Perfecting The Saints Part 1: The Clarion Call by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Perfecting the Saints, Part One: The Clarion Call

God's method to save, to heal, to lift, and to transform has always been and will always be his word. This is a word-based ministry, and the mandate for this gathering is to open the body of Christ to the ways of the kingdom more perfectly.

Ministering deliverance before the word

Sometimes the hunger of people reaches the heart of the Father and he responds in a hurry.

Obadiah 1:17

5 things that happen in the presence of God

1. We encounter God in a fresh way, and encounters help us become more like him.
2. We are transformed through the ministry of the word, which grants access to illumination and transformation.
3. We encounter his power as he gives witness to his word with attesting miracles, signs, and wonders.
4. We access graces through impartation. Graces, giftings, and spiritual possibilities are transferred as we soak in his presence.
5. We fellowship one with another, sharing joy and comforting one another.

Matthew 10:7-8 - as you go, preach the kingdom and demonstrate it by healing the sick and casting out devils.

Acts 10:38 - Jesus was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, and went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil.

Ministering deliverance is not only separating a man from negative spirit influences. It extends to separating him from demonic conditions. Any condition that does not lead you to the knowledge of God or to a great destiny in Christ is demonic.

It is easy for God to set anyone free from an age-long captivity once he finds faith, an atmosphere where he is believed. All it takes is for you to believe that God has the power to set you free.

2 Corinthians 3:17 - where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

• Every spirit that is not of God oppressing you, be released now.
• Every yoke, curse, bondage, addiction, and pattern not of Christ that has tied down your life, give way now.
• Satan, you lose your power over their destinies and over their families.
• We break the spirit of addiction, every kind of addiction, break now.
• Every legal hold the devil has over your life is broken now.
• Every family under corporate bondage, be free now.

Fresh fire and anointing rest on you for the next season of your exploits in ministry. Grace comes upon prophetic worshippers to receive and write songs and to hear sounds in the spirit. This is a season of new wine and a new thing, a stepping into a prophetic order. An open door of access is set before ministries, families, and businesses, and no man can shut it.

God's desire for every believer

God desires for all men, particularly believers in Christ, to grow until they attain a state of maturity and stature that reflects the fullness of Christ. We are not to remain infants or babes in the spirit, but to pass through a transformative process by the word until we come to that maturity.

Ephesians 1:18 - the hope of his calling is maturity and stature through sonship.

Why he gave the five-fold ministry

God gave the body of Christ the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, working in synergy, to help build and mature the saints.

Ephesians 4:11-16 - perfecting here means the maturing of the saints, growing into a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, no longer children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

Perfecting requires the accurate communication of truth

Believers are matured through the accurate communication of truth. A body of spiritual information must be served to them for maturity to happen.

Jeremiah 3:15 - God gives pastors after his own heart who feed his people with knowledge and understanding.

6 truths believers must be taught for maturity

1. Intimacy with God, the knowledge of God.
2. Character, the fruit of the spirit manifested in and through their lives.
3. Victorious living and walking in dominion, so they do not live defeated even though they are in Christ.
4. The great commission and the whole program of God.
5. Purpose and meaning, so they do not live aimlessly and frustrated.
6. Realities beyond this realm. 1 Corinthians 15:19 - many sincere believers cannot tell you their own position after this life, simply because it was never taught to them.

Believers reflect the mentorship they receive

The believers in any territory will always be a reflection of the kind and quality of mentorship and spiritual information they are exposed to. Probe believers at random and they will be a merciless reflection of the truths they have received.

The area of deficiency, omission, or error in a believer's training becomes the access point for Satan over that believer, that family, that territory, and that nation. Satan does not just attack randomly. He studies the gap: what was not taught, what was taught wrongly, what discipleship omitted.

• When young people do not reflect the character of Christ, someone omitted that subject in their discipleship.
• When believers live in mass poverty, someone omitted the dimension of empowerment in their training.
• When believers are not evangelistic in their thinking, that too traces back to an omission.

The doctor analogy

A trained doctor can diagnose exactly what is deficient in a patient. The patient may be alive but not healthy, and left untreated long enough, an organ can fail and even have to be removed. It is the same spiritually.

• Some believers suffer spiritual kidney issues, because what should have been fed to them for health and vitality was omitted.
• Some are spiritually blind, alive in Christ but stumbling without caution because they cannot see.
• Some are spiritually weak and exhausted, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

The assignment is to come in the spirit of a doctor, to diagnose and treat, not merely to criticize. Some blind eyes will open, and there will be a supernatural kidney transplant, spiritually.

4 things scripture is profitable for

The way God builds and matures his church is by exposing believers to the fourfold profit of scripture.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

1. Doctrine, or teaching.
2. Reproof.
3. Correction.
4. Instruction in righteousness.

The end of it is that the man of God may be matured, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

God's restorative strategy: commendation and correction

Whenever spiritual decline begins to spread across a life or a territory, God calls their attention using a restorative strategy of commendation and correction.

• The seven churches in Revelation 2-3 - he commends what they have done, then he corrects, calling them to repent and return to their first love.
• Philippians 1:3-6 - Paul commends the church at Philippi.
• Hebrews 12:5-11 - Paul corrects. Whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and discipline, though painful for the moment, later yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those trained by it.

This is a charge to ministers. When it is all about correction, you destroy the morale of a territory. When it is all about commendation, you flatter people to remain in decline. The most effective way to initiate restoration is to commend and then to correct.

Commending America: at least 11 ways it has served the gospel globally

1. Foreign missionaries. Hundreds of thousands sent out for generations. Many left knowing they would never return, kissed their families goodbye, and died on the field. Their graves across Africa and Asia testify to their sacrifice.

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2. Global evangelistic crusades and campaigns. Billy Graham, T.L. Osborn, and Reinhard Bonnke packed stadiums and showed the world it was possible.
3. Bible translation and literacy. Funding and expertise behind translations such as the Amplified Bible and the American Standard Version.
4. Christian media and television. CBN, the 700 Club, TBN, Daystar, and radio broadcasters like R.W. Shambach. Through media, many first encountered Kathryn Kuhlman, Benny Hinn, and T.L. Osborn, and remote places with no churches received the gospel.
5. Humanitarian services and aid through faith-based organizations like World Vision, Compassion International, and Samaritan's Purse.
6. Theological and pastoral training schools. Seminaries, Bible colleges, and leadership institutes, including the Morris Cerullo School of Ministry.
7. Digital innovation for the gospel, such as Bible apps like YouVersion.
8. Healthcare and medical missions. Mission hospitals and medical teams that provided physical healing as a bridge to the gospel.
9. Publishing of Christian books, training manuals, and Sunday school materials.
10. Youth and campus ministries, such as Campus Crusade for Christ and the Navigators.
11. World missions through contemporary music and the arts, and religious freedom advocacy, championing religious liberty for the persecuted church across many nations.

When a man or a territory invests this much in your future, it is unwise to ignore that contribution, no matter what happens later.

The current state of the church in America

The declining state of the church in America is an attack from the kingdom of darkness that has taken more than three decades to execute. It is not only an attack on America. It is an attack on the future of the Christian faith globally.

Matthew 13:25 - while men slept, the enemy came. Satan waited for certain veterans to die and go off the scene, and struck while preachers and believers slept.

Success can be a reason why you fail. Success can become a raw material for failure. Many people fail today because they succeeded yesterday.

3 errors that proceed from the pulpit

1. Apostasy

   A deviation from the patterns of God, what the Bible calls damnable heresies.

   2 Peter 2:1-2. 1 Timothy 4:1 - there is such a thing as the doctrine of demons, and a sincere man of God can teach it without being fake or false.

2. Wrong application of biblical principles

   The principle is correct and biblical, but the application leads to destruction. Honor, for example, is a biblical principle, yet it can be turned into an instrument of manipulation.

3. Imbalanced or incomplete communication of truth

   The teaching is true but incomplete, and does not reflect the whole counsel of God. Seven of someone's ten phone digits may be correct, but because the number is incomplete, the call still will not go through. You do not command victory with truth simply because it is truth. It must be wholesome and entire.

Correction must come in the spirit of brotherhood

The spirit of self-righteousness cannot correct what is wrong in the body. It takes humility, genuine love for God's people, and brotherhood. A braggadocious, self-righteous spirit disqualifies even a correct observation from being received.

Galatians 6:1 - restore a fallen brother in the spirit of love, taking heed to yourself lest you also be tempted.

We do not come to condemn, but to show the way in love. Not condemning does not mean we condone, but there is a more excellent way, and the more excellent way is love.

You cannot thrive in a nation you hate.

Psalm 122:6 - it takes loving Jesus and loving where you are to excel. If something is wrong in the home, you do not run, you fix it.

A word of hope

Many who prophesied doom over America saw correctly, as with Nineveh. But God always goes ahead, and there are those who come in the spirit of Jonah to bring hope.

Job 14:7 - there is hope for a tree.

Ecclesiastes 9:4 - to him that is joined to the living, there is hope.

Ezekiel 22:30 - God searched for a man to stand in the gap for the land, that he should not destroy it, but found none. Yet here God has an army, the repairers of the breach.

Zechariah 1:18-21 - the four horns are the powers that scattered Judah, but God said he has sent four carpenters.

Zechariah 3:1-2 - Joshua the high priest stood in filthy garments while Satan accused him, and the Lord answered, is this not a brand plucked out of the fire.

2 Chronicles 7:14 - when something is wrong with the land, God does not go to government, he goes to his people. The key to America's spiritual future is my people, my pastors, my spiritual leaders.

America will not go down. Our children will not go down. Every access point Satan has had over America, he will no longer have, not over you, not over your children, not over your churches, not over your government. The churches will be fanned back to flames, mission agencies will be on fire again, and the young people will be on fire again. Satan, you have come this far, and no further shall you go.

We come with a rod of mercy, in the spirit of meekness and brotherhood, to rebuke and to correct, but not to condemn. The one to be cast away at the end of this is the devil. You can always know the spiritual texture of any believer as a product of the training and mentorship they went through. So, in the spirit of Aquila and Priscilla, the way of God is expounded more perfectly.

Acts 18:24-28 - Apollos was eloquent, mighty in scripture, fervent and accurate, yet he knew only the baptism of John, until Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly.

Altar call

An altar call is an opportunity to make an evident choice between Jesus and yourself, between his life and your life. The greatest change is your willingness to transit from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son.

John 3:16-17

• Lord Jesus, I have heard your word. I love you with all my heart.
• I believe you are the son of God. I believe you died for my sin. I believe you rose again for my justification.
• Right now I receive Jesus into my heart, as my savior, my Lord, and my king.
• I declare that the power of sin, Satan, hell, and the grave is broken over my life.
• From now, I am a child of God, and I go from glory to glory. Amen.