I believe that God is building expectation into the hearts and lives of true disciples. Those who are hungry for God and want to be involved in whatever He is doing today, regardless of the personal cost, are sensing an excitement and deep expectation. Something is happening and we sense it. As the shaking continues so that all manmade religious and traditional junk is shaken loose and removed – God is beginning to plant expectation, anticipation, even excitement into the hearts of His people.

Because of this I believe God’s people will soon want to go BIG! They are tired of being the unsent church – weary of church services, sermons, in-house programs, and Bible studies that never push them out and challenge them to really be the missional people God has called them to be. I certainly won’t deny that it is more comfortable driving on the side roads, but after awhile they can get pretty boring. I think it’s time for the Church of Jesus Christ, in all of its diverse forms, to be the Church, to get out on the open road, and to let God smile on us as we follow Him out on the highways of this world.

Then we will be Kingdom people and Kingdom minded. We need to realize that Jesus only mentions the Church when talking to His disciples about leadership and His plans for them for the future. The rest of the time Jesus talked about the Kingdom. As we get out onto the highways and by-ways of life sharing the Gospel and truly being “the sent ones” (missional) we will become much more Kingdom-minded and come alive to the potential that exists today to increase the influence of that Kingdom in our world.

When the early church began to preach it too had basically one message – the Kingdom and the resurrected King (Jesus). Today God is bringing fresh revelation to His Church about the Kingdom and as the Spirit of revelation (Ephesians 1:17) brings this fresh understanding of an old truth to our hearts and minds we will understand the much bigger picture of what the Lord is calling us to as we are “sent out” in His Name to make disciples for His Kingdom. It is so much bigger and better than simply gathering to be fed and pampered Sunday-by-Sunday.

Because of this new emphasis of the Kingdom and being sent out as ambassadors of that Kingdom the gathering aspect of the Church will also need to change. No longer will Sundays be a time to be comforted, taught nice truths we never apply, and hear about the love of God. It will be a training school where you come to be equipped to then move out and meet the real world head-on – this time with answers for the issues that people face in their everyday world. We will have real, practical answers for real problems faced by non-believers in their daily lives and be trained in how to share those answers.

Sundays will become a time of gathering to be equipped and trained so that as we then scatter back into the spiritual darkness of the Devil’s domain we can truly be the light and the salt that we are called to be – and make a difference.

Watch for the church to change – it will not be a gradual change but a sudden one once the leaders receive the revelation of what the Spirit of God is doing today. It will take an increased level of trust and commitment to be a part of what the Lord is about to do. It will mean being available to be trained and equipped and being willing to “go into all the world…” A major change – but really a return to the way the Lord designed His Church to function.

The result will be a fresh flow of life for those of us who are His disciples. And, as a result, many will come to know Jesus and receive eternal life as found only in Christ.