I recently had a conference call titled “What God Is Saying” with two great friends and sisters in the Lord, Jenae McFarland and Charity Porter.
We had a wonderful time sharing what the Lord had laid on our hearts and at the end of the event, a caller posed that very question to all three of us: “What is God saying to the body of Christ?” There was only one word that popped in my mind.
Restoring the Fullness of the Spirit and Fivefold Ministry Gifts
Restoration. I believe this is a duplicitous word; I believe it’s on an individual level for several people. But I know it’s on a corporate level in the body as well. When I talk about restoration in the body, I mean the restoration of getting to know the Holy Spirit.
Let’s go back to the basics. Let’s go back and restore fully, whether it be the fivefold gifts, whether it be the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit … everything that God has ordained from the beginning that is to be in the body of Christ and for the body of Christ in this time.
He is restoring those things that have been taken away or that people have fallen away from because of mistrust, because of [spiritual] abuse, because of a variety of reasons. I feel like God is restoring those things to the body. He is restoring the understanding and the honor and the respect of those mantles of the apostles, of the prophets, of the evangelists, of the pastors and of the teachers.
Restoring the Spirit of Elijah
God is restoring the understanding of the Spirit of Elijah in the last days and how it comes and heralds the Lord’s coming. The Bible says in Malachi 4:5-6 that the Spirit of Elijah has to come back in the Last Days, so it can return the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children back to the parents. Otherwise He’ll strike the Earth with a curse.
We’ve seen that evident in the body of Christ; we’ve seen it evident in the black community, we’ve seen it evident in several places. But the remedy for that is the Spirit of Elijah, which is a branch of the Spirit of God and bringing that fully back, and restoring the altar. Restoring true worship. Restoring true passion, restoring all of those aspects. Restoring the true prophetic so people can truly understand. So we have a whole body. So the bride isn’t bipolar; so the bride isn’t messy; so we’re a unified, pure and spotless bride for when Jesus comes back.
Restoring the Army of the Lord for the End-Time Battle
When Jenae began to speak of “the Lord beginning to breathe life back into the dry bones” of the church, the Lord continued to speak. He impressed upon me saying that when Ezekiel commanded the breath to come into the dry bones, what was mobilized, what was animated, was not just a random group of people, it wasn’t animals. It was an army. And I feel like God is mobilizing His end-time army to be prepared to do those things. Obviously, not in a natural sense, but in a spiritual sense, to go and be the army of the Lord. To go and do, and go and conquer, to go and claim what is ours and, really, what is His before His coming.
The Application
Receiving prophetic words is always great, yet we must appropriate what we’ve heard to see it manifest in our own lives. Here are some tips so you can do just that:
1. Study the ministry of Jesus. A lot of things fly in pulpits today that we label as “ministry,” yet when we look at Jesus’ life and ministry, we really realize they have nothing to do with the character or methods of Jesus. Since Jesus “came from heaven to Earth to show the way,” let’s become students of that way and implement it in our own lives. And if you haven’t read RePresent Jesus by Dr. Dharius Daniels, then please do! It will challenge your religious perspective and understanding of Jesus in a most refreshing way.
2. Study the Holy Spirit. After Jesus, the next best Person to study is the Holy Spirit Himself. Jesus left us for the explicit purpose that He might come and aide us all, so we wouldn’t be limited to one physical Person, but benefit from the omnipresent One. (See John 16:7.)
Both Charity and I shared a pull this year to study this wondrous Person. Some excellent books to help you with that are Good Morning, Holy Spirit by Benny Hinn, 40 Days with the Holy Spirit by R.T. Kendall and The Holy Spirit: An Introduction by John Bevere. But even more than that, delve into the book of Acts, the Old Testament and the Bible at large to see how this third member of the Holy Spirit operates within the Old and New Testaments.
3. Study the fruit of the Spirit. Study Galatians 5:22-23; read it in different translations, such as the ESV, MEV and AMP. Then study the New Testament to see how, its leaders and its characters—starting with Jesus—to see how they displayed the fruit of the Spirit in their lives and ministries.
4. Study the gifts of the Spirit. Study 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and the book of Acts to understand the gifts of the Spirit. Yet, I pass along to you a warning that someone recently shared with me:
“You should always see more FRUIT of the Spirit than GIFTS of the Spirit. If you see more GIFTS, than you do FRUIT, beware!”
I also highly recommend reading How to Walk in the Supernatural Power of God by apostle Guillermo Maldonado.
5. Study the Fivefold Ministry Gifts. Study the ministry gifts in Ephesians 4:7-16 as well as the book of Acts and the epistles of the Apostles. Research how Paul, Peter, James and the rest conducted themselves and carried out their callings as well as built up and structured the early church.
The promises of God are yes and amen! When we delve into His Word and appropriate the promises of God for ourselves, we will see those blessed promises unfold in our own lives!
Desiree M. Mondesir is a young woman who is passionate about the things of God. She blogs regularly at desireemmondesir.com where her mission is embracing the truth of the Word, providing tools for effective spiritual warfare, and challenging spiritually toxic mindsets. She is the author of The Days of Noah and Lot, How I Fell Prey to Jezebel, and other publications. You may connect with her on Twitter @DesireeMondesir and Facebook at facebook.com/desireemmondesir.
