The Sign of the New Covenant: Jesus completed his assignment, and God gave proof of it

By Deon Vanstaden

In the beginning of time, God placed a man with a mandate on Earth. That mandate included the purpose and the authority to accomplish what God wanted. "Rule, subdue, and reign over all of creation." We know the first man, Adam, failed. For a moment, all seemed lost. Jesus, as the last Adam, came with the same mandate. He ruled over powers and principalities after he was empowered by the Holy Spirit. When he left, he gave the disciples the same mandate. "Go and make disciples of all the nations." He knew that they would need the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit to fulfill their mission.
"I will not leave you as orphans, I will pray to my Father and ask Him to send you the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit came and has the authority and power to accomplish the purpose of God through his church. This time, it's not happening through one man, but through all the men and women that allow the Holy Spirit to empower them. We know that we win in the end. Rewards are promised to those who are faithful and become more than overcomers.
This book will help you see what God provided for the church through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. We have no excuse to fail. There is no mediocracy in the kingdom of God. Are you ready to sign up and be part of an advancing kingdom to bring hope to a dying world? We are called to become co-laborers with Christ. He is doing it through the Holy Spirit, and we are blessed to be part of his mandate on the earth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350914979

Book preview

Foreword

God has never failed at anything.

Imagine in what greatness and power the church can walk in, if we accept everything the Holy Spirit has for us?

The disciples lived from a place of empowerment and passion. They had history and relationship with God through discipleship and encounter. They were commanded to raise up the next generation of disciples to walk in the same passion and experience with God.

We can never expect God to do anything less than what He has done in the past. He is not a man that He should lie. God sent the Word in flesh, and the Word did not return void. Jesus accomplished everything God asked him to do. God promised that He will fill the earth with His glory as the waters covers the sea, and He has given the Holy Spirit the mandate to accomplish it. As the Church we are co-laboring with Christ to fill the earth with His kingdom, until everything in heaven and in earth bows the knee to His rule and reign.

It is impossible to fulfil our mission to disciple the nations without the full empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew what we would need, so He prayed and asked the Father to send us the Holy Spirit.

We are on heavens mandate, and we function under heavens authority.

We the church, will not fail.

Chapter One

Setting the Stage

~ The Kingdom is at hand ~

The first mention of the Kingdom in the New Testament is its proximity: the Kingdom is at hand.¹

This statement shatters the old belief of a God somewhere in oblivion. It also renders every man’s effort to reach God ineffective. God is only as far as you are, not farther than that. The prophets conveyed that message to Israel. Call on Me, and I will answer you.² Jesus asked us to pray for the Kingdom to be present on earth as it is in heaven.³ He said the Kingdom is in us.⁴ Surely if the Kingdom is that close, we must be able to see it. Being born-again made it possible for you to enter the Kingdom. What the Kingdom is and has, also entered you. The Kingdom is here.

So, how do we see the Kingdom? What is the sign of the Kingdom?

Consider Jesus’ life on earth. He did not fit well into the usual religious activity of his day. The leaders were astonished at his ability and authority yet hated him for being out of the box. He had what they did not have: the anointing and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.⁵ The religious leaders were committed to ritual, while Jesus was committed to a relationship.

To make it possible for us to have a relationship with God, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. The Spirit leads, guides, teaches, empowers, and reveals the Father’s heart for us. He makes it possible for us to be active members of the Kingdom of God. Thus, the New Covenant initiated by Christ does what no other covenant could do.

We are faced with a dilemma. We know we are Christ’s disciples, but the world needs convincing. What are they looking for? More importantly, what can we offer them?

Religion made the church a museum. Ambition made the church a business. Sectarianism made the church a cult, and selfishness made the church poor. Only love can make the church a family again. Jesus never asked us to interpret him; he asked us to demonstrate him. Like Him, we are here to show and tell.

Let’s start where the New Testament started: Repent for the Kingdom is at hand. What did Jesus come to do? He came to save and redeem those who were lost.

For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.

(Luke 19:10)

God has not changed. The Church has. His message has not changed; our message has. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.⁶

So where is the evidence of the Holy Ghost and His power? Where are the good deeds and the deliverance from demonic oppression? In short, where is the church we see at Pentecost? Preachers preach against the gifts of the Spirit, and seeker-friendly messages keep people untouched and unchanged. Sermons are politically correct, while the truth that sets people free is ignored. Where is the power that Jesus promised us?⁷

What needs to change?

We need an outpouring of the Holy Spirit again. To religion Pentecost looked messy back then, and it will look messy now. Somehow, anything that is not in man’s order looks like a mess. But if we aren’t willing to look different in the power of the Holy Spirit whom Christ sent us,⁸ we will fail to demonstrate Him. Messed up people are still searching for a savior.

We were never given the option to prefer what we wanted from the Kingdom. Jesus’ most unambiguous statement was:

If you put your hand to the plow and look back, you are not worthy of the Kingdom

(Luke 9:62).

It is not a game we play. These things have eternal consequences. You take all the Kingdom, or you get nothing of the Kingdom at all.⁹ (Thank you, Jesus, for making the choice easy for us.) The message of the Kingdom was intended to change and save us, never to make us feel good. The Spirit opposes everything that is fleshly.

The Holy Spirit is inseparable from His Church. Jesus said He would send us the Helper, the Holy Spirit.¹⁰ You’d better believe He has a plan that will not fit yours. So, get ready to be challenged and be prepared to change.

Set aside pride

The gifts of the Spirit have been a point of contention for many years. This was never because of the Holy Spirit but because of man. Jesus loves the Holy Spirit and the gifts He brings to the church; the pride of men is what rejects Him.

The doctrine of Cessationism – believing that some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased with the Apostles - finds unchallenged popularity in some denominations. In a live interview I once heard, a well-known and popular preacher mocked the gift of tongues. He positioned himself as an expert on the gifts he neither had nor practiced. Despite his doctorate, his ignorance showed that he did not understand the biblical reason for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He seemed to have educated himself out of faith.

Separate Christian maturity from spiritual gifts

It is true that we have not always matched our character to the uniqueness of the Spirit’s gifts. Growing up, I often heard my pastor say, I don’t care how high you jump; just make sure you walk straight when you hit the ground. But we, the church, have not walked straight. And our moral failure has given the skeptics plenty of reason and ammunition to shoot us.

Paul must have seen the same thing happening when he addressed the behavior of the Church in Corinth. They had the gifts, but their behavior was not reflecting the character of the Spirit they received. Yet Paul never preached Cessationism to these baby Christians, whose lives were still a mess.

We must separate Spiritual Gifts from people’s spiritual maturity

The functionality of the gifts does not determine how mature a Christian is. The heart in a baby has the same function as the heart in a grown man. Because he is a baby, we don’t remove his heart because he messes in his pants. To be mature in Christ takes time and discipleship. If God gave gifts based on our maturity, none of us would qualify to receive them.

Where shall we go next?

Since the Kingdom of God is at hand and we have been made active members of it before the watching world, we should expect the Spirit Christ gave us to be noticeably at work in our lives. To help us understand what that should look like, the chapters ahead will address the different signs God gave when He established covenants, how the Old Covenant was fulfilled in Christ, the historical value of Pentecost, the gifts of the Spirit, and more specifically, the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues.

To make sure our understanding in these areas is built on the foundation God patiently laid for us, we will look at the functionality of the gifts, and how they relate to the new covenant sign.

Undoubtedly, these topics raise multiple questions: Are the gifts the proof of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Are there any more reasons for the gift of tongues? What if I don’t speak in tongues? Did I not receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost? Paul himself tackled these questions head-on:

Do all have gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues?

Do all interpret?

(1 Cor 12:30)

These are all questions I will address here as well. Having grown up in a Pentecostal church, I had to surrender my prejudice and preferences and simply say: Holy Spirit, teach me. And just like Jesus promised, the Spirit did what He said He would do. That is what this book is about. Seminary only taught me what one denomination believed concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I am so glad God gave me the desire to stay humble, hungry, and teachable.

Now I ask the same of you. As you read, stay teachable. Search the Scriptures and see what they have to say about God’s plan for the gifts of His Spirit.

---

1. Matt. 3:2

2. Jer. 33:3; Rom. 10:13

3. Matt. 6:10

4. Luke 17:21

5. John 3:34; Acts 10:38

6. Heb. 13:8

7. Acts 1:8

8. John 14:16

9. John 14:6

10. John 14:26

Chapter Two

The Pattern God Established

~ God makes Himself visible ~

Our Creator, Maker of heaven (the spiritual world) and earth (the natural world) knows us so well that He has established patterns as signposts to help us bridge that divide. In this chapter we will see His grace at work in providing both visible and invisible evidence of His Kingdom at work.

There are two worlds. One is a natural world or creation as we know it, consisting of planets, stars, earth, water, animals, billions of visible things, and people from different tongues and cultures. There is also a spiritual (unseen) world known as God’s realm. In this realm, you find spirit creatures (some with eyes inside and out and some with four faces), demons, and angels. God created both these realms; first the unseen or the spirit world and then the seen or natural world.

In the beginning, God created the heavens [Spirit] and the earth [natural].

(Gen. 1:1)

No one knows how long the unseen world existed before the natural world was created. God existed before anything was ever made. The spiritual world also exists outside of time. The eternal past and the eternal future are entirely beyond the realm of our finite understanding. How long has the natural or seen world existed? Some scientists estimate that the universe with all the planets is billions of years old. According to Scripture, creation, and history from Adam to where we are today are approximately six to seven thousand years old.

By either worldview, everything in the natural world is finite. Everything in the natural world has an expiration date.

However, human beings are the only created beings made in God’s image.¹¹ Nothing else in creation reflects Him as we do.

For this reason, we have a connection to the spirit world, as cultures around the world give abundant proof. For centuries, even people and nations who have not known God have worshipped idols they made to represent gods. The Native Americans refer to The Great Spirit.

Peoples of Africa talk about their ancestral spirits, and in India people worship over three thousand gods. In Christianity, we learn about God, the Creator of the universe, Jesus his Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are taught that God is the Creator of all things and that He has the answer to the problem of sin for all humanity. Clearly, humans are beings with a spiritual awareness.

Why God uses signs

As human beings, we are bound to live, experience, see, and understand earthly things with our natural ability. Even though we are spiritual beings created in God’s image, we are most acquainted with the natural world. Our earthly experience is what we all live in day to day.

Yet Scripture says that God is a Spirit.¹² So how do we understand and know about a God that is a Spirit? Scripture tells us creation declares God and helps us see that He exists. God has no problem showing us something in the visible world so we can understand His intentions or plans, know His character, and understand His power.¹³

On many occasions, we see how God gave someone a visible sign as proof of His intentions. Think about the story of Moses, Israel, and the ten plagues; Abraham, God, and the stars of heaven; David, Israel, and Goliath; Jonah, Nineveh, and the big fish. Think about the prophets and how God used them as a sign to show Israel what He was going to do. In the Old Covenant, there were a lot of visible signs. The sign of the Old Covenant was circumcision in the flesh of all the males (Abraham); God also gave the Law on stone tablets (Moses). As we study, we will see both visible and invisible signs.

Visible signs

Consider these examples of times God gave visible signs:

God gave the rainbow as a visible sign to show Noah He made a covenant not to destroy the earth with water again.¹⁴

God gave Abraham two visible signs: circumcision, and the promise of a son. These signs to Abraham were to show that God would keep and fulfill his commitment to his posterity and Abraham and Sarah.¹⁵

God gave a sign as a prophetic promise to Israel: A virgin would conceive and bear a son, and He would deliver His people from sin.¹⁶

God gave many signs to establish a prophetic word by one of his prophets. (For example, Hosea married a harlot to show Israel that they were acting like a spiritual harlot by serving false gods.)

It would take too long to mention every sign that God gave. We haven’t even mentioned Gideon and his fleece, Samson and his hair, Jonathan fighting uphill, and many more. These were not to be the only signs. There would also be visible signs to prove the New Covenant. Some of the visible signs of the reality of the New Covenant would be:¹⁷

You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes on you. 

You will lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

You will cast out devils in his name.

You will speak with new tongues.

In the New Covenant, the gifts of the Spirit are invisible gifts we carry that only become visible when they are in operation.¹⁸

Now, what makes the New Covenant unique and different from the Old Covenant is that God would give a visible sign but also perform invisible works as part of the New Covenant. So, let’s look at some of the invisible signs God gave.

Invisible signs

When God instituted the New Covenant, He promised circumcision would be in man’s heart, and God would write His Law on the heart of all believers.¹⁹ He would also remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. The Holy Spirit will indwell a person and lead them, guide them, teach them, and convict them.

Inward Work of the New Covenant

In all the covenants God made, He gave them a visible sign. The New Covenant is no different. But, beyond the outward sign, God does an inward work in the New Covenant that the other covenants could never accomplish. Here