MEGASHIFT

Something is shifting. Something is changing dramatically in the spirit realm that is about to manifest itself fully in the physical realm. You wonder why I feel the heavy burden in my heart? It's because a "reformation" is about to take place. It's because everything I've heard, hoped and dreamed for is materializing. It's the last great awakening that will hit the shores finally in North America, the same way the reformational fires of revival hit China in 1949 and birthed the modern day house church movement. Over 120 million Christians are estimated in China today from about 1 million in 1949. Most of these Chinese Christians are discipled in small house churches of 15-30 members. Millions in South America, Africa, India and the like have been swept into the kingdom in the last 50 years. They estimate from mission agency statistics 300 million Christians have been born again in the last 10 years alone. The greatest revival in history is taking place right now. Numerically greater than the day of Pentecost, the 1st and Second Great Awakenings, Welsh Revival, Azusa Street, the Jesus Movement combined is the revival we are experiencing today. Everywhere except North America that is. But not for long.

It's why I started "campus church networks" even though people thought I was crazy. House churches on campus? What's a house church? Simple Church? Organic Church? An Acts church? What is about to happen in the next season will shake the western church to its core. It is a divine invasion of God's presence upon an entire generation to rise up to its destiny and fulfill the call of God at this hour. It's the mobilization of all the saints for the work of the ministry. No more egos, no more buildings, no more agendas, no more programs, just Jesus. Kingdom outposts shining divine light in every sector and sphere of society. It's church happening where life happens, 24/7, everyday, everywhere, with everybody. For me the focus is the university campuses. Equipping a new generation of student missionaries who will "be church" not "do church." It's about you and a couple of your friends catching the heart of Jesus and believing you can do everything that His Bible says you can do.... "Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" Matthew 28:18. We say that, market that, but do we believe we are to actually do it? Why don't a few of your friends identify an "un-reached" group of students on your campus and do Matthew 28:18. Win them to Christ, turn them into disciples, baptize them in your apartment/dorm on campus and start a simple church there? Then why not envision these new disciples to plant another simple church among another unreached student group on campus & keep doing this until the whole campus is saturated with hundreds of campus churches? Why not? Jesus says you can? So why don't you?

"And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." 2 Timothy 2:2

It's the "Day of the Saints" the mobilization of Joel's Army~a nameless and faceless army. The Church is not an organization it is an organism. The Church is not suppose to be a monument, it is a movement. I know what I am saying may challenge you, but its challenging me as much as it is you. It's time for change, its time we stopped playing pew sitters at church and started planting churches, started bringing the supernatural power and kingdom of God to everywhere we walk. 18 year old Chinese girls plant hundreds of simple house churches in China and we are still playing Christian (social)fellowship on campus? The national average of Christians on universities is 4% on each campus (Ivy Jungle Network). I think about 3.75% of those attending Christian fellowships come from Christian backgrounds in the first place, meaning, we are not getting the job done. Lets get missional. Lets live not in maintenance, but with purpose and compassion. Lets believe we can do everything Jesus says we can do. Lets do it.

My heart burns for change. I can't play church, I can't take it. I guess this is the way Martin Luther must have felt when he stapled the 99 thesis to the wall of the Roman Catholic Church and demanded CHANGE, a SEISMIC SHIFT, a REFORMATION. COME ON! "PUT THE POWER BACK IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE...NOT THE POPE, NOT THE CLERGY, NOT THE PROFESSIONAL CHRISTIANS...GIVE THE POWER BACK TO THE LAY, THE PEOPLE, THE PRIESTHOOD." There shouldn't even be a term called "lay-christian" where is that in the Bible? We are a body not a hierarchy. Each part formed and fashioned to fulfill God's purpose with the rest. Father, oh Father, please raise up true servant leaders, servant apostles, servant prophets, servant evangelists, servant pastors, servant teachers who will equip and empower the SAINTS for the work of the ministry, not the other way around.

I remember michael brown once preaching...

1. The Church is Not a Building
2. The Preacher is Not a Performer
3. The Congregation is Not a Audience
4. We are called to make disciples

They get this in China and revival is sweeping that nation. What about America? What about us? Do we think revival is our big buildings, our big programs, our big christian music festivals, bookstores, big crusades, big radio/tv programs, bigger better mentality? We have more extra Biblical Christian stuff and yet no revival. Is persecution the only answer? Maybe it is, but I don't think it is totally. There is something terribly wrong and something has to change. My heart breaks, but at the same time I know "its here." Let passion find its purpose. Let a revolution begin in my heart, in my home, in my campus, in my workplace, in my community, in my life. Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now.

The wave of change is here. Are you ready to jump on the wave or will you sit on the sideline and watch as a spectator? Young pioneers don't be afraid. Don't be scared to step out into the unknown. God's already there. It's here. Salvation is here. Kingdom is here. We just have to realize it, take hold of it and not let go. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. I'm ready for a battle, I'm ready to pick a fight, I'm ready eventhough I know in the natural I'm not, but that's how God does it. He calls the unable because He is able...He calls our hearts not our talents...Rise up friend. Rise up soldier. Rise up son of God, daughter of God, children of God. It's our hour to shine and change history once and for all. It's our destiny to bring back the King and fulfill the Great Commission in our lifetime. You will never plant a mega-church in China, or in the Isalmic, Buddhist, Hindu un-reached nations along the silk road back to Jersualem. It won't work. But a simple church planting movement will. But before you do it there, you will have to know how to do it here, do it in North America, do it on your college campus, plant churches, simple churches, organic churches, acts churches, campus churches. What is church? "any amount of believers committed together to obey the commands of Jesus." You were born to do it! Jesus commanded it. Blessed are those who are persecuted for my name. I've stepped out and I can't turn back. Lord give me the humility, the strength and the grace to pioneer forward, even if no one "yet" understands. I don't want to die without seeing revival in my generation. Bring a last great awakening to every campus, every city, every nation in order to finish the task. Do it Lord. Do it. I cry out to You do it. Here in North America, awaken us again, but fully this time. Start not only another student missionary movement, but call forth the day of the Lord generation! It is our destiny to finish the task of the Great Commission. Now or never, I say Now!

For campus revival,
Jaeson Ma
coach@campuschurch.net
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Read below...


Friday Fax 2005 Issue 28, 15 July

In this week's Friday Fax:
Megashift

Megashift
That's the title of American author Jim Rutz's recently-published book. It's hotly debated on TV, and one of Amazon's top sellers. It has also caused controversy in broad swathes of self-contented US Christianity. 'Megashift' is a sharp-minded analysis of current Christianity around the world, and is partly based on dozens of carefully-researched Friday Fax reports. Rutz is now one of
the popular columnists in the conservative Internet news site World Net Daily (www.worldnetdaily.com).

What are his main observations?
- The 1700-year nightmare is over: the Constantinian Shift is shifting back. Under Emperor Constantine, the Church became an imperial audience, but is now finally freeing itself from the corset of state control.
- An unprecedented transfer of divine power is underway, from clerics into the hands of ordinary people. According to Rutz' research in 49 nations, hundreds of people have been raised from the dead in the past 15 years.
- This is giving rise to an entirely new form of Christianity- with far greater repercussions than the Protestant Reformation.
- Over 1 billion non-Christians could become active Christians in the next 10 years.

When millions of ordinarly people do extraordinary things
The Charismatic Evangelical movement, currently numbering 707 million people around the world, is growing by 8 percent per year. That alone is exciting. The centre of this movement, though, is a mostly unknown and little-understood movement of 100 million Christians who have no building and neither pastor nor programme. "A church without vertical hierarchies," says Rutz, "which will change the future." They have experienced what Rutz calls a 'lifestyle upgrade':

Lifestyle upgrade
Anyone who uses computer software knows what an upgrade is: a new and better version of a programme replaces the old version. Through an act of God, many millions of people have experienced an 'inner upgrade' leading to an entirely new quality of life. Rutz lists a number of chances and advantages offered by
this upgrade, which were previously unthinkable for many people:
- People experience release from the limitations and burdens of a traditional,hierarchical (and unbiblical) religious system, being freed into an 'open Christianity' with 100% participation.
- They are no longer a number in someone else's religious programme.
- They experience personal empowerment and are able to do things they previously could not even have dreamed of, including the supernatural (healing, prophesying, performing miracles etc.)
- They learn to overcome their own problems, and help others to overcome theirs.
- They experience fellowship with a small group of close friends who give mutual support, so that each person and the whole group reaches God's aims,which are their calling.
- In doing so, they find that which they have sought for their whole life.

Away from spectator religion
The path away from spectator religion frees people from fixed church role-playing. Previously, many people were passive, conformist churchgoers, experiencing church as a television without a remote control. The personal involvement of every follower of Christ, though, rouses millions of talents and
abilities to solve even the most difficult problems. The result is a 'Megashift', a quantum leap in church history.

Post-Protestant revival
Protestantism was an important epoch in church history, but it is now time to stop protesting and start acting. The current post-Protestant awakening is larger than the great American revivals since 1727 under Wesley, Whitefield, the Herrnhuter or Johnathan Edwards. "This third Reformation," says Rutz, "has three characteristics:"

The church is transforming itself from an organisation to an organism. After 1700 years of institutional structure, the Body of Christ is emerging in the form described in the New Testament. People are rediscovering the original forms and functions in an open, participatory system mostly consisting of house churches.

100% active
Moving away from the one-man church system, in which the pastor literally did everything, a growing number of Jesus' followers are becoming active participants, leaving their spectators' seats and taking their place on the playing field. It should be no surprise the number of goals scored increases.

When 100 people pray for the sick, prophesy, and plant churches instead of just one, it is also reasonable to expect the number of miracles to increase.

Immense numbers of new believers
Church growth outside America is breathtaking. Tens of thousands of new believers (Rutz speaks of 175,000 per day) means that although all religions are growing naturally, only Christianity is experiencing significant growth through conversion. Where religions meet, Christianity almost always gains new
believers, and new networks of house churches are formed.

How to be part of this Megashift
1. Stop going with the flow, and decide to actively turn away from the outdated control structures (clerics & laypeople).
2. Take responsibility. That also means paying the price of being a pionier,including Christian friends' suspicion and ostracism.
3. Learn to love others, overcoming selfishness and becoming a team player. That requires a lifestyle of repentance and obedience-out of healthy enthusiasm, not duty.
4. Help carry others' burdens, and not stagnate but take small steps forward every day.

Rutz says: "Is there a small voice inside saying 'That's right!'?" Follow it. But you also have the choice to ignore it. That too is freedom. But please don't complain later..." Or, as C.Peter Wagner says, "Jim describes what God is going to do tomorrow. You can't afford to miss this book!"

Source: Jim Rutz, www.megashift.org, e-mail ocmoffice @ openchurch.com

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posted by Jaeson Ma @ 7/15/2005 01:01:00 AM