From Elexio Baillou of the Bahamas
Hope is Here
God’s
Movement amongst New Covenant Leaders
There is a continual progression
and penetration of God's truth throughout the Western church, particularly
within the North America Christian community. With teachers echoing the message
of God's grace and the New Covenant within every arena opening up to them, we
are being made once again to adjust to and accept what the Lord is clearly
saying to His churches.
This penetration of our Christian
church world with a once lost truth and kingdom reality has been a source of
controversy, confusion, and confrontation to say the least. It is not unusual
to see the names of men and women who have been mandated by God to carry this
banner being persecuted, maligned and unsupported on one hand while being
accepted and embraced on the other.
This is because whenever God
begins to speak in this manner within His Church, there is a dividing that ultimately
occurs. Like the children of Israel who were promised that they would possess
the promised land, there are those who are willing to move forward with the
Lord no matter what, and there are those who are more committed to their
religious ideals and self-righteous disciplines, and would thus reject anything
“new” the Lord speaks if it goes against their pre-conceived ideals and
Christian paradigms (even if they are in fact based on scriptures taken out of
context and doctrines of devils.)
Nevertheless, HOPE is HERE!
HOPE being JESUS unveiled and manifested in the midst of this generation in
a way that we have not seen before in previous eras. With the continual
proliferation of who HE is to US and in US NOW, we can be assured that there
will be a progressive and permanent shift in God' Body here in our part of the
world as more and more people are liberated by the knowledge of who they are in
Him and what He can do through them.
That being said, it is my
intention to now provide you with brief insights into what I believe we can
expect because of what God is speaking now (on a macro-level/large scale). My
statements are both prophetic as well as predictable, as our Father has a way
of doing things and His Word contains trends and typical results that can be
seen wherever Jesus is unveiled and His people are freed from the demonic
ideals enforced upon them by unknowing spiritual leaders and Christian culture
that is not rooted in the nature of Christ.
Essentially, whatever we saw in
the life and nature of Christ and the ministry of Paul will be seen in us. The
world will see Him in us!
That being said, it is my hope
that you understand that the following trends are consistent with “Normal
Christianity”, because God’s agenda is to realign and restore Kingdom Normality
within His Church until it is a beautiful reflection of that which is happening
in heaven. Therefore, understand that that which we have attempted to
accomplish through our own power will now occur because of the Lord Jesus
Christ working in and through us in this hour!
Here is what I see occurring
amongst New Covenant Leaders in this Hour
1.
Access into organizations,
leaders, and individuals of high influence that were previously unreachable.
The Apostle
Paul was able to take the message of God’s Kingdom into some of the most
unusual places. Armed with revelatory truth regarding the person of Jesus
Christ, he stood before men and women of great influence and power within
today’s world and presented the gospel with great persuasion and compassion
until even the most ungodly of leaders were forced to listen and consider the
words he spoke.
In this hour
I perceive that God will grant those who preach this truth access into the
hearts and lives of men and women who possess great influence in order that
they may understand the power of God to change and work through them, enabling
them to lead their organizations, churches and corporations with a level of
wisdom, revelation, and power previously unseen through them. Truly the power
of Christ to change will be seen.
2.
Special administrations and
demonstrations of God’s power in signs, wonders, and miracles.
There must
be unique manifestations of God’s power to confirm His Word through New
Covenant Leaders. Therefore, we will see the kinds of healings, miracles, and
deliverances that set Paul apart from the other apostles. It must occur
otherwise many within the Body of Christ will perceive that which we speak to
be simply another “good message” or passing truth, which will soon fade away as
another fad.
Yet, when
the “hand of God” is seen in tangible ways there will be increased influence
and notoriety to those graced by God to walk in this way. We will see the Lord
confirm and endorse His servants work in such ways.
3.
The declaration of mysteries and
revelatory truths that confound the hearts and minds of hearers.
Those
leaders who function with a New Covenant mentality will begin to understand the
deeper things of God’s Word, and declare the mysteries of the Kingdom as shown
through the breadth of the entire Word. We will listen as they show us Jesus
again and again throughout the Word of God and unlock before us mysteries that
will cause us to be confounded and left amazed at the wisdom of God in His
dealings with humanity. Truly we will begin to comprehend the height, width,
depth and breadth of the love of God for us.
4.
Affliction and Great Challenges
With great
revelation comes great controversy and challenge. We will see how those who
speak His Word in this way are once again maligned, disrespected, rejected, and
dishonored by many, even within His Church. However, this will be the minority,
though I suspect that it will come from those who are in leadership and would
rather uphold their Biblically-errant truths rather than humbly admit their own
faulty understanding of God’s Word. Instead, we will see how even in the midst
of such “warfare” the Lord will cause His servants to shine and rise above the
waters sent by the adversary to overwhelm them.
The demonic forces that rule in concert over entire communities,
organizations, churches, and corporations will be forcefully overthrown as
God’s truth penetrates and transforms His people.
It is for
this reason that we must “count the cost”, we must recognize that what we are
called to do is unpopular, sobering, necessary, and challenging. We will be
made to love those who have made it their agenda to afflict and curse us for
preaching that which they consider heresy. Do understand my friends that JESUS
revealed in this way will is not simply another truth, it is THE TRUTH. Thus,
we must move forward knowing that ours will be a path of great joy even in the
midst of great challenge.
5.
The birthing, establishing, and
progressing of a new order of churches.
Apostles and
5-fold leaders functioning in the New Covenant will establish a new culture and
Christian community. Therefore, we will see a different model of churches
established. We will see Antioch type churches that are in fact hubs where
people can come to receive from the Lord and experience His changing love and
power. We will see churches that function based upon relationship and honor,
not authoritarian hierarchies and religious ideals that burden God’s people and
keep them forever in need of another message from their pastors, like heroin
addicts craving the next “hit”.
6.
The manifestation of creativity
and innovation to reach this culture.
Jesus was
and is creative in nature; in fact He is the CREATOR. Therefore, it goes
without saying that out of our community there will be the manifestation of the
spirit of innovation and creativity where our works will be relevant to our
world and not simply those who flock to our centers.
We will see
men and women who have truly interacted and engaged the angels of heaven and
the Spirit of Revelation to such a degree that they will create films, engineer
technologies, and invent products that are of great benefit to mankind. For it
is the nature of God within us to lead in every field and industry. Therefore,
we must not be surprised when it happens.
7.
The fruit of the Spirit.
Sexual
misconduct and shameful behavior will decrease. As we discover more of who we
are in Christ and who He is in us, we will see holiness demonstrated through
the lifestyles of New Covenant believers in a phenomenal. We will be living
expressions of the person of Christ, without even attempting to do so. Among us
there will be a radically decreased level of scandal, hypocrisy, and evil
behavior. Instead, we will stand as
lights in a dark world, beacons of hope, people marked by pure motives,
Christ-like character, and humble spirits who function as servant kings.
God will be seen through us and be
evidenced through our lives.
8.
A renewed passion for prayer,
worship, fasting, and the study of God’s word.
Constantly
we are told that as believers we MUST pray, we MUST worship, we MUST fast, we
MUST study the Word of God. Yet, such activities have become unattractive,
boring, and ritualistic as they have been taught to us.
However, I
sincerely see a time in which we will find doing all of the above no longer a
burdensome task, but rather actions of our affection for the Savior. They will
flow out of lives given to Him and hidden in Him. We will do them all with
great fervor, passion, excitement and joy not to attain something or attempt to
appease the Lord. Rather it will because of how He works through us and in us
as we do so.
Essentially
I believe that the Father is pressing on us in this way and will NOT be
stopped, all that we must do is allow Him to do what HE must and watch as the
tide shifts in the Body of Christ in our era and the next!
From Michelle Harding of Easton, MD
Politics or
Governance?
In light of recent events flooding the news, social media,
and many conversations with other Believers, I came to a place in prayer that
led to a very interesting question being stirred in me by Holy Spirit. "Is
the mandate from heaven to the church a political one or is it
spiritual?" "Of course it's
spiritual", we say! We know that the mandate is to be His witnesses (Acts
1:8), preach the gospel (Mark 1617) and to make disciples of all nations (Matt.
28:19-20). But, I wonder, have we
exchanged the centrality of the Gospel to a broken world for the idea that we
can create a better society through politics and legislating morality? The
responsibility of cultural reform lies upon the Church and her ability to
transform humanity through the power of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and
our representation of His love through our love for Him, one another and our
world. Anything less than that falls short of our call.
I am
not saying that we are not to concern ourselves with government, but our focus
is not to be upon the politics of our day, but rather upon the governance of
God. We, the Church are the Ecclesia, God's governing agents in the earth.
Politics brings division, anger and bitterness. Every election cycle I watch my
Facebook wall divide right down the middle as the church divides between
Democratic and Republican lines. A chasm of political mayhem divides brothers
and sisters, churches, and races. All rising from a political spirit rather
than the reality of Kingdom governance. Psalm 89:14 says, " Righteousness
and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before
you." Kingdom governance places righteousness and justice at its
foundation and from it proceeds love and faithfulness.
The
political spirit that has risen out of the church has made us seem mean
spirited, judgmental, and critical. We have a responsibility to speak truth
into our nation and to represent the authority of our King and His Kingdom. But
it is also important that we speak the truth in love with words filled with
grace. It is vital we show honor not only to those we agree with but, also to
those we disagree with. Paul tells the
Colossians in Col. 4:5-6, " Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward
outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with
grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should
respond to each person." The Apostle Peter sums it up well in 1 Peter
2:17, " Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the
king".
Our
hearts are right to desire true reform and cultural transformation, but we must
reorient our hearts to the throne of God and the plumb line of the Gospel. True
reformation and transformation will only come as we win the hearts and minds of
men not the power of protest, petition or pettiness. We may have a few temporal
victories, but lasting change comes not through legislation in America but
through the bowing of hearts to the Lord and King.
The
reality is, our nation is in the condition it is in because of a culture filled
with broken people lost in sin. We must also understand that sin isn't even the
real problem. Sin is the fruit of broken relationship with God and the loss of
identity which leads to sin. The process of reconciling men to God awakens them to a life of freedom
outside the bondage of sin. Our own salvation experience points us to this
truth. First, we are reconciled to God through the spirit of adoption and our
spirit cries out Abba, Father. Through Christ we became sons of God, empowered
by the Holy Spirit to live righteous and godly lives. The result being, the
greater our relationship with our Father grew, the less we sinned. The Kingdom
of God is the only kingdom with authority over the hearts of men, and its power
doesn't rest within its rules but within its love. We cannot continue to
confront the moral issues of our day with the politics of our times, but rather
let us look to the governance of God who is our Judge, Lawgiver and King (Isa.
33:22)! "Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no
salvation" (Psalm 146:3); "Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who
trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength’" (Jeremiah 17:5).
I
believe the true hope of America is in a Church walking in the revelation of
Kingdom governance rather than politics, and a Church walking in her identity
as the God-given governmental authority
in the earth. There is a battle for righteousness in our nation, but
it's solution is spiritual not political. This of course in no way diminishes
our responsibility as citizens of our nation or those called into government.
It brings clarity to the call to be righteous and just, and the need to align
ourselves with the King, His Kingdom, and His love. This is righteous
governance and God says that is what exalts a nation.
Prophetic Word:
God is dealing with the political spirit in the church and
it is coming on the wings of social justice, as we awaken to the fact that it
is only the Kingdom of God that has authority over the hearts of men. As we move from legislating in political
spheres, as more and more of the Christian or right wing agenda fueled by
Christian zealots, continues to be fruitless; we will move to legislating in
the heavenlies through prayer and declaration.
Here is where hearts of sacrificial love, like Christ
modeled will be brought forth, voices of awakening will move from sounding the
alarm of what the enemy is doing to declaring what God is doing.
The court of heaven will begin to shift the laws of men
through hearts awakened by love, and things we worked generations for will come
easily as we begin to gain the understanding of how Christ, the Apostles, and
the early church walked in the midst of a demonized political and religious
system. With this let us approach the throne of grace and authority, seek His
counsel, hear His words and release His truth in love.
In this season are coming forth carriers of the Father's
heart, those who like Jesus will RE-Present a loving Father, it is this that
will turn the hearts of men and a nation.
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