As part of God’s end time plan, the restored government of God is again preaching about the restored church in our time. But as many voices are heard and believers try to make a decision for God, they find it hard to discern between true restoration and just another “reform” message.

For that reason, many believers find themselves frustrated in the standstill and say, “The church has not changed.” And they’re right. The church that has not transitioned to Jesus’ covenant has not changed.

Neither has the landscape of the current Christian culture changed, and it’s hard for believers to ignore that let-down experience in the modern, earthly church.

Instead of listening to grace to advance with God into a covenant relationship, believers are leaning back on past hurts inflicted by Satan’s mock-restoration tactics, and this is a stopping point for them.

False ministers choose to replace what God intended for faith with their personal branded teachings.

God is addressing the tradition of false ministers who periodically boost believers with misguided revelations of what God is holding in store for them which temporarily inflates their faith with many hopes of new things which have nothing to do with God’s true restoration of Jesus’ covenant. God calls believers out from under the spell of a covenant-less gospel.

Satan’s long-game is to numb believers to God by the repeat exposure of counterfeit calls for change and revival. Satan’s mock-restoration tactics have worn down the believer’s trust in God’s ability to truly restore His church.

Trendy promises of change encourage church hopping. Every time revival hits, or a minister points out where God is calling out for repentance, or challenging you to a new season of fasting, the same thing happens – believers pack their bags and get ready to move.

Trendy promises of change (reform) come in many different messages. Here’s a few more you might have heard:

• a call to prophetic accountability
• a call foot washing and humility
• a call to unity
• a call to baptismal pools and new beginnings
• a challenge for prayer
• a challenge to expect miracles

Every time believers hear a new message about reform, they pack their bags and get ready to move out of one house (things that did not work for them) and into another house (reform and new ideas), not understanding that reform is not restoration.

Satan’s mock-restoration tactics is the counterfeit. And you are right, these tactics should be abandoned because they have not brought you into Jesus’ covenant where God can begin His work in you. Yet, false ministers continue to recycle these tactics in hopes of a different outcome and unfortunately, many find themselves hooked again and again.

I want to share a divine dream I had where God pointed out this very thing. In my dream God showed me two church-goers that were all packed up and moved out of their present house and ready to move into a new house.

Their habit was to move. They would periodically empty their house for merchants to turn it into a temporary arts and gifts shop. I walked toward them. They were sitting down on the dirt road at the rear of their car which was chock-full of their stuff.

In the dream, I walked over to their house and saw a woman setting up shop inside. I wondered what was left to sell. I was shown the church-goers’ abandoned restoration projects. Old, abandoned cars that were scattered on the lawn as unfinished works. I saw that the garage was also set up for the purpose of selling goods. [end of dream]

Let’s look at the picture God has drawn for us with this dream symbolism.

God sees the counterfeit calls to reform. These are represented by abandoned restoration projects that littered the lawn. To a car restoration enthusiast, he doesn’t see dilapidated heaps of junk on his lawn, he sees the promise of what could be and holds onto that promise as long as he can. But sadly, as I saw in this dream, the promise does not become reality and is abandoned.

So, God is addressing the false promises made by ministers to restore your faith and reveals why those promises failed. They failed because they failed to restore you to Jesus’ covenant.

Each call to correction and re-commitment that is made by false ministers fails to restore your faith to the covenant of Jesus Christ that God empowers, and believers prepare themselves to move again as new promises of reform are made.

Now, it’s interesting how God shows up where false ministers are profiting from their failed attempts at restoration. The merchandising we see in the dream, whereas both the house and garage are utilized to set up shop shows how your desire for change, your hunger for the living God to show up are turned into testimonials to sell the message of reform even after the message failed. We see this on social media all the time.

While reflecting on the dream, God ministered to me, “They have made merchandise of My name.”

This is the same pattern of offense pointed out by Jesus in His time on earth.

John 2:16
And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.

Apostle Peter also observed the same thing.

2 Peter 2:3
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

Where does that leave you?

You are used to packing it up and leaving behind yet another failed attempt to reconnect with God. Willing to move on, but feeling worn by the process.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so hold onto the picture in this divine dream of a lawn littered with abandoned, dilapidated, old cars. This is how God views fake calls to reform to break the spell of the many false promises that are being made in Jesus’ name.

God is bringing false teachers to task and making them accountable to Jesus’ covenant. They replaced God’s covenant design of restoration with their own brand of teachings while the believer’s hopes of being restored to God in perfect faith remains an unfinished restoration work.

There are many man-made doctrines and practices that replaced the spiritual things of Jesus Christ. The church readily accepted these after they strayed from the true gospel of regeneration preached by the first century apostles.

Switching off apostolic stewardship to accept the stewardship of independent ministers who are not part of God’s restored government, means the loss of God’s oversight and direct involvement with your faith.

The way that God designed your faith, it can only please Him and meet His expectation under His direct oversight. God’s desire is for believers to be educated first-hand under His sanctified stewardship in the things of Christ so that spiritual fruit bearing can take place in their hearts unhindered by old barriers.

God is making you aware of the many false calls to reform to help you to see what’s happening behind the scenes. After the worship music stops, after the minister leaves the stage and the big screen is turned off, after the hype is over, how false ministers come in and claim transformation to make a profit from your despair.

But don’t let discouragement make you dull of hearing.

People read many headlines today about reform and cannot discern these from God’s true restoration. The Lord bears this out in the book of Acts.

Acts 28:26-27

²⁶ Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

²⁷ For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Suffering repeat-devastation and let-down after the revival music stops leads to a breach of trust. People build walls that they think will better protect them from deception but they also use those same walls to resist God’s call today.

By the Lord laying this out through the teaching by apostolic government, He is making a way for believers to move forward into the abundant life of Jesus Christ that He has placed inside the fruitful environment of His covenant.

Through this preaching of truth, God is making a window of opportunity for believers to consider His revelation that centers on the covenant restoration of Christ.