What’s so good about the Good News?
Can it be that the mandate to declare the message and power of God will be given to men and women who don’t act, behave, look, talk or sound like Christians? Yes!
The call to hear, seek and do the will of God is an invitation to everyone. But not all will hear and not all who hear will seek. Likewise, not all who seek will do. But for those who do, they will be the ones to declare the gospel of Christ.
I am truly thankful for the role that church life, teaching and doctrine has played in my ongoing journey of discovery into the heart and mind of God. But like a child grows up to maturity giving up its toys, childish ways and views, so have I had to do …. scary but necessary. The alternative would have been to coast through the rest of life as a respectable Christian (on the surface at least), active church member doing my own bit for the community. But wouldn’t that be living the lie of a wasted life and opportunity to really know God and experience a true revelation of Jesus Christ?
I suggest that for any true seeker after God and truth, it eventually becomes obvious that: the message and lifestyle of the present day visible church cannot be a relevant nor accurate representation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And at some point, at least for those Christians within the church system, you have to consider your response to that call to break camp.
So then, what is the gospel – good news – message arising from the life and ministry of Jesus Christ; what is God’s word or message to the world today?
I suspect that heaven is recapturing that message and getting ready to proclaim it through those who will hear, seek and do the will of God.
This move (when it breaks out) is going to be born in the midst of controversy. It is a message which by it’s very nature will be directed at those we’ve considered to be sinful and rejected. It will be born outside the church as we know and see the church. Men and women who have heard and responded to the voice of God will be taught, anointed and sent by heaven as bearers of this message. It will be a message carried in the strength and power of God’s spirit.
It will be the same old gospel of Christ and of His kingdom, but proclaimed in truth because its bearers will have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully. They will declare the word and counsel of God as it is, not leaning on the props of ‘church-ianity’ and ‘church doctrine’. Instead they will commend themselves to every man’s conscience in the very sight of God by demonstrating the truth of God.
To many in the existing church systems, it will be an unrecognisable gospel.
Nevertheless, the fruit will be true and genuine. The genuineness, simplicity and purity of the fruit will be hard to argue against. But it wasn’t sown by the church , it will not be reaped by or in the church. Christ as the Lord of the Harvest sowed the seed. He will send His labourers to reap where they have not sown.
It will be too hard for the church to swallow because it will be preached without the props that were added by the church to the message of Jesus Christ. Not surprisingly, the church will condemn, criticise and persecute this move, its message and the bearers; claiming it is not the gospel of Christ.
Sound familiar?
The gospel of Jesus Christ is just as revolutionary as it was in Palestine and the Roman world 2000+ years ago. The message he and his disciples proclaimed challenged the established synagogues and some of the traditional & fundamental teachings of the Rabbis. They came with alternative interpretations of teachings, spoke in parables and mysteries, challenged conventions and identified with the ‘wrong sort’ (prostitutes, sinners etc) and broke the rules. His rabble of disciples certainly didn’t fit the mould of ‘Torah believing’, ‘Synagogue going’ Jews. And it only got worse when the message was taken further to the ‘unclean’ Gentiles.
Are you one of those through whom Heaven will recapture the true Gospel to proclaim to our 21st century world? Are you one of those who will hear, seek and do the will of God?