After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice that I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here and I will show you things that must take place after this’. Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven and One sat on the throne.” Revelation 4:1-2

In the last few years, God has blessed our network with some remarkable visitations. We’ve had seasons of Holy laughter, Oil on hands and many revival healings. Yet, as wonderful as these times were, today God wants to lift us into a higher realm – a realm where we will see the throne and the One who sits on it.

He wants the glimpses we have had of His glory to become habitual times in His presence. And so He is stirring up a holy dissatisfaction in His people. He is calling us to new levels – of fellowship and communion, worship and intimacy, wisdom and revelation power. This will bring us to even higher realms of divine disclosure.

Stir up the promises

What are the things God has spoken to you in the past? What are the promises He made to you when you met Him in prayer? Remember the seasons when you were so anointed that you preached the gospel to your friends and saw them come to Christ? Now is the time to go through your notebooks and remind yourself of these things! Begin to lay hold of everything He has ever spoken to you. It’s only when you learn to maintain what you attain that He will bring you into new things.

Remember Peter in the boat with the other disciples? He is on familiar territory and he’s bored with the ordinary. Then a holy dissatisfaction rises up on the inside of him. And, almost in answer to this holy dissatisfaction, along comes Jesus – walking on the water! What does this do? It forces Peter to sit up and take notice.

Can you see that Jesus did not perform this miracle simply to prove His deity? The key to understanding God’s motivation behind all signs and wonders is found in Mark 6:52, ”They had not understood about the loaves. Just before the disciples saw Jesus walk on water, the feeding of the five thousand had taken place. And they hadn’t understood that this miracle was not just about the provision of bread.

Your supernatural calling

Jesus had blessed the bread – but the miracle of increase took place in the hands of the disciples! Jesus was saying to them, ”I have called you to preach the gospel to the poor. This is your calling”. But because they had not understood, Jesus decided to confront them with a level of the supernatural that they couldn’t ignore. He decided to scare heaven into them by walking on the water! He wanted them to know that there is only one way to reach a dead and dying world and that’s through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.

So what does Peter do in response? He rises to the challenge and says to Jesus, “Lord if it is You, command me come to You on the water”.

?In this simple statement he gives us three keys to the miraculous. Firstly, he says, “Lord if it is You”. I predict that in this season of Holy Spirit visitation, the greatest miracles will be done not by the leadership but by all God’s people. Therefore each of us must ask Him what He’s calling us to do in this miracle hour.

Secondly, he says, “Command me.” Peter is offering Jesus his obedience. In matters of the miraculous, obedience is as important as faith. If we are not working in obedience to Him, God is limited in what He can do through us. Thirdly, Peter says, “Command me to come to you”. In other words,” I want to be with you Lord.”

Experience His passion and power

Being with Jesus should be the overriding motive for all that we do. The glory and beauty of the miraculous is that we find Jesus there and experience His power and His compassion.

God wants to restore the supernatural to the church in Britain and Europe. The door open in heaven is for us to see the One who sits on the throne and desire to be with Him. As the Holy Spirit calls us into higher fellowship, we realise that Jesus is the glorious point of it all. Be bold! Go through the open door to be with Jesus, as Peter did, and see the miracles go with you.

The post A Door Open in Heaven appeared first on Colin Dye.

God speaks to us through dreams and visions. How often have you felt an impulse of the Spirit touch your heart and direct you towards Himself? God is constantly speaking to us, revealing His heart, mind and will.

Many years ago, God gave me a dream – a vision of His greatness and power. It was not just a vision of Himself, but of Him manifesting Himself. But can you guess how He was manifesting Himself? Through you!

God longs to manifest Himself in power through you and through all God’s people. My greatest dream is for a fully mobilised church carrying the manifestation of God Himself. This is also God’s dream – indeed His very plan and purpose – for the Church, the body of Christ.

What’s your dream? Is it to be successful in business? Your career? Your personal life? What really excites you about the possibilities of tomorrow? If you learn to make God’s dream your dream you will find the key to that future of success and fulfillment you are longing for.

God has so kindly saved us by His grace through faith. But He has done so for a purpose. He has prepared beautiful works for us to walk in. And is all about making known the greatness of His power and love. He wants you to reach the lost and help build the body of Christ.

Let God visit you again with His dream for your life and you will embark on an adventure filled journey of faith that will challenge you, stretch you and bring out the very best in you under the anointing of God’s Spirit. You will never regret it!

The post What is Your Dream? appeared first on Colin Dye.

The Eagle symbolizes leadership

The 21st century, I believe, will take this apostolic restoration still further. But, it will not be just about the emergence of fresh and dynamic apostolic ministries along the lines of Ephesians 4:11. Rather, we will see the fruit of these ministries as they work to equip the Body of Christ and bring forth an apostolic people. The Church will begin to emerge as a people equipped with the vitality of the Spirit ready to meet the challenge of the days in which we live.

A crucial part of this will be the new forms of apostolically-based church structures that the Holy Spirit will give to facilitate His move on the earth. Last January we announced the beginnings of our new apostolic structure which is now operating in London City Church. We have avoided pretentious titles but have taken seriously the apostolic call upon us as a church and upon our leaders.

LCC is now headed up by a team of Apostolic Overseers under my overall leadership. They in turn, are nurturing and leading apostolic teams who work under their direction. The entire network is now covered by men and women who are stepping into the fullness of the apostolic anointing that awaits us all.

Despite the current emphasis on apostolic ministry I find many people, including leaders, do not always have a clear concept of apostleship. Years ago, in Britain the word “apostle’ seemed to being used of a superior ranking, authority figure who heavily tithed churches and gave them rather controlling direction – even from great distances. Stories abound of people “being covered’ by “apostles’ who lived overseas. Churches could make no decision without first getting the word of the “apostle’. Sometimes thousands of pounds were spent on telephone bills! I know the apostle Paul wrote letters to direct the churches, especially those he founded. But he did this out of pastoral care and concern; not from some high-seated position. The local leaders were the governing body of the churches.

Again, in Britain, the idea that seemed to prevail a few years ago was that an apostle was someone who merely “covered’ churches. That is part of it. But the situation degenerated into a scramble to take over churches that others had laboured to plant and grow. And it became a status symbol among leaders as if their ministry was to be judged by how many churches they “covered’. This was more like Jezebel stealing Naboth’s vineyard than anything the New Testament speaks of in terms of apostolic leadership.

The New Testament does speak of apostleship – and not just the apostles of the first century who were called to deliver the infallible message of Jesus to the Church. Apostles are necessary in every age of the Church. They are not called today to bring primary revelation. That was, as Jude made clear, once-for-all completed and delivered to the Church. “…contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 3

However, we need the same kind of leadership that the Church had in the beginning to set her on the sure footings of apostolic foundation. We need the apostolic vision of the hour to point us towards and bring us into God’s present day purposes. In short, a church without apostolic leadership is unstable, weak, directionless and ultimately ineffective.

At the core of apostolic ministry lies a cluster of God-given, Spirit produced abilities. And it’s these abilities we need to see released into the London City Church. They show us the heart of apostolic ministry.

The ability to be a father

This speaks of wise and mature leadership. It is about giving life and spiritual generation. It also has to do with nurture and protection. People need this level of leadership if they are going to rise in their potential as sons and daughters of the living God.

1 Corinthians 4:15 shows how rare true spiritual fatherhood is, “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”

Apostles, as fathers are spiritual generators. They carry the ability to get things started. They seem to make things happen. The prophets have a vital role in proclaiming the vision of the Lord, but apostles take the matter further. They are gifted to get something done. A vision has to be implemented. They have the capacity not only to see where God wants His people to be but also the wisdom to know how to get there. Apostles can inspire and motivate others towards the fulfillment of God-given goals.

The apostle builds and establishes God’s work and God’s people

The ability to be a builder

The apostle builds and establishes God’s work and God’s people. They are not content simply to shine in “superstar’ ministry or merely to preach to thousands. They have a burden to establish something. They see the value in working with others. They would agree with DL Moody who reportedly said, “I don’t want to do the work of 1,000 men. I would rather set 1,000 men to work.” The apostle Paul said, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.” 1 Corinthians 3:10

We can see the difference between one who is an apostolic builder and one who isn’t in the lives of John Wesley and George Whitefield. Both ministered at the same time in the evangelical revival in Britain in the 1700’s. Both were extremely powerful preachers, and Whitefield was said to have been even more powerful than Wesley. However, it was Whitfield himself who remarked that by comparison to Wesley’s converts his were like a “rope of sand’. He didn’t mean his converts weren’t soundly saved. But he saw that Wesley had not been content just to win people to Christ. He had organised them into “cell groups’ and had trained them to become an army for the Lord. As a result, the Methodist movement was born and it carried on the work long after Wesley was dead. This activity is characteristic of truly apostolic ministry.

An apostle has a true pioneer spirit. It’s the ability to be a trail-blazer and go ahead of the others preparing the way for them. Apostles constantly breakthrough into new areas. They do what has not been done before. They set an example for others and become a model of how something can get done. KT has been for a long time such a model. Over the years, many have come in and been encouraged to see what God has done. And they have gone back and done it too!

We must not loose this pioneer calling. We are attempting to do something that I am not sure is being done anywhere else in Europe. We must continue to be a breakthrough church and open up areas of vast spiritual wasteland to the gospel in this city and beyond. We must continue to set the temperature in the spiritual atmosphere of London and not sit back and become a mere reflection of our environment.

The ability to be an enabler

All the ministry gifts of Christ mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 are enabling ministries sent to equip the body of Christ. But nowhere is this more apparent than in the ministry of the apostles. They do not attempt to do everything themselves. In fact their primary concern is to raise up others. They stand as Moses did on the hill upholding the Joshua’s in the valley as they engage the enemy. They take their place in the command centre as the general of the army. Apostolic ministry is gifted in strategic level leadership and has the potential to take whole cities and nations for God.

From all this we can easily see how much we need the full expression of this ministry in our midst. In this year of Apostolic Anointing I challenge every leader in our network to rise up and take hold of the apostolic anointing for their life. You must press in and rise to whatever level of apostolic ministry God is calling you to possess.

The post What is Apostolic Leadership? appeared first on Colin Dye.

In it I saw a dark and stormy ocean over which black clouds hung heavily. Every now and then vivid lightening flashed and loud thunder rolled, while the winds drove foaming waves into a tempest that was claiming lives. There were myriad’s cursing, struggling and drowning, and as I watched some of them sank to rise no more.

The rock of safety

Then I noticed a mighty rock that rose up out of the dark angry ocean. Its summit towered high above the platform. Onto this platform, I saw with delight that a number of the poor struggling wretches were continually climbing out of the angry ocean. And I saw a few of those who were already safe on the platform helping others onto the rock. Many were working with ladders, ropes and boats to rescue those who were drowning. Occasionally someone actually jumped into the water, regardless of the consequences in their passion to “rescue the perishing”.

I hardly know which sight delighted me more – the sight of the people rescued, or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those had who rescued them.

Looking more closely, I realised that the people on the platform were quite a mixed company. They occupied themselves in different ways. Some spent their days trading while others amused themselves by dressing up for the admiration of their peers. Many were chiefly concerned with eating and drinking and yet others were taken up with arguing about the people that had already been rescued. Only very few of them made it their business to rescue people from the sea.

What puzzled me most was the fact that although all of them had been rescued from the ocean at one time or other, nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten about it. And what seemed equally strange was that they did not even seem to care about the people who were drowning right before their eyes – many of whom were their own spouses, brothers and sisters and even their own children.

The Call

Those on the rock had received a call from the one who had Himself gone down into the sea. They’d heard His voice and felt that they ought to obey it – or at least so they said. They professed to love Him and to sympathise with Him in the task He had undertaken. But, they were so distracted by their professions, pleasures and their preparation for going to the mainland that they did not help Him. So the multitude went on right before them struggling, shrieking and drowning in the darkness.

And then I noticed that some of the people on the platform were crying out to Him to come to them! Many wanted Him to spend His time and strength in making them happier. Others wanted Him to take away various doubts and misgivings they had concerning the truth of some letters He had written to them. Some wanted Him to make them feel more secure on the rock -so secure that they would be quite sure that they would never slip off again into the ocean.

So they would meet and climbing high on the rock they would cry, “Come to us! Come and help us!” And all the while He was down among those drowning in the sea trying to rescue them and looking to those on the rock for help.

William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army

The vision understood

And then I understood it all. The sea was the ocean of human existence. The lightening was the piercing truth coming from Jehovah’s Throne. The thunder was the distant echoing of God’s wrath. The multitudes struggling in the stormy sea were ‘the Lost’, ungodly people of every kindred, tongue and nation. That great sheltering rock represented Calvary, the place where Jesus had died for them. And the people on it were those who had been rescued. The way they used their energies, gifts and time represented the occupations and amusements of those who had been saved. The handful of determined ones that risked their lives to save the perishing were the true soldiers of the cross. The One calling on the rescued to help Him rescue others was Jesus Himself.

A time to act

Fellow Christians, you have been rescued from the waters, yet He is still in the sea calling for your help. Don’t be deceived by appearances – men and things are not what they seem. All who are not on the rock are in the sea!

Jesus is in the midst of this dying multitude, struggling to save them. He wants you to jump in and help. Will you jump or will you linger on the bank, singing and praying about perishing souls? Lay aside your shame and pride, your cares about the opinions of others and all the selfish loves that have held you back for so long, and rush to the rescue of these dying men and women.

Unquestionably the surging sea is dark and dangerous. The leap means difficulty, scorn and suffering for everyone who takes it. Yet He who beckons you from the sea knows what it will mean – and knowing, He still bids to you to come.

You have enjoyed your Christianity long enough. Going down among the perishing crowds is your duty. From now on your ease will depend on sharing their pain and your heaven in going into the very jaws of hell to rescue them. Now what will you do?

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