People ask about the condition of the church and what God is doing to correct it because they want to get involved with what God is doing. What’s happening in the church today is that God is bearing upon the mind that the church has strayed from Jesus’ covenant stewardship, tools, and work of the Holy Spirit within the heart. Christians want freedom apart from Jesus’ covenant and God is shedding light on how that expectation divides from His purpose.

I want to help you understand the challenge God is setting before the church and what that has to do with you. Jesus did the same thing when He spoke to the Jews and religious leaders to adjust their expectation and spiritual clock to the time at hand and the change God was initiating. As Jesus taught, many hearts were opened by the spark of grace and many believed on Him. Let’s see what Jesus said to those who believed on Him and why it was a challenge for them to hear. Reading from John chapter 8, verses 31-34,

John 8:31-34
³¹ Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

³² And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

³³ They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

³⁴ Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

I want to get to verse 34 where Jesus says, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” to help you understand why they needed His truth to establish a new bond or tether to God. I want to build up to that by first looking at what Jesus said to those who believed on Him. He said that a time of learning His doctrine, the truth of His covenant, is what comes next.

It wasn’t enough to believe on Jesus, they had to transition the tethering of their faith over to Him. I’m specifically selecting the word “tether” to build an understanding that the knowledge we accept is the kingdom we are joined to and influenced by.

Jesus planned to place a new foundation of truth in those who believed in Him to establish their tethering to Him and that’s why He said, “If you continue in my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Jesus was preparing them to break the bonds that tied them to Moses and establish new bonds to Him. All the ingredients of His truth make up the threads of the cords that bind us to His love and His work in us. This is what Jesus was saying as He helped those who believed on Him to accept the stages of transition.

Transition means change and change will always be uncomfortable because God is challenging where trust is being placed. He’s breaking one tether while establishing a new one to Himself. From God’s perspective, His plan, and what He intends to do in them, this was for their good. We see that in the first chapter of Genesis where God said that everything that He created was good.

The Jews though, felt uncomfortable and threatened by the good changes that God was establishing in Jesus. To them, it felt like their very way of life and all they had known to be true was now threatened and they did not know what to believe.

The Jews who believed on Jesus were still putting their trust in their historical tether… the history of their faith and how it got started in Abraham. And so, they said, “We are Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?”

In other words, why did they need to be set free by Jesus if they were already walking in all the things God provided for them? To their way of thinking, that did not make sense. They believed the basics of their history.

Jesus was saying, your history is right, but your tethering is wrong. Jesus was introducing a new covenant for their faith to be tethered to Himself. And God says the same thing to the church today, to those who believe in Jesus, believing that He is the Son of God, manifested in this world to shed His blood upon the cross for our redemption. Your history is right, but your tethering is wrong.

The truth you received after believing in Jesus did not tether you to Him. It’s evident: the truth Christians received went no further than to help them relate to themselves, and that’s the kingdom of the flesh, where Satan rules.

And that’s why so many ministers today feel the need to repent. They are still tethered to the kingdom of the flesh and Satan is recalling guilt. As they search their hearts, they know that God is pressing upon them that they have strayed, but the sin that God is addressing is the sin of refusing His stewardship.

As ministers greeted God’s invitation to covenant with excuses, they replaced obedience with repentance to change the narrative. Many even say that if we say that we have nothing to repent of, it means that we are hiding sin. But, my friend, has not God said that in Christ there is nothing to be repented of?

This takes us back to what Jesus said, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” and the reason why God changed our tethering from the kingdom of the flesh to the kingdom of the Spirit. In Jesus’ kingdom, we are given new tools to purify the heart. Each tool of Jesus is designed for this purpose.

Acts 15:9
And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

At this stage, it may be as difficult for you to hear this as it was for the Jews that Jesus was speaking to. There’s no doubt that the apple cart has already been upset as God has been bearing upon the minds of ministers that their neatly stacked mission statements are far from God’s purpose and plan and that He initiated a call to transition to change their tethering.

Where do we see the apple cart upset? All the places where ministers are trying to set order to disorder. Where they are asking, how do we set order to worship? How do we set order to our relationship with God? What should be our response to sin? How can we change from self-centered ministry to Christ-centered ministry? What place does prophecy have in the church? Is there a way to test prophecy? These are all ways to reestablish order after God upset it.

We have seen that after God upset the apple cart of ministry, that many ministers went back to the basics to relate to their roots and from there made their own mind up about what they could change. In other words, they began to challenge themselves to change, but this does not change your tether; and this is why change is not transition.

I want to give you an example of how change is passing for transition in many Christian circles. If you hear a teaching that makes you think differently about your trials, that change is welcomed.

Say, for example that you hear a teaching out on social media that setbacks are not always God redirecting you, that His plan for you is still on target. Well, this sounds like a different way of looking at setbacks that actually makes you feel better. But that isn’t the change that God is talking about. Your tethering is still to self.

Another example has to do with the call to repentance that is often passing for change. Instead of leading the church into Jesus’ covenant, ministers are leading the church into repentance. But his confession reveals his tether. He has not yet entered into the house and covenant of Jesus Christ where God transitions his works from the flesh to the work of the Spirit. As the minister recalls his guilt, he reveals his tethering to the kingdom of the flesh.

A final example has to do with the neglect of the callings of God’s government: the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Ministers claim to serve God and claim a position of leadership without a calling into God’s government. I cover this thoroughly in the audio teaching “The Grace of the Calling”, which is available in the player on this page. As you listen to the teaching, you’ll understand why I identify myself by my calling, and why all those confirmed into God’s restored government identify themselves by their calling. We don’t come in our own name; the calling represents Jesus and He makes known those whom He has called and those who speak for themselves.

Change is often difficult in this new apostolic season because God’s better plan is not always seen as the new assignment that it is. God is giving us a new stewardship and knowledge and priesthood and tools. These are new assignments for faith. These things that have to do with Jesus’ covenant are obviously not new, but seeing that the church fell away from them, they are new to Christians who grew up without them.

God is setting the same challenge before Christians in this time of transition that we’re living in today as Jesus set before the Jews who believed on Him. Jesus is again saying, if you believe in me then you must continue in the word of my covenant to be set free.

Just as the Jews already considered themselves to be God’s people based on the history of their nation as God led them out of Egypt and into the promised land, most Christians already consider themselves to be free based on their confession of faith and question how they are still in bondage. They’re saying, “I already made Jesus the Lord of my life, so He is involved with every aspect of my life.”

But, in order for Jesus to be Lord of your life, you must use His tools. Neglecting to join your faith to Jesus’ tools, Jesus is not the Lord of your life and we’ll get into more of that teaching and help you with those connections now.

I am going to quote from Apostle Eric vonAnderseck’s Terms Glossary which everyone who signs up for the IDCCST Course has access to, where he defines the tools of the new covenant. This section of teaching on the tools of the covenant will establish in our minds how God separates us to His kingdom and empowers the spiritual tools of Christ.

The tools or tokens of the covenant represent God in your faith, and as you exercise your faith with them, they represent you before the throne of God. The tools of the old covenant were physical, the tools of the new covenant are spiritual.

There are 9 spiritual tools (tokens) of the new covenant that are sprinkled with Jesus’ blood to thus sanctify them for our use:

government, truth, and Spirit; the gifts, callings, and graces of God (stewardship of grace); prayer (praying in tongues), preaching (not a calling to preach, not evangelism, but rather to listen to the preaching of God’s government), and prophecy (priesthood prophecy). These 9 tools are the means by which we touch Jesus with our faith and He in turn touches us with His virtue.

God’s tether to us is much like an umbilical cord. Just as a baby needs a life line to the mother as it develops in the womb, we need a life line to God as we develop in Christ in the womb of His covenant. The tools of the covenant are our life line to God.

When we read in the Bible that we are to be “rooted” in Jesus and “grounded” in Him, the Lord is pointing to this tether or connection that He established with us so that He can care for us. So then, just as the baby is tethered to the mother through the umbilical cord, we are tethered to God through the tools (tokens) of the covenant.

Our faith has no life of its own; it is Jesus who gives it life. The activity of faith is set in order by Jesus Christ to allow us to see Him, remain joined to Him, touch Him and receive nourishment. Our abundance is tied to God’s will to daily give us more tokens, and those who progress with them, God says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant:” (Mt. 25:21a)

God is redeeming us to Himself by Himself; hence He is in the “token” or “tool”. Because Christ is our Redeemer, He would be the token. Your heart is turned to God by the token. He is the one establishing a testimony for us in Himself. Man does not possess the virtue of God. Man is not born with this virtue. It is not in him.

It is granted to him by faith. This helps define faith as our obedience to observe Christ in his tools to access His grace.

Each token in Jesus’ covenant is ordained of God to carry this divine legacy. The tokens were prepared in Him before the foundation of the world in order to find their expression in us. These things identify us with His kingdom and seal our adoption for the inheritance that is yet to come as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

God’s mercy is upon Jesus Christ. God’s mercy is upon the token. The transference from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light takes place through Jesus Christ. The transference of the mercy of God and the blessings of God comes through Jesus Christ. The transference of grace to the heart is through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the token of transference.

Jesus’ instruction to us: “Your faith cannot labor with what I am without the power of my tokens that express who I am.” Hence, we use the token of our redemption—Jesus Christ. Daily, when you touch Jesus by using His tools, His virtue touches you to heal your soul. That virtue is called grace and that’s why grace is called a power and His tools are called power tools.

Alright, that’s the end of that reading. We can see the importance that God places on our faith being active with Jesus’ tools. If you don’t know what His tools are, most likely you will neglect them. We understand now how God designed our tethering to Him and why the tools of the covenant require no repentance. In fact, our repentance is sealed as we walk with God in this way of the covenant of Christ. We are free (justified) to join ourselves to the spiritual tools that God sanctified with Jesus’ blood, to serve God in righteousness and holiness.

All the questions that you have about how God can help you in the things that daily impact your life, these are all set in order for you by God in each growth cycle. God’s not asking you to make these decisions, or to access His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding without knowing how to use Jesus’ tools.