Arguing from Allegiances

We all argue from our allegiances. Christians have a predisposed allegiance to viewpoints matching their own experiences. Many of these perceptions have been preached and framed from our personal histories of a powerless Christianity.

For many of us (writer included), direct answers to specific prayers are rare. Prayer comforts, strengthens and sustains us in our trials, for which we are grateful. That, for most Christians, is the high water mark for a prayer life. Our experiences have convinced us that while God is all powerful, He doesn’t seem to employ that power in our personal lives or in those for whom we pray, very much.

Though we prayed and cried and waited, still:
Many sick, did not recover.
Many broken relationships did not resolve.
Many initiatives did not succeed.
Many shattered hearts did not mend.
Many afflicted minds did not heal.
Many knotted souls did not unravel.

We insist that God still does miracles today, and that our salvation is evidence of it. We insist that God saves and strengthens even through the rough terrain of life. We take solace in God’s kindness through caring people in such difficult times. We remind each other of God’s wisdom; how He is not inclined to a ‘quick fix’ just because we feel desperate. How His concern is more for the development of our deeper life, than the speedy remedy of our present, temporal crisis. The weighty, eternal things - that’s what God’s about.

While not a perfect description of this common Christian mindset, it’s close. Many of us have lived this way most of our lives. We were supernaturally saved by the All-Powerful God who now judiciously guards the use of that power to make sure we keep our priorities right. We are resigned to very modest expectations from the extremely lavish Father to whom nothing is impossible. We’re told we have faith that can move mountains, yet we only circle the bases of them and hope for the best.

Now, if it is suggested that other options are available, those aligned to the above state of mind stiffen their posture. They squint the eye and bite the lip.

Let’s say that while every good thing God does in and for us through times of pain and affliction is legitimate, even redemptive. Let’s say that while such experiences and perceptions encompass most of our history, that there exists promises for a more robust faith than we’ve previously known. That the broad acceptance of our past understanding is not evidence of its veracity, nor sufficient reason to spurn God’s promises for a supernatural lifestyle so plainly presented in the Bible.

Even Egypt had its better moments . . . leeks, garlic, but not the lashes. Remember? When Moses (at God’s direction) led them toward realizing God’s promises, they resisted. They clung to leeks and garlic. At least they found some comfort in those memories. They strapped in tightly to what they knew - that which was familiar. “Yes, we were slaves to circumstances. Yes, our children were dashed to pieces. Yes, we were under the whip of men. But, send us back there, we ate leeks and were not taunted with illusions of something better.”

There were comforts in Egypt.
God was with His people in Egypt.
God cared for them and even performed miracles for them.

But God wanted them out from Egypt.
Out from weakness and out from servitude.
Into the glorious freedom He ordained for His children.
Into promises of strength, joy, triumph and peace.
Into their highest purpose . . .
to bear the image of God and
to fully represent Him in the earth.

Anchored to an allegiance with slavery they argued, pitting the ‘good’ elements of that familiar reality against the calling to the greatest freedom possible (to a land in which all their longings would be fulfilled). Furthermore, they ascribed malicious motives to Him who called them, Is not this what we said to you in Egypt:‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. Ex 14:12

The words sound a bit different today, but not the spirit of them:
‘How can you think to hold out a promise of healing to someone so sick?’ ‘How cruel to lift their hopes, only to disappoint them.’
‘God has already done so much good in this situation, who are you to say it’s not enough?’
’Shut up, and take your ‘pie in the sky’ to someone more gullible. Don’t you know God works through our suffering? He knows what He’s doing.’
‘If God thought it was best to deliver the man from torment immediately, He would have done it.’ ‘He’s in God’s hands, and that’s the best place for him to be.’

When you argue from such allegiances, you may actually find yourself kicking against the pricks.

Consider what you are defending. And why. Let off familiar allegiances to predispositions that do not square with Jesus’ revelation and commission. Read again what He said, and what He taught and expected His followers to do.

The Kingdom Promised

God’s Promised Land for us is expressed clearly by Paul (Rom. 14:17b):
The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

This Kingdom was explained and delivered to us through Jesus Christ. Believing in Jesus qualifies us to be sons of God. Receiving the Promise of the Holy Spirit gives us the ability (dunamis) to act like sons.

Having now the promise, the power and the presence of this Kingdom we are commanded to take what is ours. Giants currently occupy that land, led by a strong, blood-thirsty tyrant. He exists to kill, steal and destroy human beings. He fosters rebellion against God and perpetrates torment, separation, disease, and every cruelty of darkness. He holds power through deceit and treachery. This father of lies pummels the sons of God day and night with accusations and demonic propaganda through the megaphone of a godless world system. He is the lord of fear.

Only a fool constructs terms for co-existence with such an enemy. His singular, white-hot purpose is to see you lying in the street, slit bottom to top with your guts strewn about. The devil salivates to torture, maim, violate and degrade you. And, it’s not even about you.

Satan is over. Stripped of all power and laid to open shame by the Cross of Christ. His defeat is absolute. His destiny, a perpetual crescendo of misery and self-abhorrence. To thwart your entrance into your promised inheritance, and to wave your destruction before the eyes of the Father who spared not His own Son to redeem you, is his only demented pleasure.

The Kingdom Entered

Our high calling, our war, is two-fold: 1.) to forcefully displace the current administration. And 2.) to occupy and establish God’s Kingdom for ourselves and everyone who believes us.

Was He leading the disciples from slavery to the devil’s tyranny, into the promise of freedom when Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness? Mt 10:1

See here, the occupying enemies to be vacated, and the right and power to expel them.

Did He not commission them to dispossess the land of God’s enemies when He commanded: And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. ’Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons’? (Mt 10:7)

See here, the acts of war boldly employed for complete eviction and incontestable victory.

And when Jesus said, Freely you received, freely give, (Mt 10:7) was He not explaining the boundless measure of the gift now ours, and how extensive and indiscriminate we must be to grant it in His Name?

See here, the lavish dignity and honor given us, to be the wide-open highway on which His Kingdom of goodness rides.

Another Argument - Another Allegiance

Try for a little while to argue from the unfamiliar side, the uncomfortable side. You can always go back. You might discover some merit in what ‘they’ are saying. It’s possible there is more to know and experience than consists in our personal history. No one is asking you to deny that the leeks were good. Or, that God cared for you in the past. Just consider, is there more of God’s promise for me today? Am I open to that possibility? Moreover, if the voice of the Lord urges me to a more assertive, forceful, and freer faith, am I willing to go with Him?