The Coming Culture

After an incredible youth retreat in August, God has led me to speak to the youth about influencing their culture, or establishing the heavenly culture in their midst. The Lord keeps on amazing me with His ways. Last year He put in my heart to start serious work with preparing leaders and establishing a system of "government" in the ministry; His government really. By delegating, discipling and mentoring the youth, God has revealed more of His mysteries to me this past year, than all the previous 4 years in the youth ministry combined.

We have always been after the glory of God and God has always led us through prayer, instructions from our senior pastor and many other events and revelations. What God is showing us now is how much He believes in us. This reality of the Kingdom of God is overwhelming. Lately, I have been struggling with the fact that God's authority on me and in me are no longer that distinguishable. Perhaps, I should come to terms with this fact because that is His intent: Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).

The Kingdom within. What a concept! What a reality! What a revelation! Is what I will what I will or is what I will what He wills? Of course we have the Bible and leadership in the church as reference and guidance, but what I want to talk about is a certain awareness and maturity in Christ where we become so in tune with our heavenly Father that we find ourselves walking in full power and authority, and just as Jesus promised, signs and miracles start following us.

What is the Spirit saying to us today? He is saying prepare the way! Prepare the way for the next move, the next generation, the next expansion. We have such a great mandate! To impact generations, to raise leaders, to influence our culture for the glory of God!

I have always been intrigued by the concept of the kingdom. Being the son of a historian, stories and movies of kingdoms have always been exciting to me, but I had to take it a little further in my imagination and turn these earthly kingdoms into more surreal ones in order to make it "really" exciting. I remember that "He-Man" was my favorite cartoon when growing up. It was because it was the story of a prince with an alter ego in a kingdom that was "not of this world". I remember living in an imaginary world with an imaginary kingdom and an imaginary king, which was me of course! I preached it, I included my friends in it and the funny thing is that they played along! How crazy is that? I can see now that how the reality of the Kingdom of God was so close to my reality as a child, I imagined it, I played in it and it became real for me. I dressed differently, I played differently, I even talked differently. My imaginary kingdom had its flag, language, newspaper, with all the news of what was going on in the kingdom every day. I used to hand it out at school, and here I am now writing in my blog about my reality in the Kingdom of God, of which I am citizen of by divine appointment and through the death and resurrection of the Son of God.

Growing up, in my teenage years I formed a band and called it "Takavoragan", which means royal in Armenian, along with other friends. The group grew rapidly, but that wasn't the true Kingdom either, as it failed to achieve its purpose. The apostle Paul says: "For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed." (Rom 8:19). I believe the world is changing and moving from one state to the other and this change is accompanied by a move of the Holy Spirit in the Church, which is characterized by believers taking charge of the mandate of the Kingdom of God and preparing future generations for the coming tidal waves of revival.

I know it is coming. It has been proclaimed and prophesied by many and on many occasions, but more importantly, I know it in my heart. The fire is going to be released for a new move soon.

Now this fire, like all the previous great moves of God is not released for entertainment or simply for conversion. It is not released only as a sign or witness, like in the days of Elijah either. This fire will be released to change the culture, to influence our culture, to establish a new and fresh heavenly culture here on earth. In fact, the fire has already started, in a sense. The contamination has already begun.

God told me to preach on some topics the last few months, while small groups were being multiplied and the older generation started training the new. He told me to preach and teach on how to love, how to love like Him, how to love in spite of, and how to love our enemies. He moved me to preach on how to use our authority, how to take ownership of our ministry and how to use our creativity. God is preparing us for something big! That I am sure of.

So, to all who are involved in our ministry, I would like to say "brace yourselves, there's a major impact coming soon!" And for all of those who are not involved in our ministry, may this serve as a sign of encouragement or warning for you, according to your standing in your faith.

As the ruins of old are buried in the memories of the past, the rule and reign of our King will become noticeable through His sons and daughters taking charge of their rights and calling. The government of the Kingdom of God will be manifested by a change in the culture we live in. It will be prepared behind the scenes slowly but also with a sudden shift. Religion will no longer be relevant, as the Kingdom reality will be too loud to ignore. I pray that we all be ready to make the big jump, when the time comes. God bless you all!