The Call of Jesus
Welcome to this lesson 14 "Do Not Move From House To House".
I'm very excited about going through this series with you,
where we are going to look at what Jesus has called us to.
Today we want to continue and we have come to chapter 14
in my book "The Call of Jesus" - "Do Not Move From House To House".
I want to start with reading this:
"We are all called not only to preach the Gospel and see people saved,
but also to help people grow into strong disciples.
We should not only see one person saved here and there,
we should see whole households come to Christ."
And that is so true. We, you and me, are called,
not only to preach the gospel, and not only to see one person saved here and there,
but we are called to make disciples, and we are called,
as we read again, and again, in the Book of Acts,
to see whole households come to faith.
And we need really to change our mindset. We need to renew our mind.
We need to come away from the sinner's prayer.
We need to come away from that mindset that
we should just lead one person to Christ there, and one person there,
and then we move on.
No, we need to make disciples.
We need to preach the full gospel
and we need to see households come to faith.
And we need to grow them up.
And we need to see them become strong in Christ.
The truth is many of the things we do in our churches today...
we don't find in the Bible.
And many of the things we find in the Bible we don't do today.
And we need to be ready to change.
We need to stop doing it our way, as I said many times,
and then do it the way Jesus has called us to do.
And I truly believe in the call Jesus has given us.
Why? Because He has called us to do it,
and because we are now starting to see amazing fruit.
We, the last years, have seen households come to faith.
And this is just the beginning.
But we need you out there.
The harvest is truly ready, but the workers are few.
We need you.
Until now, we have been looking at different things in Luke 10.
We've looked at how the harvest is ready and the workers are few,
and we should pray the Lord of the harvest to send out workers
and I hope you are praying that. God, send out workers.
But then He sent out also, as lambs among wolves,
to go out to find that person of peace.
And when we find that person of peace that is ready to receive
we should eat and drink what they are serving, as we looked at last time.
And then we should stay there.
Because this is the next thing Jesus is saying in Luke 10:7.
"Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you,
for a worker deserves his wages.
Do not move around from house to house."
So, Jesus has not only called us to go out and find a person of peace,
sit down and eat and drink what they serve,
but He has called us to stay there and not to be too fast to move on.
Why? Because our job is not only to preach the gospel.
Our job is not only to say: Hey, congratulations! You are saved! Goodbye!
No, our job is to obey Jesus.
And it's to make disciples.
To build them up, to see them become strong and...
...to see the whole household come to faith.
And that is the thing.
When you come in and find the person of peace and you see one person give their life to God,
that one person, if you work with him, you can much, much easier and very fast
not only see him come to faith, but the whole household come to faith.
But you need to be aware of that.
In the beginning, when I started to evangelize,
I was very often out, and I met one person there who got saved,
and "goodbye" and I moved on.
And I did not spend the time with him and use his relationships, somehow,
to reach the whole household.
But now I do it and I see so much more fruit.
And I was too fast to move on, so I did not build them up to become strong.
And another thing, I didn't recognize the five-fold ministry.
Maybe you have heard a lot of teaching already about the five-fold ministry,
the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers,
but I almost guarantee you, much of what you've heard - it's not correct.
I've heard a lot of teaching about those gifting, years ago,
but it was just wrong. It was put in a box. it was like...
The evangelist said: No, no, I don't need to follow up on people.
I'm not a pastor. And the pastor said: I don't need to evangelize
because I'm not an evangelist. And the teacher said:
I don't need to take care of people because this is not my gifting.
It was not meant like that.
No, we are all called to obey Jesus. So simple.
We are all called, as disciples, to obey Him,
and if there is a need, we do something about that need.
So, don't say: Hey, I'm a pastor, I don't need to find a person of peace.
No. If you are a disciple, you need to obey Jesus, no matter what your call is.
When that is said...
God has given different callings to help to equip each other,
so we together become strong, so we together see more fruit
in what Jesus has called us to.
Ephesians 4:11-16: "So Christ Himself gave the apostles,
the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and the teachers,
to equip His people for the works of service, so we the body of Christ
may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith
and in the knowledge of the Son of God to become mature,
attaining to the whole measure and the fullness of Christ."
So, here we read that Christ Himself has given apostle, prophet, evangelist,
shepherd, teachers - people who have different ministries.
Their gift is to equip the saints, so we all can do ministry,
so we all can be built up and become mature in Christ.
If those giftings are not working the way they are supposed to work,
and working together...
we will not the same way come into our ministry.
We will not the same way grow up and become mature,
because those giftings are not working.
If we look at churches today,
in many churches today we don't see those five-fold ministry working
and working together.
And therefore we see a church today
which is very immature, we see a church today
where many people never come into ministry. Why?
Because we don't use the gift the way Jesus has given us,
and use it the right way.
So, we are all called to follow Christ.
We are all called to obey the call He has given us.
But, we are different.
And for some people, to find a person of peace, is much more easier
than to others.
For some people to follow up on a person of peace
comes much easier than to others.
For some people to lay doctrine and teaching comes much easier
than it does for others.
And if we together, as different giftings, equip the saints,
and together do what Jesus has called us to do,
it's going to be so powerful.
It's going to be so powerful and we are going to see so much more fruit.
In our Luke 10 training school we have, we always talk about the five-fold ministry.
And what we often do there, to illustrate how we think different
and how this different DNA in us
is that we ask people to sit down where they think they belong.
So, those who are prophets sit there.
Those who see themselves as evangelists sit there.
Shepherds and teachers, they sit different places.
And then I ask them a question. If I ask the prophets:
What is the most important thing we need in the church today?
He will often say: Oh, to hear the voice of God.
We need to be led by the Holy Spirit, to hear the voice of God.
And that is correct.
If I ask evangelists the same: What is the most important in the church today?
Oh, we need to reach the lost. We need to reach the lost.
People out there are getting lost. We need to come out of the church
and reach the lost. And that is correct.
If I ask the teachers: What is the most important in the church today?
Oh, we need sound doctrine. We need sound doctrine.
We need to build people up, give them sound doctrine,
so they are building on the Word of God.
And we need to be careful with wrong teachings.
Sound doctrine. Sound doctrine.
If I ask the shepherds the same: what is the most important in the church today?
What do we need most?
We need each other. We need to take care of each other,
and take care of those who are struggling.
We need to come together and help each other and be strong together.
If you look at just those four - we need it all.
We need it all. Try to imagine if those giftings
could all work together, together with the apostle
who can do a little of everything, and tries to bring them together,
if we can work together, we will be strong.
Try to imagine you had a team you are walking with
and one of them, in that team, he was very, very evangelistic,
he can easily and faster go in and find that person of peace and go to that house.
Hallelujah! But...
If he's very strong evangelistic, he needs somebody on his side
who is helping him to lay a foundation, who is helping him to stay and nurture
those people and build them up and be there longer time,
so they can build up and become strong.
We see that relationship in the Bible, in Acts 8 we see that Philip,
the evangelist Philip came to Samaria. He was preaching the gospel,
he was casting out demons, he was healing the lame,
and many people got healed, and people came and heard it,
and many people repented and got baptized.
And it was beautiful.
But when the apostles, when the other giftings heard about it...
they came there to help Philip.
Help Philip where he was missing.
And that gave Philip the freedom to move on,
so Philip could come to the eunuch and do what he needed to do there.
And that is the thing. If we, as believers, can recognize the different giftings,
and can work together, we would set each other free.
Those people who are very strong evangelistic,
they can go in and find that person of peace.
But they don't need to follow up and take much time to nurture them,
to lay a foundation, to teach all of them. Why?
Because there are other people who can do that.
So, that sets the evangelist free to move on.
And that does that those people who were reached with the gospel,
now will be build up and become mature in Christ,
as we read about in Ephesians 4.
And I truly, truly believe that. And this have been my heart for years.
But now I'm starting to see it come together.
The 18th of October 1999, that is now over 20 years ago,
20 years ago I got a very, very strong prophecy
and I want to share this with you, because this prophecy
impacted my life, but this prophecy is not only for me.
It's for all of us out there.
This was the word I received.
"You are going to drive out demons. You are an evangelist.
You are going to break down strongholds in people's minds and teach my Word.
'I'm going to teach you to teach My Word', says the Lord.
You are going to learn strategy and develop plans on how to set people free.
I am going to train you.
You are going to go out from My body and back to My body.
Many evangelists have gone independent, but you will walk with an apostolic team.
Remember Philip and the apostles' relationship and how people would get saved daily?
You will experience miracles, and you will move forward like a big swinging axe.
You will win homes and entire cities for the Gospel,
and you will experience the power of the world to come."
This was a very, very strong word I received that time, 20 years ago.
And that time, when I received it, I've never healed the sick,
I've never cast out a demon, I've never led a person to Christ.
We have never led a household to Christ.
We have never done what we are seeing today.
Today, we have seen a lot of miracles.
We have cast out a lot of demons. We have healed a lot of sick.
We have baptized thousands of people.
We have seen households come to faith.
We are starting to see...
what that word was all about.
But I want to admit something. When I heard that word...
I thought: Wow! Amazing! I am going to be a super evangelist!
I am going to be a super evangelist who is standing on a platform
and preaching to thousands and thousands of people.
That was what I thought at that time.
Because I did not see the full picture.
But now, 20 years later, I see the full picture.
And I see it all comes together.
Actually, a few years ago, I've got this prophetic word.
"You are going to lay down a DNA in a new generation,
a DNA that is going to go from generation to generation.
You are going to raise people up from nothing to spiritual giants,
and they are going to win homes and entire cities for the Gospel."
Hallelujah! Can you see it?
There things start to come together.
No, it's not me. It's not about one super evangelist
who's going to do it, because one man cannot do it alone.
No, I was just going to be used, among others, to lay this DNA
down in a new generation, to raise people up
from nothing to spiritual giants,
and they are going to win homes and entire cities for God.
Not me. Not one person. But this DNA.
This teaching I'm giving you, the call of Jesus,
what we are sharing here, this DNA,
when you choose to obey it,
will not change only your life, but people around you.
Together we can see homes come to Christ.
And many homes make a city and we will see cities come to God.
So, now I see it. Now we see the fruit of it.
And one thing that's very, very important is that we need to learn to work together.
We need those different gifts work together.
Otherwise we are not going to see it.
I remember many years ago in Denmark, i met a young girl who had problem in her knee.
She could not play football. I prayed for her and she got healed.
I met her later. Her mom came and the rest of the family.
That girl got baptized and received the Holy Spirit and her life got changed.
Her mom was still in the Lutheran Church, she was not born again yet at that time,
but now she was open, because she saw her daughter healed and her life changed.
So I asked mom: Hey, can we come to your house?
Gather friends and family, I will come to your house,
we will sit down and we will share how your daughter got healed,
we will share the gospel and pray for them.
But that woman who has been a member of the Lutheran Church for many years said:
No, no, no one wants to come to my house.
Why? Because for years I have invited my friends to church and no one wanted to come.
And I said: I understand why no one wanted to come.
If you invited me to a Lutheran church I also wouldn't want to come.
But now we didn't invite people to church. We invited people to your home.
A home where they've been many, many times before.
So, for them to come to that home one more time will not make a big difference for them.
So they will come.
And she gave it a chance. She wrote an e-mail to 17 of her friends.
Invited them over one evening, where I would be there,
and we will tell about how her daughter got healed, and then we will pray for them.
Out of those 17 friends 16 came and she was so surprised.
She was like: how can that happen?
And now we went to her home.
Person of peace. We see it. We were sitting there, eating and drinking.
In the living room we started to preach the gospel. We saw God came.
At one time I prayed for a girl who got filled with the Holy Spirit,
fell down and a demon left her. I was sitting on the floor
and casting out a demon: Come out! Come out in the name of Jesus!
Everyone was sitting like this and looking. It was so powerful
and everyone saw God that night. God came.
Many, many, many things happened. And it was an amazing evening
I'm never going to forget.
And this is what I've been talking about in the book.
Find one person, and suddenly you are in a household with a lot of people.
But, after that evening, I was too fast. I moved on.
There were other things I needed to do.
So, I moved on and it never became what God wanted it to become.
I was too busy. I was working alone. If I knew at that time what I know today,
we would have seen so much more fruit out of that household.
What I should have done, instead of doing it alone,
I should have brought other giftings, other people with me,
who could help to follow up.
And already there arrange a meeting few days later,
and a meeting a few days later, so we could start to follow up on those people.
But I was just: Adios! Bye-bye! And I have already moved on to another home.
Not knowing that Jesus said I should have stayed there.
If I knew at that time what I know today, we would have seen so much more fruit.
And that's why we talk about the five-fold ministry, because we need this.
You need it. We need everyone out there.
In my book "The Call of Jesus", I talk much more about the five-fold ministry.
I want to talk more about it later, where I will, in the end of this video series,
put it all together and talk about how it works.
But if we can work together, if you not only obey the call of Jesus,
but find somebody around you, find people around you
who are strong in those areas where you are not strong,
and then do it together, you who are very, very strong evangelistic,
you who know how to go out and find the person of peace,
you need to take people with you, who will have some of the other gifts,
who can help to follow up, who can help to lay a foundation.
We need each other, and if we can come together and work together,
obey Jesus together, we will not only lead one person to Christ here and there,
but we will lead one person to Christ, then we will go to his home or her home,
then we will gather friends and family, like I did,
then we will share the gospel, we will heal the sick,
we will cast out demons, we will see people repent
and get baptized in water and the Holy Spirit. But that is not all.
Then we will have people who there, in their house
will be able to continue meeting with them,
who will continue to give milk to those who are now born again,
so they can grow up and become strong.
Who can help them to hear from God, who can help them to read the Word,
who can help them to reach other people.
And if we do it like this, we will not only see one person saved.
We will see households saved.
And those households, those people will move on
and reach new households, and they will move on and reach new households.
And it the end we will not only have many households who have come to Christ.
We will see whole cities come to Christ, exactly as God spoke about,
as we see it in the prophecy.
So, I want to encourage you...
yes, we are all different, yes, we have different giftings,
and yes, we need each other. We do not only need a super evangelist.
We need everyone who wants to obey Jesus.
We need you who are more into the Word and love to teach.
We need you who are more shepherd kind,
who love to just sit down and take care of people, and help people.
We need you who can hear from God. We need all the giftings,
no matter how old or young you are - we need all of you out there.
And when you and me together will do this -
Hallelujah! We are going see amazing fruit.
As I said before, later I'm going to talk more about the five-fold ministry,
I'm going to put it all together. And I encourage you also -
read my book, if you can.
If you don't have the money, send an e-mail and we will send you a code
and you can read the book for free, because in the book,
when we talk about the five-fold ministry, I'm sharing so much more,
I have so many more examples of how it looks, and so on.
So, this DNA, as we have talked about, this DNA we read in the call of Jesus,
I believe is from God. And I believe that we will see whole households
come to faith. So, I encourage you, start where you are.
Start praying God to send out more workers.
Start to go out yourself as lambs among wolves.
Start to find a person of peace, but also, try to bring people with you,
who are different than you. Bring people with you.
If you are not strong evangelistic, find somebody who is strong evangelistic.
If you are very strong evangelistic, then find other people who are not so strong
in that area, but strong in other areas.
Because none of you is called just to go out and
"see people saved", see people ask Jesus into their hearts,
and even repent, get baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, and then move on.
That is not the call Jesus gave us.
The call Jesus gave us is to make disciples,
to see them grow up and become strong in God.
So, I really encourage you, you who are seeing this,
who are maybe very fast in moving on -
stop doing it.
Take people with you.
Take people with you who have those gifts you don't have.
And then, don't just move on, but see community starts,
see new house fellowships start,
see how they will grow up and become strong,
and how it will go from generation to generation.
God bless you! See you next time! Bye-bye!
The Call of Jesus