Living Hope Fellowship Church

ARE WE DIFFERENT?

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

ARE WE DIFFERENT?

Preface

 (the first church / our witness)

          The first church was different!  Acts 5:12-13 says, “And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.  And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.” 

          Basically, we are known by two things, what we say and what we do (how we live).  There is a problem when people believe in the power of God, but don’t operate in it.  We need to live under the anointing and presence of God.

          Our witness should be so powerful that people will say, “What must I do to be saved?”  We need to be able to manifest the power of God to bring souls in.

ARE WE DIFFERENT?

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

          Acts 8:4 says, “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.  Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.  And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.  For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.  And there was great joy in that city.”

            There was great joy in the whole city.  Acts 5:12-13 says, “And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.  And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.”  The people didn’t dare join that first church unless they were sincere!   Those people had a supernatural experience with God!

          The church today has the same atonement by the blood of the Lamb and the same power and capabilities, because nothing has changed.  We have the same Savior and the same Holy Ghost.  However, we are doing far below what the first church was doing with their salvation. 

          The most important thing that we have is our witness.  Every human being that breathes has a reputation and a witness.  Now, there is a difference in your reputation and your witness as a child of God.  Your reputation is what you are known for.  In fact, we tailor make our reputation if it is in our power to do so.  Our reputation is a form of our dignity.  It is what we would like to be known as, or what we would like for somebody to say over our grave when we are buried. 

          When you become a child of God, and are fully sold out to Him, your reputation is canceled out.  It is replaced with the witness of the Lord Jesus Christ if we will let Him do it.

          What is our duty to man?  What is our reputation and our witness among men?  Basically, we are known by two things, what we say and what we do.  How we live is included in what we do.  We can say a lot of things, but what we do boils everything down.  If you are not doing anything, then what you say is almost worthless. 

          If you believe in healing, but you can’t pray the prayer of faith for somebody to be healed, it is really hard for them to get excited about it!  God’s witness is marred when your witness isn’t lined up with Him when you call yourself a Christian.  You have to become of no reputation as a child of God.  You take on the person of Jesus Christ when you are born again.

          Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”  As you yield over to the Lord, His Spirit and then His witness and reputation begin to show in you.  God is still on the throne, and He doesn’t change.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Read the Word of God if you want to know what your witness should be like and what your promises are. 

          2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen. . . .”  All the promises of God are yea and amen to them that believe them.  Belief is more than an intellectual pursuit; you must develop your life around the Word no matter how impossible the situation, because your old ways, your reputation, and your old nature will not accomplish the things of God.  Many are trying, but it isn’t flying.  We have to walk in the Spirit!

          If you don’t stand for something, you have no witness, and there is confusion.  If you believe one thing, but do another, you can’t accomplish that which you believe.  There is a problem with people when they believe in the power of God, but don’t operate in the power of God.  If you believe that God is all powerful, why isn’t He doing very much in your life? 

          The Bible says in Matthew 10:24-25, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. . . .”

          The word Christian means to be Christ like.  The first church moved whole cities for God.  The church needs to recognize its need to come up higher.  The Bible says that the anointing of God was so heavy that people either got saved, or they tried their best to kill them, because they couldn’t stand the conviction.  People react either positively or negatively to the conviction of the Lord.  How strong people react to conviction depends on the power in the witness of the preaching.

          Jesus said in Luke 14:23, “And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”  They will either be compelled to come in, or they will be compelled to kill you, or at least resist you.

          Persecution causes some to compromise their witness.  The first church was persecuted.  When Stephen was martyred because of his witness, Christians were scattered.  They were used to going to the Jewish synagogues to pray, but now they were under the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost.  They couldn’t even go to the local churches because of the anointing that was on them.

          Whenever Jesus went into a synagogue, generally, the first thing that popped up wasn’t someone saying, “Thank God you are here.”  Sometimes it was a devil standing up wanting to know what He was doing there!  The presence of God is all powerful.  The witness of the Lord is irrefutable.

          What was the first church’s reaction when they had death threats, or when they were being driven away, or when other persecution was going on?  They just kept right on preaching.  What was their motivation?  

           Persecution picks up in direct proportion to the dedication of the Christian.  Persecution picks up in direct proportion to the manifested power of God within His church.  Persecution, death threats, and even martyrdom comes when people are literally walking in the presence of the Almighty God.

          If God deems someone fit to die as a martyr, they will die, but if He deems them not yet ready to go, there is nothing in heaven, on earth, or in hell beneath that can stop their witness.  We need to be in that kind of position and revival that the first church walked in.  The manifest presence of Jesus Christ was so powerful that they either loved you or they hated you.  There was no indifference.  They affected people.  They bothered people.  One of the accusations against the Lord found in Luke 23:5 is, “He stirreth up the people.” 

          The Lord will stir you to believe for things that are impossible, and He will provide.  He is able to do what He preaches.  Not one time did Jesus witness about something that He couldn’t produce the goods.  We read about the apostle Paul who got in the same place.  Peter, Philip, and James got in the same place.  John and Stephen got in the same place.  There were the disciples, there were 120 in the upper room.  Then, there were thousands, and so on. 

          This is why we make the statement that if the church had never backed up or compromised, the whole world today would be saved.  It would be impossible that the whole church not be in revival and spreading like wildfire.  Signs, wonders, and the supernatural would be happening.

          Nations would be turned upside down.  The Bible said in the book of Acts that even the world was turned upside down!  This will happen again IF we are doing what God has called us to do, IF we are living in the position that God has called us to live in. 

          The book of Acts is the acts of the apostles.  Why did God put that in the Bible?  Weren’t Jesus’ miracles good enough?  Wasn’t Jesus’ atonement and all the things that He did a good enough witness?  Mark 16:15 says, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  God wanted to make sure that we understood that carpenters, beggars, prostitutes, politicians, IRS men, and all types of people, both the “respectable” sinner and the repulsive sinner, the socially acceptable and the unacceptable need the gospel preached to them. 

          Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  All are sinners, but God turns us around.  Such was the first church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God performed the miraculous in their lives.  They brought thousands in for the Kingdom of God.  The church has spent more time rationalizing why God isn’t showing up than just seeking God’s face!  Jesus is forever making intercession for you and me.  There is no slack with God concerning His promises.  Everything has a reason.  What compelled people to come in? 

          If you are ever feeling self-pity you need to read “The Foxes Book of Martyrs”.  That will bring you right out of it, and you will be so ashamed at what you are fretting over.  Those things took place when the church was at its lowest ebb and making a comeback to the high side.  People were being tortured, sawn asunder, and some were burned at the stake.  They were watching their hands being burned up, but they were lifting up their hands and praising God while being burned to death, without cursing their tormentors.  There is something different about that kind of a person!

          While Judas was with the Lord Jesus, he was operating with the Lord.  He performed the miraculous just like James, John, Peter, and the rest, but John 13:27 says, “And after the sop Satan entered into him. . . .” 

          Judas was a thief, yet the Lord kept dealing with him and dealing with him.  He is dealing with the church today.  How many churches are healing the sick and casting out devils?  Is there as much going on in the street as there is in the church service?

           Everywhere that a Christian goes, he ought to stir up something.  I’m not talking about making trouble, because Romans 12:18 says, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”  However, He wasn’t talking about compromising the witness of God in your life.  He was talking about living under the anointing and presence of God.  It should be so powerful that people would say, “What must we do to be saved?” 

          God was watching Job, and even made a spectacle out of him!  A lot of people don’t want God to be interested in them.  However, if God isn’t bothering you in some way, you are in the deepest trouble that you can possibly be in.  People may be indifferent to you, but if God is indifferent to you, you are in deep trouble.  If God is dealing with you, you are blessed; yield to Him.

          We need to wake up and realize our benefits and promises from God.  We have to be willing to lay down something to take up more of God.  We wrestle with carnality and foolishness, but self will and fleshly ways must go.  God’s way is the only way to eternal life.

          No one in their right mind likes sickness.  Healing from God is wonderful, but think what greater witness it would be if everybody who was born again and anointed with the power of God never got sick, no matter what was “going around”.  We read in Psalms 91:1, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

            Let me give you a little information!  No devil can even approach close to the shadow of the Almighty.  He can’t find you if you are there.  Verse 7 says, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.” 

          Folks, there are so many biological things out there that they just don’t have enough vaccines for all of it.  There is no vaccination for chemical warfare.  They need to be issuing Bibles and body bags.  You can take one or the other!

          How many times has someone asked you to come and pray for them because they were sick, and you felt afraid to go pray for them, because you were afraid that you would get it?  As a minister I tend to be around sick people frequently.  I go around the demented, the hurt, and the dying.  If we fear the devil, we are unable to help others.  

          Luke 22:35 says, “And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.”  He asked them in other words if they were short on anything, or if they had a need that couldn’t get met.  When Jesus provides, you will never want for anything.  It makes no difference if you have a job or not.  It makes no difference if you are rich or poor, smart or not smart.  It doesn’t make any difference if you are good looking or what your background is.  Many times Jesus will send you “without” on purpose, but Jesus will provide for you if He sent you!

          Luke 9:1-5 says, “Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.  And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.  And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.  And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart.  And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.”

          They went out with nothing.  Let me tell that if you go out full, the devil or religion having given you provision, you are not going in God’s blessing.  When Jesus sends you out empty, He will be beside you, supernaturally providing.  He gave his disciples power and authority before He sent them out.  

          Luke 10:1 says, “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.”  A lot of people think the power and authority was just for the 12 apostles, but here He sent out 70 more.

          Luke 10:2 says, “Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” 

          When God sent the disciples out they lacked nothing in the natural or in the supernatural.  If we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness all these other things are add-ons. 

          The Lord told me years ago that He wanted to get me in the place that I could have a million dollars in the bank and care nothing for it. 

          Do you remember Abraham coming back from war with a great victory?  The king was so grateful that he wanted to give Abraham the spoils and the gold, but Abraham said, “NO”.  He said that it was because people would say that the king made him rich.

          I wonder how many ministries today are depending on rich people’s ability to give, to keep them afloat.  What will keep it afloat when the economy fails?  If a foundation is on anything other than the Lord it won’t last.  The most powerful witness we have is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must not compromise.  

          The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

            1 Corinthians 2:4-5 says, “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

          Some people try to razzle and dazzle with words, but if someone will produce “the goods”, then souls will be convinced!  That is why some of us have trouble “moving” other people, be it in the family, the church, the neighborhood, or be it in the city or nation. 

          Jesus said in John 4:48, “. . . Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.”  If we have anything less than the power of God in our lives and in our witnessing, a lot of people will never come in, much less stay in.  Our faith must stand in the power of God, not in promises that cannot be produced! 

          1 Corinthians 3:1-2 says, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” 

          God Almighty is speaking through this apostle.  If we press in, then we can hear and understand Him, and He will give us the meat that we desire.  The first part of Verse 3 says, “For ye are yet carnal:”  Carnal means fleshly or worldly.  Verse 3 goes on to say, “. . . for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” 

          How dare him talk to the church like that!  How dare him say such a thing to spiritual people.  These are blood bought, Holy Ghost filled people!  He could hardly talk to them.  Communication was hard, because Paul had gotten into such a place that the common saved church couldn’t even understand him.  Peter was an awesome apostle of God, but even he said, that some things that Paul said were hard to understand.

          Paul said, “. . . are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”  In other words he says, “Is there something wrong with you that you can’t understand me?   You are walking like a natural man.”  The Lord has such a higher place for us to walk!  I’m talking about walking in the place where Jesus walked

          If you meet the conditions, then God will meet you.  We need to be able to manifest the power of God to bring souls in.  The Lord said to go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in.  I know it’s not a natural compelling of grabbing them by the arm and dragging them in.  Rather, it’s a drawing of God’s Spirit. 

          I pray that the Lord sets us free of complacency.  In this thing we groan.  All of creation groans with us, waiting for the sons of God to come forth. 

          In Jesus’ name I ask God to help us to get free so we can help others.  Amen. 

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghope@hughes.net

www.livinghopefellowshipchurch.org

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.