God’s Agenda: Transforming the World Through You

From Life Springs Christian Church: our vision is simple but profound—restore human flourishing through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our mission expands that vision into a daily strategy: become a community that restores the world by reproducing the life of Christ—imperfect people growing in grace and serving through the gifts of the Spirit.

Introduction: A Kingdom That Leavens the World

What if the brokenness you see everywhere isn’t the final word? Romans tells us that creation eagerly awaits the revealing of the sons and daughters of God, and that creation itself will be delivered from bondage into the glorious liberty of those children. That’s the heart of God’s agenda for restoration: the gospel working through ordinary people to make earth reflect heaven.

Creation Awaits Restoration

Romans 8:19-21: “For the earnest expectation of creation eagerly awaits the revealing of the sons of God… the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

Everything—from interpersonal relationships to national systems—bears the marks of futility. The Fall affected not only people but the created order: even work became difficult. But work itself is a divine mandate: to imagine, arrange, and steward creation. Whether planting a garden, building a microphone, or designing air conditioning, we exercise God-given creativity. The redemption story includes this creative mandate—restoring right work, industry, and beauty to the world.

The Revealing of the Sons and Daughters of God

The key agent of global transformation is people—real, imperfect believers becoming like Jesus. As the Church matures Jesus’ image is made visible, and the cornerstones of flourishing—liberty, justice, and love—begin to spread. This is not a promise that we’ll watch things stay the same until a sudden cataclysm. The gospel works progressively, like leaven, changing systems and cultures as people living in Christ increase.

History shows what happens when the Church is empowered and contagious: movements like the Great Awakenings reshaped cultures, produced a passion for human liberty, and helped birth institutions that advanced flourishing. When people are convinced of both the problem and the solution, society changes.

Power From On High: The Necessity of the Holy Spirit

Luke 24:49: “Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Discipleship without the Spirit is ultimately motion without transformation. John Wesley’s story reminds us: you can do the right things outwardly—prayers, Scripture, works—and still lack the inward witness and power that make love natural. Receiving the Holy Spirit enables believers to love with Christlike power rather than performance-driven striving.

The Essence of the Holy Spirit: Love That Liberates

The Holy Spirit’s work is not primarily spiritual showmanship. The Spirit’s fruit is love. The prophets promised a law written on hearts—God’s ways internalized and lived out. Jesus summarized the law: love God and love neighbor. When the Spirit writes that law on our hearts, we begin to live in the liberty of the sons and daughters of God: servant leaders, builders, restorers.

True evidence of Spirit-empowerment is not an external sign alone; it is a transformed life that loves across divides and breaks down walls of prejudice and fear. Early Pentecostal revivals were striking for their racial and social unity—love was the mark. When churches surrendered to worldly pressures and segregated, focus shifted to external signs rather than the inward transformation the Spirit brings.

The Holy Spirit Convicts: Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment

John 16:7-11: “For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you… and when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”

• Convicting of Sin: The Spirit persuades people that the world is broken. When we honestly name that brokenness, we identify the root problem: separation from God and the patterns that dehumanize people.
• Convincing of Righteousness: The Spirit paints a picture of what life looks like when people live like Jesus—servant leadership, sacrificial love, justice, and flourishing. This gives a blueprint for rebuilding.
• Convincing of Judgment: Judgment in Scripture often functions as cleansing—removing what dehumanizes so righteousness can flourish. God’s patience gives time for repentance; His judgment purges systems that perpetuate inhumanity.

When the Spirit convicts in these ways, the Church gains the persuasive language and loving approach needed to speak into culture in a way that actually persuades rather than just condemns.

Light, Salvation, and the Nature of Condemnation

John 3:16-19: “For God so loved the world… For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.”

Condemnation here can be understood as the state of an inhabitable world—condemned like a building unfit for living. Christ did not come to leave the world condemned; He came to restore it. The Spirit’s work invites people out of darkness into the light, making salvation not only about individual afterlife but about renewing the world’s habitability.

Christ in Us: The Mystery and Mission

Colossians 1:27-29: “Christ in you, the hope of glory… that we may present every person mature in Christ.”

Paul’s aim was maturity—not merely professions of faith, but people who bear Christ’s character. Christ in the community—the Church—forms mature disciples who are capable of healing broken institutions and relationships. The mission is both individual and corporate: grow believers into mature members of Christ’s body so the world can be restored.

Power Working Toward Maturity

Ephesians 1:15-23: “…that you may know what is the hope of his calling… and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe.”

God’s mighty power—demonstrated in the resurrection and Christ’s exaltation—is not inert. It is poured into the Church to equip, to teach, and to present the saints mature. This power has a purpose: to bring healing, to restore nations, to make life on earth increasingly reflect heaven.

Every Believer Has a Necessary Gift

The Church is a family where each person matters. Every believer has a gift essential to the maturity of others. When gifts are withheld or ignored, the body remains incomplete. God designed the Church as an ecosystem of gifting, grace, and relational formation so that discipleship happens within community and people are brought to maturity.

The Importance of the Church in Public Life

There are three pillars that hold up flourishing societies: the family, the marketplace, and the government. Historically, the Church functioned as a crucial third pillar—teaching conscience, calling leaders to justice, and forming people morally and spiritually. When the Church recedes into purely private spirituality, other institutions are forced to take roles they were not designed to fill, often with coercive or totalitarian results.

Rebuilding the Church faithfully—centered on scripture and the Spirit, committed to liberty and servant leadership—reintroduces a transformative force into society. It is not about reestablishing worldly power, but about forming communities that reflect heaven: merciful, just, loving, and life-giving.

Conclusion: A Call to Participate

God’s agenda is restorative. Creation groans for the revealing of God’s children—ordinary people empowered by the Spirit to love, sacrifice, and rebuild. The power from on high is meant to fuel a mission: mature disciples, flourishing communities, and systems reshaped to reflect heaven.

Join the work. Invest in Christian community. Use your gifts. Be persuaded by what the Spirit convicts and show the world that liberty, life, and love are possible because Christ is working in and through His Church.

Questions for Reflection

1. How is God calling you to use your creativity and gifts to restore your corner of the world?
2. Where are you seeing signs of life and where do you see places that need cleansing and renewal?
3. What steps can our community take to build churches that form mature disciples and foster liberty for society?

If you want to explore these themes together, come join our gatherings as we continue to pursue the Ephesians 4 model of maturing the saints and restoring the world.