Change

And He changes the times and the seasons;
He removes kings and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise
And knowledge to those who have understanding (Daniel 2:21 NKJV).

         Christianity by its very nature seeks to preserve the sacred Scriptures and the traditions of the past, and rightly so.  But sometimes our greatest strength can be our greatest weakness.

         God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  But this unchangeable God is always on the move creating new things.  Moses’ key to success was based on the fact that when the cloud moved, so did he.  It is our inability to change and redeploy that sometimes determines success or failure in ministry.

Principles and Practices

         God has given us principles, guidelines by which we are to operate in our service to God.  If these principles are based on God’s Word, they should never change.  Practices are the methods God gives us to live out a principled approach to ministry.  These often do change.  God is His infinite wisdom ushers in new times and seasons which require new methodology and ways of getting things done.  Ministry practices must always come from God, but we make the mistake of deifying ministry structures as being absolutes.  A large part of our success in serving God comes from knowing the season we are in and designing ministry strategies accordingly.

         Altering the principles God has given us in His Word to serve Him will lead to compromise and liberalism.  An unwillingness to deviate from the way we do ministry (practices) from one season to another will lead to legalism.  Doing things like we have always done it is not following the Spirit but quenching it.

         If we are not willing to lay down our sacred cows of ministry practice we will never be able to follow the the cloud as Moses did.

        

Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs:  http://kensblog757.blogspot.com