PASTORS ON PROBATION, JUBILEE OF HEALING AND GOLDEN WINE
by Ron Wood
The months of June and July were a turning point chronologically in the year. It marked moving from the first half to the last half of the year. This is also a significant period in God’s dealings with the Church. I will explain why it was a turning point in kairos time, a brief opportunity in which to hear and obey the LORD, a time to fast and pray, to repent and return. Any word from God requires our immediate response or else we have despised the His authority.
God has been speaking to His church about the restoration of apostles and prophets. Now, He is specifically addressing the critical issues of apostolic power and apostolic purpose.
"The office of the pastor is on probation." On the eleventh day of June, I awoke with these unusual words running through my mind. It seemed the Lord had been talking to me in my sleep.
By probation, I understood the Lord to be saying that a sentence had been handed down, but mercy from the Judge was delaying its implementation. Someone on probation has already been convicted of wrong doing. By office of the pastor, I understood the Lord to mean the congregational leader, the typical model we picture today of the local church’s senior pastor who oversees a church in a building whether that gathering is fifty or five hundred people.
Congregations have emerged as the de facto model of church life. In fact, they are an adaptation taken from the days of captivity, a synagogue form of former Temple worship. That doesn’t make them wrong. But we need to recognize that there is nothing sacrosanct about that particular model. It is just a practical tool to get the job done, an alternative method to extend the kingdom, a traditional strategy to preach the gospel, and an easy way to provide care for the people of God.
Other methods also work well in some locations and cultures. In the Book of Acts, Paul’s method was as an apostolic team that traveled from city to city, making disciples and planting cell or house churches. That was practical for his day for an era of new beginnings. Wherever we are, our model must serve our mission for the season we are in. To quote Derek Prince, "If it is not practical, it is not spiritual." Are we results oriented? Or stuck with a method because "that’s the way we always did it."
The popular congregational model takes many forms and is quite varied. For years, I have complained that the Pentecostals had imported a Baptist model of congregational church life, implementing Robert’s Rules of Order to run church meetings as though God’s word needed man’s system. But different streams have adopted different rules, and different gift-mixes in the leadership produced structures that met the need of that hour. When a leader emerges with grace for government, the church certainly develops along lines that seem more biblical and are more effective. Our grace-gifts determine our boundaries.
No one can build beyond their own calling and vision. You can’t exceed your calling, only fall short of it. A carpenter can’t be an architect. He’s not equipped for it. That isn’t a criticism, just an observation. The problem has been that church structures have been invented that have no basis in the Bible. Today the foundation of government and structure in the church has rested mostly on pastors, yet Paul said the foundation should be on apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20). This error by default has produced a hybrid of church life that misses the mark.
Why would God say that pastors are on probation? I admire pastors and support their role! I think the pastors are the unsung heroes of the faith, bearing the heat of the day. But most pastors have settled for something less than God’s best. Quantity is substituted for quality. They fill up their pews but don’t make disciples. Yet Jesus wants to bring many sons to glory! That is both quantity and quality! God wants disciples. That’s our great commission. Perhaps we’ve lost the kingdom imperative. The congregational model measures success based on buildings, budgets, and buses. How many people attend my church? That vision misses the mark. God is concerned for more than just your congregation— He is after your whole city!
Apostles make spiritual sons. And, apostles have faith to take cities. They arrive on the scene (or emerge from within our ranks) with a different kind of spiritual DNA. They don’t settle for building solitary congregations. That vision is too small. They are generals in God’s army who are sent to un-seat principalities and liberate a city for Christ. Apostles think in terms of territory, not buildings on a street corner. Apostles see the need for spiritual leaders in a city to network together for the gospel’s sake. Their mission is to make war on the enemy. On the other hand, pastors offer maintenance for groups of people who have been saved within that city.
Think cities. Jonah was sent as a prophet to a city, Nineveh. God was concerned for the fate of that wicked city, that it might repent and be spared judgment. God wants whole cities to be saved. Jesus wept over a city, Jerusalem. He cried because they had not known the hour of their visitation, a unique opportunity characterized by kingdom envoys of prophets and the Chief Apostle Himself being present within her city walls.
A city is more than a socio-economic community. It is a also a battlefield where God wants to marshal His troops and destroy enemy forces. Cities were strategic in the Book of Acts for the extension of God’s kingdom. They still are. The church is meant to minister to the city, not just bring a few escapees to her meetings.
Despite our errors and mis-focus, fortunately, God rarely starts over. Usually, He gives us space to repent, to return and to do the first works, to re-hear what we missed, to begin obeying Him now. God gives us a "space for grace." God patiently re-speaks Himself into His people until the Word of God takes hold and affects our lives and our community of faith. In our cities, God wants His word to prevail, not just any one church or denomination. Jesus is Lord of our city!
Pastors are being offered an opportunity to allow the Head of the Church to adjust their thinking and modus operandi. It is time to partner with apostles and prophets, to network with other pastors, to break out of traditional molds so that vibrant church growth and God’s kingdom authority can be manifested among us. It is time to see evil spirits cast out and severe illnesses cured and whole households saved! When the government of the church gets right, the government of cities and nations will get right. How can this happen? A paradigm shift is needed. Then a power shift occurs.
We need an adjustment. Have you ever been to a chiropractor? Jesus is the Great Physician. He is a Kairos-Practor. In a moment, He can invade our space-time world. With one word, He can change everything. He can line up the backbone of the Church with an adjustment that makes us snap into alignment with the Head! Jesus can fix us so that the pain in the body goes away.
It is time to quit playing in our pastoral pond and start swimming in God’s apostolic river. Pastors who feel this call often seem frustrated and appear dissatisfied to their flock. Actually, they are keenly in touch with the heart of their Lord. But because we have few working models of the city church, believers who have known only congregational church can easily become critical of these front-line pastors who carry an apostolic-prophetic calling.
It is time to think strategically regarding your whole city, not just your individual success in your church. Don’t neglect your church, but lift up your eyes and enlarge your vision. Think of the resources God has placed in your city, the other churches and leaders, the outside help you can bring in, the facilities you have built, the ministries God has planted among you, the felt needs in your community. Marshal resources to win your city, not just build your church. See the whole church in the whole city, not just your congregation.
Sometimes to win big, we need to think small. Don’t overlook the power of small groups. A pastor who meets with a handful of trainees, offering mentoring through relational training, can have a permanent affect on those lives. A small gathering of pastors praying in earnest for their city can have a giant effect on their region. The prayer of agreement based on God’s word is our primary spiritual weapon of warfare. Gatherings of believers in house fellowships in their neighborhoods can powerfully affect the community. Understand, the church has three layers: 1) The Church in the City; 2) Local Congregations; 3) and Cells, or little flocks that meet for nurture and prayer. Congregations are in the middle. They need to reach upward, into the city, and downward, into cells. Our structures should serve our mission. Are they working? If they don’t produce results, change them!
Apostolic purpose involves whole cities. God is now releasing apostolic power to accomplish that objective. Grace-gifts that have long been dormant are now being restored in order to equip God’s people for works of service.
I have seen a vision of a closet in God’s house of faith. It is filled with mantles, robes, garments of power and grace. Elijah’s mantle is still hanging in God’s closet! The ancient mantles of power that clothed men and women of renown are now being taken out of the closet and draped on the shoulders of modern prayer warriors and preachers, empowering saints who appropriate their anointing by faith. Healing centers are arising again. It is transformation time for true believers. The first Pentecost of the new millennium has now occurred.
Jubilee of Healing
God’s kairos openings from heaven are worked out in our chronos space-time. In the fullness of time, God sends His word and in due course we see the results. My friend Sanford Cooper says, "God is not time conscious like we are, but He is time-sensitive."
God’s "suddenlies" are obscured until they dramatically burst forth, always at just the right time. Remember, Jesus was a nine-month baby. Likewise, we become pregnant with God’s rhema word. Like Mary, we must carry it to term. God’s word and our response to it, determines our season. I believe God is telling many prophets that we are now in a season of restoration. It is Jubilee time! Jubilee in the Bible is a celebration that marks fifty years. It marked the season of release and restoration in the Old Testament like Pentecost marked the outpouring of the Spirit in the New Testament.
Fifty years ago, God did something amazing in the Church. A sustained season of miracles occurred. An example of this was June 5, 1951, the beginning of the great stadium campaign led by Tommy Hicks in Argentina. That revival affected the whole city and the nation. Miracles confirmed the word and multiplied thousands were saved. Today, the Argentine revival has produced an on-going renewal that is refreshing the whole Body of Christ. Its repercussions continue to touch the world and have affected Toronto and Pensacola and the modern global prayer-movement (for example, Ed Silvoso and Carlos Annocondia).
The era of around 1948 through the early fifties was an unusual revival. It was primarily in America. It preceded the modern charismatic renewal. This powerful revival was marked by miracles of healing with signs and wonders beyond description. It was a season of raw power. The gift of faith for miracles was functioning in the Church. Although the gift was from heaven, it was carried by earthly men. Sin and carnality eventually spoiled that revival. But its decline did not do away with its reality. Awesome evangelists were raised up whose ministries shook nations. Church historians call it the "Latter Rain" or the "Healing Revival." It was a resurgence of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Giant tents marched across the country filled with people being saved and healed. These were the days of William Branham, Raymond T. Richey, Jack Coe, and Oral Roberts. Gordon Lindsey, who founded Christ for the Nations, recorded much of this history for us. My life was impacted by one of those pioneers, evangelist Richard Vinyard, who had a remarkable gift of faith. This healing revival was short-lived but powerful. It was a foretaste of things to come. It left an indelible mark on the Church.
Fifty years have passed since that great revival. It is time to repent so that what was lost can be restored. We can’t do God’s work without God’s power. We can’t substitute education or the respect of the world for the anointing. It is time to seek the Lord for a return of the Holy Spirit’s raw power.
Power is coming back to the church. But this time, it won’t be marred by independence and arrogance and competition. It will be sanctified by apostolic purpose and guarded by teams of leaders who in honor prefer one another, who love the church more than they love their own ministries. Power often comes back in seasons and in cycles. For my life, the September-October season has always been significant, a "window" of time when I have discovered new grace or moved into new opportunities. God respects the calendar He created. Therefore, I believe this Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement will be an awesome turning point on earth’s timetable.
Apostolic power and purpose are returning with a rush. The prayers of God’s people are mounting up to the altar of heaven, the incense is being mixed in, and holy fire is being cast on the earth. Shaking is about to occur. Armies of angels are entering the harvest. Intercessors won’t be disappointed. Leaders are being promoted even as we watch, promoted into intimacy with Christ, into authority over the devil, into the privilege of winning their city for God’s kingdom.
Golden Wine for a June Bride
June is a month of many anniversaries. My wife and I were married June first, 1969. She was a June bride. Another dream came to me the morning of June 16th. It also speaks to this season, this space of grace we are currently experiencing. In this dream, I saw a wine glass filled with golden wine.
Usually we think of biblical wine as red, a deep grape color. Red wine comes from purple grapes. Purple is the color of royalty, a king’s color. The wine of Christian Communion is red to symbolize the blood of Christ. That’s the cup of blessing we receive, the holy eucharist of the Lord’s Table. Thank God for the blood that washes away our sins, that seals the new covenant, that testifies to our finished redemption! Hallelujah!
But this wine I saw was straw-colored. Anyone who knows anything about wine knows that golden wine is typically sweet, like piesporter goldtrophen auslese, from the mature white grapes, not the green young fruit of the vine. Golden wine comes late in the harvest from hand-picked sun-ripened grapes left long on the vine. It is usually expensive, hard to come by, and highly prized. That’s the late-season wine which I saw.
Nature produces two kinds of grapes, the colored variety and the white variety. It seems to me that God uses these two images to represent two aspects of His great love toward humanity: grace and glory. The red wine symbolizes grace, the golden wine symbolizes glory. The first cup of Christ’s we partake of is grace based on the shed blood of Christ. That is basic to our salvation. The second cup we can partake of is glory, based on His manifest presence as He shows Himself to His adoring Bride. When this wine is served, the next event on God’s calendar is a Wedding Feast! Then the Church will reunited with Jesus forever.
Glory is now being poured out in a crystal goblet for the bride, a golden wine being offered by the One who loves the Church and gave Himself for her. An invitation to intimate communion is being extended from heaven, to make your heart merry, to dance with joy. Grace has paved the way for glory. His love is intoxicating! The Bride of Christ is beginning to reflect the glory of her soon-to-appear Bridegroom.
"For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." (Psalm 84:11 KJV) It was never enough for Jesus to simply redeem us. He also wants us to be with Him where he is, to be partakers of His glory (see John 17). This was Jesus’ intent from the beginning. "I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom." (Matthew 26:29 NAS)
The golden wine speaks to me of the celebration of God’s revelation, the unfolding of the drama which grace initiated before time began, the consummation of our Father’s purpose which finds fulfillment in bringing many sons to glory.
But a word of warning: while grace is free, glory costs something. No flesh can glory in God’s presence. Something has to happen to us that humbles our flesh. Glory is preceded by and accompanied with suffering. Glory and suffering are linked together in the experience of the prophets and in the predictions of the apostles. God’s kingdom has an aspect of glory not yet seen on the earth. Are we bold like Moses to ask to see His glory? Then we must be ready to be purified by fire.
Many believers today are praying the prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:10). Jabez prayed for grace and blessings. That is well and good. But another prayer is also beginning to arise, mostly from leaders who have come to the end of themselves and desperately need more of God. That is the prayer of Moses. Jabez changed his destiny by praying contrary to his birth name. And God heard him. We should all rise above our circumstances by calling on God. But Moses went a level higher than that when he interceded for God’s people. Chosen for a difficult task, he prayed, "Let me know your ways so that I can know you and have your favor." (Exodus 33:13) Then he added this final request: "Show me your glory!"(vs18). He went beyond grace to glory.
But God wouldn’t do it. Instead, He showed him His goodness. It is not a sin to seek to see God’s glory. Those who see it are never the same. But if we fall short of glory, at least we get His goodness! That’s not bad, is it? The full revelation of God’s glory awaited the New Testament era. Now, grace has paved the way not only for goodness, but also for glory. By faith in Jesus, through the gospel, we get to see "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6 NAS) Glory is resident in a Person.
The goodness of God is leading us to repentance. His overflowing grace is causing us to rejoice. But that is not a solitary rejoicing apart from our brothers. We are repenting of our independence, our arrogance, our criticism of one another in different parts of the church and in different ethnic groups. The same sins that caused God to lift His hand of blessing from the revival of healing in the fifties will also cause Him to keep His glory from resting on us in this new millennium. "You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you." (Genesis 43:5) Likewise, the full light of Jesus’ glory awaits our reconciliation and reunion in Christ.
We are not alone in the Body of Christ. We need one another. This new revival that’s coming is not individualistic, but corporate. It will honor our relationships, our need to be gathered around the Ascension Gift ministries, our need to walk in covenant love with one another, our need to team up to fulfill the Great Commission, our need to be in a community of worshiping believers welcoming His presence. We need to recognize the gifts that God has set among us and receive Jesus as He invests Himself by His Spirit in His church. We are being readied to see the unveiled glory of His face as His appearing draws near.
© 2001 by Ron Wood. Ron and his wife, Lana, have been pastors more than 30 years. He has served as a State Coordinator for the U. S. Strategic Prayer Network. Ron is best known for his prophetic writing ministry. Ron & Lana are a ministry team. They are members of Reconciliation Ministries International led by Bishop Joseph Garlington. Ron & Lana were sent to Africa to help equip emerging apostolic leaders in the developing church. If you wish to copy this article for free distribution, permission is hereby granted to duplicate it provided there are no changes or omissions made to this article and this byline is included. The author asserts his moral rights of ownership. For more information or helpful literature, visit our web site at touchedbygrace.org, or e-mail us at ron@touchedbygrace.org.
