SHOCKING STATISTICS ABOUT ANTIDEPRESSANTS

I was astounded to read a BBC News Article this week which stated: “More than eight million people in England are on antidepressants – which are prescribed for depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder and other conditions. That’s one million more people than five years previously, (stats from NHS for BBC Panorama)…”

So, if there are around 50 million adults in England, then that’s a whopping 16% taking antidepressant medication! And that’s probably a similar figure for the rest of the UK and other nations too.

The BBC article goes on to say: “More than a quarter of patients on antidepressants in England have been taking them for five years or more.

This is despite there being limited evidence of the benefits of taking the drugs for that length of time.

A doctor who runs an NHS clinic helping people off the pills says withdrawal symptoms can make it hard for some to stop taking their medication…

The investigation also uncovered evidence that a leading drug company attempted 27 years ago to conceal possible withdrawal effects that one drug could cause.

Modern antidepressants – called SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors) – arrived from the late 1980s, including Prozac. They were quickly heralded as wonder drugs compared with earlier medications, some of which had serious side effects.

They were thought to treat depression by fixing an imbalance of the mood-regulating chemical serotonin in the brain. Researchers are now not clear how they work. One theory is that they simply change how you think or feel, rather than rectifying an underlying problem.” (BBC News Article June 2023).

With such a huge percentage of the population looking for help and resorting to antidepressants, which statistically have little benefit and potential side-effects, it’s high time we made known the powerful alternative available for everyone!

A powerful alternative to antidepressants

In my latest book, “Get rid of those demons – it’s your time to shine!” I address the underlying cause of many common mental health issues. Below are extracts from my book, including a powerful alternative to antidepressants, which I think you will find liberating:

Evidence is clear that the side-effects of taking antidepressants are many and according to the NHS website can include anxiety, shaking, stomach problems, sexual problems, insomnia, blurred vision, problems urinating, tiredness, weight gain, excessive sweating, heart problems, twitching, diabetes, seizures, psychosis, stopping breathing, coma, suicidal thoughts, and if that wasn’t enough, even muscle pain and headaches, presumably the very problems that one was attempting to alleviate in the first place!…

A Spiritual Root

Despite often being a result of past trauma, many mental health issues actually have a spiritual root. Discovering the spiritual power behind conditions such as depression, bi-polar, self-harm, confusion, imaginary friends, OCD, ADD, autism, schizophrenia, phobias, anxieties and various disorders can help bring swift and permanent freedom.

I was speaking to a large crowd one time and the Holy Spirit showed me that a person in that meeting had witnessed something horrific in their past, like a violent death and suffered from ongoing trauma as a result. A vision flashed before my eyes of a lot of blood and an awful incident which I went on to describe. A young woman raised her hand and told us all how as a girl she had witnessed an horrific murder right in front of her. Her life had been dramatically impacted as a result to such a degree that she suffered terribly from the trauma in many ways.

After releasing the peace of Jesus into her life, we told the spirit of trauma to leave her. It left forcefully and she fell backwards some distance onto the floor. She was unhurt, but when she got up, she knew all the trauma had left her. We saw her again a year or so later and she told us that she had been completely set free from that demon and her life had been transformed as a result. Years of medication and counselling were unable to help her, but she was instantly freed through the power of Jesus.

FREEDOM FROM NEGATIVE THOUGHTS AND ANXIETY

Our Miracle Cafés attract a lot of people. Not just for the good food and drinks, but many are also drawn to our free spiritual menu. Freedom from negative thoughts and anxiety is a popular request from our customers. And it’s no wonder, with pandemics, wars, unrest, economies and the like being in turbulence, not to mention ill health, loss, financial and relationship issues…

Unfortunately, whenever we come into agreement in any way with an evil spirit and give it a place in our life, we empower it. We must break agreement and stop its influence in order to live free.

“Refuse to worry about tomorrow but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself” (Matthew 6:34 TPT)…

The way to freedom is simple. Once we recognize that the source of the problem is demonic, half the battle is won! In fact, the battle has already been won, because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Once the schemes of the enemy are exposed, it’s simply a matter of submitting to Jesus and acknowledging that through Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, the powers of darkness have been broken.

“Since the children have flesh and blood, He (Jesus) also shared in their humanity, so that by His death, He might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery…” (Hebrews 2:14)…

What is behind depression?

Depression can very often be caused by demons. Once, when I was relaxing in the garden on a lovely summer’s day, a dark feeling came over me for no apparent reason. I began to feel sad and then depressed quite quickly. I was starting to take on board the depressing thoughts and felt very low, but instantly I realized these were not my thoughts and that I must not take them on board or agree with them. I recognized that a spirit of depression or despair (like that mentioned in Isaiah 61:3) had tried to settle on me, so I spoke out loud and commanded the spirit to leave in the name of Jesus. Immediately the feelings disappeared, and I was back to normal. I was shocked to realize that if I’d taken those thoughts any further and come into agreement with that demon, before long I could be suffering from depression. I think this happens to many people without them knowing it.

Demons torture, they enslave, they defile, they deceive, they cause addictions, they attack the physical body and the mind, they compel, they harass, they entice.

But, “The mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). That is our true identity and inheritance, and it is up to us to choose this way of life each day.

Emotional freedom

Isaiah 61 cites a spirit of despair which can also be translated ‘heaviness’. Many people relate to a feeling of hopelessness, or despair as being a heavy feeling or a dark cloud upon them. They find it difficult to get up in the morning or to exercise, or even to go about the day’s basic necessities of life.

Often this is a result of being betrayed or abandoned, even from a young age, or perhaps a traumatic experience or sustained difficulties or loss in life.

If we allow feelings of rejection, hopelessness, anger, rebellion, hatred, bitterness, fear (and any negative emotion you can think of) to have a place in our life, then before long, evil spirits of rejection, hopelessness, anger, rebellion, hatred, bitterness, fear and so on, will take up residence in our emotions which is part of our soul. The result of this is that we become an angry person, or a fearful person or whatever, and those traits will manifest in our lives, no matter how hard we try to stop them.

The solution is to recognize the demons and get rid of them and to go back to the root cause of those feelings – what caused that response in me in the first place? That needs to be dealt with and repentance is also necessary, which means changing the way we think and acting differently.

THERE IS A POWERFUL ALTERNATIVE TO ANTIDEPRESSANTS!

My book goes on to explain how we can be free, along with a whole series of prayers for you to pray along with. Here is part of one of those prayers that you may now wish to pray:

Father God, please forgive me for coming into agreement with any evil spirit that has caused… (and then say what it is). Father God forgive me for coming into agreement with any evil spirit of (pain, depression, despair, anxiety, addiction, cancer, arthritis etc) when I spoke out….. or took medication to try and suppress it…. or expected it to happen…. or gave in to fear… (or whichever way you gave it a foothold in your life). I’m sorry for believing the lies of the enemy over the Word of God and Your Truth. Whatever is causing this condition, I command that demonic spirit to leave me now through the power of Jesus who is the anointed one; the highest power… Amen.

I hope you found these short extracts from my book helpful. Follow the link for more details including me reading the introduction on video and you can purchase the book from our online store. Also available on Kindle.

Hearing the Christmas story each year, we can dumb it down to simply a children’s nativity play or choir boys in a high church setting, but re-read the gospels as though hearing for the first time, and you’ll realise how religious we’ve made it. What actually happened was to ordinary people like you and me. And just like us, they had to work out what to do, and those choices would affect the history of the world.

And how did they do that? They came into alignment with God’s plan for their lives by paying attention to their dreams, listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and communicating with angels.

God speaks through dreams

In Matthew 1:20, as the young man Joseph prepares to quietly separate from his fiancee Mary when he finds out she’s pregnant (and not by him), he has a dream in which an angel appears and tells him it’s OK, the baby has been conceived supernaturally! When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel told him. Wow! What faith. So many of us get into difficulties or don’t know which way to turn, but if we ask God to speak to us, He will. In fact He’s always speaking in many different ways, but we often miss it – we usually dismiss dreams as not being relevant, but God often directs our steps or warns us through dreams. And angels, believe it or not, do not always have wings! They often appear as normal human beings and can be easy to miss (see Hebrews 13:2).

The sorcerors who came to worship Jesus and bring him gifts were warned in a dream to return home a different route. Joseph dreamed again after Jesus was born and was told to flee to Egypt to protect the life of Jesus from Herod who would have killed him. What if Joseph had ignored the dream, or at least waited around and hoped for another sign? Even if they hid and Jesus wasn’t killed with all the other little boys at the time, He wouldn’t have fulfilled the prophecy by Hosea that is quoted in Matthew 2:15, “Out of Egypt I called my Son.”

Submitting to God’s plan

Many prophecies were fulfilled by the choices that Mary and Joseph made and the same applies to us. God has a plan for your life but you have to pay attention, make the right choices and step out in faith for those plans to be fulfilled. Often, when a difficult situation or something unplanned arises, we quote scripture at it, ask people to pray for us and blame the devil. But you know, if Joseph had not taken his wife Mary, along with Jesus and fled to Egypt to live until the death of Herod, Biblical prophecies would not have been fulfilled.

God often uses trials and unpredicted circumstances to keep us on the right path. Following Jesus is not the easiest path, so there’s no point in hoping it will all be plain sailing. We may as well accept that now! But it will be the greatest adventure, and if you pay attention to your dreams, visits from angels and other signs in everyday life, follow where they lead and trust that God knows what He’s doing, it will be a life full of peace and purpose no matter what happens along the way.

THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE IS SIGNIFICANT

This weekend in the UK, along with other nations, we are celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. She is the oldest and longest serving monarch in this nation, celebrating 70 years on the throne.

Early in 2020 I had no idea we were heading towards this Jubilee when we were being prayed over and ‘sent out’ from Chester by the church we both grew up in. We were about to leave our home and our families to travel wherever the Holy Spirit led us. One of the church leaders gave us a prophetic word. She said, “I saw clearly the Queen’s Jubilee. From the top to the bottom of the country, bonfires were lit – beacons that could be seen by each other. God has this in store for you and it’s not just limited to this country…”

So when I realised we were approaching the Queen’s Jubilee I began to get excited, not just because we knew God was going to move powerfully as we followed the Holy Spirit opening Miracle Cafes and Spirit Lifestyle Classes, but because what we are doing is just one small piece of what God is orchestrating around the world through others with a heart after Him.

We knew 2022 would be significant in the UK because it’s a Jubilee year. Jubilees in the Old Testament were every 50 years and they were a year of freedom, of debts being wiped out, of slaves being set free – a time of celebration. Under the New Covenant, Jesus proclaimed liberty for the prisoners, good news to the poor, recovery of sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and the year of the Lord’s favour (Jubilee) for us all (see Luke 4).

The time we are in is a time of restoration – through the power of Jesus; all that the enemy has stolen that is rightfully ours being restored to us (plus interest), a time for freedom, healing and of joy and living in the abundance of God’s favour.

The number 70 is significant in the Bible and signifies restoration. It is made up of 7 representing perfection and 10 completeness. Just some of the many instances in the Bible include: 70 elders went up Mt Sinai with Moses and ate with God, encountering His presence. After 70 years of Babylonian captivity, the Israelites were dramatically set free. From the destruction of the first temple to the completion of the second was 70 years. Jesus sent out 70 of His followers to go and preach the gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons. Jesus shared 70 parables as He spoke of the kingdom of heaven, and so on.

And this weekend is also Pentecost, where Christians around the world celebrate the Holy Spirit being poured out for the early believers, and for us too. As they were being baptised with the Holy Spirit, the Jews were celebrating the festival of Pentecost – the beginning of the wheat harvest.

Could it be that we are in the beginnings of the end-time harvest of souls? I do believe that we are. The signs are all around. Ten years ago this month, while Rick Joyner was with us in Chester, he prophesied: “…I saw many small groups in strategic places, churches starting in cafes… Like in the Lord of the Rings movie, I see signal fires and beacons. The Lord is establishing signal fires and there will be places and people that you would look to and see if they’re putting their signal out and you would know what the signal is. These are the sons of Issachar and they are establishing beacons on the high places…”

The ’sons of Issachar’ were men who understood the times they were in, who could discern the signs and knew what to do. Last night, as the Queen lit the first beacon, 3500 others were ignited in the UK and many other nations too. It’s time to see the signs as God is igniting His fires in the UK and around the world, and be the beacons that we are called to be, as the Holy Spirit fans into flame this long-awaited heavenly invasion. God save the Queen!

Watch this video and read the blog by Aliss Cresswell below.

Discover what is happening in the spirit realm right now, how this impacts your life and what choices you need to make at this pivotal moment in history…

The Spirit Realm affects the Natural Realm

It’s important to know what is happening spiritually at any given time, because what happens in the spirit realm actually affects what happens in the natural, physical realm. For thousands of years people have known this to be true, but on the whole the western world gradually turned its back on spiritual matters over the past few centuries, to its detriment. Only in recent years have we increasingly begun to understand again that the spiritual realm is real and its influence can no longer be ignored or belittled.

Spiritual Power

The power available in the spirit realm is immense, for good or evil, and it is essential that we learn of its potential to affect our lives, including our families, communities and nations. Many of us still give little thought to what is happening spiritually and this leaves us subject to external forces, resulting in wrong choices and powerless lives. To counteract this, many search for spiritual guidance, but without a clear understanding of the powerful forces at work spiritually, can unwittingly become drawn into spiritual practices that open the door to harmful influences. This can result in ill-health and torment both physically and mentally, broken relationships and generally a lack of well-being in many areas of life.

Forces for good and evil

The key thing to remember is that there are two opposing forces in the world – good and evil; we see this reflected in what is happening around us. The Bible says that God is good and He has good plans for our lives – plans to prosper us in spirit, soul and body, and not to harm us. According to the Bible, our enemy, satan, comes to steal, kill and ultimately destroy us (see John 10:10). So the key to living a healthy, fruitful life is to know God’s plan for us personally and to walk that path, and also to understand what the enemy is doing so we can steer clear from his plan for our lives. One of the best ways to know God’s good plan for us is to read letters from God Himself – this is what the Bible is – the written word of God.

Avoiding pitfalls

The Bible helps us to know God and be joined to Him, but how do we know what is happening spiritually right now at this moment in time? How do we know what the enemy is planning to do so that we can avoid falling into his traps? The Bible says that the enemy cannot outwit us if we are aware of his schemes (see 2 Cor 2:11). That’s where we need discernment from God and His daily communications with us. God speaks to us through His Holy Spirit (see John 16:12-15) in many different ways, and if you would like help to hear from God for your own life then do consider joining our SpiritLifestyle.com portal.

So what is happening spiritually right now?

I’ve been asking the Holy Spirit to show me what is happening now and you can do the same. As you read this, ask the Holy Spirit to confirm to you if what I am saying is from Him. Get used to communicating with Him more and learning the ways that He speaks.

In early November, as England went into another full lockdown, I shared regular Facebook Live videos (November Challenge with Aliss Cresswell) and in one video, I reflected on a dream I’d had that morning. Now I don’t know if this dream is just for the UK regarding the timescale, but I do believe it’s indicative of what God is doing globally in these days.

A Shaking

Before I awoke I heard the words ‘GREAT CHANGE’ being spoken and I saw the ground shaking from below, almost like an earthquake and roots of what looked like grass in the soil. Later that same day as I asked the Holy Spirit to show me more, I heard the words ‘SPRING BULBS’ and ‘PARTHENOGEN’. Not knowing the word Parthenogen, I typed it into my browser just as I’d heard it and was surprised to discover it was in fact an actual word, and its definition is ‘reproduction without two parents, where the offspring is an exact replica of the parent eg. virgin birth, spring bulbs such as a daffodil’. Apparently a daffodil (which happens to be a Welsh national emblem) can be grown from seed but it’s a very long process. From a bulb, planted in the autumn, using its underground food storage, after winter, the daffodil shoots up quickly and flowers in the Spring. It’s a much quicker process of reproduction.

A Spiritual Awakening

This was back in November 2020 and what I gleaned from that revelation was that as we approach Spring 2021, I believe we are going to see a powerful spiritual awakening beginning in the UK and other nations too. Here in Wales, daffodil shoots are already coming up through the earth and some even have flower buds, so the signs are pointing to an awakening of new life springing up very soon.

The Winter is Past

I’m reminded of Song of Solomon chapter 2: “See the winter is past… flowers appear on the earth… arise my darling, my beautiful one and come away with me…” The Lord is calling us into a deeper communion with Him, to come away from worldly distractions and to keep our eyes focused on Him. One of the things the enemy is doing right now is trying to distract each one of us away from Jesus, the One our souls long for. If our eyes are taken off Him, then our lives begin to fall apart and we will lose our hope and our reason for living.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood

As I mentioned already, God has a good plan and a purpose for each one of us, but the enemy will try and take us off that path. One thing happening right now is the enemy is trying to destroy marriages and break down family relationships.  He will go for your weak points, so watch out. Remember, our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (see Ephesians 6:12). So if you’ve been cooped up with family members for a long time during Covid, don’t fall out with each other, but come together to war against the spiritual forces that are working to destroy your relationship. We really do need to know what to watch out for so we can avoid the devil’s plans to destroy every area of our lives.

The Spirit of Life sets us free

Death, destruction and despair are swirling around us, but meditate on the powerful truths of God’s word. I love Romans 8 which states that ‘The law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death, through Jesus.’ Woohoo! That’s good news right there, but we have to stand against sin, sickness and death by faith and release the kingdom of heaven instead if we are to live in the good of that scripture.

Hope Springs Forth

Despite the great shaking in the earth right now, there is immense hope. Like daffodil bulbs, there are hundreds of thousands of followers of Jesus – children of God, made in His image, who have been hidden and covered, protected and nurtured. The waiting and preparation is worth it, as new life emerges. And just as spring flowers are revealed as the sun’s warmth penetrates the earth, so each of these ‘new creation’ children of God will be revealed in all their glory as the ‘Son’ shines through us. “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Romans 8:14) and “The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious sons and daughters!” (Romans 8:19 TPT). That’s you and me.

Heaven’s Armies are on the Move

Look out for my next blog, where I share how the angelic host of heaven are an integral part of what is happening in the spirit realm right now and how we can interact with them and harness the power available to us through Jesus.

An invitation from Rob & Aliss Cresswell

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In this article read how past prophetic insights are now coming to pass, discover new church models and how you and your community can be best positioned to advance the Kingdom in this changing landscape.

The perils of meeting in a bar

Some years ago, we established a church in our hometown of Chester, England. It wasn’t what you’d call a ‘traditional’ church since we met in a bar in our local neighbourhood of Blacon, Chester. It was the type of place where your shoes would stick to the floor on Sunday mornings from the previous night’s activities (don’t ask)!

Locals smoked weed down the hallway and when the back doors were open, the wind would blow the sweet-smelling cannabis smoke into our meetings. We didn’t know if the congregation were full of the Holy Spirit or getting high on inhaling second-hand weed half the time.

The bar in the room we met was back to back with the local’s bar, so as well as all the noise coming through, we’d also get drunken locals joining our meetings. One time we had a guest speaker who was accosted during his sermon by one of these – I had to get up and bring the staggering, singing man to sit next to me on the front row. With his one hand wrapped around his vodka and the other draped over my shoulders, he kept upright, leaning on me, for the remainder of the meeting.

Slithering and retching

I noticed a newly saved woman slithering along the floor like a snake one time during the worship, bashing her head on the sound system as a demon manifested. And that wasn’t unusual. We had a witch get saved one Mothering Sunday and while the children were giving out daffodils to all the mothers, she was screaming and puking in the offering bucket as demons were leaving. ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ I shouted, in between her retching!

So no, our church was perhaps not that ‘traditional’ but even so, we began to realise that most of the fruit and transformation of lives came about through our cafes and shops and B&B businesses than through Sunday ‘church’ meetings. We reached many more people through our hospitality businesses, even being able to mentor them through the small groups we ran there.

We found that most people coming to faith in Jesus didn’t want to start attending a typical Sunday morning church meeting. Yes, they wanted to follow Jesus, they gave their lives to Him and wanted to meet up with others, to be mentored and part of community. But not in the traditional church model that we’d grown up with.

Martin Scott’s predictions

Some years ago we published an article by Martin Scott, a friend and recognised prophetic voice, sharing these predictions:

• a new apostolic shape has to be discovered. It will not be possible to simply travel the world to discover it elsewhere. It has to be birthed indigenously.
• there will be criticisms as to how the church is developing with talk of its demise, because what is fresh will be growing at the margins and largely hidden.
• a new apostolic Gospel will be marked by a focus on the margins and the poor, not the centre and the powerful.
• it will carry a wave of signs and wonders through the hands of the apostolic band of unknowns.
• it will push into new waves of thinking about economic issues, as it refuses to bow at the feet of a narrowly defined prosperity.
• let’s not expect the future to be simply a ‘new improved’ re-run of what has been. It has to be something not seen before; not even a going back to the first-century.”

This seemed to echo what we were sensing at the time. I remember clearly the Lord showing me that for years many of us had been building our churches as best we could, working hard implementing our programmes, activities and services, praying for revival and waiting for God to extend His Kingdom and fill our churches.

It’s all been upside down!

However, what He showed me was that we had it all back to front and He was going to turn what we were doing on its head! That in fact, Jesus told us to go and proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven and demonstrate His love and power through signs, wonders and miracles, thereby extending His Kingdom. He told me that instead of praying for revival, we were to ‘be revival’ and we should ignite revival everywhere we went.

As we do that, He promised that He would build His church (see Matthew 16). If we follow that model, we’ll find that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church that the Lord builds, as opposed to the church that we try and build.

The ship is going down

In 2012 the Holy Spirit clearly told Sylvain Gauthier to travel from his home in Canada to attend our European roundtable in Chester. There he shared a word for us from the Apostle Paul’s shipwreck during a hurricane in Acts 27: “I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.”

At the time, we were witnessing hundreds of healings, miracles and salvations through our hospitality businesses and so this warning of impending storms and potential shipwreck seemed out of context.  But just one year later, after every option for a venue for our Sunday church meeting forced us out, we cried out to the Lord and He clearly led us to close the two churches we’d planted some years earlier.

What! No Sunday meeting?

We could not understand it at the time, but we were obedient to the Holy Spirit’s direction even though there was a sense of loss and guilt – the thought of not attending church on a Sunday was alien to me. The instruction from Hebrews 10:25 “Don’t give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing’ would ring in my head. Even now, after all these years, I still don’t know what to say when someone asks me which church I attend on a Sunday!

It’s not that meeting on a Sunday was wrong, but we gradually realised that the Lord was doing something different with us and we found that we were pioneering a new model of church. In 2009 we established our ‘all day breakfast’ café in the heart of Blacon, a ‘deprived’ community, and then also opened a gift and coffee shop two miles away in the tourist city of Chester. Instantly we found ourselves at the centre of ‘revival’ as God moved dramatically through the power of His Holy Spirit at both places, and then later through our B&B.

Harvesting is hard work

What we learned from that time is that revival is messy. Harvest time is hard work and we recognised that we didn’t have the framework in place to look after and train the new converts. At that time, the Lord showed me that He was withholding the harvest until the storehouses were ready. Since then, we’ve been putting in place some of what was missing over that intense time of ‘mini-harvest’. It was as if the Lord gave us a taster, albeit on a smaller scale, of what was to come.

Since that time, we’ve filmed scores of videos and launched an online portal. These videos help people to go deep with the Holy Spirit, but are explained simply enough for even new Christians to understand, with faith activations and home tasks for practical application. We’re able to lead people to Jesus this way, helping them mature spiritually and in turn they’re reaching others, in many nations.

A new model of church

And this year we launched weekly Spirit Lifestyle Classes. We don’t run these ourselves but we’re training and raising up believers in various nations who are using the training videos we’ve produced to reach others, leading them to Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit and then mentoring through small Classes. We’re finding that we’re not limited by buildings, money, people or even location, as we began with online Classes during lockdown and now local physical Classes are springing up where Covid restrictions are easing.

The key is to follow the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to show you heaven’s plan for your community and your assignment. It’s already been conceived in the heart of God and just like the blueprints for the tabernacle were downloaded to Moses from heaven, so God’s heavenly blueprints are ready to be downloaded to you through the Holy Spirit. Then by faith you and your team can bring it to birth in the right place and at the right time. This seems to be the season for birthing.

Go organic

And like Martin Scott predicted, it’s happening in the margins, not from a large centralised headquarters, but with ‘unknown’ people, indigenously and yet powerfully. We at Spirit Lifestyle don’t even have a ‘ministry’ building. There are no salaried staff members. We have a very small team and we’ve all been working from home, long before Covid came on the scene. We’re finding that as we empower others to launch out and use the resources we’ve put together, they’re stepping into their own callings and fulfilling their destinies and so it goes on as they raise up others. It’s early days but we’re seeing sustained growth in many nations already and as we hold it all lightly, not trying to force a traditional model or a certain direction, we trust that this movement will grow exponentially.

In fact, we’re now considering helping others launch hospitality businesses in their communities with signs, wonders, miracles and supernatural training and we’re also seeing existing churches run our weekly Classes from their own church buildings with wonderful results.

A jail-break

Many years ago Rick Joyner prophesied:

“A revolution is coming to Christianity that will eclipse the Reformation in the sweeping changes that it brings to the church. When it comes… the way that the world defines Christianity will be radically changed. What is coming will not be a change of doctrine, but a change in basic church life… When this new church emerges, she will be so different from what is now perceived to be the church, that the whole world will not even recognise that there was ever a connection between the two…

There is about to be a jail-break. A great people are about to emerge from the present forms of church that have been built upon the ways of men, and they will risk everything to seek that which God is building. A true union of the church is not possible until the forces of spiritual slavery are defeated and all people are set free to follow the Lord in their own quest…

The future leaders of the church are now being given a vision of radical New Testament Christianity being restored… it is time to heed the call and allow the Lord to lead His people to the new wineskins that will be able to hold what is about to break out upon the earth… The new dynamic of church life will overshadow the Great Awakenings in their social impact, transforming cities and even whole nations.”

Missional communities

We’re seeing others model church in new ways too. Friends of ours who lead a Baptist Church have been meeting within communities each week and once a month they all come together for a church-wide gathering. They’ve been helping pioneer ‘missional communities’ successfully over the past number of years.

A changing landscape

In 2012 Mark Buchanan had a prophetic dream which he shared at our roundtable and subsequently wrote for our ejournal at the time. The Lord is still speaking through it now, so ask Him to speak to you personally as you read it:

“I was in a fairly high place looking at what I knew was a model of a city. I could see it had a skyline and all the various buildings you would expect in any city. Dominant on the skyline was a beautiful church with a traditional steeple and all the carvings and details that go with it. As I watched, the church started to melt. It turned out to be made of wax, which had been very carefully sculpted and painted. As it melted it sank down and, as it did so, I was lifted up so that I could see over the other buildings on the skyline to what was happening to the church. Obviously, heat was being applied to the church, causing it to melt into a pool of molten wax.

I felt the Lord‘s significant pleasure at what was happening. So it clearly wasn’t a rebuke. As the wax became molten, it began to flow – driven by gravity and the contours of the landscape. Where, previously, there had been lots of straight edges and evidence of man’s intentions, designs and strategies, there was not a straight line to be seen anywhere – just organic shapes. The molten wax ran downhill and pooled wherever there was a dip in the landscape. Eventually there were no more slopes and the wax settled and presumably started to cool down and go solid again.

We are no longer meant to predominantly be a beacon on the skyline. That’s not important in this next phase. There’s no hierarchy in what’s happening. So building up edifices in the church, building up formal structures and layers is no longer relevant. Importantly, in the picture, wherever the wax of the church ended up – molten or solid – its molecular structure remained exactly the same.

However, where it ended up was actually decided by the land itself. So it’s about us – the church – going wherever the need takes us. Wherever we end up flowing and stopping, that’s the right place for us to be. It’s not about planning in advance in all kinds of detail.

The wax symbolises our substance. We are the church, we are God’s body. There should be no fear if we end up in strange places and we shouldn’t be disturbed if where we end up seems to be driven much more by society and the community than it does by some sort of a plan. Our confidence should be in the nature of the wax, which is our identity in Christ. That’s the part that will never change.”

Change is here

After the dramatic changes we’ve seen already in 2020, churches no doubt will eventually be able to return to meetings as usual, however, this is a perfect time to be seeking the Lord and asking for His blueprints from heaven.

What have we learned?

So what we’ve learned is this: don’t try to form a rigid structure, access the heavenly blueprints, go with the flow of what the Holy Spirit is doing, be led by the community you are called to, use whatever methods and means the Lord lays on your heart and the skills you and your team and community have. Don’t try and fit into a mould, let it be organic, demonstrate His Kingdom in love and power, step out in faith, take courage, lay down your life and go with what’s in your heart. And don’t make decisions based on money (whether that be to attract finance or because you don’t have enough). DREAM BIG, be creative, work alongside others and let’s bring in the harvest together, full of joy.

“Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” (Habakkuk 1:5).