Answering the Prophetic Call for the Philippines

The prophetic vision for the Philippines, that of being a formidable spiritual vanguard in Southeast Asia and a powerful spiritual launching pad for missions, still stands, but how the different prophetic churches respond to this vision is a sorry story. Instead of bonding together, the churches have gone their own ways.

Photo by Carlos Felipe Ramírez Mesa on Unsplash.

What "unity" they have now is very nominal, having the form of godliness but denying its power. You sense how each church or church alliance claims spiritual superiority over others, that they alone carry the genuine vision and anointing. The same is true with denominational churches, or even worse. The church is lost. The glory has left. Or, I dare say, there's not yet a true church in the truest biblical meaning of the term. 

Jesus' church needs to be built, not rebuilt. 

Fulfillment of the Vision

A house divided against itself will not stand, and as long as apostolic and prophetic churches in the Philippines do not radically unite, the vision will remain waiting. Apostle Paul described what the genuine Body is. The church is one single body and each part (what we call our "churches" and "denominations") should remain closely connected and intact together, ruled by the Head. No one part should detach itself and feel superior or more blessed or favored, and then look down on the rest, especially the small and weak churches. 

The sorriest thing is, some apostolic churches define unity as all other churches joining them and registering as their members, and tithing to them.

Church alliances are not enough (and definitely garbage). We must be much more radical than that, nothing less than what God's Word expects of us. One body means big churches (regardless of affiliation--in fact even "affiliations" should be demolished, giving way to the one body of Christ) should be supporting small ones and vice versa, everyone embracing each other as a vital part of each other. 

And that's not just in prayer but in all things, including financially. The finances God releases to the body (among all churches) must be shared, so that those who gather much don't have more, and those that gather little don't have less. Radical unity means we all surrender our empires and dominions--our big memberships, properties and incomes--and submit to the one church of Jesus Christ, managed by Scriptures alone and the Holy Spirit. Strange and chaotic, it seems, but this is what God says in his Word. 

All church leaders should lead with total surrender to the Word, and how the Spirit of God illuminates it. It should be all supernatural, with the concurrence of the council of true apostles and prophets. No denominational or alliance doctrines anymore but only the doctrine in the bible revealed by the Holy Spirit. The whole bible is the doctrine. This was how the Acts church operated. 

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. [Ephesians 4]

"Every wind of teaching," there's your denominational doctrines. These doctrines select passages from Scriptures to form their denominational doctrines and trash all others. They either say the Word they trashed is obsolete and doesn't apply anymore, or everything else is from the devil. 

How the Body of Christ Should See Itself

Apostle Paul defined how relationships should be among the whole body of Christ around the world (not just in one denomination or alliance or affiliation). The passages below are from 1 Corinthians 12.

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many."

"For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body."

One reason for the baptism by the Holy Spirit is to form radical unity--being completely one in Christ--a unity the world has never known and seen. So many in church leadership claim to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and yet remain denominational, not realizing that one fruit of the baptism is to crave for the unity God wants for his church. If you do not crave for this, your claim is highly questionable. 

And no one part should feel superior or more blessed than the other. If one part is weak, the part that is strong should not feel successful over it, or think they have the authority to say what correct things the weaker parts should do. If one part is weak, the other parts that imagine themselves to be "strong" should realize that they are also weak--unless they help the weak parts get strong. 

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty...

"...those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable," 

The small and poor church you think is "weak" and which you dislike, preferring to attend churches that are rich and mega, is actually "indispensable" in the eyes of GOD. Weak churches are important and cannot be done away with. Big churches cannot afford to lose them. And it is God's design that some churches are weak and some strong. God keeps this balance because how you see and treat weak churches reveal the true state of your heart. I hope churches will see it this way. 

The body of Christ, especially the apostolic and prophetic members (and definitely including the denominations), should remember how God sees his body.  

But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Pray for the Philippine Church

A house divided against itself can never stand in a spiritual warfare raging in this region of the world. The missions we launch from our country are good, but they are spiritually ill equipped, disoriented and sometimes even siding with the enemy unknowingly. It's like Israel against the lone giant adversary, Goliath, ready to face the enemy and actually out there in the battle lines, shouting aloud, but winning nothing. It's also like David being given the wrong armor to face the enemy, but praise God he was discerning enough to see that it wasn't God's armor for him. I hope hope and pray the Philippine church becomes as discerning.