This Changes Everything (The Prayer Warrior Series) , livre ebook

PRAISE FOR
this CHANGES everything
This Changes Everything fearlessly tackles theologically profound and extremely important biblical subjects in a clear, lucid and practical way. C. Peter Wagner brilliantly distills the paradigm shifts that have transformed his life and a theology that has been the foundation for more than 50 years of fruitful ministry around the world. This is a must-read for those who want to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to His church today!
Dr. Ché Ahn
President and Founder, Harvest International Ministry Senior Pastor, HRock Church, Pasadena, California
My approach to my personal relationship with God and to ministry is that of simple, childlike faith. However, Dr. Wagner’s scholarly and strategically written book This Changes Everything has both provoked and invited me to deeply examine mindsets that might have restricted my experience in God. When I started reading it, I could not put it down. I am convinced you won’t either … and don’t be surprised if you encounter some profound paradigm shifts.
Patricia King
Founder of XPministries and XPmedia
Peter Wagner has done it again—but this time bigger, better and deeper! In this book, he provides us with a detailed yet intimate roadmap that reveals how he expanded from one theological paradigm to the next. He shows how he bridged what to many would be irreconcilable positions, and in so doing provided a way for the Church to get closer to displaying the fullness of Christ in the heavenly places without being tossed by every wind of doctrine. A true apostolic work!
Ed Silvoso
Author and Founder of International Transformation Network
This Changes Everything will cause you to take a step back and really think about what you believe. At times challenging to classic doctrinal thinking, it will cause you to dive into the Scriptures, wrestle with deep truths, and empower you to know why you believe what you believe. Whether you agree with everything written in these pages or not, it will compel you forward in your pursuit of truth, revelation and understanding into some of the most crucial paradigms of thought facing the church today. C. Peter Wagner magnificently communicates these paradigms in a down to earth and understandable way.
Matt Sorger
Prophetic and Practical-life Minister Head of Matt Sorger Ministries Author and TV host of Power for Life
C. Peter Wagner has been my friend for more than 30 years. Since I meet him during the 1980s, I have seen him change the emphasis of his ministry on occasion—changes he described as “God giving him a new assignment.” Those who want to follow his growth in ministry over the years will understand these changes by the “new paradigms” he explains in this book. Here you will find insight into Dr. Wagner’s heart.
Elmer L. Towns
Co-founder, Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia

© 2013 C. Peter Wagner
Published by Chosen Books 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438 chosenbooks.com
Chosen Books is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan. www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Chosen edition published 2014
ISBN 978-1-4412-6898-3
Previously published by Regal Books
Ebook edition originally created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version . Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Other versions used are:
ESV— Scripture taken from the English Standard Version, Copyright © 2001. The ESV and English Standard Version are trademarks of Good News Publishers.
KJV — King James Version. Authorized King James Version.
THE MESSAGE— Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
NIV —Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
NLT —Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation , copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction: Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts
1. From Two Channels to Jesus as a Real Man
2. From Human Abilities to Spiritual Gifts
3. From Theological Education to Equipping the Saints
4. From Passive Evangelism to Pragmatic Evangelism
5. From Mono-cultural Theology to Cross-cultural Theology
6 From Programmed Evangelism to Power Evangelism
7. From Tolerating Satan to a Declaration of War
8. From Reformed Sanctification to Wesleyan Holiness
9. From Denominational Government to Apostolic Government
10. From a Greek Mindset to a Hebrew Mindset
11. From Classical Theism to Open Theism
12. From a Church Vision to a Kingdom Vision
13. From Ministry in the Church to Ministry in the Workplace
14. From Extending the Church to Reforming Society
15. From Society as One Mass to the Seven Mountains
16. From Escapist Eschatology to Victorious Eschatology
17. From a Spirit of Poverty to a Spirit of Prosperity
Scripture Index
Subject Index
Introduction
Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts
Let’s talk about paradigms.
A paradigm, in the way I am going to use the word in this book, is a mental grid through which certain information is processed while it is being absorbed. Did you ever notice that two people can receive the same information but interpret and use it in different ways? It happens all the time, and it is because they have different paradigms.
Don’t think that certain people have paradigms while others do not. Everyone lives under the influence of not one, but many, paradigms. Most of us are aware of how this works in politics, just to take a common example. In a democratic, free-speech society such as ours, it is often perplexing to observe Democrats interpreting certain facts in one way and Republicans interpreting the exact same facts in another. Our tendency is to think that certain politicians are right and the others are wrong, but, as a matter of fact, they may both be right according to the paradigm that each one has previously adopted. Those whom we believe are right and for whom we vote, of course, would be those whose paradigm is most similar to our own.
Paradigms Relating to Abortion
Let me be specific, just so we are all on the same page. Let’s take abortion as an example. I don’t know about you, but I personally interpret whatever is being discussed about abortion through my paradigm that human life begins at conception. Those who disagree with me would have adopted a different paradigm that assumes that whatever is in the womb before birth is a zygote or a fetus or some accumulation of tissue that has no independent life or personhood and may be removed much like an unwanted appendix.
One of the reasons I chose abortion as an example is that anyone can easily see what a huge difference one’s paradigm can make. I consider abortion to be murdering a human being. My opponents see it as a woman’s exercising her rights of disposing some bothersome tissue. Yes, we have different paradigms, but I bring this one up because I am convinced that my paradigm, in this case, is morally right and that society should make laws that protect the life of the unborn baby just like it protects the life of all other human beings.
I derive this from a previous and overriding paradigm that there is a God who created the universe, including the human race, and who revealed the basic principles guiding human society in the Holy Scriptures. One of the things I read in Scripture, for example, is the occasion in which Mary, recently impregnated with Jesus by the Holy Spirit, visited her relative Elizabeth, who was then pregnant with John the Baptist. The moment they greeted each other, John physically jumped up in Elizabeth’s womb. She felt it and said, “As soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy” (Luke 1:44). Obviously, Elizabeth was carrying a human being, not some blob of tissue.
More could be said about abortion, but that is not my theme. I am attempting to explain the nature of paradigms and paradigm shifts. Abortion paradigms are obviously an extreme, because if abortion is murder, then it is clearly a criminal offense. As an ordained minister, I must hasten to add that it is not an unforgivable sin and that with repentance and confession from a contrite heart, God can and will forgive a woman who has an abortion.
Why do I bring this up? I bring this up in order to deal with a further principle. Not all paradigms involve choices between moral absolutes as does abortion. Go back to politics, for example. This is somewhat oversimplified, but let’s say that the Democratic paradigm leads its adherents to believe that government has the responsibility of regulating the lives of citizens to a higher degree than the Republican paradigm, which values freedom of the individual and free enterprise economics. Following their paradigm, Democrats typically lean toward higher taxes than do Republicans. Here we have an important political difference, but I hope that most would agree that neither position is morally right or wrong.
The Paradigm Spectrum
This leads us to recognize the fact that paradigms can be placed on a spectrum that would run from what we could call moral imperatives on the left end to personal preferences on the right. Wh