Harvester Church

These are notes from the MBC Subject Manual captured by scribes during Apostolic Conferences hosted by Harvester International Ministries during the restoration of the Apostolic office to the church in the 1990’s. Much of the notes were by By Elder Anderson Williams from the West Indies.

Introduction

Every generation demands an anointing that is relevant to its time, an anointing that’s in touch with the time.  When you understand the level of hostility that the devil has released and is expressing himself in, you’ll understand that the church cannot survive with anything less than a radical, authoritative, governmental and pioneering spirit.  Anything less than that is totally out of line with the prevailing demands of God.  There are several things about the Cyrus-anointing that brings us to these issues.  There are certain dimensions of apostolic characteristics locked in Cyrus as a type of the apostolic.

Job 29:6-17

There is a certain position that accesses an anointing.  Cream is solid milk.  Rivers gives the understanding of abundance, of a continuous flow, of accessibility.  You can live/step into a spiritual dimension where you don’t flow and stop … rivers don’t flow and stop!  When God brings us to a place in Him where flowing in the things of the Spirit is as easy as having cereal on a Monday morning, we can live in two realms with no problem.  It’s there for us to step into right now.

Job 42:2-6  “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.

Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.”

Job thought he was successful until God showed him what he was without Him. Then Job changed his perspective and God blessed him double what he had before. His new position was one of humility and accessing God as His source, and his friends blessed him when he prayed for them. He entered the double cream phase!

Job 42:10-12  “And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold.

Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning;

John 17 – Jesus was physically locked in the earth but spiritually positioned in the heavens.  When the lame man asked Peter to give him something, Peter replied  “silver and gold I have not, but what I have I give to you, rise up and walk.”  In the original it actually says,  “such as I have on my person and I can access at any given moment, take a miracle.”  Peter didn’t have to go and try and stir the anointing up, he had it on him and could disperse of it at any given moment.  Live in a realm of continuous flow.

V.8 – It speaks of the fervency of youth that can be on your ministry, irrespective of your age.  There’s an anointing that you can step into where you bring both the fervency of youth and the wisdom of the aged into harmony.  Where the young and the old respect your anointing.  It’s a capacity of God that you can walk in.

v.13 – This speaks of decrees that are loaded with destiny, like when Jacob called his sons together to bless them before he died.  All these benefits come from having your path drenched with cream.  This is the power of a true anointing.

The anointing is a divine enablement given by God that causes you to do that which you cannot do on your own.  If you can do it on your own, it’s not the anointing – it’s a grace.  There are several words in the Old Testament that communicate the power of the anointing

“Bâlal”                      To overflow (spec. with oil); by implication to be fat, greasy and dripping with glory.

“Mâshach” (Ex 28:41) To rub with oil, to consecrate, to paint.

New Testament:

“Chrio”                     To rub in and to loose.

We’re talking about a grace that God puts upon an apostolic people that allows them to do what they cannot do on their own.  That gives/makes available to them all of these benefits/blessings/graces that Job talked about.

King Cyrus

Cyrus is the standard of leadership possessed with governmental strength, possessed with a sense of order, with destiny, who’s life is lived deliberately and who’s life is not lived based on coincidence.  Understand that your life can be lived deliberately, or you can live your life based on coincidence.  Cyrus represents governmental strength.  When Cyrus came to the throne (he was the governor of Persia), history tells us that within the first 20 years of his reign he defeated every threat to his government and made Persia the most powerful kingdom in the earth.

There must be an anointing in the earth today that successfully wars against every threat to its success, and causes the church to really emerge as the most powerful kingdom in the earth.  We say it but evidence contradicts it.  Lifestyles and behaviours contradict the strength of the kingdom we talk so much about.  It takes a Cyrus anointing to really bring the body of Christ to the place where every threat to the government is defeated and the church really becomes the strength we talk about.

Cyrus was a man of great order and government.  Governmental strength is not where we have a wonderful well-organised put-together thing.  Governmental strength is the ability to impact both human and demonic realms, as well as human and demonic resistance so that the purposes of God can move according to plan.  Cyrus had that on him, as we said, that within his first 20 years of reign he established Persia as the most powerful nation on earth.  He was able to establish certain order and decrees.  He was a man of destiny.  There are many men in the Bible whose lives were not based on just being born, but who stepped into things that were decreed many years before them.  One hundred years before Cyrus was born Isaiah prophesied about him.  History says that when Cyrus as a Persian king read the records of Isaiah he was already a king functioning in Persia, but when he one day read the prophetic words of Isaiah, calling him by name, his entire life was reorganised.  That is the power of God!  This was an evil king realising that God had called him to do something of great purpose.  When he saw that his life had destiny wedged into it he could no longer function as an evil king did.  He lifted his voice to all Israel and said, “God has determined all the kingdoms of the earth subject to my authority.  God has also determined that His house shall be rebuilt and that I should set you free from your bondage.” 

The Cyrus anointing hinges on three different components

The power to govern/rule nations.  “All the kingdoms of the earth are subject to my authority.”  We have stepped into a time/season in God where the nations have become a part of our vocabulary.  There was a time where we would go about our Christian experiences/behaviour and that word “nations” did not really ring a bell in our spirits.  Today that word means so much to church.  It’s time to redefine some words that have actually lost their real meaning, the things that Jesus really wanted to bring across to the people blunt, through false concepts that have changed the terms.  For example the term “The great commission”, this is really an apostolic mandate.  Every true move/season of God must have these three components within it.

Isaiah 44:24-45 

The prophetic move hinged on proclamation, the apostolic move hinges on performance, on doing, getting things done, on manifestation.

v.28 – “perform” = shâlam (Heb) To be safe(in mind, body or estate), to be completed, (make an)end, finish, full, give again, make good, (re)pay(again), (make)(to)(be at)peace, that is perfect, perform, (make)prosper, make restitution, restore reward.

“To complete to perfection.  To gather all the resources that is necessary to finish.  To finish or complete without deficiencies, without lack, without flaws or shortcomings.”

The power to finish is one of the true characteristics of the apostolic.  The Cyrus-anointing has the ability to gather wisdom, relationships, connections and revelations in order to finish.  God calls Cyrus His Shepherd because he has the power to complete an assignment that has no deficiency, no lack, no flaws, he has the power to gather all the resources so the assignment can be completed.

v.28 – “pleasure” = châphêts (Heb)  Totally different word than delight or desire.  Things that are foremost in one’s thoughts, or elements of a persons musings.  It means that Cyrus is not just taking the decrees and fulfilling them, he is grabbing certain elements in the corners of God’s thinking and fulfilling even that.  Cyrus has searched the borders of God’s mind and found little things in there to perform.  This is a brother who does more than the word of God, he does the mind of God!  The mind of God pulls out of the Word of God what God is presently thinking.  (The Word of God is the full content of what God has said, what God has thought, what God is thinking and what He wants to think about but has not yet thought about.)  So when you can get in to the Word and pull out what is foremost in the mind of God, you have stepped into the realm of accuracy.  Cyrus knew how to carry out to the last dimension, fulfil completely all of the very thoughts that God thinks about.

45:1 – Although there were many anointed people in the Old Testament, God called very few characters “His anointed”.

v.2 – Another translation says, “I will humble the great ones of the earth…”  Every obstacle and resistance crumbles before you.  All the great kings and princes of the earth will submit to your anointing/grace.  Every great one of the earth bows to this anointing.

v.3-4 – Observe why God raised up Cyrus and accomplished all these things through him.  Why is there a Cyrus anointing, why is there an apostolic grace?  It is for the church’s sake.

“…named you,” – I have given definition and character to you.

Apostolic characteristics in the Cyrus-anointing

Global anointing.  There’s a reach, a sphere or dimension, there’s a stretch to his anointing that extends beyond his own community, beyond his own region or territory.  It extends itself to the ends of the earth.  Never before in the history of the church has there been a people that are so hungry for the nations as there is now.  Global has now become local.  This is an anointing that is possessed with a global mind set.  A global mindset doesn’t mean that you necessarily leave for other countries.

Isa.41:2-3 (Amp.)  This pertains to Cyrus.

“feet” = place of learning.

You can live in one area but wage war against powers in another continent.  Cyrus entered into positions and fought against devils globally.  He pursues them and makes war against them, but he has not even gone there.

V.3  “…passed safely” – He fights against devils and emerges without a scratch.

It’s the same as Daniel – he fought against global devils.  The Prince of Persia was constantly subduing the word from coming to Daniel, that is the same level of devils that Cyrus fought against.  Understand the level of the devils he fought against; globally, territorial princes, and he passes by them in the spirit, without being there in the natural.  He overtakes them and comes out of the battle without a scratch.  He moves in different levels of spiritual operation.  This is a global anointing/reach/capacity that does not get sidetracked and boxed-in by the mentality that you must go there physically, to have impact.  But, you get churches that think that they have the grace to do this and they don’t!  Some people need to be like James in the church of Jerusalem.  His grace was on major doctrinal issues.  He never got fooled, knowing there was a global anointing and that he did not need to go there physically.  You don’t have to go physically, you can invest financially, by prayer, by prophesying and you’ll still share in the spoils.  Enter into territories by ways beyond your own feet.  Don’t allow the world to put you into a mould; ex, “You are a third world country”.  Understand just how damaging that is.  Break free from moulds like that. The Cyrus anointing gives you the power to exercise Rulership over the nations.  (Read Isa.45:1-7 in the Living Bible.)  The whole issue of the Cyrus-anointing is to penetrate impenetrable territories. 

v.1  “double doors” – These verses refers to Babylon and the Persian Empire(Cyrus) who eventually took over Babylon.  Babylon was one of the most impenetrable cities. It seemed to be well protected on the outside, but it was really soft on the inside (that’s how most devils are).  The “double doors” refers to gates, to double walls that Nebuchadnezzar built all around Babylon for protection.  Babylon was really protected; it had a double wall all around the city.  The city was built as a square.  Apart from the double walls, the city had high mountains all around it, some reached between 300f. -3000f.  Now this is a city that seems impenetrable.

But God put grace on Cyrus to open the double doors.  How does this relate to present day Christianity?  Islam seems almost impenetrable, but the apostolic says; “I don’t care how high the mountains are, I don’t care how thick the walls are that surrounds it, it can be penetrated!  There’s an anointing in the earth today that can penetrate it!”

Isa.45:1  Cyrus will open the doors “So that the gates will not be shut:”  It will be opened in such a way that it will never be shut again.

45:1  “…loose the armour of kings,” one translation says, “To loose the loins of kings,”

1. “disarm” – To strip, to make bare, to expose, to make naked, to reveal.

The Cyrus-anointing has the ability to unmask devils.  To expose them for their true nature.  There are very few anointings that can unmask principalities; e.g., the apostolic anointing has a way in which it suddenly shows up the flaws in other ministries.  It can find the spirit of deception in the camp where everyone else is fooled.  The very presence of true apostolic anointing unmasks devils that try to warp the moves of God.  Everybody begins to see them for their true nature.

Today we are so careful not to offend people, Paul openly said “Beware of so and so…” These could’ve been very public figures, but Paul still warned the people against them, he exposed them as heretics.  Sometimes we are too nice.  In apostolic anointing your discernment rises.  You begin to see beyond the mask.  You have the ability to see beyond the exterior.  The Church of Ephesus was an apostolic centre and that’s why they could discern the false apostles (Rev 2:2).  They knew how to unmask ministries.  How to take off the garments that is used for acting.  The word “hypocrite” is used in the Bible to describe actors.  People who put a mask on to hide their true nature.  You bring an apostolic grace into that house and every member’s discernment rises and they begin to see!

1. It also means “the power to make them powerless.” To strip them of their authority.  This is part of the equipment of the apostolic grace.

An apostolic anointing will conquer v 2 – Positions of resistance.  It removes everything that is before you.  E.g. Zerubbabel who said, “Who are you oh mighty mountain, before me you shall become a plain!”  This is the “bulldozer anointing”, everything crumbles before the grace.

Isa.45:3  “…treasure of darkness”  One translation says “hidden vaults.”  Things hidden away that nobody even knows how to access.  Things locked away, truth and revelation, understanding that has been sealed.  Things that couldn’t be decoded that God has preserved (Dan 12:4).  God also told John on the isle of Patmos to seal some of the things he saw and heard.  He was told to seal it up.. Somebody would be born who will decode it.

There are truths, understandings that God has locked up in a vault, and the Cyrus-anointing has the capacity to unlock it.  He can tap into the treasures of dark vaults.  Do you understand what God means when He wants to give you the hidden riches?  When these kinds of things are being given to you it will always test the quality of your heart.

Eph 2:5, that’s what Paul was saying.  Peter couldn’t unlock that mystery, because he didn’t have the code.  Peter just didn’t have the grace to decode it.

v.3  “…riches of secret…”  The apostolic also has the ability to extract natural wealth.

Acts 4:34-35 The apostolic and distribution goes hand in hand.  An apostle is not tight-handed.

In Ezra 5:1-17 there is a lot of resistance against building the temple.  See the power of an apostolic decree.  When an apostle makes a decree, future principalities and powers must honour that declaration.  Eighteen years after Cyrus made a decree, he was already dead, but the power of that declaration still had force!  These principalities were saying to their governor, “Check to see if that decree is still there.”

Ezra 6:1-12, the decree had to be honoured.

Who knows, we can be today in Cape Town, but we are only seeing the manifestation of future apostles, of ancient apostles who prophesied that there will be a church in Cape Town who will blast their way through all kinds of resistance and join themselves with brothers across the earth.  And that decree has been hanging all the time.  Devils come and devils go, moves come and moves go, but the power of an apostolic decree still remains – where devils must bow and submit to it.

Vv.6-7, Darius, the future principality, obeys the decree of Cyrus.  The only persons who could stop the rebuilding of the temple were the people themselves.

v.8-12, Darius issues even another decree to see that the apostolic decree is honoured!  Devils now issue a decree.

Cyrus’ decree demanded that every single thing that had been removed from the house of God be restored, the music, the furniture…  The ultimate thing is that Cyrus came and issued liberty.  He issued liberty to the captives, they were no longer bound.

These are apostolic characteristics that the present day church must access.  Every generation requires an anointing that’s relevant to its time.  Trying to fight present day-devils without this equipment is equivalent to fighting a nuclear war with a bow and arrow.  You must say “Yes!” to this.  The Cyrus anointing is not just for apostles, it’s for every person.  Pray, decree these graces into your lives, so that we can truly have an apostolic church where every member can fulfil what God has for him.

Photo by Lucas Davies