The above question is on the lips of so many children of God today. Even nonbelievers, who have come to acknowledge that the body of Christ is associated with what the Lord Himself said of the Church, “You are the light of the world”, now wonder what is happening to the light, especially in the face of the numerous scandals and other hideous acts that are frequently reported as taking place in many churches.
For the discerning saint of God though, it is no longer news that there is a new wave of God's move in the global Church today. Although a few watchmen have been sounding the alarm, nobody who is truly in the place of prayer with a genuine heart-cry for the will of God to be done on the earth, would deny this.
God has begun to move once again to separate the true from the false and prepare the way for the emergence of the true and ultimate order of priesthood. A new breed of priests is emerging in the Church. It is not a rebellious move against the fading Pentecostal order, but a response to the unfolding activity in the heavenly realm. It is a response to the marching order that has gone forth in heaven to the Church, to the effect that the people of God have dwelt for too long “on this side of the mountain”. It is time to move on in the journey to the place of rest.
It is important, however, for the Church, especially those believers who are open in their spirit, to have a proper understanding of God's plan and purpose in this time; an adequate grasp of God's divine objective in this whole event, particularly in the face of the crisis and confusion that may yet unfold in Pentecostal circles and the entire world system.
This is also important to avoid a situation that may lead to total deviation from the main objective of the unfolding move, thereby turning it into another religious mass movement without God, as many are already doing with the chorus of the Apostolic and Prophetic. It must be pointed out that this is not primarily about prophets and apostles, although they have a critical role to play. It is about the children of God coming into full knowledge of God's eternal purpose, both for their lives and for the Church, through a process of complete death to the self-life and coming into oneness with Christ.
It cannot be disputed that for many today, all there is about being a Christian is to go to “church” every Sunday or weekday, sing praise, dance, exchange banters and business cards and then go home. The following Sunday, the same process is repeated, and so on. Most Christians today, if they are true to themselves, have become tired of this endless cycle, having no clue as to the present requirement of the Spirit. And for most of the leaders, the people must be kept busy and expectant with “powerful” programmes. However, anyone with an idea of the larger dimension of God's purpose vis-a-vis what obtains in most of the churches knows that all this is mere charade.
The gospel as it is preached in most quarters today is targeted at the material needs of people and nothing more. And many are wondering why there are so many churches in the land but with little influence in the society. The reason is that when men leave seeking God to seek their belly, God gives them up to their lust. The mindset of many Christians today is such that the faith is all about what they can get from God. This is the major error of the fading dispensation. The Church's journey to her place of rest has been hampered by misplaced priorities by believers.
One cardinal truth that is being restored in the unfolding order is the position of the prophets and apostles in the Church. It is noteworthy that Christ ordained five governmental offices in the Church (Ephesians 4: 8-12). The 1st Century Christians recognised this fact and gave room for the full operation of these five gifts in their midst. However, soon after the passing on of the early apostles, a new generation of leaders, known as the Apostolic Fathers, emerged in the Church to fill the vacuum left by the former.
It must be acknowledged, though, that these did make effort to keep the Church together in the face of the pagan culture that surrounded them and the influence of the heretical teachings that were making inroad into the Church. But in their effort to accomplish this, they sowed the seed of error that later became the foundation of the intellectually and ritually structured theology which characterised the Church throughout the Dark Age and still manifests in traditional denominations even today. This was against the example of the apostle Paul, who matched Greek intellectualism and speculation with sound arguments founded upon revelation knowledge.
Thus, emphasis gradually shifted from spiritual leadership to mere administrative structuring in church organisation. The office of the bishop was given primacy over the God-ordained order, based on the five spiritual offices. The effect: the Church lost its power. Martin Luther's Reformation in the 1500s set the stage for the subsequent reformatory moves in Europe and later, America, which have served to restore many lost truths to the Church, such as justification by faith, baptism by immersion, holiness and sanctification, among others. These were championed by such groups as the Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Anabaptists, the Quakers, the Methodists and the Evangelicals.
Early in the 1900s, a group of Christians were stirred by the Lord to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit, following the example of the early Church, thus restoring the truth of Holy Ghost baptism accompanied with different spiritual gifts. This later triggered the Azusa Street Revival, the Pentecostal Holiness Movement and the subsequent Charismatic Renewal in some of the traditional Christian circles, leading to the conversion of many.
Thus, since the time of Luther, the Church has been in a journey of self-rediscovery. The picture of the true pattern of church leadership had begun to re-emerge, as believers started to look into the scriptures and discover the true order. At the fullness of the Pentecostal move, the offices of the pastor, teacher and evangelist were fully restored and accepted. But the foundational offices of the apostle and prophet were given little or no recognition at all, even though it cannot be ruled out that certain persons functioned in those capacities.
These two offices – prophets and apostles – are coming on full stream in the current move of the Spirit. They will restore the Church to the original order seen in the 1st Century and provide the much-needed momentum to propel the body of Christ to the fullness of kingdom life. This will be accomplished through the restoration of the cardinal truth taught by Christ himself – the gospel of the kingdom. Just as the Lord used prophets and apostles to build the Church at the beginning, He will also use the foundation ministries to rebuild and restore her according to the original pattern. The foremost task of these God-ordained ministers (not self- appointed prophets and apostles) in this dispensation is the breaking of misaligned mind-sets resulting from erroneous teachings and outright falsehood, and the revelation of the true kingdom purpose of God.
Therefore, the preoccupation of the Church in the current season must not be the quest for the satisfaction of personal needs – miracles and prosperity. Rather, it must be the accomplishing of the Lord's ultimate mandate, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10).
No doubt, Pentecostalism has restored fundamental truths to the Church, but the Pentecostal experience is not the dimension that will bring the Church to the “measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ” spoken of in Ephesians 4:13. The prevailing complacency and self-indulgence in that system attest to this. Pentecost has fulfilled its purpose. The question, therefore, is: what is next?
The Restoration of the Church, is aimed at highlighting and bringing clarity on some of the issues that would define the emerging order in the Church and determine whether we will succeed and move into the fullness of kingdom experience or end up repeating the errors of the fading order, and consequently being sidelined in God's strategic plan. For it must be noted that understanding the demand of the season is one thing, being able to plug into the fray is another altogether.
To be continued
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