The Local Church - God's Plan for Your Rising

By André Thomas

The local church is God's wisdom for the dominion of the saints in the country where they live, yet many in our day choose not to be a part of a strong, vibrant, anointed, community-changing local church with which their divine destiny is aligned. This is largely due to ignorance, unscriptural tradition o

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greatness Publishing
• Release date: Feb 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9781927579589

Book preview

Introduction

The local church is God's wisdom for the dominion of the saints in the country where they live, yet many in our day choose not to be a part of a strong, vibrant, anointed, community-changing local church with which their divine destiny is aligned. This is largely because of ignorance, unscriptural tradition, and offenses. However, today, you are reading a book that will reveal God's plan for your rising, fulfillment, and victory through membership in a local church where your divine purpose and destiny are aligned. In this book, you will learn:

God's purpose for the local church.

The seven types of local churches.

How a local church can lose its relevance.

The three types of shepherds God raises.

How to choose a local church that matches your purpose and destiny, have the grace and knowledge to help you fulfill your destiny, and the tools to overcome the battles to fulfill God-given assignment.

Chapter 1

The God of Intimacy and Systems

Isaiah 55:7-9, NKJV: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

This scripture is one of the most revealing on how to develop a relationship with God. It unveils how the Heavenly Father wants us to relate with Him. Intimacy can be defined as into me see, which is the revealing of your innermost thoughts to another person. In this scripture, God asks the wicked person to forsake his thoughts and recognize, pursue, understand, and embrace God's better innermost thoughts for his life. The act of seeing into those thoughts and embracing them is intimacy with God, and this scripture invites us to live in this reality.

The ways of God describe the methods and systems by which God accomplishes His plans, which originate from His thoughts. As we observe creation, we realize that God is a God of systems. When He created the heavens and the earth, He had the stars, the earth, the sun, and the moon function by an automatic system called the solar system. When He made man's body, He made it consisting of several systems, including the skeletal, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, nervous, endocrine, lymphatic, integumentary, urinary, and reproductive systems. Each system plays a specific role in maintaining the overall health and function of the body.

Just as the human body is maintained and regulated by the abovementioned systems, so is the spiritual body of Christ maintained, regulated, and flourished by multiple spiritual systems.

Romans 12:4-5, NKJV: "For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another."

Jesus Christ, in this system, functions as the head of the church, giving vision and instructions to the rest of the body of Christ. Ephesians 5:23, NKJV: "For the husband is