10,500 Global Prayer Connect

We would like to invite you to join us in intercession for the upcoming MTC 2012 gathering in Chicago.  The MTC prayer team will be preparing weekly prayer guides to help us align our hearts.  Please click here for the Week 1 Prayer Guide.

This Week’s Audio Message

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.  I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”  – Luke 9:23-27

We ended last week’s message with the exhortation to “run after Jesus, and not just after His blessings”.  This exhortation was given to me by a very talented entrepreneur from China and I feel that it well encapsulates the heart attitude necessary to steward enormous “kingdom authority” – the capability, influence, and wealth that can move the “7 mountains”.  It is also an outcome of pursuing the road of the cross, of exercising faith and humility, of self-denial and giving up of our “rights”.

For many of us with grand ambitions to make a mark in Christ’s Kingdom with our careers, we can often deem “running after Jesus’ blessings” as equivalent to “running after Jesus”.  In reality, there is a night a day difference between the two.  That becomes apparent as we step forward to “lose our lives for Christ”.

Over 18 years ago, I heard God’s 10,500 call and readily responded.  As an ambitious young professional with a burning desire to witness to the world, I was enamored by the enormous kingdom authority associated with this call.  I pursued the 10,500 with fiery aspiration and constantly sought to validate my progress by “measuring” Jesus’ blessings in my career, finances, company strength, and access to influential people.  In using such “blessings” to gauge success, I became confused and frustrated when God finally led me to the road of self-denial as He stripped me of everything connected with kingdom authority.  This desert season that came full-on a few years ago, began to awaken me to the reality that I was trying to “gain the world” by “saving my life”, by pursuing after Jesus’ blessings over Jesus.

For many market place believers, one of the most precarious (not precious) places to stand is where our ambitions seem to “line up” with Christ’s Kingdom agenda – His desire to bless His church with kingdom authority.  In that place of “alignment”, we can blindly rationalize our ambition for “Jesus’ blessings” by justifying that it all falls within God’s agenda.  God disciplines those He loves.  He will prepare His stewards of kingdom authority by bringing them to “lose their lives for Christ”.  That path of the cross will take us to Jesus, without us being blinded by His blessings.

Perhaps you may be one who has responded to God’s Kingdom call and are going through experiences similar to mine.  I am still walking through the desert today not knowing when the next “oasis” will show up.  Take heart!  The greater the call, the greater the “loss of ourselves”, so be encouraged!  It’s a painful process but God wants the best for us.  Ambition is stressful and He wants to give us self-denial to relax our hearts and minds – fashioning us into containers of greater responsibility, greater kingdom authority.

Next week, we hope to further strengthen our faith in “losing our lives for Christ” through Abraham’s testimony.

Market Place Reflection and Prayer

Many of you have mentioned that you use these messages as weekly studies with your workplace fellowship.  We encourage you to share your reflections and prayer at the “168prayer.org” blog site.

1. In what ways has God brought to you “lose your life for Christ” in your workplace, fellowship, and home?
2. In the way you develop your career (or your children’s eventual career), how do you see the differences between pursuing after Jesus versus running after Jesus’ blessings?

Jesus, we want to see the beauty of who You are.  We want to become the reflection of You, as you have created us to be.

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:31-33

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.  I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”  – Luke 9:23-27

Last week, we began to speak on exercising faith and humility – the road of the cross – and its importance in qualifying us for kingdom authority.  We defined “kingdom authority” as:  capability, influence, and wealth in places where we work, live, learn, and govern.

Everyone pursues “kingdom authority”.  That nature is inscribed in our DNA.  The reason that faith and humility – taking up the cross – must become our absolute foundation to “kingdom authority” lies in our sinful nature.  The doubt and pride that propagated from Adam and Eve can corrupt us in kingdom authority.  With our propensity for corruption, the church has succumbed to a culture that discourages the pursuit of kingdom authority.  We look at “gaining the whole world” as equivalent to “lose or forfeit our very self”.  Such a mindset has wrought much confusion for Christians, especially business leaders, because their pursuit of kingdom authority seems to contradict with biblical principles.

Jesus brought this point to prominence in Matthew 6 & Luke 9.  Jesus wants to grants us kingdom authority, the same things that the “pagans run after” and more – but in the priority of His Kingdom agenda.  In Luke 9:25, Jesus is not telling us to not gain the whole world.  Instead, His key message is that gaining the whole world but lose ourselves in the process is useless for His Kingdom.

Jesus wants us to gain the whole world, and yet, not lose ourselves.  The path to that is through the cross, the exercising of faith and humility, the seeking first of His Kingdom and righteousness – in short, to run after Jesus, and not just after His “blessings”.

Market Place Meditation and Prayer

Lord, we receive your call to become your witnesses through our kingdom authority.  Teach us about who you are – the embodiment of faith and humility.  Teach us how to take up our cross.  Teach us to gain the world and not lose ourselves.

This Week’s Audio Message

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. – Matthew 28:18

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12:2

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. – Luke 9:23-24

This week, we enter into the 5^th of the 5 Aspects of “Activating Kingdom DNA”:  overcoming doubt and pride, key elements that separated God from Adam and Eve, and have inhibited our Kingdom DNA.  I consider this aspect as perhaps the most important factor of activating a person’s or an organization’s Kingdom DNA and we will spend the next several weeks digging deeper into its wonders.

Why is overcoming doubt and pride – the exercise of faith and humility – so critical?  It is because our first step into salvation, into activating our Kingdom DNA, begins with faith and humility.  Moreover, the activation brought about by faith and humility qualifies us as stewards of kingdom authority – manifested as capability, influence, and wealth in places where we work, live, learn, and govern.

What does it mean to exercise faith and humility, especially in the context of kingdom authority?  Jesus provided us the ultimate example.  In Matthew 28:18 and Hebrews 12:2, Jesus demonstrated the principle that the path to gain kingdom authority, to sit at the right of God’s throne, lies in the road of the cross.  Grasping this principle in exercising faith and humility may make a day and night difference in how God entrusts us with kingdom authority, and ultimately, our impact on the world as His witnesses.

Market Place Meditation and Prayer

1. What lessons of overcoming doubt and pride, to exercise faith and humility, has God brought to you in your work place, fellowship, and home?
2. May the Lord lift up His people to see the joy in the cross, to see the blessings of pursuing Jesus – who is the perfect embodiment of faith and humility.

This Week’s Audio Message

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that 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 and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. – Ephesians 4:11-13

For the past two weeks, we have been pondering on the 4^th of the 5 Aspects of “Activating Kingdom DNA”:  exercising our market place competencies in the Spirit’s power – providing clear benefits to the company’s business operations.  Last week, we shared on how we served Tony Wear in renewing its brand identity – by establishing their core values based on Kingdom values espoused in “the River of Water of Life”.  This week, I would like to share on how the Holy Spirit brought together “the body” to exercise Tony Wear’s newly established core values and demonstrate a powerful testimony.

As our team prayed with Donald on how to immerse “the River of Water of Life” into the company culture, the Lord opened the gate through a tremendous challenge hanging over the company’s business operations.  Tony Wear has been under pressure from its key distribution channels to refresh its store design by mid-August or face severe consequences.  For months, Donald could not identify the right team to carry out this task, let alone try to underpin the store redesign with “the River of Water of Life” concepts.  Then through a series of wondrous divine connections, the Lord brought together a team of apostle, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to carry out this “work of service” – to build His body, to activate Tony Wear’s Kingdom DNA.

Eight weeks ago, the Lord gathered to Donald, the apostolic figure, a team of designers (with prophetic insights), builders (as pastors building and nurturing), multimedia specialist (evangelist’s communication anointing), branding coaches (teachers), and intercessors (prophets, pastors & teachers).  Even though this team had never worked together, they were drawn by Donald’s apostolic vision to immerse “the River of Water of Life” into the fashion industry.  In less than six weeks, this team of apostle, prophets, evangelists, pastors & teachers accomplished an incredible task that is only possible through a unified vision of “the body”.  They began “re-imaging” Tony Wear through a:

• Completely refreshed flagship store in Wuhan;
• Catalog branding a new image of the Tony Wear Man;
• Short documentary & promotional film (links below);
• Series of “culture-transforming” team trainings.

Most importantly, this “re-imaging” process has shifted Tony Wear’s spiritual atmosphere.  Many employees were visibly moved by the Holy Spirit at the Wuhan store grand re-opening and gave their lives to Christ.  “The body” is being built up on the most basic level – with new believers.

We like to share with you the testimony of building “the body” through this film (feel free to forward it):

Tony Wear Re-Imaged (English – Youtube, English – Youku in China)

湯尼·威爾『形象再造 』(中文 – Youtube, 中文 – Youku in China)

Market Place Meditation and Prayer

1. What are the core values that you want to see exercised in the business operations that you take part in?
2. Who are the team of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors & teachers among you to demonstrate the testimonies of your core values?

We thank the Lord for demonstrating to us this first testimony of building up His body, of activating Tony Wear’s Kingdom DNA.  May Tony Wear be elevated to activate the fashion industry’s Kingdom DNA.