The Christian church, the true Body of Christ, has an identity crisis that has wide ranging implications. Not understanding who we are, has greatly affected our perception of our goals and means to those goals here on earth. In short, we have not understood the magnitude of our own promised transformation, and therefore our God given role in management of earth and creation.
Evidence indicates mankind is on the verge of a cosmic transformation. The childhood world is about to give way to the adult world. Most of Biblical prophecy focuses on this transition. And yet, the details of this story are largely unknown, even by Christianity who has the lead role.
One of the prominent terms the Bible uses to announce and initiate this transition is ‘the gospel of the kingdom’. And perhaps the first succinct statement of this gospel is found in Isaiah 40:
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:1-5)
Is this a succinct version of current Christian prophecy? Not hardly. Notice the two underlined phrases. They are both key events referenced in Jesus’ and Paul’s prophecy statements, but they are not part of any leading Christian prophecy models. This is just to illustrate the need for prophetic reformation. Understanding this transition will require a radical new understanding of who we are and the program God has ordained for us to do. Jesus taught us to pray… “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)
Our priority is to be – restoring the earth; the kingdom on earth. These truths should be at the heart of Christian prophecy, but they are not. To activate these ideas will require the next, and likely last, reformation in the 500-year march of truth. This journey to all-truth is both a promise and a responsibility. The promise…
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:13)
Notice the connection between all-truth and ‘things to come’. Prophecy is the only path to all-truth. To discover who we are we must look back to the garden of Eden. Man was made in the image of God and he was assigned the responsibility to manage creation. Sadly, we know the story, Adam sinned. God, as a loving parent, responded – ‘creation was subjected to frustration’ (Romans 8:20). Today it is clear, through Adam, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory (or image) of God (Romans 3:23). Paradise on earth was deferred, but not abandoned, we are promised. This detour, though hard, will bring even greater good. Now begins a new story, remarkably, part of which we will write.
Creation has been frustrated, yes, but even that can work for good. The greatest tragedy would be to lose sight of what it means to restore paradise on earth. Unfortunately, that is the case today. Christianity has substituted ‘salvation’, and ‘going to heaven’ for the highest goal of ‘seeking first the kingdom’ and ‘ending creation’s frustration’.
We could sum up the highest goal as the ‘hope of the glory of God’ (in us). “… through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:2)
Today, our hope and highest responsibility is regaining the ‘glory of God’ (actively expressing the image of God, part of our fundamental nature). This is the only mantle from which we can return to our responsibility and return order to this world. There is no other program, then our success.
What we (Christianity) believe about prophecy is not optional. Summing up this failure into a comprehensible package, we could say it is a failure to understand ‘truth’. For our purposes here, we’ll define truth as ‘reality’, that which is the case, rather than that which is assumed. This failure is the most serious outcome of the ‘fall’ in Eden. This is where prophetic reformation must begin – overcoming this flaw in the current human condition. This is Paul’s conclusion:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)
This is not an anti-evil statement. This is a conformity statement. Remember, perhaps the ultimate ‘pattern of this world’ is marriage. Marriage is ‘worldly’ in a prophetic sense. It is the ‘good’ things of earth that largely obstruct God’s prophetic ends. It is good Christians that need their thinking transformed. Try to summarize Christianity’s current ministry to mankind. We could say that Christianity has elevated to its highest purpose ‘salvation’ and ‘living’, both vital responsibilities. But is this our highest responsibility? Is this a remedy for the fall? Salvation and living are major concerns for humans, but according to Scripture, they are not supposed to be our FIRST concern.
As sons of God and citizens of heaven, literally, who have been legally charged with judging angels (spiritual realms) and managing creation, our first objective must be truth (understanding reality). Imagine agents in charge of a project not understanding the true nature of that project?
Let’s put that in more specific terms. Can you (Christianity) describe how does the kingdom come to earth, in detail?
Do we understanding the laws and means of maintaining a just and peaceful creation? And for us today especially, are we able to declare a detailed model of the end of-the-age? Translating the all-truth Scripture above; ‘understanding the prophetic program IS the highest evidence of knowing reality’.
This responsibility has not flowered in the Christian mindset. Nevertheless, this apprehension of truth is the final and essential goal of Christianity in the end-times (before resurrection). In the human story, we have reached the time of these new demands. This promised (even demanded) destination is encapsulated in the Biblical notions of kingdom, restoration, conforming to Christ, and perfection. In Jesus’ words: “seek first the kingdom’ and ‘I will lead you into all truth’. Truth, will indeed, set us, and indirectly, all of humanity free.
Transitions like this are declared, and initially directed, by a special ministry given to the Body called the prophetic ministry. Not coincidentally, the prophetic ministry is a truth ministry. Its priorities are truth rather than the ‘salvation and living’ priority of the Body’s complementary ‘pastoral ministry’.
In the big scheme of things, THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT than the ‘sons’ perceiving and then acting upon these stated goals. The apostle Paul could not state it more sublimely, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” (Romans 8:18-19)
Life goes on; the cares of life issue demands, but we cannot, we dare not, trivialize or ignore these lofty Biblical demands.
This complex transition to a truth based priority, requires great faith and effort. We will find the pathway in patterns from our past. Patterns in Torah – such as the Journey from Egypt to the promised land, Lessons from this pattern shows that the majority of those most accountable could not make that transition. They could not, and did not, participate in the creation of a new world. The Book of Hebrews warns that this is a pattern for us as well. Ephesians warns us: “keep in step with the Spirit”.
For the “kingdom to come, and God’s will on earth to be done”, Christianity must transition to a prophetic economy. In our current leaders, pastors, teachers, etc., are many who sense the urgency of our time, but they are virtually all part of the ‘pastoral ministry’. But the spark of this new kingdom journey, it’s knowledge and vision, must come from the prophetic ministry and imparted to the pastoral ministry.
This inter-dependent, complementary, but at times contentious relationship of the pastoral and prophetic is vital. The conflicting priorities must be overcome with love, truth, and humility. As this new organism begins to function, a new gospel will become fully available. Truly built on a new foundation of apostles and prophets as Ephesians declares, Christianity will be equipped with an unprecedented testimony of truth and power.
Jesus calls this new commission the ‘gospel of the kingdom’ given to the world before ‘the end’. This is a testimony similar to Elijah on Mt. Carmel, but on a worldwide scale. The world will be shown the absolute reality of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and his son Jesus.
Following patterns from Torah, the end-of-the-age generation will begin with an Exodus event and a transformed world. The old world will end and a new world will begin. The ‘sons’ will be revealed and begin a ‘reset’ of the world, its people and governments, as stated in Isaiah 40 and Micah 7.
Christianity’s pastoral ministry has been focused on the evangelization of the world, but the ‘salvation and living’ message cannot bring us to the Biblical kingdom stated in the Bible. Only with a renewed gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, will we complete our objective to see the world acknowledge the one true God. With this gospel of truth, the pastoral ministry will have access to unprecedented power to demonstrate the kingdom with healings, deliverance, and miracles following.
Fulfilling this unprecedented testimony, followed by world repentance, can only be realized with a house put in order. A new prophetic presence must be accepted and integrated into the Body of Christ which today is overwhelmingly lead and controlled by the pastoral ministry. This principle of inter-dependence is a repeated pattern in all things God does, such as heaven and earth, husband and wife, spirit and truth, etc. the power and authority structure of the Body must be rightly divided and then brought into order. This is our act of obedience to counteract the fall and restore the presence of God on earth.
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” (John 4:23)