Habitation Church

Spirit Empowered Cultivation of Family & Mission - Leadership

The idea of Biblical leadership is costly. God absolutely believes in human leadership. We can say this because God entered into a human vehicle, the Man Jesus, and He embodies the positional and relational reality of King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Father’s chosen and anointed ruler. 

God takes time to form sons and daughters. Those who have been transformed and formed over time by the power of the Spirits work in them become a precious resource to God’s agenda—His purposes for His House and People. 

In this episode, let’s take time to consider leadership from a Biblical perspective— why it’s so necessary and why the scriptures prescriptions and evaluations for persons who desire such roles should be our constant guide and jealousy. 

Spirit Empowered Cultivation of Family & Mission - Evangelism

Becoming a people who live evangelistically will require us to be a people of His presence. In Mark 3, Jesus calls the disciples up the mountain “so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach.” Presence came before Preaching.

May the way we live our lives together in His presence and according to His way of life be a provoking invitation for others to align their lives to Jesus and His purposes.

Jesus is longing for a people who are a testimony to the nations of the earth!

Spirit Empowered Cultivation of Family & Mission - Discipleship

Discipleship is the way that God grows and matures his family. 

 

If we truly saw the church as family, life-on-life discipleship is the only road to maturity. In the ideal natural family, a father and mother teach, train, and equip their children in every area of life. It is normal and expected that the children will grow and mature into adults whose character resembles their parents (Lk 6:40). 

 

God has designed the church to be his family on the earth. He’s given us spiritual ‘parents’ to teach, train, and equip us. Too often, we see our spiritual parents as peers, making it difficult to submit our lives to them.

God has placed each part of the body where he pleases (1 Cor 12:18).  Submitting to his process of discipleship is how he brings growth and maturity to our lives. (1 Cor 3:6).

The Knowledge of God

Michael shares with Habitation Church about the knowledge of God that is revealed to us in the place of loving obedience. God cannot just be researched, He must be revealed. And, He must decide to reveal Himself. God chooses what of Himself He desires to be known. He is gracious and outrageously kind, and chooses to unveil Himself to those who partner with His grace to love Him and obey Him.   

Special emphasis on Philippians 3:7-10, Paul shares that because of the way God revealed Himself to Him, his whole life was transformed and reconfigured. You would never be able to understand Paul, and his jealousy to love and obey the Lord, unless you understood the way that God revealed Himself to Paul. Here is the connection— revelation should produce subjection. 

Our desire must be the knowledge of God— To know the Lord intimately, relationally, and experientially. Not to know of Him— information about Him, but to be immersed into union that produces a greater yielding and freedom to love Him and obey Him. 

Time To Go Up From Here

God desires to have a people for Himself that would be a holy possession. This desire is clear from the very beginning of the biblical narrative and remains throughout the timeline as we know it. 

In this session, Michael shares with Habitation Church particular insights taken from Deuteronomy 1-8, Numbers 13-14, and Acts 13 about our primary identity as the people of God, God’s purpose in our planting together in a way of life together that would “build His house” in our city, and then God’s heart to assign and commission people locally and abroad into a missional demonstration. 

“Whether you are released or remain, the goal is the same— build and become a habitation for God.

Habitation Church

God longs to dwell in the midst of a people that are wholly His. His prescription for that is a way of life that creates a context that is most conducive for His abiding. 

In this session, Michael shares from Acts 2:37-47 and Acts 13:1-3 on 9 key components for a living habitation. 

A habitat is the natural environment of an organism; the place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism. It is the place where a person or thing is usually found. 

God desires a habitat for Him to walk in the cool of the day among a people that are His. 

Your Investment Into His Inheritance

God has promised Jesus a people conformed to His image. Together, they will be the Bride of Christ. This Bride, the Church, will be a people from every tribe, nation, and tongue, across every generation of human history. This people, His comparable companion, will be His inheritance. 

In this session, Michael shares on the importance of God getting what He is after from the people that have been purchased with the blood of His Son. 

God is after a “what,”— a people conformed to the image of His Son. But, there is also a “way” that He is going to get that, and something that we can do about it to invest into what Jesus has been promised. 

With an emphasis on Numbers 9, Ephesians 1-4, and John 17, Michael shares on how you can make an investment into the inheritance of Jesus in a practical way. 

God Desires the Details

The Church is a people that have been purchased with the blood of God’s Son— Jesus Christ. They are a people redeemed from the influence of rulers and powers, and the corruption of the domain of darkness. They have been born again, now housing a divine life— The Holy Spirit— who is radically and dynamically working within them to align them to God in an intimate way, and to His purposes in an ongoing way. The church is a family of new creatures. 

In this session, Michael considers God’s desire to have a people He can share Himself with and the lengths that He goes to in order to reveal the habitat that is most conducive to fulfill that desire. Context matters. And there is a context most conducive to God having a resting place, a habitation, for Him to walk in the cool of the day amongst His people. 

God longs to tabernacle with us; He wants to do life with us. 

With an emphasis on Leviticus, Michael shares the heart of an ongoing way of life together that provides God with the environment, the habitat, for God to abide.