CROSSING THE SPIRIT RIVER INTO A NEW PARADIGM
By Ryan Wyatt
In the wilderness Israel lived and operated in a certain way. It was a wandering lifestyle that God had put them into “for a season of time” and they had grown accustomed to that way of living. Israel was in a time where they were on their way to being restored and established but not quite there yet. Israel responded in a very negative way. They developed a victim mentality and constantly grumbled about their state of being. They had sunk into just a maintenance mentality, just trying to stay alive rather than a victory mentality of ruling and reigning.??
They seemed to believe that when they entered their promise land that all the fighting would cease and all their worries would disappear. The problem is that Israel had no idea who they were. They had no idea that they were the weapon in God’s hands that would establish the rule of God in the earth. I believe the modern day church is in much of the same place. Many believers today live with a victim and maintenance mentality. They get born again and live the rest of their life just trying to be good and do good and they look forward to the day when they cross that spirit river called Jordan and live happily ever after in heaven.??
The whole mentality of the church is about to drastically change. As we cross this threshold in God’s time clock the church is going to realize that we have not just been put on this earth to be saved and then sit around just trying to stay alive and then one day die and pass over into glory. The spirit and anointing of THE OVERCOMER, Jesus Christ, is coming into the body of Christ and the church is going to realize that heaven is not for when we die but it’s for this life, right now, on this earth. Not only that but it’s the responsibility of the church to be the gateway where heaven touches earth. We are to be the instruments that not only bring heaven to earth but also establish and advance the kingdom of heaven on this earth.??
The spirit of a warrior is coming upon the church. Many believe that when you press into your promise land that all the warfare will cease. This is not true! It’s when we press into the promise land of God’s glory that the warfare goes to a whole new level. The warfare in the promise land is CONSTANT. We are the generation that can handle it! We are the generation that will become bold as lions and take this world for God! However, it will require a dramatic shift in our wineskin of life and ministry.??
THE CLASH OF WINESKINS??
I believe that the numerous wineskins of ministry models and structures are already starting to clash like never before. The truth is that if the church continues on the way it has then the church will “never” fulfill her destiny in God. I love pastors and I respect them in their gift but they cannot be expected to where the hat of the entire five-fold ministry. I’m going to make a very bold statement but I think many of you will agree. Churches run by pastors will never fulfill the high and lofty mandate of the church. You see, the five-fold ministry are gifts given directly from Jesus Christ to the church. When Jesus walked the earth he was all of them in one. He was the Apostle, the Prophet, the Evangelist, the Pastor and Teacher. After raising from the dead, Jesus basically took the mantle upon his life and divided it in five pieces and gave it to certain people within the body of Christ. No one person can fulfill all of these ministry gifts. The five-fold ministry, according to Ephesians 4:11, are called to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Five-fold ministry are called to under-gird, raise up, and release the saints to do the work of establishing and expanding the kingdom of God on this earth as the Body of Jesus.?
One ministry gift can never be expected to do all of this. The church has become accustomed to churches run by pastors and the clash of wineskins comes when God releases all of the five-fold to function as a team in raising up an army of warriors to advance the kingdom. Expect this truth and transition to cause much chaos and division in the church, but remember that God always establishes his government in order to bring order in the midst of chaos.??
REGIONAL HABITATIONS BEING ESTABLISHED??
I believe that one of the major focuses and strategies of God in this season is to establish strong apostolic regional bases in every region of the world. In fact, I believe that the only way we are going to establish and advance the kingdom of God is by seeing the prophetic “earthed” out in regional bases where the saints are not just trained to “do the stuff” but are “actually doing the stuff”.??
When I say apostolic regional bases I am not talking about conference centers. Many ministries today think that if they bring in all the latest “Who’s Who in the Charismatic Zoo” to their conferences that it will draw a big crowd and they will be recognized as an apostolic center. I have news for you, conferences alone will “never” build the kingdom of God. Conferences are good tools to gather a region but they will never go deep enough to raise up and train an army.??
I believe that God is blurring the lines between para-church and local church. The Greek word for church simply means the “called-out ones”. These regional habitations of God will not be built on the foundation of the current “local church” mentality. In functionality, these bases will serve as a home church for many but they will be built on the foundation of being an Ephesians 4:11 equipping base.??
God is raising up these bases to steward a sustained atmosphere of the glory of God. These bases will serve as a place where the prophetic can be “earthed”. In John 1:14, the “Word”, or the prophetic, became flesh, or became earthed, and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. Jesus was a living, breathing habitation of God. Everywhere he went the Kingdom of Heaven came with him. These bases will serve as “little Rome’s” or little Garden of Eden’s’ where the prophetic is earthed and digested by the saints of God and then manifested through their everyday lives with grace and power!??
It is truly time for the saints of God to rise up, grow into maturity and take whole regions for the glory of God!??
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ryan Wyatt is the Founder and Apostolic Team Leader of Abiding Glory Ministries, which incorporates the Abiding Glory Apostolic Base and The Habitation (their local fellowship of believers), both headquartered in Knoxville, TN. The burning passion of Ryan’s heart is to equip an end-time Army of Believers to advance the Kingdom of God throughout the earth.
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