Change the Culture 1: Re-laying the Foundation
“no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11)
Introduction
Whilst many contemporary Western Christians are appalled by the “woke” culture flooding our nations, inciting our prayers for “revival”, few sense the sovereign Spirit (Isa 61:1; 2 Cor 3:18) speaking to us about the inherited “secularisation” of the forms of our faith. By “secularisation” I mean something far more profound than a modern ideology that is “me-focussed”. The devil’s long-term strategy is to divert the Church from pure worship and praise of God fully and finally revealed in Jesus Christ. A restoration of New Testament Christianity is what the Spirit of God in unveiling to me of late. I will expound in later teachings lost dimensions of prayer, worship, prophecy, and mission which need restoration in the Church (Acts 3:21). Shockingly, the very way we understand “revival” is an integral part of our problem. (https://www.academia.edu/11728566/The_Old_Testament_Concept_of_Revival_within_the_New_Testament)
Praying for Kingdom rather than Revival
When it comes to prayer, the most zealous of new covenant believers have been overinfluenced by historical tendencies that are sub-biblical. Jesus taught us to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2), and he personally spent 40 days between resurrection and ascension “speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). This subject was clearly a primary priority. Why have we then failed to ask the Lord to raise up and send out missionaries and evangelists like Philip, Barnabas, and Paul (Acts 13:1-3). We have neglected such a focus, but mistakenly zealously petitioned him to “hear from heaven forgive our sin and heal our land” (2 Chron 7:14). But the reality is that all of our sins are fully forgiven (objectively) in Christ (Col 1:14), and the old covenant curses of drought, locust and plague have no application to the body of Christ (2 Chron 7:13; Gal 3:13 cf. Deut 28:15ff.). It is a serious mistake to think that the “revival” asked of God in the Old Testament (Ps 85:6; Hab 3:2; Hos 10:12-13) can be translated across to the new covenant in Christ. Such deficiencies in thought and practice are traceable to our marginalising of the status of Jesus! God spoke clearly several decades ago in a prayer meeting dedicated to asking for “revival”, saying, “Ask me for revelation concerning my Son!” Such Christ-centredness is an emphasis expounded in the New Testament by the Spirit teaching us to abide on Jesus’ own new kingdom life received by resurrection from the dead.
One Revived Person
The ultimate “revival” of our humanity, with power to raise the dead spiritually and materially, is located in Christ’s own personal experience of resurrection The power of his teaching on God’s coming kingdom, plus his mighty works (Acts 10:38) are signs anticipating the inbreaking Final power of God that will “regenerate” the whole universe (Matt 19:28). The chronic corruption of humanity in Adam has received its healing from the inbreaking of a new order of being in Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Hence Paul testifies, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Cor 15:45 cf. “he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22). The resurrected Jesus far surpasses the created glory resident in Adam because his entire being is completely animated by the “Spirit of holiness” (Rom 1:4). As a yet untested man, Adam was created with original righteousness and was conditionally immortal, but he could only attain the seal of final immortality by real obedience in resisting temptation. In failing this test, Adam and Eve lost the glory of incorruptibility (Gen 3:6; Rom 3:23; 1 Cor 15:42ff.). The one fully tempted man, “made perfect through suffering” (Heb 2:10; 5:9) was stretched to the limit in our place (Matt 4:1-11; Mark 14:32-42; 15:34) but obeyed to the last and so was honoured with a new order of life by his Father. The pinnacle of Christ’s glorification was the gift of authority to give lost men and women the Spirit just as he had been given the Spirit of Sonship (John 7:37-39; Rom 8:14-16; Gal 4:4-6). This is why Peter boldly proclaims at Pentecost, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from ethe Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” (Acts 2:33 cf. Matt 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16). This has vast implications for our renewal.
The receiving of the Spirit throughout Acts is not primarily for personal renewal, but to impart power for kingdom ministry in the likeness of Christ, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 repeating Luke 4:18ff.)
Reverse Thinking
In the New Testament the story of Jesus moves seamlessly from Gospels to Acts (“all that Jesus began to do and teach” 1:1b) and onwards to “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:1). The contemporary Western Church however, self-conscious of its own failings, has violated this grand narrative through fixating on “revival” to the exclusion of the dynamic of the kingdom of God. This diversion and reversal of divine priorities has robbed us of the living power of the Spirit testifying to the glorified/vivified Jesus as “another King” (Acts 10:36; 17:7). Anyone may quote, “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (5:16 KJV), but after hearing fervent prayers for revival for over 50 years, few of them seem “effectual” or possessed of “great power” for change. To bypass the life of Jesus in the Gospels, his ministry, death, and especially resurrection, then going straight to Acts and later events in Church history as models for revival is a costly error. How dare we move God’s Son out of the central place ordained by is Father.
Cross the Ugly Ditch
The energy exerted by countless global intercessors for the World Prayer Assembly 2023 in Perth has yet to bear visible fruit. Nevertheless, I sense in the Spirit that our Church is about to witness a radical cultural revolution. Not one that will be initially dramatic, but in maturing it will bear all the marks of “revival/awakening”, however we understand these terms. Whilst on the outside we can pass “seamlessly” from the Gospels into Acts and all the way to Revelation, in following Jesus personally and corporately we most always stumble over the “ugly ditch of the cross”. I have had a personal revelation of the cross as pre-eminently “beautiful” and believe this insight will graciously come to many more in the Church carrying us all across “the ugly ditch”, “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” (Isa 53:2) “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23; 1 Pet 2:8)
Conclusion
The cultural revolution/“revival/awakening” of persistent prayer, pure worship, true prophecy and renewed missional focus is coming to the Church in Perth. This is why these topics will form the substance of my upcoming prophetic-teaching articles. These are subjects for our ongoing prayers. Let us pray….