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Greetings;
Well, we have entered into a new season in the natural kingdom of America. We have entered into a new natural administration, but God’s purposes and plans have not changed. God is doing things in the earth that are far greater than what we can see in the natural expressions of the kingdoms of our world. As believers in Christ, we must keep our focus on the kingdom of God, and we must desire God’s will to be done in all things above our own will. God’s kingdom will affect the natural kingdoms of the world, but the kingdom of God is not a kingdom of natural observation. It is a kingdom of internal change of hearts and minds. No matter what kingdom of the world we find ourselves in, our true hope is the kingdom of God within our hearts.
I am not writing this blog to endorse or to condemn anyone’s stand in the recent elections of America. I am writing as a spiritual father’s voice to a generation in regard to what our stand should be in times like these. Some of you as believers in Christ are greatly disappointed with how things have turned out in our immediate view in America. Some of you as believers are excited by the change that has come to our nation and our world. In either of these cases, our true focus and desire should be upon what is God’s desire.
In this recent election, there were many prophetic voices that were speaking things that seemed to not have happened. Does that mean that those prophetic voices missed God? Does it mean that they were false voices? Does it mean that the prophetic is worthless and to be despised? To be despised would be to have little or no use for such a thing, but God doesn’t do anything in this earth without the spoken words of men and women in partnership with His purpose and will. First let me say that it is possible that God allows some to prophecy according to their own desires when the outcome is different than what the prophet desires or even what people desire to hear. I am not saying that this is what happened, I am just saying it is possible for such a thing to happen. This was the case in the days of the prophet Jeremiah and the season of captivity for Israel and Judah. Jeremiah prophesied seventy years of captivity, while many other prophets prophesied freedom, liberty, and blessing to the natural kingdom of their day. It was God’s will for His people to be taken captive into a world system called Babylon. It didn’t seem like a great option for those who would lose the freedoms that they had desired or even grown to know. God’s plan was a plan of freedom and life, but it didn’t look like God’s people’s idea of freedom and life. The name Babylon means confusion and it is rooted in the history of mankind seeking to build a city unto themselves on the plains of Shinar. They sought to build a tower that reached heaven and God came down and brought them confusion for the sake of them finding God in the generations to come. They wanted a community according to their own desires, but God wanted to give them a heavenly community of life in the world where they lived. He caused those in an Old Covenant time to be bound to confusion so that in future God could bring freedom by His Spirit to all people bound in confusion, a power that surpasses the understandings of men. I believe that God’s people were placed into the captivity of Babylon as a prophetic testimony that one day God would bring anyone out of the captivity of Babylon (confusion) into the glorious liberty of being children of God. It would not just be a freedom in a natural world, but a supernatural change in the hearts and minds of men. In the days of Jeremiah, God’s people had to go through some difficult times for the sake of God bringing life to all mankind in the ongoing story of humanity. God also made His will known to God’s people in their time of captivity.
Jeremiah 29:4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
In the years of Israel’s captivity God’s people were to pray for the peace of Babylon, for in Babylon’s peace they would be able to prosper. It was not a season to disconnect from God and His purposes, but to find Him in the midst of their captivity. They were to be light and salt in the midst of their natural circumstance. God’s thoughts for them were thoughts of a future and a hope, but that future and hope included them finding God in His fullness in their own hearts. I am not saying that we are facing seventy years of captivity, I am simply saying that whatever circumstance we find ourselves in we are to pray for the peace of the society we live in. God’s plans do not change because of worldly circumstances.
Is it possible that God wanted a different outcome than what has come to us in such a time as this? I am not asking this question to offend those of you who are happy with the present circumstance. I am asking it to challenge us to consider the possibility of God’s will being different than what we desire or what we think it should be. God prophesied that the Promised Land was given to the Israelites while they were in their journey in the wilderness. Only two men of millions believed that word, and thus only two men lived long enough for that prophetic promise to be fulfilled. Only two men entered the Promised Land of those who had heard the prophetic word of God. The fulfillment of the word was only for those who believed the word more than their circumstances. What could have happened for everyone in an eleven day journey only happened for two and a whole new generation after a forty year trial of wandering. The word was true, but it was only seen to be true by two, a small minority in the midst of the popular opinion of their day. Is it possible that some words that were spoken prophetically were true, but God’s people will not prosper in what was spoken because they did not believe the prophetic words spoken above their own opinions and desires? Is it possible that words that were spoken were true, but their interpretation and application is different than what was perceived by those who prophesied or those who heard? Again, I am not saying that this is the case. I am just challenging all of us to consider that this could be a possibility.
Whatever the case might be, it is time for us to be humble and say what we thought God said didn’t happen as we thought. We were wrong, or we heard wrongly, or we were right, but there is something more needed. It is not a time to condemn those who prophesied. It is not a time to mock the out loud voice of God. It is also not a time to get our identity out of prophesying rightly. It is time to get our identity out of who God is and to pray for the peace of Babylon. We pray that God will bless life! We pray that what God has begun will be completed. We pray for God’s will be done and His kingdom come in such a day as this. This is not a time to be disappointed, bitter, boastful, jubilant, or judgmental of others. It is a time to seek God and live! This is also a time to BE CAREFUL in what we say. We must BE CAREFUL in our judgments of the prophets! We must BE CAREFUL in our judgments of the church! We must BE CAREFUL in all judgments. Our focus must always be pro Christ, pro Body of Christ, and pro life in all things. Our focus must be for God’s will to be done and for the influence of His kingdom to come in every circumstance of our lives.
God, bless us in the diversity of our uniqueness. God, give us Your life in the diversity of our humanity. God, save those in the birthing place of our future generations from the present place of our standing in this world. We call for Your mercy and we look to find Your grace! Let Your desires become the true desires of our hearts and the source of our thinking as we look to You as our future and our hope.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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Thank you for your voice, sobering up the minds of our brethren, the church needs to hear more of that!
Pr Ted. where can I learn more about this doctrine that God does nothing on Earth without the utterance of the words according to His purpose and will by humans in partnership with Him?
Many blessings and regards!