| << | Contents | >> |
God's Emerging City
In the early 1970s, when God was arising in power among the Roman Catholics, and many thousands were being filled with the Holy Spirit, I remember different Protestant leaders expressing amazement. “Would God really do such a thing? This is totally unexpected!”
Along this line, we also notice how surprised the disciples at Jerusalem were when God began to reveal himself among the Gentiles (Acts 11:1 - 3).
The Lord does seem to enjoy showing up in unexpected places. We probably should have noticed His tendency to do this when early in His earthly ministry He revealed His identity to a group of Samaritans (John 4:5 - 42). In light of these scriptures, I believe we will also be startled as God arises in unexpected displays of mercy in the years ahead.
We stand at a critical juncture of Church history. Many Christian leaders are speaking of a coming great harvest of souls into God’s kingdom, the size of which will stun both the Church and the world. If true, the face of the Earth is about to change.
This book considers a number of Scripture passages concerning the years ahead. The future is not something to fear; rather, we are to look forward with an increasing expectation of glory filling our hearts. Christ in us is not the fear of the future; He is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). And God has plans to fill the Earth with His glory.
But truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
If God has a plan for filling the planet with His glory, how do we fit in?
John the Baptist revealed a principle of the Kingdom of God when he acknowledged that though he had a powerful ministry in Israel, God intended for his influence to decrease as Jesus’ increased (John 3:30). Similarly, as the Lord increases His manifest presence both in our personal lives as well as in our church gatherings, like John we must choose to decrease (more of Him; less of us).
When God intensifies His manifest glory among His people, He exposes in us many fleshly ideas, agendas, and plans. And if we love Him more than we love our own ways, we will gain insight and succeed with Him in His purpose. On the other hand, if we resist Him in favor of our agendas, we will cause division. Revivals are always messy. The problem is not the increased unveiling of Christ; it is that we oftentimes resist the process of diminishing humbly before Him.
God arises among us not only to reveal himself more clearly, but also to expose what does not belong in His house. Pride and the exaltation of man must be removed; proper worship must be restored.
Jesus had just revealed to a Samaritan woman at a well outside her village that He knew of her many relationships with different men. At first, she had thought that Jesus could certainly not be greater than Jacob – a slight miscalculation to say the least. But as the conversation ensued, something began to dawn on her.
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.”
Her perspective was that Jewish worship had to occur in Jerusalem, while her own people (the Samaritans) said that Mount Gerizim was the proper place. So who was correct? Since He was a prophet, perhaps He could provide some insight. Jesus’ response was quite startling. True worship would happen in neither place.
Neither place? Would not true worship soon happen in both places as the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost? Yet Jesus was clear. Her mind-set needed to be broken and replaced with an eternal perspective. True worship had to do with spirit and truth, not with geographical location. If someone had to go to a particular place (even the literal city of Jerusalem) in order to worship, it would not be the worship that God was seeking.[1]
Today, some Christians believe they must go to a particular church building and gather with other believers in order to worship. They conceive of ministry to the Lord primarily in corporate terms and as it relates to a particular location (usually a church building).
However, there is a big difference between coming together to worship as over against coming together because we worship. In other words, if we as individuals would diligently seek His face throughout the week, we would have together the explosive integration of many hearts already intimately united with Heaven.
To be clear, God does call His people to worship together, to corporately express our love for Him. However, when we believe we have to come together before we can truly worship, we lose our identity as God’s royal priesthood, and become in effect, a part-time priesthood. “Worship? We do that on Sundays.” As a result, church gatherings become boring.
We must become in practice His holy priesthood, living daily in His presence and drinking of the river of life. Then when we come together, we will mutually experience Heaven’s invasion of Earth. Indeed, we have not even scratched the surface of the Lord’s intent for us in corporate worship. His strategy is simply that as we return to Him with all of our hearts, and yield to Him His proper status in us individually, He will then arise in His pre-eminent role in our times together.
Then as He arises in response to His worshipping priesthood, He will make himself known more clearly all across Christianity and confront the nations with Heaven’s world-view, a paradigm decidedly different from what our present media articulates daily. As disciples we must pray, prophesy, preach, sing, teach and cry out in travail until Christ arises powerfully and in clarity both in us and among us.
When He is to us the central focus of God’s kingdom, then all of life will begin to make cohesive sense to us, and our lives will express the Christian world-view in full view of the nations.
Indeed, Jesus is our motivation for why we work where we do, the reason we live in our particular house or neighborhood, and the reason we are integrated members of our specific local congregation. When He is the primary rationale for all that we do, our lives express a sacrifice of worship every day of the week and we embrace our calling to be His holy priesthood.
Notice His response to the Samaritan woman.
You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
Our heavenly Father has personally sought us out, not primarily that we might have great ministries among men but that we might first of all be worshipers. Our lives are to become active expressions of loving Him. Whether we are at work, at home, playing sports, or meeting with our local congregations, our lives will express worship when our aim is to please Him. The issue is not how blessed we are with this life, but how blessed He is with our lives.
The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
In other words, “I appreciate Your thoughts about Mount Gerizim, Jerusalem, and true worship, but I think I’ll wait to see what the Messiah has to say about this.” The Samaritans believed in a coming Messiah; however, their theology contained much error.
Where did these people come from? When the Assyrians conquered the ten northern tribes of Israel, they carried them off into captivity and transplanted in Samaria subjugated people from other parts of their empire. Thus, the Samaritans were not of Jewish descent. Scripture teaches that when they moved into Samaria, they brought with them their false gods and tried to worship Yahweh as well (2 Kings 17:24 - 41).
They mixed together the writings of Moses with their own traditions and the result was a theology of mixture, a composite religion. Because they practiced idolatry, religious Jews would have nothing to do with them. This explains Jesus’ response to her.
You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
Although her theology contained great error, yet in response to her statement about the coming Messiah, Jesus did something amazing. He told her who He was.
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
This was near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John the Baptist had not yet been thrown into prison. None of the apostles knew clearly who He was. Peter would not receive the revelation of Christ’s deity for a couple of years. The twelve apostles were going to go through a number of circumstances where they would turn to each other, scratch their heads, and ask, “Who is this who can do such things?” Yet before the apostles fully grasped His identity, He made Himself known to this Samaritan woman.
Similarly, God has plans in our day that will amaze us just like He startled His early disciples. He will call to himself people whom we have already given up on. Do not be surprised when He reveals himself among religious groups that have major error in their theology. While everybody has some error in their belief systems, certain groups have more than others. However, the Lord may very well arise among some of the cults and rescue multitudes from deep deception. We may even see God’s activity more, at least initially, among some of these groups than in some of the more “sound” Christian institutions.
Search Comments
This page has been visited 0038 times.
| << | Contents | >> |
10 per page