The Apostolic and It's Relation To The Prophetic

How many of you know that when God says something, He says it consistently throughout the earth? It is not something that is random. It is very consistent, even though we may have different phrases and different terms -- somewhere along the line the terms and phrases seem to match up. Amen? God is doing some shifting in the natural realm as well as the spiritual realm. It will effect us socially, spiritually, mentally, physically, relationally, and financially.

One of the things God is causing what I would call an apostolic reformation. I want to stir you up in some areas. How many of you know that when God wants to make a change, He is not just making a change with you, your church, or your family? When He begins to make a change, He makes it across the whole earth. The Bible says that He sends His wind out of His treasuries. So when God begins to take His goodness (treasures) and blows it across the earth, it will cause the desire to serve God and please God to be stirred even greater. The breath of God will also cause the things in our life that are not necessarily in alignment with God to be stirred up as well. Whether it is demonic influence, wrong thinking, bad habits, it will begin to cause some type of uprising on the inside of us. We can see that God is bringing some changes to the earth.

How many of you want to see some changes on the earth? Now the funny thing is that we talk about it, but when the change comes we are not really sure whether we want it or not. The other day my electricity went out and I did not like it one bit. It causes quite a bit of inconvenience for me. But you know I do not think God minded it one bit because it caused an attitude to surface in me.

How many of you know that when you are in the timing of God, you are in the favor of God? It is very important to see that when God begins to make changes in our lives that we have the timing of God. It is real easy to get ahead of God and also to drag your feet. It is easy to decide that you want the change, but when it comes, you become resistant to it. It does not matter what may come our way, God may change the way He does some things, but He will always provide for His own. David said, "I was once young and now I am old, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging bread." One thing I know that as long as we have our heart toward God, He will provide for us.

God wants to bring about cataclysmic change. Why do I say cataclysmic? Because any time change comes to our lives and it is change that we do not want, we think of it as crisis. We need to learn to find God in the midst of crisis.

Please turn to Romans 8:18. "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us, for the earnest expectation of creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in hope because the creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now." Basically what this scripture is saying is that the glory that shall be revealed in us is the glory of God. How many of us know that the Bible says that it is Christ in us -- the hope of glory? The only hope that we have in this world is Christ. As we have that hope within us, the suffering that is in this present time is not anything worthy to be compared to the glory of God that God will reveal to His children that obey Him.

Notice that I qualified that -- for those that obey Him. The Bible says that those that did not mix faith with the word did not find His rest. There is a rest for the people of God. That does not mean kicking back and watching Monday night football either. It does mean that you are abiding in His anointing to the place that you are not having to labor to accomplish His purpose. He is doing it through you. How many of you have strained to pray for someone to be healed, and they did not get healed? Then you prayed a simple prayer over somebody and they were healed, and you were shocked! I like it when it happens that way because it did not require any sweat on my part. Hallelujah! That is the glory of God that brings that.

God is saying in this passage that all of creation is subject to the fall of man. All of creation did not have anything to do with the fall of man. Man had everything to do with it. All of creation is groaning and waiting for the sons of God -- those that have come through Jesus Christ. Those that have obeyed His Voice and willingly walking in His Spirit. Those that are going forth with the power and Presence of God to become manifest that they are the sons of God in a wicked and dark generation. Darkness has not covered the earth to the degree that it shall cover the earth. I am wanting you to realize that even though there is darkness there is the Presence of God that God wants to release on the church and the church has not seen this yet.

We talk about change, but sometimes the only thing we can think about is what it is going to cost me for that change. I am here to tell you that it is going to cost all of us something. The reward is far greater than that what we are giving up. There is nothing like having God flow through you in a way that you cannot even describe with words. At times I have had the Spirit of God flow through me in a way that I was like a back seat passenger. You realize that you do not have a whole lot to do with this and I thank the Lord. I told the Lord that no matter what I have done in prayer or by keeping my life clean, that I am not capable of doing what the Lord wants done, so here I am Lord -- a vessel. I yield my mouth, my heart and everything that I am and ask the Lord to use me as He sees fit. Give up your formulas and get a hold of God.

I want to talk to you about what it is that God wants to bring. What is an apostolic reformation? Why does God want to bring it? Protestant reformation was the reformation of the 16th century. It was a religious revolution in western Europe. I am sure most of us are familiar with some of the people involved with this. It was the beginning of the reform movement in the Roman Catholic church. The reformation ultimately led to the freedom of descent. The preparation of the movement was long and there and there had been earlier calls for reform by John Wycliffe and John Huss. The reformation began suddenly when Martin Luther posted 95 thesis on the church door at Wittenburg on October 31, 1517. Change came at a rapid rate immediately following. Sometimes God will use certain things as a trigger that will trigger change throughout the earth and church.

Reformation is an act of reforming, or a state of being reformed. Something that is taken in one state and changed into another. We have used the word transformation. It means the same thing. The change from one way to another. Paradigm shift -- we have heard that phrase. How many of you have heard that phrase in business or different arenas? Paradigm means this -- one that is worthy of imitation or duplication. (E.g., An example, a pattern, a model, a standard.)

One of the things that God is doing is changing the model for church. God is causing the remnant to arise. Some say, what do you mean? Well, you may have heard me make this statement. God is calling the church out of the church. We can look at Judaism. What happened in Jesus day when the disciples became Holy Ghost apostles and began to go into the streets and synagogues and speak to people? They would say to the people that what they had been doing was fine, but it was not fine any longer. Because they had crucified the Savior and the Messiah had come. They must worship Him. It caused all kinds of cataclysmic change within the church. It caused violent uproar. It caused some of the mean to get stoned or crucified. It caused some to be put in prison and whipped.

Paul said that he was left stoned, dead, shipwrecked, perils of wild beasts, often in fastings, etc. We do not realize the awesome price that has been paid for us to have the freedom that we have not only in this nation, but in other nations of the world. The religious freedom that we have to express to God was not only paid for by the apostles in the New Testament, but by the mean that I mentioned earlier -- Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, and many others.

We are experiencing the freedom that they brought to the church because they were willing to do something that no one else wanted to do. In order for us to see change, we have to be willing to do something that we have not wanted to do up to this point. God is changing the model (standard) by which we will have church. We have heard this for years that church as we know it is over with. You can decide that you want a usual church, but God wants an unusual church. Hello? God does not want church as usual. Sing until you are happy. Preach until you are happy. Go home and do not touch anyone else's life. That is not church.

The early church spent most of their time outside of the assembly, touching someone else's life. Amen? So what change have we brought to someone's life recently and while we are moaning, groaning, and complaining about our discomfort, what about the one who is really going through something?

The shift that is coming will effect us spiritually, economically, and socially. God is going to effect every bit of our life. I know that this is not a popular message. I did not want to preach it. I wanted to preach something nice and happy.

How many of you can witness to the fact that we have been saying that God is taking us back to Bible basics? Well, if we are going back to Bible basics, would it not stand to reason that we are going to do things the way that the Bible says? So if we are going back to the book of Acts, so to speak, then we are going to do some things the way the book of Acts says. The funny thing is that as time goes and progresses, man adds things to what God has said. Eventually what we do is get away from the pattern that was started.

For example, the Protestant reformation produced many different Protestant churches -- the Lutheran church, Methodist church, and Baptist church. Yet, one thing that was so strange is that the men that birthed this reformation were tongue talking, spirit-filled, prophesying, healing the sick, type of people. Yet the people that followed them are not that way as a whole. They have veered completely because they have canonized everything, made it sound good, liturgical, and made it sound so approving by man. It does not matter whether it is approved or not by man. If it is approved by God, that needs to be the way things are done.

Look at Acts 17:6. "But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have upset the world have come here also, and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus." These who have turned the world upside down have now come here. It is not by chance that we see in the earth today that things are starting to get turned upside down. Why? That is a result of the apostolic anointing that God is releasing in the earth.

One of the things that you began to see that is when the prophetic began to arise, curiosity in the spirit realm became to arise. Amen? Psychics and even witches got on the television and you could dial them at for $3.99 a minute at 1-800-dial a devil.

The thing is that when the apostolic comes around, you will see governmental changes. Because the apostolic is one that issues the governments of the church. It also raises the standard of the government of God-- the kingdom of God within the regions that it resides in. So when God begins to release apostolic anointing within the earth, it is going to cause the earth to get turned upside down so to speak-- economically, socially, spiritually.