Transitioning to a New Order in God

By Noel Woodroffe

This article seeks to provide a basis for understanding the process that is taking place in the global church today. All across the earth it has become very clear that there is a powerful and fundamental move of the Holy Spirit in the Church. The apostles and prophets that are being raised up by God in this hour are declaring new concepts. The message is being taken into the depths of the local churches by the pastors, evangelists and teachers who are coming into understanding and partnership with the Move of God. In many places uncertainty and even confusion has gripped the hearts and minds of many as they find that their accustomed places in the Spirit are being shaken as never before. But more than this, there is real desire in many ministries across the spiritual jurisdictions of the Body of Christ to hear, understand and receive the impartation that is flowing from heaven in increasing measure each day. One of the major problems for many leaders of ministries is the demand for transition that comes upon them, if they have to fully come into agreement with what the Spirit of God is releasing today. In this article I will lay down some basic and foundational principles that will assist progressive ministries to transition from their former spiritual emplacements to fresh and more vigorous positions in the Spirit.

Migration is a Core reality of the Church Experience

One of the central and most powerful prophetic metaphors used in the Word of God to describe core aspects of the Church experience is the picture of the journey or migration. The ancient Israelites were used by God as a national group to capture, describe and demonstrate many of the spiritual principles that operate with full power in the Body of Christ today (1 Corinthians 10:11).

The basic foundation upon which God developed all of the great transformational experiences that shaped them as a people was the foundation of the journey from bondage in Egypt to freedom in the land of Canaan. It was a process from limitation and slavery to identity and conquering. The key activating factor for the march across the wilderness was the requirement to follow the cloud of God (Numbers 9: 17 . 23). Transitioning or following the cloud of God to a new location was not a matter of choice or opinion. It was a matter of obedience. There was no other way to survive the wilderness journey. When the cloud moved, all the people moved with it.

The journey was not only geographical, moving them from one physical location to another. It was also a spiritual journey. As they traveled they came to understand more of God and His ways. They came to know His covenant ways but they also came to recognize their own identity and national structure. They left Egypt as a confused band of slaves but arrived at the border of the Land of Canaan as an organized nation and a mighty army. These are powerful spiritual principles for the Church as our cloud is moving today in a fresh advance of the Spirit. As we travel we are coming into recognition of our 'nation' structure in a new understanding of the power and authority of the Kingdom. We are being made in to a mighty spiritual army as we come into an explosive understanding of government and divine order in the Church.

Whenever we use the term: 'a move of God' we are basically saying that the Spirit of God has moved to new positions and we are being called to identify these new positions and move towards them. Even today the people of God are called to journey and migration. Therefore we can say that the history of the Church is a record of the sequence of the 'moves of God' within the Body of Christ throughout time.

What is a Movement?
A movement or a 'move of God' is built upon the core reality that the Church has realized that the Spirit of God is operating in a more advanced and different way and is calling the Church forward to new positions in the Spirit. The key factor to understand is that a . Move of God. Requires US to MOVE. It is not that the Spirit is ministering to us with a different manifestation as we remain in the same old place. When there is a 'move of God' the Church MUST move!

We can identify several general characteristics of a new move of God occurring in the Church. Of course this is not a complete and total list but will serve in this article to provide a basis for understanding what God requires of us in the midst of a move of God.

New Mentality:
Just as a computer has an operating system that determines how effectively the software that installed upon it works, so does the basic operating mentality of the Church determine how effectively we serve the Lord in our current era and do the exploits of the Kingdom in our day. In our case the 'software' would be all the activities, programs, ministry exploits, corporate behavior and actions that make up the active life of the Church. The operating system represents the prevailing concept of Christ, our perspective of what is effective Christianity in the 21st century, our belief system, our attitude to the world around us that is shaped by our doctrine and our understanding of our identity in the midst of surrounding conditions and circumstances.

If we believe that we are a weak and desperate people simply waiting to escape to heaven then we will not conceive of purposes that cause us to impact nations. If our perspective of Satan is that he is mighty, powerful and a main problem for us then we will not enter into the realm of overcoming spiritual warfare. If our concept of the Kingdom is only what Jesus can do FOR us then we will have no passion within us to accomplish HIS purposes in the earth. Spiritual mentality determines spiritual position and spiritual attitude.

In every move of God the mentality of the Church is moved and adjusted towards a more accurate biblical position.

Changing Structures and Patterns in the Church:

In every move of God the structures and patterns of the Church change. The term 'structures' involve many aspects of Church life and activity. The nature of our prayer changes from constant requests for survival to powerful declaration of our intention to overcome and finish the work of the Lord. We call this 'Governmental Prayer’. The nature of relationships between saints in the Kingdom changes as we move to purer positions of covenant as our sight of the Lord becomes clearer. Our attitude to financial matters changes, as we become more Kingdom minded and less selfish in that area of the ministry. In fact all the activities of people that constitutes a community of the Lord: a "church" begins to be adjusted by the changing winds of the Spirit. A move of God inevitably involves profound changes taking place within the structure of the Church (Luke 5: 37-39).
Changing Leadership:
When God transitions into a new era there is a general principle that the leadership of the Church comes under adjustment. This is caused by several reasons. Generally the older leadership that has become comfortable in their positions tends to resist the coming of the new spiritual positions. This creates a tension in the ranks of leadership in the Body of Christ. Also the doctrine of the 'new' truth is proclaimed and declared by a new group of revelatory preachers who come forth with a new dimension of authority. God never retreats to a lesser position of glory. Each new dimension of God comes forth with greater authority, clarity and power of proclamation. There is a gathering of people around this fresh dimension and so a movement is formed among the people.

Just as God moved from Eli to Samuel, from Saul to David, from Moses to Joshua in order to bring His people into a deeper dimension of relationship and accomplishment of His purpose so He still does today.

It is important to realize that a change of leadership does not immediately mean that God rejects all the former leaders of the past moves. Many senior leaders of past moves transition into the new moves of God and in so doing they move from a 'position' of Moses to a 'position' of Joshua. The use of the terms Eli, Saul and Moses as representative of what God is moving from, refers to the position occupied in the Spirit by these past leaders not to the actual individuals themselves. God loves all His leaders and many keep active in useful and powerful ministry even if they do not transition to the most accurate position for the current time.
Changing Expression:
A new move of God usually causes a change of how the corporate community expresses itself in the corporate worship. New songs generally are composed to capture the new understandings of God that prevail in the midst of the move. The music of the Church generally is a powerful factor for determining the 'culture' and 'atmosphere' of the local church. The way in which we worship is representative of the vision we have captured of the Lord. A fresh perspective of the Lord changes us
(2 Corinthians 3:18).

New vocabulary is developed to capture the fresh understanding. Many people are at first uncomfortable with the language of a new move of the Lord. If we look back through the history of the Church each move of God has its own particular sound and emphasis of worship and also a vocabulary that expresses the mentality of the saints in the most accurate way.

New Teachings and Doctrine:
Every new move of God produces fresh areas of emphasis in doctrine. The Pentecostal Movement, for example, brought with it an emphasis on the baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues as the evidence of having received the baptism. This truth was always in the Word of God but was not generally taught to the people by the leaders of the time.
It is important to realize that doctrine determines the shape of the spiritual culture, the operating mentality and the activity of the Church. With the new doctrinal emphasis in the Pentecostal Movement, people sang different songs, the sound and language of the Church changed, the patterns of ministry of the pastors and elders changed and the approach to life changed in the saints. There developed a new emphasis on what became called the 'Rapture' of the Church. The same patterns of change exist in the midst of this new move of God today.

New Ministering Activity:
In a new move of God the patterns of ministering also undergo change. By ministering I mean the process by which spiritual resource in transferred into the lives of the saints on an individual level.
In the Pentecostal Movement there was a great emphasis on the laying on of hands on the believers for healing, deliverance and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. All of this is biblical and should be practiced in the Church in every era of its operations. In the Prophetic Movement in the 1980's there came a great emphasis on delivering words of personal prophecy to the saints as a fresh pathway to release to them relevant divine resource for the building of their lives. In the present Apostolic Reformation the term 'impartation' has come to a place of great emphasis. There is great release of divine resource to the individual lives of the saints as the apostolic word that is impregnated with life-giving power is decreed and proclaimed over the lives of the saints (Romans 1: 11).


Impartation is a major dimension of the apostolic.
It is important to not that each new move of God does not abandon and reject the prevailing ministry pattern of the move that has gone before but includes and practices it in the midst of the new move. Therefore it is clear to see that each new move becomes stronger and more comprehensive in its spiritual operations.

Soul Cravings

Hey guys,its been fullon here! 2010 is in its 3rd month and we are trusting God its going to be our best year ever!Muse on my recent posting and leave your comments.

...He has also set eternity in the hearts of men Ecc 3:11

Every Billy Graham outreach of any kind begins with the same unnamable ache. That ache is discovered when people from every walk of life come to the end of their resources—finding themselves lost.
There is a pause, a sigh, a groan and they look up from an empty bottle of pills, or they step outside and begin a listless ramble along the highway, or they come trembling to the brink of suicide. And at that moment—at just the right moment—a message of hope comes to them.
This ache—that sense of emptiness, of having no purpose—is where many of our stories begin. Have you ever stopped to consider why we as humans crave intimacy, destiny and meaning? We are all searching for intimacy. Our search for intimacy explains our need for community, relationships, belonging, love and acceptance. We were designed to experience intimacy, loving God and each other. It’s God’s design and plan for humans to have these cravings. Soul cravings are a part of the stories of our lives. Someone has said it is God’s story and our story, woven together with themes of the Bible—from beginning to the end.
Not all senses of need are caused by bad actions. Millions feel, as the philosopher Pascal once put it, that there is a “God-shaped vacuum” in their heart. They know that something big is missing from their lives and that something is gnawing at them, prompting them to search for some way to feed that hunger. Many begin searching early in life for the missing piece and ultimately discover that it is actually a relationship---A relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ. Many have discovered that when they begin to reach out to God, He has already been reaching out to them.