Post by Zac Loh on Jan 13, 2011 2:23:02 GMT -5
DISCIPLING AFRICA: THE THREE PAIRS OF TWO GREATEST COMMS
The principle of “two or three” runs through the whole Bible:
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Matthew 18:16-20; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28 (Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15).
1. THE TWO GREATEST COMMANDMENTS
Vertical Love and Horizontal Love
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandment is: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31; underline mine)
Jesus had stated it unequivocally: the first should be the first, and the second should be following the first. This means that we love God above others and ourselves, because the first greatest commandment is to love God, and the second greatest commandment is to love others as ourselves.
Once the first greatest commandment is fulfilled, God will pour our His love into us.
... the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5)
The love of God poured into our hearts enables us to fulfil the said second greatest commandment …to love others as ourselves. The sequence is such, because we are to love others with God’s divine love and not merely by our own human love.
The `agape’ divine love is superior to any other human love.
The love of God poured into us, is powerful. This love is supernatural. That’s why the greatest commandment has to be first …and the second has to be second.
2. THE TWO GREATEST COMMUNICATIONS
The Prayer Of Divine Devotion
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13)
God is asking us to call Him our Father. What a privilege people we are!
Jesus said that, if our earthly father is good, how much more our heavenly Father is! If we are having a good relationship with our earthly Father, how much more we can have with our heavenly Father!
When God invites us to call Him, `Father,’ He meant to fulfil one hundred percent of it! God created the concept of fatherhood. God is not a hypocrite, nor is He a liar. When He asks us to call Him `Father,’ He will be a real Father to us... every good meaning of that word!
Our earthly father can do only so much. Our heavenly Father is not subject to time, nor limited by resources. He intends to fulfil the whole role of the father to us. Even with billions of sons, our heavenly Father will not be a little less to us. He intends to fulfil the full measure, and every aspect of a father to each, and every one, of us.
He is our Father. There is a belonging. Do you have the sense of belonging to your heavenly Father? By the Spirit in our hearts, once we get connected to our heavenly Father, the sense of belonging to our heavenly Father will be there. It is powerful. He really is our Father!
Many have said that relationship with God is the most important thing, but using the word `relationship’ is not good enough.
`Relationship’ is not a magic word; it does not work by merely mouthing it. How then do we cultivate and build a relationship with God? Is there a concrete, firm and sure way?
It is The Lord’s Prayer. This is what Jesus had personally prescribed. It is like He saying, “This is the way.”
There are many prayers in the Bible, but the `mother’ of all prayers is The Lord’s Prayer. All other prayers are originated, or derived, from the Lord’s Prayer.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 2 … 14)
The power of prayer is in the knowing of the person whom we are praying to. Who knows the Father more than the Son? Jesus, Who was the Word before time as we know it, Who was with the Father before time as we know it, Who was full of grace and truth, certainly had the ultimate truth, even on prayer.
The truth on prayer given by Jesus would have been the best.
The prayers of Abraham, Moses, Nehemiah, David, Daniel and all the other Old Testament figures; would pale in comparison.
Jesus has patterned for us `how to pray.’ He did not merely teach about prayer. He modelled it for us. And now, we are to pattern after Him for others. The goal is to pray it – like Jesus prayed it. To pray like Jesus prayed, I have to be like He was, when he was on earth. So, this prayer is not exclusive of all His other messages and teachings – because He lived those messages and teachings - those messages and teachings were a mirror of His own living while He was on earth.
More than anything, The Lord’s Prayer is a heart attitude. What God wants is a sincere prayer which will gradually determine our heart attitude. The goal of The Lord’s Prayer is to pray like the Lord prayed it.
The Prayer Of Divine Disposition
The meanings of the word `disposition’ as defined by Merriam-Webster are “the act or the power of disposing or the state of being disposed” and “prevailing tendency, mood, or inclination”.
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
(John chapter 17)
Every minister of the Word and every intercessor most know this prayer, well. This is the Father’s view and the Father’s heart. This is the divine worldview. This is the divine mandate from heaven.
Let’s summarize and break down this priestly prayer of Jesus.
There are at least two angles of truth to this prayer. I like to introduce this particular point of view of the truth of the greatest priestly prayer:
i) Eternal Life
The Son receives glory when there are many other sons. Every time, a soul saved, heaven rejoice, and the Son is glorified. And, in turn, the Son will glorify the Father in heaven.
We are to preach the Gospel to every creature. Every person deserves to hear the Gospel at least once. But eternal life is holy and precious. It is the deposit and seal of the Holy Spirit within the soul.
Jesus enlightened us so as not to give what is holy to dogs nor cast precious pearls to swine – the foolish and the unappreciative. Upon rejection of the Gospel bearer or the rejection of the Gospel itself, Jesus instructed us to shake off the dust from our feet – meaning to move-on.
So, while preaching the Gospel is universal, the release of eternal life is selective to those whose heart are receptive and ready - even though there is no guarantee that those who received eternal life will last in the long run, because there is the exercise of the free will of each person.
ii) Oneness
The unity of the church is through oneness.
Firstly, it is oneness with God. Secondly, it is oneness with each other. This fits in perfectly with the truth of The First Greatest Commandment and The Second Greatest Commandment.
God is love. Therefore, the Trinity is in oneness with each other.
The believer who is into this oneness will be kept safe. The wolf goes after the stray sheep. Those who stay in closeness to the flock will not fall prey.
3. THE TWO GREATEST COMMISSIONS
Reach Unbelievers and Teach Believers. Save Souls and Develop Disciples.
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mark 16:15)
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Africa is to be a beacon of light. Not a light that shines on itself, but shines out to the world.
Africans are to be trained and sent-out to the world.
The principle of “two or three” runs through the whole Bible:
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Matthew 18:16-20; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28 (Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15).
1. THE TWO GREATEST COMMANDMENTS
Vertical Love and Horizontal Love
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandment is: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31; underline mine)
Jesus had stated it unequivocally: the first should be the first, and the second should be following the first. This means that we love God above others and ourselves, because the first greatest commandment is to love God, and the second greatest commandment is to love others as ourselves.
Once the first greatest commandment is fulfilled, God will pour our His love into us.
... the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5)
The love of God poured into our hearts enables us to fulfil the said second greatest commandment …to love others as ourselves. The sequence is such, because we are to love others with God’s divine love and not merely by our own human love.
The `agape’ divine love is superior to any other human love.
The love of God poured into us, is powerful. This love is supernatural. That’s why the greatest commandment has to be first …and the second has to be second.
2. THE TWO GREATEST COMMUNICATIONS
The Prayer Of Divine Devotion
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13)
God is asking us to call Him our Father. What a privilege people we are!
Jesus said that, if our earthly father is good, how much more our heavenly Father is! If we are having a good relationship with our earthly Father, how much more we can have with our heavenly Father!
When God invites us to call Him, `Father,’ He meant to fulfil one hundred percent of it! God created the concept of fatherhood. God is not a hypocrite, nor is He a liar. When He asks us to call Him `Father,’ He will be a real Father to us... every good meaning of that word!
Our earthly father can do only so much. Our heavenly Father is not subject to time, nor limited by resources. He intends to fulfil the whole role of the father to us. Even with billions of sons, our heavenly Father will not be a little less to us. He intends to fulfil the full measure, and every aspect of a father to each, and every one, of us.
He is our Father. There is a belonging. Do you have the sense of belonging to your heavenly Father? By the Spirit in our hearts, once we get connected to our heavenly Father, the sense of belonging to our heavenly Father will be there. It is powerful. He really is our Father!
Many have said that relationship with God is the most important thing, but using the word `relationship’ is not good enough.
`Relationship’ is not a magic word; it does not work by merely mouthing it. How then do we cultivate and build a relationship with God? Is there a concrete, firm and sure way?
It is The Lord’s Prayer. This is what Jesus had personally prescribed. It is like He saying, “This is the way.”
There are many prayers in the Bible, but the `mother’ of all prayers is The Lord’s Prayer. All other prayers are originated, or derived, from the Lord’s Prayer.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 2 … 14)
The power of prayer is in the knowing of the person whom we are praying to. Who knows the Father more than the Son? Jesus, Who was the Word before time as we know it, Who was with the Father before time as we know it, Who was full of grace and truth, certainly had the ultimate truth, even on prayer.
The truth on prayer given by Jesus would have been the best.
The prayers of Abraham, Moses, Nehemiah, David, Daniel and all the other Old Testament figures; would pale in comparison.
Jesus has patterned for us `how to pray.’ He did not merely teach about prayer. He modelled it for us. And now, we are to pattern after Him for others. The goal is to pray it – like Jesus prayed it. To pray like Jesus prayed, I have to be like He was, when he was on earth. So, this prayer is not exclusive of all His other messages and teachings – because He lived those messages and teachings - those messages and teachings were a mirror of His own living while He was on earth.
More than anything, The Lord’s Prayer is a heart attitude. What God wants is a sincere prayer which will gradually determine our heart attitude. The goal of The Lord’s Prayer is to pray like the Lord prayed it.
The Prayer Of Divine Disposition
The meanings of the word `disposition’ as defined by Merriam-Webster are “the act or the power of disposing or the state of being disposed” and “prevailing tendency, mood, or inclination”.
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
(John chapter 17)
Every minister of the Word and every intercessor most know this prayer, well. This is the Father’s view and the Father’s heart. This is the divine worldview. This is the divine mandate from heaven.
Let’s summarize and break down this priestly prayer of Jesus.
There are at least two angles of truth to this prayer. I like to introduce this particular point of view of the truth of the greatest priestly prayer:
i) Eternal Life
The Son receives glory when there are many other sons. Every time, a soul saved, heaven rejoice, and the Son is glorified. And, in turn, the Son will glorify the Father in heaven.
We are to preach the Gospel to every creature. Every person deserves to hear the Gospel at least once. But eternal life is holy and precious. It is the deposit and seal of the Holy Spirit within the soul.
Jesus enlightened us so as not to give what is holy to dogs nor cast precious pearls to swine – the foolish and the unappreciative. Upon rejection of the Gospel bearer or the rejection of the Gospel itself, Jesus instructed us to shake off the dust from our feet – meaning to move-on.
So, while preaching the Gospel is universal, the release of eternal life is selective to those whose heart are receptive and ready - even though there is no guarantee that those who received eternal life will last in the long run, because there is the exercise of the free will of each person.
ii) Oneness
The unity of the church is through oneness.
Firstly, it is oneness with God. Secondly, it is oneness with each other. This fits in perfectly with the truth of The First Greatest Commandment and The Second Greatest Commandment.
God is love. Therefore, the Trinity is in oneness with each other.
The believer who is into this oneness will be kept safe. The wolf goes after the stray sheep. Those who stay in closeness to the flock will not fall prey.
3. THE TWO GREATEST COMMISSIONS
Reach Unbelievers and Teach Believers. Save Souls and Develop Disciples.
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mark 16:15)
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Africa is to be a beacon of light. Not a light that shines on itself, but shines out to the world.
Africans are to be trained and sent-out to the world.