This special edition of the Dawn Friday Fax was written at the end of
October 2000 by Brian Mills, who was the Prayer Coordinator for the
British Evangelical Alliance and Billy Graham's 'Mission to London', among
others. Today, he leads InterPrayer with John Mulinde, and is one of the
Dawn movement's spiritual fathers. His most recent book, "Sins of the
Fathers", about reconciliation between nations, caused a global sensation.
"The year 2000AD is a year of transition and a year for transition. It is
a time when God is re-positioning people into places and situations where
they will be the greatest influence for Him in the future, and for the
most influential time of their lives. What is true for individuals is also
true for the Church. He is getting His Church into the place and
understanding where it can truly fulfil His purpose for it on the earth.
He is not interested in a church's self-centred existence. He is not
looking for it to survive or even merely to grow. He is looking for The
Church to fill the earth with His glory, to subdue the earth and have
dominion over it, to triumph over the principalities and powers, to be
ready as the Bride of Christ. God is getting His Church world-wide ready
for a final push towards the final mighty harvest. It is a time for us all
to get ready. For not only will there be a time of reaping on a scale most
have of us only dreamed about, but there will also be a time of
opposition, of persecution, and of misunderstandings. We will be maligned
by the media. We will be opposed by militant agents of Satan. We will be
marginalised by politicians. It is a year when a spiritual paradigm shift
is taking place on a number of fronts, and in different ways. A redefining
of commonly held understandings, and of familiar concepts. For the way we
have previously understood aspects of His will have not been sufficient to
usher in the final harvest, and to express His will on earth as it is in
heaven. So God is widening our understanding.
1. In relation to the APOSTOLIC.
We have previously seen this as vertical, stream or denominationally
related, top down apostleship. Leaders ? sometimes self-appointed ? have
exercised authority and control. Others have been church-planting apostles
and as such have been the spiritual fathers of those churches. Such
apostles have been concerned largely for their own stream or denomination
or for the churches the have founded. But now God is looking for apostles
to be concerned for the whole body of Christ, and for the fulfilment of
all God's purposes on earth. He is looking for apostles in and among
nations. Apostles need to be primarily concerned for all of God's will to
be done in all of God's world. God is looking for horizontal, relational,
across-the-streams apostles, who through serving one another, and
cooperating with one another will enable common vision to become reality.
They will be less concerned for their position or role among the people
they lead, and more concerned for the will of God to be done among the
people that no servant of God yet leads.
2. In relation to the PROPHETIC.
Previously we have seen this mostly as personal words given to inform or
confirm direction from heaven. From person to person, and from individuals
speaking in a prophetic way in public. But now God wants all His people to
be prophets in the personal sense. And He is looking for those who will be
prophets to the nations. Prophetic acts of strategic significance and
strategic importance will become more commonplace. Increasingly the
prophetic will be expressed in assignment praying, and in symbolic acts
that create breakthroughs. The prophetic will break out of the comfortable
surroundings of Christian gatherings and be expressed in the sight of the
people and at sites of historical and spiritual importance.
3. In relation to the EVANGELISTIC.
We have previously seen this as preaching-oriented, word-centred ministry
of the few professional evangelists. But now it is being redefined so that
personal and corporate, prayer-related, relational, word of knowledge,
God-inspired communication genuinely occurs. Large numbers will turn to
Him, as God's people in unison and unity in prayer call people to Him.
4. In relation to YOUTH AND CHILDREN.
No longer will they be seen as a group to whom and for whom adults do
things that express church, as separate from the church and as groups for
whom special activities will be required; they will be seen as fully
capable under the flow of the Holy Spirit to be released into prophetic
prayer and worship, into evangelism within their culture, and in modelling
new types of church across the streams and to the adults. They will not be
contained or containable within existing denominations or streams. They
will form their own kind of churches and will be non- denominational and
therefore separate from denominations.
5. In relation to REPENTANCE & RECONCILIATION.
This will no longer be understood in only personal terms between us and
God, and between individuals who become separated from others by reason of
dispute, but also as between groups and nations.
6. In relation to INTERCESSION.
Intercession will no longer be regarded as the ministry of a select few
called to this apparently distinctive aspect of prayer. In Scripture,
intercession is always associated with God-inspired prayer. The Church
will discover to pray as Jesus prayed ? with loud cries and tears.
7. In relation to the KINGDOM.
The Kingdom will not only be seen as a future hope for the people of God,
but also as a present reality, whereby Christ's kingdom is being extended
in the here and now. As we talk about transformed cities, transformed
communities and transformed nations, the reality of this will inevitably
be expressed in kingdom terms. Discipling nations will be the objective,
of which the planting of new churches will be a fact and a factor.
8. In relation to CHURCH.
Previously we have seen church in terms of denominational models. We talk
of the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the
Church of England, the Catholic Church, the State Church ? even
Pentecostal churches, Charismatic churches and Free churches. All these
distinctions will be redefined ? for they are limiting and sectional.
There is one church of Jesus Christ on earth, and one church in each city.
We must learn to redefine church. We now talk of cell churches, youth
churches, children's churches, house churches. We will also have to allow
for other expression of churches in places of employment, in institutions
and in communities where it is not appropriate for a denominational model
to be. Church will not only be static and fairly permanent, it will also
be mobile and temporary. Church will happen at different times and
different places. Pastors will no longer only see their ministry in terms
of pastoring a specific group of people, called a congregation. Pastors
will be called to cooperate together across the streams and boundaries, so
as to be pastors of cities. They will as such begin to take responsibility
before God for the city and all its expressions of life. They will pastor
local government, the police, the education services and so on.
It is a time to get ready so that the redefinition of things will not be
merely a matter of semantics, but so that the people of God get into
position and take their place, before God, and with one another. It is
God's time for the world."
Brian Mills October, 2000 (Abridged version)
