Redeemer’s Rest is a Christian community located in the southern part of Alamance County in central North Carolina. Our core values are Prayer, Relationship, Transformation, Equipping and Releasing.
Prayer
Everything begins with prayer. Prayer is more than presenting a list of wants and needs to God. It is a time of fellowship between man and God. The Billy Graham organization defines prayer as, “spiritual communication between man and God, a two-way relationship in which man should not only talk to God but also listen to Him.”.
During His ministry on earth, Jesus frequently withdrew for extended times of prayer, fellowshipping with our heavenly Father. In John 5:19, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same way.” Jesus based His earthly ministry not only on what His Father told Him to do, but how He saw His Father doing the ministry.
In John 15:5, Jesus uses the example of a vine and branches to describe our relationship with Him. “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Not only was He totally dependent on the Father for His ministry, He wants us to be totally dependent on Him for our ministry
Our goal is to submit every aspect of this ministry to His leadership and lordship. We believe that submission starts from a position of prayer and simply spending time with Him.
Relationship
One of the primary benefits of spending time in prayer, fellowshipping with God, is that it builds a strong, intimate relationship with Him. The sheer fact that Holy Spirit chooses to live within us is an amazing demonstration of how much He wants an intimate relationship with us.
In Mark 12:28-31, when Jesus was asked which commandment was most important, He expanded on this desire for intimacy with us when He replied, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, ISRAEL! THE LORD IS OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ “The second is this: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The Greek word agape is the basis for the word love in the above scripture. Agape has been described as perfect love or Godly love. It implies a level of love that is selfless, unconditional and unending. It is a love that is based in an intimate relationship and a desire to constantly grow in intimacy with the object of our love.
It is also a type of love that is beyond the capability of unregenerate mankind. In 1 John 4:19, agape is explained by, “We love, because He first loved us.” Our ability to give agape to God is based on our ability to receive agape from God! Our ability to receive love from Him is based on our relationship with Him.
We believe that there are three key areas in developing a deep, personal relationship with Him.
Experiencing Father’s LoveFather’s Love is an unconditional, unending love that we cannot earn, no matter how much we may try (Romans 5:8). His love was demonstrated by the forgiveness of our sins through His giving Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us (John 3:16). Nothing we can do will make our Heavenly Father love us one tiny bit more or one tiny bit less. Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:35-39).
Embracing Our True Identity - SonshipOur Father has given us the right to become His Sons (John 1:12-13). Not only did He give us the right to be sons, He also gave us the right to be His heirs (Galatians 4:7) and joint heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17).
Uncovering Our Purpose in God’s KingdomWe all have a purpose in God’s kingdom. Ephesians 2:10 puts it this way, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” In much of western culture, we get our identity from what we do. In God’s kingdom, what we do comes from our identity and our love for God. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)
In 1 John 4:20-21, the writer says, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.”. One of the key ways that we develop our relationship with God is by developing relationships with our brothers and sisters. Jesus went further by saying, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
One of the key characteristics of the church of the New Testament was their commitment to fellowship. The Greek word that is commonly translated as fellowship is Koinonia. Koinonia does mean fellowship, but in Greek culture, it meant more. It connotes a level of unity and intimacy that supersedes simple fellowship. It implies a willingness to be involved in the lives of others and sacrifice when they are in times of need. One of our primary goals is to facilitate an environment where true Koinonia can grow and flourish.
Although Koinonia implies unity, we also realize that God is a creator of diversity andthat each of His creations is unique. Each person is unique. We strive to make room for each individual’s unique gifts and callings. This can best be summed up by the Moravian Motto, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, freedom; in everything, love.”
Transformation
The prophet Isaiah describes the the coming Messiah’s ministry as operating in the following five areas (Isa 61:1-2; Isa 42:6-7):
To proclaim the Good News.
To bind up the broken hearted.
To set captives free.
To open prison doors.
To open blind eyes.From the moment we receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we begin a transition process where we are breaking free from the effects of sin in our lives and learning to walk in the wholeness and freedom that Jesus purchased for us with His sacrifice on the cross. Our sins are forgiven, but the residual effects of sin in our lives remain and must be removed. Broken hearts need to be healed, captives need to be set free, prison doors and blind eyes need to be opened.
We believe that there are five key strategies that the Lord uses to bring about His transformation in our lives.
ForgivenessOur walk with God starts with our receiving the forgiveness that Jesus purchased for us on the cross. God expects our response to be forgiveness towards others (Matt 18:21-35, Matt 6:14-15, Luke 6:37, Col 3:13). Forgiveness sets us free from the bondage of the pain and suffering inflicted on us by others. It is one of the greatest tools and most powerful weapons available in our transformation process.
HealingHealing comes from the Lord. It is a free gift. It is a finished work of the cross. But, it is also conditional. We must forgive those that hurt us and release the associated pain to receive our healing.
DeliveranceUnhealed wounds and sin (including unforgiveness) can become open doors for Satan’s demonic realm to torment and afflict us. A significant portion of Jesus’ documented ministry was involved with deliverance (dealing with demons in people’s lives). If we are to become true disciples of Jesus, we will do the things He did (John 14:12), including casting out demons!
Breaking CursesCurses can be the result of sin (Deut 28:15-68) in our lives. They can also be the result of words spoken by others over our lives (Num 22-24) or even the result of words we have spoken over our own lives. When Jesus hung on the cross, He not only paid the price for our sins, He also took our place in any curses that have been released over our lives (Deut 21:22).
Tearing Down Strongholds2 Corinthians 10:4 states, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Verse 5 goes on to define these strongholds as arguments and thoughts that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. Another way of defining strongholds is those parts of our belief system that are based on the lies and deceptions of Satan. These strongholds are destroyed by revealing the fallacies and replacing them with God’s truth as revealed in His word.
Equipping
Ephesians 4:11-14 states, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” One of the foundational roles of any Christian assembly is to equip the saints for the works of service, so that each person can fulfill their individual role within God’s kingdom.
The first step in equipping any disciple is helping them to learn to hear God’s voice for themselves. In John 10:27 Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” In the parable of the good shepherd, Jesus explained that 1) the sheep know and listen for the voice of the shepherd, 2) they will follow no other and 3) they will flee from the voice of a stranger.
The most effective equipping for ministry takes place when we are doing it. Using team ministry, less experienced members of the body are encouraged to participate with more experienced members in ministry situations. Just as a parent does not criticize an infant learning to walk when they fall down, grace is extended to all members of the ministry team to be able to make mistakes without condemnation.
Releasing
We want to foster people in stepping out into their ministry calling by providing a spiritual covering and support structure. Ultimately, we believe that the Lord is raising up a group of ministries that can function in specialized teams to minister God’s love and healing to others that He may bring in from time to time.
Future
As people are healed, equipped and released, we believe that the Lord will be using our property as a short term retreat/refreshing center where people can come for a few days or weeks to encounter God and receive healing and refreshing.
We believe that the Lord will be raising up a more long-term shelter where battered individuals can come to spend extended times experienceing God’s love, healing and refreshing.
We also believe that the Lord will be using this fellowship for outreach into our community to redeem it for His kingdom.