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Surreal! That is what the last 3 and a half months have been. It started with a spur-of-the-moment decision to spend two weeks in Egypt on our way to the USA for our son’s wedding! We spent 3 weeks in the USA only to return to have to pack up our home of the last 11 years within 2 weeks and move to our new home. It was a good time but clearly messed up my writing rhythm! Sorry to all those who have been waiting patiently; I hope this post doesn’t disappoint!

The process of packing up one’s home allows one to engage in a bit of introspection. It is amazing what you collect and store over the course of many years in a single home. Many people have experienced the dilemma of having to gauge what “stuff” do they keep, what “stuff” do they toss and, very importantly, what new “stuff” do they purchase to match the new home. And we experienced the exact same process, having to face up to the hoarding that we had done over the years (without realizing it!). We had to ask “what do we get rid of and what do we need to buy to fill the house”. The outcome of the process is often determined by what the new home can accommodate in terms of space, what of our old stuff holds enough value to us to be taken with and lastly after we have tossed and reviewed what the home can accommodate, what new items need to be purchased.

As I sat wrestling with this, I realised that it is exactly the same with our doctrines, theologies and world views! We often talk about God doing a new thing or bringing a shift, or bringing new perspective and there is nothing wrong with that. Still, we fail to realize (until it is too late) that once we decide to follow the path to the new, it inevitably, at some point, brings us to the place where we are challenged to review our closely held theologies and our world views that have served us well in our past. We are confronted with the fact that the new place or shift in God often doesn’t accommodate what we have learnt and accumulated in our past.

Often, just like the baggage from our old homes, there is no place for some of our old theologies and thoughts in our new “home”. And we come to crossroads in our journey with God where the only way we can make a move to the new is when we “toss” aside some of those dearly beloved thoughts and teachings that we have accumulated over many years!

With the benefit of this insight, I want to pose the question, “what is the role of what is commonly called the Ephesians 4 gift ministries in the context of the new understanding that God is releasing regarding the Ekklesia”? Asked differently, “is it not time that we “toss” aside some of what we have been taught on the subject and allow God to shift our paradigms and understanding, ushering in something fresh and new, something that can be accommodated in our new “home”?”

Ephesians 4:11 states “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds (Pastors) and teachers,¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,^[c] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴ so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. ¹⁵ Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (ESV)

If we view this passage in light of Ekklesia, which is a community of Gods people, ruling and governing in specific spheres of culture we see the following:

Because the Ephesians 4 gifts are to equip the body the equipping needs to empower the Ekklesia in all spheres of culture and not just in our traditional church understanding. If the intention behind the Ephesians 4 gifts’ is meant to build up the Ekklesia, then the focus of the Ephesians 4 ministry should be directed towards all the mountains of culture and not just the religious one. There should be an empowering of people to govern in the gates and not simply contribute towards successful church services that only encourage one cultural sphere. Ephesians 4 gifts are meant to speak truth that allows the Ekklesia to grow. When we consider this from the new understanding of Ekklesia it means that the the words or truth spoken by Ephesians 4 ministries need to unlock kingdom desires, destinies and purposes within Ekklesia so that the kingdom comes into the all the spheres of culture of today. Therefore our preaching needs to shift from simply building up our local churches and possibly our “apostolic” streams, to empowering and encouraging the members of our local churches to rule in the gates of divinely assigned spheres of influence.

There has to be a shift in the way leadership of churches function, and it starts with Ephesians 4 gifting’s asking the question, “does what I am doing now by way of teaching, preaching and advocating actually encourage and empower the Ekklesia to discover and unlock the kingdom in all spheres? Or is it simply just focussing on the religious mountain to which I as an individual may be called to?”

If the principle of “every joint supplying what it needs to builds up the body into maturity” is to be followed, then I believe it is time to be bold and look at our worldview of Ephesians 4, to cast aside that which is not accommodated in the new shift that God is asking us to make. We need to seek the Father to help us acquire new outlooks on the role and function of Ephesians 4 gifts in the context of His kingdom. If we want to really impact society in this present moment, we need Ephesians 4 gifts to gain a kingdom perspective. A perspective that unlocks and doesn’t restrain the full potential of the Ekklesia by recognising God is actually interested in cultural points besides what we term “church”. This perspective should recognise Father has anointed and called many amongst the Ekklesia to exercise authority and influence in these other cultural gates. As Moses cried to Pharaoh “let me people go” so I believe the Lord is asking the same of many Ephesians 4 ministries & church leaders at this moment:

“Let my people go.”

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I am convinced that there is an awakening happening across the church at this moment and it has very little to do with our typical understanding of revival. I believe the church is awakening to the fact that everything is spiritual. And while I am sure that statement might get some violent head shakes of disagreement, for the sake of this post I just want to expand on my statement in the context of the Ekklesia. Specifically, I am referring to the fact that the myriad of gifting’s, callings and anointing’s that reside within the Ekklesia are all spiritual, and meant to be celebrated, irrespective of the social or cultural arena that they function in. (Not to digress but If you want to discuss other aspects of everything being spiritual drop me a note!)

Picking up on this thought, if someone is called to be a mathematician, or maybe an artist or a teacher, the call is as spiritual as the call to be a Pastor, a missionary or something that is found within the local church. I often hear people say “one day when I am released into full-time ministry” or “when I get my breakthrough” or “somethings are sacred and some are secular”. All these statements point to a dualistic mindset that has seeped into the body of Christ and which now God is awakening us to deal with.

The definition of Dualism is; The division of something conceptually into two opposed or contrasted aspects. When we engage in dualism we separate our lives into compartments, that which in our framework or culture is seen as “Godly” and that which is seen as “ungodly”. And generally, the teaching of the church over the last 50 years has caused a narrative that says “if you give your passion, time and commitment to anything other than a recognised “church” position or traditional ministry position then you haven’t quite reached the heights that God wanted for you”.

And while there have been strides over the last ten to fifteen years to break out of our dualistic understanding we still have not quite settled in our hearts, that everything is spiritual. Even the term “market-place ministry”, while being a step closer, has still produced a dualistic view of the “two” places that people get to serve God in. And don’t get me started on “full-time ministry”! This concept is one of the great contributors to the slumber and failure of the Ekklesia to arise over the last century.

If the Ekklesia is going to be effective in manifesting the kingdom of God then we have to break the yoke of dualism and see that everyone is called to serve Christ in a full-time capacity, irrespective of the expression. And to do this we have to see the value of all the different callings and anointing’s that are expressed through the Ekklesia. The awakening of the Spirit in this time is shifting our understanding and allowing us to value non-traditional ministry perspectives and see them as necessities in the context of Ekklesia.

I believe there are two core concepts that we need to settle in our hearts in order to break out of our dualism mindsets completely.

1. The state of our hearts

On several occasions in the Bible Paul exhorts believers to “in whatever one does work unto the Lord and not to man”. In these words, Paul gives us a secret in our dealings regarding the separation of spiritual/unspiritual. Paul basically tells us that the test of whether something is Godly or Spiritual is not in what we do doing but rather where our heart is pointing when we doing what we doing.

Put another way, it’s the state or positioning of our hearts that determines whether a call, anointing or gift is spiritual or not. Not the actual gift, anointing or calling. If someone who is called as a Pastor or Prophet simply sees it as a job and does not “work unto the Lord” then pastoring in itself is not spiritual. The converse is true. If someone who is called to the political sphere does it with a heart that is unto the Lord then the engaging and working within the political arena for that person is deeply spiritual. The same can be said for any of the areas that the Ekklesia is supposed to possess and govern in.

Taking the thought that our heart’s determine spirituality a bit further, even the most mundane tasks or daily activities of our lives can be deemed spiritual if we understand how to position our hearts. Taking the dog for a walk, meeting up with friends, reading a book, playing sports, all of these can be spiritual when my heart understands that everything I do is “in Christ” because “I am in Christ”.

Until we see that the expression of our heart towards Christ as the actual key to being spiritual, we will always have people striving to be something or do something that they were never fashioned for. When we cross the separation bridge in our hearts and see that all gifts, calls and anointing’s have the potential to be spiritual then the Ekklesia mandate becomes a reality and a powerful force.

2. Obedience

I am convinced that there are many sons and daughters who have not moved in obedience to what the Holy Spirit was leading them in because it did not seem spiritual or Godly. How many gifted artists, teachers, government leaders, businessmen, mothers are sitting in the pews of the church building trying to find relevance in “church” position’s that they were not fashioned for? But because of the ingrained dualistic foundation in their hearts, they have never stopped to contemplate that maybe the passion for something other than a typical “church” position is actually the Holy Spirit prompting them to move into a different area of influence within the Ekklesia.

Once we see that everything is spiritual our ability to step out in obedience becomes much greater. In fact, it frees us all to pursue our Kingdom and Ekklesia calls with much greater vigour and passion because we don’t carry the burden or weight of failure anymore.

Let’s break free and start exploring our passions, gifts and anointing’s, no matter what they are. Let’s stop talking about sacred and secular. Let’s allow the Spirit to lead us into new places of influence and consider that the very things we deemed not spiritual in the past, might be the spiritual callings that will make the Ekklesia come alive and possess the gates.

Blessings

Ant

When my son was about four years old he loved a salami sandwich. He couldn’t pronounce it properly so he called it “sarmie”. To those who are reading this who are not South African, the word “sarmie” is also slang for “sandwich”. I can’t recall the exact circumstances but Jacqui and I were out one day and my in-laws were babysitting Daniel and Kayleigh. We returned to mayhem! Daniel was crying (if anyone knows Daniel, he could cry!) and my father-in-law was exasperated with my son!

As we walked through the door the first thing my father-in-law said was “I don’t understand. He keeps asking for a sarmie and we keep asking “what kind of sandwich do you want!” It has been two hours and he is still crying for his sarmie, even though we have tried giving him a chicken sarmie and a peanut butter sarmie and a ham sarmie.” Needless to say, my father-in-law was relieved when Daniel’s eyes lit up and he stopped crying as Jacqui made him a salami sarmie!

The potential or power of a word to impact or change our lives significantly lays not in our ability to say the word but rather in our ability to connect or to align to the meaning of the word when we speak it. And when I say meaning, I am not referring to what we think the meaning is based on our perceptions or based on what we have done historically with our understanding of that word or even the way our culture explains the word. I mean the original intent of the word when it was first fashioned. And when it comes to the word “church” we have a whole history of understanding that needs to be undone in our minds in order for us to connect to the power and potential of the word to see its impact in our lives.

Many of you will know that the word “church” is translated from the word “Ekklesia” in the bible. Over the last couple of years the word “Ekklesia” has gained prominence and has started to be used by preachers and Christians alike in conference conversations. It has become the go-to word for those who want to appear in the know. The one usage that I particularly enjoy (the reason will become apparent as we go through this journey, specifically for any one-world order conspiracy theorists amongst us) is the liberal use of the term “Global Ekklesia”. As previously mentioned, we can speak words; even deep words, but if we don’t align our understanding to their meaning then the potential that the words have to fashion our world or our present reality, remains exactly that, just potential.

And so it is with the word Ekklesia. What did Jesus really have in mind when He said He would build His Church (Ekklesia)? Paraphrasing Matthew 16:13-20 Jesus asks His disciples who did men say He was. Some said John the Baptist, others Elijah and others Jeremiah. Jesus then gets real and asks them “But who do you say I am?”. Simon Peter blurts out, “you are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Good old Simon Peter! Jesus then responds with some words which I believe have the power to revolutionize our lives.

Jesus says in verse 17 “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And upon this Rock, I will build my Ekklesia and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus expresses His desire in this moment to build something, and this something is going to be how Christ is revealed, how the gates of hell are to be conquered and how the doors of the kingdom of heaven are to be opened so that there is a synchronization and alignment between heaven and earth!

We call this something church and much of our lives as Christ-followers has been dominated by this concept we call Church. When Jesus said He would build His Ekklesia, He was borrowing a secular word that was not part of any Jewish, Roman, Greek or any other nationalities religious customs or understanding. In fact the word had nothing to do with worship, religious ritual or even God, and when I say God I mean the Hebrew God! Nothing, nada, niks!

The Ekklesia was actually a system of government where men would be called out to participate in the governing of their cities. It was instituted by the Greeks, originally setup in Athens and then extended to other Greek cities. This way of governing was then adopted by the Romans which is why Jesus saw it in operation. The Ekklesia was not tied to worship or religion in any way, although by the definition of being in government definitely did have a say in the religion and worship of the day! The Ekklesia was responsible for the social, economic and cultural compact of a city. They were responsible for legislation that governed the city, for the appointment of magistrates as well as for holding to account these elected magistrates. They truly did have a say in the government of their city.

Knowing this one has to ask the question “why did Jesus not say I will build my temple or I will build my synagogues or even my religion?” Why did He specifically use a term that was directly related to governing? It is a question that I don’t think one can deal with in a couple of sentences but I do want to present some thoughts on it.

There is a verse in in Isaiah that gives us insight into this question. In Isaiah 9:6 it states that “…the government will be upon His shoulders.” While I am sure there is much more to this scripture the fact is that there is a direct connection between Jesus and government. He not only carries governing authority but His purpose in building His church is to release this governing authority that is upon His shoulders to it.

Jesus is wanting to build you and me into people who carry authority, power and influence not simply with churches, church activities, apostolic streams or ministries, however nice that may be, but with spheres and functions of society that relate to every aspect of our lives. Jesus’ intention when He said he would build His church was to form a body of people to whom He would give His spiritual authority to govern so that His government would come to the nations of the world.

We are called to govern in our spheres through the Spirit of Christ empowering us from within.

The Ekklesia is so much more than just enjoying good times of worship together, or hearing a good word preached or prophesying to one another. Don’t get me wrong, these times are good to build us up together.

But for us to really connect to the word Ekklesia and see its potential unleashed means we need to allow the Holy Spirit to shift our understanding of church and connect us to the government upon Jesus’s shoulders.

God bless, have a good week!

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Ant

When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, the book of Acts records these words of Joel, quoted by Peter; “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy”.

Today I want to write about the last point of convergence; the cross-generational outpouring. It is interesting to note that when the church was birthed by this wonderful act of the Spirit in Acts 2, Peter being inspired by the Spirit, quotes a passage that is very clear in terms of who gets to participate in this outpouring: everyone, male and female, old and young, all flesh! No generation was to be left out of this experience. It was for everyone and it spoke to a truth that I believe in the western world we have lost: God works across generations to accomplish His Will!

In the western world, we love classifying our generations. Since 1890, we have classified generations based on the date that we were birthed. The Lost Generation was born in 1890 and ever since then we have tried to identify people around the generation they are born in. We have identified Baby Boomer Generation (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1979), Xennials (1975-(1985), Millenials/Gen Y (1980-1994), Gen Z (1995-2012) and finally Gen Alpha.

I am not sure whether our culture’s fascination with generations came first or whether the church’s fascination came first but this habit of labelling generations is also very much a part of our church culture. We often label or identify a generation with some kind of biblical connotation as though having that label will magically induce the anointing of the label. In my years of being a follower of the way, I have heard different generations being labelled as the Joshua generation, the Jacob generation, the Elijah generation, the Joseph and for those brave enough, even the Christ generation. While I have no doubt the good intention behind this I believe the labelling and classification of generations have had the opposite effect of what the Acts moment had in Acts 2. Instead of incorporating and including everyone in the outworking of Father’s current plans, it has often segregated, offended and placed unrealistic expectations on the poor generation that gets the label.

The root word for generations, is, wait for it…generate. It simply means to bring “something” into existence through a physical or chemical process. An interesting aspect about this process of generation is that it uses the “old” in the process of creating something “new”. The old elements generate something new and in that sense the “new” is both old and new. The new generation is connected to what went before it. When we start seeing the value of the connectedness between generations we start positioning ourselves for the inheritance that only flows through generational blessing!

Let me explain. When God spoke His promise to Abraham that he would be the father of nations and would be a blessing to the nations, there was no way that Abraham by himself would be able to fulfil this word. The natural time span of his life would not allow him to see his family tree grow into what would become the nation of Israel. In other words, the word to Abraham and the promise of God to him was cross-generational. It would not be fulfilled by Abraham alone. It would only be fulfilled by multiple generations. These generations, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each had to sow their own lives into the “generate” process so that the twelve sons of Jacob could walk in the promise of Abraham. They were connected and could not fulfil the promise by themselves, they had to receive what the other generations sowed and had to sow what they received for the next generation.

How many times do we cut ourselves off from walking in a truth or a victory or an experience, because we fail to see ourselves connected to the generations before and after us? How many times do we limit a future generation from walking in a blessing because we expect God’s promise to be fulfilled in the here and did not sow for the next generation?

I believe that at this moment God is asking the Abrahams to sow now so that future generations may reap our present moment promises. As we look with this kind of discernment, we enter into present moment promises that generations before us believed for, spoke out and sowed for us to experience today.

I am fully convinced that the outpouring of the Spirit is coming to those who see the value of being connected across generations. They see both the value of receiving from and honouring the older generation as well as sowing and honouring the generation to come. I wrote last week that the Abrahams are moving from a place of delay; these Abrahams are both young and old. These Abrahams see the generations to come and are willing to share their promises with those to come. They do this because they know they are connected.

In the outpouring of the Spirit across generations nobody gets left behind. We all get to be connected to the work of the Spirit in our day.

Look out for next week’s post: Journey of the Ekklesia

Ant

This week has been a difficult week for writing. There is something that I really want to write about and the more I try convince myself to write about it the more I am reminded by the Holy Spirit to finish what I started. And what I need to finish are my remaining points about convergence!

It was in 2016 that I first heard the words “we are entering into a season of Abrahams” in my spirit. As seems to be the pattern when God speaks to me, I didn’t have a clue what He was saying and so I gave myself to studying the life of Abraham. This process resulted in some really good teaching material on Abraham (happy to share it with you) but there was still a dissatisfaction in my spirit whenever I thought of the words “a season of Abrahams”. It was clear that while I had made my notes, I had not connected to the word that I was hearing in my spirit.

It was only when I heard the word “convergence” in March 2020 that the penny dropped and began to understand what the season of Abrahams was really about. While there was nothing wrong with the teachings I had gleaned from my study I came to realise that the most pivotal point of this “Abrahamic” season was about finishing what you start.

There is a misconception around the timing of when Abraham heard the call of God to leave his family and go to a new land. And it is important that we understand that when Abraham first heard the call of God it was not in Genesis 12. A careful reading of the passage in Genesis 12 tells us that “the Lord had said to Abram go from your country”. Your translation may just say said but the original Hebrew word carries the connotation of had said. This is in itself is not a major revelation except when we see it in the context of Genesis 11 and Acts 7. Let me explain.

At the end Genesis 11 we read how Terah, Abraham’s father, takes Abraham and leaves their home of Ur of Chaldeans which was in Mesopotamia, to go to the land of Canaan. They end up settling in Haran, literally half-way to their end goal. It is important to note that Abraham’s father led them out on this journey, not Abraham. Now let’s look at what Acts tells us about this.

In acts 7, Steven says these words “The God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran”. What this tells us is that the Lord appeared and spoke to Abraham about leaving his home, about becoming a blessing to the nations and carrying the seed of Christ before Terah led them to Haran. Terah was not the one with the call but he recognized that his son needed to go. Unfortunately, one of the meanings of Terah is delay. And this is what happened to Abraham because he let someone else lead him in his pursuit of his God given call. He settled with his father at Haran and as a result of settling he ended up being delayed in what God had asked him to do. It was only after Terah died that Abraham continued on his journey of walking in the stewardship that our heavenly Father wanted him to possess and walk in.

To translate this into today; there are many sons and daughters (the Abrahams) whom God has spoken to about going into new spheres of influence, or of claiming new lands of inheritance or of serving Father in radical new ways that are not the traditional “ministry” focus. They have been asked to go to their Canaan, a new land. They started on the journey but have only gone half-way to Haran. Unfortunately, many of these Abrahams were led by spiritual fathers and mothers or by “church systems” which tried to lead them into Canaan but instead settled in Haran. These fathers and mothers or systems did not receive the vision or the mantle to lead into this season but nonetheless tried to. It is only after Terah dies that Abraham is released from delay and continues his journey. And this is true for these Abrahams of today.

It is very obvious that during this last year many of our precious church systems (and maybe even some of our fathers and mothers) have been brought to their knees and no longer have the answer. The world is in need of those who have a mantle of Abraham for this moment, those who would bring a fresh, inspired and Christ filled blessing to the nations and the world. Not an old understanding or paradigm. This season of Abrahams is about sons and daughters, moving out of delay, out of settling and moving into a promise. This promise might look different to different people but it retains the same principle – it is for those who have been hidden, those who found themselves settled believing that what is held in their heart would not come to pass. It is for those who now need to stand up and step out because the Lord has removed the delay.

It is time for these Abrahams to shake off the delay, to move from being settled and to once again move into the journey they started many years ago. This season of Abrahams will be marked by men and women of influence being raised up into all spheres of society so that they may bring the blessing of Christ. This season will be marked by new faces and new voices who will arise from the hidden, settled and delayed place. This season will be marked by new leaders and new types of leaders emerging. In the words of one of my friends, “the mic will be passed to those who have been overlooked in the past because now there is no delay”.

Expect to see the Abraham’s arise.

Ant

As a young man I was given a prophetic word that I was going to disciple nations. At the time it sounded really nice and important. Anybody who has been in church circles a while will know that something that sounds really nice and important often means, “We have no clue what it really means but it sounds rather important”!

I did what most church going people did; asked the pastor and the elders and the visiting ministers and the pastors mother and anybody who would listen if they knew what it meant to disciple the nations. Most of the time I received the same blank stare back, “disciple nations…what’s that got to do with church or growing our church or pastoring a church?” Now and then, when one of the traveling ministers were part of the revered Church Planters club, I received the answer that to disciple nations meant to plant churches and as many as we could. “Years later when I visited Nashville for the first time I smiled as there was a church building on literally every street corner.” I remember thinking “America, or at least Nashville the city must have been discipled if the definition to disciple a nation was simply to plant churches…not.”

I realized that I was not going to find the answer in church or through the wisdom of pastors or typical ministers. By definition most of what was taught and lived in church life at the time was all about propping up a system we called “church” and actually had very little to do with experiencing the gospel of the kingdom in a way that changed nations in a meaningful and lasting way. The model of church was basically, plant (start) a church, get people saved (another discussion for another couple of days), get people trained up in the ways of the church and eventually you will have a congregation that will love everything about Jesus and the ways of church, but not necessarily Him or the deep ways of the Spirit.

Throw in some sessions on the gifts of the Spirit, some sessions on how to serve the church with these gifts and you have a nation discipling church. And let’s not forget the need to ensure that the church has to have deacons and elders and leaders and some evangelism programs and two fast songs and two slow songs and possibly some teaching on how the local church needs to relate to some Apostolic stream and you have the perfect church. And so the cycle carries on. More church plants with the same formula and unfortunately the same outcome, discipleship of the church, by the church, in the ways of the church.

Let me be clear: not everything that we do or have done in the name of church is unfruitful or bad. In fact there are many cultural practices, teachings and experiences that come through what we term “church” that enables sons and daughters to grow in God, to experience God and to be renewed in their spirits. There are prayer movements, worship teams, gifted men and women who have captured aspects of the heart of God for this moment. They are necessary and the church is necessary! There are good churches across the globe.

But if we are really honest with ourselves we have to admit that as a whole, the body of Christ has not engaged in taking up our responsibility to disciple the nations. I will go into detail into this in later posts but suffice to say is that we have not heeded the call of Jesus in Matthew 28 to teach the nations everything that Jesus taught His disciples. What did Jesus teach? Besides the three and a half years where He walked every day with them demonstrating a life yielded to the Holy Spirit (the agent and enabler of the Kingdom), Jesus spent His last forty days entrenching the reach, the role and the required impact of the Kingdom. In Acts 1:3 we are told that Jesus appeared to His disciples and told them many things about His kingdom. Jesus was aligning their understanding with that of the King and of His Father.

The kingdom gospel aligns and empowers the original intent of Father for His sons and daughters and calls creation to bear witness. Creation groans for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God, why? Because creation was created to reflect the kingdom. The kingdom is in the very DNA of creation and once the sons and daughters align with the kingship of Christ it attracts and restores the beauty within creation.

If we take Matthew and Acts together we see that Jesus ultimately wants nations to be schooled and discipled in the ways of His kingdom. Put another way, He wants what is in heaven to be reflected on earth, through the nations. He not only wants individual Christ-like followers to reflect Heaven and the inspiration of heaven, He wants nations and the whole earth to do the same.

The Gospel that Jesus wants His body to preach, teach and to live should have a profound impact on the way the nations live and move and have their being. It should not simply result in churches being planted, but in families restored, in cities empowered, in righteous governments, in abundance of resources, in mass healings and health, in unexplainable and outrageous miracles, in rediscovery of love over divorce, in pure teenagers who are filled with hope, in laws that reflect the nature of God and not man, and ultimately in the radical discoveries of God-inspired calls and adventurous paths to walk.

Let’s start believing together that what Jesus commanded around discipling nations, can become our reality.

Ant