GOD’S POWER IN THE CELL CHURCH

          In 1996 I visited the International Charismatic Mission in Bogota Colombia for 10 days. The church allowed me to stay in a converted sound room in the main sanctuary. This sound room was rather larger, so the church converted it into an apartment. So my apartment was overlooked the sanctuary. I could see everything and everyone in the church.

          During those ten days, I didn’t need to use an alarm clock to wake-up in the morning. Every morning at 5 a.m.—exactly—I was sharply awakened by worship choruses: “Jesus, I love you, I praise You I adore You.” In Spanish, of course. It didn’t matter when I went to bed at night. I was awakened at 5 a.m.

           Because you see, at ICM prayer meeting starts at 5 a.m. every morning. Then another group of prayer warriors enter the church at 6 a.m.; then another at 7 a.m.. At 10 a.m. the last group finally leaves. Back in 1996, there were probably 500 people who prayed every morning, although I’m sure that number has grown today. Every Friday night, the church hosts an all-night prayer meeting.

You see the secret to the success of ICM is dependence on God through prayer.

The International Charismatic Mission is the new mecca of the cell church. Because the church has grown from 70 cell groups in 1991 to 18,000 cell groups today, pastors flock to that church, hoping to capture something that will make their churches grow. Pastor Castellanos says that some pastors change their name to Charismatic, hoping that the anointing of God will fall from heaven because of the name change. Some copy the furniture or the precise administrative structure of the church. Last year when I visited the church, I met a Mexican pastor who literally told me that he planned on copying everything in the church, so that he could be the next International Charismatic Mission of Mexico.

     Yet, so many who try to copy the method miss the main point. The secret behind the amazing success of the International Charismatic Mission is their commitment to prayer. God is in the midst of their amazing success.

     Friends, only God can grant success in the cell church. Cells are simply the instruments of God’s mighty power. We must not trust our methodology. Rather, we must trust the living God. Only God can grant success. God uses the cell churches, but he refuses to be used by it.

     As we start this great conference this evening, let us remember that God is the God of the cell church. We must humbly come to Him, asking Him to use us.

 

Paul’s Exhortation to Attend Constantly to Prayer

             Please turn with me in your Bible to Colossians 4:2-4. Paul says: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.  ³ And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.”

    Paul wrote this epistle at the end of his life. He was in a prison in Rome and it was his last exhortation to the Colossian church. He tells them to dedicate themselves to prayer. The word “dedicate” in the Greek means to attend constantly.

          In verse 12, Paul gives an example of his fellow worker Epaphras, who was an example of this type of dedication. We read in verse 12:  “Epahras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.”

    Paul uses the Greek word  to agonize (agoµnizomai)  here, which means to agonize,   strive,  or to wrestle. is translated “labouring fervently. Great cell churches around the world understand the importance of agonizing in prayer.

 

The Priority of Prayer in the Cell Church

    Growing cell churches know how to pray. They’ve first won the battle in prayer. They realize that prayer moves God’s hand and unleashes His power to work. They realize that nothing will happen apart from His work.

Yoido Full Gospel Church

              When I first heard Dr. David Cho speak in 1984 at Fuller Theological seminary, God transformed my life. I sat in awe as the senior pastor of the largest church in the history of Christianity, spoke about how a cell church system can  transform any church. I understood for the first time what God could do through the cell church model.

              Since that time, I’ve had a dream to one day visit the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea. In 1997, my dream came true. I wanted to visit every service and open every door in that church.

              At 6 a.m. on Sunday morning, I attended the first service. I couldn’t believe it. The service was packed full of people—at 6 a.m. in the morning! I went down to the six lower basement chapels, some of which can hold more than 1000 people.

              As I attended every one of the eight services throughout the day, I was amazed that just about everyone of them was packed. One of there services starts right after lunch. I thought to myself, “Surely this service won’t have many people.” I was wrong. It was jammed packed.

              At the end of the day, I estimated (it’s hard to count every person in that church), but I estimated that there were 153,000 people attending the mother church that day and some 100,000 people attending the ten satellite churches that meeting through Seoul, Korea and watch the worship service via close circuit television.

              Someone had told me before going to Korea that the Yoido Full Gospel Church was in decline. I thought to myself, if this is decline, what does growth look like! It was jammed packed.

              Yet, it wasn’t until the Monday morning that I understood the secret of the success of that great church. That Monday morning in April of 1997 was freezing. I mean it was 0 degrees, ready to snow. I bundled up and went down to the main sanctuary at 5:30 a.m. in the morning. There I saw 3000 Korean saints crying out to God. “Give us Korea for Your Son Jesus, dear Lord.” I was amazed. I realized the largest church in the history of Christianity was a praying church. This church was willing to pay the price in prayer, and God was mightily blessing them as a result.

              That Monday morning, I took a bus to Prayer Mountain. A bus leaves every half hour from the mother church and transports prayer warriors (many who are fasting) to prayer mountain.  I want you to know that it was exciting to walk by those prayer caves at prayer mountain and hear the cries of God’s people seeking the living God throughout that mountain. I heard that 10,000 people pass through Prayer Mountain every week.

             Friends, do you understand why the Yoido Full Gospel Church is the largest church in the history of Christianity? Do you understand why God uses David Cho so greatly?  God refuses to be bound my our methodology. The cell church structure can not give the growth. Only God can grant church growth. Our responsibility is to seek His face and cry out to Him, so that He accomplishes the work.   

 

Bethany World Prayer Center

            I think of Bethany World Prayer Center in Baker Louisiana as another example of fervent prayer in the cell church today. The church is called Bethany World Prayer Center. Like its name implies, Bethany World Prayer Center is a praying church.

            You’ll remember that the cell ministry started at Bethany when Pastor Larry began training his prayer warriors to lead cells. The first 50 cells were led by prayer warriors. The prayer warriors led the troops into battle. Within six months, those 50 prayer warriors multiplied their cell groups to 108. Gideon’s Army still meets every Saturday morning. Bethany asks all their cells to pray for unreached people groups during the cell ministry. God is blessing Bethany World Prayer Center today because of their fervency in prayer.

            All the most prominent cell churches in the world today are 100% dedicated to fervent prayer. Prayer and dependence on God guides everything they do. They don’t depend on the method; they depend on the God of the method.

 

Living Water Church in Lima Perú

           I think of the Living Water Church in Lima, Perú. When I visited that church, I was amazed to hear that that church dedicates national holidays to pray and fast. And the amazing thing is that 100s and even 1000s attend. The saints of that cell church are paying the price in prayer and God is blessing that church.

 

Evangelism through Prayer

           The Scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

          Satan and his demons have blinded people’s minds, and they are not able to see the glorious gospel of Christ.    Paul also says in Ephesians 6:12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

         Do we really believe that only God can save a soul? Do we really believe that our evangelistic methods can’t save anyone. Only Jesus Christ can give a blind man his sight. Only Jesus Christ can open the minds of those who don’t know Jesus Christ.

        As we start this great conference, we must realize that Jesus Christ is all-powerful and He desires to work in our midst. But He desires that His church pays the price in prayer.

   

Prayer: an Essential Feature of the Cell

        We must remember that effective cells are praying cells. Cells begin in prayer. Then during the worship time, the entire cell seeks the living God. Then during the lesson, God Himself speaks to the members. Then individuals express their needs and prayer is offered for each individual need. Finally the cells prays for unsaved loves ones to know Jesus Christ.

        I remember one cell that I visited. This particular leader asked each member to pick their favorite worship song. This particular member named Theresa picked a song about renewal. After singing the song, Theresa began sob saying, “I picked that song because I desperately need renewal in my life.” My non-Christian husband is talking about leaving me and he’s treating me like dirt.” I really all of you tonight. Please pray for me. Immediately, the cell surrounded her and began lifting her up before the throne of God. Theresa left the cell group that evening completely and totally renewed.

 

Senior Pastor: The Example of Powerful Prayer

            The senior pastors in the most prominent cell churches around the world are men of prayer. They exemplify prayer to the rest of the congregation.

            You see a church will never go beyond the prayer life of the senior pastor. In 1998 a team from our church in Quito, Ecuador, visited the International Charismatic in Bogota, Colombia. My senior pastor, Porfirio Ludeña, was with us. We had the privilege of eating lunch with César Fajardo and his wife Claudia. Pastor Fajardo is the head pastor of the youth in Bogota. Approximately 18,000 youth gather every Saturday night in the local coliseum in Bogota. When César Fajardo started the youth ministry there was only a handful.

    As we ate lunch with them that day, César Fajardo looked right at my senior pastor and said, “A church will never be more committed to prayer than the senior pastor.” If the senior pastor is a man of prayer, the church will also pray. The church will never go beyond the level of commitment  of the senior pastor. My pastor took those words to heart.Senior Pastor, you must lead the charge.

    Just last month, our church in Quito, Ecuador had the privilege of hosting a cell church conference led by Mario Vega. Mario Vega is the senior pastor of the Elim Church in San Salvador, El Salvador. Over 100,000 people attend the 5,000 cell groups each week at that church.

    One evening Mario Vega showed us a video of the November 1998 annual united celebration gathering that Elim just recently experienced. They rented two largest stadiums in El Salvador and filled both of those stadiums simultaneously. Mario Vega was transported by helicopter to each of the stadiums to preach the sermons. One stadium held 50,000 people and the other held 40,000 people and both stadium were packed. Wouldn’t you love to experience that type of growth!

    One night while in our church Pastor Mario spoke from Joshua 10. Please turn with me to Joshua 10: 7-15. We read:

 ⁷ So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men.  ⁸ The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”  ⁹ After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise.  ¹⁰ The LORD threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.  ¹¹ As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the LORD hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. ¹² On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:

“O sun, stand still over Gibeon,

O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”

¹³ So the sun stood still,

and the moon stopped,

till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.  ¹⁴ There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!

 

            The verse that I want to highlight here is verse 14. It says that “There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man.” God listened to the voice of His servant Joshua and actually stopped the earth on its axis, on its rotation around the sun. You see Joshua was involved in the battle. He was fighting the Lord’s battle, and God heard him and answered.

          And Jesus wants to hear us today. God is delighted when His servants pray big prayers. God is all powerful. Nothing is impossible with him. He wants to answer big prayers.

           We are coming to a king, great petitions we must bring. His power and might are such that we can never ask too much.

          God is ready to stop the earth on its axis for you today. He wants to do incredible things in your ministry as you seek Him for your city. As you say, “God I want to reach this entire city for your glory.” “God, I’m not content with just a trickle of your living water. I want torrents.” “Give me this city for Your glory.”  You see, Dion Robert, David Cho, César Castellanos are all ordinary pastors. Yet, they serve an extraordinary God. They serve a God that has said, “Come to me and ask of me and I will show you might things that your not aware of.” The Scripture tells us that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think.

         God was pleased to hear and answer the prayers of David Cho when he asked for the largest church in the history of Christianity. God loves big prayers like that. As you established a cell church in your city, can you believe that God is willing to hear and do great things in your midst?!

 

Effective Cell Leaders Prioritize Prayer

           Not only must senior pastors prioritize prayer, but effective cell leaders also prioritize prayers. Many of you have read Home Cell Group Explosion. That book is the result of my 29-question survey that I administered to some 700 cell leaders in the most prominent cell churches around the world. I wanted to determine why some small group leaders were so effective in multiplying their cell groups.

            Now I figured that I’d discovered that effective cell leaders possessed special talent, extraordinary personalities, and specific types of gifts. Yet, what I discovered was that successful cell leaders prioritized prayer and were totally dependent on Jesus Christ. Now, I should have predicated such findings. Doesn’t the Bible tell us that God will bless us when we seek His face.

 

The Devotional Time

            Please turn with me to Matthew 6:5-6. Jesus says:

⁵ “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

                Jesus tells that we need to seek Him at a specific place at a specific time. Jesus tells us that we need to shut the door to the noise and busyness of the world around us. You’ll also notice what Jesus says at the end of verse six: Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

            God rewards those who diligently seek Him. He blesses publicly those who seek Him privately. Do you want God’s reward? You must pay the price of private prayer. When a cell leader seeks the Father in private, the heavenly Father tells that cell leader how to deal with the constant talker, how to minister to the person in need, how to lead the lesson in such a way that it draws out participation.

            I believe with all my heart that spending time daily with Jesus Christ in order to develop intimacy with Him is the most important discipline in the Christian life. Sometimes I’ve had to learn this truth the hard way. I’ve raced out of the house, trying to accomplish just a little more saying to God, “I just don’t have time for devotions today. I just have so much to do.” Those days ended in disaster. I came back to the house bruised, battered, and wiped out. Slowly God’s been showing me that I’m nothing without Him and that only He can grant success. 

Individual Prayer before the Cell

            I tell my leaders to stop preparing the lesson one-hour before the cell group and just seek Jesus. The lesson is important, but it’s not as important as the spiritual condition of the cell leader. Effective cell leaders are filled with the Spirit and thus are able to deal with whatever need arises in the cell group.

 

Prayer for the Members

             I also discovered that praying daily for cell members was an essential characteristic of successful cell leaders. Those cell leaders who prayed daily for the members of their cell group were able to multiply their cell groups twice as much as those who prayed little or only once in a while.

             When a cell leader prays daily for his members, God Himself begins to work on behalf of that cell member, even though the leader is not physically present. God begins to transform the life of the member, even though the cell leader is not present.  

Example of Carl Everett

             Carl Everett, is known as Mr. Multiplication at Bethany Word Prayer Center. He was so successful in multiplying his cell group that he’s now assistant director of cell ministry.

             Carl is a shy person and doesn’t offer a lot of information. When I first talked to Carl about the secret of his success in cell multiplication, he simply replied, “prayer.” So I said, “Carl, could you give me some other hints?” And he retorted, “Prayer.” “Well, is there anything else, Carl, I asked, “Prayer,” he said.

              You see Carl credits his success in cell multiplication to fervent prayer. Carl believes that God himself is the reason for his cell multiplication. Carl and his wife Gaynel fast every Friday before the cell begins and they don’t eat until the refreshment time. God is at work in Carl’s ministry and God is mightily blessing.

 

Conclusion

             This evening we must humble ourselves before the living God and ask Him to anoint this conference. God is using the cell church strategy around the world and we’ll be looking at that strategy in detail during this conference. Yet, we must always remember that God is using the strategy. He’s the power behind the cell church. He refuses to be manipulated by a strategy or methodology. Unless you are a praying pastor; unless you are a praying church, very little will happen in your cell church. Let’s pray.