As I woke up this morning and was thinking about my
week, those I had to disciple, the platforms we were building online; the Lord interrupted
my thoughts with this important statement, “Build people, not platforms.” He
followed up the statement by saying, “You don’t build the Kingdom of God like
you do a business.” I was initially stunned by this revelation but knew in my
heart that what I heard made sense. It is so important to be on the same page
as Yahweh. When you build a platform, it can become about you building an
audience. If we make it about building an audience then we will become man-pleasers being influenced by the masses instead of influencing the masses by
the Holy Spirit. We can unintentionally be caught up in building numbers
online, likes, algorithms, and seeking to be known. In order not to fall
into the trap of building platforms instead people we need to get our
priorities correct. Yeshua exhorts us to, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added to you.”Matthew 6:33
Many years ago, I had an encounter with Yeshua on the living
room floor of my friend’s house. I had just prayed some repentance prayers over
my family and myself when suddenly I was in the throne room of the Lord
Almighty. As I lay there prostrate on my face I can see Yeshua’s sandals
approaching; I was too afraid to look up. The fear of Yahweh was all over me. I
heard Yeshua say, “Serve me only, do not go back to the Kingdom of men.” As I
came out of this vision my immediate reaction was, “Wait! What? I was serving
the kingdom of men instead of the Kingdom of Yahweh?” I can’t express the
disappointment I felt when I heard that. Days afterward, I continued to ponder
on the meaning of this. Here are some questions that I had to ask the Holy
Spirit to get a proper perspective on what He was trying to show me.
Where
is the Kingdom of God?
“Now
when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He
answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come
with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For
indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:20-21
In this verse, Yeshua says that the “Kingdom of God is within people.” We see
that Jesus’ primary function when he began in ministry was to invest his time
in the lives of twelve men. He walked with these men, counseled them, taught
them scripture, corrected them, and eventually left them to continue growing
what He had started. Just one disciple (Peter) was able to grow the church by
3,000 people in one day after He had been filled with the Holy Spirit.
How do you build
the Kingdom of God or His Church?
This same
disciple (Peter) states the following: You also, as living stones,
are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5
We build the Kingdom of Yahweh one life at a time. The other function of Jesus’
ministry was to minister to the broken, sick, and oppressed. This was his
primary mission as stated in his first opening statement or sermon in a church
service.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; Luke
4:18
If you don’t have time for people then you shouldn’t be in
ministry. Ministry is about people and serving them. We get into error if we
believe that people should be serving us and our interests or helping us build
our personal kingdom/business. I once heard a Pastor say this from the pulpit, “What’s
in it for me?” This was his mantra. When I had initially visited this church I
had a vision of yellow barrels that had the words written on them,” Caution
Toxic Waste!” It was not long after that the church closed down. If you are a
minister with this type of mindset; please know that it’s toxic to you and the
people around you. It is contrary to the mindset of Jesus.
Let this mind be
in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form
of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no
reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming
in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death,
even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:5-8
In conclusion, Jesus said, “And I, if I am [a]lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” John 12:32 If we lift up
Yeshua then hungry people will gravitate towards us naturally. He is the bread
of life. It’s like offering a hungry crowd food. You don’t have to ask twice
they will come. However, if we lift up ourselves by trying to build a platform
or church nobody will come. We cannot satisfy the hungry. We cannot in our own
selves do anything outside of what He tells us or His power or grace. We need
to remain in Him. Remember this is not a competition in gaining recognition.
Yeshua did not have social media platforms. He had love. This will always be
the key ingredient to building the Kindgom of Yahweh.
