All Sin Originates in Our Heart
As authentic disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ we must understand all sin comes originates from the wickedness of our hearts. Jesus said in Matthew 15:18-20, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.”For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. “These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” We often forget about the motives of our hearts, our attitudes, and the words we speak reflect the attitude of our hearts.
The prophet Jeremiah said in the book of Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” We will never know what is in our hearts unless we spend time in prayer allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal what is in our hearts. Only as He shines His light on those hidden places in our hearts that we are able to see the true condition of our hearts. Many believers never realize the little sins that come from their hearts such as their sinful attitudes, gossip, filthy language, un-forgiveness, bitterness, resentment, idolatry, lust, covetousness, and pride. We must learn to crucify our flesh and die to our fleshly nature and maintain a right heart before the Lord resulting in an intimate relationship with the Lord.
All strife starts in our hearts so let’s look at an example of pride found in the book of James 4:1-4, and see the results of pride in the lives of believers. Their pride led to strife and resulted in battles, fights, and wars among the believers. It does not matter whether their pride led to fights and wars between married couples, families, church, or even the larger Body of Christ. Pride resulting in strife is sin and breaks the law of love for God and others. In James 4:3, we find the prayers of believers are not answered due to asking out of sinful or wrong motives desiring to please themselves according to their own desires and pleasures.
As believers we learn when we pray out of wrong motives the Lord will not answer our prayers because our hearts are not right with Him. David was a man after God’s own heart and he said in the book of Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” It is clear that if we regard, perceive, recognize, and identify something as sin in our hearts that is not being acknowledged and dealt with, we are told that the Lord will not our prayers.
In 1 Peter 3:7 it says, “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.” The word for hindered is the Greek word ekkopto and means to cut down or hew down. Our prayers are cut down or hew down like trees are cut down and removed. Our sinful pride causes our prayers to be cut down or hindered and prevents the Lord from hearing and answering them.
We learn that if we as husbands fail to treat our wives properly out of a motive of love our prayers will be hindered, cut down, and prevented from making progress and accomplish what our prayers are intended to do because God will not hear and answer them (1 Peter 3:7). I’m sure it works the other way around as well, notice the word “likewise” as James speaks to the husbands. We must treat the people in our lives according to God’s standard for our prayers to be heard on high.
Israel or the people of God went through the motions of religious rituals, yet they failed to maintain a right heart with God as a nation. In the book of Isaiah 58:2-4, “Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.” We see as a nation they sought God delighting in knowing the ways of God and delighting in approaching Him. They expected God to hear and answer their prayers and to bless them in their sin. They allowed sin to keep their voice from being heard on high. The nation of Israel fasted out of sinful motives for debate, arguing, quarrelling, and fighting mistreating one another without realizing their sinful and wicked behavior. They failed to realize the deceitfulness on sin and the wicked their hearts were before the Lord.
Today, many have followed the same path of going through the religious ritual of going through the motions. They go to church, reading their Bibles, memorizing Scripture, pray, and fast. However, they have done it out of sinful motives and have not maintained a right heart before the Lord. They have failed to serve the Lord out of a motive of love yielding and submitting in obedience to the Lord living a surrendered lifestyle to and for Him.
When we fail to submit to God and surrender our lives to Him and push Him away or allow things to crowd Him out of our lives due to our sin our spiritual needs often go unmet. Due to our lack of surrender and submission to His Lordship in our lives we fail to receive His grace or divine influence upon our hearts to enable us to obey Him. When we push God out of the picture we fail to receive forgiveness and cleansing from our sins and the grace to overcome. Our desires run wild and gain control over our lives and our desires begin to control us. However, if we submitted and surrendered ourselves to the Lord by drawing close to Him we would receive His grace and be empowered to control our fleshly desires. By pushing God out of our lives whether intentionally or unintentionally, His transforming grace is no longer available to us because we have removed God from having first place, being our main focus, and the center of our lives.
The Lord does not force people to serve Him if they do not want to serve Him, instead He will give them over to their passions, desires, and lusts of their hearts (Rom. 1: 24-30). However, if we learn to submit to God, we can trust Him to meet of our spiritual, emotional, physical, and material needs according to the riches of His grace (1 Cor.10:13; Heb.4:16; James 4:7-10). The more we feed our own fleshly desires the more we come under their control and power and we are unable to overcome them through our own efforts. We are powerless in and of ourselves to overcome and control our fleshly desires and refrain from sinning. The Lord is the one who gives us the grace, power, wisdom, and ability to overcome our sins and transform our hearts and our lives. Without His working in us giving us both the will and desire to obey and the empowering enabling ability to obey we can do nothing (Phil. 2: 12-13; John 15:5).
We must learn to life a surrendered life of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. The surrendered life is not one of works and religious efforts to make ourselves acceptable to the Lord. Rather, it is yielding to the prompting, urging, and nudging of the Holy Spirit or the indwelling Christ. It is God at work in you, it is Christ in you, it is the indwelling Holy Spirit in you who is at work to conform and transform you into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 6:19; Phil 2:13; Col.1:27). This is the key to the Spirit led life as we learn to live by and according to His working in us (Rom. 8:14; Phil. 2:13).
We must have ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us, so we must be listening in order to yield and obey Him. We must maintain a right heart before Him and keep the communication lines open to hear His small still voice speak to us in the midst of the raging storms we face and will face in our lives. We do this by dying to our fleshly desires, crucifying our flesh, denying ourselves our rights and choose to yield and surrender ourselves to Him in order maintain a right heart before Him. As we learn to yield, submit, and surrender to Him, we will experience the abundant life that Jesus Christ promised to those that love Him (John 10:10).
The Church Meeting in Homes of Believers
As we look into and study our early Church history we find believers meeting in houses for about the first 300 years of the existence of the Church. The Word of God reveals how believers were to meet together and function as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ revealed to His apostles and disciples how they were to go out by two’s and find a man of peace in whose house they could begin to meet (Matt. 10:5-15; Luke 10:1-12). Jesus set the supreme example as He sent His out disciples in two’s to start churches in houses with a third person and possibly their family. The church could have been as small as two or three believers meeting together or as large as could fit in a living room somewhere around twenty or so (Matt.18:20).
Jesus knew the importance of two disciples coming together in agreement in prayer and that their Father in heaven would hear and answer their prayers. Jesus also knew that a gathering of at least two or three disciples could usher in His presence into their midst (Matt. 18:19-20). Jesus would have told His apostles and disciples to go build buildings like those who built the Jewish synagogues if meeting in houses would have not been the best way for meeting together. Jesus our Lord knew “house church” would be the best way to meet due to the natural, normal, comfortable environment it provided for both intimacy and accountability. He knew His body or the Church meeting in houses would be more likely to provide intimate relationships among those who chose to meet together.
The intimacy that a “house church” meeting provides among those gathering together makes way for natural relational accountability in the discipleship process. This allows for growth and maturity in both character and in ministry instead of a manufactured accountability that is prevalent in the church. Meeting in houses as the early church allowed all believers to participate and function in ministry. The Lord never intended for His disciples to be passive pew warmers standing on the sidelines watching a one man show and the clock. His disciples were to be active in ministry ministering to one another. Disciples had a reason to stay in prayer, studying the Word of God, seeking to be and stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit in order to come prepared to a meeting to minister. The Lord use those who walk with Him listen for His voice and are sensitive to the Holy Spirit voice and promptings (1 Cor. 15:58; Eph.4:7; 5:15-21; Col.3:16-17; 1 Pet.2:5, 9-10; 4:10; Heb. 6:10; 10:24).
As we study out Hebrews 10:19-25, we will discover in vs.19 it is to the brethren and then the passage tells us in verses 22, 23, and 24, “let us”. It was the brethren who were to minister to one another and we can see this as we take a closer look at verses 24-25, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Notice in verse 24 the word says “let us consider one another to stir up love and good works”. And verse 25 says, “but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
The believers were to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works by exhorting one another. Meeting in houses puts the responsibility for the meeting upon every believer being prepared to minister to each other instead of depending upon a Clergy man to do it for us. The smaller number of those attending a house church meeting allows every believer equal opportunity to participate and function in their gifts and to be used by the Lord. Believers grow much faster due to their taking responsibility to hear from the Lord for themselves, study it out, apply it to their own lives, and be able to teach others.
There are also many benefits of meeting in the homes of believers. It is a cost effective way to meet with little overhead, saving believers’ money usually spent on land, development, buildings, electric bills, pastoral salaries, and maintenance. Giving would go to those in action planting churches and reaching the lost, for materials and training to help the Church reach the lost, and to meet the needs within the Church. Those who meet in today’s church buildings generally lack this intimacy and accountability. This is common in many seeker sensitive churches we have today. Although there are many benefits to meeting in houses they are not the key for what ails the body of Christ.
The key is for authentic disciples to develop an intimate relationship with the Lord and to maintain a right heart with Him. It is by learning to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth by maintaining a right heart before the Lord that His grace (the divine influence upon our hearts) is released upon our hearts. The key to receiving His grace is to walk in obedience to Him by maintaining right heart. There is nothing we can do to earn His grace, no going to church, reading our Bibles, praying, or ministry. There is no special place we can go, no building, no service we can attend to receive His grace. We must learn seek Him with integrity of heart and with all of our hearts and maintain a right heart with Him to receive His grace.
Jesus knew there was no need for His disciples to go to a special place or use a special building to meet to worship Him. Jesus said in John 4:23-24, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” According to Jesus we are able to come together in small numbers to worship Him without the aid of a special place or building or a special service in a special building. According to the apostle Paul as Spirit filled disciples we can participate and function as the Church in small numbers in houses without the need of a special service and use of a special building.
Many have fallen into the trap of “going to church” to a service in a building, praying, reading their Bibles, and doing good works or ministry out of religious duty without maintaining a right heart. They have mistakenly or evenly knowing made the decision to attempt to earn the Lord’s favour while wilfully walking in disobedience (James 1:22). We cannot and will not ever deceive Him, yet many make useless attempts to try and pull the wool over the Lord’s eyes. The Lord always looks upon the condition of our hearts and knows what is in our hearts even when we do not (1 Sam.16:7; Jer.17:9). We as authentic disciples must learn to keep our hearts right with Him by worshiping Him in spirit and truth. Then and only then we will receive His grace and experience His abundant life in our lives.
Meeting as the church was endorsed by Jesus, the apostles, and the early church for 300 years. We have been doing church wrong for too long, and it’s time to return to the biblical way of meeting in houses allowing every believer to participate and function in ministry.
Ministry Mission
Our mission is to build the Church [the Body of Christ] by making disciples and establishing house churches around the world.
508(c)(1)(A) Free Church vs. 501(c)(3) State Church
What every believer needs to know concerning churches that are automatically tax exempt under 508(c)(1)(A) [Free Churches] verses the government approved churches 501(c)(3) [State Churches]
The Church was once a great influence on our nation and its government. However, that all changed in 1954 when churches were added to the 501(c)(3) section of the IRS tax code (IRC). The 501(c)(3) church has been stripped of its freedom of speech as a result of its partnership with the government. They have voluntarily silenced themselves concerning anything touching politics and the government, even in spiritual matters important to believers. If the Church had not lost its freedom of speech to influence the government, maybe prayer would have not been removed from schools on June 25, 1962. It was at this point the nation began a huge spiritual spiral downward, the statistics are staggering.
The Church’s influence on politics and government concerning spiritual matters such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, abortion, and homosexuality is the evolutionist greatest fear. By silencing themselves regarding “political” issues, the 501(c)(3) church has given government run public schools permission to teach our children lies without resistance and compromise the truth on these and many other issues touching our faith. When we compromise we agree to go below what we believe or know to be true, at that point we allow falsehood to become the “truth”. Something cannot be both true and false; it has to be one or the other. Once falsehood is added to or replaces any part of the truth, the statement, belief or “fact” is no longer true.
The Butler Act was passed in 1925, prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools; it was overturned in Tennessee on May 19, 1967. Its overturn allowed evolutionism, which is one of the greatest “Fairy Tales” in the history of the world, to be taught in public schools. It is currently not taught as an idea, theory, hypothesis or guess, but as an actual fact. The public schools are teaching our children an inaccurate account of our country’s history by removing references to the providences of God and the Christian faith, which is what our country was founded upon. The public school system is also teaching our children about inappropriate sexual relations, promoting the homosexual lifestyle in their sex education classes. All this is aimed at removing God from our hearts and minds in order to erode the faith of our children.
The Church, the Body of Christ, can once again become a spiritual influence on the government if we take back our voice, our freedom of speech, by breaking the bond it has with the government. When the Church turns away from the world and submits itself to and is ruled by Jesus Christ the Lord alone, then it can truly be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Only then will the Body of Christ truly be “the Church”.
The Lord reveals that as His disciples we should not be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1).This not only covers marriage and personal relationships, but also all business partnerships. As the Church, this also includes our partnerships with the State and Federal government in pursuit of 501(c)(3) status. How can we take back our freedom from the government’s control? We can do this by not incorporating our churches and pursuing 501(c)(3) status. The Church, or individual groups of the Church, should not incorporate on a state level, due to becoming creatures of the State which are subject to the State. Those who incorporate and choose to pursue 501(c)(3) status, become creatures which are subject to the Federal government and are prevented (gagged) from speaking out on political and spiritual matters that do not agree with the current “political atmosphere”.
Section 508(c)(1)(A) states that “churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and conventions or associations of churches” are a mandatory exception to section 501(c)(3), they are already tax exempt without notifying or applying to the government under section 501(c)(3). Churches receive the same tax exempt status and benefits as a 501(c)(3) organization, without the partnership with the government. We do not have to lose our voice!
Sec. 508. — Special rules with respect to section 501c3 organizations
(a) New organizations must notify Secretary that they are applying for recognition of section 501(c)(3) status
Except as provided in subsection (c), an organization organized after October 9, 1969, shall not be treated as an organization described in section 501(c)(3)
(c) Exceptions
(1) Mandatory exceptions
(A) churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and conventions or associations of churches, or
In IRS Publication 526, Charitable Contributions, the IRS once again states that churches are qualified organizations and do not need to apply to the IRS:
“You can deduct your contributions only if you make them to a qualified organization. To become a qualified organization, most organizations other than churches and governments, as described below, must apply to the IRS.”
Examples. The following list gives some examples of qualified organizations.
Churches, a convention or association of churches, temples, synagogues, mosques, and other religious organizations.”
And according to IRS Publication 557,Tax-Exempt Status for Your Organization:
“Churches. Although a church, its integrated auxiliaries, or a convention or association of churches is not required to file Form 1023 to be exempt from federal income tax or to receive tax deductible contributions, the organization may find it advantageous to obtain recognition of exemption.”
As shown in the examples above and the IRS code itself, a church does not have to apply to or notify the government (state or federal) of its tax exempt status, we are already established as a separate creature from the state. We need to remain separated from the state and not join in any type of partnership that would create a yoke between the church and government, no matter what “benefits” they may mislead us to believe are available.
Note: The church as described under IRC 508(c)(1)(A) in this article is also known as a “Free Church”.
Who We Are
Our Story
On August 14, 1997 the Lord divinely commissioned Jeff into the ministry when He audibly spoke telling him to “build the Church”. A short time later, the Lord gave Jeff the vision for New Vision Church, a vision to make disciples and plant churches. Since that time, the Lord has continued to define the vision, giving it more clarity and depth with each passing year.
Although the Lord gave the vision for New Vision Church in 1997, it was not until 2003 that Jeff and Jennifer stepped out of the Foursquare denomination to pursue the vision God had given them, the vision of an every member functioning church, and start New Vision Church.
New Vision Ministries was formed in 2009 when the Lord gave the word to begin “lighting houses around the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. It was at this time the vision for New Vision Church expanded from a house church reaching a community into a network of every member functioning house churches reaching across the world.
Our Founders
New Vision Church is overseen by Jeff and Jennifer Dixon. Jeff has more than 26-years of experience in the ministry, eighteen of those years have been served with Jennifer at his side. Prior to starting New Vision Church, they served in many ministry roles, including as Children’s Pastors, Youth Pastors, Church Planters, and Senior Pastors within the Foursquare denomination.
Throughout their years in ministry, Jeff and Jennifer have attended various schools of ministry training, leadership training, and church planting training. Jeff has a Bachelors of Ministry degree and is currently pursuing his Masters in Ministry. He also has a passion for healthy living and is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer with 7 specializations.
Jeff and Jennifer met in 1994 and were married in 1995. They currently live in Northcentral Washington with their two teenage boys, where they enjoy hiking, fishing, and other outdoor activities.
Jeff and Jennifer’s hearts’ desire is to raise up sold-out, radical disciples who are committed to authentic biblical Christianity and see churches planted around the world which hold to the original pattern laid down by the apostles in which every member was allowed to participate and function according to their gifting (1 Cor. 14:23-33; 15:58; Heb. 6:10; 10:19-25; 1 Pet.2:5, 9-10; 4:10-11).