God Wants You!: Understanding Your Place in the Kingdom

By Gregory Wells

Passing the mantle of leadership in church is patterned after the relationship between Elijah and Elisha of the Old Testament in the book, God Wants You. Read the personal testimony of a man and his son, and the personal work needed to receive the mantle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lively Stone Press
• Release date: Mar 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9781958211557

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

THE SPIRIT OF ELIJAH

In January of 1987, Jesus spoke to my spirit about the church that we were to start in O’Fallon, Illinois. Having spent the previous five years pastoring a small church in Carbondale, Illinois, it was time for a new direction, in a different city, by the power of God.

The Lord began to share what this ministry’s focus would be. While the church would be called The O’Fallon Christian Church of the Apostolic Faith, the focus was better expressed through Spirit of Elijah Ministries. I immediately understood that the expression, Spirit of Elijah, was a call to become a ministry that would herald the return of the God called Jesus, just as John the Baptist, whose mission it was to make ready a people prepared for the coming of the Lord, came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). It is the fulfillment of all that is preached of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ culminated the work of preparing a people for His return. A people waiting expectantly for Christ’s return and doing as John the Baptist and Elijah in his day had done. A people who would unashamedly proclaim that there is but one God and to Him shall all people turn.

This truth provided the direction of ministry for these last days. To that end we unreservedly must prepare those tasked with carrying this message. The divine love for the human soul is our motivation. Every effort is to be made to reach the soul of every person for whom Christ died and rose again. This must be worked out in the urgency mandated by the imminent return of Jesus Christ in the Rapture of the church.

PREPARING FOR THE LORD’S RETURN

The return of Jesus Christ for His church is one of the bedrock principles of Scripture. Christ’s return is commonly called the Rapture or the more biblical expression, the Catching Away. Both terms are derived from the Greek word "harpadzo," which means to seize suddenly. The picture here is of Jesus coming without previous announcement to take believers in Christ back to heaven to live with Him. Admittedly, the Christian community is not unanimous in belief as it relates to timing; it is however unanimous in believing that Christ will return.

In the biblical study called Eschatology, the study of the Last Days, there are three principal views as to the timing of Jesus’ return. All three views revolve around the biblical event known as the Tribulation. The Tribulation is generally acknowledged to be a seven-year period of divine judgment on mankind in general and the nation of Israel in particular. One understanding, Post-Tribulationism, holds that the Rapture will occur after the Tribulation and at the beginning of the Millennium or the One Thousand Years of Peace. Another view, Mid-Tribulationism espouses that the Rapture will occur, as its name suggests, in the middle of the Tribulation. So then, in this analysis, after three and a half years of chaotic dilemma, but before the Great Tribulation, the worst of the Judgments, Christ will return for His church. The final view, the one to which I personally subscribe, is Pre-Tribulationism. As its name implies, Pre-Tribulationism posits that the Rapture will occur before the Tribulation. In my view this makes the most sense of the three scenarios, primarily because it best represents the view of a rescue of the church from the coming judgment. The church, according to Scripture, is appointed to obtain deliverance by Christ, not wrath. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. This will happen suddenly. 1 Corinthians 15:52 records, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and shall be changed. In 1 Thessalonians 4:15–18 Paul says,

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

As I agree and understand this teaching to be true, there is a sense of urgency to help prepare the souls in my sphere of influence for the coming of Jesus Christ. If we believe that He is soon to appear and further that what comes after is a time of such horrific calamity as has never been before nor shall ever be again, certainly we should act with all haste to win souls. It is as though the mantle of responsibility that was on Elijah of old and on John the Baptist, to help make ready a people prepared to meet the Lord, has now fallen to us. It is time to turn the hearts of children back to the ways of their spiritual fathers, to call men and women everywhere to repentance, just as the Baptizer did.

The charge or assignment is to make known the deeds of the Lord among the people, as we read in Psalm 105:1. We are to tell all our intimates and associates, our acquaintances as well as strangers, that Jesus Christ paid the price for all our sins. We have been empowered to be witnesses for Him. Repeatedly, the Scriptures warn the believer to be prepared for the coming of the Lord. The parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1–13 ends by saying, Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. The believer is called to attention, to do the necessary work because He is coming!

BACK TO THE FATHER

In Luke’s Gospel, we find these words: And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:16–17). This is a rendering of the words of Elijah as found in 1 Kings 18:37: "Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back