"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins." Luke 5:37-38
What is to Come is Here!
Over the last few months, I have watched the Lord step things up in a brand new way! I believe it is in order to not simply reach the Harvest, but also contain the Harvest.
It's not enough to see fruit. We must never let the fruit simply be "cast" on the ground--it must be lasting! How can we sustain the Presence of God--the freshness, the simplicity of His Presence, His Power and His Love?
Regionally, we have been walking through a word that Graham Cooke gave to my wife Karen and me about "building a 'prototype' church--something that has never been done before--without a model--without a place to look to other than God."
In early February, God clearly indicated that the prototype was far more than simply something that hadn't been done before, it was in fact the early rendering of something yet to come! It was a new wineskin--a process ever evolving in direct obedience and submission to the Holy Spirit. It was the place I had longed for throughout my Christian walk. It was the place of extreme awkwardness, extreme dependence, and extreme and utter abandonment to His Purposes.
Offending Some. But Blessing Even More!
We began believing that Jesus really did "lead" the Church and as a result, we enjoyed the things that He did, without apologizing to the religious spirit for them. It offended some, but blessed many more! He spoke to us to become purposeful in establishing His Kingdom release of love, joy, freedom, power, and glory every ninety miles throughout the western world! He was raising the ante from simply sustaining a vision to reaching the 6.6 billion that capture His every thought! It seemed audacious then and it's becoming apparent why He spoke that now!
Many are ready to be reached, and the containers with all the "baggage" of religious language and structure will have a difficult time responding to the Harvest.
We are stepping into a time of Great Harvest and we won't be able to use old wineskins to try and contain it.
The barns that held harvest many years ago won't hold this harvest! God is completely overhauling the places that He is going to fill. It's not a remodel job, it's a demolish and rebuild job!
"See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." Jeremiah 1:10
"Every branch in Me that doesn't bear any fruit, He prunes off; and every branch that already bears fruit, He prunes off, that it may bear much more fruit." John 15:2
(Note by Steve Shultz: The reader should know that what is meant here is not the demolition of church buildings or church meetings. No, this is referring to a complete demolition-like overhaul...a remaking from the ground up--of all that God is doing with the Church, both inside and outside of church buildings.)
Many have been experiencing the demolition in their own midst, wondering if God could possibly be in it, believing that more than likely, it was the enemy who stole from them. But pruning is the promise of God to those who are going to be used in greater ways. To be changed from Glory to Glory is the purpose of God, and sometimes that involves the removal of limbs distracting from that which is His Glory!
"The men of the city said to Elisha, 'Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.' 'Bring me a new bowl,' he said, 'and put salt in it.' So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, 'This is what the LORD says: I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.'" 2 Kings 2:19-21
It's Time for the New Bowls!
Elisha, the newly ordained prophet of Israel, is called on to do his first miracle in the Promised Land. Interestingly, it's at the same place that the first victory came to the people of Israel many years before. Jericho! Right outside of Jericho, there is this little spring that pours water through it constantly at a wonderful speed! It looks so refreshing, so inviting, and so full of promise and life, yet simply it is poison to the whole region! I imagine the people had spent their time praying for this spring to be cleansed. Likely, the whole community gathered to discuss some possible resolve for the situation at the spring.
It's likely that some may even have gone to Jerusalem to sacrifice something in the hopes that there would be a cleansing of the water. This was supposed to be a provider of life. It was supposed to be something that would result in fruit in the community and enough fruitfulness that the community would be able to live off of what was released as a result of this water. I think eventually, the people gave up; they realized the water simply wasn't any good, and all the considerations of how to purify it didn't work. But the men of the city, the ones who sat in the gates, the leaders, they still pressed into healing for the water. For some reason, they held on to the hope that this would provide life and sustenance for their community and families.
In the same way many have walked away from the existing church believing it is too rife with problems. But there are a few who are holding out for a miracle. Those with a fresh sense of God to break the pattern of unproductivity and fruitlessness and release God into the mix where everything changes!
That day is HERE!
These may even be vessels who may have tattoos, who may look very different than what we expect, but who play the foolish donkey that carries the Lord in to His people!
A last resort is Elisha. The great prophet Elijah had been there just yesterday, but he didn't do anything. He likely was asked, and possibly he tried and prayed to do what had previously worked--but it didn't work this time! Maybe a "new" prophet wouldn't consider what was done before; maybe he would consider what had never been done! Maybe he would think new and act new. Maybe he would actually hear something from God and not simply do what he felt like he needed to do, but maybe he would do what God said!
Maybe rather than prophesying that the water would never provide life again, he would believe that it should, because anything meant to give life should give life. And anything less than that would be a perversion of God's intentions on the earth!
Can You Do Anything Elisha?
The conversation goes something like this (paraphrased): "Can you bring me a bowl?" Elisha says, "Oh, one that has no preconceived ideas. It must be a new one. It must not have any idea of what may be going into it. There must be no taste of leftovers on it." He hears back, "That may take longer to get, Elisha. My wife has a good used one nearby. Does it really matter?"
Elisha says, "Yes! It REALLY matters! I want a new bowl. I want something that has no history other than the potter's wheel; no history other than the furnace; no history other than the simplicity of knowing that there is future destiny. I'm not sure how that will be fulfilled, only that one day it will be full of God's purpose!"
Elisha takes the new bowl. The one that doesn't look back at history, but looks forward into promise. The bowl that doesn't recall how things used to be and won't bring to recollection of how revivals started in the past. He pours salt...no, he fills the bowl with salt! He prophetically declares--that which poisons the fields of the enemy will in fact purify the springs of life!
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." Matthew 5:13
Jesus would one day indicate that we are the salt of the earth. He would declare that we would salt everything--not simply sit in bowls, but rather change the nature of everything that we touch! Paul indicates that we are "vessels"--pots--bowls intended to be filled with Jesus!
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves." 2 Corinthians 4:7
Elisha was speaking into the erroneous teaching which says that all we need was more power. We don't need more power, and the early church NEVER asked for more power. The Holy Spirit was fully poured out at Pentecost, how do you get more than fully, which is ALL? The early church asked for one thing: Make us saltier; make us bolder.
"Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness." Acts 4:29
Locking Up Religion and Unbelief
Over a year ago, I sat in a room with a huge padlock that was given to me, prophetically, by some intercessors several months before. I was told I had authority to lock up two things with two padlocks, but I was to hear from Papa God what those two things were.
When I heard Him speak to me, I thought, "How audacious that seems, God. How can I lock up that? It's huge!"
He told me to lock up the first thing. He called it religion--unholy, pharisaical religiousness. Then the second thing, which was unbelief that the god of this age had used to blind the minds of those who don't believe.
(Note from Steve Shultz: I like to use some of these revelations as both the word as revealed to people and to the Church itself, and as a teaching tool to others who read this. God often has modern-day believers do prophetic acts to affect their household, their church, their cities, their regions, or even the Church at large. Only God Himself knows what each prophetic act, done in faith--accomplishes and how far and wide it affects people. The point is--be obedient with your prophetic acts. Agabus did a prophetic act by showing Paul a belt, restraining the prophet himself to tell Paul about his future. He COULD have just told Paul, but instead, he acted it out as a prophetic act. It was up to God and Paul--how that act would come about. And God also didn't remove the freedom of choice from Paul the Apostle when the word was given. Paul responded to that word differently than Agabus wanted him to.)
How, Lord?
"How, Lord?" The padlocks clicked and in an unceremonious way, I knew something happened in the spirit. He told me that locking these two things up would release the Harvest. Believers would be believers again and they would operate without religiousness and with great faith! (Please know I am not speaking of the true religion in James 1:27, which takes care of widows and orphans, that is not what I am speaking of!)
We are the Salt of the Earth, Jesus Said
The springs that are the Church, the places intended to produce life, could be healed by one thing--salt. This would be an infection of salt in containers without a preconceived idea of how to do it. Protocol will only measure up to the level of the religious spirit that rules.
Jesus used a different kind of protocol. It was called "as it is in Heaven" protocol. He walked into the temple at the height of His ministry and offended the religious spirit. HE NEVER PLACATED IT! Jesus never appeased that spirit, never played into its hand, and was never manipulated by it, NEVER!
The only way to see life come into the existing "springs" is for salt to be released in them, so that it can purify the water. The holy cure of the salt will destroy the unholy poison of the religious spirit. It's rather shocking when it happens, but salt always brings life.
Salt is a shock to the system. Salt penetrates and burns away infection. It heals wounds, but it always makes itself known very boldly!
The authority we have is in fact the authority of Jesus Himself. He modeled it. His disciples modeled it. And throughout church history, it has been modeled to hear from God for every generation. What Martin Luther did in the "reformation," others are doing today in the "restoration!"
Hezekiah, a king that Scripture says, "did right in the eyes of the Lord as His Father David did!" actually destroyed a profound memento of a former revival because it had produced idolatry in the hearts of the people (2 Kings 18:4). The New Move of revival couldn't happen if the old idols remained! The revival he was a part of, history calls "rebellion." He rebelled against the King of Assyria--the "success" of the region, the foundation of Babel that would rise up in pride against God. This was the source of the Babylonian Empire that would imprison God's people in walls of unholy, religious pride that appeared successful.
In this hour of the Harvest, God is raising up a people who will rebel against that idol of success and pride and who will speak reformation. He is raising up a people who will step into a restoration of the heart and purposes of God as they become the salt that has not lost its saltiness! They will be bold as lions and unafraid of Pharisees that have accommodated religion.
(Note from Steve Shultz: All Believers in Jesus are salt--the salt of the earth. We are exhorted by Jesus NOT TO LOSE our flavor. So some are very salty and perhaps, some have lost some of their saltiness. I understand this to be a growing thing--the degree to which we are salt for and to the earth varies among each of us. Just as we are to let our lights shine, we are to keep our saltiness as well. Since we ARE salt and we ARE light, the variable is--how salty are we and how light are we?)
Those who reveal the most salt in themselves, have already died to their own purposes. What comes out of their mouths is the boldness of Heaven that could result in great opposition, but it doesn't matter. They know they are salt, and they know that it's only truth that sets people free--not compromise, not watered down, wishy-washy religious words--but only truth!
God is raising up "new bowls." He is pulling them out of the Potter's House. Some thought they had been put on a shelf and their ideas of God's destiny didn't fit the current structures that exist. Some wondered if the furnace was all in vain--or was it for such a time as this? The vast majority of the Church hasn't seen what is going to be released.
There are those who have been hidden and who have been waiting for this time. And now, the Father is requiring that these foolish "new" bowls be brought to serve up the life that will transform dry structures into the Bride of Christ! It's going to have an unconventional release because all they are concerned about is releasing salt into the poison of unbelief and religion and bringing forth the Life and Light that is Jesus throughout the earth!
Let us pray: "Lord, when the intimidation is there, cause us to rise in boldness and purifying love to overwhelm darkness. Don't let us hide in the upper room anymore. Give us the streets, give us the cities, give us the nations. Give us radical, faith-filled boldness, Lord, that looses Your Presence on the earth! If we have authority to bind and loose, then let us bind up our fears, and loose the boldness of Heaven on earth through bowls that have no preconceived ideas."
Danny Steyne
Mountain of Worship
Email: worship@mountainofworship.com
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