We are living in a key time to engage and move forward as the sons of God. In the global shift which has begun to take place, we have a window of opportunity to step into our sonship and not shrink back. Let’s press in and begin to affect our communities, outwork the kingdom, see heaven established on earth and demonstrate what God is really like. That is what the whole world really needs: they need to meet the true God, their loving Father. Then they will discover that as His children they too have a destiny to fulfil; that they too have been called for a time such as this.
Cities of refuge
Several years ago, when God wanted to get my attention to what He was doing on the earth, He used a biblical term I would recognise, ‘cities of refuge’. As I began to ask Him what He meant by ‘cities of refuge’, whether they were literal cities, or figurative, or representative of something, He then started to talk to me using the term ‘embassies of heaven’ instead.
A city of refuge was a safe place where individuals could go if they were being pursued for something, somewhere they could be safe from fear. There is an aspect to what God is doing which reflects that: whatever is going on in the world, we do not have to live under any sense of fear when we are living under the government of heaven on earth. But ‘embassies of heaven’ added another dimension to it: an embassy is a place where an ambassador lives and operates, a representative of one country living in another. If we are ambassadors of heaven, living in an embassy of heaven, then we represent heaven; and that piece of territory, even though it is on the earth, lives under the laws of heaven rather than the laws of earth.
Ambassadors of heaven
Each of us is an ambassador who represents heaven. We are of the order of Melchizedek, the royal priesthood of heavenly priests and kings who carry heavenly authority in government and then operate as oracles and legislators on earth.
As we open our gateway to heaven and invite the presence of God within us, heaven flows through us as rivers of living water from our innermost being and we begin to outwork our identity as sons and a reflection of God on earth. We become oracles: we carry the heart of God and express it in creative ways, just as Jesus did. This is how people can see what a relationship with God is like, outworked in and through each of us.
We will outwork that heavenly government through our own lives: firstly as individuals but also then corporately, with others who are called to a particular place, territory, region, people group or other sphere of influence. So those who share a particular mandate, blueprint, calling or destiny will begin to build relationally together, seeking to establish things ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ together and to represent heaven on earth together.
Real relationship, real connection
We are not necessarily talking about literal, physical cities but we are talking about real relationship and real connection. Many people are in the early stages of this, but not many are yet connecting at a relational level with others who share the same clear blueprint and mandate for a specific purpose which would enable them to establish a foundation of heavenly government together.
If we have a blueprint for an embassy of heaven, it will need to be established in a very different way to ‘church’. People are beginning to talk about ‘ekklesia’ instead of ‘church’, but we can still find ourselves creating from our own understanding of what we think it should look like. It is more than a change of terminology. An ekklesia will have a very clear heavenly mandate and probably not look like anything we would recognise as ‘church’ when it gathers. We have to be open for a deconstruction of our understanding of what ekklesia is, reflecting something which is more heavenly and less earthly.
Our experience at Freedom Church
Much of what we have tried to do is still a mixture of the old and the new. Here at Freedom, we attempted to transition ten years ago, with the best of intentions and to the extent of the knowledge we then had. The principles were right but we lacked the maturity of revelation and character, personality and identity that were needed. So once again we have now deconstructed everything in order to rebuild according to a new pattern that God will give. Although we have not been able to meet, even in homes, because of the Covid-19 restrictions, we have been continuing relational connection with a view to establishing something built upon a more relational foundation than we had before. Throughout this time, we continue to minister to our community through Freedom Community Alliance, which is itself an expression of heaven on earth, although it looks nothing like the religious version of ‘ministry’ that you might expect.
Please understand that I really do not want to create a pattern here that other people try to copy: that would be following the same franchise model that the church usually adopts (though we might call it a denomination, or perhaps a stream). Each ekklesia needs to be individual and personalised to the people God calls to establish it and function within it, with a blueprint which may be different to any other.
Connect in relationship
So God is beginning to position people individually to begin to connect in relationship. Those relationships will form the foundation of an embassy or ekklesia and when those relationships are strong enough He will add to them. For the moment, they are very small and very scattered. But if they have the foundation both personally and corporately in God and have a clear blueprint that they are pursuing, not trying to do things in their own understanding, then they have the potential to grow very quickly.
God is preparing them out of sight, just as Joseph was prepared in the dungeon then suddenly raised up to be second in charge of a whole nation, with a God-given strategy to ‘save the world’. I guarantee that plenty of people in Egypt were unhappy about Joseph taking 20% of their harvest in the plentiful years because they did not understand why he was doing it. A lot of what God is doing is still in the deconstruction phase and people do not necessarily understand it at this time (to the religious, it must appear alarming and extremely threatening). I have been prophesying for years – or really, declaring and decreeing – that there would be times of great shaking that would cause people to lose faith in the established norms and to pursue new things. That is happening today: people’s trust in the systems they have followed all their lives (both worldly and religious) is being shaken.
After God’s heart
Whilst I do not personally know of anything that really looks like heaven yet, there are certainly precursors who are carrying aspects of it and are pursuing it. You, too, are called to establish things on earth as they are in heaven. God is calling you as a man or woman after His heart to serve His purpose in this generation. Do not disqualify yourself from that, be willing to embrace it. I encourage you, engage with God for yourself to find out more about how He sees you and what He has in mind for you. Begin to believe about yourself what He believes about you, and prepare to arise and take your place in the heavens and on the earth.