A Boy Named Adam

[Cindy Allen]

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Greetings Saints of God!

Thank you for abiding with us so that God would make His habitation with us. Just as sure as God leads you to draw your circle around a people, a city or a region, He will certainly pour out the knowledge of what He desires to speak and reveal.

Years ago, when I was just beginning to operate in prophetic ministry within my Church, God began leading me out in some unusual ways. It took some time for me to recognize that the work that God leads us in outside of the church will always be directly linked to the ministry taking place within the Church.

My first real awakening to this fact came through seeing where ministry needed to connect relationally with the community that I lived in. During this time, through God’s leading, my husband and I became Foster parents. One of the children that we took in early on was a 15 year old boy who was very displaced and broken. Through this young man, I was about to learn where the rubber meets the road in our accountability in regards to ministry. This became my first experience in transitioning in ministry from Church to Kingdom through the community life around us.

Let me first say that during that time, I often operated in Words of Knowledge and Wisdom within my Church. For those who don’t know, this requires a level of spiritual discernment that operates where our lives are vertical with God through holiness and obedience. Having learned this about prophetic ministry, I was about to learn first hand where the gifts that “come down” through the anointing must then come into relationship with the land through a generation of sons and daughters. I received of the gift of prophetic ministry easily enough through being submitted to the leadership in my Church. Through our newly adopted son, who we had begun fostering, God was about to demonstrate where relationship needed to be extended to expand the ministry that I was operating in through Community.

Getting back to my story, this son’s outward appearance was tall and robust. He was quiet and gentle and he didn’t speak much about himself in the beginning. He came to our family just before Christmas, so I ended up taking him Christmas shopping with me early one day. Since HE was part of the reason that I was out shopping, I wanted to have some time alone to shop for him. For those of us who have shopped at malls, it doesn’t take long to come to the conclusion that Shopping Malls are magnets for teens – a place to hang out.

After we arrived at the mall, I explained to this son that I had some shopping to do for about an hour and told him where to meet me afterwards. He simply said OK and I left him to go do my shopping. Later, we met up with each other again as planned. To make a long story short, it wasn’t until a few days later that Adam opened up to me and confessed that until going with me, he had never been inside of a Shopping Mall. He shared with me that he had often seen the Shopping Mall that we visited in driving past it, but most of his life was spent in small, tight circles of immediate family and going to school. He had very little experience with any kind of social activities outside of school and immediate family. Now, suddenly with me, he was being stretched and sometimes overwhelmed. He went on to tell me that when I left him at the Mall alone, he was afraid and didn’t want me to leave. He also shared that he was ashamed to admit these things to me.

Even now, it’s painful for me to write this. At the time Adam shared these things with me, I felt like an ant who could have hidden under a small pebble. I was ashamed for my lack of discernment regarding his needs. I couldn’t help but remember where prophesy brought liberty in areas of people’s lives within my church who couldn’t otherwise express what their spiritual needs were. Here, I drew a real question mark as to how this boundary or limitation became present in the ministry that I was operating in. Why was there a difference in ministry between Church life and home or community life? I later found that the absence of the Apostle’s ministry was the cause of this shortcoming.

I comforted Adam the best I could and promised to be more discerning of where he was so we could walk together more easily. I pondered these things for some time and this ultimately led me before God’s Throne of Grace crying out for the spiritual discernment that I needed to walk out “ministry” in my daily life with those who had no voice.

You see, prophecy and the gift of prophecy is not for the Prophet, but for the people. Prophecy has many functions, but the gift is ultimately meant to be a voice for a generation who has no voice, for “the Testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Rev. 19:10) Who are these among us who have no voice? They are those who have not yet come to know their identity in being a son or a daughter in Christ. They are those who are downtrodden in our own neighborhoods and communities. The spirit of prophecy leads our life in a spirit led journey to bring us into Christ, day by day, from glory to glory. There are two sides of the road within the ministries. One lane is for those who are training to minister to others in Christ and one for those who are being drawn into Christ. We become built up in our stature and in God’s favor the longer we walk this out. Our personal identity ultimately leads us into a corporate identity through which Christ will manifest the greater works of ministry to us. John 14:12- I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. NIV

For this reason, we now address the purpose that God would lead us in as we draw our circle of relationship around people of cities, regions and even nations. As a global church body, we must realize that it’s needful and very necessary to equip our people beyond our individual ministries and denominations. Much of the Church Body presently equips their people in regards to positions that become open or available within individual ministries. For this reason, the ministries function in respect of boundaries that we’re unable to see or discern. The relationship of Community within individual church bodies tend to conform us to a standard that we can’t see beyond. Without extending ourselves beyond our immediate circles, our local churches and ministries will eventually know lack. When the Elders of the City come to order, then the ministry of the Deacons, ministry of miracles, ministry of helps, etc. will also begin to be established in Kingdom standards. We need to strategically align ourselves as a corporate Church body so that we receive of and flow in gifts and ministries that function without barriers.

It took a young boy named Adam to discover the Adam nature within me. In seeing this in myself, I could also see it in the local Church body that I was membered with. This is not a call to leave our assignment or the place on the wall that we serve the body through. It is simply a call to reach out and network with a greater church body so that we remain the new wineskin that our Lord will pour new wine into. As the Bride of Christ, we have been called to do greater works than what Jesus did in His earthly ministry. I pray that each of you would join with me in seeking God to unite us with His eternal purposes. In doing so, there will be no boundaries or limitations found in the ministries that we serve God and His people through.

Let us be found in FAITH and faithful to the purposes that God has called us to. As we move forward to equip the workers of the harvest, God will move in our midst to reveal the harvest.

Matt 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

In His Service,

Cindy Allen

www. globalnetworkofdisciples.com

www.foundations.injesus.com