THE APOSTOLIC REFORMATION – VICTORY OVER THE RELIGIOUS “CHURCH” LIMIT

by apostle Ivo Koychev

Thus says the LORD: “The cry for Reformation is not a cry only for a local breakthrough, but it is a cry for a global breakthrough. My Reformation is not only for one life, one Church, or one specific community, but My Reformation is for the nations today.
Ivo Koychev

Our generation is living in a unique Divine dynamics, but just a few of us are in it. Many Churches are somewhere in the dynamics of their own Church self-centeredness. That’s exactly why today, I want to speak this message to you, so we can revise our lives together and see what dynamics we are a part of. Whether we are in the dynamics of the Church self-centeredness, or in the dynamics of God’s Kingdom.

The Apostolic Reformation – God’s dynamics today

The dynamics of God’s Kingdom in this generation is the Apostolic Reformation, which is for all nations. The Apostolic Reformation is not just a local revival or an emotional experience. Through the Apostolic Reformation the Lord wants to place His priorities in our life and in His Church.

I do not believe in “a holy service” in which religion and lawlessness reign. I believe in a holy service which is raising itself up through God’s promise with this cry: Give us the nations for our inheritance (Psalm 2:8). This kind of a service is the kind that inherits.

In order that the church in Bulgaria is a Reformer’s voice, it must come out of its own local Church areas, in which it has limited itself, and start focusing in something far greater – a Divine transformation of the nation, the Balkans and Europe.

Today, Europe is overly satisfied with religion and humanism, which are ruling in the economy, politics and culture, but I believe that from the Balkans will come out a Divine transformation which will sweep the whole Europe, and which center will be Bulgaria. But can the Church in Bulgaria today see Itself in this strategic purpose of God for Europe?

Something new is starting to move, something new is raising itself up, and something new is starting to be accomplished by the Lord in the whole world. Where are we? What are we doing with our life?

The small beginnings of God

When the Lord is speaking to us about seed that He is sowing in our lives, we must know that death to our own self-centeredness is what it’s all about. Many Christians are self-centered and because of that, they are not real concerning God’s purposes. The same can not bring forth Christ’s fruit in their lives. They are different everyday and never their own selves in Christ.

In order that we deal with self-centeredness, we must focus upon the small beginnings that come from the seed which the Lord has sown in us. This will help us to move forward with faith in the intentions that the Lord has for our lives.

Our generation must realize a foundational truth which is the fact that the great acts of the faith start by the small beginnings of God. This Divine truth is one of the main priorities of God, through which He humbles our life and sows it in Faith. Exactly the humility is what makes us worthy disciples of Jesus Christ in His calling for our life (2 Timothy 1:9).

Most of the things that will decide the condition of your life, calling and church are hidden in the small beginnings, or in the seeds that the Lord will sow in your life.

But there is a danger that we must know and it is that the religious spirit will always try to put away our focus from the seed of God in us, towards “the great religious acts”. His main purpose is to block the processes of God in us, so we may not experience God’s grace and His humility coming from the Cross of Christ.

The religious spirit will lead us to do something big and great, because of the lust of the flesh (Mathew 7:21-23). But today, I am challenging all Christians to get up and to war against this religious demon of “the great religious acts”, and to humble their life, allowing God to accomplish His equipping processes in them.

By the Spirit of the Lord I am addressing all these leaders of Churches who are tempted and discouraged because of the fact that breakthrough in their ministry has not yet come:

Do not be tempted and do not be discouraged because of “the small acts” of your churches. Do not be tempted because of the fact that Your Churches do not grow and that the regions of your ministries are hard and that your breakthroughs are insignificant compared to the breakthroughs of other Churches. Be faithful in what the Lord has placed you. Do not despise the small beginnings. Do not destroy the fruit of the seeds that the Lord has sown in you, because the breakthrough of your ministry is coming. Look up and start seeing this truth really in the spirit, because the time is close, says the Lord. Amen.

God’s priorities and the Fear of the Lord

It’s crucially important for us to realize that in order that we are Divinely real and effective in our callings, we will have to follow the principles of Christ’s Cross, which will bring about the death of our own self-centeredness. If we will ever be apostolic reformers, we will have to bear the Cross of Christ every day. It is easy to talk about great acts, that will change nations, but it is difficult to follow the principles of the Cross of Christ, through which we are to change the nations.

I believe that the return of the Fear of the Lord in Christians will help them place God’s priorities in their life. In the current Apostolic Reformation the Fear of the Lord will be the foundation of God’s leading. The Scripture speaks about the leadings of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14), but do we understand actually that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Lord’s fear? (Isaiah 11:2-3)

If the Lord has spoken a word towards our generation for new beginnings, this means that all of us - the Church - must seek a true repentance and a spiritual renewal, so we can achieve the value system of God’s Kingdom. The returning of the Fear of the Lord in our life can happen only through repentance. Repentance will raise the Church on a new Divine level, where God’s purposes and intentions will be a priority for the believers.

Many Christians think that repentance is not for them, but for the people around them. We must realize that repentance is for all of us. That’s why I believe that the Apostolic Reformation will restore the priority calling of Jesus Christ in our generation: “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Mathew 4:7).

If the calling: “Repent…” does not change our life and does not place God’s priorities in it, then everything that we are doing will be an abomination to the Lord.

Mathew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mathew 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mathew 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

In the above verses, we see a group of people thinking about themselves that they were prophets, deliverers, and ministers with great acts. But Jesus told them: “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity”. Let me tell you the following: to prophesy, to cast out demons or to do great acts is not God’s priority. God’s priority is His purpose and intention that reveal the character of God’s Kingdom. That’s why Jesus said: “The one doing the will (intention) of My Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mathew 7:21). Our prophecies, deliverance ministries and ministries of great acts must proceed from the current reformer’s purposes of God, which will make our ministries to be ministries of the Kingdom.

John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”

We must love His priorities, because only through our love for Jesus, we will be able to fulfill them. If God’s priorities are not the most important thing in our life, we will diminish His anointing only to a level of church self-righteousness, which hinders the Christians or the local Church to experience God’s Kingdom through repentance.

The experiencing of God’s Kingdom through repentance will bring us out of the frames of the Church services and will focus us towards a Divine transformation of the society and the nations, where we will be sent.

What is the purpose of your life? It’s crucially important for the Christians to understand, that the purpose of life is much more than an Earthly, self-centered existence. That’s why, apostle Paul said: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinth 15:19)

The Apostolic Reformation is coming to give a Divine purpose to our life, and to connect us with God’s priorities, because it is establishing the value system of God’s Kingdom in our life.

Many Christians function in their calling only so they can experience a personal breakthrough. Many churches function so they can experience their own Church breakthrough. But we must remember what Jesus said to the apostles, when they were focusing on their own self-centeredness: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? “ (Mathew 16:26). If self-centeredness is ruling in your life, you will lose the values and priorities of God’s Kingdom on your life.

The personal breakthrough for our life must not be more important than the breakthrough for God’s Kingdom. The destiny that we have by the Lord is not for our dream to come true, but for God’s dream to come through!

The Nature of Rebellion

The nature of spiritual rebellion is grounded in the fact that a person is raising himself up and standing against the rights and authority of God’s authority in his life. Rebellion is a vehement occurrence against authority, set order, or God’s priorities. It includes: violence, confusion, revolt, protest, indignation, resentment and strong discontent.

I believe that in many ways the Church in Bulgaria is in rebellion against the Lord because of the influence of the leaven of the Pharisees in our life. The Church in Bulgaria must deal with the leaven of the Pharisees through repentance and turning towards God’s priorities in our current generation.

In Isaiah 1:25, the Lord says: “And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin”

The word “tin” means “the world”. You can not mix the Holy Spirit with the spirit of the world. You can not mix the works of the flesh with the works of the Holt Spirit. You can not carry two fires in you – the fire of the Holy Spirit, and the fire of the world. You can not be always double minded in your daily lives – to love the world and to love God. You just can not do it!

That’s why God is turning towards the Church in Laodicia and says to it: “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth”(Revelation 3:16). This word is scaring me, because I see the Church in Bulgaria almost spitted out of the mouth of God. A Church that is spitted out of the mouth of God is turning into a dead religious institution.

The Church must not be in a middle ground, because in God’s Kingdom there is no middle ground.  If there was, I believe the whole Christianity would be there. Christians must not try to go to a place where they will be standing in the middle. In God’s Kingdom there is no such thing as “in the middle”. Many times when you take the decision to be somewhere in “the middle” because this is the best and the most comforting place in your life, you must know that you are in a total demonic situation. The place in “the middle” is your spiritual Haran, where you have been stuck and localized without really functioning in God’s destiny and calling for your life.

Haran – a False sense of Inheritance

Haran means religion. Haran is a place where religious (church) spirits mark the territory of our calling and tell us: This is your place and your destiny.

Abraham is an example of that:

Acts 7:2...The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
Acts 7:3“ Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee”.
Acts 7:4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran…

Abraham received God’s calling to come out of Ur of the Chaldees and to let God lead him in the Promised Inheritance. When God called Abraham to come out of Ur of the Chaldees, He called him to come out not only of the influence coming from his national identity (...Get thee out of thy country…Genesis 12:1), but also of the influence coming from his ethnic identity in the face of Terah (...and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house… Genesis 12:1). Abraham made a big mistake though, when he let Terah to be the leading authority in his coming out of Ur of the Chaldees, and so, we see him located in Haran for a long time.

Genesis 11:31And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

The leading of “Terah” symbolizes the religious and humanistic structures which are still dominant in the Church in Bulgaria. The name “Terah” means: going back or delay.

The Church in Bulgaria may have a unique calling for Europe, as Abraham had one for the whole humanity, but it may never enter into its destiny if “Terah” influences its life. The influence of “Terah” will not only slow down the processes of Reformation and Transformation in the Church, but will also localize it in Haran, giving it a false sense of inheritance.

The Church in Bulgaria must break its alliance with “Terah”, because if it does not do it, it will never enter in its inheritance - EUROPE. The leading of “Terah” will block God’s dream in the Church for the nations.

“Terah” symbolizes false fatherhood. The true spiritual father is not self-centered, but he will release his spiritual son into his destiny. During the past years of the Church in Bulgaria, it has lacked true fatherhood. Today, the Church is overly satisfied with the “spirit of Terah”. Many sons are still in Haran. Many Churches are in Haran and have not entered their destiny. Dead religious leaders from the past generation are still influencing and stopping the destiny of the Church in Bulgaria. They do not allow it to experience its historical transition towards God’s Reformer’s purposes for this generation.

How to break the influence of Haran and come out of it

In order to come out of Haran, we must go back with faith and repentance in the calling and in the promise which God has spoken in our life. “COME OUT” is a key word for every Christian and for every Church. If the Church in Bulgaria wants to be a Reformer’s voice towards Europe and to transform the nations, it must come out of its religious, cultural, Balkan ethnic mentality.

As a leader from a gypsy background, I see that many gypsy leaders have difficulties coming out of their gypsy cultural ethnic mentality. This is also true for the Bulgarians, who must come out of their cultural ethnic mentality. Haran is a religious place, where many churches are stuck, because they have not come out of their past and of their culture and tradition, coming from their ethnic identity.

The ethnic mentality becomes an important factor for forming the life of the given church and for establishing it in Haran.

In order that it can transform nations for Christ, every church must come out of its ethnic cultural mentality.

The Church in Bulgaria must break the “Terah” patterns, which are  holding it down localized in Haran. Today in Bulgaria, God is restoring apostles and prophets who are carrying reformers’ revelation to the Church, so it can come out of Haran.

Acts 7:4 …and from thence, when his father was dead (Terah), God removed him (Abraham) into this land.

I like this verse, which is giving us a revelation about the fact that the apostles and prophets today will not only point at Terah as a dead one, but will also release a reformers’ dynamics, so the Church can enter it’s inheritance.

“Life in Glory” Apostolic Christian Center is a multiethnic ministry, consisting of  Bulgarians, Gypsies, Turks, and Ukrainians. As a leader of the church, I am placing challenges before the saints to come out of their cultural and ethnic mentality. I am telling them the following: “It’s easy for Bulgarians to influence other Bulgarians, Gypsies to influence other Gypsies and Turks to influence other Turks, but now the Lord wants to turn the whole thing, so we can come out of our cultural and ethnic mentalities, and start influencing the other ethnicities – Bulgarians must start evangelizing Gypsies and Turks, Gypsies must start evangelizing Bulgarians and Turks, and Turks must start evangelizing Bulgarians and Gypsies (the last one will be a real creative miracle)”. For me, and of course for many other churches, this is a real challenge of the Apostolic Reformer’s Spirit of God.

If every local church in Bulgaria wants to expand, it must come out of its ethnic and cultural mentality. We can see this principle in Acts 1:8. The phrase used by Jesus: “and unto the uttermost part of the earth” speaks not only of a geographical concept, but also, it breaks every ethnic, cultural and church  boundaries, so Christ can influence the world.  

Having in mind the background of the Jewish orthodoxy in the Early Church, we see how God is breaking the ethnic and cultural barriers, through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the house of Cornelius, when he sends Peter who is the most orthodox apostle among Jesus’ disciples (Acts 10). But the story does not end here. In Acts 11:19-23 it is speaking about: “the work of God’s grace” in Antioch (verse 23), which the Lord sovereignty started with the conversion of the Greeks and then it expands in the whole Europe through the ministry of apostle Paul, who becomes the apostle of the Gentiles.

My prayer for the Christians is for them to realize that the Apostolic Reformation in this generation has as its purpose to bring the fulfillment of God’s promise to the Church, that the nations are its inheritance.

But in spite the promise of God, there is a danger for the Church in our generation, so it may not enter its inheritance and that is if the spirit of Doubt is working in us. The spirit of Doubt is not just doubting this or that. This spirit enters our value system, our convictions and prayers, our prophesying – everything that we are doing for the Lord. The spirit of Doubt is also a main channel through which the spirit of religion is manifesting itself, which localizes and limits people in Haran through our ethnic, cultural and religious identity.

The main purpose of the spirit of Doubt is to set or place the soul of man in the place of battle, fight, torment and harassment concerning the fact that the person does not understand God’s truth. This spirit is working mainly through Ignorance, Tragedies, Pride, Inferiority and Intellectualism.

Doubt is leading a battle against the spoken truth of God in our life, placing our soul in the place of battle with our own selves. Our understanding of God’s truth in our life is working against the doubt in us.

God’s truth is placing our soul in the sphere of the Spirit realm, which is a realm of Faith. God’s truth delivers us from the spirit of Doubt and moves us in pioneering and reformer’s way through Faith demonstrating through us the creative power of God.

It’s crucially important for the Church to war against the spirit of Doubt; the war against the spirit of Doubt must first start on a personal level, casting down its strongholds in the minds of believers. Every one of us will stand against the spirit of Doubt and its our responsibility to pull it down, moving by faith.

As a leader of an ethnic minority, God broke all my ethnic, cultural and religious barriers, so I have the faith to minister and prophesy not only to believers from my ethnicity, but to all ethnicities which can be seen upon the face of the Earth. The Spirit of God and His anointing, God’s word and calling in my life and ministry are not limited only to the ethnicity I come from, but the Lord has released strategies in our ministry to touch every ethnicity in this nation and in the nations where the Lord will send us. That’s why we need faith and not doubt.

To be a Christian and a minister of God – this can not be in the context of your ethnic identity, but in the context of your Christ identity. The sign for true active Christianity is the pulling down of the ethnic barriers. I believe that our generation will see a true creative demonstration of the Holy Spirit through the pulling down  and destroying of the ethnic and cultural barriers.

That’s exactly why Jesus said: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the Earth” (this includes Bulgarians, Gypsies, Turks and others (paraphrased by the author, Acts 1:8).