A New Reformation
By Steve Backlund
I have a dream that 50 years from now people will be saying:
“What! They were still using cars and airplanes in 2024 and not being transported as Philip was in Acts 9?”
“You mean they weren’t walking on water back then?”
“I cannot believe in 2024, Christians were not consistently doing greater works than Jesus did when He was on the earth.”
Many seemingly “impossible” Bible verses will be highlighted and unlocked in this season to bring freedom to multitudes. It is indeed a new reformation.
If we believe what we are experiencing is all that is possible (and all that God wills for us), then we are deceived and will actually limit what God desires to do. There is more we can have and experience.
Recently, when I landed in Germany for a ministry trip, I heard three scripture passages in my spirit:
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
These three verses tell us there are things we do not know, that are above all we could ask or think, and beyond what we have seen or heard that is available to us to experience.
As I reflected on these truths, I realized I was in the country where Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation over 500 years ago. Luther had a revelation of things in scripture that were not seen before. What he discovered changed the course of Christianity and brought a renaissance of blessing on how life could be lived.
We are in a season of a new reformation. We will see truths in the Bible we have never seen before. It will change the church and ultimately the world. It is a time when:
We will have Peter’s experience in understanding who Jesus really is - “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17)
Our knowledge will become revelation - “(Praying that God) may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Ephesians 1:17).
We will be like the two who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus - “And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures”(Luke 24:45).
The greatest truths for our lives will sound ridiculous when we first hear them. They will appear too good to be true. Our experiences and feelings will tell us that God was only speaking metaphorically to us, and not giving us an invitation to discover the unimaginable abundant life that is hidden in verses like these:
“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper” (Psalms 1:3).
“A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you” (Psalm 91:7).
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. (John 14:12)
“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says” (Mark 11:23).
“Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23).
As I pray over you, one of my blog readers, I believe Paul’s prayer for Ephesians is happening in your life. “Making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Ephesians 1:16-19).
The best is yet to come, and we have the privilege of helping make it happen.