Book Your Place

Join Colin, Amanda and Team for a powerful evening of ministry.

CHAOS, COSMOS & KINGDOM
A powerful prophetic and apostolic word for our season.
Plus Ministry in the Holy Spirit:
Healing
Prophecy
Intercession

YOU ARE RECEIVING A KINGDOM THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN

Colin, Amanda & Ministry Team host an Apostolic & Prophetic Evening of Celebration and Ministry in the prestigious
Emmanuel Centre, Westminster

Seats are extremely limited, so guarantee your space and
Book your ticket today!
ONLY £5.00

Book Your Place

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It?s a new season for Europe. This is an exciting opportunity for us to train stronger healthier disciples through the combination of anointing ? a generation dedicated to the call of God and the lost, with a passion to see Jesus high and lifted up. And we?re running with it. Over 24 years, Colin has been raising thousands of leaders and disciples through the International Bible Institute of London and other training initiatives in Kensington Temple. Kensington Temple?s influence now reaches far and wide all over the world. We have a vision to ensure that each student is thoroughly grounded in the Word, equipped by the Spirit and seeking the perfect will of God for their life. We are offering world class training with some of the best speakers in the world, as well as experienced ministers in their field to ensure your grounding in the Word. This combined with the practical experience of involvement in Kensington Temple?s ministry and missions, and the vibrancy of life in London, these years promise to be a unique experience for you!

For more info click here!

The post Equipped to serve appeared first on Colin Dye.

A scene from the movie "Coach Carter", with Samuel L Jackson.

Grace: you are assured of God?s unconditional acceptance

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you

John 15:3.

 
The grace of God is the ground of all true encouragement. Everything that we are called to do for God flows from the fact that we are unconditionally loved, totally forgiven and eternally accepted in Christ. This is the most encouraging truth of all and it is where everything begins.
The Holy Spirit: the life of Christ is in you and in your brothers and sisters
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I am the Vine; you are the branches.

John 15:5

 
Recognising and experiencing the life of Christ in you and in your brothers and sisters is essential to encouragement. There is nothing more affirming, liberating and motivating than knowing Christ?s presence in you. As encouragers speak with others they can assure them that Christ has not abandoned them. Their own attitude of non-rejection and affirmation of Christ in their brothers and sisters is a source of joy and encouragement. This alone, can lift negative emotions and can spur them on towards a more positive course of action.
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Fellowship: you are connected to your brothers and sisters
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I am the Vine; you are the branches.

John 15:5

Recognising Christ in your brothers and sisters leads to an experience of the deep spiritual connection that exists between fellow believers. When this connection is operating well in the course of meaningful conversations there is a release of encouragement and a flow of power. Jesus in me connects to Jesus in you and we discover we are not alone. As the family of God, we are here to help, lift up and strengthen each other.
Fruitfulness: you have the capacity to be fruitful
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If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

Reminding people of their resources in Christ helps them rise above their difficulties and problems, knowing that there is a way through and they can be fruitful. Simply by being there, offering acceptance and support can make all the difference when someone else is struggling with some challenge or frustration.
Joy: fullness of joy is available
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These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 15:11

Part of our personal resources in Christ is the Spirit-inspired capacity to be joyful in all circumstances. We experience the joy of the Lord by discovering the things he has accomplished for us and by experiencing the present workings of the Spirit in us. Joy is also the satisfaction that floods our hearts whenever we experience him ? in silence, in prayer, in worship, in our trials and in our relationships.
We can also help inspire joy in others. Encouragers are joyful people and their joy is infectious. They are familiar with the paths that lead to joy and can easily guide others in the same direction. This is more than natural enthusiasm or mere optimism. Joy comes from having been through difficulties, trials and dark times, and discovering that God is faithful. Encouragers direct people to the same springs of living water from which they have personally drunk and have experienced God?s goodness.
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Love: loving obedience is the motivation of your life
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As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.?

John 15:9

Love is laying down our lives for others. In what way do encouragers do this? The answer has to do with motivation. If our motivation is love, we will sincerely desire the benefit of others. We will be other-orientated and not self-orientated. We will want to build others up according to their needs and not be looking to have our needs met. We learn to love others by laying down our own desires and concerns. Love always involves sacrifice.
If people perceive that our real motivation is genuine love, our words will have impact and we will be an encouragement to them. But if we approach people from selfish motives, then we will end up only drawing attention to our own needs. We will no longer be giving but trying to get something. True encouragement is selfless.
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Discipline: painful experiences can have a positive purpose
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Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away [?lifts up?]; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

John 14:2

Encouragers know how to comfort others by their presence and by their words. Most people who go through difficult times believe that it is proof that there is something wrong with them. They mistakenly think that they must have done something bad and that God has rejected them.
Even those who are suffering due to their own faults and failings need encouragement and not condemnation, acceptance rather than rejection.
Encouragers lift people up when they are down. They never criticise; they always affirm. This positive support builds; not destroys. It does not moralise, but directs people to Christ and his gracious will. In this way people can discover the tender and skilful hand of our Father, the Vinedresser in the midst of their pain and know he is working to achieve his ultimate goal that will be both satisfying and fruitful.

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The ministry of encouragement-connected to one another.

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam
And the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

The opening line was for them an idyllic vision of security and contentment.? To us second-decade-twenty-first-century urban London dwellers, the song is beyond the idyllic, bordering on the ridiculous. For us, buffalos, antelopes and cloudless skies are rare sights indeed.
But we cannot afford to ignore the third line in the first verse. In fact, we must take it and make it the gold standard of all our communication. Imagine a church community where every person was strongly-motivated and highly-skilled at encouraging fellow followers of Christ. Just think what it would be like if we all put aside pointless criticism, negative talking and fruitless fault finding. Imagine a people who are passionate about lifting others up and directing them toward the One who is the fountain of all that is good and true. That is Jesus? vision for his church. We are called to be competent encouragers of others.
All too often, the reality is very different. Hiding behind our layers of self-protection, we develop strategies to project an image of who we want others to believe we are. We hide what is really happening inside us because we are too fearful to let anyone know. We think we will be accused and judged. So we engage in superficial conversation and hope that we make it through.
Superficial relationships
True Christian fellowship involves something deeper, more meaningful and more helpful than that. It goes beyond the standard Sunday conversation, ?Hi! How are you??. ?Fine thanks!? (I?m not fine really, but I would never let on to you. There?s no telling what you?ll do with that information). When we have been criticised, talked about behind our back, and been the subject of mindless, yet hurtful gossip, we wonder who we can trust. It is important that we abandon all negative, destructive communication and begin to act in line with our identity and calling in Christ ? as fellow members of the body of Christ.
It is sometimes hard to connect with other Christians in any meaningful way. The Sunday church services line up like jets on the runway at Heathrow airport. People are landing and taking off every hour of Kensington Temple?s busy Sunday nine-hour-long service schedule. London?s population is transient. Most people we meet today will be somewhere else in three year?s time. We don?t know where to begin and are unsure how to develop the positive and Christ-enhancing relationships we long for.
Most people agree that we need relationships that are more personal and significant than average in order to express who we are and to discover a kindred spirit in others. We long to connect with our Christian friends so that together we can encourage each other in our spiritual quest to know God, to become like him and to experience his presence as a life style.
But we live in a brutally individualist society and our lives are fragmented. Our work life is unconnected to our social life, our social life is divorced from our church life and our family life is caught in the middle or virtually nonexistent. The price is isolation. We are busy people. Our days are filled with activities but we feel we are treading the hamster wheel of motion without meaning.
We look to the church for the answer and we have a right to find it among God?s people. The church is the only institution that has community at the heart of its mission and strategy. Our purpose is to grow followers of Christ by connecting to him and to each other. The development of meaningful relationships where every member belongs, connects and serves is central to what it means to be the church.
However, we often find the same superficiality in church relationships that exists outside the church. Church services become yet another occasion to focus on ourselves with the unspoken rules of the ?me culture?: come when you like, leave when you like, interact only if you really want to and move on when you become dissatisfied.
Encouragement through small groups
Mere ?Sunday Christianity? fails us. It is part of the culture of isolationism, not of Christ. It is simply not fit for the purpose Jesus intends. We cannot develop the meaningful relationships needed to grow as Christians in a crowded service once a week. We simply do not get the chance to connect with each other and encourage each other as we must.
The cell groups are an ideal way out of the cage our culture traps us in. While we love the celebration atmosphere of the large Sunday gatherings, we connect with each other outside the main services where we live most of our lives. Faith suddenly becomes relevant to our daily lives. We discover the meaning of true fellowship and the encouragement it brings. Cell group fellowship is the place for developing our ministry of encouragement. We learn how to love one another by building one another up by our words and actions. We meet to stir one another up to love and good deeds.
This way the ?settlers dream? can become a reality. We find a community, a home, not on the ?coyboy?s range? full of buffalo or antelope, but in the heart of London, whether the skies are cloudy or not, because we have built an environment of encouragement where we can all grow and flourish for God.

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