I began understanding the plan of God in the latter part of 1998. I had already been pastoring a big church then, starting as an associate pastor in 1983, and then being the senior pastor later. But everything was crystal clear only in 1998 when I started hearing from God.

The plan of God is not just for us to be saved from our sins and be spared of hell. He wants us to take part in the restoration moves. No, it has nothing to do with church activities or programs or "ministry" as we do them today. It's restoring things we see in the bible, making them a reality in church again today.

St. Peter put it this way: "He must remain in heaven until the time for restoring everything comes. God will do this as he promised long ago through the holy prophets" (Acts 4). Before Jesus comes back, God will restore everything man and his church took away from the bible.

Things Man Trashed Away from Scripture

What did man take away from the bible? First, during Constantine's and Nero's time, all the church offices were abolished--the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. There was only the priest whose office and function were based on the Old Testament, not on the universal priesthood concept of Jesus--that all believers are ministers. God wants to put the real church fathers back in church--the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

Then, the church was government recognized. When all believers finally realize today that the spiritual universal church of Jesus is really a family--God's big family--not a human organization, we'd understand why Jesus nor the Acts church never bothered to have their church recognized by the government. Do you wonder why churches today are no longer persecuted or crucified for Jesus? Because they have become legalized by the state. True churches are found in countries where being a Christian is illegal. You cannot have your church recognized by the government there. Church must again become a family, or a community of families. God wants to restore his family, his church.

A church, being a family, should only have fathers, mothers, and the brethren. Deacons, elders, and bishops should act as elder brothers or sisters. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are fathers in faith. Paul was a father in faith to the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 4.15). A family doesn't need legal papers or licenses for government recognition in order to function. You don't need to form a board of trustees for a family--secular corporations do.

I don't know why churches today have presidents, vice presidents, chairmen, directors, assistant pastors, and church members who have rights and privileges--they've made church into a secular corporation. They vote or elect candidates for church leadership. They train leaders in seminaries or bible schools. In Jesus' time and in the Acts church, leadership was molded through rigid and intimate, person-to-person, and hands-on discipleship and fathering. They were not voted on. Thus, some churches today have politics dirtier than that of the world. They kick out pastors.

Some Churches Have Negated Signs and Wonders

Jesus and the Acts church both operated in signs and wonders, healing, and amazing miracles. Today, many churches have dismissed them as obsolete things of the past. They say today, we have medical technology, psychologists, and physicians to depend on. If you attend a Christian counseling seminar, it means you get lessons on psychology, not God's supernatural wisdom. Nobody used psychological counseling in the bible. Disciples were not made to attend seminars on it. They drove out evil spirits and diseases in Jesus' Name! Counseling was through discipleship and fathering. Power for such supernatural counseling was theirs through life and spirit impartation, not clinical Psychology. Everything was spiritual.

We believe in medical science and modern technology, but these have their proper places. With church and spiritual life, it's God's supernatural power and wisdom, or nothing.

It sounds ridiculous, but God wants to bring himself back to the church in these last days. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Jesus is telling the church here to let him into its door--because he's been thrown out too long. God wants to bring his stuffs back into the church--he wants us to speak in angelic tongues, translate them, prophesy or predict, discern spirits, perform miracles and healing, and the whole works.

What God wants Back in Church in These Last Days

In the Reformation, God restored the offices of the teacher and pastor. There was great persecution before it was so. Then after, the church became too comfortable with the teachers and pastors that they were not willing to welcome God's next new move--the evangelist.

Well, they later started to produce fake evangelists--people who were excellent on stage, good public speakers and stage performers who were able to move big audiences. Some were even stand-up comedians. But God wanted to restore genuine evangelists like Stephen and Philip were in the book of Acts, evangelists who really performed signs and wonders.

Then, God restored the prophets in church. Prophets were grossly rejected in many denominational churches, and are still widely discriminated against. Many so-called believers cannot imagine prophets being in church today. They forgot that in the New Testament prophets commonly roamed around churches. Paul was a prophet when he was yet Saul (Acts 13.1). Some theology experts say the office of the prophets have long been abolished. Says who? Read Ephesians 4.11 and onward to see that the church today can never be perfected and mature without prophets and apostles.

Well, some churches did become prophetic. But many of them today have become mere denominations of men. They just follow some human formula and rules each Sunday in their worship services. Anything you do as a formula (done traditionally or repetitiously) is likely to be mere human preferences or regulations.

The Prophetic-Apostolic Move of God

God is about to restore the apostles in church. So, if you still cannot accept the idea of prophets in church, you're outdated and left behind. God is now about to install apostles. Or, if your evangelists in church are those who merely do public speaking, you're terribly behind and even deceived. Genuine evangelists perform awesome signs and wonders--the kind that amaze even cultic magicians like Simon the magician was in the book of Acts.

God is gradually moving past the prophetic age and now entering the apostolic era. True apostles perform signs and wonders "with great perseverance" (2 Cor.12.12).So make sure any guy claiming to be an apostle should have this mark. Some claim their missionaries are now the modern apostles. Well, make sure they perform signs and wonders and miracles often, not just once or twice. If not--and they claim to be "modern" apostles--they're false apostles.

Apostles are genuine faith fathers of the church. They have functioned as teachers, pastors, evangelists, and prophets before. Jesus had (and is). Paul had. Peter had. Teachers, pastors, evangelists, and prophets who are apostolic (meaning, they are connected to a genuine apostle) are apostolic fathers in faith.

Only apostles are expert church builders (1 Cor. 3.10). They alone can lay the good foundation, Jesus Christ. Thus, any church without an apostle--where the leaders are all mere pastors--cannot lay the good foundation in people's faith. Faith is just confined to church activities and programs, not in joining God restore his Kingdom on earth.

God Gives HIs Updated Plan Only To Apostles and Prophets

God reveals his minute plans only to apostles and prophets (Eph.3.5). Thus, many church people live in the past teachings, learning and re-learning what great men of God wrote in the 17th or 18th century. They study that for years and earn degrees out of it, not knowing that what they have are stale information. They were good and relevant in their time, but not anymore now.

The Apostolic

Some people are advanced spiritually. They can already see God doing his apostolic move today. The apostolic does not just do mission works and perform awesome signs and wonders. What it really ushers in is the fathering molding system. It brings back the concept of church as God's family. The apostolic demolishes the idea of church as a secular corporation.

So, if you still have presidents, chairmen, directors, and church members, you're a long way off from being apostolic.You are not yet a part of God's one big family. Most churches are yet human organizations, especially those in the free world. But the good news is, most of them have the potential to be part of God's genuine move to set up his Kingdom on earth--if they learn to give up everything earthly and start getting used to being God's family again.