Flee To The father

March 8, 2019

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““The words flee, be silent, and pray summarize the spirituality of the desert. They indicate the three ways of preventing the world from shaping us in its image and are thus the three ways to life in the Spirit.””

— Henri Nouwen

What is it that you must flee from, and what does it look like to flee? In the years of the desert fathers and mothers, fleeing meant escaping from a decaying moral society and fleeing to the physical desert and into the spiritual arms of the Father in heaven. To these early monastics the goal was a life laid down and a full surrender of the love of self. For many men and women today, the call is much the same although the expression is different.

What we are called to flee from today is a corrupted society which exalts the love of self comfort and indulgence. True love is condemned as fanatical and false love is exalted as our own personal deity. In Western culture, we live in a society as wicked as the ancient Sodom and Gomorrah but on a much wider scale. The message of false love has even pervaded much of the Western Church. As true followers of Jesus we must flee all that hinders true love.

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““Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.””

— 2 Timothy 2:22

What does fleeing look like in our context today? For us as laborers in Restricted Islamic Nations, fleeing often looks like intentional withdrawal into the secret place where we go to meet with the Lord. We must withdraw from the work of ministry in order to meet with our Lord and be refreshed. We cannot pour out unless we are being filled up. At GCM we strive to make prayer the center of ministry and life in God. It is not enough to flee from the temptations of the world into seclusion and self indulgence, but we must flee into the very heart of the Father.

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“So He Himself (Jesus) often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.”

— Luke 5:16

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We believe the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are inspired by God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct. (2 Timothy 3:15-17, 1 Peter 1:21)

We believe that there is one God, eternally existent who has revealed Himself as embodying the principles of relationship and association as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Luke 3:22)

We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us, in His present rule as Head of the Church, and in His personal return in power and glory. (Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:31)

We believe in the creation of mankind in God’s image, and the fall of man, resulting in universal guilt and total depravity; and the necessity, therefore, of redemption and restoration; that all men and women are lost spiritually and face the judgment of God, that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and that repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for regeneration by the Holy Spirit. (Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:17)

We believe salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, being justified by grace through faith, man becomes an heir of God, according to the hope of eternal life. (Luke 24:47, John 3:3)

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; the saved unto the resurrection of eternal life in the presence of our Lord, and the lost unto the resurrection of damnation and eternal punishment. (Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43-48)

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ and that all true believers are members of His body, the Church, which has the duty to preach the Gospel to every person. (Ephesians 1:22-23, Ephesians 2:22)

We believe that we must dedicate ourselves to prayer, to the service of our Lord, to His authority over our lives, and to the ministry of teaching, preaching, the prophetic, the apostolic, and evangelism. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

We believe in upholding the ordinances of the church of water baptism and holy communion.

The ordinance of baptism by immersion is commanded by the Scriptures. All who repent and believe in Christ as Savior and Lord are to be baptized. Thus, they declare to the world that they have died with Christ and that they also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of life. (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:16, Acts 10:47,48, Romans 6:4)

The Lord’s Supper, consisting of the elements—bread and the fruit of the vine—, is the symbol expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:4), a memorial of His suffering and death (1 Corinthians 11:26), and a prophecy of His second coming (1 Corinthians 11:26), and is enjoined on all believers “till He comes!”