They Are Coming

They are Coming.

History is full of times when people left one place in quest of a better one. Those of us in the Christian tradition know this well or should know it well. It is our story. The story of lost hope regained. The story of rebellion restored with rebuilding. The story of leaving our past and pursuing a higher purpose.

But the Christian story is not about human desire or need.

The story of redemption in history and in the Bible is not the story of mankind on their own quest. It is the narrative of a people made by God, rejecting their creator and then seeking to escape the pain and suffering of those actions and return to God’s grace and provision. You don’t need to be kicked out of paradise long before you want back in. Or in the imagery of the Parodical Son, a few weeks with pigs creates a desire for the provision of Father.

So, is what is happening in our world right now a holy quest or ongoing rejection of God?

It is an important question because how it is answered determines what we do and what those on the journey seek. A section of 2 Chronicles is quoted below. It sheds light on what a life with God, what a nation under God will do. It reveals that when done under God’s divine rule, people of the world want to experience favor, provision, healing and hope of a culture that is different than what they live under. The pivotal question is “who are they targeting with their words?”

Who is the one they want to listen to their hopes and dreams? Who is the one they are asking for help? Who is the one they are seeking for a better life, a better community, a better country?

2 Chronicles 6:28-33 NASB
28  "If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is,
29  whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house,
30  then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men,
31  that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.
32  "Also concerning the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name's sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house,
33  then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.

America is not the Kingdom of God.

America is a very hostile place for people who live under the rule and authority of God. It is not yet a place where they kill your body for worshipping Jesus the Christ. Presently it is only a place where they seek to kill your Spirit, to remove God’s rule or influence over you. It is a place that wants to govern and rule you without interference from heaven.

And it is a place where many believers in God struggle to follow Him. They think about God often, they pray, and they attend meetings. But many have not yet decided to follow Him alone. Their allegiance is still mostly to themselves or their family or to some ideas. Ideals which become idols in the Ephesians 6:12 narrative of unseen forces that influence behaviors.

Ephesians 6:12 NASB
12  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

The people of the Kingdom of God, those who live under the rule of God do not just do “Christian” things too and for people. Their first love and foundational actions are for Father, Son, and Spirit. They do what they do because of what He is doing. The needs of humanity do not take precedence over His will. It sounds harsh to some to dethrone humanity and place it under God. But that is Kingdom life. That is what makes order in a fragmented world possible. That is what allows someone or everyone under that rule to give their entire life away, to sacrifice all, to think more highly of others than themselves.

The way of Christ is not about good deeds, loving actions, and charity. It includes those but is not driven by them. We are not a love movement. The Kingdom is the movement of God on the earth. It involves and includes a lot of love, but love is not God. Father, Son, and Spirit are God. And they call us to live by all their words, rules, wishes, and commands. The command for love does not displace the commands for justice. The commands for charity do not override the commands for truth and patience. In the Kingdom of God, we live and walk with a written history, but the Spirit of the living God is our rule. In the written rules we are instructed to live by the Spirit of God, to walk with the spirit, to have an expression of the Spirit flowing from us and into the world giving life.

This includes the Scriptures but exceeds that. The Kingdom is not just about following the rules. Remember that Satan came and tempted Jesus with the written rules. And while Jesus used the written word in response He did so because He was led by the Spirit. So, in this day, in the world we live in, we cannot just go to the Bible and find proof text, a passage of Scripture that supports our view. Remember how Scripture was used by both sides of the slavery issue?

So just as the world has spiritual influences over them, we have a Spirit ruling over us. It is critical, it is basic Christianity, to live by that life-giving Spirit. In our day that means we must not seek to be “Christian” in action without being Christian through hand through. Making God known as the source of life is imperative. Feeding, sheltering, providing medical help and employing people of all races are not actions done in love alone. They are actions done in the Spirit, by the Spirit and under the rule of the Spirit.

One Size Does Not Fit All

I invite you to read again the passage from above, but this time with emphasis added by me.

I want you to know, even if only a little, that the way the kingdom works is diverse. Some will give a lot, other little. Some will be bold, others meek. Some will be greatly involved, other not at all. Only God knows what each of us is called to. And that is enough, He knows, and He rules.

So, comparison cannot replace discernment. Doing what everyone else is doing is not validation that you are hearing and following God. Be open, listen and learn from others and keep God preeminent in your heart.

"If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house, then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men, that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.
2 Chronicles 6:28-31 NASB

If we are in the end of times, and our life is short, so all time is near the end of our times, then we need to know with assurance that in the Kingdom of God, corporate rule is not about everyone doing the same thing. Corporate rule, in the Kingdom, is each one wholly following God’s demands for them. Jesus did not ask all His followers to follow. Some He sent back to their cities and regions, some He sent to the Priest, some He just ignored. And some followed and were not called to follow. It’s complicated. It’s personal. And it is the way God rules the world.