Denominations provide covering of a kind, but it is a human covering Spiritual dimension. Leadership that is holy, transparent provides a spiritual protection and blessing. A force field. Pastors need covering- apostles. Ideal is to have unity in city-wide church with city elders. No matter how mature you are in the ministry, you still need to be able to honour someone who is over you in the Lord. Spiritual fathering is distinct from covering, but apostolic covering should become fathering. Jesus submitted to the authority of another man, John the Baptist of it was only then that He became the Christ, the anointed one. Abraham submitted to Melchizedek by means of a tithe. This connection brought spiritual power. Spiritual covering provides a connection like the connection of pipes that lets water flow from a tap.
David Kelly from Freedom Center Kentucky
Had been looking for a spiritual father that denominations could not provide. John also feels richer in the relationships Proper covering brings clarity and confidence. Place of protection and provision that changes everything. John came at a time of drought which ended after John’s visit. Also after this their landlord deeded the church property at no cost. Church experiencing freedom,healing etc John experienced opening up of the apostolic ministry in churches in Australia when he received Chuck as his father. This is a time when all of our societal systems are fracturing and groaning. It’s a time when God is releasing apostolic covering and the church will be anointed to provide the covering that replaces the traditional sources.
Ross Blamey, Victoria
The apostolic message is not about planting churches with an apostolic flavour. We need to get the message into the church and into God’s people. We need to guard what is coming into our lives.
Here are my notes from Session 1 of the Apostolic Summit.
John Alley gave an overview of the restoration of apostolic ministry
The apostles were seen as just the original 12. Considered to be “Holy ground” For ten years John presented an apologetic for restoration of apostles. Mid 1990s seismic shift. The Lord was not just restoring apostles, but restoring apostolic nature of the church. This would change the church world wide. This is a huge task that will take multiple generations. Many have since jumped on the bandwagon, appropriating the title. Everybody wants to be the latest and greatest. Self-appointed. When the Lord brings it all to order, there will be fewer apostles than we thought, and we will be surprised who the true apostles are. Many of those who build big churches are not apostles, but excellent pastors and churches. Most of the people with apostolic gifts are not apostles. Most of us have gifts relating to 5-fold but are not pastors etc. Many claim to be apostles without being commissioned by the Lord. Example. David anointed to be king, but was not the king for many years. He had kingly properties but was not the king. You can have a strong anointing but not be an apostle. 2 Peter 1:1-2. Sent to those who “have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours.” Talking about faith of those in leadership in the church. To exercise a governing authority in the church you need to be commissioned by Christ. We are in a season of transition moving towards the apostolic church. The trouble is that if everyone is an apostle nobody is. Korah’s rebellion. He was a Levite but wanted more than. Like pastors who call themselves apostles, teachers wanting to be prophets. Revelation 2:2-4. They tested those who called themselves apostles Central to apostles’ teaching is to lead the church in love for God and for one another. Jesus as the new High Priest gave a new law: to love one another as He has loved us. If someone comes claiming to be an apostle if they don’t have love they are not an apostle. True apostle
no envy
not sectarian
no sense that their network is the only true group
I was happy, wasn’t I? I was a New Age spiritual healer and teacher with a thriving global soul centre based in Sydney, offering courses, sessions, and products with the goal of self-actualisation. I travelled internationally with my teachings and spoke on New Age radio. I was the ‘creator of my own reality’, tuned into the invisible spirit realm to channel healing, spiritual guidance, and wisdom to myself and my clients. I was empowered and had purpose, by helping others to seemingly heal broken pasts and move into oneness with the Divine. My source of love and energy was ‘the universe’.
I felt I had control over life and access to hidden knowledge to explain all the mysteries. But after 13 years of ‘inner work’, why did I still find myself stuck in feelings of deep inadequacy, shame, unresolved grief, anxiety, and addiction? Everything had to be analysed. Moments of spiritual bliss were ultimately unfulfilling as I moved back into the reality of life. Relationships were challenged as it was difficult to be around people who had a ‘lower consciousness’. I kept searching and striving. I was simply exhausted being my own god!
One weekend, a friend invited me to church. That very afternoon, out of curiosity, I had picked up a Bible in our hotel room. So, I accepted her invitation. I was surprised by a totally different church environment to what I expected. Everyone was so warm and welcoming, and the modern worship was uplifting. As I listened to the lyrics of So Will I, it hit me like a ton of bricks. My heart exploded. I realised I had been worshipping creation (the universe), not the Creator.
I had got it completely wrong. I realised that He is the love that I had been looking for this whole time. I sank back down into my chair and sobbed and sobbed. I felt a powerful presence of love and wholeness that was inexplicable. After dealing with spiritual energies for so long, this was completely different to anything I had ever experienced.
The preaching made so much sense. It was like a veil had been lifted. The fact that God was not a distant impersonal consciousness, but we could have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus blew my mind. I knew the Bible and Jesus was true. I was hungry, grabbed a Bible, and continued to go to as many services as I could. Within weeks, I ‘officially’ gave my life to Christ, however I believe it happened in an instant that first moment I encountered the one and only God.
I shut down my teachings and business and I was baptised in four months.
After being in the subjective reality of the New Age, I felt God calling me to study. I jumped into a Diploma of Ministry at Morling College, receiving a scholarship. God formed me through the class content and prayer, community life, friendships and most surprisingly, through doing the assessments! It was inspiring to connect with students at different points on their journey. I really felt God walking with me the whole way through it.
I realised that studying theology is not only for academics but for all Christians. The study grounded my faith and taught me how to approach questions and understand different viewpoints, skills I continue to use as I grow in my faith.
“A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.”
The secretary for an organisation promoting atheism in Kenya has resigned from his position after converting to Christianity.
A statement issued by the Atheists in Kenya Society revealed Seth Mahiga was no longer interested in promoting atheism in the East African country after he “found Jesus Christ.”
The notice, which was posted to Twitter on Saturday states: “This evening, regretfully, the Secretary of the Atheists in Kenya Society Mr. Seth Mahiga, informed me that he has made the decision to resign from his position as Secretary of the society.
The statement continues: “Seth’s reason for resigning is that he has found Jesus Christ and is no longer interested in promoting atheism in Kenya.”
A day later, the organisation shared a 30-second video of Mahiga during a church service where he confessed Christ and announced his plans to resign from the society.
Mahiga said he is now so happy to be in the house of the Lord and to live by his ways.
Former atheist C.S. Lewis, who described himself as the most reluctant convert in England, once warned: “A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere– ‘Bibles laid open, millions of surprises… fine nets and stratagems.’ God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.”
2 On the day Pentecost was being fulfilled, all the disciples were gathered in one place. 2 Suddenly they heard the sound of a violent blast of wind rushing into the housefrom out of the heavenly realm. The roar of the wind was so overpowering it was all anyone could bear! 3 Then all at once a pillar of fire appeared before their eyes. It separated into tongues of fire that engulfed[ each one of them. 4 They were all filled and equipped with the Holy Spirit and were inspired to speak in tongues—empowered by the Spirit to speak in languages they had never learned!
5 Now, at that time there were Jewish worshippers who had emigrated from many different lands to live in Jerusalem. 6 When the peopleof the city heard the roaring sound, crowds came running to where it was coming from, stunned over what was happening, because each one could hear the disciples speaking in his or her own language. 7 Bewildered, they said to one another, “Aren’t these all Galileans? 8 So how is it that we hear them speaking in our own languages? 9 We are northeastern Iranians, northwestern Iranians, Elamites, and those from Mesopotamia,Judea, east central Turkey, the coastal areas of the Black Sea, Asia,]10 north central Turkey, southern Turkey, Egypt, Libyans who are neighbours of Cyrene, visitors from all over the Roman Empire, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs. 11 Yet we hear them speaking of God’s mighty wonders in our own dialects!” 12 They all stood there, dumbfounded and astonished, saying to one another, “What is this phenomenon?”
13 But others poked fun at them and said, “They’re just drunk on new wine.”
Peter’s Pentecost Sermon
14 Peter stood up with the eleven apostles and shoutedto the crowd. “Listen carefully, my fellow Jews] and residents of Jerusalem. You need to clearly understand what’s happening here. 15 These people are not drunk like you think they are, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 This is the fulfilment of what was prophesied through the prophet Joel, for God says:
17 ‘This is what I will do in the last days—I will pour out my Spirit on everybody and cause your sons and daughters to prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will experience dreams from God.18 The Holy Spirit will come upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy. 19 I will reveal startling signs and wonders in the sky above and mighty miracles on the earth below. Blood and fire and pillars of clouds will appear. 20 For the sun will be turned darkand the moon blood-red before that great and awesome appearance of the day of the Lord. 21 But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ ”
‘We’re seeing the world look at evangelical Christianity as an absolute joke’
Pastor and author Francis Chan delivers remarks as part of the Q Commons event, broadcast internationally on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. | Courtesy of Q Ideas/Parker Young
As more and more people publicly walk away from the Christian faith, pastors must urge their congregations to have deep, personal encounters with God and bring “sacredness” and “reverence” back into worship, according to pastor and author Francis Chan.
“I am seeing so many people, friends of mine who were in ministry, who are just saying they don’t believe, or they’re walking away; ‘I don’t know if I believe that anymore,’” Chan said during Exponential’s Reset Summit this week. “And I just think that’s crazy. We’re seeing people that we look up to, leaders fall. We’re seeing the world look at evangelical Christianity as an absolute joke right now … it’s every day you can just jump on Instagram … and someone is saying, ‘I’m not a Christian anymore.’”
TheUntil Unityauthor lamented that there’s a “lot of Isaiah 29:13” going on in churches and denominations across the country today. The verse reads, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”
“In other words, it wasn’t an encounter [with God],” he said, explaining that true, lasting faith doesn’t come from simply hearing a message, but spending intentional, one-on-one time with God.
“Don’t get away from your own encounter with God,” he said. “We have to make sure we get people to encounter Him, and that their fear of God is not just a commandment that was taught to them by us.”
“This is a new season. And all of this, people walking away and fighting and angry about everything and so opinionated, is because they’ve spent too much time in our presence, and in our evangelical talk, talk, talk, talk presence and not enough time before a Holy God and sacred and reverent, silence and awe and just recognizing their oneness with Him.”
To have more unified horizontal relationships in the church, there must be a deeper, vertical relationship with the Father, Chan stressed.
“The world is going to get worse; persecution is going to get worse. And when they’re alone with Him, is there enough of this awe and enjoyment of Him, and a fear of Him that they can survive anything?” he asked.
“I think this pandemic showed us that there’s just way too much of this horizontal going on. And now we’re trying to keep these people with us, and it’s more like we have to direct people to Him. We have to do a better job of bringing sacredness back into our worship.”
A recent study found that 43% of millennials stated they either don’t know, don’t care or don’t believe God exists, and 16% of millennials believe that when they die, they will go to Heaven only because they confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their savior. Yet, 57% of millennials still call themselves Christian.
In an interview with The Christian Post, Michael Youssef, pastor of the 3,000-member Church of The Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia, warned that more and more pastors are “falling into the trap” of woke culture because it’s “popular and appeals to the flesh.”
“Bowing to woke culture allows you to avoid rejection by culture and society,” he said. “It’s a very, very popular message that is now being preached from many evangelical pulpits; traditionally Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching churches. We have gone so far that it just grieves me to the point that I literally sometimes just weep tears.”
“I’ve always believed, as goes the pulpit, so goes the pew. As goes the pew, so goes the culture,” he continued. “As a pastor, I put the full blame on us, right in our laps, because we want to be liked, loved, and followed on social media by millions of people. Pastors are the culprits. We need to be about Jesus, not about being liked, because that is deadly as far as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is concerned.”
Youssef urged those who love Jesus to be “encouraged and motivated to stand up and not to be afraid,” and compel those “teetering” to find the strength and courage to stand for the truth of the Gospel.
“We must take charge,” he said. “Christians have abandoned so many areas of society, from media and the classroom. Instead of withdrawing, we need to go and invade these areas and take them for Christ and not be afraid. We are on the right side. We have read the last chapter, and it says we will win.”
When people staged surprise birthday parties for me in the past, I usually figured out their plans. But two years ago some friends organized a party without my knowing, and when I walked into the room I was totally shocked. There were banners, balloons, a cake and 30 people—and I didn’t see it coming. This must be how it felt to be one of the disciples on the day of Pentecost.
Jesus told His followers they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit, but He gave them no clue about when or how. The key word in Acts 2 is “suddenly,” found in verse 2. When they were gathered together they heard the sound of wind; they saw flames of fire; and they began to speak in languages they didn’t know. The commotion attracted a huge international crowd. After Peter preached, 3,000 people decided to believe in Jesus. And none of this was rehearsed.
We will celebrate Pentecost this year on Sunday, May 23. Are you ready for another surprise? On the first Pentecost, heaven literally came down. The Holy Spirit “filled” the room (v. 2) and “filled” the disciples (v. 4). That’s because they needed supernatural power to do the work Jesus commissioned them to do. The church can’t do its job if we are filled with ourselves; we must be empty and surrendered, so God can work.
We are overdue for another heavenly visitation. As I have read and reread the book of Acts this year, I see five blessings of Pentecost that we need today:
1. We need the rushing wind of new life. Acts 2:2 says “a noise like a violent rushing wind” filled the upper room where the disciples prayed. The sound was evidence of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Spirit brooded over the waters of creation to bring life (Gen. 1:2), the Holy Spirit breathed His life into dry bones and brought forth a living church.
We need this new life today. The church is dry. Our congregations are aging. Many churches today haven’t baptized a new convert in years. We can’t jumpstart new life in our churches with programs, nice buildings or slick social media promotions. We need heaven’s wind to resuscitate and revive us. Lord, send the wind again!
2. We need the fire of God’s holiness. There was no giant pillar of fire standing nearby on the day of Pentecost. In the time of the New Covenant, the flame rests on each person. The fire burns much closer to us. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of each of us, and the flame rests on every head. Every believer is ignited with a holy passion for God.
We will not impact our wayward culture unless every Christian carries the fire inside. Not only does everyone need to be filled with the Spirit, but we must also learn to maintain the fire and never quench it. This requires that we crucify our ungodly desires and develop close intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Lord, send the fire again!
3. We need the tongues of supernatural anointing. I hear a lot of talk about the Holy Spirit these days, but words can be cheap. In the New Testament, the disciples had more than words—they had the demonstration of supernatural miracles. They had what the Bible calls “the manifestation of the Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:7). One definition of “manifestation” is “a perceptible, outward or visible expression.”
Many Christians today have gone so long without seeing the reality of God’s healing power that they don’t even believe God heals today. But God never unplugged His power; we short-circuited it with our unbelief. People need to know that the same Jesus who makes lame beggars walk and blind men see is still working in us. Lord, send Your miracles again!
4. We need bold preaching that produces conversion. The miracles of wind, fire and speaking in tongues were important. But the biggest miracle happened when Peter, a flawed man who had denied Jesus three times, preached a bold sermon. Peter had many weaknesses, yet the Spirit worked through him anyway. He “raised his voice” (v. 14) and bravely defended his faith.
This is a lesson for us all. You may speak in tongues, but if you don’t use the Spirit’s power to reach lost souls, you have cheapened the definition of a Pentecostal. We often say that tongues is the initial evidence of the infilling of the Spirit. But if someone isn’t bold to witness, they can’t be full of the Spirit. Lord, give us souls again!
5. We need the miraculous unity of the Holy Spirit. Before the day of Pentecost was over, people from all over the Roman Empire had come to know Jesus Christ—people from Egypt, Libya, Mesopotamia, Rome, Persia and beyond. Peter had prophesied this miracle when he said the Holy Spirit would fall “on all mankind” (Acts 2:17). Pentecost is not Pentecost if it does not break down racial and cultural barriers. The Holy Spirit is grieved by racism and classism. Lord, break down the walls again!
I hope you are praying for another visitation of Pentecost. We can’t predict what it will look like exactly, or where it might begin, but our hearts should be desperate for God to unleash it.
The word tov is Hebrew for “good”. In Genesis 1, after each day of creation we are told “God saw that it was tov.” In numerous places we are told that the Lord is tov, and that Jesus is tov. “Goodness” is listed as one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The church is the Body of Christ, the visible representation of God in the world. The church therefore needs to develop a culture that embodies God’s character, that is tov.
Instead, the church often borrows concepts and qualities from the business world to build empires on human values. These churches quickly become toxic because they have been built on the wrong foundations. Often the toxicity comes to the surface when women accuse the celebrity pastor of sexual misconduct, bullying or other disrespecting behaviour. Then the institution turns into self-defence mode, trampling over its vulnerable members.
The authors list 7 practices that help churches to become “tov”:
Nurture empathy
Nurture grace
Put people first
Tell the truth
Nurture justice
Nurture service
Nurture Christlikeness
This is a well-written book, an easy read that will help the church to refocus on its true calling as followers of Christ.
At times it is confronting to think about how our churches might betray Christ, and how easy it is when challenged to lash out at accusers. We are called to a higher calling, and even at our hardest times, we must remain obedient to Jesus. We do this best when we work to build our churches on these principles of “tov.”
The state is increasingly usurping the role of the church:
The recent images of a Canadian pastor being dragged away by the police for daring to hold church services should forever remain burned into our memories. The pastor was born in Poland and lived under Soviet rule as a child, so he knows all about life under totalitarian regimes. As one article reports:
Canadian Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who kicked police out of his church after they tried to shut down a worship service during Holy Week, and his brother, Dawid Pawlowski, have been arrested for holding an “illegal” in-person gathering as per COVID-19 limits set by a new court order. Referring to the Pawlowskis of Street Church in Calgary, Alberta, Calgary Police Service said in a statement that its officers “lawfully enforced” the court order by arresting the two men after church.
A video posted on YouTube shows that Calgary Police Service sent at least five police vehicles to arrest the two from on the street. The brothers knelt on the road and refused to walk on their own during the arrest. A voice can be heard telling the officers, “Shame on you guys, this is not communist China. Don’t you have family and kids? Whatever happened to ‘Canada, God keep our land glorious and free?’” www.christianpost.com/news/canadian-pastor-arrested-for-holding-church-service.html
I have written before about this brave pastor. In an earlier piece I offered this quote of his: “I grew up in Poland under the boot of the Soviets, behind the Iron Curtain. What I see right now, I see everything escalating and moving to the new level. They’re acting just like the Communists were acting when I was growing up when the pastors and the priests were arrested, and some were murdered. Many were tortured. That’s why I say what I say, because I see a repetition of history.” billmuehlenberg.com/2021/04/08/signs-of-hope-scenes-from-the-resistance/
Those who have grown up in communist countries have every right to be alarmed at what they see happening all over the West. That is a major theme in the new book by Rod Dreher, Live Not By Lies. See my write-up about it here: billmuehlenberg.com/2020/12/30/a-review-of-live-not-by-lies-by-rod-dreher/
One of the major takeaways from the covid scare over the past year is this two-pronged reality: In the West we have had far too much statist overreach and far too much Christian capitulation. We see this occurring everywhere, and it does not look too good.
Plenty of churches are still in lockdown, or greatly reduced in what they can offer, while pubs and brothels and sporting events and hardware stores and so on are fully up and running. And most Christian leaders are not saying a thing about this.
One of the real sins of any age is when men and/or the state usurp the prerogatives of God, and seek to act as God. A key way of doing this is to determine what worship is, and where and when it can take place. The state may seek to prohibit all religious worship, or certain aspects of it.
During the past year under the guise of ‘keeping us safe’ the state has taken almost total control of most churches. Whenever that happens the people of God should be rising up and asserting the importance of fundamental human rights, including religious liberty rights.
The Church is at a major crossroads in her multi-millennial sojourn through time upon this earth. She has some very big decisions to make. But most of us are not aware of the change that is in the Wind. For church, as we know it is over.
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The Church, (the one being built by Jesus, not this monstrosity of a system we incorrectly call the Church), will move on with the gentle sound of His voice. The Church He is building will not need an earthquake, a hurricane, or pixie dust floating in the air to get her attention. His sheep hear His voice and follow Him because they follow His voice. This will be a big test of who we really are and whose kingdom we are really building. If it is His Kingdom, we will leap at the sound of His voice and go where he leads us. If we are building the counterfeit, we will not be so inclined to move very quickly. For there is much to lose and much to risk in responding to Him whilst building anything of our own.
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The charismatics, the Pentecostals and the revivalists are all crowding at the river Jordan. The Holy Spirit is urging, calling, leading them to cross, but few have the faith to cross because few have the faith to risk what they have built. Maybe that is the problem…we have built it and it is OURS. We must protect what is ours at all costs, even at the cost of moving on with the Lord. It is always so easy to camp along the river rather than risk the dangers of fording the rapids, even when you have the voice of the Lord drawing you on. So, we invent, discover, and imagine all kinds of histrionics to keep everyone satisfied where they are, on the wrong side of the river.
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We go around the things He has shown us again and again. We devise newer and more complicated ways of saying and doing the things we have known for years. Oh, we will occasionally look longingly across the river, wondering if there really is more over there, but the safety is always here.
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Few will admit that we have lost the faith, the daring, and the adventure of our earlier days. Although denominationalism is anathema to us, we gather around the same things and build the same walls and defend our position with the same conviction and piety as all those who have gone before us.
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But those who do not cross the river do not change the world. It is true, they do not rock the boat, but they do not see anything new, experience anything deeper than what has been “felt and telt” many, many times for many, many years.
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God does not talk in circles. He has a definite destination in mind and He fully intends to have people that are willing to be led by the deepest
reservoirs of His love and the very fullness of His life.
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Church as we know it is over…
He is about to wrestle control of His own church from the carnal hands of insecure, angry, controlling, and legalistic men and women, to build His own church, just as He promised He would.
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Church as we know it is passing away. The thing we have called church is but a dim shadow of the life-giving, empowering wholeness of that for which Jesus died, rather, rose from the dead to lavish upon mere mortal men.
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We have asked for wealth when He wanted to give us nations. We focused on our healing when He wanted to make us healers. We have searched for mercy and compassion when He has called us to carry those same treasures to a dying world. We are self – examining when He wants us to be pouring ourselves out so others can find Him.
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There is no doubt. The self-centered, need-oriented, program-driven, growth-addicted destiny-snatching, dream-killing counterfeit is about to be replaced by His church; a company of loosely connected people held together only by the bonds of love. This people are the Christ-centered, Kingdom-declaring, light-shining heart throb of God Himself. His people hear His voice and respond with joy and anticipation, not fear and uncertainty. They are a devil-ignoring, life-giving, God-honouring group of worshipers whose greatest fulfillment in life is to be called to His service by the gentle sound of His voice. This church understands that the hands Jesus will stretch out to heal will be their hands. They know they are His hug; His smile, His encouraging word, and the world’s only hope of glory. The solution is clear… You are the church that Jesus Himself, is building! .
New Life Narrabri 