While randomly perusing the “Recommended” section on YouTube a few days ago I stumbled on a beautiful rendition of “Because He
Lives.” I was home alone at the time, and as I listened I found myself having an incredible emotional experience with the Lord! Hands lifted, tears running down my face, I was shouting and praising God with all my heart!
I watched it a second time with the same reaction. As I was telling Jill about the experience when she got home, it dawned on me why I reacted as I did. I was listening to an old, familiar song I had heard many times when it was first written by Bill Gaither in 1971, but I hadn’t heard it for some 30 years. During that time-frame, I was discovering THE FOREST IN WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL TREE OF MY LIFE IS GROWING—the task for which I was created—RULING OVER THE EARTH (Genesis 1:24-26)!
I realize that this “big picture” is changing everything for me! I am beginning to see that my personal “journey to the City” has included camping at some ten “campgrounds” (stops along the way). I have camped for an extended period of time at each camp, learning valuable truths that have become permanent fixtures to assist me in my ruling mission.
However, eventually I learned that each campsite was incomplete, and it was not my final destination—the City with Foundations, the New Jerusalem! So, at each site I broke camp and moved on in my life-journey. This “little child” (Matthew 18:2-5) is still on the trail, still learning from my Abba Father, my Daddy!
There are several possible reactions you may have had as you have read these recent blog postings about the civil government portion of our ruling mission. Those reactions may include the following:
1.“This won’t work. It isn’t practical, and God isn’t calling me to be involved in civil government.” To think that this is a workable plan that God might want this reader to investigate seems ridiculous to him. Furthermore, he believes that even if this were God’s plan, we could never find a tiny percentage of the population to even consider such a scheme!
However, God has given to His people the family, the church, AND the civil government as weapons to use in our task of ruling over the earth. Our callings in each will vary greatly, but we are ALL called to be active participants in each as we fulfill our eternal purpose!
The ideas I have shared in recent postings are taken straight from His Word, though they are seldom, if ever, discussed. The objection that God’s plan isn’t workable and practical today is, of course, undeniably true. However, our task is not to convince anyone of anything but to simply learn the ways of God ourselves in every area of life, and say “Yes, Lord” to what He is doing!
Without realizing it, our tendency is instead 1.) to go about our responsibilities in the customary “way of the world;” the way all those around us are functioning in various facets of life, or 2.) to follow our own best idea of how we should live. When it comes to politics and civil government, we don’t even think to ask. “What does God want for me in this sphere, and how do I know?”
Without a spiritual awakening in our country, the ideas presented in these postings are obviously not going to be implemented, and any attempt to do so would be a foolish waste of time and energy. As earnest Christians in America today, this verse from Psalm 119:27 is appropriate for us: “Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works.” Our mission is to first UNDERSTAND the general, overall plan of God, including for civil government, as laid out in Scripture, and then MEDITATE, or continue to think about, how this may eventually work in America. Ideally, this is done with others in the church!
This is doing nothing more than having a vision of where God is eventually taking us with regards to civil government, as is noted in 1 Chronicles 12:32 of the sons of Issachar: “who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” Make no mistake−Jesus will one day reign, in our experience, over all the nations of the world, just as He now reigns in fact.
A tiny group of readers of my blog may have responded with the opposite response:
2. “Wow! We’ve got to get to work. We’ve got to let Christians know about this. Time is wasting”! The opposite extreme from “This won’t work” is “Let’s make it happen,” and both are equally misguided. With no natural, spontaneous and unconscious (NSU) momentum from the Holy Spirit, our efforts are all a gigantic exercise in the flesh! We are trying to produce results without the means to do so—the Holy Spirit deciding to move, NSU.
When God brings His awakening, there will be no questions, no necessity for promotion, no need for recruiting or pumping people up. All we will do is hem up the mighty flood of God’s Spirit as He sweeps away all extraneous debris before His mighty power!
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3 says: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven . . . a time to break down, and a time to build up.” If God’s purpose, as we have seen, is that Jesus rules over all the nations of the world, our civil government will be broken down and rebuilt, because, in its present form—a pluralistic government—that is not allowed. This “breaking down” may, or may not, be peaceful, as in a result of revival, but the flood of the Spirit of God will ultimately sweep the wreckage all away.
When this occurs, how do we rebuild the government of our nation? What kind of a constitution do we need? Then an understanding of God’s law will be crucial. Then, we who have ruminated on it, endlessly discussed it, and have answered all questions in our minds over the years, will be ready for our time in history. Our wisdom and understanding will be crucial in God’s great, eternal purpose. We were created for such a time as this. May we, and all our descendants, be these spiritual sons of Issachar!
(Both Rousas Rushdooney’s Institutes of Biblical Law, and Gary North’s Political Polytheism have been very helpful in my studies on Civil Government. My 75 page summary, Let Earth Receive Her King, is available in PDF form by clicking this link.
