The Prophetic Is Minimized. "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies" (1 Thess. 5:19-20). I personally believe that churches that don't embrace prophetic ministry are significantly out of line. Without an active, vibrant prophetic culture in the church, it will feel dead, be misguided and it will muzzle those who have a mandate to release critical revelation to the body. A prophetic culture will result in an electric, urgent and supernatural atmosphere that is fueled by a constant spirit of prayer. The body will watch the leadership function from their knees with a tremble in their spirit and will model that lifestyle. Prophetic unction will flow from all, and the release of revelation will powerfully mark the corporate gathering.
With a 65% accuracy rate you better be in constant prayer because misrepresenting God that badly is not a wise idea. Please realize that this is what passes for solid prophecy today. Burton will admit as much. That you can be wrong 35% of the time you claim to hear directly from God and still be considered a solid prophet. What rubbish. Prophetic unction does not and can not flow from all! Do these people even own a bible? The word expressly says that not all prophesy! You cannot teach the gifts of the spirit to people. Only the Holy Spirit decides who gets what gifts and when. Even the overall notion Burton espouses is simply absurd. So God gave us His revealed will in the bible -- divinely inspired. Somehow, this omnipotent, omniscient creator of the universe forgot some critical revelation that He is now releasing only to Bob in the downtown Allentown Assemblies of God church this Sunday. No one else will hear this critical revelation mind you. This does supernaturally charge the atmosphere because of all the power you give to the demonic forces arrayed against the church.
Focus on Church Growth. The focus on church growth must cease. The remnant doesn't care about a larger building or a growing population. Of course, they are consumed with passion for souls, but this is the difference between today's typical church strategy and the one today's revival-minded people have adopted. Typical church leaders equate success with a larger crowd. They argue that more people in the church equals more souls in the kingdom. This is not usually the case. It's an immature and unrealistic strategy. The remnant church, however, values the presence of God over the presence of people. They would rather gather together with 20 or 30 firebrands who have been marked by the Spirit of God instead of 500 spiritually curious people. They want the Upper Room 120, not the thousands who were too busy to truly invest. The strategy is prayer-induced revival. When the small group of fully surrendered and sold-out remnant revivalists pray on fire together, they are building a foundation for the harvest. They aren't looking for an extra few hundred people in their meeting; they want the millions! In fact, growing with people who are not raging on fire for Jesus will only result in a watered-down experience where all sorts of compromises are made to ensure the moderates are satiated. Remnant Christians are done with such foolish distractions.
What arrogance. First of all, he is right that the focus on numerical growth needs to cease and stop being equated to success. No argument there. Instead however, the focus needs to be on the Gospel for the growth of the sheep and the salvation of the goats. That is not what Burton is advocating for however. He again falls back on this experiential model of church where he envisions people "harvesting" while on "fire." Let me translate. Burton does not want people reading their bibles. He would prefer that the people would run through fire tunnels until they are knocked down.
No Supernatural Activity. A church without signs, wonders and miracles, without dreams and visions, without the glory of God, is a church without a strategic, powerful and supernatural prayer culture. A prayerless church is no church at all and remnant believers refuse to waste their time with such a humanistic endeavor. I hear about people scrutinizing churches that are functioning in the supernatural. I have often suggested that churches that do not operate in the invisible realm where the wonders of God manifest should be questioned. Why is God not moving in your midst? As we cultivate a prayer-infused church where everybody prays with tongues of fire and prophesies and contends against the darkness, we'll have a church on fire that is driven by the winds of the Holy Spirit. People are so hungry for this, but it is exceptionally rare to find a church that flows this way.
Another hallmark of the apostate NAR church is false signs and lying wonders. Bethel boasts glory clouds and gold dust. Bill Johnson once claimed that angel feathers just started floating down around him at a local diner. We have heard about angels leaving gem stones and gold teeth fillings. These are not powerful churches beloved. They are demonic. The bible says that Satan and his emissaries disguise themselves as angels of light. This focus on the dark supernatural signs are what leads churches like Bethel to form dead raising teams and go grave sucking to absorb residual anointing from the tombs of dead heretics. Burton is not even hiding his desires here to see the church involved in some invisible realm. The true supernatural work of God is primarily found in salvation. That is what follows the preaching of the word. God also still heals people, another supernatural sign. These of course are too boring for John Burton. He insists on seeing tongues of fire! Realize please that the hunger of the apostate church is for more of themselves and these false supernatural signs are always all about us and not God.
Controlling and Restrictive Leadership. Pastors, we must raise up people to outshine us! Get out of the way and celebrate the callings and gifts in others. Allow God to move mightily through them and step aside when God is ready to use them. We need revival churches that are raising up sons and daughters and releasing them into the world. We need revival leaders who will drop the reigns and allow the messy, unpredictable and supernatural to happen. I've known pastors who are completely lost without a perfectly timed order of service. They need to step off the platform and hit the altar and let the Spirit of God rage.
With each passing word, Burton espouses a deeper dive into the demonic. The spirit of God is not messy, unpredictable and raging. In fact, the word says that we have been given a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. Once again, the reason Burton has no respect for pastors is he thinks they should relinquish control of the church in favor of apostles and whaddya know? Burton is an apostle! I am all for the church using people and the gifts God has given them but there is an order to God's church. We did not decide this order -- God did. While I agree that perfectly timed services are not good that does not mean we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Charismatic chaos is not biblical and not of God.
