New Season with a Healed Heart

During the changing of the new year, a lot of people make resolutions or make declarations of change for the upcoming year. We spend a lot of time talking about how we are entering a “New Season.” We decide that we are not going to continue doing the same things that we have been doing for the last year or years of our lives. I have not made resolutions for many years, but I always look at the new year with great expectation. I love how Facebook will send you all the things that you have written or shared over the years. Last year, on January 2nd, I wrote something on the lines of “Don’t allow the disappointments of a previous season to become your expectation of your next season.” I thought in the moment, “that was a good word!” I went about my day at work, and as I was driving home that afternoon, Holy Spirit spoke to me and simply said, “You are living in that post.” I didn’t have to ask, “what post?” I knew exactly which post He was talking about.

         For some context, I had been walking through the most difficult time of my life leading up to that post last year. I had been walking through a very “dark night of the soul” season. I was questioning every part of my calling. The church that I was pastoring was really struggling to survive. I was really struggling to survive both spiritually and mentally. It was through this season of my life that God proved to me that He was able to keep me, and that His grace was sufficient, because I couldn’t keep myself during this season. There are so many more details that I am going to leave out for the moment, and I might reveal them in the future if Holy Spirit allows me to. At the close of 2022, I found myself walking out of this dark season and anticipating something very fresh and exciting for the future.

         Things didn’t go exactly as planned. In March of 2023, I made the very hard decision to close our local church and fully submit to the call that I had been feeling for over 2 years. This was one of the hardest decisions that I had ever made in my life. I had always felt that the call on my life was more of an itinerant call rather than a pastoral call, but I was unable to fully submit to it. I remember hearing someone say, “the very thing that you are most scared to do is the very thing that you are called to do.” I can definitely agree with this statement for my life.

         I have gone from disappointment to disappointment with a lot of my endeavors in ministry. I dealt very well with a lot of the disappointments but shutting down the church coupled with the 2 year “dark night” of the soul caused me to live in a place of deferred hope (Proverbs 13:12) which caused my heart to grow sick. I was living in the reality of the post that I had written just last year. The Hebrew word for deferred in this text means to put off to another or to put off for some distant future. I had accepted that God wanted to move for other people just not for me. The enemy cannot defeat you if he cannot deceive you, and I had allowed him to whisper his lies until I believed them.

         I took a lot of time off in 2023 from pulpit ministry. My wife and I fully submitted to serving our apostle Ron Teal in the local work here in Cullman and travelling as much as possible with him as well. This has been a great time of healing and restoration that could not have come any other way besides sitting and serving our leader. It’s imperative that you find a spiritual father and mother and serve them with all diligence. They hold keys that will unlock your future in ways that you could never unlock by yourself. Apostle Ron gave me a word a couple of weeks ago about the door being opened and it was time for me to walk through it. He fully released us to step into all that Holy Spirit has in store for us this year and beyond.

         For the first time in a long time, I am extremely excited to step into a new year and walk in obedience to what Holy Spirit has been leading us into for several years. It’s time to take the prophetic words that have been spoken over my life (that I have shelved for the most part) and walk out of deferred hope toward them and eat from the tree of life that springs up when our dreams are fulfilled. It’s time to dream again with the Lord! I plan on preaching more, writing more, making more YouTube videos, and travelling more this year than ever before!

         I want to say thanks to my wife for always believing in me and supporting me through every transition in our 30 years together. I also want to say thanks to apostle Ron and Trisha Teal for their unwavering support and their willingness to walk with us through this difficult season. 2024 will be a year of open doors and open heavens, and we will see all that has been purposed for us to see this year! Let’s run well this season and see the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ!

Love You All!

John Purcell

www.johnpurcellministries.com

The Unveiling of the Burning Ones

I truly believe that we are entering a new age where the Earth will be governed by burning ones that carry the heart of the Father and live in a place called secret. We will begin to call those things that are out of order back into God’s creative intension.  For far too long, the church has lived with too much passivity concerning how things are transpiring throughout the earth. We have been more concerned with how to have great church services than we have been concerned on how to manifest the image of Christ in the earth!

For far too long we have measured success by the standards of the world instead of the standards of the Kingdom. We have wanted microwave results that will ultimately lead us to build systems that will cater to the needs of man instead of creating an atmosphere that caters to the desire of God wanting to meet with man face to face. The reason this ideology is rampant in the church is because it’s much easier to create systems that make men and women feel good about their apathetic lifestyles than it is to learn how to dwell in a place called secret until we burn with hunger that refuses to feel the warmth from an inferior flame.

We will never see societal transformation until we are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to deal with the deep places of our souls, which will lead to a life that manifests the truth of what a renewed mind looks like, because transformed people transform territories. Hebrews 1:7- And of the angels He says “ Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire.” We are taught throughout the Word that we are all Kings and Priests, and we have been given a mandate to first minister to the Lord and secondarily to the people that we have been given influence with. We have been given the responsibility to sit with Lord in the secret place until a fire ignites in our bellies that permeates throughout our entire bodies. The world will only be affected by people that have learned to burn in the presence of the Lord!

Revelation 1:14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire .When we are willing to get close enough to Him, we will see that the fire burning in His eyes is a reflection of His ministers. You have to get really close to someone to see what is reflecting in their eyes. I truly believe that we are entering a passionate pursuit to see the reflection in His eyes! Who wants to be a burning one??? Let’s go Burn together!!!!

John Purcell

The Rise of Equipping Centers

I grew up in a classical Pentecostal church and I am so grateful for my heritage in the faith. I learned so much about the gifts of the Spirit, the moving of the Spirit, and the conviction of the Spirit. There were so many things that were so foundational in the development of my theological belief system. During this time-frame, the church in general was primarily focused on getting people to accept Christ so they would not spend eternity in hell. One of the things that the church failed to properly steward was the importance of equipping people to grow up into all things in Christ. For this reason, the church produced Christians that were more focused on getting to heaven instead of expanding the Kingdom of God in the earth. I truly believe that we are entering a time of reformation in the church where our priorities are shifting from normal church settings into equipping centers.

In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, he details how the New Testament church was to operate in the development of the life of the believer. Ephesians 4:11-16 reads, And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.  A healthy church will always produce healthy believers, and a healthy church begins with one that will accept and celebrate all 5 offices of the five-fold. It is only when we are willing to accept these offices and the way they function together that we can properly equip the saints to work in the ministry they’ve been called to.

For too many years the church has been known as a gathering place, but there is a wind of change that is blowing in the church that is creating houses that are more focused on sending than gathering. The five-fold was given to the church as gifts from Christ, and their primary focus is to equip and edify the body. The word edify means to be “thoroughly furnished.” We must become intentional about making sure that each believer is thoroughly furnished with everything that was made available through the finished work of Christ. When the church becomes deliberate in their pursuit of equipping the saints, the body will become the image bearers of Christ throughout the whole earth. Equipping centers will be a place where people can be taught how to walk in the gifts of the Spirit and how to produce the fruit of the Spirit. It will be a place where ministry will be completed by more than the pulpit. The kingdom will be manifested through the body, which will pull them into full maturity. This is the essence of what Jesus meant when He gave the great commission of disciplining nations.

One of the greatest differences found in an equipping center is those in leadership teach and equip everyone to hear the voice of the Lord. If the five-fold is doing their jobs properly, they will not just prophesy over the church, but they will teach the church how to prophesy. People that are truly hungry for a deeper relationship with God will be drawn to these equipping centers. I have made a decision concerning the direction that I want my local church and all the churches that I plant to look like. The early church in the book of Acts properly modeled what equipping centers are seeking to become. We will be more focused on raising up and sending out leaders than we will be known for trying to build large congregations. To do this well, we will need to intentionally teach the people of God to hear and think for themselves, and not be so dependent on the leadership of the local assembly to hear God for them.

As we walk this new model out, we must stay humble and passionate in our pursuit of biblical truth. We must be willing to be vulnerable before the church as we navigate this new territory and let them know that a lot of this new paradigm is brand new to us as well. This will go directly against the pride and arrogance of narcissistic leaders that want people to be solely dependent upon them. These are exciting and transformative times for the church, because we are seeing the rise of these equipping centers that will mirror the New Testament church.

John Purcell

www.johnpurcellministries.com

How Deep are Your Roots?

We are embarking on a journey that will cause us to leave the shores of comfortable lifestyles, and embrace a risk filled life that will produce Bible size encounters with the Lord. To take this journey, you will have to be willing to lay aside your dependence on anything except Holy Spirit. The decision to take the steps necessary will destroy the fence that we've learned to straddle. This journey will lead you into the very thing you were birthed into the earth to accomplish.

I have felt for some time now that 2019 was going to be a significant year of release for those that are willing to break free from the pull of complacency and willing to take the road that will lead to devotional exclusivity. I believe we are stepping into a 5-year season that, if we are willing to steward properly what He is releasing to us, will unlock things that have been held up or held back from us concerning our personal prophetic words over our lives.

2019 will be a year that we will become firmly established in our identity as sons and daughters, in the grace that we've been given to walk in our calling, and in the truths concerning lies that we've believed about ourselves, family, church, and the world.

Colossians 2:6-7- As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. I was in my personal devotional time this week, and these two verses jumped out at me. I've been in ministry for over 25 years now and one thing that has stood out to me time after time is the fact that few are willing to be rooted in Christ. I truly believe that this is one of the main reasons that the church has not moved into the fullness of what God has been calling them into. When we are not willing to go through the process of being rooted, we make our lives and ministries susceptible to dysfunction and destruction.

Paul tells us here that after we've received Christ that we should learn to walk in Him. Walk is one of my favorite words to look at in the New Testament. The definition of the word simply means, “to regulate one's life after.” After we've joined ourselves to Christ, we must learn to bring our lives into uniformity with Jesus, and this is the beginning stages of the process of becoming “rooted in Christ.” In our current culture of being so offended, we have become people that are more led by their feelings than by the Spirit of God. When we are led by our feelings, we don’t allow our roots to grow deep enough to produce the fruit of true discipleship. There must be an emphasis placed on teaching the necessity of being rooted in Christ as it applies to living a fulfilling life as a believer.

We must understand what rooted means before we could ever know how that word applies to our walk with Christ. It means to be firmly established or to be thoroughly grounded. You will never produce proper fruit until you are properly rooted. Too many people find themselves frustrated over the lack of fruit but are not willing to take a personal inventory and responsibility of how deep their roots are growing. No one is responsible for your growth but you! In a time where people want instant gratification and results, as a follower of Christ, we can’t short-cut the process of becoming firmly established and thoroughly grounded in Christ.

In conclusion, we must become self-aware of how deep we are allowing our roots to grow in the soil of the Kingdom. I am always reevaluating my life and trying to find areas that need to be more established in the truth of God’s word. I will be releasing more on this topic over the next month. I pray that it will help encourage and equip you to grow into the fullness of all that God has called you to be and do. God bless!!!

John Purcell