THE CELL IS THE LITERAL BODY OF CHRIST IN THE EARTH!
The Father sent the Son on mission to the world. His first assignments were to:
1. Declare the Kingdom of God has come to supercede the kingdoms of this world.
2. Atone for the sin of man.
This was all accomplished as the Son was incarnated in Jesus.
In John 17 as he completed these tasks, He cried out from the cross, "It is Finished!"
But the Son had an unfinished mission. He referred to it when He said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to Me." This additional task began as Christ occupied His new body.
The Resurrected Christ needed a new body to fulfill His next task! His next ministry was to reveal His Presence and Power through all centuries to all mankind, demonstrating the Kingdom by healing the sick, raising the dead, curing the leper, setting the prisoners free.
At Pentecost He inhabited his new body, composed first of the 120. When they were all in "one accord," the Holy Spirit delivered His Spirit to inhabit those human bodies as Shekina fire fell in the upper room.
The first thing they did under His empowerment was to declare in the streets of Jerusalem to the various visiting nations that Christ had returned. Each person was empowered with the supernatural ability for their spoken Jewish language to be changed into the various languages of the tourists. This was a sign of the Kingdom.
From the start, the purpose of Christ inhabiting His new body had a single purpose: to draw all men to Himself by revealing His Presence in the activity of the house groups who became His new body members. In 1 Corinthians 14:24-25, we see "body life evangelism" functioning.
Christ Himself was the evangelist who would draw all men by empowering body members with observable supernatural manifestations. Then the work of the body would continue as assigned in Matthew 28:18-20: those He drew were tobe baptized into the new body and "discipled." The pattern for body life was to so equip each new believer to grow from being "Little Children" to "Young Men" to "Fathers" (i John 2:12-14).
The calendar shown above is a schedule to lead cell groups through stages that develop new believers to become Fathers and then to penetrate households (oikoses) influenced by the new believer in their midst - cycling into a significant "Harvest Event" to draw family members and friends to follow Christ.
This intentional strategy has significantly increased the harvest where churches have applied it. If you are interested, please email me at ralph@touchusa.org and I will send you further aids to understand it and apply it to your congregation.
