We’re told in Proverbs 24:3-4 that knowledge fills the house, but it takes wisdom to build it. When we are given knowledge of something or someone, we should always ask how that knowledge can be used to build up and not to tear down. We should evaluate whether our words tend to build up or tear down.

       As the old forms of church and church life are being challenged and dismantled, we know the Lord has new wineskins for the new wine He is serving. He does not just tear down something without building something better in its place. So, we should be looking for something better and higher, never settling for less. When the Lord used the word “nevertheless,” He meant it. Never settle for less; always seek more.

       There are evangelists being raised up for the coming ingathering, and there are builders being prepared to help build those gathered into the temple in which they’re called to be. When His temple was destroyed in the Old Testament, He used the “burnt stones” from it to build the new temple. In His economy, nothing is wasted. We should also ask what of the old that is now being dismantled can be used going forward.

       As the former system of church and church life is crumbling, there will be many who have their visions and hearts more in the structures built for the Lord than the Lord for whom they were built. We can expect there to be many disappointed and wounded people from this change that is now happening. Let us remember that God has in the new covenant built His dwelling place out of people—not bricks or stones but “living stones.” God doesn’t want to preserve passing structures and systems; He wants to preserve the people.

       However, wounded people tend to wound others if they are not healed. If they are healed, they can be some of the most fruitful builders and leaders in what is coming. The Lord, whose creation wastes nothing, does not want to waste all of their experience and wisdom gained from walking with Him.

       Even so, when you have worked to build something for a long and trying time, it’s hard not to feel rejected when it is replaced with something newer. However, replacing the old with the new is how the church has kept growing and advancing. If we have been used by God, it is not a rejection when at some point He moves on with something newer. It is His plan, which we see throughout Scripture and history.

       As the apostle Paul wrote Philippians 3:13-14, his practice was this: “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Focusing on the high calling of God requires leaving things behind and pressing on to higher things. There will be even more radical changes as we enter the next age. Change is always disruptive, and we can’t avoid that, so we must embrace change as it comes.

       There are polls and studies that show Christianity shrinking, and there are some that show it growing. In my opinion, the ones that show the shrinking only tend to see institutional Christianity as Christianity, and it has been shrinking at an accelerating rate. However, the fastest growth in Christianity is found in new movements that have not been institutionalized and, therefore, do not get measured. However, to see what the Holy Spirit is now doing, we must keep our attention on the new.

       Even so, the impending move of God may seem modest at first, but it will become like a tsunami. When a tsunami approaches, the waters at the beach tend to recede. How far the waters recede into the horizon indicates how big the coming wave will be. If Christianity is receding for a time, this is an indication that the more dramatic the recession, the more prepared we need to be for the “big one.”

       We should keep in mind that John the Baptist prepared the way for the Lord in the people by giving them the expectation of something greater coming. Something greater is always coming, and we should always be expecting it, not becoming too attached to the present or the past. The old, even that which prepared the way for Him, must decrease so that He can increase as He comes in a new way.

© 2026 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.