Purpose and Process

by Doug Fortune | http://www.1st.to/apostolic | revival@mpks.net

Trumpet Call Apostolic / Prophetic Bulletin

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I am consumed with PURPOSE... everything I do revolves around God's purposes in the earth. I am so focused on the end product, the PURPOSE, God restoring fully His image and likeness in a many-membered New Creation Man, that often times I forget to mention that there is a PROCESS involved. As a result, sometimes after the initial excitement of becoming impregnated with PURPOSE, people look at me and ask, "What do I do now?".... This is where PROCESS comes in. There are some who are so in tune with PROCESS that they end up repeating PROCESS again and again and have difficulty moving into PURPOSE. May I interject that we need BOTH working interdependently with each other to attain the goal of manifesting Christ in the earth? Ephesians chapter four is a good example as it describes Jesus' first action as the crucified, resurrected, and ascended apostolic High Priest... verse 8 says "...when He ascended on high... He bestowed gifts on men...". By virtue of this being His first course of action as He ascended, we know that it is filled with PURPOSE and verses 12 and 13 goes on to describe that purpose, "...His intention (PURPOSE) was the perfecting of the saints... to the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ...". THIS is purpose, to manifest the fullness of Christ! Integrally intertwined within the PURPOSE contained in these verses is PROCESS... and that process is five-fold ministries equipping the saints. Consider the PROCESS as each gift equips the saints ... apostles imparting a 'sent one' mentality, prophets imparting vision and revelatory awareness, evangelists imparting the ability to draw people to Him, pastors imparting a caring and concern for others, and teachers imparting true knowledge... all this contained within the PURPOSE of being conformed to the image of Christ and manifesting Him in the earth. PURPOSE determines our PROCESS... in other words, if I believe my PURPOSE is to just "hang on till Jesus comes back, get a few people to heaven, and hope for a rapture that I may escape this world", then my PROCESS will be very self-serving and limited. If I believe that my PURPOSE is to manifest Christ by being conformed to His likeness and advance the Kingdom having dominion in the earth, then my PROCESS will be a reflection of that PURPOSE.

A great problem arises when we try to make PROCESS our PURPOSE... in other words, as a prophet, if I make imparting the revelatory my PURPOSE, then I become imbalanced and no longer see the need for the evangelist, teacher, etc. If I make spiritual warfare my PURPOSE, then I become imbalanced, looking for demons behind every bush. If I make inner-healing my PURPOSE, then I'm always looking to dig up everybody's hurts and wounds and have difficulty releasing them as healed and whole.... I think you get the idea here. Conversely, if all I have is PURPOSE and no PROCESS, then I am living in a dream world (you might know someone like that!).

PURPOSE determines PROCESS, but PROCESS brings PURPOSE to manifestation.

When God said, "Let us make man in Our image and likeness", the Last Adam, Christ, was the PURPOSE but the first Adam was the PROCESS. Consider Paul's words in Gal. 4:19, "My little children for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed within you!"(Amplified Bible). Here he is speaking of PROCESS with a PURPOSE of Christ being completely formed within. Even the word he uses there for children, teknion, is different than the word nepois used in Eph. 4:14, "... children tossed to and fro..." referring to infants; and the word huios used in Rom. 8:19 speaking of the "...manifestation of the sons of God...", referring to mature sons. This is the PROCESS of "...working out your salvation..."(Phil. 2:2), bringing that which is already perfected within your spirit to manifest in your soul. PROCESS is imperative, but it must be born from PURPOSE.

Consider Peter walking on the water to meet Jesus; his PURPOSE was to get to Jesus but he began to focus on the PROCESS (By the way, I'm not bashing Peter, at least he got out of the boat!). Many of us are like that, we begin in PURPOSE but get bogged down in the PROCESS because we focus on PROCESS rather than PURPOSE. 2 Cor. 3:18 reveals these dynamics well, "And all of us with unveiled face, because we continue to behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; (for this comes) from the Lord (Who is) the Spirit." Our PURPOSE is to be transformed into His likeness, to see His glory in the mirror, and as we maintain our focus on PURPOSE while actively engaging the PROCESS, we will see the PURPOSE become a present reality!

Unfortunately, I believe that many in the Church have mistaken PROCESS for PURPOSE, thus we have groups worshiping at the altar of past 'moves of God'. Even the restoration of the five-fold is merely a PROCESS that will eventually be consumed in PURPOSE as He brings forth the "perfect man", and the five-fold is superceded by the order of Melchizedek. I see the apostolic as bringing PURPOSE to the church, but let it NOT be to the exclusion of PROCESS!

PURPOSE and PROCESS... two dynamics imperative to the advancement of His Kingdom... let the emphasis of one not be to the exclusion of the other... rather, let them be interdependently woven together!

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The new CD entitled Kingdom Come is available now... Only $10.00 plus $1.00 postage. Order on-line at http://216.147.105.74/cdorder.htm ... Follow the link below to hear a short sample of 5 of the 9 songs on the CD... keep in mind that RealPlayer is nowhere close to CD quality sound, but this gives you an idea anyway... http://216.147.105.74/kingdomc.ram --Doug Fortune

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