Tag: ambassadors

236. The Hallmark of the New

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott

What is the ‘new wine’?

In this series of posts we are looking at new wine and new wineskins. Last time we saw how the new wineskin is each one of us, both individually and coming together as a new order ekklesia, but what is this new wine? What does it represent? Here is some of what I have seen (and if you will engage with God for yourself, I am sure you will see some of this and more besides):

    • New governmental mandates and new government patterned after heaven. New revelation and understanding of how to expand the kingdom, subdue and rule from a new heavenly perspective of servant leadership.
    • New values and ideals. Jesus introduced the manifesto of the kingdom, a completely new way of living. As we have seen, the ekklesia is to be a reflection of heaven’s values, an embassy of heaven on earth. We are to be ambassadors of that embassy, carrying the authority of heaven and exercising it on the earth.
    • New things established in heaven.
    • New heavenly strategies instead of earthly ones. Let’s stop trying to figure out how to do things and instead go to the heavenly strategy room and get a strategy which will be effective.
    • A new heavenly identity of sonship. It is in heaven that we operate in fullness of sonship, so that we can be manifested as sons on the earth.
    • A new health service – healing and health for the world, to demonstrate that God is a loving God who wants to heal. As a first step we will be living in health ourselves: body, soul and spirit in wholeness, connected to heaven, with the life of heaven flowing from the inside out. That will draw those in the world looking for healing.
    • New economic and financial services. Jesus threw all the money changers’ tables over: kingdom finance and economics bear no resemblance to the systems of the world. Kingdom finance is a love-based system in which we can freely give because we freely receive under an open heaven. Serving in love is the currency of the kingdom, going the extra mile and putting others before self.
    • A new society – paradise restored. God wants to bring back human society to how it would have developed in the Garden (if the Garden had expanded to fill the earth as it should have). The way up is down; the first will be last and the last first.
    • New speech, new attitudes, new ideals, new culture. Everything comes from a new perspective as redefined by Jesus.
    • New behaviours, abilities and powers. We will recover everything that was lost at the fall, at the flood, at Babel and throughout history as our DNA is renewed and restored and as we renew our minds.
    • Heaven transforming earth. This is God’s ultimate desire and plan.

    Experiential

    All new ways flow from beyond the veil and they are experiential.

    • New experiential ways of ministry. No longer will we set ourselves up as ministers who tell people what God is saying and what to do. Instead we will get alongside them and equip them to hear God for themselves. Liebusting is a good example of this new way, in which the person asks Jesus what He wants to do in their life and asks Him to show them how to deal with what stands in the way. And teaching people how to go to the courts equips them to hear first-hand, rather than getting someone else to tell them what the issue is and how to address it.
    • New experiential ways of teaching – we have to get away from a scenario where it is just me or some other teacher lecturing a roomful of people. It will be all of us together, experiencing. The activations we have done together on a Sunday morning and in some of the online sessions and events are a first step towards that. Alongside the new kingdom financial system, I am sure we will see a new education system as well.
    • New experiential ways of prayer. We will not just be crying out from here on the earth, hoping that God might hear something, but going to meet Him face to face.
    • New experiential ways of interceding, not from below but from above. We can stand before God, identifying with the person, city, nation or planet we are interceding for, in a heavenly courtroom, getting His judgment and verdict on the situation.
    • New more effective ways of kingdom administration: outworking heavenly government on the earth.
    • New ways of partnering with the angelic realm: angels are ministering spirits sent for the sake of those who inherit salvation. We are already hearing more testimonies of angelic engagement, and that will only increase. They are awesome, powerful created beings, and they can do things which have never even occurred to us yet!

    Growing in maturity

    The new ways are about our maturity. Moses did miracles, parted the Red Sea, food just appeared, the Israelites’ clothes never wore out, they were led by a pillar of cloud and fire – all this while they were just children who only knew God by His deeds. If they had gone and engaged heaven with Moses, they would not have needed any of that.

    Under Joshua’s leadership, the people did the miracles, parted the Jordan, caused the walls of Jericho to fall. They did not need supernatural food or clothing provision because they could all sow in the Promised Land, and reap the harvest of what they sowed.

    Jesus showed his disciples how to multiply food, do miracles, produce provision and so on. He taught them how, then sent them out to do it themselves. Unlike Moses, He did not just do it for them. And today He will show us new ways of being salt and light in our world, new ways of being agents of change in history, society and culture, so that we are not influenced but influencers. He will open up new ways for us to bring transformation to our communities. We will do all this by establishing all things in heaven first so they can be manifested on earth – that is the hallmark of the new.

    This blog post is adapted from Mike’s teaching in the ‘Engaging God‘ subscription programme.

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198. Earth Like Heaven

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott –

As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. (John 17:18)

We are sons of the kingdom, sent to colonise this world, the very same mission God gave to Adam and Eve:

God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over it’ (Gen 1:28).

They were to rule over it in the authority God gave them, and so bring it under the rule of God. God still calls us to bring that rule of love into the world, to make earth like heaven. To make earth like heaven you have to know heaven, so we need to access heaven.

The realm of heaven is a dimension that is right in front of us. It is not somewhere up in the stars. It is here, as a dimension of space. The Bell Theorem scientifically, mathematically proves that there are extra dimensions. We call them dimensions of the spirit. The scientists don’t know what to call them: they just know there is something things disappear into.

Entanglement

Concepts such as quantum tunnelling and quantum entanglement actually demonstrate how this realm is connected to a spiritual realm. Through the presence of God and the kingdom within us, we can access the realm of heaven ourselves and bring that realm from heaven to earth.

Creation waits eagerly

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10).

Christians have prayed what we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ for nearly 2,000 years, but there is more truth buried in this sentence than we ever recognised. God’s desire is to set the world right, to restore all things (Acts 3:21) to how He originally intended, and we are supposed to bring His Kingdom from heaven to earth through our lives.

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that creation itself also will be set free from its slavery and corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:19-20).

Creation itself is waiting for God’s people to be revealed in the fullness of their sonship. When God’s people start to act as real, true sons in the fullness of the power of the kingdom, the whole of creation will be turned back to its original purpose. It will come into the freedom of God’s glory, as seen in His children.

Righteousness and justice

For something to be done on earth, it has to be done first in heaven. Then earth can be brought into line with what is in heaven. We have authority to bind and loose things in the heavens, so that they will be bound or loosed here on earth.

The Kingdom of God is founded on two principles, righteousness and justice. We need the righteousness and the justice which are in heaven to be worked here on earth. We have authority to rule in the justice system of the kingdom.

Seek first his kingdom, and his righteousness. (Matthew 6:33)

The only way we can be true ambassadors of God’s kingdom on earth is if we put His kingdom first in our lives. We must give up doing things our own way and start doing them His way. An ambassador does not act on his own. He may be allowed to use some discretion in how he achieves the desired outcome, but he gets his briefing direct from the home country.

We need to get heavenly truth, so we can bring it to earth. This means living for and from that kingdom first, above everything else, and walking by faith.

Spiritual authority releases natural influence; and without spiritual authority we have no influence for the kingdom. When the kingdom is not only within us, but manifested through us and around us, so that people can see it, then it is clear that we carry spiritual authority. And whoever is ruling in the spiritual realm will also rule in the natural realm.

You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world (Matt. 5:13,14).

Salt is intended to be salty. The world needs light to deal with the darkness, and we are called to be that salt and light. As ambassadors we cannot be just the same as the world. People should see the difference in our lives. We must expect salvation of those around us, expect that they will turn from the darkness of the world to the light. We will make disciples who will themselves go on to make disciples, equipping them in turn to go out into their marketplaces and do the same, expanding the influence of the ever-increasing  kingdom in the world and out into the stars.

At hand

Jesus called to him the twelve apostles and began to send them out, as his ambassadors, two by two and gave them authority and power over unclean spirits (Mark 6:7 AMP).

As you go, preach, saying, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give (Matt. 10:7-8).

Wherever they went, they could say that the kingdom of heaven was at hand because they were the ones who were bringing the kingdom with them.  Wherever we go, we can legitimately say, ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’. The power to heal is here, through our lives. The power to set people free is here, if we are true ambassadors and know our authority.

All authority

Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:18-20).

‘All authority’ is all the authority there is. There is no other on earth or in the heavens. This is the mandate that Jesus gave us: to take God’s good news, in His authority, and to transform the world in which we live. It is quite a task, but the reality is we have the authority to do it.

Will you accept this commission? Will you take up your appointment as an ambassador? If so, you can step into the realm of heaven today and affirm your acceptance in words like these:

Father, I choose to accept my commission as an ambassador of heaven on earth.

I choose to live on earth according to the principles of heaven.
I choose to receive my direction and protection from heaven.
I choose to live from the resources of heaven.

I choose not to be influenced by the ideas, culture and philosophy of the earth.
I choose to become an agent of the counter-culture of heaven.
I choose to live a supernatural lifestyle with a higher level of authority.
I choose to be an example of kingdom attitudes and the character of Jesus.

I choose to demonstrate the good news of Jesus in word and deed.
I choose to be salt and light in my world.

I am a minister of reconciliation to make disciples for the Kingdom of God.
I am an ambassador of heaven to transform the earth.

As you step back into this realm again, you come carrying that authority, and the power to outwork it in and through your life.

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Soundtrack: Earth Like Heaven – Jonathan David Helser (via YouTube)

Image attribution (diagram): Entanglement, by Quantuwiki (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://goo.gl/P7TcRR)], via Wikimedia Commons

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197. Citizens of Another Kingdom

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott – 

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20).

In prison, Paul described himself as ‘an ambassador in chains’ for the gospel (see Eph. 6:19-20). God has called His people to be ambassadors in this world for Him, to proclaim His kingdom and to encourage people to be reconciled to Him in relationship. I say ‘in relationship’ because, through the cross, God in Christ has already done everything necessary to reconcile all people to Him. But if they continue to see themselves as estranged from Him they will not enjoy the kind of relationship He desires to have with them as His sons.

Dictionaries define the word ‘ambassador’ as

  • a diplomatic official of the highest rank appointed and accredited as a representative in residence by one government or sovereign to another
  • an authorized messenger or representative
  • an agent, an apostolic delegate, messenger, minister, or emissary.

Our citizenship is in heaven

He has rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son (Colossians 1:13).

We have been taken out of one kingdom and transferred into another. We are now under the authority of God’s kingdom.

For our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20).

Our citizenship is not of the country of our birth or residence. Though that might be true in the natural sense, spiritually we are citizens of heaven. This means we are connected to heaven and our authority comes from heaven.  We are citizens of a heavenly kingdom but living on the earth.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you (John 15:19).

Jesus has chosen us as His representatives out of the world, so we are not tied to the restrictions of this realm. The kingdom of heaven is a spiritual realm, a higher authority than the natural realm. It has more and greater dimensions of authority and power than this realm. In fact, this physical realm is held together by the power that comes from that spiritual realm.

This temporal realm had a beginning and will have an end. Once we come into eternity, everything that is wrapped up in this time will be left in this time. Sin will be left in this time. There will be no more remembrance of it in eternity. But we are already of eternity: though we live in this natural realm, we are constantly connected to that realm of heaven.

Ambassadors of heaven

As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. (John 17:18)

Jesus is talking to the Father about his disciples, about us. We have been sent on a mission. We are gateways of heaven on earth, bringing heaven to earth. We come to administer that kingdom in this natural realm. When we lay hands on someone and see a miracle, we are bringing what is in heaven (complete health and healing) to the earth through the power and authority flowing through us as ambassadors of that kingdom.

We take our orders and get our authority from heaven. Our protection and our provision come from heaven. We live by the laws of heaven, the economy and the political system of heaven.  Certainly we need to honour those in authority over us in the natural realm, right up until it conflicts with the authority of heaven. Then, we defer to that higher authority.

Consider the British Ambassador in a foreign country. The embassy is considered British soil and is protected by British troops. The ambassador and staff take their orders from London, and represent British interests, operating under British rules and culture. They are in constant contact with the home country. They do not operate from personal opinions but on orders from home. That is exactly what God is calling us to do.

The whole church is an embassy, and our individual lives are an embassy: foreign soil to this world, protected by heaven. We have authority, but only as we act on orders from heaven (and not earth). As citizens of heaven, each of us has a sphere of kingdom authority to exercise. In and around our lives we have authority to rule over our circumstances, situations, and the place that God has put us in, representing one kingdom (heaven) in another kingdom (earth).

New services and systems

Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould… (Romans 12:2 Phillips).

We are not to be influenced by earthly culture, society and customs, but rather we are to influence them and transform them. In the UK, our National Health Service is excellent as far as it goes, but as Christians we have (and can administer) a new health service. Our health service comes from heaven.

We enjoy and administer new economic and financial services. We sow into God’s kingdom and He blesses us, honours us, and multiplies it back. We then have more than enough for all our needs, with an abundance for every good deed He calls us to do (see 2 Cor 9:6-12).

We have a new education system. We are not limited to what our minds can understand. We are connected to the source of all knowledge, the omnipotent, omniscient God, who is in heaven and in us. We have all the education we need because it comes from the source of life. We can receive revelation, prophetic information, and have a heads-up on every situation because we are connected to a realm which sees the future as clearly as the present and the past.  The spiritual realm is not limited by time and space like this natural world.

We are to be a new society. That means new attitudes, new ideas, a new culture, new behaviours, new abilities, and new powers.

We have supernatural abilities, even beyond anything imagined by Marvel comic book writers. We can look into the hearts of men and see what is there; we can lay hands on the sick and see them recover; we can work all kinds of other miracles. We have authority over nature. Jesus wants us doing everything He did, and more (see John 14:12). We have the supernatural power of heaven at our disposal. The kingdom (and our ambassadorship) is of a supernatural realm, operating in this natural one.

Sown into this world

Jesus presented another parable to them saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seeds in his field… The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one” (Matt. 13:24, 37-38).

Every believer is a son of the kingdom and has been sown into this world to produce the fruit of the kingdom and to bring God’s rule to earth. We are not just here to influence the world, but to colonise it. When the Pilgrim Fathers went to America they extended the government of Britain to America. The church is a colony of heaven on earth, and so too is each of our lives.

But we do not control, manipulate or force people into accepting the kingdom we represent. This is not medieval Christendom, with its forced conversions (often at sword-point). We bring and demonstrate the good news. As sons of the kingdom, we bring the fruit of that kingdom so that people will want to be engaged with the God that they see through us.

He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches” (Matt. 13:31).

The kingdom started really small, with Jesus. By the time Jesus ascended back into heaven, there were still only about 500 disciples. Yet the kingdom did not stay small, and the church now has a substantial presence in most nations of the world. In the early centuries, the number of Christians to non-Christians was 1 to 350. Today it is 1 to 6. The kingdom is advancing and growing.

He spoke another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened” (Matt. 13:33).

We are to permeate the whole world with the good news of the gospel of Jesus. We bring a message of good news that God is not counting anyone’s trespasses against them and we demonstrate that message by how we live. We are called to influence the world, to restore it to its original condition and ownership.

That is why we have to be good ambassadors.

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8. The Sword Comes to Divide

Mike Parsons –

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb 4:12).

This passage is not talking about the Bible, despite what we may have been taught. This sword of the Spirit, the word of God, is going to divide our soul and our spirit. It is going to divide what is of the flesh, what is of the soul, and what is of the spirit in our lives, and in the church, and the world. This is the living word spoken into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He may use scriptures, especially if that is a way we are used to hearing from Him; He may not.

The sword is coming

The sword is coming to our lives, and we cannot avoid it. It is coming from the mouth of Jesus. It is going to divide the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. It is going to show us what our hearts are engaged with, and it isn’t going to be easy, but it is going to transform us and the world in which we live.

The sword is coming to the church. Not just this church, but the church, and it is coming to cause division: ‘Who are for me, and who are against me?’ It will cause division because there is so much of the church that isn’t really the church, it is just people who go along to church.

Church is not a building, we know that, but it’s not a meeting either. The church is a people called out and gathered to meet with the presence of the living God and to serve Him. In charismatic circles we jettisoned the idea that church was about buildings years ago, but then it became about meetings, about going to the meeting. Actually it is nothing to do with meetings, it is about Him, and is about who we are: we are His people and church is 24/7. It is about who we are every day of the week, in our jobs, in our homes, in our neighbourhoods.

A level of holiness

And God is bringing a sword to the church. We need to get ready so that we are prepared to see what God is going to release. We have got to see into that supernatural realm of what is to come. We need to be prepared to be transformed, because if our lives remain in the state they are in now, then when the glory of God starts coming we will not be able to bear it.

I tell you, Ananias and Sapphira couldn’t lie to the Holy Spirit without dropping down dead. I don’t want anyone dropping down dead around here, but the level of holiness required for the church of Jesus Christ to perform the works of Jesus in the world is far higher than the level of holiness we are living in right now. Levels of relationship and responsibility are going to increase, and at the new level God is calling us to, a new level of His presence, there is a corresponding new level of holiness required. What we could get away with before, we will not be able to get away with in what is coming.

And God is going to open up and reveal those things to us. We have to be prepared. We have to be prepared to act. We cannot sit here and do nothing.

We have to be prepared for warfare, because warfare is coming, and what we see today is nothing compared to what we are going to see. We have to be prepared to be ambassadors for the kingdom of heaven on earth. We cannot live by the ways and means of the world; we have to be in it but we cannot be of it. We have to live by the kingdom, and the presence and the power of the kingdom of God. We are ambassadors to bring heaven on earth.

Bring heaven to earth

That is our commission, to bring heaven to earth. As it is in heaven, so it is on earth, through our lives. That’s what God is calling us to. We have to be prepared to be revealed as sons of God, who are going to shine with glory. Because Jesus was transfigured here on earth, that means we can be transfigured here on earth. People are not going to know what to make of it when the glory of God starts shining out of us visibly. But Jesus did it as a demonstration of what we are to do. What did He say? ‘These works that I do, you will do also, and greater things than these’ (John 14:12). Greater things: there’s a whole load more that we will have to grow into. We have to be prepared to take dominion.

God called Adam and Eve to take dominion over the planet. Satan took that from them, Jesus came to restore it. We have to be prepared to operate in the ways of God’s kingdom.

‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’.

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