Monday, July 9, 2007

Flesh People vs. Faith People

I just started reading this book Right People Right Place Right Plan-Discerning the Voice of God by Jentezen Franklin. Since i am in a state of transition i thought this would be a perfect book to read. As ministers we are constantly surrounded by people and being Pastors we want to think the best of people but I'm sure many of you had close encounters with "wolves in sheep clothing". In his book Pastor Jentezen writes about Character Discernment which is simply "the ability to find relationships that are good for you, and to avoid those that are not". Simple i know, but how many of us really pray that God gives us character discernment. We get so busy with "doing" the ministry and growing the church that we think more people equals success. Don't get me wrong we have to be concern with the numbers. If your church isn't growing you better figure it out and fix it because the longer your church is stagnant and fruitless the more people are going to hell.

What i am talking about is as Pastors and church leaders we need to be careful the kind of voices we let into our circle of influence. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:5 "Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." We need to be able to discern "flesh people" from "faith people".

FLESH PEOPLE
  • tear you down.
  • feed your fears.
  • waste your time.
  • drain your energy.

FAITH PEOPLE

  • build you up.
  • feed your faith.
  • fill your life.
  • draw you closer to being the person God created you to be.
  • the ones who will be lovingly honest with you.
  • they are strong when you are weak.
I'll shut up now i don't want to ruin it for you. This book is really challenging me and helping me during this season of my life you've got to read this book.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good post, Gabe. I haven't read the book yet...takes a while to have it shipped to New Zealand... but I listened to a sermon of Brother Franklin's on just that topic. Truly awesome stuff!

Keep posting :)