by David Orton

 
Part 2 of 3
 
“But he removed Saul and made David their king…”

Act 13:22
 
In this three part series we are showing that David typifies the new order of the kingdom, involving revolutionary transitions in six areas: paradigm, heart, purpose, structure, leadership, and principle.
 
In the final part I will discuss the strategy and timing of the Saul-David transition.
 
Purpose-shift
 
This shift is from gift to agape.
 
Samuel’s response to Saul’s disobedience, “To obey is better than sacrifice”, is instructive (see 1 Sam 15:22). Saul, like the contemporary church, had mistakenly focussed on gift and ministry. He saw ministry success as the main-game – as his purpose. It reminds me of some workers of miracles on the day of judgement,

-Embracing True Biblical Unity

by Brett Jacobsen

This article is an excerpt from the authors book Heaven's Underground Blueprint which is available here - http://www.christisall.org/hub-book.

by David Newby

About 25 years ago, an old concept in church hierarchy was reintroduced to the church under a different label. It was partly built on relationship, which was good, but it was also a cover up for control.

As it developed, the "whose covering are you under?" question became somewhat meaningless to me personally. The reason was this.

I had been associated with some churches which came into relationship for the purpose of being under a "covering". The pastor of a church in Sydney would come under the covering of a pastor in Brisbane. The Brisbane pastor would be under the covering of a pastor in New Zealand who would in turn be under the covering of a pastor in Canada, and so forth.

by David Orton

Part 1 of 3

“But he removed Saul and made David their king…”

Acts 13:22

The transition from Saul to David typically foreshadows a revolution occurring in the church right now.

Many across the western church, including market researchers such as George Barna, are now recognising on empirical grounds (through measuring trends) that a revolution is occurring. Barna forecasts that over the next two decades the 70% of Christians who currently attend traditional church will reduce to 30% – and the 30% currently outside of it will increase to 70%!

by Brett Jacobsen

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matt 11:28-30

 
Choose the Spirit not the struggle
 
Although we are taught to keep smiling and stand in faith, many Christians struggle a lot of the time with every day life. It is painfully obvious why some struggle as they live out blatant ungodliness, while others are sincere about their desire to live in His holiness but find themselves regularly falling short. They, or rather we, sometimes sound like Paul in Romans saying "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I" Rom 7:15 and "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do" Rom 7:19.

VISION by Wolfgang Simson  (-Nov 2003)

THE THREE BOOTHS

I saw a long line of newly-saved people entering the Kingdom of
God. Everything was new for them, so there were three booths set
up for them to pass through. At the first booth, they would sign up
for God's army and pledge total loyalty to God. From then on, they
were under orders, no longer their own, and were given a uniform
and boots. At the second booth, they were given a sword, and at
the third, a scythe - a harvesting tool. Astonishingly, only around
one in a thousand of the new arrivals even went to the first booth;
almost everyone went to the second stand, and almost everyone
also ignored the third stand. Almost nobody went to all three
stands, as God explicitly intended.

by Brett Jacobsen

The following are two excerpts from chapter two (The Wander Years/The Church’s Extended Dark Age) of the authors book Heaven's Underground Blueprint. The book which brings a prophetic context to the end time underground church is available here - http://www.christisall.org/hub-book.

Man reclaims the reins

For much of the church age men have been leaning on their own understanding and embracing false leadership structure due to this tendency to act out of self when the pressure is on. Although there were early signs of the spirit of man trying to rule in the church there are some key landmarks which sealed the deal and allowed mankind to snatch back the reins from the Lord.

by David Newby

Matthew 9:16 Jesus said "No-one puts a patch of new cloth onto an old garment…."

Luke 5:36 "No-one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn (ruined) the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old."

What Jesus was saying is this - "This new covenant Church that I am building is not just an add-on to the old covenant and ways…… and if you just try to keep the old going by tacking bits of the new onto it, both will be ruined."

In Matthew 9:17, Jesus said that the old wineskin had to be thrown out, otherwise the new wine would be wasted.

by David Newby

For the purpose of illustration, we will use the pyramid to represent organisational hierarchy. In this instance, it refers to the ecclesiastical hierarchy that quickly developed in the first one hundred years of the post-apostolic period, paving the way for what became the catholic church in the fourth and fifth centuries AD.

In spite of the beliefs of the Reformers, changing from the old power-based leadership and organisational structures was too big an idol for them to topple, so these are still part of our “normal” church life and experience.

God had wanted ALL of Israel to be a nation of priests - to serve in His presence. Israel was to be the vehicle of salvation to the nations around them as well.

by Brett Jacobsen

Defining spirituality

Many people think that in order to be spiritual you need to be somewhat fruity, having a strange eerie manner about you. Others believe in a more relaxed down to earth lifestyle which sometimes leans towards carnal worldly living.

Jesus was the most highly spiritual being the planet has ever seen. He regularly defied natural laws by the supernatural power He had flowing from His life. Although He was a very spiritual individual, often spending whole nights in prayer and working many miracles, in a lot of respects He was a fairly normal guy. He wasn’t born into royalty or a revered religious family, He didn’t have political persuasion, and to those close to His life He didn’t seem to look too different.

by David Newby

Sure, I'll do anything, but don't ask me to change!

I remember something Bill Wilson (New York Children's Ministry) said that really stuck with me - "People change, but not much!"

It would be true for most of us that we put a lot more energy into resisting change than assessing and adopting it. This adds credence to the old saying that "Some people's minds are like concrete, all mixed up and permanently set!"

To gain some insight into where this book is leading, we need to look back in time to the era before the Reformation, when the need for change was patently obvious but resistance to change was strong

by John White

(Note: this was written to introduce two men who are leading house churches in different parts of the country.)

It has been on my mind for a while now to introduce the two of you to each other. The reason is that each of you are in similar situations (one in NJ and the other in Florida). Both of you have thriving house churches that need to multiply. Both of you have families and are working in the world full time and so are probably stretched to (beyond?) the limit. As God is raising up house churches in this country, I suspect that your situation will be played out in hundreds of places in the months/years to come. What is needed is a multitude of prototypes that each reflect Biblical values.

-Worldly Money Principles in God's House

by Brett Jacobsen

Money has and probably always will be a hot topic in and out of the Church. It is no wonder that this is the case when the world is so caught up in the money game and the world seems to leek, and sometimes pour into God’s House. Jesus said “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” Matt 6:21, which takes the money topic to a high level of priority.

As money is a part of every day life we do need to spend time regularly examining our financial dealings and mindsets in the light of God’s Word and His holy presence. Although there has been considerable dishonour and distractions with money in the church we should not avoid the subject but rather come back to a place of honour and biblical obedience.

-Its Spirit & Structure

by David Orton

Part 2 of 2

“…until a time of reformation”

Heb 9:10

In Part 1, we saw that the new reformation demands a heart-rectification.

Before we can attempt any reformation of structures our spirit must be clean. Only by turning from dead works – from every humanly derived activity – from our innate rebellion and independence – will we be released by God into the reformation of structures.

Without this deep work of the Spirit we will only replicate the past. The rivers of reformation only ever flow from the deep wells of regeneration. For this reason Jesus refers to the final rectification and revolution of His kingdom as “the regeneration” (see Mtt 19:28 ).

by Jeff Gilbertson

When Paul went to Corinth in 50 A.D., he said: “I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Please notice: into a Greek culture, which worshipped “knowledge”, Paul sought only to know Jesus! By divine direction, he preached a message void of “persuasive words of wisdom” but instead clearly demonstrated the Holy Spirit and the power of God. (I Cor. 2)
Paul prevailed in Corinth by coming in the opposite spirit: instead of preaching wisdom with clever words, he preached the “foolishness of the cross”- convinced that the foolishness of God is wiser than men!

From Jerusalem to Athens

by John White

Dear Church,

A good friend who is in the construction industry mentioned to me the other day about a church construction project that he is working on. This particular one was going to cost $10,000,000. This made me think more about the "paradigm shift" that we will need to undergo as God restores New Testament church values.

From the beginning, churches met in homes. Graydon Snyder in his book ANTE PACEM: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine says, "The New Testament Church began as a small group house church (Col. 4:15) and it remained so until the middle or end of the third century." (p. 166) The idea of "the church building" really didn't get going until the early 300's with Constantine. (This is when government began to get involved with church.)

by Brett Jacobsen

In order to get our heads around this topic we will have to remove our Greek style, tradition infected mindsets and flow with the Spirit of truth and revelation.

Please pray (Eph 1:17-18, 2 Cor 10:5-6) and proceed.

Because most Christians have been a part of the contemporary church for some time now it is quite natural to kick, at least a little, against truth that challenges where we’ve been and what we’ve done as the church.

In the same way as the children of Israel demanded a worldly leadership structure, when they cried out for a king (1 Sam 8:1-20), so to does the humanness of the church crave an institution as its identity rather than flowing organically in Christ. Due to Israel’s history repeating itself in the church it didn’t take very long for worldly institutionalism to arise, dominate and set in.

by John White

Dear Church,

The following is my contribution to the New Testament Church Planters discussion group that I am a part of. (Anyone can join - see the address below). The current thread concerns the definition and ministry of apostles. I am making the argument that in the early church there was great diversity in the ministry of apostles and that we should expect the same today.

This is important because if we are going to see a million house churches planted there will need to be thousand of these apostles (church planters). I think we will be surprised at some of the people God will call to function in this way. (Might even be some of you!)

by David Orton

“…until a time of reformation”

Heb 9:10

Part 1 of this teaching will explore the spirit of the New Reformation and Part 2 the structure.

Christ’s coming triggered a ‘reformation’, inaugurating a new order.

The letter to the Hebrews is a transitional and therefore reformational book. Using both comparison and contrast, it shows the superiority of the new over the old, calling the believing Hebrews into complete transition. With a foot in both camps, they were caught in the external requirements of the old, despite having put their faith in Christ in the new.

The Greek word ‘reformation’ in our text (Hebrews 9:10) is ‘diorthosis’, meaning ‘a making straight, a rectification, correction’. But what was the nature of this ‘reformation’ – what was it rectifying or correcting?

By Brett Jacobsen

This 4 part audio teaching series by Brett Jacobsen presents an overview of the current reformation of the Church.

(All audio files are mp3 files and are around 20 mb. Just click on link to download.)

Part 1 : The Early Church in its New Skin - How it all Began 

Part 2 : Journey Into the Dark Ages - What Went Wrong  

Part 3 : Gods Process of Reformation - Brokenness in Heart 

Part 4 : Much Needed Change - Fruit of Man Made Structure