Heaven is real. The most wonderful experiences on earth cannot compare with the glory we will experience in heaven. And it will never end! Our life today will be filled with wonder and awe to the degree that we can perceive this unfathomable inheritance we have in Christ. It is the basic calling of every Christian to perceive and experience heaven now, and bring evidence of it back to earth so that others will begin to look up.
We not only have this hope of heaven for ourselves, but the earth itself will be taken over by heaven. The time is near when there will not only be peace among men on earth, but peace among all living creatures, as we read in Isaiah 11:6-9:
And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them.
Also the cow and the bear will graze; Their young will lie down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.
They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Even greater than all of this will be the continuous, unbroken fellowship that mankind will again have with God. He will dwell on the earth among men. He will again walk with His children in the midst of His creation. The multitude of angels that attend Him will also be attending the heirs of salvation. No human imagination is capable of understanding just how wonderful it is going to be for us. As we are exhorted in Colossians 3:1- 4:
If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
The message of Christianity contains a greater hope than any visions of utopia that man's imagination has ever been able to come up with. We must not continue to allow humanistic and demonic philosophies such as the New Age Movement to hold the high ground of hope for the future. None can compare with the hope that we have. What we have is real, and the Lord has bestowed upon His church the authority to demonstrate the reality of it, now. We can heal the sick and wounded, and set the oppressed free. We can lay hands on those who believe for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which is given to us as a pledge of our inheritance a foretaste of the wonders that we have been given as heirs of the King of kings.
For us to seize the high ground of hope for the future that is legitimately ours, we must take up the message we were commanded to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Our message should not be the end of this age, but the glorious new beginning that is at hand. The King is coming and will restore His kingdom on earth! We must not continue to base our theology or eschatology on the antichrist, but on Jesus Christ. The antichrist may have his way for a little while, but the kingdom of our Lord will endure forever.
The Faith That Sees
There have been many different and often controversial doctrines on the coming of the kingdom. I have studied a few of these and have not found one yet that I did not feel contained some inherent contradictions or conflicts with Scripture. They also usually contain some important insights and truths that are crucial for our times.
As we are told in I Corinthians 13:9-10,"For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect
comes, the partial will be done away." Even those who have the greatest prophetic revelation only have a part of the whole. Therefore, for us to have the complete prophetic perspective we must put all of the parts together.
This is true of the prophetic, but what often escapes our understanding of this verse is that we also "know in part." Even if we have the most complete and accurate doctrine, it is still only part. Therefore, for us to have the complete truth, we need to be able to put our part together with what others have been given. This means we all need the rest of the body, if we want to have the "full gospel" or a complete prophetic perspective.
To seek truth from the many different parts of the body of Christ will seem difficult and fearful to the unstable or insecure who tend to put their security in their little group. Even so, it is a glorious and wonderful quest for those who have true faith. Such a quest also requires an inherent humility that is open and searching because we realize that we do not have it all. This humility is itself a demonstration of faith. For one to keep searching, it takes faith that the search will be rewarded. Certainly, one of the greatest Christian truths is, if we seek the Lord we will find Him if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us.
This is the humility that is a basic characteristic of becoming like a child, which the Lord said was a requirement for receiving the truth. This is what the Lord Jesus rejoiced so greatly about in Matthew 11:25, saying: "I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes." Think about it. Babes are more likely to understand the truth than "the wise and intelligent." How can this be? The pride of wisdom and intelligence is one of the thickest spiritual veils that can keep us from perceiving the truth.
Pride Blinds
It was the pride of Satan that caused the first fall, and most who have fallen since. It is because of this that "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6). Therefore, the one characteristic we should all earnestly seek is genuine humility. Possibly the most basic characteristic of humility is to be teachable. Perhaps the greatest test of how teachable we are is allowing those we perceive less mature or spiritual than ourselves to teach us. This is precisely the test that will separate those who will be trusted with the true gospel of the kingdom from those who will not. As we are told in Matthew 18:2-5:
And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,
and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
"Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
"And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;
One of the basic characteristics of a child is that their hunger for knowledge and understanding is much greater than any pride they have. This hunger compels them to be open and teachable. However, this becomes an increasingly rare quality with age. In fact, by the time many reach their teenage years, they can become quite unteachable. This is true in both the natural and spiritual. The older we get in the Lord, the more opinionated and less hungry for spiritual truth we become. There are certainly exceptions to this, but it is generally true.
Even so, we have a hope that we can be converted and become as teachable as a child again! We may wonder how we can be converted again, if we were born again many years ago. Just as we see the people in the book of Acts being repeatedly filled with the Holy Spirit, there can be many conversions in our life. I am not talking about many conversions to Christ for our salvation, but rather many profound changes in our perspective. In fact, this is the process we must embrace for the renewing of our mind. To be converted is to change. When we are no longer able to embrace change, we have become the definition of an old wineskin.
Just as there is a process for renewing wineskins after they become brittle and inflexible, even when we are old or resistant to change, if we will humble ourselves we can become new wineskins again. Our hunger and thirst for knowledge of the truth can be rekindled, and we can return to our first lovethe love we had at first.
New Wineskins
I believe Jon Amos Comenius is still the greatest genius to ever work in the field of education. He is called "the father of modern education," and referred to by some as one of the men to most impact the modern
world. A Moravian bishop living in the early 1600s, his work was fired by a vision he had of great missionary movements arising to preach the gospel throughout the earth. He sought to prepare the church for these movements by raising up schools devoted to the Great Commission and "making disciples," of the students, by teaching them to observe all that God commanded.
Comenius also seemed to be one of the most humble, patient men in church history. Persecuted and hunted his entire life by the Roman Catholic authorities, who killed his family and repeatedly burned all of his manuscripts, I have not found anything in his writings that was resentful toward Catholics. When he lost his beloved wife and son, he only said it was so he could better identify with the great love the Father had for us that He would offer His Son. When dozens of his manuscripts were captured and destroyed, he remarked that it must be so he could write them again and make them better. He loved life, people, and he even loved his enemies.
However, the one thing that raised Comenius' ire was the system of education that was promoted in his time. He called it "a slaughterhouse of the mind."This system of education turned the glorious treasures of knowledge and wisdom into something akin to bad medicines taken as punishment. It seems as if things have not changed very much in education, have they?
Comenius gave the world much through his prophetic proclamation that all children deserved an education, not just the children of nobility. He also declared that since education was illumination, and the church was called to be "the light of the world," we have a mandate to educate. He saw this as the foundation for the gospel of the kingdom that was coming.
Although the world benefited greatly from the spread of education that Comenius promoted, if they had really understood the revolutionary principles of education he envisioned, education would be very different than it is today, and infinitely better. Schools would be a piece of heaven instead of the jails that they have become. Knowledge and wisdom would be made glorious and exciting, instead of the bad medicine they have become.
As Christians, we must also ask a critical question. If education is supposed to be one of the ways our minds are renewed, how can we expect to have our children's minds renewed, so they have a kingdom paradigm, if we turn them over to the world to have their minds formed? If the church is to be prepared for the changing of the age, which is upon us, we must recover our mandate for education. This is much more than just having a Christian school where we have stories of Noah, Moses, and David in our textbooks. There is a needed radical reform of the education process, which the teachings of Comenius can help to illuminate. The new wineskin the church is supposed to be is tied very closely to the new wineskin that is needed for education.
Teaching is certainly one of the highest and most noble professions. There are individuals who impart a love of knowledge and truth to their students with great passion and endurance. However, the basic system of modern education is so flawed that both teachers and students who have a true love of knowledge are rare exceptions. Even though most begin that way, they quickly get worn down by the system.
In spite of all of the changes in education that many well meaning people have tried to implement, they are still mostly superficial changes that do not address the root problem. It is still a system that rewards mediocrity and penalizes creativity and initiative two qualities that are essential if one is to excel in life. How is it Einstein failed math in school? Why is it that many of the greatest inventors and business leaders of the last two decades are almost all school dropouts? Many of these created their inventions or started their businesses in their garages, firing the economic growth of this nation.
We might also ask why so many of the great spiritual movements and churches impacting our times are born outside the church system. Is there a single example in church history of a church institution giving birth to a new movement? If there was, it was quickly cast out of that institution. When an institution cannot receive new wine, it is sure evidence that it is an old wineskin.
I have a deep concern for education and believe fundamentally that only the church, which is called to be "the light of this world," can come up with solutions for education. Unfortunately, the present church is generally more of a reflection of this present world than the kingdom of God. It can be just as resistant to change, rewarding conformity and mediocrity while penalizing the faith, creativity, and initiative that are basic to the nature of God and to man, who was made in His image. This must, and will change.
The End of the Beginning
Since the inception of our ministry, we have been devoted to "equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry." Yet after many years of this devotion, we have only been about 15 percent effective in our own local churches. Why, after so much effort and so many years of labor, are we still so far from our goal?
There are several reasons. The first could well be that we are just not very good at it. This we accept, and are praying for and seeking the grace to do better. However, there has been another serious and unexpected obstacle that we have encountered while trying to accomplish this equipping. It has become quite obvious that most Christians are more comfortable with "spectator Christianity," where a few perform for the many who cheer them on. Most seem to be so conditioned by this form of church life that they really do not want it to change.
This is understandable and right, for some. By this I am not implying that "spectator Christianity" is what the Lord intended for His church, but some have a valid ministry outside the church, such as at their jobs. They come to church services simply to get fed, encouraged, and sent back out. However, for most this is not the case. They have jobs and many other activities to occupy them, but they are not valid ministries, they want to keep church as a mere appendage to their life which does not take up too much of their time, energy, or attention. This is a most serious matter, as the Lord made clear in John 15:2, "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit."
If we are bearing fruit we will be pruned so we can bear more fruit. Those branches that are not bearing fruit will be cut off altogether! How and where are we bearing fruit in our life? As the Lord went on to say in this same passage, "By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples" (John 15:8). Fruit is the evidence that we are in fact His disciples. As James warned,
But someone may well say, "You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? (James 2:18-20)
We are approaching the time when spectator Christianity will fail. It should fail because it has conditioned so many to spiritually dormant lives, and therefore they are in danger of being cut off. Today, how many people would our churches contain if those who are not bearing spiritual fruit were removed? I think we would all be very shocked.
It is quite clear the youth will not tolerate the present form of church life. It is not uncommon for churches to now lose over 90 percent of the youth who grew up in their congregations. The most common reason cited by young people who leave the church is that they "lacked opportunity." This is why so many churches today are composed of their parents and old people. Of course, there is nothing wrong with having older people in our congregations, but the youth are our future.
Boredom Kills
Another reason why many youth leave the church is because they are bored. This is not because there is a lack of effort given to entertain them, but rather because the church is trying to entertain them. The church’s entertainment will never match the multibillion dollar budgets that the entertainment industry invests on youth. One of the primary principles of leadership in war is that the one who chooses the battlefield usually wins, and our enemy would like nothing better than to lure the church into fighting on the battleground of entertainment. We will lose that fight every time because the Lord has not anointed us to entertain. The very word "entertain" came from merging the words enter and detain, which implies "to keep from entering."
Kids are becoming addicted to fantasy and entertainment only because they lack real adventure in their life. There is nothing on this earth, including Hollywood fantasies, as exciting and full of adventure as the true Christian life. This is all we need to offer them, and all they really want from the church.
I have spoken to a number of professional sports teams. I often ask the players what they like for the chaplains or guest speakers to talk to them about. Generally, the last thing they want to hear from us are sports analogies or pep talks. They get all of those they need from the coaches. They want to hear the Word! They want solid spiritual food from their guest speakers. Youth are the same way. They are repelled by churches that try to relate to them with entertainment relevant to their ages, they want the Word and solid spiritual food.
The church is never going to be cool enough to attract the youth, and attempting to do that only makes the church look ridiculous. What the church does have, the world will never compete with. The answer to all their problems, the primary one being sin is the Lord. The next most important need they have is for adventure, which is the special domain of true Christianity, and cannot be equaled by anything the world has to offer.
The Rains Are Coming
There has been a long spiritual drought for the youth. There has not been a truly significant revival to touch the youth since the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and 70s, which drew millions into the kingdom. During that time, Youth With A Mission (YWAM) became one of the greatest spiritual forces for the gospel, and the largest missionary organization in the world. The wave reached its peak and began to recede, and a spiritual drought for the youth set in that is yet to be broken.
Even so, over the last decade we have begun to see some rain clouds gathering. A host of effective youth ministries have been raised up to touch thousands. The Call drew several hundred thousand to a day of serious prayer and intercession. Teen Mania not only draws tens of thousands to their events, they mobilize many of them to go out on life changing missions that are truly effective in saving souls. Bible and ministry schools are being raised up around the world and are effectively preparing leaders for the future, not the past. Like our conferences, the MorningStar School of Ministry (MSM) draws from many different movements, denominations, and countries. For this reason, I watch both our conferences and MSM as something of a spiritual barometer for signals of coming changes. We are now seeing some obvious trends common to both MSM and our conferences that are very encouraging:
1) Both groups are getting much younger in their median age, possibly ten years younger than just a few years ago.
2) The youth that are coming are generally more mature, and have more depth. They like expressive worship, but are also serious about sound teaching and training.
3) The elderly that are coming have more passion and zeal, bringing a fresh demonstration of maturity with humility that enables them to fit in with, and help give guidance to the youth.
4) The basic concept of success in ministry is gradually changing from being able to attract people to being obedient to the Lord.
These are trends that can only signal positive results for the future. For years my hope for the future of the church rested almost entirely with prophecies I had received. Like Elijah, I kept looking for evidence of the fulfillment of these prophecies, and now I see the clouds forming, and in some places the rain is already falling. The church still has serious problems, but her future will not only be bright it will be victorious.
Another encouraging trend we have noted is the effect of our conferences. Previously, many who came and experienced the spiritual atmosphere at a conference would go home and judge their churches for not being like the conferences. This caused problems for many churches, including our own, because the atmosphere at conferences is created by many people that are hungry enough to travel long distances and pay all of the expenses this intensity can hardly be duplicated in any local church. However, we are now getting many more reports of how people come back from conferences and are a genuine blessing to their local churches.
We also have many reports of people returning from conferences to help facilitate needed changes, and doing so with grace, wisdom, and patience. They have the same zeal, but it is now tempered with more wisdom and humility. This is the kind of Christian maturity that can lead to needed changes being made without unnecessarily damaging what has already been built. This is a crucial wisdom and maturity for what is coming. If we have received something from the Lord at conferences, or anywhere, we must be able to bear fruit with it, not destroy.
Even so, there are radical changes coming to the church, and they are necessary. Those who do not discern and prepare for them will likely be swept away by them. Those who have not built on the Rock by first hearing what the Lord is saying, and then doing it, and those who are not bearing fruit, will not survive the growing spiritual birth pangs that are preceding the changing of the age.
When I asked one pastor how his church was doing he replied cheerfully, "Great! This church is dying slower than any church I've ever pastored." We both laughed, but I knew he was being honest. He was trapped in a church system that is no longer working. It is like a body on life support remove all of the
artificial help and it will die quickly.
Even so, there is going to be a church at the end that is so full of life and glory that the nations will come streaming to her. How will this happen?
A Vision of the Wise
Many who have lost all hope in the present church, making the necessary changes to continue in these times, are now committed to planting new churches that are new wineskins. New churches can bring new life to a city, just like new believers can to a congregation, and there will always be a need for this. Even so, as the Lord stated in Matthew 13:52, "Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old."
There is a need for radical change in both the church and in education. The needed change in each of these areas is related. However, change that is not strongly moored to solid foundations will only result in revolutions that give birth to spiritual anarchy, and then tyranny. I recently had a vision in which I saw multitudes climbing a very large mountain. Most were falling off of the mountain. All of these were being injured, and some killed. At the bottom of the mountain there was a large group who still had all of their gear on for climbing, but they were either too wounded, or too fearful, to begin climbing again. Even though they were dressed for climbing and kept promising to do it, all they were doing was warning others about how dangerous it was to try to climb the mountain.
As I watched to see why so many were falling, it quickly became obvious. When they hammered their stakes into the mountain to which they were connecting their safety lines, they were only driving them in an inch or two. When the stakes gave way and climbers fell, they dragged down many others who were connected to them. The ones who were making it to the top were those who took the time to drive each stake in as deep as it could go.
The higher we go, the more dangerous it will be if we do not have a secure foundation. We do this by driving each truth that we are given deeply into the rock. As I continued looking at this mountain and the climbers in the vision, it became obvious to me that no one could make it up alone. However, we must be wise in connecting to those who are committed to going to the top, but also those who are wise enough to take the time to drive each stake deeply into the rock. It was also obvious to me that those who made it up the fastest and safest, were the ones who were willing to follow the same paths used by those who went before them.
We Will Be Born Again, and Again...
A renewal is coming to the church that will give a new definition to renewal, and ultimately a new definition of Christianity to the world. The coming renewal movements will combine the best of the previous renewal movements. They will come in wave after wave. These waves will wash away the castles built of sand, but they will reveal what is built by God. The church is now viewed as an institution, but it will soon be viewed as a life force, far beyond mere human ingenuity, definition, and control.
The Nameless, Faceless, Messengers of Power
There are a number of prophecies about "nameless, faceless" ministries that are coming to do extraordinary exploits for the kingdom. These are true prophecies. Some of the most remarkable spiritual warriors the world has ever known are being prepared to do some of the greatest spiritual exploits of all time. Yet, very few will ever know who they are. They would not have it any other way.
One of the closest parallels to these extraordinary ministries is the U.S. Army's Delta Force. Officially, the Army does not admit that the Delta Force exists. Members of this unit tend to have long hair, look and act like civilians, not soldiers. They eschew basic military protocol, like uniforms and saluting officers. The Commander is called by his first name, even by the lowest ranking enlisted men. Yet, they are the world's best fighters.
When you're the best you simply do not need titles and rank. The leaders of this unit lead because they are leaders. If a sergeant has the greatest knowledge or expertise of an assignment, he's the leader of it and the colonel will follow his lead. You only get this good by rising above ego to focus on one thinggetting the job done.
Delta Force operatives do not want anyone to know who they are. To become known would only hinder their ability to do their job. They are some of the most heroic soldiers, and carry out the most dangerous missions, but never receive public credit for it. They don't want such credit because it would only hinder their ability to do the next job, which is what they live for.
There are Christians who are presently being prepared for just such a force. They will be the best of the best, but very few will know who they are. They will be used to do great exploits, but you will not find these exploits written about in newsletters or talked about on television. They don't need or care for rank or titles because they are so confident in the authority given to them by the King. They know they are known in heaven, and therefore care little for the credit or recognition they may receive on earth.
The ones I am writing about here are the mighty ones that Enoch prophesied about (see Jude: 14-16). No ministry, mission, or church on earth has ever struck fear into the camp of the enemy like these will. They will wreak havoc on the evil strongholds of this world. They will fill stadiums and set nations free, with only a few ever knowing who they are. They are not here to be known, but to do a job. Their whole ambition is to hear the King say, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:23 NIV).
These are the nameless, faceless ones who are already among us. There may be one or two in your church. There may even be one in your family. You may even be one called to this.
