Tag: blueprint

252. Unrestricted Sons

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott – 

No limits

Jesus, the Truth, the second Adam, desires to remove the limits placed on us by the first Adam, to restore us and conform us to our original eternal blueprint, and to release us into the glorious freedom of our sonship. Every one of us, without exception. No-one is left out, because Jesus reconciled the whole world to Himself on the cross. The Father has made it possible for every person who has ever lived and who ever will live to come into relationship with Him if they will embrace Jesus and enter in through that door.

He desires to restore all things. That includes our capacity to engage bandwidths of electromagnetic energy and abilities which were lost at the fall, the flood and Babel. Those were times in Man’s history where He had to intervene to limit the damage we were about to do to creation by operating outside of relationship with Him. When we come back into relationship, it opens the way for Him to restore those abilities for us to use as sons and co-heirs in the kingdom.

Untethered

Jesus came to bring abundant, overflowing life. Those whom the Son sets free will be free indeed. While we remain tethered to the physical realm and under its rule and bondage, we contribute to creation’s groan rather than being able to respond to it, because we, too, are longing to be set free. In Jesus we can get to know the Truth by experience, and He makes us free to engage with creation as the sons and heirs we truly are.

So, freedom from sickness, disease and pain: can you see that reality? Freedom from rejection, fear, insecurity, addiction, poverty and every bondage and limitation: can you see those realities? If we can focus on those realities as we see them in Jesus, it will change our thinking and free us from the restrictions our minds have imposed upon us. If we can see them as truth then they can manifest in our lives. We can be set free from the chains of time and space and the dimensional restrictions of our flawed belief systems and mindsets; free to fly, untethered and unrestricted.

Earthbound

There can be many realities – and we are all living the reality we can see – but there is only One Truth. A word of warning: the truth, once perceived, may not always be to our taste. We may find the truth unpalatable and hard to swallow because of our DIY mindsets.

The truth may not always be convenient or pleasant because it will not allow us to stay the same. It may require sacrifice and discipline but it will always bring us into freedom. Because it can be hard, sometimes we encounter truth but do not follow through. We turn from the truth and return to less challenging pseudo-realities, fearing the hardships and responsibilities that freedom brings, losing sight of the higher purpose we have in God’s kingdom.

I remember once, I was ministering with another person and we saw someone’s leg grow – not just a millimetre or two, but about 8 centimetres (3 inches). The next day, the person who had been with me came to me and asked “did that really happen?” They had allowed unbelief to come in and rob them of what they had actually seen with their own eyes because it did not fit in with their mindset.

We must live beyond the veil. If we cannot perceive (or if we choose to ignore) the eternal realm of which we are citizens, then we will remain confined and tethered to this earthly, DIY version of reality; remain earthbound, restricted, living in a carefully constructed illusion that reduces us to the status of mere mortals, unable to change our circumstances and situations or fulfil our eternal destiny:

…in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor 2:4).

Let’s be willing to ask, are we blinded by the world’s DIY system? Whose reality are we living in?

Jesus did things by the power of His consciousness which we do not think we can do. He controlled reality through His choices. Much supernatural truth has been put ‘off limits’ to us by religious spirits operating within the old order religious systems, labelling it ‘New Age’. All truth is from God because Jesus is The Truth but some things have been veiled in deception. Just because some folk within the New Age movement may have glimpsed a reality which Christians have rejected, and just because they may have their own worldviews, mindsets and filters in place which cause them to see and present a distorted version of the truth, that does not mean that the truth is not there to be revealed when viewed through the lens of Jesus. We must recover that truth.

Take the red pill

‘The Matrix’ is one of my favourite movies, a modern parable which reveals that the truth can free our minds. If you have not seen it, I recommend it! Keanu Reeves is Neo (whose name means ‘New’ and is also an anagram of ‘One’). With the help of Laurence Fishburne’s character, Morpheus, he becomes aware that the reality he is living in is a lie and seeks to expose and overthrow it.

Here are a few quotes from Morpheus:

  • “Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. Like a splinter in your mind – driving you mad.”
  • “I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”
  • “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. The question is, are you willing to look?”
  • This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
  • “What is real? How do you define ‘real’? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”
  • “Don’t think you are, know you are.”
    Neo: “What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?”
    Morpheus: “No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.”
  • “The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.”
    Neo: “What truth?”
    Morpheus: “That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.”
  • “The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save… You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.”
  • “I didn’t say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the truth.”

Meeting Morpheus scene from The Matrix.

See for yourself

This rabbit-hole goes deep. “Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls.” I can give you testimony of my experience, but you really have to see this for yourself. Choosing relationship with the Father through Jesus is like taking the red pill: once you have seen and experienced Him for real, there is no going back. Around the world, I see many people encountering the real God and beginning to grasp that He really is Love. Many of us are only now beginning to realise just how good He actually is.

When Neo goes to visit the Oracle (hoping to find out if he is ‘the One’),  there is a sign on the wall, ‘Nosce te ipsum’ (‘Know yourself’). It is only when we see God as He really is that we can know who we really are.

Some recent articles from Freedom ARC
Older related posts

Support Freedom ARC

'Donate to Freedom ARC' button

Our Patreon patrons give a small amount each month and can join us for our monthly group Zooms, get exclusive or early access to Mike’s teaching and enjoy further patron-only benefits. Or you can use the blue button to contact us about making a one-time gift.
Thank you!
*Note Sadly, because of abuse by scammers we can no longer offer a ‘click to donate’ option. However, if you contact us, we will get back to you with a simple means of giving. 

Image attribution: the black and green ‘matrix’-inspired image used as a background for the title meme is by Pixabay contributor Tobias_ET. Used under Creative Commons CC0.

235. New Order Ekklesia

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott

The blueprint that has come from heaven

But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved (Matt 9:16-17).

In Jesus’ time and culture the old wineskins were not just thrown away but were renewed, restored and reconditioned to make them suitable to hold the new wine. They had invested a lot into those wineskins. God has invested a lot into the wineskin of church (ekklesia), and He is not just throwing it out.

I hear a lot of people talking about a new wineskin which is not the ekklesia. I do not accept that. The ekklesia is still what Jesus is building; He has not changed His mind. It is still the blueprint that has come from heaven. By all means let’s throw out the old concept of what has become known as ‘church’, with any negative connotations and past experience of hurt and oppressive controlling authority. But since the manifold wisdom of God is to be displayed to the usurping powers and authorities through the ekklesia (Eph 3:10), we need to recognise that without it we are not likely to see the kingdom fill the earth.

…you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ… But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light (1 Pet 2:5, 9).

All of us have a responsibility to be who God has called us to be, both individually and corporately.

Characteristics of a new order ekklesia

So a new order ekklesia will comprise people gathered together around a heavenly blueprint. It will function as a heavenly royal priesthood bringing agreement between heaven and earth. It will be built on a foundation of servant leaders, a heavenly foundation of the agreement of heaven’s oracles and a form and style of government which is a reflection of heaven on earth.

It will demonstrate a heavenly pattern of government – bench of 3, bench of 7 and bench of 12. It will not be a copy of any other ekklesia but will be established from its own individual heavenly mandate and blueprint: this variety will demonstrate the manifold nature of God’s wisdom (Ephesians 3:10 again).

Its shape will be flexible, continuously determined by the living stones who grow and mature as they outwork their destinies within it, and by living stones added and taken away. Its objective is to bring agreement between heaven and earth, to contribute to the restoration of all things to God’s original intent and purpose.

Flexibility

Locally, we have been transitioning into such a new order ekklesia over a number of years. We are forerunners, and at times the experience can be very difficult, but we know we are on a journey. Over the years we have produced several different, updated diagrams representing our blueprint. Does that mean that the blueprint has changed? I do not think so, rather it is that God has revealed (and that we have become aware of) different aspects of it over time.

When I look back to our beginnings in 1994 and the revelation of Isaiah 61, a foundational scripture for us, my understanding of that now is totally different to what I understood then. The text is still the same, but God has progressively deepened and expanded the revelation of it which we have been able to receive; my perception of it has changed and so, I am sure, has everyone else’s in the ekklesia. Therefore we are not now doing exactly the same things we were doing in 1994, but we are still outworking that same scripture as we now interpret and express it.

We did have a saying, back in those early days: ‘constant change is here to stay’. Little did we know how true (or how important) that was! The structure of our ekklesia is flexible, and it is the people who are part of it who determine what it will look like at any given moment. as they find their place as living stones and outwork their destiny in it.

So although we have an overall blueprint which says ‘we are an ekklesia and we will be part of a city of refuge, an embassy of heaven’, the actual form it takes will be totally determined by those who are called to embrace it. And in ten years’ time, when new people have come along, embraced the vision and received revelation themselves, certainly they will see and express something new, and the shape of Freedom Church will look different then to what it is now.

God always requires a new wineskin for new wine, but it is a constantly refurbished one, not something that did not exist before. God will carry on progressively releasing new wine of revelation, and the wineskin of the ekklesia has to remain flexible and be continually renewed if it is to receive it. We must never become rigid and set in our ways.

So whatever we are doing now, I can guarantee that down the line we will be doing something different, because we will have received fresh revelation from God for that season. That is why the concept of being like the sons of Issachar is important: understanding that God operates according to times and seasons, and in each season we need to know what God is calling us to do and to receive the necessary provision from Him to accomplish it.

[July 2022: Freedom Church has been in its own season of deconstruction and looks very different now to when this post was first published in 2017. Our understanding of what ‘church’ is, and how it operates in the heavenlies and manifests on the ground continues to unfold – JW].

Angelic engagement

An ekklesia of gathered people will live under an open heaven with angelic engagement. Jacob saw angels ascending and descending at a place he called ‘Bethel’, saying it was a house of God and a gateway of heaven. Individually and corporately we are all ‘Bethels’ into the earth.

Each of us is always a representative or ambassador of the ekklesia 24/7, not only when we are meeting physically in the same location. We do not ‘go to church’, we are church. Our whole lives are an expression of being a house of God, an ekklesia. But when we do come together, that is multiplied exponentially. We need to understand what it is to be built together as living stones, joined in love to fulfil God’s purpose.

Shadow

An ekklesia both individually and corporately is a shadow of what is established in heaven. You have to have something with a light shining on it to produce a shadow on the far side of it. So we must be in heaven in order to cast a shadow on the earth. If we do not live in heaven there can be no shadow on the earth.

I used to go into heaven, try to produce a shadow on the earth, and then come back out of heaven and occupy that shadow. The trouble was that the shadow no longer existed because I was not in heaven any more. That is why we have to learn to live in dual realms of heaven and earth at the same time; things on the earth will change dramatically when we do.

Embassy of heaven

Here, we are developing into a resource for the local community as we expand our work and influence through Freedom Community Alliance. There is also a worldwide aspect outworked through Freedom Apostolic Ministries (Freedom ARC), of which this blog is just a small part. I believe that eventually every ekklesia will be a city of refuge, an embassy of heaven, either in itself or as part of something larger in its city, area or region. That will be a full reflection of heaven’s government, with the mountain of the house of the Lord raised up above all the other mountains as we are an expression of God’s household, God’s kingdom, God’s authority on the earth. All the nations will run to it.

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

Recent articles from Freedom ARC
Older related posts

Support Freedom ARC

'Donate to Freedom ARC' button

Our Patreon patrons give a small amount each month and can join us for our monthly group Zooms, get exclusive or early access to Mike’s teaching and enjoy further patron-only benefits. Or you can use the blue button to contact us about making a one-time gift.
Thank you!
*Note Sadly, because of abuse by scammers we can no longer offer a ‘click to donate’ option. However, if you contact us, we will get back to you with a simple means of giving. 


6299

 

%d bloggers like this: