DMM/CPM: The Waiting Room/POPs

In the Waiting Room/POPs

Cancer has a way of levelling the playing field of one's heart. Today, the Father had me enter into the suffering of one such person. Pale, yet bright eyed, was the look of utter disbelief which greeted me this day. Ms. Dian waited in the airport lounge. As Sp and I scanned the room for a place to situate ourselves, this small waif of a woman smiled as she motioned to come sit by her.

Tired from several days of travels along with some sweet opportunities to vision cast for DMM/CPM in our country, I warmed at this act of kindness.

I knew the Father was on the move, I sensed the Holy Spirit invite to engage this woman. Two hours passed in the sharing of stories of life, hunger to know Allah, and deep areas of suffering shared. Shema statements, discussions on the story of Jesus healing the woman with the issue of blood (Matthew 9:18-26) , and the offer to look at the stories of Allah's heart for each of us found in the OT and NT, were the ways in which the Holy Spirit led.

To offer the Discovery Bible Study stories to a potential POP (Person of Peace) is the usual next step at the moment we encounter people along the way.

Pray for Ms. Dian as I connect her to one of our local partners who lives in her city, located 15 hours drive distance. Again, no matter where we go, no matter what other agendas we might be considering, the Holy Spirit prepare the hearts who want to be found. That is the DNA of a POP. 

Lord, make the lifestyle of asking You for the eyes to see where You are working to be the contagion which infects my every want and guides my every step.

 


Reminders to evaluate:

CPM Critical Elements – Intro

1. Vision: God’s Glory among your people 

(and reproduce this by vision-casting)

2. Reproduce

(it is not about what we can do, but what must be done. Our main impact is training others to train other to train others to….)

3. Extraordinary Prayer 

(and reproduce prayer)

4. Word of God Foundation and Holy Spirit dependence.

(reproduce this by letting seekers and new believers discover truth through Bible as HS leads)
 

5. Evangelism: your lifestyle and ministry and miracles focused on finding the POP and oikos 

(reproduce by training others to do this) (MAWL-Model, Assist, Watch, Love/Letter/Leave)

6. Discipleship: Teaching oikos to discover and obey Scripture and pass it on to others
(reproduce by training new believers to immediately look for others they can disciple)

7. Commitment: New believers (preferably an oikos) commits to obey Jesus as Lord in repentance and baptism, while preparing for persecution.

(process followed is one they can immediately reproduce with seekers)

8. Churches are discipled oikos' that become obeying congregations

(they are equipped and envisioned to start reproducing both same-culture and cross-culture)

9. Leadership: equip indigenous leaders

(indigenous leaders reproducing indigenous leaders reproducing indigenous leaders…) 

10. Unflinching Evaluation 

(focus fully on God’s “endvision” and be completely honest about what is happening and willing to make any necessary changes)

DMM: Perseverance

A New Way to be SaSumBi 

“A locket of hair, a fingernail, and a photo of yourself!” demanded the mass of students who surrounded Nitha’s dorm room. Nitha had come to this Islamic boarding school for an education. On school break back in her home village among another Muslim people group, Nitha and her family members had recently come to follow Jesus through what her friend called a “Discovery Bible Study.” What she received was an opportunity for personal transformation. She returned to her boarding school with a newfound passion for Jesus. Her school friends opposed her when she shared her new faith. And now those same boarding school friends falsely accused her of theft. 

In their worldview, to discover guilt or innocence was in the hands of the local dukun (shaman). Nitha refused to give them what they demanded. She knew their false accusations, if “confirmed” by the dukun, would result in her public humiliation and a severe beating. “Was this what Jesus went through?” she thought. She chose to surrender her fears to her Lord. Nitha was raised in a household of peace which were transformed into some of the first fruits of house fellowships among the SaSumBi. 

Nitha's is a common story of the consequences often faced by those who live in Muslim people groups and trust Christ. Nitha has since returned from college and has been equipped to be part of the local team's effort for the launch of DMMs among the SaSumBi. 

 Pray for those whom the Holy Spirit is drawing to Christ from among the SaSumBi. 

 Ask the Lord to give them strength and endurance as they hear and obey Jesus, so that they can withstand persecution and glorify Christ in all. 

Isaiah 32: 17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. Trust in the Lord develops righteousness that leads to quietness and confidence in the Lord. 

Nitha is an example of many who are threatened and persecuted, yet she is quiet and confident in her Lord and Savior. What a gift Jesus has for the nations if they will only listen to His voice! 

God brings a movement...

• Pray for 4 generations x 4 streams of household fellowships of 1,000 baptized disciplemakers from among the SaSumBi. 
• Ask God to strengthen their trust in the One who takes away our fears and replaces them with quietness and confidence.

DMM: Counterpunch to Anemic Prayers

On a recent visit to our home country, we have observed some DNA-ed norms of corporate intercession which tend to be modeled and then replicated. Granted, there are some great exceptions to what I have observed in the following. The Patterned Norm Prayer requests are gathered in the separate classes in the differing fellowships. Quite often, the norm is that people offer that which personally cost nothing to very little to share. Quite frankly put, what is often times modeled is an anemic type of prayer, "God, if somehow, maybe, perhaps, if possible, for someone I don't know who is sick with something that costs me little emotionally, do something....". Truth is, what is modeled in our solid biblically, exegetically excellent fellowships is truly lacking in the area of intercession. I have often wondered what non-believers would describe God's character as if their only contact with knowing about Him was through observing His people pray. God is...about safety, about my finances, my job, my sickness, my happiness, seems to be the themes which would pop when asked, perhaps. Does God care about these areas? You bet. However, notice the point of reference of "my" in each of the above requests themes. Just wondering. 

Consequently, it is with this base line that most people come to the mission field, imprinted to replicate the same. Pre-scripted to linger in the land of lameness when it comes to prayer is the bentness of present day mission*ries. When it comes to believing God, appropriating His promises, walking in His ways in the area of intercession, the Body of Christ in America can more often resemble practical atheists. And when it comes to intercession, our training needs to be infectiously contagious in our practice. 

The New Norm

Extraordinary Prayer is one of the key elements in helping to see the launch of a CPM/DMM.

How does one unpack this phrase, extraordinary prayer, along with practical implementations thereof?

First of all, an attempt at a definition, would be helpful.

Extraordinary prayer-a simple way to define it is extra-ordinary. Or, in other words, 

extra beyond your ordinary in the area of prayer, increase. But what if one does more extra than the ordinary intercession as their ordinary is more anemic prayers as the norm? In this case, more anemic prayers are just that ....lame and not effective. What I am addressing is our need, in the Bride of Christ, to embrace the growth in the areas of intercession which touch on the following:

• Worship threaded with intercession
• Praise, Thanksgiving, Adoration of God's character
• Position in Christ led intercession
• Cultivate a listening heart in intercession
• Dialoguing with God and His Word as the norm
• Intercession as Daily lifestyle, Practice of the Presence of God
• Scriptures prayed back to God
• Strategic Intercession for God's Word, His promises, His plans to be brought to fruition in a called-forth way
• Spiritual Warfare Intercession: Truth encounters
• Counterpunch Prayers: Intercession which takes the known bondage areas of the UPG and speaks God's Word over those areas
• Prayers of Repentance on behalf of, standing in the gap for UPG people to be able to hear and respond to God's truth, His Word, His ways
• Intercession of Redemption/Transformation/Restoration of whole UPGs
• Intercession of travailing in prayer 

(The above list is not meant to be exhaustive but simply descriptive of ideas to grow in)

One needs to grapple with practical ideas of how to walk this out in the various spheres of influence among the UPGs,  for God's glory. 

Ideas for Extraordinary Prayer for the launch of DMM among UPGs:

Vision Casting for Extraordinary Prayer ideas-

•    Create tools: monthly, weekly, broad based GPD (Global Pr*y*er Digest), month long focus,

•    Recruit key intercessors for period of breakthrough prayer

•    Pray sections of breakthrough prayer from themes of Nehemiah, book of Acts, certain spot in town whereby when you pass you pray for the emphasis on the UPG which the Lord gives,

•    Prophetic intercession,

•    Strategic intercession

•    Lifestyle intercession, use themes

•    Prayer walk 2-3 mornings with kids (for those with kids at home), take notes, draw diagram, use with kids for daily prayer time

•    Prayer walk with skilled intercessors (ask the Lord where the “strongman” type places are for your UPG), prayer thrust

•    Open Pathways for the gospel: open hearts, minds, communities, households, businesses, education, influential ones in society, cousin leaders

•    Pray for dreams, visions, supernatural intervention only attributed to Isa

•    Character areas of local partners and self

DMM: Word of God Foundation, Holy Spirit Dependence

 

God our Source: 

His Word, our Foundation, His Spirit, our Fountain 

A given…God wants us to discover truth through His Word.  He gives us all the directions we need in order to do His work.  By following the Holy Spirit’s nudges and leading, we are invited to partner with Him in the extraordinary task of making disciples who make disciples in this world. The launch of cascading movements to Christ is predicated upon the efficacy, authority, inerrancy, and supremacy of God’s Word in partnership with deep reliance upon the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

God wants us to discover His truth from the Foundation found in the Word. (both seekers and new believers).

 

Rather than being told what the passage says, in the process of Discovery Bible Study, the group/household learns to dig deep and to discover the richness in the Word of God.

 

Even pre-believers can discover truth from the Word.                       

 

Landscaped with the Word, Transformed by the Spirit 

 

Fatima, Muliati, and Amina squirmed excitedly, as they eagerly awaited the arrival of our local partner, Anna. They had compared their stories of obedience with one another while they awaited her arrival for their next Prophet Story from the Old Testament. 

Each of these Muslim women had come into contact with Anna, as Anna was facilitating a literacy program. 

 

I had been training Anna in looking for Women of Peace, as laid out in Matthew 10, Luke 10. She and I had gone out together looking for those whom God was preparing to open their respective households/and/or affinity groups in order to discuss the Straight and True Way of Allah.  

 

To model, assist, watch, and continue to coach Anna is a sheer joy. God provided five Women of Peace for Anna. She began to model, to assist, and to coach/watch for these women to take the Prophet Stories, one by one, back to their households and do likewise.

 

Sample List of DBS stories from Old Testament/New Testament

Creation to Christ STORY LIST

 

Story	Topic	Verses
#1	Rebellion in God’s creation	Gn 2:4–5,7–8,15–18,21–22,25; 3:1–21
#2	Noah and his family saved	Gn 6:5–8,13–14; 7:1–5,17,19,23; 8:1–3,15–21
#3	God calls Abraham and delivers Lot	Gn 12:1–5; 17:9–11; 18:1,17–20; 19:1–17,24–26,29
#4	Ishmael and Isaac born, and promise to Ishmael	Gn 16:1–11,13,15; 21:1–4,8–21
#5	Burnt offerings: Abraham and Job	Jb 1:1–5; Gn 22:1–18
#6	Moses’ commissioning, Passover, and Bronze Serpent	Ex 3:1–8,10; 11:1,4–6; 12:21–23,28–33; Nm 21:4–9; Dt 6:1,4–5,13–15
#7	David: King, warrior, and author of Psalms	1 Chr 21:1–2,5,7–19,21–27; Ps 51:3–17
#8	Jonah: Prophet who fled from God	Jon 1:1–3:3
#9	Cleansing through the shedding of blood	Jb 25:2–6; Heb 9:22; Lv 17:11; 4:29–31; Gn 3:21; 8:18–20; 22:10–14; Jb 1:4–5; Ex 12:21–23,28–30; 1 Chr 21:26; 2 Chr 7:4–5
#10	The Prophet born of a virgin	Is 7:14; 49:6; 52:13–53:12; 61:1–2; Dt 18:17–19
#11(Optional)	Hannah	1 Sm 1:1–2:11

 

 

 

 

JESUS STORY LIST

 

Story	Topic	Verses
1	Birth of Jesus Christ	Lk 1:26–31,38; Mt 1:18–25; Lk 2:1–22
2	Power of Jesus over nature	Mk 4:35–41; 6:30–52
3	Power of Jesus over evil spirits	Mk 9:17–29; Lk 4:31–37
4	Power of Jesus over illness	Mk 5:21–42; Jn 4:46–53; Mt 15:29–31
5	Power of Jesus to forgive sins	Lk 5:18–26; Jn 8:2–12
6	Power of Jesus to help the poor and defend the weak	Mk 12:41–44; Mt 8:20; 23:23–28; Mk 11:15–18; 12:28–34; Mt 9:36; 14:14; 20:34; Mk 1:40–42
7	Ministry of Jesus Christ: give life	Jn 11:11–15,17,20–26,38–44
8	Ministry of Jesus Christ: teach truth	Mk 7:14–23; Lk 15:11–24; Mt 5:43–46; 6:5–7; 7:24–29
9	Ministry of Jesus Christ: illustrated through His names	Mt 11:28–30; Lk 2:10–14; 7:11–16; Jn 1:29; 3:2; 6:35; 10:9–11; 12:46–48; 15:14; 16:33; Acts 4:12; Jn 18:36–37; 2 Thes 1:6–10
10	Death of Jesus Christ	Lk 22:47–54,63–65; Mt 27:1–2,11–14,22–25,27–31; Lk 23:32–34,39–47; Mt 27:57–66
11	Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ	Mt 28:1–8; Lk 24:13–35; Jn 20:24–31; Acts 1:3,8–11
12	Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses man from sin	Heb 9:22; Lv 17:11; Heb 5:1–3; 2:17; 4:15; 7:26–27; Mt 26:28; Heb 9:26; 10:10; 1 Peter 3:18; Heb 13:12; 2:9; Rom 6:23; Heb 2:14; 5:9; 7:25; 10:29–31
13	Jesus Christ as the mediator	1 Tm 2:4–6; Eph 1:7; Rom 3:23–26; 5:1,6,8–11; 2 Cor 5:18–21; 1 Jn 2:2; Col 1:20; Rv 1:5; Acts 17:30–31; Heb 9:27–28; Jn 14:3–6
14	Three responses to Jesus Christ	Jn 9:1–7,17–34; Heb 9:22; Lv 17:11; Jn 1:29; Heb 7:26; 10:10; Acts 17:30–31; Heb 9:28; Rom 5:8–9; Acts 4:12; Rom 10:9–10

 

 

Fatima, Muliati, and Amina had all shared of their recent dreams and visions, which they knew were from Allah. 

 

“Forgive your husband,” Fatima recalled the Prophet Isa Al Masih telling her in her dream.

 

“What you are studying with Anna is My Truth,” Muliati relayed as she ascribed Isa Al Masih instructing her in her dream.

 

“Isa pulled me to Himself and hugged me!,” exclaimed Amina. 

 

All eyes were riveted upon the Word of God, for their next instructions in how to live. The next Prophet Story which Anna had them practice facilitating in this coaching group…the Prophet Jonah. 

 

A few weeks later, after finishing the last story in the Isa Al Masih set, all five of the women were asked which of the people in the story best represented their hearts before Allah.

 

They each made a clear profession of followership to Christ. 

 

After cross-checking with another laborer, their salvation stories rang clear, of their choice to follow the way of Isa Al Masih (Jesus). 

 

Soon thereafter, Anna helped them to discover in Scripture the role of outward obedience in baptism as a demonstration of inward followership of Jesus. Anna baptized them in an irrigation canal at a nearby rice field.

 

Each of their households were using the same pattern of 8 simple Discovery questions, and engaging in the same group discovery process. At that time, they ran through to the beginnings of a 3^rd generation of Discovery Groups being transformed into house fellowships. 

 

One strategic piece for coaching these forming house fellowships is to equip the women facilitators to engage their men in the process. 

  

In the cases where we have Women of Peace as the starting point contact for the households/affinity groups in a DBS, we are highly intentional. In the desire to see their men become the leaders of these households we simply train the women to ask help in a natural, yet honoring way from their men. “Oh husband, thank you for your desire to lead us spiritually as a household. Would you be able to ask us what we are all thankful for?” Then, the women are trained to affirm the men all the way through the DBS 8 questions. When there are Women of Peace as the starting point for gathering the household, it is a very simple, and at times, messy process to see men move into a facilitator role for their households. As they engage in the Word and are transformed into followers of Christ by the Holy Spirit’s work, the potential to see the launch of a movement can be a more balanced effort. 

 

The given? God’s Spirit moves, the Word of God speaks, man is compelled to discern which way to follow. We, as laborers, simply partner with God’s Spirit to call others forth into Jesus as the only straight and true way. The fruit which reproduces? God is the one who brings the cascading movements to Christ of those households whom He draws in a hear and obey Jesus way. Eternal destiny game changers? In the hands of an awesome God.