Blog – Kingdom Lesson # 16. By Jim Banks www.jimandpatbanks.com www.traumaprayer.com
We need a new kingdom-oriented perspective.
On the most recent ministry trip to Illinois, Pat and I had opportunity to talk about a number of things and one of those was all the bad news coming forth from media which paints the future as being very bleak. That quite naturally automatically raises the question of how should we choose to prepare for such a bleak eventuality? Being sober, responsible adults, what can we do to protect ourselves. Something on our trip interrupted the conversation and in the following few minutes of processing what went on before I had the following observation regarding what we had just been kicking around.
When Jesus came to earth, He only chose to ruffle the feathers of the religious leaders, but not the secular ones, despite their abusive treatment of the Jews. For that was the limit of His purpose. He even exhorted His disciples to pay their taxes without gripping. This was in spite of the fact that He was fully aware that every Jew, including their religious leadership, assumed that when the Messiah appeared He would appear as a heavy-handed revolutionary leader bent on re-establishing David’s kingdom, which would effectively do away with the Romans and their evil, oppressive governmental system and the myriad of false gods they brought with them.
2000 years later we modern day Christians have come to see things in virtually the same way. When “revival” comes, the unspoken expectation is that the Spirit of the Lord will convict all sinners which will bring an end to all corruption, crime, lawlessness and greed. The abusive and short-sighted governmental over-reach will suddenly be corrected. Sex trafficking will end. Heck! Who knows, but we’ll probably even see a reduction in taxation along with it because waste and ill-advised expenditures will cease as well. Suddenly the effect of said “revival “will turn back the hands of time and we will collectively find ourselves under the strict rule of law and order again where there will actually be suitable punishment for crime meted out. Justice will be swift and the endless hyper-expensive legal appeals of criminals will cease. And we’ll even get to see that the vast majority of the population will attend church once again, along with the formerly churched and it will somehow morph into the general morality of the 50’s all over again.
In doing so we have unwittingly fallen into the same trap as our Jewish forefathers, mistakenly forcing the idealistic expectations of a secular kingdom reign, along with its personal implications, upon a spiritual King and His kingdom. The fact that we’ve chosen to lose sight of what the war is over and what the victory will actually look like is a testament to the fact that we believe this is all about us. Lord, forgive us for being so earthly minded that we have willingly become blind. Although there will certainly be personal benefits it’s not about us at all.
Yes, we would indeed love to see all these things come to pass because we grab onto anything we think offers us the possibility that things can be turned into something that offers peace, safety and stability. The problem with that is multifold. The Lord has recorded the truth of the situation in His Word in a number of verses, only a few of which are reproduced here, as a means of bringing clarity to our thoughts.
“And it shall come to pass, when he (the one who abandons the way of the Lord in v 18) hears the words of this curse, that he will bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:” Deuteronomy 29:19
“They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” Jeremiah 6:14
“These things I (Jesus) have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” Luke 17:33
The system of the world is founded in fear and as such its sole goal is to create fear and foster it, particularly for believers, so that we would choose to preserve our lives as best we can, thus in essence becoming our own god, much like the man noted in Deuteronomy 29, above, rather than trusting in the Lord to handle it. Indeed, there will be a number of difficult consequences to the governmental foolishness taking place, as well as already planned, which we as a general populace will have to bear. However, that does not mean that you and I will have to bear those consequence on our own, for God is referenced in Scripture as the “friend that sticks closer than a brother.” in Proverbs 18:24. Our salvation is in trusting the Lord to do those things for us which we cannot do. (2Corinthians 1, Hebrews 2:13)
Do not take this to mean that I am saying that we should not be wise and steward our resources in a manner that enables us to prosper when others are not. I am simply saying that we must guard ourselves from extending our actions beyond “stewardship” into hoarding.
“And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers: 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.” Isaiah 30:20-21
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