Stop Playing Church • Feb 18, 2026
Awaken the Inner Life • Jul 01st 1997
The ONLY WAY To Move Forward In Christ
Sometimes, the greatest step forward in faith requires us to look back and completely smash our evangelical way of thinking. Sometimes, the greatest step forward in faith requires us to look back and completely smash our evangelical way of thinking. This message explores the historical implications and the revolutionary concept of studying the New Testament from a carefully constructed “model” of the first-century church. We confront modern Christian structures—such as pastors, pews, and Sunday school—by testing them against the reality of the early believers, who were largely poor, slaves, and freed slaves. More critically, this is an invitation to move beyond “boring” prayer and cultivate the burning passion to truly know, touch, and experience the Lord Jesus Christ. Join us as we strive to break away from the individual focus and see the centrality of Christ in the church, embracing the deepest, most profound truths of God’s Word.
Final thoughts – Swiss Conference July 1997 Message #6
If you will just please see the eyes of God, and not your own, that the Lord back there before, where He was so rich in all these things, and He made these decisions, such as the decision to seat us with Christ in heavenly places above all things, that He did this to simply demonstrate the riches of His mercy and His grace and His love toward you. When you fall on your knees as a body of believers, remember that your motive ought to be that ultimately the riches of the glory of the mercies and the graces of God in Christ Jesus should be displayed to the world through the church. It is to magnify His mercy, His grace, His kind intention that we come to take our place. I’ll say it: that rule and dominion upon this earth belongs to the church of Jesus Christ, just that His grace and mercy might be displayed. May that, and that alone, ever be in our hearts.
Now I’m going to turn around and say to you, brothers and sisters—and I’m talking now to the brothers and sisters in Constance, and we’ll come to this tomorrow—may you be built up in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, from time to time, needs a body of believers, a local gathering, through whom to work His will over principalities and powers, and to execute, administer, and dispense His ongoing will, accomplishing His eternal purpose as He goes along. When it’s done, you will say, “Oh, that happened because it was simply according to His desire as He works out His eternal purpose.” And it is a glory to Him who wishes to show His glory and His kindness and His mercy to the ecclesia.
If you did not understand everything I said, it’s not important. The Holy Spirit will prompt you with things that are not words, and you will know. Brothers and sisters, may you become part of a body of believers. May that body of believers be a real breathing experience. May she have an exceeding experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe everything else will take care of itself.
Five people I’m talking to. The churches must together and pray for five woe-begotten Germans, Italians, and Swiss, that the Lord will make these things real in the body of believers who meet in the city where John Hus was burned to ashes. Amen. Do you want to ask anything? You want to talk to me? You want to say anything? Okay, you’re not going to leave here until you’ve divided up again, and you’re going to get together sometime this afternoon, and you’re going to talk about what you’re going to do. You’re going to decide on which part of the Ephesians…
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