|
 |
Reform the church to reform the land Word from England En route to London the airline magazine featured an article entitled Mission Apostle…to most people it is just another article; to us it was a sign to confirm our apostolic mission to the UK and USA this time. God had supernaturally supplied the funds for both Nola and Hilton to accompany me – I am normally ‘A Man Alone’ as Roger Teale prophesied when I was a young man – and we knew we were stepping into the footsteps of our Lord and Master who has compassion on people who are in need of help and assistance on any level. That is really what apostolic work entails – servanthood, servanthood and servanthood – even better if you can make it without expense to the people you serve on behalf of Christ. In the article there was no great apostolic revelation except perhaps the historic perspective of El Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, as the religious world prefer to call it. It has been travelled by pilgrims for 1 000 years and leads to a tomb said to contain the remains of the apostle St. James. Today it also attracts tourists searching for their own modern miracles or simply for spiritual experiences or comfort. Earlier pilgrims made the journey for absolution of their sins. They would say prayers and sing psalms along the way. Modern pilgrims give up luxuries such as cell phones to take themselves out of the familiar and to strip away the props of normal life. In the old days pilgrims received a certificate that would reduce their time in purgatory – a place where the dead are punished for the sins they committed in this life before they will be allowed into heaven. The journey calls for endurance and the pilgrims have to face hardships along the way, but all of them seem to discover strength in body and mind they never knew. The full length of the journey is almost 200 kilometers. They cast off their possessions along the way to make their journey lighter and discover that they can survive happily with far fewer things than they thought. They sleep in dormitories designed for pilgrims with about eight others, men and women. (Mission Apostle, Curt von Keyserlingk, Sawubona, October 2005)
After reading this article I was more determined than ever to bring reformation, apostolic reformation wherever I go! The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been darkened by religious myths and traditions and unless the light Truth shines on them the well-meaning pilgrims will remain lost forever! May God kindle a fresh fervour in our spirits to encourage us to give ourselves to this move of His Spirit to bring reformation to the church so that nations can be transformed to fulfil their original divine purpose! Who will hear our report? To whom will the arm of the Lord be revealed? Who will go for God? Who will lay down their lives for this cause?
James could have died in Spain, but not to have his bodily remains worshipped by ignorant pilgrims. He died to spread the Good News of a Living God.
I thought to myself, how pitiful that people would undertake such pilgrimages to visit the tomb of a dead apostle when they ignore the apostles who are alive today! The Spirit of Religion continues to deceive people and keep the veil of ignorance over the eyes of their understanding. They would rather have an emotional experience through physical self-effort and enjoy the nostalgia offered by the distant past, rather than enter in by faith into the present truth offered by present day apostles. Religious Traditions keep people in the past or shoves things off into the future – it never wants present reality! When Jesus entered the synagogue of His home town, Nazareth, they offered him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me: He has anointed me to preach the Gospel, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring deliverance to the captives and to heal the broken hearted…then he closed the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and said, ‘ This day this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!’
The religious spirits of the Pharisees and the people who were influenced by the Pharisees became so angry that they wanted to take Jesus and cast him off the high cliffs of Nazareth. Religious spirits still gnash on their teeth when someone earths ancient truths in present reality – but that is one of the principles of the apostolic reformation.
Peter the apostle stood up with the eleven on the day of Pentecost to explain by the Spirit what was taking place when 120 people were speaking in other tongues: ‘This is That which the prophet Joel predicted: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh!’ He also referred to a prophecy David uttered in the book of Psalms and tied the two ancient prophecies together with spiritual illumination that earthed the words of the men of God in a present reality. This is That – remains the apostolic cry to fulfil the prophetic purposes of God in the earth.
If only people will hear what present day apostles have to say instead of disregarding them or ignoring them! If only the church would acknowledge the sent ones instead of looking for great leaders or charismatic preachers that draw the crowds…the church has to be reformed first, before our countries can be reformed.
Reformation is a structural re-adjustment of present practices to fit into the original purposes of God. Those who have ears to hear what the Spirit says will cause the church to advance and the people of God to take up their rightful place in the divine strategies to speed up the process of bringing God’s plans to a finish. If this generation would believe it, we could be the generation that could escape death and usher in the return of the King of kings!
If people will begin to see the great importance of apostolic reformation in the church and in the earth today they would invest in this move more and more in order to get the job done that has lingered on and on for generation of passive Christians who wait for Christ to come but are not willing to get involved in the labour it demands.
May God re-awaken the call of God in all our hearts and give us the spiritual energy displayed in the natural by these pilgrims who pay the price physically and financially to visit a dead apostle’s tomb! May we awaken out of our sleep, for the day is far spent and the night is coming when no one can do any work…
I pray for those who read and distribute this epistle that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened to know the call of God on your life, to see the riches God has invested in the saints (the living ones!) and to experience the resurrection power of God that raised Jesus from the dead!
Andre Pelser, a present day apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, called with an audible voice June 1984, in a place called Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia. | Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 (Archive on Monday, January 01, 0001) Posted by HOFAdmin Contributed by HOFAdmin
| | Return |
|
|
 |
|
|