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- Herausgeber: Unipro
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Serie: Profile Series
- Sprache: Englisch
God needs people who are filled with the Holy Spirit, who are worried about their own will or future, and who have adopted the character of the Lord Jesus. These people need to think like He thinks, speak like He speaks, behave like He behaves, and feel like He feels. These people must embrace their faith in the Lord Jesus in order to be tools in God's hands and reveal His character to the world. The Lord Jesus said that many are called but few are chosen. But who is chosen. But who is chosen? How are they identified? Why were anointed men of the past different from men today? In The Profile of a Man of God, Bishop Macedo tries to answer these and many other questions based on what he has seen in the Work of God and, above all, in His Word.
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M141p
Macedo, Edir, 1945 -
The Profile of a Man of God / Edir Macedo.
Rio de Janeiro : Unipro Editora, 2018.
ISBN 978-85-7140-864-7 (e-pub)
1. Christian Life -
Writers of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God
I . Title
CDD 248.842
COPYRIGHT © 2011
GENERAL COORDINATION: Renato Cardoso
GENERAL DIRECTION: A. Lobato
EDITOR: Mauro Rocha
LAYOUT: Luis Bernardino and Sandra Gouvêa
COVER: Maurinei Carvalho
ENGLISH VERSION: Sandra Gouvêa
EDITING: David Higginbotham
COVER ART: Patricia Macedo
CONVERSION TO EPUB: Cumbuca Studio
_____________________________
2nd edition
2018
No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means.
Transgressors will be prosecuted according to the law.
Scripture quotations in this publication are from
The New King James Version, property of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
Deuteronomy 6:1,2
Contents
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1• His family
CHAPTER 2• Characteristics of a man of God
CHAPTER 3• Authority of a man of God
CHAPTER 4• Limitations of God’s anointing
CHAPTER 5• Limits of a man of God
Preface
Few people are better qualified to teach on the character of a man of God than Bishop Edir Macedo. I have had the privilege of witnessing his character firsthand for over 20 years. And I don’t mean just his work, I mean his character. No, he’s not a perfect man. No man of God is. After all, the man of God is a man before being of God. The man of God has flaws too. But his virtues far outweigh them.
I could write about many different ways I’ve seen the author show God’s character in his own life. But here, I’ll mention only one, which I think is one of the most striking characteristics of a real man of God.
Bishop Macedo is selfless.
Let me explain. We are talking about an evangelical leader of a 15-million strong church that spans over 150 countries. He has authored more than 40 books. His daily radio show is broadcast to millions worldwide. The phenomenal growth of his church (which he’ll be quick to correct, is not “his”) has been the focus of research and studies in universities around the world.
Many a Christian leader, with much less to his name, has become a victim of his ego. His rise and fall can often be traced back to his excessive sense of self-importance. It’s an easy trap to fall into. When the crowds revere you, and money starts flowing in, it’s easy to forget John the Baptist’s reasoning: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
To this day, Bishop Macedo insists that a sign reading “Jesus Christ is the Lord” be put on all church buildings, while not a mention of his own name can be found. Rather than hoarding power and making the church a family business, he has personally trained and empowered thousands of leaders—pastors and lay-workers—whom he insists can and must do more than him.
And as an extra proof that it’s not about him, he has donated all his personal property to the church. He has made it clear to his three children (one of whom I’m married to) that they can expect no inheritance from him except for his faith. He has also taught them to want nothing more, and to know that faith will always be their most valuable asset.
This book is another one of his gifts. By grasping these teachings, you too can share in that inheritance and be a man of God yourself.
You’re about to get rich.
Bishop Renato Cardosorenatocardoso.com
Introduction
The Lord Jesus wants to free people who are bound by Satan and bring them into the Kingdom of God, but what are the character qualities of those He can count on to do this difficult work?
God needs people who are filled with the Holy Spirit, who are not worried about their own will or future, and who have adopted the character of the Lord Jesus. These people need to think like He thinks, speak like He speaks, behave like He behaves, and feel like He feels. These people must embrace their faith in the Lord Jesus in order to be tools in God’s hands and reveal His character to the world.
The Lord Jesus said that many are called but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16; 22:14). But who is chosen? How are they identified? Why were anointed men of the past different from men today?
This book will try to answer these and many other questions based on what we have seen in the Work of God and, above all, in His Word.
Our goal is not to create a list of rules or to force people to behave in one particular way. Our aim is to reveal the profile of those that are called and chosen by God to do His great Work, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against evil spirits that are invisible to our physical eyes (Ephesians 6:12).
Our battle is a fierce one because our enemy does not play fair—he is a dishonest liar. And yet, we thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ who grants us daily victory!
This is our faith. Although the battle is fierce, we know our victory is guaranteed! The size of the difficulties we will face does not matter; what matters is staying focused on the end result, when we will enjoy the sweet taste of victory, because the truth is, the bigger the fight the greater the victory!
His family
Chapter 1
Every man called to perform a great task for God had a family that served as a foundation for that work. Abraham is not only an example of faith; he’s an example of love to his wife Sarah, till the end of her life.
When the family of a servant does not fit into the Lord’s plan for him, he will not be able to fulfil that plan.
We cannot do the Work of God when our family is divided—it cannot be detached from the Work of God because it is its foundation.
After conversion and baptism with the Holy Spirit, our family comes next in terms of importance. And if family is so important to a simple Christian, imagine its importance to a man of God!
Many sincere Christians make the terrible mistake of adopting the following pattern: God, first—the Work of God, second—family, third.
As a matter of fact, not only does this pattern contradict God’s will, it places the entire work they intend to do for Him at risk, and that’s exactly why the devil has spread this idea among sincere Christians that are eager to do the Work of God.
Moved by an intense desire to save many souls, they forget their own families, focusing all their attention—body, soul and spirit—on obeying the Lord Jesus’ command to evangelise.
Obviously, the devil knows that these servants desire destruction for his kingdom, but he cannot touch them. So he takes advantage of their sincerity and plants an idea that sounds absolutely right, but is in fact a trap.
The devil knows only too well that, when a Christian family is not doing well, the potential exists for everything to fall apart. If an assistant puts the Work of God above his family, his attitude is that his family is a separate entity, completely unrelated to the work he does for God.
If I consider my job to be more important than my family, I will consider them less important than my job, and that is exactly what the devil wants! He wants my family to be excluded from the work I do.
If I’m doing the Work of God and my family is excluded from that work, or considered inferior to it, the devil will try to cause problems in that area in order to knock me off balance, steal my peace, and even tempt me to be attracted to someone at my place of work.
His aim is to cause confusion and disappointment in the Church, to scatter those in the process of developing faith, and to make them suspicious of the Work of God.
This is why many churches are weak and have drifted from the sound doctrine of the Word of God. Their leaders are too involved in the work they do and fail to pay attention to their families, especially their marriages, and therefore end up committing adultery. Their families then break up, they lose the vision of God’s will, and worst of all, they start sowing bad seeds wherever they go.
A man of God must view his family as the bedrock of the work he does for God. Therefore, the correct order of importance is: God, first— family, second—the Work of God, third. If this order is not followed, sooner or later that assistant will fall in the devil’s trap and will never become the tool God wants him to be.
MARRIAGE
The most important thing after conversion and baptism in the Holy Spirit is family. If the family of a man of God is the bedrock of the Work of God, his marriage is the bedrock of his family. Scripture says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22).
Nothing is more important to a man of God than the choice of his future wife and mother of his children—she must be as godly as he is. And so, he must first look for a young woman whose beauty is primarily of the heart.
Because he is a man of God, he has to think and act like God does. When making choices, the Lord wants us to use the same criteria that He used when instructing Samuel to choose David as king.
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7
It’s not enough for his future wife to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. Although this is one of the most important requirements, it is simply not enough.
Many couples satisfy this requirement and still fail. They assume that, because they are both baptised in the Holy Spirit, their marriage is guaranteed to succeed. In theory, this should work, but not in practice.
The truth is, a man of God needs a woman who not only is baptised in the Holy Spirit but also has the same objectives in life; she must be eager to sacrifice and to help her husband to do the Work of God and God’s will.
