Kingdom Revival & Reformation
Kingdom Revival & Reformation
Dr. Timothy M. Johns
Introduction: Around the early 80’s I began to sense that God was bringing about great changes in the church worldwide. Many prophetic voices were describing the revival of the church and reformation of culture through Christ and the kingdom. The progression of revival and renewal of the church had been accelerating since the turn of the century with the Azusa Street outpouring. The church was recovering the authority of Scripture, the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, power evangelism, the prophetic ministry, apostles and apostolic government. According to C. Peter Wagner, around 2004 there was a legitimatizing and initial mobilizing of the “new apostolic reformation”.
Mike Bickle and I had become friends during the summer of 1973. We had lost track of each other until 1982 when we both found ourselves back in Kansas City. Our friendship exploded forward when we both discovered that we had a deep conviction that “God was changing the understanding and expression of Christianity in this generation”. Since 1982, I have given my life for the revival of the church and the total reformation and transformation of cities, regions, and nations through Christ and the kingdom of God.
I would like to lay out some of the central themes of this Kingdom revival and reformation:
1. The Body of Christ needs delivered from humanism (God exists for mankind) and transitioned into God-centered, God-glorifying, God-fearing core motives and values. We exist to worship, glorify, please, and obey God.
2. The Body of Christ needs delivered from an incomplete and deceptive understanding of new birth, salvation and eternal life which promotes the notion that the goal of Christ’s incarnation, shed blood, death, and resurrection was so that we could escape hell, go to heaven after death, and while on earth live a blessed, healthy and prosperous life. The Biblical truth is that we are called to be sons/daughters of God who are mandated to take back planet earth by advancing Christ’s Lordship and Kingdom. This involves intense spiritual warfare that requires our entire allegiance to Christ the King and a total holistic kingdom lifestyle now and into eternity. The goal isn’t to live a comfortable pain free life, avoid responsibility, only to be snatched up into a blissful existence in heaven. The goal is to replace sin, sickness, Satan, and self-exaltation on earth with the reality of Christ’s kingdom. It is to bring heaven to earth. We must recover the gospel of the kingdom of God and live in the glorious reality that Christ and His kingdom are here, “at hand”.
3. We must help the Body of Christ get delivered from the Christian religion and come into a real, actual, experiential, intimate love relationship with Father, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit.
4. We must help the Body of Christ get delivered from relating to one another primarily through gifts, calling, ministries, purpose, programs, meetings, events, conferences, organizations, institutions and connect with one another covenantally through connected hearts and minds in healthy spiritual families as a 24/7 lifestyle. True “organic” fellowship, community, family life will enable people to enjoy shared life, time, and resources. Church is a family that connects at the heart and mind level as a lifestyle. We don’t “go” to church. We are the church, a spiritual family connected through the blood of Jesus Christ.
5. We must help the Body of Christ get delivered from focusing on the gifted “point” leader/pastor and onto equipping every member of the Body of Christ to do the work of ministry.
6. We must help the Body of Christ to stop relying primarily on professional church staff, and church programs (like children and youth ministries, and corporate worship) as the setting in which their needs get met. The best way needs are met is through in-depth loving relationships in which the Christ in one another is “exchanged” through open and connected hearts. Everyone, including children, can be used as the “conduit” of Jesus to bring Christ’s eternal life to another.
7. We must help the Body of Christ to stop perceiving that their spiritual (religious) life is just one category among many. The separation of our spiritual/religious life from all other aspects of our life is a deception. We are called to live in Christ and advance His kingdom in every area of life all the time: personal, marriage & family, work, arts, media, education, recreation, social, civil, etc. The kingdom of God is holistic, comprehensive, constant, all inclusive.
8. We must transition the people of God from focusing on growing the church organization and its many ministries to infiltrating and influencing society for Christ and the kingdom of God. All spheres and jurisdictions of a city, region, and nation need to be influenced by Christ and the kingdom: personal, marriage, family, church, education, media, arts, social, civil.
9. We must transition the way the church is currently governed (politically by committees or elections) into the Biblical model of true apostolic & prophetic servant leaders with plurality of true biblical elders and deacons.
10. Church leadership must be changed from “transactional” into “transformational”.
11. We must upgrade the way we are trying to make disciples of Christ from just educating the “head”, to a more holistic and comprehensive mentoring/coaching/fathering/mothering model which changes the heart and lifestyle of the believer.
12. We must stop relying on our human power and start trusting in the power of God. This is revealed by our personal and corporate prayer.
