October 30, 2025

In The Beginning . . . 

The Charismatic and Jesus People Movements occurred simultaneously. I have always considered them as two parts of one revival. Recently, I have been sharing a few posts highlighting some of the weaknesses of these movements to help us avoid the same mistakes in the coming revival. Today, I’m going to begin discussing another mistake we made. This weakness involved short-term thinking, and was caused by poor theology. It will take me two or three posts to cover this subject; I am going to take my time because I consider the teaching to be critically important.

Just before He left for heaven, Jesus gave two commissions to His church:

“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name, they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’” (Mark 16:15-18 NASB)

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”’ (Matthew 28:18-20 NASB)

The “Great Commission” in Mark 16 is the restoration of people back to God’s family–salvation. The “Great Commission” of Matthew 28 is the restoration of a people’s thinking back to the ways of God–discipleship. The first (Mark 16) changes people’s nature—who they are—transforming their spirit. The latter (Matthew 28) changes people’s thoughts and actions–how they live–transforming their soul (mind, emotions, and will). God not only wants kids; He wants them to become mature sons and daughters who know His ways and think His thoughts, enabling them to represent Him. When Mark’s commission occurs in mass, resulting in the salvation of many people, we call this a revival; when Matthew’s commission occurs in mass, resulting in societal change—government, laws, morals, education, culture, etc.—we call it a reformation. In the Charismatic/Jesus People revivals, we worked toward Mark 16; the Matthew 28 commission, not so much. I will cover the result of this later. But first, let’s make sure we understand these commissions.

These two commissions will never be fully understood without a clear grasp of Genesis 1, for they are actually recommissions of what took place then. Jesus came to restore–restart, rebirth, revive, redeem, recover, reform, refill, and recommission. It is only logical, therefore, that we must go back to the beginning in order to understand what he is RE-storing and RE-commissioning us to.

In The Beginning. . .

In the first chapter of Genesis, God worked on a planet in His universal kingdom: Earth. It would become home for the family He was soon to create. For five days, He transformed this home. I love the glimpses of His heart as He progressed. After each day’s work, God said the progress was “good.” Why would He say this? The Lord certainly wasn’t bragging, patting Himself on the back for a job well done. Nor was He surprised–“Wow, this is turning out really well.” No, Yahweh was expressing His pleasure—His satisfaction with what was occurring—just as an expectant mom and dad might when preparing their nursery.

Abba’s pleasure increased to its highest level, however, on the sixth day after creating His human family. In His sixth pronouncement that what He had created was good, the Architect added a word: “This is very good” (Genesis 1:31). His plan was coming together, and like a proud parent standing over a newborn baby, Papa God was savoring the moment.

The Creator made this family in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). The Hebrew word for ‘image’ is tselem, which involves the concept of a shadow, a phantom, or an illusion.(1) An illusion is something you think you see, but on closer observation, discover that your eyes have tricked you. When the rest of creation saw Adam or Eve, they must have done a double-take, thinking: For a moment, I thought it was God, but it’s only Adam.

The Hebrew word demuwth, translated as “likeness” in Genesis 1:26, comes from the root word damah, meaning “to compare.”(2) Adam and Eve, at creation, were very much like God, filled with His life, nature, and Spirit. They were His family. He who had innumerable angels serving Him was not satisfied. God desired sons and daughters; He also wanted companions for His Son. To satisfy these desires, He created a new “species,” in His image and likeness, far different than the angels. 

Then came two commissions or mandates to this new family. Commission One: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). God was saying, “Reproduce! I have placed in you the ability to multiply My image and likeness. And I want a big family!” Just let that sink in: God gave humans the ability to reproduce and multiply eternal images and likenesses of Himself! Astounding! What a privilege and what a responsibility.

Then came Commission Two: “Rule over…all the earth…over every living thing that moves on the Earth” (Genesis 1:26-28). Psalm 8:6 restates the mandate, “Thou doest make him to rule over the works of thy hands, Thou hast put all things under his feet.”

Each of the above passages uses a different Hebrew word for “rule” (translated as “dominion” in other versions of the Scriptures). The Genesis verses use radah,(3) Psalm 8 uses mashal.(4) Both words convey the concept of management, government, or rule. Adam and Eve were commissioned to govern or manage earth, their home, for themselves and Creator God. They did not “own” earth; they were delegated stewardship and governance for the Owner and Creator, Yahweh. Obviously, they were to do so under His headship and rule, implementing the principles of His Kingdom, not according to their own dictates.

Obviously, this plan was interrupted at the fall. When Adam sinned, he lost the image, likeness, and Spirit of God; he also lost his dominion, the delegated authority to manage the earth. And God lost His family. (God did NOT lose ownership of the Earth, for He had never given that to Adam, nor did He lose HIS personal authority over the Earth; we humans lost OUR delegated authority, which had now been transferred to satan.)

These two losses are what Jesus came to restore: 1) God’s family, and 2) their lost governance and stewardship of the earth.

We will pick up here tomorrow, see how this all relates to the last revival, and what will change in the coming great awakening.

Pray with me:

Father, we know revival has begun. It is in its beginning stages here in America, though in some parts of the world, multitudes are already coming to You. Increase it here and around the world. Save a billion souls. We thank You for the increase that has come this year. Now, we ask that You unleash the full-force power of the gospel and confirm it with signs, wonders, and miracles.

You have said reformation has also begun, stating that the ekklesia, the church, is prepared and ready. You said angels have been dispatched to assist us, that the impossible will occur, and the unchangeable will change. So we ask You for this. Revive and reform. Teach us what reformation looks like, so that we can partner with You at higher levels and see lasting fruit.

Cause this revival to break out over the entire world. We declare the coming of Your Kingdom, and the accomplishing of Your will here and throughout the earth, as it is in heaven. Multiplied power, multiplied deliverances, multiplied salvations–bring them forth. In Yeshua’s name, amen.

Our decree:

We decree that we have moved into revival and reformation, and will see the great billion soul harvest.

Click on the link below to watch the full video.

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1. Spiros Zodhiates, Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible - New American Standard (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1984; revised edition, 1990), p. 1768.

2. James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), ref. No. 1819.

3. Ibid., ref. no. 7287.

4. Ibid., ref. no. 4910.