Most of the time we want to see a surge of anointing that will win the lost transform our cities and fill our churches with people seeking God.
God seeks to transform the church more than the church does. He wants to see the nations turned around with the release of His power.
However, the church seems to pray…O Lord we want to keep doing the same things the same way and in the way we always done them but let these things we do begin to work!! Lord help us to keep our old wine skin but give us some new wine. God has done that –pouring His wine in an old wineskin.
There have been periods in church history when God released a revival into old wine skins and after short time the revival was lost because the wine skin could hold the new wine that God poured out. This is tragic.
NATION TRANSFORMED.
Many Christian historians talk about the Welsh revival and this is an example of a revival that dried up tragically. In that season the church had been praying and seeking God and God poured out His Spirit on the city of Wales. This time was powerful people fell to their knees and were saved in the streets. Crime rates went down and drunkenness was unheard of in many communities. People attended church like never before. Many said they were not aware of any left unsaved in the city. However no one wants to talk about the nation of Wales today. We would submit that it would be expected that such an shaking move of God would have left a permanent change in the nation for generations to come. However, this is not the case.
The old wine skin of the church then soon destroyed the fire of the revival so that if you visited Wales today, 100 years after that great move of God you would be visiting one of the most unchristian nations on Continental Europe. Some estimates say only about 5% of the nation know Christ as Lord and personal saviour. In Wales, New Age, Islam, and Witchcraft growing so rapidly. The old wine skin allowed the New wine to spill unintended and the wine skin was destroyed. Thank God we hear that people are praying again in Wales for an outpouring. God wants us to prepare a wine skin that can hold His new wine so that new wine can be poured into new wineskins. The anointing of God is the wine but it is only God\’s wineskins that hold God\’s wine.
THE TRUE OUTPOURING.
A true outpouring is not just an anointing but a reformation of life in the earth that the early church had. The early church had this resurrection life that transforms everything in the heavens, in the earth and even underneath the earth. This power that raised the dead from underneath the earth. The power that destroyed sin and death.
The rally church also had way that hat they conducted their ministry- a strategy this was their art of directing their war plan with an overall goal in mind to take territory for the Lord and not just souls. As one minister put it \” if you were aiming at buy a Mercedes Benz why not possess Germany\” For the Lord told us to Ask for the nations for our inheritance. God gave them a strategy that helped them to enlarge God\’s borders with power throughout the world and apart from this strategy the power could not be sustained!
When we cry out we are crying out for a reformation in the earth of what God designed the church to be and how we influence the earth. The early church had something that a has lasted for centuries. Most modern revivals last between 2 to 5 years and we are burned out and begin to pray again. The outpourings I have lived to witness in the last 40 years have only lasted for short periods of time BUT my quest has been how do we sustain an enduring outpouring that will be carried by A MULTITUDE OF ORDINARY BELIEVERS as it happened in the early church. The early church walked Ina multi – generational outpouring spanning centuries.
HOW DID THEY DO IT?
They probably knew something we don\’t know! Their strategy is different from ours. The common strategy today is pastoral- ministry is done by one man and his job is to care for the sheep who come to church, take no part in the ministry but encouraged to live moral lives and pay their tithes and give large offering in the billions.
And these pastors are so sleek and persuasive. These people are not expected to walk in the power of God, that is the founders job or the pastor is paid to do that!
The early church followed a different path and strategy. It was AN APOSTOLIC STRATEGY.
THE FIRST KEY IN THAT STRATEGY WAS the 5-fold ministry input into the life of the congregation.
Ephesians 4:11-12……
“11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”
These 5 distinct gifts working together for one purpose…equipping God\’s people for the work of ministry.
THE APOSTOLIC MODEL
In this model every believer was supposed to to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and taught to heal the sick, cast out devils and win the lost. The result was an incredible harvest.
THE SECOND KEY IN THIS MODEL…..was the establishment of what we can call APOSTOLIC CENTERS….In the Acts of the apostles we find that whenever the early church penetrated a new geographic area or ethnic group they established apostolic centers and in warfare that is called a beachhead!
- It was a teaching and training center
- It served as a gathering place for celebrations
- It was a sending center for apostolic teams
- it was resource center for the house churches.
- It was a place to ACCESS 5- fold ministry. This was because most centers did not have all five but the apostolic center could.
The center spread from Jerusalem, Antioch, then Ephesus, then Corinth, and Rome from where the whole world heard the gospel. Wherever they went new apostolic centers were formed. This strategy enabled churches to be linked to an apostolic center and so were not weak or isolated. Even small house churches had access to apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors and evangelists. The result was that the Five-fold ministry flourished.
- The saints were equipped.
- The spiritual gifts were released!
- The church was a supernatural center where signs and wonders and miracles were common. God is restoring what we have lost.
- Every Christian could be trained and equipped to minister the Holy Spirit’s power (John 14:12).
- This was a wineskin born to hold the outpouring of the Holy Spirit . The outpouring was not wasted or lost. The power of God established the people and the faith continue to multiply. The miraculous was common. Even it was reported that the dead were raised through the prayers of the saints.
HOW DID ALL THIS DISAPPEAR?
The pagan Emperor – Constantine SEDUCED the church to compromise and merge with the pagan Roman culture! As pagans entered the church, God\’s Holy Spirit also departed and the church was left hollow!
As a result of Constantine\’s changes the church became a political power but lost the power of God.
PRAISE GOD A REMNANT REMAINED!
By the sixth century the early church only survived where the Roman army could not enforce Constantine\’s edicts. The last remnant of the early church was the CELTIC CHURCH in Scotland and Ireland.
We need to know how the Holy Spirit worked in the earth through the Celtic Church and how we have a pattern for today in the Celtic Church that we can follow and no longer be orphans. This, we will do in the future as the the Lord directs.
God is doing incredible things today in the earth. We are in a moment of God reshaping His kingdom in the earth today.
I.D.Lawon.
Fullstature Missions International.
Ps,
Please write and let us know how this message has shaped your ministry and how part II can equip you. We want to share our progress with you as we have worked on this for 22 years seeking to understand Ephesians 4:11-16. We have seen biblical Stephen and Philip -non apostles- emerge from the ranks into the full stature of Christ and taken territories for God. You can, if you follow apostolic strategies and are in covenant apostolically.