The Purpose of the Church?

The Purpose of the Church?

Do you often wonder what the purpose of the church actually is? We often get caught up in so many church activities and often become side-tracked and forgetful of what our true purpose is.

I believe our true purpose as a church, is to be salt and light (Mat 5:13-16), and to be the living demonstration of the Kingdom of God on the earth. It’s all the about the Kingdom not about our personal ministry or church ministry: it’s about preaching and teaching the Kingdom of God and making disciples; it’s about training, equipping, releasing and maturing the saints, building the body of Christ, and about growth. It is not about big buildings, or bigger and better programs. We have let the world's systems and values creep into the church. Many have become money, wealth, business and worldly orientated instead of Family and Kingdom orientated, or their priorities are more towards building themselves, rather than God's kingdom. There is a huge difference. The world’s priorities are not ours.

Everything in the Kingdom, is upside down and inside out to the world’s values. In this world’s system and kingdom, the greatest are those who achieve success, wealth, status, fame and riches, and more success. In God’s Kingdom, the greatest is the least, and the least is a servant. In the world’s system the proud, self-righteous, self-determined and motivated make it to the top. In God’s Kingdom, we are blessed when we are humble and meek - then we will inherit the earth. We need to keep the world’s values out of the church because they do not mix with God’s values and principals; they are in opposition to each other and we need to root them out. We need to be the light on the hill – we need to stand out as something unique and different to anything in this world. We need to always remember our purpose - we are here to increase God’s Kingdom, to demonstrate it with love and in the authority and power of the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of the Church is therefore, is to be disciples, to be manifest sons and daughters of God, ruling and reigning with him, in intimate relationship with God, demonstrating God’s and advancing Kingdom. We are commissioned in the same way that Jesus and Apostles were commissioned. Jesus’ commission was to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release the prisoners from darkness, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour (Isa 61:1-2).

Therefore, the church’s purpose is to continue the same mission as Jesus; to do what we see the Father doing, to preach the good news to the poor, (to make disciples of all nations), bind up the broken hearted etc, as was Jesus’ mission. This mission has been given to us to fulfil. We are to release the Kingdom of heaven here on the earth by enabling and releasing the healing and powerful presence of Jesus to flow out of us to those around us. We, like Jesus and the Apostles are to naturally flow in gifts of healing and miracles, signs and wonders. We can only flow in those gifts through our relationship with him and through the Gifts of the Spirit and presence and power of Christ within us, flowing out of us. But we need to allow these things to take place, to give Jesus permission to do so, by listening to his voice, by being obedient to his promptings, by taking risks when His Spirit is promoting us, by giving him room in our lives and in our church meetings ....

We need to move over and step down, in order to let him move in and up and take control. We need to let go of our fear of losing control and even if things look messy (not in the order we would like), we still need to give him control and let him do exactly what He wants to, without us restricting Him.

If we are to flow in power and anointing, to release people, then we must we seek Him, His Kingdom and His righteousness first, then all these things will be added to us (Matt 6:33). If we are seeking Him, His Spirit will break through in power upon us and within us and will baptize us and empower us. We cannot manufacture any of this.... we have to be the genuine article, otherwise we will produce a counterfeit that does not glorify God, only man. This needs to be a genuine move of God through us... not religious acts, not performances, not shows: nothing but the pure and Holy Spirit of God moving.

During prayer this is what the Lord showed me.... I saw a vision of the big church buildings and ministries we have built, and the programs and religious systems, rising up into the sky (like the tower of Babel), but they were black.... they became a big facade, a camouflage, and like a fog, they blocked out the real Jesus. I saw these things acting as a barrier; they reflected the glory away from the Lord when people find Him. I started praying and repenting for the church....

In the spirit, I saw that the church had become a tool in the enemy's hand.... and like Satan, who stated, "I will ascend into the heavens.... I will set my seat above the thrones of the stars... I will sit on mount Zion, I will be like the most high God...." (Isaiah 14:13-15)

I saw how the church was doing the same thing.... the churches were setting up their own kingdoms, their own thrones, trying to be the best, trying to show themselves to be like God, but in fact they had become like Satan, desiring the things he desires.... and I saw how the church had played into the enemy's hand, how we thought we were building God's kingdom, whereas we were assisting the enemy in building something counterfeit... we were building a churches that do not represent God, nor reflects His image, but in fact they reflected the image of the enemy, in many ways.

We need to repent of trying to build God’s church for Him through our own programmes and man-made structures, and let Him build it, His way. I am not saying there should be no order in church, there should be Godly order, under his guidance and under the guidance and wisdom of the leaders. If we allow God’s Kingdom to truly be released in us and through our churches, without constraining and controlling the flow of the Holy Spirit, then the whole Body of Christ, the community of believers, will arise that become released and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to become ministers of gospel wherever we go; everyone is released to be a minister and messenger of the gospel and everyone can operate in the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 4, we see a community of believers who had things in common. They shared their possessions and nobody was in need. The poor were looked after. They became a body of people that were different to the rest of the world, even the religious world. A community grew whose presence affected everyone. This community of people experienced signs and wonders and their numbers grew daily. This community met from house to house, and daily. This community grew and spread out across the globe, especially when persecution came to the church. This Body of believers has gone through many changes, good and bad, and through many persecutions throughout history - yet the true church has survived. She is still here and she is alive.

So this church is now being called back to being a community of light and salt, back to simplicity, and back to being the physical representation of Jesus here on this earth. This church is being called to be organic, not static. This church is being called to be Kingdom of God here on the earth. This church is being called to take down all her old religious structures, her systems, her works, her façade and to deconstruct everything that is not truly Kingdom. We are called to build the church as He wants it to be. He is calling us to be organic - to be a living Body and He is calling us to His pure Bride, displaying his true characteristics, his true power and presence in this world.