Peter Witkowski Discipleship

God’s Stirring & Church Growth

Vanishing men’s breakfasts, shrinking children’s classes, and plummeting worship attendance often drive local church members to despair and then to complaints. They assert that their church would be growing if only their leaders were more relevant, if their fellow members would do more, and if their facilities were nicer. In short, they complain because they believe the solution to their church’s woes lies in the power of other men and women.

How God Worked in Ezra

Though such thinking pervades local churches, it does not align with the realities of Ezra chapter one. The book about the restoration of faithful worship after seventy years of desolation attributes that revival of true worship to the stirring of the Lord. Ezra 1:5 reports, “Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.” God brings about and expands worship through his sovereign call.

What was true of temple worship proves true of new covenant church worship. God builds his church through the stirring of his people to action. Commenting on his church planting and evangelistic ministry, the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”

Pray for Stirrings

When church attendance sags and ministries dry up, men and women should first and foremost take their concerns to the Lord. Instead of complaining to their friends or attempting to guilt the bottom tier of the church’s roles into action, believers should implore the Lord to stir them, their fellow church members, and their unsaved neighbors to action. As J.I. Packer notes, “This is the universal rule, in evangelism as elsewhere. God will make us pray before he blesses our labors in order that we may constantly learn afresh that we depend on God for everything.” In other words, Christians should pray that the Lord would stir the lost out of Babylon and into their local church through the waters of baptism. Christians should pray that the Lord would stir their fellow church members to be done with pornography, greed, and anger. They should ask the Lord to raise up the elders and deacons that the church needs to care for the saints. They should ask the Lord to stir up older women to disciple younger women, to stir up men to evangelize their neighborhoods, and to stir people of all ages to serve in the nursery. They should pray to the Lord who builds his church.

At times the growth will be slow and almost unnoticeable. The nation of Israel waited seventy years for their restoration. Our prayers too may have to span generations. But the Lord will answer. The gates of hell will not prevail. Though our local churches may come and go, the great church triumphant will never disappear and will be forever renewed in local assemblies until all are gathered to Jesus in the unending worship of the new heavens and the new earth. Pray for the Lord to stir, for he will not abandon his church.

Act on the Stirrings

Second, church members should follow the Lord’s stirring. Those who long to see their churches revived must join with the Jews of Ezra’s day and go rebuild their church as they are able. They must respond to the Lord’s stirring and put sin to death when their consciences convict them. Following the Lord’s leading, they should pursue righteousness and knowledge so that they can be qualified to lead their church and to disciple their brothers and sisters in Christ. They should follow the Lord’s stirring and invite their neighbor over for dinner and begin a relationship that will facilitate the sharing of the gospel. Those who are stirred to see more children in the church should begin volunteering in the nursery or teach a children’s Sunday school class. Those stirred to give to the church should increase their tithe and support of gospel ministry. Those who truly long to see their church grow and the worship of the Lord expand will ask the Lord to stir and also act on his stirring.

Test the Stirring

However, not every idea that pops into a believer’s head should be equated with the Lord’s divine leading. To determine an idea’s or a stirring’s source, the believer must ask and answer two questions. First, he should ask, “Does this idea or desire align with the clear teaching of Scripture?” The Lord stirred the Jews toward Jerusalem because he had promised to bring them back to Jerusalem after seventy years of desolation (Jer. 25:11–12; Dan. 9:1–2). Consequently, the man stirred to confess his sins to a trusted mentor should do so and turn from his sins. The woman stirred to divorce her husband because she finds him boring has not been stirred by the Lord and should not act on those stirrings.

Secondly, the believer should ask, “Has the Lord given him the skills, the station in life, and the resources needed to accomplish this stirring?” When God sent the Jews to Jerusalem, he sent them with the resources needed to accomplish the rebuilding of the temple. As Ezra 1:6 notes, “And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered.” Consequently, if a man feels called to go on a mission trip that will cost him his job and his ability to provide for his family, he should not go. He lacks the resources. But if the man feels stirred to have his neighbor over for dinner to share the gospel, he should work with his wife to put that dinner on his calendar. Similarly, if a woman feels called to give a large sum of money to her church’s building fund but would have to take out a loan to cover her gift, she should not follow that stirring. The Lord has not blessed her with the ability to wisely fulfill her desire. Conversely, if she receives an unexpected bonus and is stirred to give some of that as a special offering to her church, she can and should give in accordance with her resources. God provides his people with the resources they need to follow his stirring.

Final Thoughts

Though Christians can be tempted to view the rebuilding or revitalization of their church as the work of others, Ezra 1 presents a different narrative. The Lord rebuilds his church through the stirring of his people to action. Those who long to see their church renewed so do two things: pray that the Lord stirs his people and then follow the stirring of the Lord. The Lord must build the house.

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Why Some of the Most Spirit-Filled Christians Appear Ever so Ordinary

According to the Apostle John, Spirit-filled people demonstrate their supernatural unity with Christ through the ordinary actions of faith, love, and obedience. Though many Christians associate abiding in the Holy Spirit with prophecies, healings, and a whole host of other things that would help one’s social media posts go viral, John locates encounters with the Spirit within the confines of ordinary Christian living. In other words, those who have the Spirit confess Christ, love the brethren, and obey God’s commands.

The Spirit and Salvation

In 1 John 4:13, John writes, “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” The verses that precede and follow this one tie the concept of abiding in God to right belief and behavior. In verse 15, John writes, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” In other words, those who abide in God—and who have the Spirit of God—confess that Jesus is the Christ. They not only recognize that Jesus existed; they affirm that Jesus is fully God and fully man, and that as such he has offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for their sins and given them eternal life. As John writes in 1 John 4:9–10, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world…he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Those who have the Holy Spirit confess the apostolic gospel relayed through the Bible by the Holy Spirit. As Jesus told John in the Gospel of John 14:26, “The Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” The Spirit uses Scripture to regenerate the hearts of God’s people. As the apostle Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” The first and great work of the Holy Spirit, in conjunction with the Father and the Son, is salvation.

The Spirit and Sanctification

And with salvation comes sanctification. Those who abide with God and have the Spirit will abide in love. As John notes in 1 John 4:11–12, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” Salvation leads to love. Such love consists not of grand gestures tied together with red ribbons and expensive gifts; it consists of sacrificially serving others so that they might glorify God. What do we sacrifice? According to John, Christians sacrifice their sinful longing for relaxation and go read a book to their infant son. They surrender their desire to complain about cleaning their room and joyfully obey their parents. They sacrifice the longing to curse and instead bless their coworkers with their words. The Spirit enables men and women to keep the law through the power of Christ. As the prophet Ezekiel proclaimed long ago: “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 11:19–20). Or as John says more succinctly in 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” The Spirit enables Christians to love the saints through obedience.

Consequently, the Spirit can be said to lead people to church. If faith’s greatest outworking occurs as the people of God love one another, then those who abide in the Spirit will long to be with God’s people. They will desire to fellowship with the gathered body of Christ on Sunday mornings. Moreover, that fellowship will provide them with increased opportunities to love those who annoy them, who hold differing political beliefs, and who share none of their tastes in sports, cooking, or hunting. The Spirit leads the saints to fellowship with the saints, so that all might grow in putting sin to death and glorifying the Lord. In other words, the fruit of the Spirit consists in the saints faithfully loving other saints who are hard to love—because of the sin within one’s own heart and the sins of others—through obedience to God’s commands.

Final Thoughts

Though many Christians associate being Spirit-filled with abilities such as curing cancer, Johs in accordance with Jesus associates the main work of the Spirit with faith and obedience. Without question, God can and does heal and accomplish miracles through the work of the Holy Spirit in junction with the faith and prayers of his people. But the normal expressions of the Spirit are most commonly seen as men and women repent, believe, and love their neighbors. Though following Christ in the waters of baptism and visiting a shut-in can appear rather mundane, these acts are just as much a supernatural manifestation of the Spirit as the Spirit’s stirring someone to meet a need that was only mentioned in silent prayer. Only those who have the Spirit can confess Jesus as their savior and love the saints through obedience to the commands of God.

Peter Witkowski Ecclesiology

Church Membership and its Powerful Connection to Eternal Security

The American church’s slide towards individualism and its corresponding neglect of local church attendance hurts not only the local church; it undermines the health of the individual Christian, depriving him of the blessed gift of eternal security. In other words, the church maintains the believer’s well-being just as much as the believer maintains the church’s well-being.

The Love Connection to Assurance

In 1 John 3:14, the apostle John tells his readers that assurance of salvation—the knowledge that a Christian can joyfully embrace the return of Christ because the Christian knows that he or she has been redeemed by the blood of Christ—flows through his or her love of the saints. John writes, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” In other words, Christians can have assurance of salvation through loving interactions with other Christians. Assurance flows through knowledge that is applied or lived out within the context of a Christian community.

The Church Connection to Assurance

Admittedly, such a conclusion is not stated explicitly as a command. John did not write, “Thou must attend church.” But the link between his command to love and local church membership proves inescapable. Those who do not attend or who do not regularly interact with their local church will lack the opportunities needed to live out their faith and to secure the assurance of salvation. Stated positively to love Christians, a Christian must spend time with others Christians. And the one place ordained by Christ in which Christians can consistently meet one another, fellowship with one another, and care for one another is the local church.

John’s argument does not imply that relationships cannot form outside the walls of the church. To love the brethren faithfully, Christians must push beyond the limits of Sunday morning services. But loving the brothers can never be anything less than worship. After all, the author of Hebrews tells Christians not to forsake meeting together because their meetings provide them with the fuel and the motivation for ministry. Worship stirs up Christians “to love and good works” (Heb 10:25). Christians come to church to glorify God through communing with God and helping others to commune with God through their congregation’s corporate prayers, preaching, singing, reading, and celebrations of the sacraments. The nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon once noted that if everyone believed that they could honor God while skipping church, then “there would be no visible Church, there would be no ordinances. That would be a very bad thing.” Moreover such togetherness – loving worship that exceeds the bounds of ethnic demographics, politics, sports, and hobbies – beautiful demonstrates the glorious of Christ to the unsaved visitor among them. To love the saints, Christians must attend church.

But loving the brothers must also be more than Sunday morning worship. John argues in 1 John 3:17–18 that love concerns itself with practical needs: “17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Christians who love one another will do more than talk, pray, and sing with each other at church. They will care for each other during the week. They will follow up with those who are sick and bring them a meal. They will watch the single mother’s kids for a night so that she can rest. And they will pay the widow’s electric bill. They will love in deed and action.

Where do Christians learn of those needs? They come across them through the normal rhythms of the local church. A single man who faithfully attends worship notices that an elderly brother has not attended for a few weeks and gives him a call—and then a ride to the next service. The couple sitting next to the single mother in Sunday school learns of her exhaustion as they talk in the minutes leading up to the start of their classes. Others pay the widow’s electric bill because they learn of the need while interacting with her during the church’s visitation program. By being part of a church, the members gain awareness of needs that provide them with opportunities to live out their faith—the very opportunities that will give them an assurance of their salvation.

Final Thoughts

Though the local church needs believers, believers need the local church to have vibrant Christian lives. In addition to stewarding and preaching the gospel, which saves, the church also facilitates the believer’s sanctification and his or her awareness of salvation. The local church provides Christians with the community that they need to live out their faith through loving their neighbors, which produces assurance. Dear Christian, if you long to have a vibrant Christian life, if you long to have assurance of salvation and no fear of death, then root your life in a local church.