Reading: House To House - Chapter 3 God’s Priorities

Chapter 3

God's Priorities

Often, our natural tendency is to look for formulas and methods to fulfill the Lord's plans. However, the more we grow in the Lord, the more we realize that our way of thinking with our natural minds is often not at all what the Lord has in mind. So before we get into some of the basic principles that we have learned about small group and house church ministry, let's begin with God's priorities.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 tells us, "A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” The three strands that we believe form the core of the Christian life are prayer (knowing God), evangelism (reaching those who do not know Jesus), and discipleship (training new believers).

Prayer--Knowing God

God has called us to trust Him, first and foremost! Matthew 28 tells us that Jesus appointed a certain place to meet with His disciples. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 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” (Matt. 28:18-20).

Jesus has called us to meet with Him and worship Him each day. The Lord tells us in John 17:3 that eternal life is to know Him. Our number-one priority must be to trust Him personally through time spent with Him each day, or small group ministry will become just another church program.

Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho is the pastor of one of the world's largest churches in Seoul, Korea. Dr. Cho has spoken to thousands of pastors and church leaders in America during the past years. He spoke at our church conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, several years ago and said that American pastors are attentive when he speaks on biblical principles that will help their church grow, but when he begins to teach on prayer and communion with the Holy Spirit, the pastors put their pencils down and stop taking notes. They lose interest. Be advised--the spiritual principles and guidelines outlined in this book will only be effective as long as we are in love with Jesus and are communing with Him daily!

Often when I speak at churches and conferences, I am not able to take my wife LaVerne with me. I find great joy in searching through my luggage for a special love note that she has hidden in my bags. I love reading those notes, because I'm in love with her. If I no longer desired to read those notes, it would be a warning light that my love for her is waning. Do you look forward to reading your love letters from Jesus? That is what the Bible is all about. It is filled with love letters from the God who loves us.

Jesus says in Matthew 4:4, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” I need a fresh word from the Lord every day. If I am living on last week's manna, I will begin to get weak and even sick spiritually. Only healthy Christians will have something to give to others. And there is no substitute. We must cultivate our relationship with our Lord Jesus every day. If your prayer life needs a boost, I would like to encourage you to read my book entitled Your Personal House of Prayer, and experience an extreme makeover for your prayer life!¹ The God-given principles in this book have radically changed my personal prayer life.

Evangelism--Reaching Those Who

Do Not Know Jesus

Jesus spent much of His time with the tax collectors and the sinners of His day. His heart went out to those who did not live the way God wanted them to. The people who hated Jesus were not the sinners but the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders. We need to be careful to not allow ourselves today to focus more on church politics, personal opinions, and self-preservation than on the priorities of Jesus.

The Bible says, ". . . The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work” (1 John 3:8). The works of the devil are everywhere. Our communities are filled with broken lives, fear, abuse, broken relationships, perversion, the murdering of unborn children, materialism, and lust. Jesus came for the purpose of destroying these works!

We must understand that our heart motivation for being involved in small group or house church ministry must be the same as that of our Lord Jesus--to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus is the answer to every problem. He is the great Redeemer. He came to restore completely every man, woman, and child who will open up their hearts and lives to Him. The Scriptures tell us, ". . . How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? . . .” (Rom. 10:14). We are commissioned by our Lord Jesus Christ to reach those who have not placed their trust in Him. Small group and house church ministry is one of the spiritual tools to assist us in fulfilling this mandate from the Lord.

Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28, "Go,” knowing that all authority had been given to Him in Heaven and on earth. He promised to be with them always, just as He will always be with us. Often Christians do not sense the Lord's presence with them. Could it be they are so caught up in the cares of this world that they feel unable to obey the commandment to go and explain the Good News of Jesus with those who have not yet believed in Him?

Lord, we need a revival. We need to get our priorities in line with Your priorities.

Discipleship--Training New Believers

Jesus commands us in Matthew 28:19-20 to ". . . 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 . . . .” Unless we have a clear understanding that making disciples is near the top of God's priority list, small group and house church ministry will be just another religious program.

Jesus had a vision to revolutionize the world--person to person, house to house. Out of the multitudes of His followers, He appointed only twelve to be His disciples.

He appointed twelve--designating them apostles--that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach (see Mark 3:14). He took special time with three of them: Peter, James, and John. And John was clearly the disciple whom Jesus loved.

By living closely with His disciples, day in and day out, He gave them intense training, demonstrated His miraculous power, explained His parables, and answered their questions.

A disciple is a learner, an apprentice. Jesus provided His disciples with innumerable opportunities to practice and exercise the things He taught them. He poured His life into them by close, daily contact for three years. As we observe Jesus interacting with these twelve men, we see a model of what could be regarded as the first small group in the history of the Church.

The Lord commands us to go and do likewise. Whatever He has taught us, we are to teach to others. This not only applies to Bible knowledge but to practical Christianity. The most effective way for you to teach a young husband how to love and honor his wife is for you to love and honor your wife. The best way for you to teach another Christian how to have a clear financial budget is for you to show him how you set up a budget. If you believe the Lord has called you to teach a new Christian to pray, then pray with him! We teach others by modeling biblical truths with our own lives.

The Bible gives many examples of discipleship. Paul the apostle took young Timothy with him as a disciple (see Acts 16). Later, Timothy was sent out to do the same: take the truths that he learned from Paul and impart them to others (see 2 Tim. 2:2). Moses had Joshua as his disciple for forty years, preparing Joshua for leadership. Elijah found Elisha and became his mentor. The list goes on and on. The Lord is restoring the truth of loving discipleship to His Church today. He has called us to make disciples.

We like to call this "spiritual parenting.” God's intention is to raise up spiritual parents who are willing to nurture spiritual children and help them grow up in their Christian lives. In this way they are making a spiritual investment as they see others' potential in Christ and make themselves available to discipling them. This is a fulfillment of the Lord's promise to "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers . . .” (Mal. 4:6). Spiritual children need to have this kind of spiritual parents in their lives providing the character they need, telling them they are valuable, that they are gifts from God. Parents need to put expectation into children's hearts so they believe in themselves. In my book The Cry for Spiritual Mothersand Fathers, I reveal what happens if spiritual parenting does not take place:

Too often, in today's church, a Christian believer is encouraged to participate in church services, Bible studies, para-church organizations or evangelistic ministry in order to bolster his faith and "grow strong in the Lord.” The theory is that the more teaching from God's Word and interaction with believers, the more spiritually mature he will become. As important as these involvements may be, such a faulty supposition leads to inhaling message after message, book after book, tape after tape, seminar after seminar, in order to fill a void for real relationship.

A believer becomes fat spiritually and fails to interpret what he is learning so he can pass it on to others. He does not know how to meaningfully and sacrificially impart his life to others because he has never been properly fathered. Without a role model, he remains a spiritual infant, needing to be spoon-fed by his pastor or other Christian worker.²

For a more in-depth study on prayer, evangelism and discipleship, read the book The 3 Loves that I co-authored with Jimmy Seibert.³ Christianity is not just sitting in a pew or padded chair each Sunday morning, looking at the back of someone's head. Christianity is trusting Jesus, reaching out to pre-Christians, and making disciples. This must be the motivation of our hearts in order to fulfill effectively the Lord's purposes for us as believers in Jesus Christ. You will discover the three strands of prayer, evangelism, and discipleship woven throughout these pages; they will surface again and again.

"I'm ready!” you say. "I understand the challenge to make disciples, and believe that small groups of believers are an effective way to build the Church. But exactly what does the Bible tell us about small groups and house churches? What is the biblical plan of training through small groups of believers?” Read on!

Questions for Practical Application

1.What priority does prayer have in your daily life?

2.How recently have you discussed with another person what Jesus means to you?

3.What does being a disciple mean to you? In what ways are you discipling others? In what ways are you being discipled?

Chapter 3

1. Larry Kreider, Building Your Personal House of Prayer (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2008).

2. Larry Kreider, The Cry for Spiritual Mothers and Fathers (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2014), 4.

3. Larry Kreider and Jimmy Seibert, The 3 Loves (Ventura, CA: Gospel Light, 2010).