GROW Camp 2008 Messages

Summaries of the three Camp Messages, by Tom Sparks –

The first message was on the theme: “Which Tree are we Eating from?”

In this message we launched out from Genesis 2:8-10 and 2:16-17 and considered the issues relating to these two trees, how they impacted Adam & Eve, and how that impact has continued through time.

From there we looked at many biblical references to concepts that interconnect with these two trees and how they have affected our lives.

Galatians 4:21-27; Hebrew 12:22-24; Revelation 21:1-3; Revelation 21:10-11; Revelation 21:22-25; Revelation 22:1-5,14

From these passages we noted several key ideas that emerge from them:

1. A legalistic lifestyle results from eating from the wrong tree, as a manifestation of the ongoing tendency we have towards fear, insecurity, and insignificance related to our sin. These often manifest in religious ideas, traditions, and practices, which lack the dynamic life that come from eating from the tree of life, and drain us of joy and power.
2. The tree of life is available to us in the Spirit, in Christ, and this is where we are to derive our strength for living.
3. Bondage results from eating from the wrong tree, but life, grace, and freedom result from eating from the right one.
4. Paul’s theme of “The Jerusalem which is above” took us into the world of the invisible kingdom of God, in the heavenlies, in Christ. This is our truest home and the place we are to draw our strength for living from.
5. This New Jerusalem is described, according to Hebrews 12:22-24 and Isaiah 2:1-4 as the Mt. Zion, which is the high mountain we are called to in the heavenlies in Christ. It is here where true worship takes place in the Spirit. It is the spiritual locale for the Church in Christ.
6. While we may yet see an even fuller manifestation of the new heavens and new earth, it is clear we, the bride of Christ now, are called to connect to this dimension now, and watch it continue to unfold in ever increasing glory and splendor in our lives.
7. These things teach us to look less into the natural realm of life for meaning, and more into the spiritual realm. Who we are and what we have in Christ far exceeds anything we might carve out in the natural realm of life. The natural realm must be urged to conform to the spiritual realm, and all this begins by faith within our hearts.
8. The glory of what God is doing in and through His Church, and into His Kingdom, will ultimately cover the whole earth with a spiritual light that cannot be hidden, blocked, or dimmed, as our lives are transformed into a golden clarity that reveals the pure light of Christ in and through each one of us.
9. From this New Jerusalem will flow out the crystal clear and pure river of God, from under the throne of His spiritual authority, to water and refresh our lives.
10. Alongside this clear stream will grow the tree of life which will produce 12 kinds of fruit for the healing of our lives and the nations. These 12 fruits appear to represent the “complete” nature of the power of the Spirit to produce the life of Christ in the lives of those fully surrendered to His lordship.
11. As we consume Christ, according to John 6 and Revelation 22, we are healed and restored. He alone can satisfy the spiritual hunger we experience. Legalism robs us of intimacy with Him. Only the grace of God in Christ can liberate us from fear and bondage and bring us to true health and fruitfulness.

In our times of morning devotion we considered some additional implications of this tree of life in our lives:

1. According to 1 Peter 1:23 God plants the seed of the tree of life into our lives, by the impartation of His Word, and because it is imperishable we can have confidence it will ultimately perform its perfect work of restoring the health of that tree to our lives. Jesus is the tree of life.
2. In 1 John 3:9 we are given the hope that while we may struggle with sin at times, ultimately the seed of the Word will have the victory, as we yield to the Spirit who administers this Word, and our lives will be fully transformed.
3. In John 15, as the seed of the Word flourishes within us the life of Christ within becomes a tree/vine of life that brings us life and causes our lives to become spiritually fruitful.
4. While life in this body and this world can be stressful at times, we are encouraged by Matthew 11:28 to come to Jesus, rest in His ability to complete what He has started, and have confidence that we will arrive at the place of life and grace we have been called to.

Therefore, our call to experience the life of this tree – the Lord Jesus Christ, is not just something for some far distant eschatological future, but according to the writers of the New Testament, it is there in the heavenlies, in Christ, for us to experience now. God is calling and encouraging us to find in Christ the source of our life and enter into a fuller experience of the impartation of His life through the Spirit. Amen!

Our second message was on the theme: “The Mystery of Disappointment”

In this message we considered the bewildering issue of a mighty and powerful God who at times either allows or initiates seasons of trial and suffering in our lives.

While none of us relish the idea of such times, we were encouraged from the Word to anticipate hope emerging from them because God has the ability to bring great good out of great suffering. Romans 5:3-5 references this principle of hope.

God is able to cause tremendous personal maturity during such times, and will increase our intimacy with Him if we allow Him to.

We shared with the congregation, the story of Tyler Sparks’ death, and while sooo much pain was experienced even a greater depth of relationship and life in Christ emerged from it. God is able to do this with all of our trials if we will look through our pain into His merciful and compassionate eyes.

We touched on 8 principles that emerge from approaching these times with hope:

1. Life comes out of afflictions. Job 36:15 and Psalm 105:16-22 assure us that God will bring good out of every trial we face. Our eyes and ears will be opened to see and hear Him better.
2. God will never leave us. We may feel alone at times, but God is continually watching over every aspect of this season in our lives, and will carry us through it.
3. What God starts He finishes. While such times can feel endless and meaningless, because of the nature and goodness of God we can have confidence that the trial will end and it will end well in spiritual ways within us if we focus on Jesus throughout the trial.
4. God has infinite wisdom, while we only have finite insight. If we trust His infinite wisdom to accomplish His perfect purposes in these times, instead of demanding that we be able to “immediately” see the good of it all, in His time the “good” will emerge and we will experience an awareness that He does all things well.
5. It will only kill what is holding you back in God. We may feel like it will literally end us, but if we walk in the Spirit through these times God will bring to death only those things that have been hindering His life within us.
6. Trouble reveals the true you. We may not like this revelation, but it is such an important one. In time it will reveal the grace strength He has formed within us, and we will see that His keeping power has produced good things within.
7. You will come to know God in ways you never would have were it not for such trials. Matthew 8:23-27 is just one example in the life of the apostles to verify this.
8. Don’t walk alone through these times. Find a friend and walk it through in prayer. The danger of confusion resulting in bitterness towards God is high in such times. Find a wise and spiritual person to help you process your sorrow, and in the end you will have been protected from wrong conclusions.

Disappointment will face each one of us, but as we process these times “In Christ,” and see it in and through Him we will see it bring forth wonderful new insights and life. Only God can do this, and He is faithful to do it every single time as we walk intimately with Him.

Our third message was on the theme: “What and Where is True Worship?”

From our consideration of John 4:20-24 we came to see that what God is most looking for in our worship is a life poured out in personal sacrifice to Him.

While music, praise, clapping and dancing have a part to play in worship, the theme of sacrifice far more fully encompasses what God is looking for within us, without losing our love for music and song.

Paul, in Romans 12:1,2 makes the connections perfectly clear, and his optimism about such sacrifice is unmistakable.

When we look at sacrifice we are tempted to think negatively about it, as if God will ask us to do an innumerable amount of distasteful things if we fully surrender our lives to Him, but because of His nature we can have confidence that the only things He asks us to bring to the cross and sacrifice before Him will be those things that hinder His life within us. He will remove what blocks the flow of His life and will release truly powerful living in Christ.

John 12:24-26 promises us that if we are willing to surrender our lives fully to the processes of God within us we will see a great harvest of life come from it.

We are tempted to hold back portions of our lives for the flesh, because we all too often listen to the flesh worry us about intense devotion to Him, as if He will ask us to give up those things that make our lives meaningful, but if we will look at His processes through the eyes of faith we will trust Him to bring only good from our spiritual acts of worship.

God is not looking for partial surrender or partial sacrifice. As the Old Testament lambs were called to give the entirety of their lives, so we too have the same call. The great difference for us is that Jesus Christ is the first lamb in history that became a “Living Sacrifice.” Always in the past the sacrificial lamb was a “Dead Sacrifice.” But through the power of resurrection life in the Spirit, Jesus rose from the dead, conquered death and hell, and released the abundance of life from such death. As we enter into the death He takes us through we too become “living sacrifices.”

We are called to a heavenly worship…one that is not directly tied to this earth or any earthly system of religion. All too often we expect Churches on this earth to provide for us what only God in the Spirit can provide. Our expectations tend to drive pastors to exhaustion, while trying to satisfy the demands of their congregations. As we see Jesus’ teaching here, He tells us we are to no longer expect an earthly expression of the kingdom to be the source of our life. The Father calls us into the Spirit realm, tells us He is seeking those who will worship/sacrifice their lives “In Spirit,” and “In Truth,” and thus find their way into a realm where true life can open.

Churches on earth can become helpful portals into this experience, but Jesus never referenced Churches having the responsibility for providing this for His people. Jesus by His Spirit is happy to draw us, in our personal walk before Him, into the heavenlies, where He will reveal His kingdom and power to us, and deliver us from those things that hinder the pure flow of His life. As we see this happen, then we look less expectationally to institutions on earth to provide our spiritual life, and instead we bring spiritual life into them to cause growth in the body of Christ. We transmit His life from His realm into the natural realm and thus cover the earth with His knowledge and glory – Habakkuk 2:14 and Isaiah 11:9 . What a vision for Christian life!!!

In John 14:2, 4-7, 11, and 16-17 we saw that the place God is preparing for us is the same place the writer of Hebrews teaches us of in Hebrews 3:1-6. This place is “The House of God,” and the body of Christ, In Christ, is that “Place.” The house of God has the potential of being the place we meet Christ, experience His power and life, and transmit that life to others. We are not to look to some distant “next life” experience of heavenly mansions or rooms in the Father’s house, nor do we look to a building on earth for this house. Everything Jesus was referring to here would be fulfilled as He sent His Spirit to create the House of God on earth in the lives of His saints.

The body of Christ is “The Place” He was referring to. It is here, in Christ, that we experience His life. In Luke 17:20 the Pharisees and disciples longed to know when and where the Kingdom of God would physically manifest, and Jesus clearly taught them it was forming within them and would expand into all the world here and now. It would not manifest in some earth bound ruling and reigning of some earthly Messianic Monarch, but would be manifested in the lives of each of His subjects as the Spirit of Christ came to dwell in and through them.

As we “Shachah,” (Hebrew) and “Proskuneo,” (Greek), I.e. prostrate ourselves before the Lord, in lives of sacrifice and service to Jesus, we will experience the life and power of His kingdom.

True worship while containing music, extends far beyond music into absolute surrender of all that we have and are. It is in this place that we will experience the purpose for our lives being saved and delivered from this world system.

In these three messages God is seeking to reveal His mind and heart for our lives to enter into true life in Christ. It is our desire that Jesus would become the focal point of all that we are, dream to be, and become.

May God seal these truths to our hearts and help us to see and know Him better.

These teachings will soon be available, in greater detail, at www.khtmin.org, under “Articles” and “Spiritual Life.” We pray they will be helpful to your spiritual life. My time with the GROW family was a wonderful experience for me, and I eagerly look forward to future times with the Church. Thank you for your kindness in making me feel welcome. God bless each of you!