July 25, 2018 - Adam Collier

An Insurgence to End All Insurgencies

Frank Viola’s books and ministry have opened up a new glimpse of Jesus Christ to me in the past 3 years. His new book Insurgence continues that process so I wanted to share it with my readers.

This book (and post) is about the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The revolutionary news that Jesus is this world’s true king. This good news has powerful implications. Implications which can infuriate many, it uproots and overturns societies like nothing else. It truly is an insurgence to end all insurgencies.

The gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is so beyond, so radical, so much larger than what is being preached in most ministries today. It is almost an entirely different message.

If you don’t normally read books this book is not like others. Frank broke the book into a blog post style which makes it very easy to read, set down to process, and think about, then pick up again when you are ready.

Some interview questions that Frank answered for me about this book.

1) Why did you write the book Insurgence?

I write the book I myself want to read but cannot find. INSURGENCE is a book that does the following:

* presents the gospel of the kingdom comprehensively from Genesis to Revelation. (Not just “the kingdom” but “the gospel of the kingdom”).

* declare the message without any agenda for the progressive left or the conservative right (the gospel of the kingdom cannot fit into either).

* present the material in a highly accessible and easy-to-read manner so that a high school can understand as well as scholars and theologians (due to the depth).

* give practical exercise to navigate readers to implement the message into their own lives and churches.

* give an update on the present Insurgence that’s sweeping the world.

Because I couldn’t find one book that did all of those things, I wrote INSURGENCE: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom (landing page at http://Insurgence.org with samples and reviews by scholars, theologians, pastors, etc.).

2) What is the primary difference between the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ and the gospel of salvation?

I address this in the book itself, but they are the same gospel. The gospel of the kingdom stresses the kingship of Jesus and its massive implications while the gospel of salvation emphasis the Lord’s deliverance from the world system, the flesh, the grip of the devil, and God’s judgment. They are two sides of the same incredible gospel message.

3) What is the key take away that you hope readers get from the Insurgence book after reading it?

There are many. Here are two examples from two seasoned leaders:

“I have written about fifty books, read hundreds—maybe thousands IN MY 83 years. “INSURGENCE” IS THE ONE BOOK YOU MUST READ! It is everything I believe, said much better than I am graced to say it. You ask me what I believe. I will respond: “What he said!” To all of my beloved friends and fellows who are diligently laboring for reformation, restoration and revival: “Your efforts will be unfruitful apart from the kingdom foundation clearly laid out in Frank Viola’s new book.” During the entire time of reading this book my spirit has been vibrating like a tuning fork that has just been struck!”

And another:

I am finding this book to be singularly unique among the thousands I own. I am ¾ the way done and the timing of this book for me personally has the Lord’s fingerprints all over it. In many ways, it has encouraged. But it has also devastated me. Quite honestly, I’m undone in many ways.

Like Sam, the Lord has used the book to highlight and clarify issues of worldliness in my own life. Some of those issues were obvious to me and I have desired liberation. Some were more subterranean and the Light has invaded. For three weeks now, I have been seriously mulling the idea that I should get baptized again because of the light dispensed by this book. And I plan on it. I want to. I was not aware as a new believer of the totality of what being in Christ meant. One cannot say that after reading Insurgence.

I am encouraged that such “a word” was permitted to issue to the Body of Christ because it can only mean that the Lord is ready to do something. Something I have been longing for both personally and for the Body. I don’t feel that it will be a sweeping worldwide phenomena global (the best and truest moves of God never are) but I do think it can affect pockets of believers globally. That will be enough to please His heart.

This book threads a very precarious needle where others have tried and missed the mark. It is almost impossible to write a book like this without some measure of legalism creeping in. Yet, the tightrope wire is successfully crossed in Insurgence. This is a book that will smoke out the libertine and legalist hiding in plain sight in each of our hearts.

My prayer for myself is: “Lord please don’t let this word go wasted in my life. Have mercy, I am desperate! It is an appointed hour in my life. Please don’t let this be another good book that moved me merely while I was reading it and for a week two beyond that. DO SOMETHING in my heart! Something permanent. Something irrevocable. Something eternal. Something that brings pleasure to your heart. Something that meets your need in this hour. Something that moves the boundary markers of your Kingdom forward! Something that is fully in synch with your Eternal Purpose!”

I pray it may be so for all of us.

I am receiving emails like this daily from readers. Profoundly honoring and hugely humbling.

People can learn more at http://Insurgence.org

NEW! – Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom – Join the Insurgence

if you want to make the world a better place

February 26, 2018 - Adam Collier

Not Called to Make the World a Better Place

Pop-Music Philosophy

“If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change.” – Michael Jackson

I hear many Christians today saying “we want to make the world a better place.” Of course this is noble and is an effort to be admired but I think this sentiment is ill advised. The reason I say this is not because I don’t think that the world needs to be better. It is not because I don’t wish it were better. Frankly I think the world is an absolute mess.

The reason I think this world-view is ill advised is because it is not in step with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus does not want to make the world a better place. Jesus is actually displacing the world with himself and his new humanity.

The idea that the world will be made better by us being kinder or more generous doesn’t reflect reality.

This World-System Has No Future

Imagine its 1943 in Nazi Germany and the Germans started saying “let’s make Nazi Germany a better place.” At the peak of the war crimes, the killings, the concentration camps. That is the equivalent of us saying it today in comparison to what is coming in Jesus Christ. Surrender to the coming regime of Jesus Christ is the only option. But not a physical military surrender an inner spiritual surrender. Until that happens, if billions are in rebellion to the real Lord of the earth, this world should not be “made better.”

It’s not reform we are pushing for in the world it’s a conquering nonviolent displacement of Satan.

The world will not be better until Jesus Christ (and not Satan) is absolute Lord. This world as we know it has absolutely no future. I want to make Jesus Lord of heaven AND EARTH. Because this world is still being run by satanic systems and forces.

Our governmental, religious, economic, entertainment, and educational systems are still dominated and controlled by satanic forces. Some of them reluctantly tolerate Christian influence begrudgingly and only if we are kept at the bottom of their hierarchies.

Make the World…Surrendered to Him

Editing our philosophy to live by.

The only thing that I want to see the world become is subject and surrendered to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything less than that is just pop music.

More about the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Frank Viola’s gospel of the kingdom series.

Please Share Your Thought Below

April 4, 2017 - Adam Collier

The Ministry of Judas

What Tribe was Judas Iscariot from:

Judas was the son of Simon Iscariot (John 6:71) The term “Iscariot” indicates that they may have come from the Judean town of Kerioth-hezron. If this is true, then Judas was the only Judean of the apostles. There is no certainty about Judas’ tribe.

Ministry of Judas vs Ministry of John the Baptist

There is a distinct and contrasting pattern between the ministry of Judas and the ministry of John the Baptist. Judas (aka Jesus’ traitor) no doubt at one time had a degree of love and faith in Jesus, perhaps he once said:

“I will serve Jesus in this way, I will manage his ministry money, I’m good at managing money. I will do what he asks of me with the money and I will take some and give to the poor. In this way I will honor him with my ‘talents’.”

But you never read Jesus asking him to do this, perhaps it was only a permissive thing.

Similarly, a close look at the ministry of Peter before the cross, shows he had the same tendency as Judas. His natural extroverted ‘gift’ of persuasiveness seemed to be a hindrance to his surrender to Jesus. It seems that Satan was able to use Peter’s ‘gifts’ to try to control Jesus. Notice that Jesus never said “I need a fire-ball, a bold powerful personality to preach, I want Peter“. He never said “I need someone good with money to manage my ministry money, I want Judas”.

Jesus taught total surrender, total repentance, total abandonment of the former life to begin again.

“And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.””

– ‭‭Mark‬ ‭8:32-33‬ ‭NASB‬‬

I think that if Peter were coming up today, with his gifting’s and extroverted zeal he might be quickly promoted. He might find himself without divine intervention ‘in charge’ of a mega-church or denominations before the age of 30. Sadly, I think many ministry consultants live by the same philosophies as this.

Not once in the New Testament are we asked to bring our natural gifts into our service to Jesus Christ. Instead, Jesus asks us to abandon all and follow him. Jesus then infills us and distributes to us his very own life and with that life new spiritual gifts.

The gospel we read from the NT teaches that when we come to Jesus we surrender everything of ourselves. The good with the bad, we DIE, our good and talented parts and our miserable sinful parts. They are all parts of the same old wineskin and same filthy rags to Jesus.

We are no longer living out our lives.

As far as God is concerned when we come to Christ we are no longer alive. Baptism in water symbolizes our death…then rising up to our new life within the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Even our natural talents, the “gifted” parts of us, need to die. Especially if we have confidence or have been accustomed to rely on them. If God can kill everything of us, then he personally can live in us by the spirit. More of Jesus and less of me, “He must increase and I must decrease.”

John the Baptist and the apostle Paul had the ministry philosophy of total surrender and death to the old man.

We are “crucified with Christ”, and “it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.”

Jesus said “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”

– ‭‭John‬ ‭12:24-26‬ ‭NAS

“Hate his life in this world.” Why are so many of us teaching the opposite of this as we ‘evangelize’ with our hyper-positivity gospels of ease and pleasure? When did evangelism become a ‘raise your finger in anonymity at the end of my sermon then join my worship band with that talented voice of yours’? It did NOT, that philosophy is not from Jesus Christ.

What about you, is yours similar to the ministry of Judas? Are you ministering (and being taught to?) by the pattern of Judas? out of your own talents and greatness? or by the pattern of John and Paul, “more of Jesus and less of me” and “I die daily”?‬

Eternal Testimonies Ministries

For Those in Pursuit of Jesus Christ

An Insurgence to End All Insurgencies