MAIN TEXT; PSALM 22:28, JEREMIAH 51:20-21
OTHER SUPPORTING TEXT; JOEL 3:1-14, EZEKIEL 38:23, ROMANS 16:25-26
INTRODUCTION
Undeniably, it is clear that God had a divine plan to bring men back to Himself after the fall. God intends to do this through Abraham’s progenies who will become His own people in all the earth to teach the heathens His principles and values.
God’s plan for taking the nations again is engrafted on winning the cities which are highly populated with souls due to migration and commerce. It is obvious that God’s agenda has been realized by The Church of Pentecost through its city churches initiative by leadership.
WINNING THE CITIES
Apparently, the church is rethinking doing ministry in the urban centres. The Vision 2028 is embedded in implementation measures to ensure that churches in the cities are relooked at. The church is considering putting up measures to ensure effective outreaches and high-quality spirit-filled services to meet the standard of the urban residents, the younger generation, and the elite. The main objective is to lay out strategies to enhance ministry in the urban setting to harness church growth in the cities.
CITY CHURCHES IMPLEMENTATION
The church in the next five years has drafted measures to help improve the concept of the city church as enshrined in the Vision 2028. These are;
- The church shall encourage the building of multi-racial, multinational, multi-cultural, and multi-generational churches in urban centres.
- Churches in urban centres shall be built with principles that are spiritual and, at the same time, in tune with the urban settings.
- Ministers and officers shall be trained and equipped to manage the diversities and complexities associated with ministry in urban centres.
- In certain areas where feasible, local assemblies in urban centres shall be encouraged to keep a green environment with particular emphasis on landscaping.
- The planning and construction of new church buildings in urban centres should take into account the needs of urban residents.
- Protocol and hospitality services shall be improved in our assemblies.
- Splitting existing assemblies to form new assemblies in the urban centres would be carefully avoided. It denies the church quality service. Also, the expensive nature of lands in such places burdens the church.
- Ministers shall be encouraged to make their church auditoriums conducive and well-resourced for worship, especially for the elites and the young people.
- We shall encourage and support the establishment of “City Churches” in every nation where CoP operates. (Extracts from Vision 2028 document page 51. Winning the cities )
THE NATIONS ARE MEN
When we talk of the nations and the kingdoms of this world, we are talking about the whole race of humanity. It is Men who make kingdoms and nations. The philosophies of this world, traditions, science, and technology, all form part of the nations of the world. Presidents, ministers of state, kings, scientists, etc. all form part of what is referred to as the nations of this world. We must understand that God wants to take the nations and have dominion over the kingdoms of this world and, by extension, men who live on earth. God has a divine interest in the transformation of men who dwell on earth and also to have total dominion over them.
GOD WILL RULE THE NATIONS THROUGH MEN
Jeremiah 51:20-21 says, “You are My war-club, my weapon of war; And with you I shatter nations, and with you I destroy kingdoms. We must clearly understand that, God is counting on men to take the responsibility of conquering the world of sin through the preaching of the gospel. The Almighty God will win the nations of this world by using men as his strategy, war club as and weapons to eliminate the wickedness. This can be achieved when men infiltrate the nations with the values and principles of the kingdom of God which will enact transformation in the world.
GOD IS GATHERING ALL NATIONS FOR HIMSELF
Since God has an agenda and a plan to bring the nations to Himself, He is preparing an assembly ground to sound a clarion call to all to converge at a place where He can exercise His power and control. This assembly point is His house, better to say the church. The church is now a place where all men would gather to be nurtured and discipled for God’s agenda of winning the world to be manifested. We must comprehend this simple truth that the church is the only hope of God where all repented souls will meet to be mentored and released back into the world to change the rudiments of this world. This is better sugarcoated in Joel 3:1 and 2 which says, “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.”
THE DIVINE DESTINY OF THE CHURCH IS PROPHETIC AND PREORDAINED
The subject under discussion is validated in that, the church has a prophetic mandate and predestined future to win the world and its systems through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is, therefore, prophetically sound to say that the church has been born form Christ to conquer the world and make God known in all the nations. Below are, therefore, some of the responsibilities of the church to become what it has been predestined to do;
- The church must be consistent in fervent prayer (Psalm 2:8)
- The Kingdoms of the world has already been given to the church by faith (Revelation 11:15
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”)
- The church must intercede and stand in the gap for the kingdom of the world (Isaiah 59:16) – “And
He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor [no one to intervene on behalf of truth and right]; therefore, His own arm brought Him victory, and his own righteousness having the Spirit without measure sustained Him.”
MANIFESTATION OF THE CHURCH INTO ITS DIVINE DESTINY
I. GOD HAVING GIVEN THE EARTH TO CHRIST AS HIS POSSESSION AND THE NATIONS AS HIS INHERITANCE
Psalm 2:8 says, “Ask of Me, and I will give the nations as Your inheritance and the limits of the earth as Your possession.” This indicates that God has given the earth to Christ as His possession and the nations as His inheritance. Therefore, the earth with all the nations belongs to Christ. America belongs to Christ, not to the Americans, and Russia also belongs to Christ, not to the Russians, Ghanaians belongs to Christ not Ghana, etc.
II. CHRIST COMING TO TAKE POSSESSION OF THE EARTH
Revelation 10:1-2 shows us that Christ will come to take possession of the earth by putting His right foot on the sea and the left on the land. Christ’s placing of His feet on the sea and on the land is His treading on them, and to tread on them is to take possession of them (Deut. 11:24; Josh. 1:3; Psa. 8:6-8). In order to possess the land, one must first possess the sea. For this reason, Christ will possess the earth by putting His foot first on the sea and then on the land.
III. THE KINGDOM OF THE WORLD TO BECOME THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST
Revelation 11:15 tells us that the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord (God) and of His Christ and that Christ will reign forever and ever.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I would like to throw a little light on the tools and the channels by which the kingdoms of this world would be won by Christ through the church by touching on the fierce wind. This divine destiny can be realised by the help of the Holy Spirit which typifies the fierce winds.
God used the fierce winds as a metaphor in the Bible to symbolise the role of the Holy Spirit in several ways. This was seen when Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided.
The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Here, we see how Israel, the church in the wilderness, entered it destined location by God which was the Promised Land. The church also through the power of the Holy Spirit must assume and walk into this great destiny by winning the world of God.
By Overseer Emmanuel Owusu (Mpasaso District -Tepa Area)