Igniting an Apostolic Renaissance
The Lord has been burning something in my heart, and I felt very strongly that He has a word for the church. He started with me—that He wants to ignite, set on fire, an apostolic renaissance.
Now before you get stuck on those words, I want you to understand why it matters. Because once you see why, the definitions will make sense.
And the truth is, we can't keep doing what we've been doing. The world is too dark. The need is too great. And we've been playing church while the enemy takes the planet.
It's time for that to change.
What Is a Renaissance?
Let me start with the word "renaissance."
In the Dark Ages, in the 13th century, the Middle Ages were called the Dark Ages. Life was really miserable. The bubonic plague. People were just used by other people. Slavery was common. Women were nothing.
And then the renaissance was born.
The word "renaissance" itself means rebirth, restoration. And when that happened, society began to be changed.
Renaissance wasn't like a religious revival that came and went or an awakening that came and went. It actually changed the culture. Government changed. Education changed. The arts changed. Social systems. The way people treated each other changed.
Now, not everything in the renaissance was godly, but the impact and the effect was astounding. It made a different world that we're still benefiting from.
So many revivals in American history have come and gone, and they didn't impact the culture. Recently, I watched the Jesus Revolution movie again. In that day, the church was going through a major revival—and it did not impact the culture at all.
And we made up theologies to make that be okay. "The world's going to get darker as the church gets brighter."
Well, if we're supposed to be the light of the world, why is it okay that the world gets darker?
A renaissance is different. A renaissance is a rebirth, a restoration that changes culture—not just the church, but the world around it.
What Is Apostolic?
Now let's talk about "apostolic." We've lost this word, and it's an important word.
Jesus looked at His disciples and said, "You are my apostles." He didn't say you're my priests. He didn't use a religious term. It was a very common Greek word in that day. They all knew what it meant.
But before I tell you exactly what it means, I want to tell you what it doesn't mean.
It does not mean a hierarchy.
Let's read 1 Corinthians 12:28 together: "And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, and various kinds of tongues" (NIV).
Many people within the church world, because they bought the lie that everything has to be this power pyramid, this hierarchy—it's all about the office, it's all about what position I have, it's all about how close to the powerful people I can become—have turned this into a hierarchy.
But is this a hierarchy of office? Or is this stuff we're supposed to be doing?
It's stuff we're supposed to be doing.
It's not first in rank. It's first in operations. Apostles and prophets are the foundation. You don't put up the walls and the pillars until the foundation is laid. First in operation. And the pillars and the foundations carry the weight.
Paul goes on in that same context and says we don't all have the same gifts. The whole point of the chapter is we're all part of the body. Not everybody's a hand or an eye.
And then he says, "But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31, NIV). And immediately it goes into the love chapter.
Chapter 13, the love chapter, says you can have all of these great gifts. You can have the faith to move mountains, but if you don't have love, you don't have anything.
If you can't love the person that's so broken they're mutilating their children, then you have nothing.
And I want to lob some fruit at them, but that won't fix the problem. Or it feels so overwhelming I want to be silent and run into my ditch. But the world can't have them. They're His, and they're my responsibility.
I am the light of the world. You are the light of the world.
What Jesus Meant by Apostolic
So what did Jesus mean when He said, "You are my apostles"?
The word "apostolos" was a secular term, not a religious term. They understood it completely.
It was used during a time when they were being controlled by the Romans. They spoke Greek, but they were being controlled by the Romans. The Romans were the current world empire at the time. Before the Romans were the world empire, Greece was.
And Greece figured out something important: If they came out and conquered land by force—wrong kingdom—and then the soldiers moved on to conquer more land, they would lose control of the land they had because they didn't have their heart. They didn't have their mind.
God knew in the garden He couldn't just force you to do it His way and be able to have your heart, to be able to have you stay.
So what the Greeks did was develop this plan: They would send cargo ships—actually a fleet of ships—filled with teachers, musicians, artists, artisans, government officials, building supplies. So that as the troops moved on, they would begin to take the culture of the land they took dominion of and transform it to look like Greece. So that people would think like the Greeks.
The Romans picked up the same idea.
Now, it wasn't just the ships that were filled with these culture-changers. The admiral of the whole fleet was called by the same name—apostolos. He was like the conductor of an orchestra, able to organize and orchestrate how it would play out.
It was a function. It was a role of leadership. They would go in first.
The word "apostle" actually often, if you look it up, means "sent one." But this is where it comes from. This is what it meant to Jesus.
We're going to send you from the Kingdom of heaven into the world to transform the culture so it looks like heaven.
Jesus talked more about the Kingdom of heaven than He ever did salvation. Our job when He said, "You are my apostles," is to transform the culture, to make it look like His Kingdom here—that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We're All Called to Be Apostolic
Many people were taught "apostle" meant the original 12. They were the apostles. They walked in power. We don't have to. It's not our responsibility. It was theirs.
That's a good cop-out.
The problem is, if you read your New Testament, there are 25 apostles named in the New Testament—including Junia, who I like because she's a girl, and a girl in an age where they didn't really let girls do much. Romans 16:7 says Junia was "outstanding among the apostles" (NIV).
Can't mean the original 12.
We are to be apostolic.
Paul in that verse we were just reading says, "You are not all apostles. You are not all prophets" (1 Corinthians 12:29, NIV, paraphrased). But when he said you're not all prophets, he did say you're also supposed to prophesy.
Here's why: When you look at what we call the Ephesians five-fold—apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists—these are gifts from Christ to the church for the equipping of the saints to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12, NIV, paraphrased). Not to sit on big thrones on a stage. Not to be worshipped as the men of God.
They go in first. They lay the foundation.
Not all are apostles. Not all are prophets. Not all are pastors. Not all are teachers. But they equip us.
So a prophet equips us to prophesy. A teacher equips us to teach. An evangelist equips us to evangelize.
An apostle should be teaching us to apostle—to transform the culture.
What the Enemy Did
The enemy—talk about confusion—the enemy has been so brilliant. He's got us to look inward, where we literally have removed apostles and prophets from our thinking in the church. "They went away in the first century."
Now we just have evangelists, pastors, and teachers running everything. And so the pastors and the teachers, they just deal with those inside the four walls. We're not even looking at the world. And the evangelists will go out and steal a few and get them inside.
It's not funny. But it's kind of funny. It's not funny when the consequence is so great. Look at the world.
First apostles, then prophets, then teachers.
Our job is to transform from the inside out—healed hearts through connection. That's been the gospel all along.
Our great commission is to disciple the nations. "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19, NIV).
Nations. Not just individuals. Nations.
The Seven Mountains
In our common language, we often refer to the spheres of influence as mountains. And depending on who you're listening to, there are basically seven spheres of influence that affect culture, that create the world we live in:
Family
Religion
Entertainment
Economy
Government
Arts
Education, Science, and Technology
Should we impact the family? Should we impact what family looks like? Should we just let the enemy define what family is?
Should we impact religion, entertainment, the economy, government, arts, science, and technology?
Who's controlling all of those mountains right now? Do they look like the Kingdom of heaven?
The Kingdom was supposed to be like leaven that leavens the whole lump. Not coming by force and taking them, but through love, releasing the Kingdom and transforming from the inside out.
That's been the plan from the beginning. That's what Jesus asked us to do.
But sadly, we turned inward to the church, and we let the enemy take the mountains because we removed the idea of apostle and prophet, and we don't even believe that's our job.
Let me correct that: It's my job. It's your job.
Your Sphere of Influence
And you don't have to take on this weight or this responsibility like "The whole world's my problem." No, no, no, no, no.
You're responsible for you. And as you get healed and you have healthy connections, you begin to transform the world around you—your metron, your assigned area of influence.
He's the King of kings, and He's the great orchestrator, the great conductor. And we're doing it together, and it expands exponentially. That's how it works.
And what is expanding is the Kingdom of heaven, which operates in the power of love, not force.
Two trees, always. Never force, never coercion. Wrong kingdom.
So our job is to transform it from the inside out. Healed hearts coming together begin to transform the nations. We take it from the inside out.
Even Tax Collectors
Let me give you an example from Scripture. Remember Zacchaeus?
Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Like manipulative car salesmen, he was manipulative. Tax collectors were enemies of the people. They partnered with the enemy, and they stole from every single person around them.
Zacchaeus wasn't just a tax collector. He was a chief tax collector.
And Jesus loved him and reached out to him and initiated connection without requiring him to change first.
Jesus would look at the prostitute and didn't go, "Oh, you know, they identify as a prostitute, so it's a good way to make a living. We don't want to make them uncomfortable, so we'll just say that's okay."
He didn't require them to change before they had connection.
It was in the connection that they felt loved. It was in connection that the reason they were in prostitution to start with started to get healed. They became delivered from demons. Their heart got healed from trauma. They began to see their identity as valuable, and they would never sell themselves so cheaply.
They didn't understand that every time they did their job, they were becoming one flesh with someone, and it was tearing holes in the fabric of their very being.
Jesus loved the liars. He even loved car salesmen. He loved the thieves. He loves the sexually immoral. He even loves politicians.
They don't know they're loved. They feel separated.
We cannot continue to embolden that lie in them. They have to know how the Father sees them—as His precious child. He's not worried about the mess. He's a master at cleaning it up once He has their heart. And He doesn't do it to manipulate them so they get it right. He cares about the connection. He cares about the heart.
That's what matters.
You Can't Have Influence Without Love
And again, you can't have influence over something you're not willing to love.
You have no influence in the world if you're not willing to love it.
"For God so loved the world"—and every individual in it—"that he gave his one and only Son" (John 3:16, NIV).
He assigned us the responsibility, apostolically, to reach them with the truth, with the reality of His love. It's what is real. Not the reality of how they fall short.
They're already knowing that. They feel shame. They're even trying to change their identity. They feel so bad about themselves.
They don't have to do anything to earn God's love. And all they have to do to experience it is be in the vicinity of somebody else who carries it.
Let them feel what you have. Let them feel how you feel about them. Ask the Father to give you His heart for them. And then once they feel that, all they have to do is say yes to love.
From the Inside Out
We really do need to know, in the moment when we're facing a person and we don't know what to do, when we're having a conversation with somebody else and we don't know how to respond in love—"What in heaven is going on?"
Lord, what are You saying in this moment? Lord, what do You want me to see? What do You want me to feel?
Connect with Him. He has the right answer for the right moment at the right time. We don't have to have religious answers. We have to have the Healer Himself.
Because this narrow road takes us somewhere. It takes us to heaven on earth.
The enemy, through the spirit of confusion, gets us off into a ditch. He doesn't care which one we're in. But we have to be the apostolic believer who believes in love.
That's who He is.
This road of truth—you have to be willing to say, "I care more about their heart than about being right."
If you can't do that, you'll lose them.
The Fire Within
We need a rebirth of the Kingdom. We need to understand that the fire in me that cleans me out and helps me to become authentic and true helps me to connect with other people's hearts. And it's our connection that releases love into the atmosphere around us.
We begin to gently, in time—not forcing our own will—transform the nations from the inside out.
This is the Kingdom of heaven. This is our assignment. This is what He wants us to do. And He empowers us to do it.
But He won't force that on you either. You can choose to stay comfortable while others die around you. You can choose to stay comfortable in the four walls while the enemy takes the nations.
Or you can say yes to the fire. Yes to the cleansing. Yes to authenticity. Yes to connection. Yes to love.
Yes to being apostolic.
The Ignition
An apostolic renaissance. A rebirth that transforms culture. A movement of healed hearts connecting with broken hearts and releasing the Kingdom from the inside out.
It has to start with us. Judgment has to start in the house of God. I am the temple of Holy Spirit. You are the temple of Holy Spirit.
Clean me first. Search my heart and see if there be any wicked way in me. Lord, I repent for having been silent or having lobbed fruit from the wrong tree. I repent for that. I don't want to do that anymore.
The house has to start with us. And then as I get clean and you get clean—now en masse—we begin to have Holy Spirit igniting us.
Healing always takes place from the inside out. The Kingdom is from the inside out.
"The kingdom of God is in your midst" (Luke 17:21, NIV). You empower one kingdom or the other.
The battlefield is in your mind, and the territory it's fighting for is your heart. The choice is yours.
Your Assignment
You're responsible for your metron—your sphere of influence. Start there. Get healed. Connect authentically. Watch the Kingdom expand exponentially.
This is not about taking on the weight of the whole world. It's about being faithful in your sphere. Your family. Your workplace. Your neighborhood. Your friendships.
As you get healed and connect authentically with Him, you naturally begin to carry His presence into every space you enter. You don't have to manufacture it. You don't have to perform.
You just have to be willing to say yes.
Yes to the fire that cleanses. Yes to the vulnerability that connects. Yes to the love that transforms.
This is what it means to be apostolic. This is what an apostolic renaissance looks like.
Not a bunch of people with titles and positions. Not a new hierarchy. Not a religious movement.
Just healed people connecting with broken people and releasing the Kingdom from the inside out. One heart at a time. One connection at a time. One sphere of influence at a time.
Until the whole lump is leavened. Until earth looks like heaven. Until His will is done here as it is there.
The Time Is Now
The world has gone mad, and Christians are either in one ditch being nice and silent, or in the other ditch hurling fruit from the wrong tree—as if the incarnation and the cross never happened.
He paid for it all to break off the lies. And He cares more about their heart than about being right.
The time for bold and courageous action is here. That bold action is simply walking out the truth in love.
An apostolic renaissance. It starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with healed hearts connecting authentically and releasing the Kingdom into a world that desperately needs it.
Are you ready to be ignited?
Blessings,
Susan 😊