Towards the end of 2022, during the last of our three 20-day fasts for the year, the Lord spoke regarding a spiritual revolution and reformation He was going to bring in this Historic Transitional Decade — He will birth forth a spiritual revolution among the young generation and bring about a spiritual reformation in His Church!
He also spoke to us that 2023 would be a “tipping point” and “hinge” year, where the door of history would swing in accordance to how His people respond to Him in this hour.
Indeed, looking back, 2023 was a year where many things, both light and darkness, “tipped” into greater intensity and escalation. The years of Covid-19 are beginning to look mild and tame in comparison!
However, in the midst of this intensity, He is bringing a spiritual revolution and reformation that will culminate with the emergence of the John 17 Generation and Ekklesia at the end of this decade.
What is this spiritual revolution?
What sort of reformation is God bringing us through as His Body?
How do we align and enter into all that He is doing?
A Spiritual Revolution towards A New “Jesus Movement”
In God’s uncanny timing, we should not be surprised that the movie Jesus Revolution was released in 2023. It was as if God was shouting to His people — I am going to bring forth a revolution once again! And it is going to be unto the John 17 Generation!
The Lord highlighted to us that the John 17 Generation would emerge from among the Millennials and Gen Zs — believers and pre-believers alike — many of whom will be discontented and dissatisfied with life and what they are experiencing in their Christian faith.
Just like how the Holy Spirit swept through a generation of disillusioned but hungry young people in California in the 1970s and birthed forth the Jesus Movement, so too God will birth forth a spiritual revolution amongst the young people in this hour, but this time on a global scale.
This movement will not come from what we understand as “normal” Christianity, or from our currently established religious institutions. Instead, like John the Baptist, they will emerge out of the wilderness where God has brought them through the school of His Spirit. It is out of wholeheartedness expressed through holy violence (Matt. 11:12) that these people will arise. It will be a ground-up movement that cannot be contained by human structures!
A Reformation towards the Restoration of All Things
However, the Lord is also not finished with His corporate Body. Just like how God brought about a reformation from within the Church through Martin Luther and others in the 16th Century, He is bringing about reformation in His people in four areas today. This is because He is so zealous for our maturity and fullness as His End-Time Bride and Ekklesia!
If we pay close attention, we can already see the beginnings of change among pockets of the Body of Christ.
1. A Reformation in the Prophetic
As previously mentioned (issue #16), God is bringing His people back to what being a true “prophet” is all about and also emphasising the more important issues — such as prophetic character and foundations — that matter to Him. The slew of erroneous Covid-19 predictions has already galvanised leaders in the Body to work towards change in the area of the prophetic.
2. A Return to True Worship
A considerable part of the Body of Christ today equates worship with a 30-minute segment at Sunday service. Many, especially among the young generation, even view it as something that is meant to make themselves “feel good”. This is not at all what true Biblical worship is!
Worship is not at all about how we feel, but all about who God is! Worship is a response to His worth, and is a daily offering of our lives as living sacrifices to the one true Living God (Rom. 12:1). It transcends just singing songs at church once a week. This is something that God will zealously realign His people to.
3. A Change in How “Church” is Done
Together with the shift from being programme-based to Spirit-led (issue #5), vision-driven to value-driven, and the awakening to our call as the “Ekklesia” of Christ, God will change how we express our faith as His corporate Body. No longer will we be centred primarily around Sunday services, programmes, a building, or the senior pastor, but we will be centred around Jesus, grounded in His Word, and led by the Holy Spirit.
This would mean changing how discipleship is carried out, our current rhythms of “church life” as we know it and reorienting ourselves back to more Biblical feasts (such as Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles). Why we gather and what we do when we gather will change as we realign more and more to how God has called His people to live.
4. Preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom
Finally, the Lord is also bringing His people back to preaching the fullness of His Gospel — the Gospel of the Kingdom. While there has always only been one Gospel in Scripture, we have over the years, in our zeal to see as many as possible saved, focused on preaching only about the grace that has been given so that we can escape from hell’s fire. We have largely neglected preaching about the coming Kingdom of Christ and the necessity for believers to align with our soon-coming King.
However, as we near the return of our Lord Jesus, God will zealously shift us back to preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Without it, believers will not be ready for His return or His coming Kingdom.
How do we as believers make sense of what He is doing and respond?
New Wineskins for the New Wine
The Spirit gave us understanding and insight from Jesus’ teaching on wineskins and wine (Matt. 9:17, Mk. 2:22, Lk. 5:37–39). The spiritual revolution and reformation are all about having new wineskins for the new wine that He is about to pour out.
While a “revolution” completely discards the old and builds anew, a “reformation” takes the old and “re-forms” it into the new. These are what the Lord wants to do both individually and corporately in His people!
On an individual level, He desires us to have new mindsets, new priorities, new perspectives, and a new lifestyle that is aligned to Him so that we can enter into His new move and not miss out.
As a Body of Christ, He is calling us to change the way we “do church”, how we worship, how we organise and structure ourselves, and how we function as His people. He is calling us to step out of being an institutionalised church into the New Normal of being the Spirit-led Body of Christ. This is so that we can contain the new move that He is about to bring in this generation. Truly, the business-as-usual ways of running “church” and current structures will no longer be able to contain what He is about to do!
Trusting our Good Shepherd’s Leadership
In light of all that God wants to bring, some of us may feel excitement, while others apprehension. Indeed, such past moves of God have always been far from orderly, comfortable, or neat and tidy, and we can expect this coming one to be no different!
Yet, if it is something that the Lord is doing, we want to embrace it, align with Him, and enter into this move of His!
Thankfully, Jesus our Good Shepherd often knows us better than we do. In Luke 5:39, He highlights our natural human propensity to hold on to the old, tried and tested, and comfortable ways. However, there is hope for old wineskins! Just as old wineskins are renewed via a repeated process of soaking in hot water and application of oil, Jesus is committed to bring a reformation to His people through the work of the Word (water) and the Holy Spirit (oil).
While this process will not be neat or comfortable, we can trust our Good Shepherd who knows how to lead us. The glory that is awaiting us on the other side of this revolution and reformation is worth completely embracing and reaching for!
May we embrace all that He is doing, align and cooperate with His work in this decade, so that we can enter into the coming glory that will rise upon His people!
Journey with Us | Build the Fire on the Altar
In this Isaiah 60:1–3 hour of escalating darkness and increasing glory, we are calling singers, musicians, worship leaders and intercessors to give a season of their lives to build the House of God and grow into becoming the Daniel 11:32–33 people.
We invite you to journey with us for 12 months to strengthen and establish an altar of worship and intercession in Singapore for the worthiness of Jesus and for the urgency of the hour. The hour has never been more urgent for the continuous fire of intercession to arise before His throne. It is the only answer for what is to come and more than that, this is the key that will usher in God’s fullness for His people and the nations at the End of the Age.