We now understand that having koinonia is essential for the true New Covenant life and for fulfilling The Great Commission. In the New Testament when someone believed in Christ, they were made disciples, not just converts, and their discipleship began with being “added to the church.” This was far more than just being added to the membership roll. Every part of the New Testament body of Christ is called to be a functioning part of the body to which they are connected. They have a role to play in the life of the body.

On Sunday, December 5, 2004, MorningStar Fellowship Church will meet for the first time in its newly acquired facilities at Heritage International Ministries (formerly Heritage USA or PTL). As was discovered this week, our opening services will be exactly seven years from the day that the facilities were closed on December 5, 1997. Services will be held in the lobby of the Grand Hotel at our regular Sunday service times of 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

          Last week we discussed how the Orthodox Jewish community has one of the lowest divorce rates of any people group. Because divorce is one of the greatest curses and most destructive forces in any society, I wanted to understand why this community was doing so much better than even the most devout Christian denominations and movements. The reason was easy to see, but it was surprising.

Since the theme for the Word for the Week is mobilizing, and we have many current examples of how this works, I would like to examine one in particular because of its obvious and powerful lessons—that is how the Republican Party mobilized when Governor Sarah Palin was chosen as John McCain’s running mate. This may be an unprecedented example of what we are seeking to understand here so we would be missing a great opportunity not to examine it.

          The Lord Jesus said that we could not be trusted with the true riches of the kingdom until we learned to handle earthly riches. It has been estimated that from one-third to one-half of the biblical teachings on righteousness have to do with stewardship.

Last week we covered the four cardinal points on the compass that will help us to navigate through these times, and to understand biblical prophecy. These four points are the basis for the paradigm that we construct for understanding the times, and preparing for them. Before we construct this paradigm, we need to understand a few more basic principles about where we are going with this, and what we are trying to accomplish in this study.

The last two decades have witnessed the greatest advance of the gospel in history. It has been estimated that more people have become Christians in just the last two decades than have from the first century until this time. This is partly due to more people being alive now than have lived during the previous two thousand years. Without question, Christianity has made its greatest advances in recent years on a worldwide basis than ever before in its history.

The verse for this week’s study is Ephesians 4:15:

As we see throughout the Scriptures, the Lord does not always speak in our native language, but most of the time He uses a spiritual language through dreams and visions, which includes symbolism. Why? Because His language is about much more than just conveying concepts—His language speaks to the heart and soul, not just the mind. This is stated by Jesus in John 6:63, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” It is basic to prophetic ministry to discern the spiritual purpose and nature of a message.

    The church is moving toward unity like I have not seen before in my lifetime. What is happening is more than a reaction to the elections, though that may have contributed to it. The economic shaking is a factor also. Even so, just as the Apostle Paul rejoiced that the gospel was being preached regardless of what the motives were for those doing it, we can rejoice in this tremendous thrust toward unity. There is an increasing revelation that we simply cannot make it in these times without each other.