is exerting the most pressure, and we've been trained to respond by bowing to whoever pressures us hardest.
You could be holding on for a long time, but if the pressure becomes intense enough while the Holy Spirit is trying to lead you, and the Holy Spirit never leads through pressure, you'll probably take the wrong road if you let that pressure remain. You have to step back and say, "I refuse to be pressured." When pressure is allowed to stay, it hinders our ability to follow the Spirit.
You have to learn to look pressure in the face and say, "No, I don't submit to that, I submit to one." There are even pastors and church leaders who pressure their people to give or to do things, and God doesn't lead that way, so I refuse to lead that way.
You have to give up people-pleasing to be led by the Spirit, because pleasing people is a dangerous trap and fearing the Lord is what keeps you safe. I got a revelation of this while watching everybody bow to pressure during COVID. Even people you'd never expect to bow to pressure were bowing, and I was asking the Lord what that was about.
What He taught me through that is He said, "Have you realized that I don't control people?" Anytime control is going on, that's not Him. That's a good thing for us to realize, because anytime somebody is trying to control us, we can say goodbye to that, since we only listen to one.
"Pleasing people is a dangerous trap, but fearing the Lord means safety." (Proverbs 29:25)
Father, we thank You for Your word. Help people identify the areas where they're being pressured and controlled so they can take authority over that. Help them rise up in the incredible greatness of Your power that You've given them.
Help us leave here encouraged just knowing we're only responsible for following one, and that's You. We have ears to hear and hearts that understand, hearts flooded with light so that as we hear, we do, but we don't fill in the blanks or make up things. We can trust that what You're showing us to do is what we need to do, and what You're not showing us is something we don't need to worry about.
We thank You that Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light. For the areas where we've made it hard and heavy, we repent of that and ask You to reveal what change needs to be made. In Jesus's name, amen.
Why do we go to church every Sunday instead of just praying at home? Because Christ gave gifts to the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and their job is to equip and mature God's people. I told you if you show up expecting something from God, He'll give it to you every time, even if the message or the preacher isn't at their best. God set it up this way rather than just speaking to each of us privately.
What are the five gifts Christ gave to the church? Based on Ephesians 4:11-14, the gifts are the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher. Their job is to equip God's people to do His work and build up the church until we all reach maturity in Christ.
How do you know if someone actually has a spiritual gift like apostle or pastor? The real indicator isn't a title or a claim, it's whether the people under that person's leadership are maturing over time.The Apostle Paul is an example, because Paul openly named his own gift so no one would miss it, even though he didn't need to prove himself.
What does it mean that Christ is seated "far above" in Ephesians 1? It means Christ is seated far above every ruler, authority, power, and leader, in this age and the age to come, with no match for Him. Don't be impressed by darkness or by any earthly problem, because from that vantage point, our challenges look small.
Why did Peter start sinking when he walked on water? Peter was walking fine until doubt got in through his mind, and the moment unsurity crept in, he began to sink. Even Jesus's faith couldn't override Peter's unbelief, though Jesus still reached out and rescued him.
What does it mean that we are God's inheritance? While our inheritance is eternity with God, God's inheritance is us, and He's looking forward to that union possibly even more than we are. This comes from Ephesians 1:18, which calls God's holy people "His rich and glorious inheritance."
Why doesn't God pressure people into decisions? God leads but never pressures, and that pressure, whether from money, a boss, or people, is what causes us to bow to the wrong voice instead of following the Spirit. The Holy Spirit never leads through pressure, so if you feel rushed into a decision, that rushing isn't coming from God.
How do I stop being controlled or pressured by other people? You have to give up people-pleasing to be led by the Spirit, and I shared that God told me directly, "I don't control people," meaning any control being exerted over you isn't coming from Him either. Proverbs says pleasing people is a dangerous trap, while fearing the Lord means safety.
