Apostolic believers are emerging
from wilderness places to confront man-made traditions with
a reforming spirit. Trevor Banks presents believers with a
clear choice: follow the Spirit of God into a new time and
seasons or grasp for past glories.
A season to everything, a time for every purpose under the
sun. To every king’s reign there is an end, a time for the
next generation to rise up and lead God’s people. To every
movement there is a transition, a spiritual changing of the
guard to advance the Church.
Just as the Preacher recognized God’s timing in all things,
believers today are faced with a choice: follow the Spirit
of God into a new time and season of reformation or resist
Him by grasping for past glories. The Body of Christ is at a
critical turning point and its members are facing an age-old
dilemma not unlike Zacharias, a priest in the days of King
Herod.
The Bible tells us that Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth
were righteous in God’s sight and walked in His commandments
and ordinances in a blameless way. Zacharias was familiar
and comfortable with performing his duties in the temple of
the Lord when God suddenly decided to intervene in the
affairs of men. A kairos time had come. A new breed was
about to be born. It was time for the changing of the guard.
The angel Gabriel delivered a prophetic announcement to
Zacharias within the temple: His barren wife Elisabeth would
give birth to a son and his name would be John. Zacharias
resisted the truth and his doubt and unbelief led Gabriel to
strike him dumb. He was unable to speak until John the
Baptist, who represented the new move of God, was born.
Like Zacharias, there are many believers content to serve
the Lord according to past moves of God that are familiar
and comfortable. But God is doing a new thing. It’s called
the Apostolic Movement and it’s changing the paradigm of the
local church from a one-may only model to a model that
equips believers to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians
4:11).
Along with this announcement comes modern day Zachariases
who are uncomfortable with change and allow doubt and
unbelief to cloud their sensitivity to God’s prophetic
voice. But John the Baptist was born despite Zacharias’
resistance to change, and the Apostolic Movement is alive
and kicking against religious tradition much the same.
Resistance or no resistance, John the Baptist’s ministry did
not end until he had fulfilled his destiny in God, and the
apostolic is not going away until the Gospel is preached to
the uttermost parts of the earth. If we continue reading
about Zacharias, we’ll find that even amid his resistance he
was forced to change his traditional means of blessing the
people because the grace to do things the old way had waned.
Instead of speaking a blessing over the people, he beckoned
them with his hand. So we see that the method and custom
once used to bless God’s people ceased to be a blessing.
“Church as usual” was changed. With John the Baptist in
Elisabeth’s womb and Jesus soon to follow, a spiritual
changing of the guard was taking place and would be fully
manifested in the Messiah. With that change, no longer would
the mere exercise of custom and litigious ceremony fulfill
mankind in its relationship with God. God was preparing a
new wineskin, one that could hold the new wine that would
soon be poured out on humanity.
While Zacharias faltered initially, to his credit he decided
to obey the promptings of the Lord because he perceived God
was doing a new thing. Elisabeth gave birth to John the
Baptist, who prepared the way for the Lord Jesus Christ and
the duo goes down in Biblical history as the parents of the
Messiah’s forerunner.
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Modern day Zachariases may also sense that God is doing a
new thing. God is once again pouring out a new wine and the
apostolic is the new wineskin. It’s a reforming movement
that demands a change from the bless-me-only model to an
equipping, activating and sending model.
The old movement is not the enemy. Past movements are
revered stepping stones that have brought us to this point.
The virus is doubt and unbelief and the anecdote is
obedience to the Spirit of God. The Church has given birth
to a new move of God through the obedience of a small group
of pioneers that conceived the possibility of change. Now,
it’s time for new breed believers to make the transition.
It’s a new season, and one in which Jesus will no longer
suffer words of doubt and unbelief or mere traditions and
customs of men. When we don’t understand what God is doing,
then the course of action is simple. Do like Zacharias did:
Shut up and obey!
Obedience has a price. It requires a mindset shift because
the apostolic moves beyond vain traditions of the past. Like
Joshua, we are beholding the Lord in a way that we haven’t
known before (Joshua 5:13-15). In transitional times such as
these, we must follow our spirits and not just our heads. By
the time Elisabeth gave birth to John, Zacharias was fully
convinced that the angelic prophecy was God’s will – and
then the resistance to truth came from his friends who
supposed the baby should be named after his father,
according to tradition. Believers today who are pregnant
with the revelation of the apostolic will also receive
resistance to truth from friends who haven’t yet accepted
what God is doing in the earth today, but we must obey the
voice of the Spirit and move ahead despite the spiritual
resistance.
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John the Baptist was the first fruit of a new movement in
his day; a movement that would bring salvation to the world
by grace. The child John could not be named after his father
Zacharias because his name literally means “grace.” With the
old law fading away and times of grace approaching, a new
day had dawned. The customs and traditions of men would soon
be replaced by enabling grace to give man the ability to
live free from the dominion of sin and death and to approach
almighty God through the blood of Jesus Christ.
The birth of John’s ministry (enabling grace) took much of
the activity out of the temple into the desert place (or
world) to not only touch the circumcision but also
prostitutes, thieves, murderers, and all who would repent
and be baptized. Like many who will rise in this hour, your
ministry has been in obscurity; hidden in the wilderness.
But the Apostolic Movement is calling out those who were
prepared in wilderness places. Jesus is calling out
reformers and revivalists who will step beyond stuffy,
legalistic traditions and flow with the Holy Ghost. The
mission: Turn souls to Christ.
Once again, a changing of the guard is taking place and God
is calling a new breed of believers to take the message of
saving grace to the nations of the earth with a bold
apostolic anointing. Tradition could not stop the coming of
the Messiah and it cannot stop the apostolic mandate. Will
you open up your mouth and proclaim the truth? Or will your
grace wane as you struggle to hold on to the past? The
choice is yours. There’s a new breed in town.
Apostle Trevor Banks is the founder of Resurrection Life
Family Worship in Ft. Pierce, Fla.
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