In terms of church-age, we have just stepped over into the 3rd millennium since the advent of Christ, therefore we are the “third-day” church. The third-day in the bible refers to the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor 15:4), which tells us that we are the Resurrection Generation, that we shall witness the unprecedented display of God’s resurrection power and glory in our generation.

The unprecedented hunger for the supernatural in this generation reveals a hunger to encounter the God of the supernatural. If the church gets trapped in a form of godliness but without power (2 Tim 3:5), the world will continue to turn to other sources of the supernatural and be deceived by the devil’s lying signs and wonders.

A major key to the church of Jesus Christ living and moving in the resurrection glory and power of God lies in us being grafted back to our original roots, through which the life and blessing of God has flowed to us, the Jewish people. Paul explains that we Gentile believers are wild olive branches grafted into the Jews, the true olive plant. Therefore we derive life and blessing from them (Rom 11:18), and share a profound kinship with them. The Jews shall also be grafted back to their original roots again (Rom 11:23-24).

God has called us to lead the Jewish people back to Jesus. He intends to bless us Gentile believers with such astounding blessings, anointing, power and glory to provoke the Jews into jealousy, that they may return to Jesus to reclaim their inheritance (Rom 11:11). We are to help the Jews rediscover their Messiah. The Jews are a special race, blessed by God in astounding ways, because God is still faithful to the promises he made to their forefathers (Rom 11:29). As a race they control more wealth, have more inventions, hold more patents, wield more influence on the world by proportion than any other race on earth. And yet God has promised to bless us even more, to the point that the Jews would be jealous.

When the Jewish and Gentile believers come together, a new divine race is created, the “One New Man” (Eph 2:14-15), and the glory of God will be made manifest in the Church with resurrection power. When the river of the Jewish anointing merges with the river of the Christian anointing, resurrection power flows, as depicted in Ezekiel’s vision of the New Temple in Jerusalem (Eze 47:9, NKJV).

Because of this the Jewish race has been the target of the enemy. From the Garden of Eden the devil knew that the Seed who will crush his head would come from the Jewish race (Gen 3:15). The devil has sought to destroy the Jews, because Jesus will return and end his reign once the Jews are saved (Mat 23:39). Meanwhile, God has been bringing them back to the land of Israel after centuries of exile, as he promised in his Word (Zec 8:7-8).

The underlying purpose for the current outpourings of the Holy Spirit is to equip believers with power to evangelize the Jew, because Jews require miraculous signs in order to believe (1 Cor 1:22). And when they believe and accept the Lord Jesus Christ, it will trigger a major release of resurrection power to evangelise the world (Rom 11:15).

The Jews will remain blind to Jesus until we Gentiles reach our “fullness” (Rom 11:25), which refers to our maturity in Christ (Eph 4:13), and moving in the totality of God’s power. The removal of the Jews’ blindness to their Messiah shall, trigger worldwide revival! We must love the Jews as we would our siblings, and bless them in whatever way we can, such as helping them return to Israel. Let us pray also for Jerusalem, because those who do so will prosper (Psa 122:6).

Points to ponder:

1. Who constitute the “One New Man” and why is that important with regards to our identity as the “Resurrection Generation”?
2. How should we be “grafted to the true olive plant”? And what will happen when we do so? As Gentile believers, what is our responsibility to the Jews?When will the blindness of the Jews towards Jesus be removed?

God is preparing the Church for the major end-time revival and outpouring that will see a massive number of people coming into the Kingdom, having given their hearts to Jesus the King. God has hidden within his Word the patterns of revival, because it is His glory to conceal matters (Pro 25:2), and our glory as kings and priests (Rev 1:6, NASB) to search out what he has hidden. Revival is not haphazard, and if we uncover God's patterns of revival we will enter into a revival that does not subside. It is not God's intention for revival to subside, because the government of God is without end (Isaiah 9:7).

In terms of church-age we have stepped into the third millennium since the advent of Christ. This means that we are in the third day in the Lord's eyes (2 Peter 3:8) and the third day represents the manifestation of the resurrection power of God (1 Cor 15:4). We are the generation called to demonstrate the resurrection power of God to the world before Jesus’ return.

God is equipping his church with such power for the coming hour of confrontation. The ministry of Elijah is associated most with the confrontation between light and darkness, good and evil, God and Satan. He confronted 450 prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel and led the Israelites to destroy them all, after displaying the power of God with fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:38-40). Elijah also represents the Last-Day generation, because God promised to send Elijah before the day of the Lord (Mal 4:5).

The ministry of Elijah to restore the hearts of the children to their fathers (Mal 4:6) has three layers of meaning. It can refer to restoring the hearts of people towards God, the restoration of Man to his God-given priesthood, role and responsibility as a father, and the restoration of the hearts of Gentile believers to the Jewish roots of our faith.

There is a spiritual veil and a stupor over Christians regarding this truth of our kinship with the Jews. The devil has worked relentlessly from the beginning of time to isolate the Jewish race with the intention to exterminate them, making the world hate and reject them. Anti-Semitism began from as early back as when Haman sought to exterminate the Jews (Est 3:6), culminating at the Holocaust during the 2nd World War.

We Gentile believers should reject Anti-Semitism. God promises to bless those who bless the Jews and curse those who curse them (Gen 12:3). Both the Gentile believers and Jews are descendents of Abraham, represented by the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore (Gen 22:17). The Jews are the natural olive plant, we are wild olives branches being grafted into them (Rom 11:24).

When we realize this truth and relate with them the right way, we become grafted with them forming the “One New Man” (Eph 2:14-15). Jesus himself prayed that we would be as one and that would cause the world to believe in him (John 17:21). Bringing together the two rivers of the Jews and the Gentile believers will cause everywhere they reach to overflow with resurrection life (Eze 47:9, Rom 11:15).

Points to Ponder

1. Why do we say the ministry of Elijah is symbolic of the Last-Days Church?
2. What do you believe God is speaking to your heart concerning how you can be a blessing to the Jewish race?