Spirit of God

As I have been a Christian for more than 30 years, the subject of “Spirit of God” has brought many confusions and misunderstanding for me and our people. As I have been learning and teaching about the Spirit of God as I preach through a book of the Bible, this subject does get addressed.

From the beginning, the Spirit of God was highly active as the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:2). At Jesus’ baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in a bodily form as a dove signifying that Jesus was going to be sacrifice like a dove as Holy Spirit points us to Jesus Christ not Himself.

We must read and re-read John 14 through 16 to correctly understand the function of the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught us what the Holy Spirit will do. This is not whatever the Spirit wants to do, but Jesus taught us very clearly what the Spirit will do. Scripture must give us the understanding of the Holy Spirit. Yes there are different theologies (e.g. cessationism vs. continuationism), but we must be grounded in the Scripture and not deviate from it.

Spirit of God is so crucial for Christians. In fact, if you don’t have the Spirit of Christ, you don’t belong to Christ (Romans 8:9). Per Acts 1:8, Spirit gives us the power to be Jesus’ witness in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We operate by the Spirit empowering us to do God’s will being Jesus’ witnesses all over the world. He overcomes all of our short comings to accomplish His will and bear the fruit of the Spirit so that we can be more like Jesus Christ.

Spirit of God is God the Spirit. He is the third person in Trinity. We are living in the age of the Spirit where He dwells in every born-again Christians to accomplish the great commission. He helps us focus on Jesus, reminds us of Jesus, teaches us about Jesus, reminds us sin to repent, and draw near to God to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

We need the Spirit of God. We thank God for the Spirit living inside of us. We rely on the Spirit to guide us to all truth (Jesus). We desire for Jesus’ work to be done in us and through us. We want God to receive maximum glory from us as the Spirit of God works in us.

pastor young su (PYS)

House Church Ministry

Jesus said in Matthew 16 that He will build His church and the gates of hades will not overcome it and we see the church forming in the books of Acts as Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost. We see the glimpse of various aspects of church in the letters (New Testament letters). We see the description of the church and we can learn so much from the description. We must go back to the New Testament and learn how we must do church.

House Church ministry attempts to restore the New Testament church and there are many in South Korea and North America who are in our network that are doing House Church ministry. We have regular gatherings (monthly zoom) and pastors get together every 6 months to learn, share, and get encouraged.

JCF have been doing House Church ministry since 2014 and we have had a wonderful opportunity to go to Fresno and share what we know with a church there. It was part of their revival weekend, and their leaders and members were challenged and encouraged as we have prayed for.

One emphasis of House Church ministry is to make disciples of all nation. We want non-Christians to become Christians and be a disciple making disciple of Jesus Christ. We want the entire church to engage in this and do this. Most churches the staff (paid staff) do this, but most lay people are not engaged, but we want 100% of Christians to be involved in disciple making ministry (i.e. saving the lost and developing them to be disciple making disciples). Each of the house churches are led by a lay-leader and they are not helping the pastor, but they own this ministry (this is their ministry)

JCF has helped several other churches in California and Lord willing, we will continue to function as a resource church for those who are doing House Church ministry. There are many challenges and difficulties, but as Jesus has promised us that He will build His church and gates of hades will not overcome it, we trust and follow Him to do exact thing He has said for His power, honor, and glory.

JCF will obey the great commission through the church (house churches)!

Body of Christ

Church is described as the body of Christ with Jesus Christ being the head. Church is the extension of the head (Jesus Christ) continuing the work of Jesus Christ the way honors Jesus Christ. As I was saved in our current church in 1991, I have never been a member of any other church, so I don’t know many other things that happen in the life of a church.

I have learned that church is incredibly special. Nothing in the world can say that they are a body of Jesus Christ except the church. Functionally, I have experienced many incredible activities and fruits as God allowed us to participate in His Kingdom work. This participation is not just for me to participate, but the whole or many parts participating together to discern the will of God and doing the will of God with the strength God provides to all. When we get behind a mission effort or outreach to college students or a Bible study, we know there is nothing like a local church when it functions right.

Local church is the hope of the world for truth, wisdom, God’s power, and God’s love. This is where people, especially people who do not know God can experience God. Also, people who are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ can be the agent of blessing and change in the world as we do life in the world. What an incredible invitation and honor be in the body of Christ. We are not perfect, and we do have many flaws.

People (Christians and non-Christians) may have lost hope in the church. This is a huge loss, and the effects will be detrimental for the future. Every church member of any church in all denominations should take this seriously and pray and be changed to have a high view of the church being a BODY OF JESUS CHRIST. This is God’s idea and God’s plan A. There is no plan B and I wish that our church will continue to practice humility and hope in Jesus Christ to be the body Jesus wants to be, doing His will in His way, with the strength He provides for His glory. I wish everyone to participate to experience such a body life. We want to grow that way and we want to grow with more people as well.