My wife, Barbara, and others are amazed at how much writing I am doing these days. This is my sixth book since turning seventy-five seventeen months ago. One person said, “You are writing faster than I can read!” I, too, am somewhat amazed, but mostly blessed. I am simply “unpacking” almost fifty years of apostolicity—nearly a half century of apostolic migration.Anyone who is serious about his/her relationship with God should realize the significance of apostolicity in the eternal plan of God, and also be aware of the false apostles whose shadows are falling over the body of Christ in these days—but no one is being healed.
We should not be concerned about casting a shadow. Those who have been sufficiently processed in the school of the Spirit will cast no shadow. Transparency casts no shadows. We must be over ourselves and fully in love with Jesus to cast no shadow.
We are carrying the substance – Christ in you, the hope of glory. We are embracing the cross daily as we are presented with choices. This is the way that we confirm our uncompromising commitment to live the life of Jesus. Paul wrote it, and so did I:
Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
There has never been a season quite like this before. In our nation, we need to be discerning between genuine statesmen and career politicians. In our churches, we need to be discerning between genuine apostles and career ministers.
In so many places, that which was once simply scaffolding to facilitate serving, as we understood it, has become a part of a permanent structure that has taken on a life of its own. Many remain slaves to the very structures that were initially developed to serve us, and God’s purpose.
God is speaking to some today the same words He spoke to Jeremiah:
Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.
We cannot conduct church as usual, and consider ourselves to be apostolic. We may be able to fool some of the people some of the time. The real tragedy is when we fool ourselves. Apostles are to be concerned with the purpose and pattern as well as the presence of God.
• I am concerned about status quo churches that consider themselves to be apostolic because there is an apostle involved.
• I am concerned about church systems and apostolic networks that are based upon a hierarchy of tithing up.
• I am concerned about church expressions that have no strategy for discipling every individual.
• I am concerned about apostolic structures that are institutional rather than relational.
• I am concerned about apostles who see themselves in competition with other movements.
• I am concerned for the many career ministers who have promoted themselves into what they consider apostolicity.
• I am concerned about apostles who, do not challenge the status quo, or challenge the one-man shows, or challenge traditional religious systems—but rather undergird them so long as the tithes keep coming in.
• I am concerned about the competitive nature of so many local churches within their own community, thus ignoring the words of Jesus that it will be our oneness with the Godhead and with one another that will prove that the Father sent His Son.
• I am concerned about the consumerism, the CEO approach to church leadership, along with all other evidences that the world has successfully made its way into the church, rather than the church succeeding in invading the marketplaces of life.
• I am concerned about those who enjoy performing before live audiences more than they enjoy discipling their allotment, so that there would be no audience among that part of the church that remains on the earth today. Everyone would be fully functioning in the body.
Apostolicity—apostles and prophets—are called to root out false foundations, to pull down false structures, to destroy and throw down religious idols, and to build men and women so that they may be planted—the planting of the Lord—as He designs.
Yes, God is still blessing Ishmaels today—servant sons of slaves. But, creation is calling for the sons of the kingdom to be revealed with Jesus in glory—thus fulfilling their mandate in the earth.
A new creation is emerging into maturity while still in obscurity. These are exciting days for kingdom pioneers. Courage has been implanted in every heart, to be summoned at a special moment in history. From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
I am praying for the many genuine apostles who are yet caught in a religious system that is a hard taskmaster on its subjects. That system makes no place for the actuating of the full priesthood of believers. My passion is to see all of them, and those whom they serve, liberated into the freedom to live life in its fullest, in venues that facilitate and stimulate spiritual growth for every believer.
God’s glorious government initiates and invigorates every aspect of His rule by His presence. He Himself is the true confirmation of all kingdom activity.
This is the Summary Chapter of the Book God's Glorious Government by Don Atkin
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Don Atkin
www.DonAtkin.com
DonAtkin@kingdomquest.net
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