By Brother John Shepard
Revelation 17:14
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are With Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
I realize that beginning with a verse is a little different, but throughout this article, it is my hope that you will use the highlighted segment as a running theme. Before we get too far, let me add that we just attended a church meeting in Riverside, California. This meeting with Brother Bean and the Church in Riverside was a tremendous success. Building the Body of Christ in the right spirit was the common direction with every minister’s message. The Word of God, blending of spirits, music, worship, and fellowship was truly the building of the Body of Christ.
In our current services, Brother Nobles and the ministry have taught that just building a Body, with respect to numbers, doesn’t amount to much if the very spirit or nature of God isn’t our foundation. After all, with Jesus as our Head, we’re building something that will stand after everything else crumbles—the true Body of Christ with His spirit!
Elder LaFleur, as a wise master-builder, laid this foundation for us. He taught us to squeeze the scriptures for every drop of oil you could get. This oil is what God will use to light your candle, and give you more understanding of His very nature and the way He wants His Church to be built. Keep in mind that if things are done God’s way, the glory that comes along with the results belongs solely to Him.
I appreciate that the Lord saw fit for this meeting to take place and that I was able to be there. The message of the meeting definitely provoked my mind to consider some things. I will do my best to share some of these thoughts with you. I invite you to come along with me on a small journey through the scriptures. Let’s take a look at a couple of accounts of how God made mighty moves through different people who were With Him and did things His way.
Though few in number, they shook the world around them.
Judges 7
When considering going to battle, you’d think that hitting the other team with everything you’ve got would be the way to go, but that was not God’s nature. Thirty-two thousand was way too many. With that many soldiers, they’d be vaunted in themselves and there’s no way that God would get the glory for the victory. Okay, so let’s send 22,000 back home. Now, surely the victory with only 10,000 soldiers would glorify God . . . right?
Wrong! Still not God’s way.
God wanted it done with the right nature or spirit. He had Gideon perform a little experiment or test to see which of these men had this nature. With that said and done, we’re now left with just 300 men who were With Him. As you read this account, you’ll see that they overcame a great multitude and when they won the victory, God received the glory.
John 6:66-71
We know that Jesus was sent by God to establish His Kingdom here on earth. We can also see through the scriptures that He was going to use a ministry to do it. As is the nature of man, as long as He fed those who were hungry, or healed those who were sick, or restored sight to those who were blind, He had many followers. However, when He sat them down and taught them things about what kind of nature His Father expected them to take on (oh wait, I didn’t know He was going to get personal), many of those followers left. He was then reduced to just 12 men who were With Him at that time.
Acts 2:14-27
In these verses, you can see that through the 12 men that were With Him, God was able to establish a Powerhouse Church built His way—the same Church that we are a part of and still building today.
Revelation 14:1-4
Finally, when this Church has reached it’s completion, the whole world will see the glory of God shine through it. Compared to the world’s population, we are just a few people who are diligently working to do things His way.
By now I hope you understand that With Him doesn’t just mean in a single location, but a mindset that we desire to do what He wants, the way He wants it done, and in the right spirit. Remember this new song that we’re singing is His song, not our own. If God is getting the glory, it is a good clue that you are doing things His way and with His spirit.
Come join us as we build the Body of Christ! God’s ministry has the sheet music to this new song and is willing to teach it to whomever would desire to sing it with us.
I encourage those of you reading this who were able to go to this meeting to drop a few lines in the comments and try to share with others what you heard and felt.
Food For Thought
As we see through the example of Judas, just because you were once With Him doesn’t guarantee that you will remain With Him. If you’ll take a look back to the verse that began this article, you’ll see that there are three different descriptions of those people With Him.
1) Called.
2) Chosen.
3) Faithful.
God calls us. It is our responsibility to remain faithful if we expect Him to finally choose us.
To God Be The Glory!
Thank you Brother and others who contribute to this awesome blog. It has been such an inspiration and encouragement for me as I have walked through valleys and climbed back up each time it seems my life follows the same pattern of journey as the Body and church as a whole. And it always comes back to the right spirit. No matter if it’s the collective journey we are on or personal life journey it all has to be built on the right foundation and with the right spirit. This wisdom comes from God through Jesus to our ministry and applies to us. The spirit requires charity in all its forms as we continue to be well taught. Each dispensation has been supplied by God with the right ministry starting with our Lord Jesus Christ. I am so thankful that God has allowed me to see how He is working in the earth to bring us all home to him. Bro John Shepard is a perfect example of how God will continue His Work as we follow the foundation laid by William Souders and continued by Bro Nick and Elder LaFleur,and moving ahead with Bro Nobles and our very solid ministry in this spirit of charity (God’s spirit). The valleys we faced as a church were handled with such love and mercy. As we learned in Trenton we applied in Riverside. That spirit prevailed and will prevail. I personally could feel a sense of healing in God’s people as we shared our love and support. We were all strengthened and can move on as one strong army to continue to build the Body of Christ!! How blessed we are!!
I am so glad that I was able to be in the meeting. There was such a spirit of excitement and anticipation throughout the services, because we all knew why we were there, and that God had something great in store for us. Being able to witness everything firsthand was a great blessing and I hope to see some of those same new faces in October.
I thank God that I am among those who are WITH HIM! I remember the service when Elder LaFleur taught that message & how it hit home with me. Thank you Bro. John Shepard for bringing it back & reminding us again to be WITH HIM & take on His nature. God is so good!
Thank You Bro. John for sharing such an AWESOME message! This has truly Blessed my soul and let’s me once again see how truly Blessed I am….to have been CALLED and that if I continue to endure and remain FAITHFUL where the Lord has planted me; I WILL BE CHOSEN to have eternal life. Those three words you closed with reached out to my heart with such gravity. Thank you to all the labourers at the Bridge. This is the dessert to my daily bread.
I thank you, Bro. John Shepard for reminding us how important it is to be with Him. To be the called, the faithful, and ultimately the chosen. I am truly thankful to have had the opportunity to be in the meeting in California, to experience first hand the mighty Spirit of God in those services, and to have had the chance to be a part of what God is doing in the Earth today.
This world hails the 300 Spartans who were killed in a battle. We hail the 300 Hebrews who were victorious in battle by God’s Hand. Through obedience Gideon brought about another victory with the Lord written all over it. A prime example of why we should obey and follow God’s Ministry. The Lord asks us to trust Him and that begins in our lives through His Voice.
Thank you Bro. John for sharing this journey through the scriptures with us. I could feel the spirit in my soul when you said that Elder laid a solid foundation for us. These words in this post are to me a true reflection of what being WITH HIM really is. No part you and part him, but all the way WITH HIM. This journey we are on only gets better every day, with words from the Lord through our ministry straight to us. We are moving on!