Friday, March 2, 2012

The Promised Kingdom

Bill Johnson makes an interesting parallel between the Israelites entering the Promised Land through the Jordan River and the Christian's baptism in the Holy Spirit.  Both, he claims, are second baptisms; both open the way into a life of victory over the enemy; both move the called from an existence of natural proportions to some kind of limitless miraculous position.  After the Jordan, the Israelites capture cities with trumpets and pots.  They march around defenses until they collapse.  A land of milk and honey.  Does this new Promised Land come without struggle?  No.  Is there still hardship?  A resounding yes.  When they arrive, the Israelites are repeatedly drawn into idolatry and forgetfulness.  They have always been an encouragement to me- for some reason God keeps calling them back.  Nonetheless, something is different about this land.  They are given cities already built, farms already established, trees already bearing fruit. (If anyone has ever tried to plant a fruit tree, this is a big deal.  Usually it takes years before anything is produced.)

Since the beginning of the year, a verse from Genesis has been taped to my bathroom mirror.  God speaks to Abraham and says, "Go, walk the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you."  There's a kind of playfulness to it.  Go ahead, explore, wander, wonder, dream.  I'll give it to you.  One of those resounding passages, reverberating in my gut like some old church bell chiming nine o'clock.  If you believe in heaven (which I do), it's a good discipline, that of wandering and dreaming, of rejoicing in what's to come.

But when Joshua enters the Promised Land, God says it another way.  He says "Everywhere your foot treads, I have given it to you."  Notice, God changes the tense.  God speaks of the promised land as something accomplished.  Bill Johnson takes this to mean that we have some kind of spiritual authority wherever we go to claim the presence of God's kingdom, and make it evident with miracles and that sort of thing.  In our baptism into Jesus, we have the future hope of glory.  In the Spirit, we have the present reality of God.

I like the concept, but honestly, I don't usually feel like the Kingdom is here.  It didn't feel like the kingdom when I walked into Muddy Waters to write this morning.  It honestly didn't feel like it last night in worship either.  But, during worship, I prayed for a woman's foot, and she felt it grow warm as I prayed, made more interesting when she told me she was icing it.  God at work.

I want emotional evidence to corroborate what God claims.  But he doesn't say to wait for that.  He doesn't say wherever your foot treads while you feel heroic, that land I have given to you.  He says, very practically, wherever you step.  Jesus doesn't say, the Kingdom is within you when your gut feels like a spring day in Charleston, or a snowy hike in the mountains.  He says it's there. Period.

Sometimes I think the Kingdom will not be present, manifest, until my heart is where it needs to be.  And by that I mean, until my heart feels near to God, feels righteous, feels an awareness of God's call, His presence*.  But Jesus claims a reality of intimacy that disregards our feelings**.

God told Joshua, "Everywhere your foot treads, I have given it to you."  Did the ground feel different?  Did his feet?  I doubt it.  Fundamentally, the Promised Land was not about feeling, but about walking.  It was putting weight in feelings (doubt, fear) that drove Moses back into the wilderness.

I don't think the Kingdom is about feelings either.  And establishing our steps on our feelings can drive us away, too.  Pray for me, as I leave for Nicaragua on Saturday (for a week with St. Andrews), that I would act in faith, not feelings.  Pray for wisdom to know the difference, particularly when leading worship and as we visit a local high school Wednesday morning.  I'll keep you posted, if I can.  If not, as soon as I get back.


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* I am NOT saying that my heart can be in active, unrepentant sin and manifesting the kingdom of God.  More that I don't have to be perfect to live into the priesthood.  I didn't have to be perfect to get in- what makes me think I have to be perfect to keep moving?

** In John 14:7 and John 20:22 Jesus declares intimacy, sometimes even while noting their ignorance towards it.

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