Hear the powerful testimony of a young woman. Her background is in a traditional church but then observe her experience of baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit. The evidence of her transformation is visible in her desire to pursue Jesus and grow in the knowledge of HIM. She understands she is a babe in Christ, but now longs to develop her relationship with Him. Notice, the new church she says she is in, it is like the church in the Book of Acts. It is small, so that there is accountability as they build disciples who want to impact their community and build more disciples.
Tag Archives: Book of Acts church
ESCALATION OF HOSTILITY -Turkish President: ‘Netanyahu is a terrorist, Israel is a terrorist state’
Erdogan attacked Israel as “a terrorist state,” notwithstanding the widespread condemnation he has faced over the mounting death toll of Kurds killed by Turkish forces.
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday over harsh criticism of Israel’s handling of violent rioting in Gaza, Erdogan shot back with a number of insults aimed at the head of the Jewish state.
Erdogan’s comments were apparently prompted by Netanyahu’s observation that the Turkish leader “is not used to being talked back to” or accustomed to being confronted for “occupying North Cyprus, invading the Kurdish belt and butchering civilians in Afrin.” Netanyahu warned Erdogan that with a record such as this, he “should not preach to us about values and morality.”
When you consider this escalation of hostility with the following report, you realise how it ties in with last days wars prophesied in God’s Word.
Dec. 12, 2017, ahead of the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak, which is close to President Recep Tayyip, says, Erdoğan and his ruling AKP party, published an article given in “A Call for Urgent Action,” which also appeared on the paper’s website under the title “What If an Army of Islam Was Formed Against Israel?”
The article called on the 57 member states of the OIC to form a joint “Army of Islam” to besiege and attack the state of Israel. It notes that such a joint army will greatly exceed the Israeli army in manpower, equipment and budget, and presents statistics to prove this. I have already covered this article in a recent post:
“LAST DAYS” BIBLE PROPHECY – SURROUNDING ARABIC NATIONS WILL ATTACK ISRAEL
It is time we returned to church as described in the Book of Acts: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine (God’s Word) and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and prayers.” Acts 2:42
CHURCH AS JESUS PRAYED FOR IN JOHN 17
Film “The Last Reformation – The Life”
It is now available for everyone to watch on YouTube for free. You can see the movie with subtitles in around 30 different languages. Since the premiere in Holland, a little more than a month ago, there have been over 1000 screenings all over the world and the response has been amazing. People really loved the movie and after watching the movie many people experienced healing, deliverance, repented, got baptised in water and received the Holy Spirit.
Now it is time to share it with everyone out there, so they can see church as God intended.
LAST REFORMATION – CHURCH AS IN THE BOOK OF ACTS
Why at this time in history, do we see God raise up people like Torben Sondergaard (Denmark) to show people that church, as described in the Book of Acts, can be experienced today.
Likewise, why was Francis Chan, author of best seller, Crazy Love and pastor of a church of 5,000 in California, convicted by God to walk away. Few in the church were using the gifts of the Holy Spirit to train up disciples and yet it was costing thousands of dollars to maintain this organisation. He now has 30 House churches, all training up disciples of Christ prepared to go out to train up more disciples of Christ. No paid leaders, Jesus is the leader of the church and His Kingdom is being built.
Even marketplace ministries such as the International Christian Chamber of Commerce realise that we are in the last days and workplace reformation is needed. The last ICCC Conference was in Geneva and called Reformation at Work (500 years since the Reformation). There we declared “We hereby welcome and receive a new reformation starting at our workplaces in every nation manifesting the power of the Kingdom of God”
Be encouraged, listen to Torben explain what God is doing to grow His church using the Last Reformation movement. We live in exciting times but only if we are totally sold out to God and delighted to do His will – “not my will, Lord, but Yours be done”.
ONLY A RADICAL CHURCH WILL SURVIVE THE COMING TRIBULATION
The Coming Church: article by John Burton – see bio below. I suggest you reread these posts for further confirmation – Are our churches making disciples, July 16th – Church as God intended, July 26th – Wake up church, Aug 3rd – Church in the last days, Aug 9th – Building church God’s way, Aug 17th.
“The book that I’m currently writing will address some of the spiritual and practical changes that will come to the structure and expression of the church. Trust me, it will shock our nation severely.
Those who hold on to a structure or a ministry instead of Jesus Himself will not be willing to go where God is leading.
The coming church will be rooted in scripture. The biblical structure has been largely forsaken in traditional churches. What will the emerging church look like? Here’s just a small peek into a grand shift in the structure of the church:
1. Services will become more like prayer meetings. One of the greatest indictments on the church today is that prayer is not the driving force. Today, people tend to choose churches based on the appeal of the teaching and the worship instead of the fervency of prayer. If the church was a house of teaching or a house of worship, that would make sense, but it’s not. The church is a house of prayer for all nations. Every person in the church will function as a burning intercessor and the services will be marked by this unified groan of fiery prayer.
2. Personal need will give way to personal mission. Today, churches are often more like organic, socially driven hospitals. People tend to use the church as a way to meet their personal needs instead of serving it as a minister of God. This is going to change. Of course, there will still be personal ministry and true needs will be addressed.
However, instead of the church functioning as a hospital, it will once again function as a mission-driven military. The mission will take precedence. The saints will be equipped for service, not for personal survival. In this ancient and emerging model, there will be MASH units that will take very good care of the wounded with the primary purpose of getting the soldier back into battle. Apostles will again lead with governmental authority and pastors will be seen as the main leader less and less as they focus more on shepherding and less on primary leadership.
3. Teaching will be minimized while instruction is emphasized. Teaching is mostly for personal edification while instruction is mostly for corporate assignments. Today, most churches focus on teaching principles of Scripture, providing truths that will help believers navigate through their lives and giving nuggets of biblical info. While there will still be important Bible teaching, apostolic instruction will emerge as a necessary new ministry.
There is enough Bible teaching online, on CDs, in books and on video to turn every one of us into personal spiritual giants. We need to take it upon ourselves to grow. What is lacking, however, is apostolic leaders, military commanders who give instruction and assignments to a ready army. Teaching is personal growth-based while instruction is a call to corporate action for the sake of mission fulfillment.
An example of apostolic instruction is this: The apostolic leader gives a corporate assignment for everybody in the church to fast for a week and then show up together to prayer walk through the city streets. It’s a corporate call to action versus biblical study. It’s mission focused versus personal growth focused. Personal growth will be largely our responsibility between services so we can be ready to respond to the corporate instruction where we will receive our assignments.
4. We will gather together most days of the week. The 24/7 church will again emerge as the church drives culture instead of reacting to culture. Cares of life will lose their power as we simplify our lives and put corporate prayer and mission ahead of most everything else.
This may be the most challenging change for Christians. Today, Sundays are the days to set aside for corporate worship while we give precedence to our ‘normal lives.’ In the Coming Church, the very reason we live will be to pray on fire together every day, receive apostolic assignments and then move out into our lives as kingdom ambassadors. It wouldn’t be surprising if a tithe of our time is what became the standard. Two to three hours a day, whether it’s in the morning, afternoon or evening, or even in the late night hours, will be given by every believer to praying on site together with others, ministering and giving ourselves to intercession-fueled kingdom ministry. Of course, much of what we have been giving ourselves to will have to be eliminated so we have the time necessary to devote.
5. Worship will be supernaturally driven. There is a new sound coming to worship, and it’s not simply a new style. There is a supernatural, otherworldly groan of intercessory worship that will explode out of the entire body as a new breed of trembling worship leaders lead the way into the shock and awe of the glory of God. We will no longer simply sit in a pew or stand with a raised hand while a familiar worship song is sung.
The prophetic, groaning sounds of Holy Spirit facilitated worship will make it normal to shake and fall to our faces as we cry Holy! The natural, logical sing-a-longs will be no more. We will have a hard time standing as God’s Shekinah and Kabod glory resides in His church. Worship teams will practice less and pray in the Spirit with tears in their eyes more.
Of course, this is an extremely limited glance into the many, many changes that are coming. I wanted to share this to provoke you to preparation. There is much that you and I enjoy in the church, or that is comfortable to us, that we will have to let go. Again, the coming church will be troubling and shocking, but it will result in the power and life that we have been crying out for.
God is about to answer that cry.
I strongly recommend that you read my book 20 Elements of Revival. That book reveals much of the shift that we must embrace right now. If you truly take in all that it has to say, you’ll never participate in the church the same way again.”
John Burton has been developing and leading ministries for over 20 years and is a sought out teacher, prophetic messenger and revivalist. John’s mandate is to call the church in the nations to repentance from casual Christianity and to burn in a manner worthy of the King of kings. He is equipping people to confront the enemies of God (established religion, Jezebel, etc.) that hinder an extreme, sold-out level of true worship. He planted two churches, has initiated two city prayer movements and is currently directing a prayer and revival focused ministry school in Detroit called thelabuniverstity.com.
CHURCH AS GOD INTENDED: MINISTERING IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
‘7 Days Adventure with God’ is a powerful movie that gives you a glimpse behind the scenes of a seven day trip in Brazil.
Experience first hand how the Holy Spirit is leading and how God is changing people’s lives on the streets, in the homes and at the “kickstart” meetings.
This documentary is meant to challenge you to discover what it truly means to live out the life we read about in the book of Acts – a life that is so much more than just going to church. This life is an incredible adventure with God.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 