The nature of the kingdom of God is that it grows from within, from the inside out and not from the outside in. It grows from the new nature that we receive when we’re born again by the Spirit of God. The Old Testament temple mentality was set up to control you externally through rules and regulations in contrast to being ruled from within through love and the Spirit of truth. In His teaching parables Jesus taught much on the nature and operations of the kingdom of God.

For example, He taught in the parable of the sower that if you don’t understand that parable, you cannot understand other parables (Mk 4:13). In other words, within that parable lies the key to understanding other parables. The key to this parable is not only in the incorruptible seed of the Word of God being sown, but it is the soil’s ability to receive that seed. The soil represents the heart of man. The true spiritual condition of any church or ministry depends on the health of the hearts of the people.

In 1987 my wife and I were part of a team of missionaries that established interdenominational Bible training centers in Liberia, West Africa. Since then, as the ministry has passed through different hands in that nation, there has been a diminishing of the life and fire that were strong birthmarks of its early beginnings. The issue is in the hearts of the leaders and what they are imparting to the students. Currently there are efforts being put forth to restore the ministry there to its former glory. Our caution though must be to avoid the temptation of financing outward structures whether they be buildings, better office space, vehicles, and equipment without taking care of the spiritual life that caused the decline in the first place.

Again, there is a mentality out there in ministry and church life that thinks if we make the outward more attractive then the inward will take care of itself. If we have a nicer building, more money, better equipment, etc. then God will send the fruit of revival. But the New Testament and the history of revivals have usually started with humble beginnings, and from people whose hearts were hungry and thirsty for a move of God. God is not pleased when we glory in the flesh and in external things and putting our dependency on those things to produce fruit.

Think of how Jesus began His earthly ministry. He chose 12 men and called them to spend time with Him. Look what happened! Revival spread everywhere. Without buildings, without equipment, without fancy promotional techniques or gimmicks, without devising new programs and methods to reach people, without a lot of structure, and rules and regulations to govern them externally, they experienced constant revival. “But that was Jesus!” you say. But aren’t we called to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6), and do the works and greater works than He did (John 14:12)? Isn’t He the pattern? Isn’t that what the early Church did after Jesus left the earth? Isn’t that why the Holy Spirit was sent to us?

The Lord wants us to understand that the nature of the Church and of the kingdom of God is organic. The new nature and the life of God in the spirit of man is what make the Church a living organism and not so much an organization. You cannot manufacture an organism or breathe life into it, whether it be a tree, a plant, or the human body. Fruit cannot be manufactured. It is a by-product of being alive. Life begins on the inside, and continues to grow from the inside, not the outside. That’s why we must constantly watch over our hearts and feed and nurture the new nature in us, and follow where life is leading us, and not a dead program.

In Acts 2 the Lord added to the church daily because the early Church was truly functioning as a living organism, drawing its life from within. Here is a powerful truth: Organic principles utilize a minimum amount of energy and yet produce maximum results (fruit).

“All by itself the soil produces grain…” (Mk 4:28)

All by itself, I repeat, all by itself a living organism produces fruit from the soil, which in this case represents the heart of man.

As another example of a living organism producing fruit from within itself, take our physical bodies. Our physical bodies do not struggle to grow. As long as it has breath, rest, exercise, food, and drink it thrives. The same could be said of trees and plants. As long as the soil in which they’re planted receives sufficient nutrients from the sun and the rain these living organisms will thrive. It’s the same way with the born again spirit of man. As long as it gets fed with the proper nutrients of the Word and the Spirit, and has the privilege of fellowship with God and other believers it will grow (Acts 2:42).

My younger brother whom I referred to earlier recently led a local Catholic man to the Lord and got him filled with the Holy Ghost. I’ve spoken to this new convert several times, and he is on fire for God. With little provoking and prodding from us he is testifying to all his family and friends of what Jesus has done in his life. All who knew him before know that he is a changed man. He is devouring the Word of God daily and prays continually. He’s still in the Catholic church so he’s not getting fed the Word of God there. The only real fellowship and encouragement he has right now is from my brother and I. Yet this new convert is growing spiritually by leaps and bounds blazing abroad the good news of Jesus without shame and timidity. All his growth has come from within the soil of his heart. That is organic!

No church or person is telling this new convert that he has to read the Word, pray, and witness to others. It is the desire and joy of his life. He has received a new nature. And he is nurturing that new nature and being renewed daily through fellowship with God. It is the miracle of what new life produces.

How different this is from so much of church life today! How many times have we heard pastors and church leaders try to get people to pray, witness, read their Bible, get involved in some church program, or outreach, yet to no avail. Or, a new program is started and there is life and fire in it for awhile, but soon it becomes burdened with layers of rules and regulations and top heavy structure until the life that was in it dies, or moves on.

Jesus did not go out among sinners because of some structured program, policy, or law that told Him He had to do it. He did not spend time with sinners to earn a salary. He did not pray as a means of earning merits from the Father. He did not forgive His enemies at the cross so He could make it to heaven. He did all these things because it was His nature! Again, the life within Him produced these actions and the fruit of them.

Old Testament thinking makes you produce apart from that new life and nature. Old Testament thinking is based on the law which was given to spiritually dead people to govern their flesh, and it works from the outside in, but New Testament thinking moves from the outside, the flesh, to the heart and the new nature within. The law hardens the human spirit because it does not deal with the hidden places of the heart.

“I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

All fruit is a result of fellowship. That’s where true life flows from. If we tend to the Vine (Jesus) then the branch takes care of itself and produces fruit automatically.

The reason for our attempts in seeking to produce a quality of life in the Church from the outside in is simply due to the absence of the Spirit of God in our lives and the insensitivity in us to follow life. Again, stemming from an Old Testament temple mentality, we separate church services, church functions, and programs from our daily spiritual life. After all, it is the spiritual overflow of our daily lives that marks our church services, functions, and programs.

We tend to compartmentalize our lives. We do this by dividing our lives up into two basic categories: the spiritual and the natural. Certain activities like prayer, Bible study, and going to church services are considered spiritual while ordinary activities such as eating, sleeping, working, and other physical duties are natural activities. Once again, this is a by-product of Old Testament temple thinking and the law. There is so much of this kind of thinking in us that we don’t even realize.

What happens is that we do the natural activities in our lives reluctantly while apologizing to God and claiming that these natural activities are draining us of our spiritual strength. This results in a constant straining, striving, and pushing to one day be super-spiritual. It’s a big struggle for many of us. All of these are symptoms of a lack of awareness of the New Testament reality that the Holy Spirit is always with you and that you are His temple. It is an Old Testament temple mentality where God’s presence dwelt in a room, a geographical location in Jerusalem.

Jesus never divided His life into compartments or categories. He lived in the presence of God, and made no distinction between His daily activities. Every act of His life was a contribution to the glory of God.

“I do always those things that please the Father” (John 8:29)

Certainly all acts are not equal in importance, but God accepts them all. God is with you and in you when you’re eating, sleeping, working or doing any other ‘natural’ thing.

Don’t let the natural world become the enemy of the spiritual world.

“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31)

Cultivating an awareness of His presence and the reality that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that He is always with you will increase your spiritual receptivity and cause you to enjoy His life more on a regular, daily basis. In other words, learning to cultivate the ability to live from within, following your heart, following where the life of God is leading you is the key to maintaining freshness and fruit in your walk with God. That is the nature of the kingdom of God.

During the 1960’s and on into the 70’s and the early 80’s many people exited traditional and mainline denominational churches because their needs were not being met, and they were hungry for the deeper things of God. As a result, para-church organizations were raised up and played a key role in the training and discipleship of new converts. Bible schools were established to equip pastors and leaders. Many of those pastors and churches that were raised up during that time, however, have now become as structured, rigid, and set on their own agendas as the former churches they came out of.

I see a trend today that is attempting to reverse this process and avoid another mass exodus from our churches by developing programs that will either keep people from leaving our churches, or draw new people into them (that is what spurned the seeker-friendly church philosophy). Usually this is done by offering new and exciting programs that attempt to produce a quality in the Church from the outside in. And this is not the pattern of the New Testament.

The Lord gave me a word a few years ago that further magnifies this truth:

“Let the fruit grow the ministry and not the ministry grow the fruit.”

He went on to use the example of the woman at the well who had an encounter with God that led to an entire Samaritan city being impacted with the gospel (John 4:28-30, 39-42). The fruit of that woman’s testimony produced greater ministry among many other people. This is the pattern we see throughout the gospels and the New Testament. The key to this fruit lay in the revelation, power, and compassion Jesus walked in as a result of His fellowship with the Father. All fruit flows and grows from within that fellowship.

We cannot produce a quality in the Church from the outside in. What is common in the church world today is to start a ministry or a program, embalm it with some sort of structure, and then try and breathe spiritual life into it that will produce fruit. The New Testament pattern is to find out where life is moving, and then build just enough structure to facilitate that life. Then when life changes, there is so little structure established that things can easily be shut down or changed when life moves on. Conversely, changing outward forms, structures, worship styles, adding a new missions statement, new programs, new outreaches, changing the name of your church or ministry are all false, unproductive ways to produce spiritual life. Spiritual life and health flows from the new spiritual nature we receive when we’re born again.

Large numbers of people, elaborate buildings, and an increasing flow of cash does not guarantee spiritual life and health. The Church did not begin with that focus and yet somehow modern Church principles have put the emphasis on attendance, buildings, and cash. Some have called it the A, B, C’s of modern church growth. But many false religions of the world have a large following, magnificent buildings, and lots of cash, too. Although we are not opposed to any of these things in and of themselves, they are not the true indicators of spirituality. As a matter fact, often these things serve as a sort of façade or smokescreen that hides the real problems and issues that are facing the Church in this hour. We’ve been guilty of painting and decorating the cart while neglecting the sick horse.

My younger biological brother who is a bit of a wordsmith came up with the following quote that illustrates the ‘cart before the horse mentality’ that is so prevalent in the body of Christ today:

“Another meeting, another offering, another song, another convention, another banquet, another special speaker, another concert, another project, another program…and so ‘church life’ continues, but the changed life remains scarce. If the horse is healthy the cart will be pulled. If the horse is unhealthy, making the cart more attractive is useless.” — Roy Farias

There is a subtle, almost subconscious mentality in the Church today that places great emphasis on the outward and external appearances of Christianity. We are trained by example to esteem appearance, presentation, professionalism, and showmanship above hidden service and meeting the every day, pressing, oft-unspoken heart needs of individual people. We are easily impressed by the trappings of the production of the Church, and fooled by its big names and big conferences. I’m afraid there is a large gap separating the culture of the modern Western Church from the heart of God as revealed through Jesus in the gospels and through the early Church.

The sad truth is that in much of the Church world the culture of the kingdom of God has been lost to the culture of hype, greed, religious politics, a Hollywood Jesus, and the professional business of the Church to such an extent that many churches resemble a political machine or a corporation more than God’s culture. God’s culture begins with the family, the home, making disciples through life relationships, reaching and caring for others with the gospel and the love of God.

The true disciples of Jesus are losing the taste for the shallow and superficial, and are separating themselves from those entangled in the appearance of spirituality. Many people have become disenchanted with the Church because of hurt, misuse and abuse, religious politics, and leadership caught up in the things of the flesh. People are looking for depth in the Word and in their relationships, a free flowing move of the Spirit, personal empowerment, and leadership that does not play political games.

Here is a word from the Lord that a prophet friend of mine received in a visitation:

“Do not look at the TV and larger media ministries to try to understand what I am doing in my body today. They have a part to play, but they are the visible to the eye veneer of the body that people see. Those who are carnal and immature see the outward appearance and are impressed, thinking that these are the height of ministry and where the Spirit is concentrating today. But they are mistaken.”

“See what I see, many small churches and ministries investing in relationships, walking in love, pouring their lives into each other; this is where the Spirit is moving today. There is a revolution taking place in my body, a revolution of relationships, discipleship, and love. This will affect whole communities and economies.”

“See what I see, many churches all over the world in which people are accountable to one another, working through conflicts, walking in love, and growing as my disciples. That is where my Spirit is moving today.”

“Many are running to and fro asking, ‘Where is the next move; what is the next season of the Spirit?’ And I say to you that it is under their very noses. They stumble at the supernatural work in their midst and refuse to humble themselves and be taught because they seek the sensational and that which appeals to the outward man. They fail to recognize the true move of God because it must be spiritually discerned.”

Have our minds been corrupted from this sort of simplicity that is found in Christ?

Notice the simplicity of the early Church culture in Acts 2:42-47. Look especially at verses 46-47:

“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Their kingdom values, lifestyle, mannerisms, behavioral patterns, common love, caring, and sharing with one another produced great fruit. The fear of God and the power of God were in manifestation. It seemed as if evangelism was effortless as the Lord was adding people to the church daily. Today with all of our technology, promotional techniques, sophisticated programs, and much labor and toil we are seeing minimal fruit. What is the solution? It all starts with reversing our mentality to think from within and not from without, New Testament thinking versus Old Testament thinking.

Let’s tend to the sick horse and forget about the cart.