Paradigm Shifts

As we approach the threshold of a new millennium, much will shift in the church and the world. It will be a time of completing unfinished business, a time of cleansing, and a time to get prepared for a “spiritual churchquake” to transpire in the life of what some prophetic voices call the “Third Day Church.” With this view in mind, let me present some “bullets” which, I believe, are paradigm shifts for the twenty-first century.

• There will be an apostolic relational mandate released emphasizing “networking” versus vertical authority structures in the body of Christ. This fresh emphasis on cross-pollination wi ll replace much of the inbred church associations which are strife-ridden by the spirit of competition and control.

While in worship I believe the Lord gave me the following phrases: “When the apostolic is made personal (AMP), there will be mighty authority in the prophetic  (MAP) in that day. The Lord will amplify His voice in those relational renewal centres, and the Holy Spirit will put them on His map.

• As a post-sectarian era is ushered in, an apostolic movement of grace will confront a political spirit in the church, even as the prophetic movement exposed and confronted the religious spirit in the church.

• The restoration of David’s Tabernacle as prophesied in Amos 9:12 and Acts 15:16-18 shall come forth resulting in authentic 24-hour houses of prayer and praise, worship and intercession sprinkled across the nations. New creative songs and sounds shall emerge as it was with the radical ministry of William and Catherine Booth’s Salvation Army Bands. Once again, praise will not be confined to the “four walls of the church” but will spill out into the open-air arena.

• In the church world, a theological shift away from the false theory of cessationism, the belief that spiritual gifts passed away with the closing of the cannon of Scriptures and the second generation apostles of the early church, will continue to occur. In other words, cessationism is going to cease!

• A new signs and wonders movement is emerging. Healing rooms and centres will be instituted in many cities devoted to praying for the sick and casting out evil spirits in the same way Jesus commissioned the seventy in Luke 10. We will see parades of people healed of various diseases as in the days of the life of John G. Lake in the 1920’s.

• This move of God will be so powerful that the church will gather in stadiums to worship. Both the collective church in given regions as well as some local congregations will grow so large that they will fill stadiums with their celebrations of worship.

• There will be a great move of the Holy Spirit among women. Many women will be released into the five-fold ministry, and they will be used in the worldwide revival which is both coming and already upon us. Ultimately, the church will cease to be caught up in “doctrinal issues” concerning women in ministry, because this movement will be precipitated by necessity as a result of the sheer volume of labourers needed for the harvest. The coming period could easily be termed “The Decade of Women Preachers.”

• A renewal of the Quietist Movement will emerge as believers in Christ find the “secret place of the Most High” (Psalm 91) to truly be their dwelling place. A fresh revelation of intimacy with God, communion with Jesus, their Lover, Husband and Master, will come forth. A generation of believers like Mary of Bethany will arise and gladly “waste” their lives on the Lord!

• A fresh holiness movement will spring up in the church worldwide. Its emphasis shall be one of the Father’s mercy mixed with an authentic spirit of conviction of sin (John 16:8) causing many to repent and their stained garments to be experientially cleansed by the power and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

• The body of Christ will awaken to her call and responsibility to reach and lift up the poor and oppressed as stated in Isaiah 58:7-12. Finances will be released to care for the widow and the orphan as declared in James 1:27. As hilarious, joyful giving is restored, chains of orphanages will come forth as the church awakens from her self-cantered life-styles.

• We will see tremendous transfers of wealth into the Kingdom of God through the ministry of “market place apostles and prophets.” Those with anointing for business, administration and creativity shall be blessed, not resisted, by the church. The wall between clergy and laity, secular market place and spiritual ministry, shall come down.

• An extravagant youth movement is coming to the global body of Christ that will “rock the nations.” Youth will lead public and private events to pray and fast for revival, which will spread rapidly around the nations. This will be a “trans-generational anointing” where the hearts of the Fathers are turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers (Malachi 4:5-6). Other events such as “The Call,” which was held in Washington D.C. (USA) on September 2nd, 2000, will occur in a ripple effect across the nations.  

• A wave of identificational repentance will overwhelm a remnant of the gentile church causing her to repent of her historical wrongs against the Jewish people. In response to this, a non-legalistic revelation of the “Sabbath rest” will be released from the throne of grace that will result in healing to many.  

• There will be a great harvest among the Jewish people, which will escalate during this decade. This will particularly affect the Russian Jews around the world. There will be what some missiologists term “a People Movement” among them. I believe there will also be a parallel persecution of the Jews in the “land of the north” and potentially other lands. It is the devil’s strategy to precipitate another type of holocaust; but God will raise up trumpeters like Mordecai who shall prepare the corporate “Esther,” the Church, for such a time as this. Radical prayer will open a window of escape for those Jewish people who feel called to leave and cause a hedge of protection to come upon those who are temporarily called to stay according to Jeremiah 4:14-16.  

• A “convergence of the ages” shall come upon us. The anointing of the Pentecostal fire; the healing and deliverance crusades; the Latter Rain presence; the evangelical burden for the lost; the charismatic gifts; the zeal of the Jesus People Movement; the Third Wave credibility; the revelation of the prophetic movement and the relational networking of the apostolic reformation, shall all merge together into a tidal wave that will eclipse the impact of Martin Luther’s reformation 500 years ago. This will be called “The Great Revolution.”  

• The Lord will give the church the opportunity to rewrite her stained and spotted history. Radical deeds of identificational repentance, acts of mercy to the poor and the oppressed, presence and power encounters to the sick and the demonized, warrior praise and intercession arising over cities will mount as a Revolution comes upon the global body of Christ and creates a great societal awakening! If history books are written of the years that lie ahead, they will refer to the coming years as “The Days of His Glorious Presence.”  

          Reprinted from “Spread the Fire” Magazine  (Toronto, Canada),  Issue 1, 2001.

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