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Articles 2024-2026

6. A Tale of Two Cities

Rejoicing in Order to See

the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling…

(Ephesians 1:18)

May the Lord help us to see the hope that was in His heart when He called us. When we first believed, we quickly realized that God had put destiny in our hearts, that we were people of destiny. Life for us would no longer be about coincidence and happenstance but about the God of heaven and earth calling us to come and discover in His presence where it was that He was leading us.

Abraham was a man of destiny. When God first spoke to him to leave his own country and relatives, He promised to bring him to a land that He would then personally show him (Genesis 12:1). And as Abraham followed the Lord’s leading, Scripture says that he went forth not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). But God was bringing him not only to a physical land, but also to an understanding of what it meant to receive a promise from Him and to then trust Him to bring it to fulfillment.

So, the Lord purposed that Abraham and Sarah would have a son. But as the years passed, they became impatient waiting for the Lord to fulfill His promise. As a result, Abraham wrongly came to the conclusion that Ishmael, the son that he fathered with Sarah’s maidservant Hagar was the child of promise.

In those days, the Lord also showed Abraham that He had designed and intended to build the city of God on earth (Hebrews 11:10). And over time, His servant began to see that his obedience would ultimately contribute to that city. Its foundation would be laid in the very land that God was showing him. And as he turned and wholeheartedly rejoiced in the Lord, he experienced a longing within his heart to see the One who in Himself would become that city’s foundation. Notice Jesus’ words.

Your father Abraham rejoiced to (Greek, HINA – in order to) see My day, and he saw it and was glad.

(John 8:56)

Two Options

It seems that Abraham had been more focused on the promise of a son rather than on the One who had made the promise. And Ishmael was the result. And though the prophet was quite sure at first that God’s purpose would be fulfilled through Ishmael, that young man was simply not the son of promise. One lesson we learn from the story of Ishmael’s birth is that like Abraham, one of the great temptations that all believers face is to try to build God’s promised city. But in Abraham’s life, in learning to wait for the child of promise to be born (Isaac), he had learned to wait for the city … whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10).

Because God became Abraham’s central focus, he began to rejoice in Him in order to gain Heaven’s perspective into the promise. The result was that by faith he saw God revealed in flesh in the land of promise. And he rejoiced.

Abraham had to learn that the city of God was never the main point; the Designer was; the Architect was; the One who would become its foundation was. And it was only when God had adjusted Abraham’s focus, that He could then give His servant accurate prophetic insight into the coming city.

Here is where God’s visionary leaders have repeatedly been tempted to fail throughout Church history. Remember, it was not a false prophet who fathered Ishmael, it was a true prophet who became more focused on the promise than on the Promiser.

If we would be the children of Abraham, we must stop trying to build God’s city and rather focus our hearts wholly on worshiping the Lord right in the midst of our present condition as Christ’s Church. Yes, there needs to come change. But we have two options before us – Ishmael, the son of our own strength or Isaac, the son of promise. One can be achieved, the other will only be realized by the miraculous intervention of God. And the one rooted in man’s strength will persecute the one who comes later and is much smaller, but who is destined for permanence.

It is not that we ignore the present obviously unfinished condition of God’s house or the specific problems and needs of the people in it. Rather, we must refuse to offer our own opinions and solutions, then we must cry out for His wisdom and direction, and then finally watch for Him to arise fulfilling His own promises. After all, it is His house that we are serving in. It is only when we move with Him in His timing that we can properly co-labor with Him.

Receiving or Seizing

Today, there are many who are saying that we must build God’s kingdom. But Jesus never told His disciples to build it but to receive it like children (Luke 18:17) (See also Hebrews 12:28, 1Corinthians 4:7).

Then, in seeking to build God’s kingdom, they say that we are to violently take it by force.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force (Greek, HARPAZO – to seize).

(Matthew 11:12)

But if you consider the context of Jesus’ words in Matthew’s gospel, He was not recommending a course of action but describing the roots of what was wrong in that generation. First, because John the Baptist’s days of public ministry were now over (Matthew 11:2), Jesus wanted to show how the multitudes had perceived him. What were they expecting in him? Did he meet their expectations (Matthew 11:7 - 8)?

Then He gave them some startling news. Not only had John been the fulfillment of God’s promise to send Elijah, he had been Heaven’s messenger sent before the face of God to prepare His way into the nation. The Lord God of Israel was now on the scene.

And while there was no one born of women greater than John, yet the one who was now least in God’s kingdom was greater. Something greater than John was now visibly present in Israel. And seeing to some degree what Jesus was doing (He had healed many, His disciples had also gone throughout the nation preaching and healing the sick – Matthew 10), many were now violently and forcibly grasping for what Jesus was offering the nation. But what was His observation? Simply that the present generation was like children wanting to play their own tune, set the pace, and get others to respond to them. They wanted to seize what God was doing and “call the shots” themselves. By and large, they had misinterpreted who John was and were now without understanding of who Jesus was (Matthew 11:16 - 19).

In our own day, we must not grasp for and seek to seize what is in the hands of God so as to then implement our interpretation of what we read in Scripture. Our best efforts will only bring forth a spiritual Ishmael.

Lord help us to recognize what You are authoring, to yield in our hearts to Your timing in it, and to then serve You in its implementation. How the earth needs Heaven’s emerging son of promise.

 

To further illustrate that first century generation’s wrong focus, Scripture reveals that when many saw Jesus’ miracle of feeding a vast crowd with just five loaves and two fish, they sought to then take Him by force (Greek, HARPAZO – to seize) and to make Him king. But Jesus just walked away (John 6:15). How shaky of a foundation that would be if His enthronement were to be based on the initiative of men rather than on the decree and timing of God. After all, what men can enthrone, they can later dethrone.

But what God establishes endures forever.

Locating the City

So, today we ask, “Where is God’s city?” We know that while he lived in tents, Abraham waited for it. How? He began to rejoice in God’s presence in order to behold the Messiah, to see Him in His day. And God gave him insight into Christ.

Is the Lord Jesus our focus? If we are trying to build God’s kingdom, to establish His city, our focus must change. The city is not the point; the Builder and Maker is. God wants to give us insight into His Son, the One in whom all the treasures of eternity are found. We will only discern Heaven’s city as we see and embrace our identity as Christ’s bride. As the angel said to John:

”Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.

(Revelation 21:9 - 11)

The city’s source is heaven and at its core, it is a bridal people wholly given to the person of the Lord Jesus. The Book of Revelation reveals two cities. One comes from the ground up, is a harlot, and is increasingly inhabited by the powers of darkness. The other comes from Heaven’s initiative, is a bride, and is clothed in the glory of God. This heavenly bridal city has been emerging on earth since that day when there came from heaven a sound like a violent rushing wind and many were filled with God’s Spirit.

Even so, arise afresh O God in this present generation.

Donald Rumble – June 2024

ramble888@gmail.com

 

 

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