TRANSFORMING MYSELF (PART FOUR): THE POWER OF ONE!

 

TRANSFORMING MYSELF (PART FOUR): THE POWER OF ONE!

Where are we on our journey of personal transformation?

This post is part four of a five-part series. In today’s post, we are going to discover that while we often stumble into the defining moments of our lives, it only takes the POWER OF ONE to change the world! Bishop TD Jakes is going to help us to understand these concepts.

In our lifetime, we will make millions of decisions. Big ones. Little ones. Conscious ones. Sub-conscious ones. Important decisions. Trivial decisions.

    § Should I wear a dress or pants today?

    § Should I get married or not?

    § Should I have children or not?

    § Should we go to the Italian restaurant or the Mexican restaurant?

    § Should I watch an episode of ‘The Crown’ or ‘Billions’ on Netflix tonight?

    § Should I be the whistleblower?

    § Should I protest against a specific injustice?

You get the point.

But as believers, there is only ONE DECISION that really matters in any of our lives. And all the legends of the Old Testament have faced this same situation.

    § Moses did it as he watched two men fighting and choose to help the Hebrew man by killing the Egyptian man. Forty years later, God was waiting to speak to him in the desert from the burning bush!

    § Ruth did it as she stood at the crossroads with Orpah and Naomi and choose to knit her life to her mother-in-law’s life. As she gleaned for wheat in her new country, little did she know that her destiny was to become a named ancestor of Christ.

    § David did it as he prepared to fight Goliath and choose to take off King Saul’s armour. That victory was part of the journey of David’s destiny to become the most famous king of Israel.

    § Esther did it when her people faced extermination and she choose to risk her life by approaching her husband for assistance. Her beauty and demeanour put Esther in a place of influence that saved her people.

    § Elisha did it when he saw Elijah and choose to follow him by literally burning ‘his bridges’! It was Elisha’s destiny to become a prophet.

When you look back on your life, you might see a tale of two halves. There will be your life before your choice and your life after your choice. Nelson Mandela made a choice. Martin Luther King Jnr made a choice. Muhammed Ali made a choice. All of them had to make ‘the decision’ and the choice that they made helped them to STUMBLE INTO THEIR DESTINY!

Our first two posts in this series dealt with the mechanics of personal transformation- the ‘how to’. For this, you were pointed towards the great work that has been done by James Clear and Marcus Buckingham.

In part three, you were introduced to the work of the late Pastor Myles Munroe. He taught us to use our gift to build the kingdom of God. Do you remember his organisation’s brilliant tagline?

    Transforming followers into leaders and leaders into agents of change!

Today’s post asks you a simple question: Did you know that your destiny requires you to make a choice?


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‘HARVEST TIME Prophecies’ is the blog post site of TNG Academy. Our blog post site gets its name from Matthew 13:30- the separation of wheat and tares that occurs at harvest time (i.e. the endtimes). Remember, the ‘wheat’ symbolises the things of God and the ‘tares’ symbolise the things of the devil.

The purpose of this blog is threefold.

1. Some of the posts are written to help the reader develop a deeper understanding of the theology of Christ’s core message- i.e. the ‘gospel of the kingdom’.

2. Some of the posts are written for the reader’s personal discipleship journey. We need to understand what God expects from us. After all, all believers should be on a journey of ‘becoming’ our best selves, capable of impacting and changing the world!

3. Finally, some of the posts are written to answer this question:

    What would our faith look like today IF we had fully embraced Christ’s doctrines, as recorded by His Apostles, and rejected the doctrines of the false apostles?

It is my contention that the words of the Apostles are the ‘wheat’ of the New Testament while the words of the Pauline group are the ‘tares’ of the New Testament. Mark, Luke, Paul and the unknown author of Hebrews are the four members of the Pauline group.

In the APOSTOLIC SCRIPTURES, i.e. the ten Books written by His Apostles (Matthew, John, James, Peter and Jude, Matthew 10:1-4), Christ prioritised five doctrines:

    § The love of God (YHWH)

    § The worship of God (not Christ)

    § The love of our fellow man

    § Social justice

    § The coming judgment (aka the ‘Book of Life’ judgment described in Revelation 20:12-15)

If we are sincere about our desire to restore Christianity to its roots, i.e. a return to Christ’s original message, then we must start by admitting that ‘while men slept’ the enemy planted false teachings (tares) into the New Testament! If you recall, Christ warned us on several occasions about false apostles and their false doctrines.

    § Christ warned us that a house divided against itself shall not stand.

    § Christ warned us that building on sand, instead of building on the ‘rock’ of His words, will lead to utter destruction.

    § Christ even prophesied that in the last days, many will leave the faith.

And we are seeing this today! We have:

    § The unchurched.

    § The post-evangelicals.

    § The deconstructionists.

    § The Progressive Christians.

    § The spiritual but not religious or affiliated (aka SBNRs and SBNAs).

These people have abandoned the Church but we should not blame them. In fact, their decision to leave the institution of the Church is actually a reasonable and intelligent response to the hate, misogyny and the false salvation doctrines of Pauline Christianity! The church needs to re-discover its mission. At some point, I hope that falling attendance numbers will encourage the Church to acknowledge the real cause of this problem. More importantly, I hope that it leads the Church to return to Christ’s five core doctrines!

The last great re-alignment of the Church took place in the 16th Century- five hundred years ago! The German priest, Martin Luther, published his ’95 Theses’ and famously nailed them to the church door! Luther’s 95 Theses gave birth to the Protestant Reformation and the Protestant denominations that we have today.

Included in his 95 Theses was the concept of ‘SOLA SCRIPTURA’. Put simply, Luther’s Sola Scriptura said that the beliefs and the behaviours of Christians should be determined solely by doctrines found in scripture. Apocryphal writings, ecumenical creeds and pastoral opinions should have no standing and no authority here!

But I would argue that Luther did not go far enough! I would support an even stricter definition of SOLA SCRIPTURA!

In my opinion, the term ‘Sola Scriptura’ should only be used when it is referring to the Books of the Old Testament and/or the Books of the Apostolic Scriptures. These 50 Books alone are the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God!

Visit our website- WWW.TNGACADEMY.ORG, to see our Bible study books. Which books would I recommend for you to read first? Start with these three-

• WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
• MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN!
• THE APOSTOLIC SCRIPTURES.

On a final note, have you ever heard of Pastor Wayne Meisel? Every year, he publishes a list of American ‘Seminaries That Change the World’. What a great idea! I would suggest that an even better way to ensure that our seminaries keep producing true ‘agents of change’ would be to include a course on THE APOSTOLIC SCRIPTURES in their curriculum! And an interesting examination question would be: Compare and contrast the ‘Apostolic Scriptures’ and the ‘Pauline writings’!