Nearly every week, and sometimes of the year, I fly out of our local airport in  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Now this is over. We often fly over Lancaster County,  where I live in. It's a farming area. There are many, many, many fields all over  the place. I look down and see all those fields, and I realized one day that each  of those fields is owned by someone. Some times they're a group of fields all  part of a farm. Somebody owns those fields, that owns that farm and and some  years back, I got a fresh revelation from some other men of God that really  helped me understand how to be a spiritual father, spiritual mother within your  field, because God gives us fields of ministry, He gives us boundaries. We can't  just be a spiritual father and mother to everyone. We can't be a house church  leader or a pastor to everyone, but only those within our field. And when I got  this revelation, it really helped me, and here's why it helped me, because I  realized when God gives me a field. God gives me authority in that field. He  gives me confidence in that field. And I also realize that God gives other people  fields, and I need to learn to stay out of their fields unless they invite me into  their field. Now, all of this training that I've been doing for this course is part of  CLI CLI Christian leaders Institute has leadership, and of course, Henry  Reyenga gives leadership. It's a field that God's given him and the board that  works with him. It's their field. I'm here in their field. Sometimes we invite people  having a conference. Next month, we're inviting a missionary from Indonesia to  come and speak at a conference. He will come into a field that I'm responsible  for. Now I want to show you this in Scripture and how this applies to being a  spiritual father, spiritual mother, how it applies to church planting, how it applies  to house church ministry. But it's really important that we understand this. In fact, it brings great freedom to us when we really get a revel this revelation from the  Scriptures. And we're going to start by looking at II Corinthians 10, II Corinthians 10:13, 14, and 15, it says, We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits. And what I want you to see as I read through this are the words that have to do with  boundaries or fields. The Greek word is METRON. So he says, will not boast  beyond proper limits. That's a boundary word, but we'll confine our boasting  through the field another boundary word that God has assigned to us, a field  that reaches, there's field again, a field that reaches even to you. So God  assigns you spiritual fields. When someone submits themselves to the Lord and  just to receive input from you, they trust you. That's the field that God's assigned you. God's opened that field up to you. Then the Bible says we're not going too  far in our boasting, as would the case would be if we had not come to you, for  we did not get as far as you. We did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ.  Neither do we go beyond our limits, another boundary word by boasting of work  done by others. Our hope is that as your faith continues to grow, our area of  activity, another boundary word, area of activity boundary words among you will  greatly expand so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, for  we do not want to boast about work already done in another man's territory. 

Another boundary. Word, God has boundaries. You can't be a spiritual father to  everyone, but those that God gives you, those within the boundaries that God  sets up. Now the Greek word for field would be or sphere would be METRON,  which means a measure of activity that defines the limits of one's power and  influence. So God assigns us spiritual fields. I'm privileged give leadership with a group of men and women of God to DOVE international around the world, a  family of churches in 20 nations of the world. I'm very blessed to do that. But you know something that is a field that's assigned to me and our team by God, He's  given us that field. There are many fields. There's denominational fields. If you  have a business, that's your field. My wonderful wife, Laverne, we are a team  together. We are a field in our marriage field. Our kids are growing. Our kids are  part of that field, because God's the one who assigns fields. There's many kinds  of fields, but every field has a boundary, and so we need to make sure we  understand the boundaries God's given us. How does this apply to planting  house churches? How does this apply to spiritual parenting? Let me tell you,  never presume to speak into another person's life unless they open up their field to you, unless they open up their boundaries to you. A relationship of trust must  be built which opens the door, because their life is their field. So the first thing  we have to understand is that God gives us fields, gives others fields. We need  to make sure that we are staying within the fields God's given us, and that's why, I mean, I have no authority in the CLI field. I'm here. I'm here because Henry  has invited me to come here to help him and the team here build this field.  That's the call that God's given me for these days, that I'm putting all this on  tape here internet for you. That's what I'm called to do. But see, it's I'm in  another man's field. Now there's something else you must understand. Never  Surrender your field to somebody else. And here's what I mean by that. Genesis 1:26 God gave Adam and Eve authority all over the world, but they surrendered  their authority to the devil. Because the devil says, you know, has God said, of  course, you know Adam and Eve both, you know, they sinned, and we realized  they gave their authority. I mean, they were doing it all. They were naming the  animals, and it was their deal the world was they're responsible take care of this  planet. And what happened? Adam and Eve gave their field to the devil. Be very  careful. You'll give a field God has given you to the enemy. It can easily happen.  I'll give you a story in a moment. I said I could have done that, and I realized the  importance of this. Now God gives you. Here's what's powerful. God gives you  grace for your field. You know the Scripture says in Ephesians 4:7. But each one of us grace has been given as God has apportioned it. Same Greek word,  METRON, in other words, for every METRON, every sphere, every field, every  ministry, whatever God has given you, He gives you grace for it. There's things  you could do you have grace for I don't have grace for things. I have grace for  others. Don't have grace for you know, some people look at me funny when I  say, God gave me grace to write 50 books, but to me, it wasn't a real big deal. I 

had a great team people help me, and it's been years since I've started that. But I have grace for that. I can write books at airplanes and hotel rooms, and as I  travel throughout the world. God give me grace I'm on. I travel, you know, over 2 million miles in United Airlines over the last, however, many years it's been and I somehow have grace to do that. But other people, they're doing things I can  never do a thing. How do they do that? Because they have grace for that. God  gives you grace for your field, and God gives me grace for my field. Now, the  key is that we learn to stay in our field, and we stay out of other people's fields.  Now it happens in prayer. For example, when we're praying for people, I meet  people and they say, I'm just praying that my pastor gets the revelation that I  have. That's the improper praying. You pray for your pastor that he gives you the revelation that God has for him. We're not called to control, manipulate people. I  meet pastors under great pressure, because people are praying against them.  They're praying that they get a revelation, some certain doctrine that they think  is important, and God hasn't shown that to the senior leader. So that's what we  just stay in our fields. Make sure we're careful how we pray. Make sure we're  careful who, you know, who we give input to you know, if someone comes into  I'm leading a conference next month, people from all over the world coming  together in Maryland. It's our International Leadership Conference for dove  International. I'm responsible with our team for that field. If someone comes in,  into our field and says, whoa, God. Said, thus and thus, and thus and and they  weren't invited into the field, we shouldn't take that serious at all. They're not  responsible for the field. We're responsible for the field, but I'm not going to  come and tell Henry how to run. CLI, why? It' not my field? It's his field. So we  need to understand God gives fields. He gives us grace for the fields we have.  And when it comes to spiritual parenting, remember that person is responsible  to God more than responsible to us, and we need to be careful how we speak  into into their fields. So here's what happened. I'm not the senior pastor of a  local church. I'm involved in a house church, been helping start I'm involved in a  Community Church, and when I'm in either of those settings, I'm not leading  either of those churches. Yet, even though both of those are within the realm of  dove international family of churches still, I have the same relationship with them that I have when I go into my daughter and son in law's homes and I don't tell  them how to raise their children. I'm there. I'm their parent. I love them. They ask for advice. I do, but only if I'm asked. Why? Because it's their field. It's not my  field. And when I was senior pastor for about 15, nearly 16 years, and turned it  over or the local church I was part of, we turned it over to other leadership. And  it was interesting, because I was still part of that church, and the next six  months, about six months later, people come to me and they say, Well, how do  you feel about the changes going on in the church? My response was, it doesn't  matter how I feel. If you have questions, you go talk of leadership. It's no longer  a field I'm responsible for now. Why is that important? It's important because if 

you're in a church now and you're called to start a house church in the future,  you honor the field you're in now, eventually, you have your own field, a field that God's given you, then you'll have responsibility for that. You'll still get input, but  you're responsible for God for that field, and within the boundaries that God has  established for that field. So make sure you don't plow in your son or daughter's  field. You know, when I was a young man and I was on the family farm, I would  never dream about getting up in the middle of the night, taking the farm tractor  and plowing my neighbor's field. Why not we say, of course, you wouldn't. That'd be stupid. That's right, because it's his field. But people do that in the church all  the time. They'll come in and say, well, the Lord said this for this church, and  they have no business doing that because it's not their field. So we need to  recognize the fields that God has assigned be responsible in our field, but at the  same time, we need to be stay out of other people's fields. Now here's why this  is important. There have been some crazy things that have happened in the  body of Christ that they called being spiritual parents. There were different  movements. One was called a discipleship movement. Started out great with  some good intentions. This is way back in the 1960s maybe some of the 1970s  and God was moving. 1000s were coming together, having house fellowships all over the place, but there were some problems. And the leaders, the former  leaders that have talked to me personally about that, if I got one of the main  leaders, told me, said, Larry, the things you're doing today, you and Dove  International and others are doing today. That's what we wanted to do in a  healthy way. But he said we got off track. But why? Because they didn't  understand these fields of ministries. In fact, they made what I would call an  unholy covenant with one another. Let me explain to you what I mean by an  unholy covenant. There are holy covenants that God has called us to make. A  holy covenant is an agreement we make with God, or agreement we make with  somebody else. In the covenant I have with Jesus, I will always serve Him as a  holy covenant. It's forever. The covenant I have with my wife, Laverne. We are  married to death do its part. It's a holy covenant, the covenant I have with the  body of Christ. I will love the body of Christ, serve the body of Christ. It's a holy  covenant. But there are unholy covenants. An unholy covenant is made with a  person or group that hinders a person from obeying the Holy Spirit. So if  someone is a spiritual son to you or a spiritual daughter, you tell and they feel  like they should leave the relationship, go to somebody else. You say, Oh, no,  no, you need to stay with me. That's an unholy covenant, and that's why some  movements have gone by the wayside. God Himself had to really destroy them.  I've told men that I work with him. God calls you to start another movement  different than Dove International. My commitment is to help you do that. I would  love to work with them my whole life, but I wouldn't do that. You know, I say that  because we got to be careful with boundaries and we don't keep people bound.  Now, the response to the team I work with is we don't want to do that. We love 

serving together. It's a great joy to serve together, but I've learned if we hang on  to people, even people in our church, in our house church, we hang on to  people God himself might have to take them out. And if we release people often, they want to come because people have this heart that says, if you are going to  serve me and help me, I want to walk with you. I want to be involved a field that  you leading. James 4:13-15 explains how we need to release people and be  careful, we should not make unholy covenants. See if you say, I'm going to work with somebody my whole life in a house church, that's an unholy covenant.  What if the Holy Spirit says you shouldn't? See if you say, Well, I'm called to  work again in this ministry, it's going to be for life, and I'm deciding for life what I  wouldn't do that. And yes, we should make commitments, but we need to  evaluate after a few years or a year, or five years or whatever, but to say, a  whole life? No, that's an unholy covenant. Here's what the scripture says in  James 4. Now listen to you who say, today or tomorrow, we'll go into this or that  city, spend a year there, carry on in business and make money. You don't even  know what will happen tomorrow. What's your life? You're a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if it's the Lord's will, we will live do this or that when it comes to something happening in the future? Is it the  Lord's will? Now, I expect our work with our team our whole lives, and I think  they expect that, but we're doing it not because we have to. We're doing that  because we want to, because God has blessed us, blessed that, and God has  given us that field of ministry together. Psalm 16:5-6, says, The Lord assigns us  our fields. Lord, you assign me my portion, my cup. You made my lot secure.  The boundary lines fall for me unpleasant places. Surely I have a delightful  inheritance. And you know, you stay in your field, you plant a house church, you  have a field, and you stay there, and you don't quit, and you obey God, and you  go through different seasons. In this ministry, you'll find God will bless your field.  He gives you grace for your field. That God's the one who determines our fields.  Paul, for example, was called to the Gentiles, as you know, and Peter was  called to the Jews. That doesn't make sense to my brain, because Peter grew  up with the Sanhedrin. I'm sorry, Paul grew up with the Sanhedrin that he's the  one who would be with the Jews. Fact, he thought he was going to be with the  Jews for a while. And Peter is a dirty fisherman. He's with the Jews. How did  Paul recognize he wasn't called the Jews? Well, you read Acts 17,18, 19, 20, 21 see all the problems he was going through. And he gets stoned so many times.  One day he says, I'm going to the Gentiles. I'm not saying when it's hard, you  should always leave, but I am saying there's grace for your field. God will give  you grace if you're called to another field, God will give you grace to go from one field to another field. It's really important that we understand the importance of  fields of ministry be respect. Responsible in your present field. If you're in  someone else's field now, you're helping a local church, helping in a house  church, you're there somebody else responsible for the field. Bless that. 

Encourage them. See them. Strengthen. See the grace of God poured out. And  because what you do there, what you sow there, you will reap in the future when God gives you your own field. David is the classic example. David was in Saul's  

field. Saul was demon possessed. He was throwing javelins at David, and yet  David refused to do something that would somehow dishonor Saul. He could  have had him killed a few times, but he didn't, and he simply guard his heart. But then the time came when Saul was gone, David said, now it's time, because he  knew he was called to lead that field. It was timing. He knew Samuel had  anointed him. It was timing. But then when the time came, he then he then many all David's mighty men gathered together with them, and then it was time for him to take the field. So I just give you one story in closing this session, when I was  a pastor, we had a prophet who came to our city from the nation of news of, I'm  sorry, the nation of Australia. And I had met him, but I read about him in the  newspaper. He called me one day, and he said, Larry, I got a word from God for  you. And I said, Well, come and share with us and our team. And he came, he  said, there's a certain day God has shown me. And one of the buildings that you  have at that time, we had a lot of people and house fellowships all coming  together in these larger buildings. And he said, what we're going to do? He says, God is going to do some amazing things. And he says, I just want to let you  know about it. I'm going to come I'm going to help you. We said, well, we're  going to pray, and we're checking our calendar, and perhaps this is the Lord. So  we checked our calendar, and we realized that we already had rented that  building that weekend out to another Christian ministry, and because of integrity, we didn't want to change that. So I simply we sent me. I got back to this prophet, and I said, my brother, we saw and we're open to doing this, but we can't do it at this time because of this other ministry. Excuse me. So he said, Okay. Next day,  he called me nine in the morning, and he spoke a curse over me, a curse over  our ministry, curse over our church. I was devastated. I thought he said, You  have not obeyed the prophet, and you will not prosper. And I didn't know what to do. I went to a place I used canceled my meetings. I went to a place where I go  to pray out in near where I live. Said, God, what are we doing? All I got from  God was, bring your leaders together, and I'll show you. That night, I think I  heard 15 or 20 of our leaders came together, and we, first of all, we joined  hands. We said, Lord, we know you're not into cursing your people. You're into  blessing your people. We break that curse in Jesus name. Second thing we did  is I knew of a missionary from Australia, and I said, I'm going to contact him and  find out about this prophet. And so I contacted him. A day later. He got back. He  said, This man has been splitting churches up and down the coast of Australia.  So I know who that is. I know this the pastor of the church that he was part of.  And so I called this prophet and had him come in and meet with some of our  leaders. And I said, this is what I learned. This is what you done. You need to  repent. This is none of God. It's not right. And he showed very little signs of 

repentance, and he moved on from there. Today, he's not involved in any kind of ministry that I know of, any place in the world that I'm aware of. But here's what  scared me, God had given us a responsibility. He'd given us a field, and it  scared me because I thought I may not be as spiritual as he is, and I could have given the field over to somebody else. So I want to challenge and I praise God.  We did not. I want to challenge you that when God gives you a field, he makes  you responsible, gives you grace for your field. Stay out of other people's fields,  unless you're invited in. But be responsible for the field that God's given you  because he's given you wisdom and grace for your field if you're leading a  house church, that's a field God's given you. And so be responsible for the field  that he's given you 



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