OUR FUTURE CALLING
The Message and the Messenger
Message from Bro. Babes Paulate

Our Calling:

Matthew 18-20

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”^d^[1]

 

The reason for our being is found in this passage:

Isaiah 12:2-5 (NRSV)

² Surely God is my salvation;  I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God^a is my   strength and my might; he has become my salvation. ³ With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. ⁴ And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name;  make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. ⁵ Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known^b in all the earth.^[2]

 

Our calling cannot be separated from the Great Commission.  Although the manner of doing it may vary from one race to another and from one organization to another; our ministry should always be done in obedience to the Great Commission.  There will always be different expressions of God’s calling but our expressions in Word International Ministries are unique to us.  These expressions identify who we are.

God called us to serve Him in this church. His calling included a unique vision for WIN - to establish communities wherever we are so we can create a spiritual family for everyone to belong to and to lean on. In our WIN family, we help people to know God more. We strive to become a source of strength and a place for healing for our members so they can live confidently and exemplary lives in the world. Consequently, through our lives and our worship of God, the Gospel will be heard and the name of Jesus Christ will be made known in the world.

I believe as we do this, we fulfill the responsibility to evangelize, nurture, to disciple and send our people out as witnesses.  If we have not instilled in our people the desire and the responsibility to be active witnesses for God in the world…we have failed.  We have failed them and we have failed God.

Failure to launch this is to create islands out of our churches that do not have bridges to the world where the lost are.

Our concern at this time of our gathering is to know, review, understand, and pursue our calling in a more intense manner.  Intense, because through the years we have gathered strength, capabilities, resources and an expanded geography never before experienced or attained by us.  If we are to liken ourselves to an army, our weapons and our skills in warfare have improved. What will they all mean?  How will they be used?

But before we can venture there, we have to return to look at ourselves (the people used by God), our organization and our message…..our calling.    The pursuit of our calling will require the right kind of organization and it will require the right kind of people or messengers.

So the questions are: What happened to us?  What events formed and defined our organization?  What events and experiences made us the people that we are today?  What kind of people will be needed to carry on our calling?  What makes up the messenger? Who is the messenger?  Who will bear the message?

Permit me to return to our past.

1. I. The Events that Formed Us

1. A. THE 1^st EVENT WAS OUR SPIRITUAL BIRTH: We were given birth during the 1970s Charismatic Movement( A Revival led by the Holy Spirit)

Revivals are reminders to us that God always has a plan and an answer to the world that is evolving complicatedly. This thought leaves to the confused and exhausted followers a hope and a dawning thought that it is all about Him and not about us.  Our failures and frustrations do not spell defeat to the Christian church because God leads and orchestrates everything.  God is in control. Even when denominations fail to understand and do not do their tasks or they become embroiled in their little world and in their little minds of politics and idolatry (the worship of their own organization/structures) above God’s call. Even when churches fail to pursue their reason for existence, the Holy Spirit intervenes and blows such powerful, explosive, radiating and expanding life to the Christian Movement in the form of revivals. The Holy Spirit jolts the line of events (the circular movement of history and the things that are still to come) with an explosion which is felt and which reverberates worldwide like pounding waves or a tsunami.  These revivals often happen outside the walls of the established denominations and initiated by simple and prayerful men and women, young and old alike. (One such event in the 19^th century was led by the youth).

 

This is why, as we review history, we see that denominations come and go in their greatness and usefulness but the Christian movement has never failed to aggressively pursue the mandate of God in any generation or time in history. Although many of these spiritual movements have not been reported, they have grown like a mustard seed.

 

One example is China which has the biggest Christian population in the world but the growth happened without fanfare.  If China was regarded as a sleeping giant, the Christian movement there has been an unseen giant that has kept on growing and growing. Led by ordinary Chinese people who have decided to suffer and even die for Christ, the Christian church in China did not grow with the multinational denominations or organizations which have been raising funds for China. These organizations created a big drama out of their helping bring about the spectacular growth of the church in China. Some fundraisers have even claimed responsibility for this success so they can be relevant and raise money for their salaries. But the truth is that the ones truly responsible for the growth are the Chinese people themselves.

 

It would be a good idea to send people to China and study how to die to the self and how to effectively grow a church.

 

We are children of the Holy Spirit revival of the 1970’s.  We were born from that movement.  We came out from the time when God intervened by sweeping the world with the wind of revival.

 

Consequently, deeply ingrained within us are the evident manifestations of the Holy Spirit during that time wherein;

 

1. God’s Word in its fullness was given supremacy over man-made religious beliefs and practices. This is why we are called are Full Gospel.
2. The Fruit of the Holy Spirit was the testimony of a changed life. You must be born again.
3. The nearness of God was expressed in one’s life as holiness, humility and happiness.
4. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit was the evidence of the presence of God. Yes, miracles do happen; yes, there is healing; yes, there is worship in the Spirit.
5. The laity expanded and multiplied the leadership base and provided crucial, pivotal and creative leadership. A basic component of the revival was the movement of the Laity in leadership development and in multiplication.
6. The responsibility of Word Evangelization became ours through the Filipino Diaspora.

 

Our Future calling cannot be separated from the events of Revival.   They have defined who we are and how we are to do things.

 

 

1. THE 2^nd EVENT WAS THE BIRTH OF OUR NAME: Our Name Was Given Birth in 1997: Word International Ministries

What is so special with the name?  The name defined us and it speaks of our story.  It also describes us.

(A Review)

WORD: The supremacy of the WORD:  The Lordship of Christ.  Christ is above every organization and everyone (leaders).  Everyone is subject to the Word.  No one is above the Word of God (Jn 1:1).

INTERNATIONAL: The whole wide world is our scope of work (Go into all the world and make disciples from every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt.28:18-20).

MINISTRIES: The Word of God will reach the lost in creative expressions.  We will

not be stereotyped in our manner of communicating the Word.  The ministries in our

history were formed to creatively communicate the gospel and involve people.  What

mode, what language, in what form can the gospel be heard and felt?

(I have become all things to all men so that the gospel will be preached……I Cor. 9: 20-23)

The 1997 event did not only give birth to our name but highlighted and reiterated the principles that have guided us:

1. The Pastor must practice the highest form of moral leadership both in his private and public life.
2. The Pastor is the spiritual leader:  Spiritual Leadership is rested on the shoulders of the pastor. He is the spiritual leader and not the undiscipled influential members.  The church cannot be run as a business and cannot be led by businessmen. A clearly-called man/woman of God who is the pastor of the church should lead the spiritual body.
3. We live by faith in God.  Some who have lost their incomes have learned to live by faith. Our faith reveals the kind and size of God we serve.
4. Integrity: Pastors are people of honor.   Those who choose to conduct themselves in an ethical way will in the long run, perform better than those who do not.
5. We can build from meager resources and reinvent ourselves.  There are times when we bury our man-made ministries to wait for the Holy Spirit to resurrect and give new life and meaning to us.  Then it becomes His!
6. Our calling does not come from human institutions but from God.  When institutions fail in their mission we must move on to accomplish God’s individual calling upon our lives.

We answer to God for the burden He placed in our hearts.   Institutions will rise and fall but we continue serving our God until He removes us from this earth.

I Cor. 9:19 This means that I am not bound to obey people because they pay me, yet I have become a servant of everyone so that I can bring them to Christ.

 

Our Future calling cannot be separated from the event of our birth.   They have defined the minister we have to be and how we conduct ourselves.

 

1. C. THE 3^rd EVENT WAS OUR BIRTH AS A DISTINCT PEOPLE OF GOD: Our Organization became Self Governing in 2004
   1. 2004 affirmed that our regional leaders were competent servants of the Lord and were equipped by God to sufficiently lead and protect their people towards maturity and to raise equally competent, capable and responsible leaders. We can!  The Filipinos can and other nationals who are in leadership position with us…can!
   2. It was a rejection of church politics and the removal of structural hindrances from the work of the Lord.   It spelled organizational integrity.  Organizations are not idols to be worshipped; organizations are means to realize God’s mandate.  They are not ends in themselves.
   3. Our legitimacy, recognition and our calling as a distinct people of God do not come from the recognition of denominations but from God himself who called us as a people to preach the crucified and the resurrected Christ.  Our authority to preach the Gospel comes from God.

The important question is:  Is Christ preached? Has there been healing in His Name?

Eg. The conversation between the followers of John the Baptist and Jesus….are you the Christ?

1. We will always employ godly means in resolving our conflicts externally and internally, even if the world thinks that is tantamount to losing.   We may lose whatever we have or whatever we have achieved but we will never displease our Lord.  There are momentary successes done in a worldly way that will displease the Lord (ex. Moses and his staff). Our concern is what we become and not what we gain when resolving conflicts.  The ways of the world will never have any part in us.  We will always manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit and we will remain respectful even though disrespected. We serve for the pleasure of our Father.  As long as He is pleased with our ways we do not have to mind the rest.   This how we win!
2. Leaders decide on what is right and not on what is beneficial to themselves. They must avoid becoming self-serving, not deciding on what is advantageous to them personally or to their families.  They must always have in mind the interest, spiritual welfare and destiny of the entire church and not their personal comforts.  This is the problem of the Filipinos and their government- they think only of themselves and their families and they do not care about their community and their nation. Thus, the nation remains corrupt and most of its people poor.
3. This also involves how we look at positions in WIN; they are means and not ends.  There must never be a day that we start asking rewards for our services, hard work and sacrifices.  There must never be a day that we start requiring things for ourselves or oppressing our people…the people meant by God for us to serve and to lay our lives for.

We do not have rights as servants…our only right is to serve and to serve some   more!  God is first in our lives, our people second and us last.

If we follow this sequence, our needs and our children’s needs will be met all the   time.  We will not have lack. But, we will have lack if we will covet what was not given or not ordained for us in the first place.  Some have tried, but at what cost?   Today, we have been defined by our people. That definition can still be changed by mending our ways today. So, come let us do it quickly.

Our reward is God’s eternal reward.

Ps 37:25 Once I was young, and now I am old.  Yet I have never seen the godly forsaken nor seen their children begging for food.

 

Our Future calling cannot be separated from the events of our journey towards autonomy.   They have defined the kind of leadership we will have and how they will serve.

 

1. II. What God Made Out of Us

1. God made us people of faith: We left the ways of the world and its seeming sufficiency to embrace the unknown to preach the Word.  We became Pastors and Teachers at a great cost to us and our ambitions seemingly.

 

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; ²⁰ and it is no longer I who live,    but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,^g who loved me and gave himself for me^[3]

 

-The idea of living

 

1. B. God made us people of integrity: Our departure from the world’s sufficiency and reliance on God’s provision placed us in the highest level of integrity.  We cannot be bought and we do not have to beg. We do not have to steal.  (The Church used to tell the world how to behave; sadly, the world is now telling the church how to behave). If we are not people of integrity, our calling has not been true and our motives for the ministry were wrong.  Or we were a bunch of misfits seeking the once elusive prominence/recognition in life that comes from ministry.  Ministry is not for personal gain; it is to die to the self.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” ^[4]

I Cor 1:26

²⁶ Consider your own call, brothers and sisters:^g not many of you were wise by human standards,^h not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no one^I might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in^j the Lord.”

 

We pursued ministry not for gain but for the love of God and the lost.  It was the expression of mere men and women with a grateful heart serving an everlasting, an ever-loving, an ever-faithful and ever-giving God.

 

 

1. God made us people of creativity: We were made to discover new ways in doing ministry. We wrote a new path in doing ministry.  We learned from others but we did

not permit ourselves to be confined to what was there. We believed in the new order of things that God was unraveling for us to discover and use.  We are people of the Spirit-led creativity.

 

-        “Behold I have made everything new……”

-        We have become all things to all so we can preach….

 

1. D. God made us people of miracles:  We do not only believe in the miracle of a changed life but we are people who believe in miracles.  The blind shall see, the sick shall be healed, the weak shall be strong and the poor shall be rich….thy kingdom O Lord will come on earth as it is in heaven.
2. God made us people of servanthood.  We were called to serve and serve we did.
3. God made us people of holiness (not in judgment of other people lest we fall but as obedient children whose intent is to imitate their Father who is holy).
4. God made us people of compassion:  We are capable of forgiveness with a desire to give second chances to rebuild people’s lives toward dignity, usefulness and witness.
5. God made us people for the poor.
6. God made us people of worship.   We are known by our manner of worship.
7. God made us people of courage and perseverance.

Many of you held your posts alone with your loved ones, facing crises and isolation alone. Due to limitations brought about by lack of resources, there were no visits from us to strengthen you, to give you comfort, or sustain you but you never gave up, you never faulted us and you looked up to God and His everlasting presence to hold on to your post and to stay the course.  We are in the company of brave men and women.

 

Our financial situation has not changed due to the growth and demands of the ministries. We may not be able to make regular visits.  Our prayer is that you continue to hold on to your posts, hold on to our vision and practice the presence of God in your life and ministry.

 

 

1. III. Our Manner of doing things

 

1. Our pastors are engineers, teachers and architects and etc…..the rise of the bi-vocational pastors.
2. Our churches are started from home bible study groups often led by our members from other countries
3. Our members tithe even before the church is formally formed to fund the outreach

 

 

1. IV. A Review of these Principles

Our past has given us our future calling

Our past has defined our calling

We were shaped by our past

Our past is replete with good things and good events that favored us.

Let us summarize these events and principles that made us:

1. 1. Since we were born from a charismatic revival: We are a Spirit-filled movement.
2. 2. Since we were born from a period when the return to the Bible resulted in our salvation:  We are a full-gospel organization and we place the supremacy of God’s Word and its correct interpretation above all else.
3. 3. Since we were born from a movement that was led by the laity, we will always look at the lay as a rich source of workers and leaders of our churches.
4. 4. Our manner of pursuing our calling is “To Live by Faith”.  We believe in the economy of God….we receive when we give.
5. 5. We pursue an ever-increasing knowledge of God. Our pursuit for knowledge is a continuing responsibility.  We must continue to be equipped to “rightly divide the Word”.  It is a personal responsibility for self equipping and continuing education.
6. 6. We must seek courage and strength from God to hold our posts no matter how long it may be and no matter how lonely and isolated it can be.  We must always look up to God to sustain us.  Due to shortage of funds and prioritization we cannot visit you often…that is not a reason to be disgruntled.
7. 7. We will remain dynamic in our methods and always ruled by an anointed creativity so we can reach the lost with the gospel.
8. 8. We shall continue to believe that the church is complete and sufficient with gifts to carry on the church to the future by celebrating the use of gifts of our members, the laity.
9. 9. We must always be willing to serve sacrificially, placing God and the people’s interest ahead of ours.  In the process, our needs will be met.

10. We shall never seek rights due to our services no matter how long and hard they may have been.  Our only right from start to finish is to serve and will always be to serve.  Our rewards will be in heaven.

OUR CALLING FOR TOMORROW IS DEFINED BY OUR YESTERDAY’S CALLING AND WILL BE OUR CALLING FOREVER!

Having reviewed our past and what we have become……….. our calling is:

 

1. V. OUR CALLING:  A Decade of Destiny

 

The next decade WIN is to thrust into the world as a biblically sharpened and potent Spirit-filled force creatively winning souls and planting communities of disciplined believers equipped to preach the gospel through transformed lives!

 

 

A DECADE OF MAKING WINNERS OF EVERY MEMBER

 

A DECADE OF PLANTING NEW CHURCHES (COMMUNITIES/FAMILIES)

 

A DECADE OF WINNING NEW SOULS TO THE LORD

 

Hebrews 11:8  By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called……….And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

 

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^[1] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989, S. Mt 28:18

^[2] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989, S. Is 12:2

^[3] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989, S. Ga 2:19

^[4] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989, S. Mt 4:4