About a year ago I became aware that God was communicating to me through real-life incidents that had symbolic meaning. I was so excited about this novel concept that I started keeping a log of these incidents and their meanings, hoping to write a book someday.
Then, wouldn't you know it, I was hanging out on the Aslan's Place website and saw that the book has already been written! It's called, If This Were a Dream, What Would It Mean? The author, Murray Dueck, explains how everyday events can have spiritual meaning. The examples he gives, especially of symbolic events involving England's royal family and India's Parliament, are fascinating. Even though it meant my idea was not original, I enjoyed the confirmation the book provided that God does, indeed, communicate through symbolic incidents which I like to call real-life parables.
Here's an example of one of the first ones I noticed.
It was about 2 a.m. and my husband jumped out of bed in alarm. He was certain he had heard someone come in the front door. He called warnings down the stairs. After checking to make sure our children were accounted for, he made his way downstairs, weapon in hand. In my state of grogginess, I refused to acknowledge that there was any real threat. I knew I had locked the front door before going to bed, and anyone coming in that way would have set off the security system. Eventually he came back to bed, confident that no one had entered the house after all. I remember thinking, as I fell back to sleep, that it was a very strange incident, particularly because my husband was so convinced he had heard someone at the front door.
The next night my daughter had a sleep-over birthday party with about eight of her elementary aged girlfriends. They all slept in the living room, and I went to bed long before they did. That's why I was surprised when, at 5:30, which was my usual rising time, I came downstairs to find several of the girls already awake. It seems they hadn't slept much all night. First a couple of them had seen what they thought was a coyote prowling right by the house. Then some of the girls heard the door knob on the front door turn. They thought they may have seen the form of someone on the front step. Although mass hallucinations at 10-year-old girls' slumber parties are probably not unusual, the girls seemed unusually staunch in their beliefs of what they saw. Even when I grilled one-on-one some of the girls who I felt were more reliable, they did not back down on their story or admit that it could have been their imaginations. Even so, I wouldn't have given it too much thought. But the fact that it happened the very next night after my husband's mysterious nocturnal hallucination gave me pause.
After the girls had all been picked up by their parents, I settled into a quiet morning. In fact, it was too quiet. The phone hadn't rung all day. Sure enough, I found out that the phones were not working. My first thought was that a sinister prowler had cut our phone lines like always happens in the movies. But I learned from the phone company that about ten homes in the area were affected. Another odd situation. We had never lost phone service randomly like that before, and we never have since.
On my prayer walk that day, I pondered these events. I thought it could be a picture of spiritual warfare. The devil was trying to gain access to our family, but he was not succeeding. I felt that the Lord was telling me that our boundaries were secure.
Then about 4 p.m. I received a phone call from my bank. A banker advised me that all my bank accounts, including my checking, savings, and credit card accounts needed to be closed. It turns out that someone from Kazakstan had tapped into the bank's computers and had viewed my account. Although he hadn't accessed any funds, the bank expected that his plan would be to return to withdraw money from my account very soon.
So that's what the odd events of the last two nights were about! They were warnings that someone was trying to access our financial accounts. And the telephone outage was to show that it was an electronic attack, so to speak.
But did that mean my original interpretation that I felt God had given me (about the spiritual warfare) wasn't accurate? Actually, I felt both interpretations could co-exist. They weren't contradictory. In fact, the Kazakstan incident was consistent with the front door incidents. The hacker had rattled the door knob and peeked in the window, but hadn't taken anything. The bank had caught the problem in time; our electronic boundaries had held.
That picture of spiritual warfare has been very comforting to me over the past year. I have felt under attack by the enemy at times. And while I can say he hasn't taken anything of true value from me, he has caused a great deal of stress and hassle. Having to close all my accounts and re-open them turned out to be a much bigger job than I had anticipated. I had to set up all my auto drafts again, and some of them became problematic, taking months to actually resolve. So, while the devil hasn't won any true spiritual victory over me, he has probably wasted my time and made me less effective than I could have been without his interference!
I am so glad Jesus is praying for me. According to I John 2:1, Jesus speaks to the Father in my defense. I suppose it is similar to what he said to Simon Peter in Luke 22:31-32: "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
And I'm thankful that God gave me those interesting pictures that helped clarify the spiritual realm for me.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Five or Ten Cities?
"'Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.'" (Luke 19:17)
For most of my Christian life, that verse didn't excite me. I knew that, as a believer, I will "rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years." But, frankly, the thought of sitting on some throne in some remote city in Africa or India for a thousand years didn't sound like too much fun to me.
About a year and a half ago, however, I was introduced to the concept of city reaching, and my whole view of the Millennial Kingdom changed. The idea that we as Christians today, not just in the Millennium, have the chance to transform the cities in which we live was new to me. I've always been involved with the stream of Christianity that puts tremendous focus on the local church. Growing our church seemed to be the goal, not transforming society by being salt and light "out there."
One of Arthur Burk's statements that has affected me the most is that sometimes our prayers aren't being answered because we are not praying big enough. Praying for our friends and family and church is good, but God wants us to have a larger vision. Arthur also helped me see Acts 17:26 - 27 in a new light. "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us."
For the first time, I realized that "exact" means "exact." Did God put me in the exact spot in Dayton that He wanted me to live? And did He put our business in the exact location in Champlin where it is? Looking back on how we acquired our home and business properties, I can see that both were presented to us; we didn't actually search either of them out on our own. Timing and circumstances worked together to bring us to these exact spots. The question is, "Why?" Paul answers that, too: So that men would find God.
In other words, God has placed me in strategic locations in Dayton and Champlin so that I can point the people around me to Him. Suddenly, God gave me a heart to pray for these two communities to see them transformed by His power to come into the calling and fullness God means for them to have. As I was gaining this insight, God took me to Jesus' parable of the ten minas. Now when I read about the reward the faithful servant received, it jumped off the page! Wow! He got ten cities! And I had only been praying for two! I could see I needed to broaden my vision even more.
Then I realized that the cities God will probably give to us to rule over during the Millennium will not be cities that we don't know anything about. They will most likely be the same cities that we prayed for, worked for, loved and cared for in this life. Now, that excited me. And it gave me a goal beyond "retirement." If I want to get a head start on my job during the thousand-year reign, I should do everything I can in this life to bring my cities into alignment with God's plan now.
I made a list of "my" five cities:
- Dayton
- Champlin
- Anoka
- Osseo
- Maple Grove
Then I asked myself why I would want to shoot for second place! I added five more, to make up my ten target cities:
- Brooklyn Park
- Corcoran
- Hassan
- Rogers
- Coon Rapids
At this point I have no idea what strategies God will use to bring His transforming touch to these communities, nor what role I will play. For now, I am learning what I can about city reaching and meeting regularly for prayer with some women in my neighborhood. I'm asking God to release me, my family, and my business into our role in His plan for Dayton and Champlin. He has been working, that's for sure, and not necessarily in the ways I thought He would.
Like many Christian leaders today, I'm convinced that city reaching is what God wants to do today. And I want to be a partner in that. I agree with what Rich Marshall states in his book, God @ Work, Volume II: "If you're not involved in some form of initiative to transform cities or nations, you are missing the point of your calling and destiny in Christ."
Friday, July 11, 2008
Inner and Outer Healing
Two years ago I had no idea that I needed inner healing; indeed, I had never even heard the term. Since then God has transformed me from the inside out using some gifted and caring people who shared these concepts with me. The people and resources that were most helpful to me were Marjorie Cole at Life Recovery Center, Layen and Shirley Adelmann with Family Foundations International, and the Transformation Series CD Set by John and Paula Sandford.
One of the catalysts that directed me toward inner healing was losing my sight in my left eye. In the fall of 2005 I contracted a rare parasite that infected my left cornea. After several months of severe pain, I was left with no sight in that eye. The first corneal transplant I had failed after six weeks, and I was again blind in my left eye for six more months until I could have the procedure repeated.
At my husband's chiropractic clinic, the doctor and staff had been performing emotional release techniques to help patients find more complete physical healing. One of the resources we use is the book Feelings Buried Alive Never Die by Karol Truman, which lists the common emotional roots of many physical complaints. Since I wanted to give my new cornea every possible chance of success, I determined to search for and resolve every possible emotional and spiritual root that might affect it. That "opened my eyes" to the world of inner healing and how it can affect our physical health. I discovered there were indeed many spiritual roots behind the loss of my sight, and as I dealt with those in prayer, I grew closer to the Lord and found healing for many past hurts and lies that I had believed.
By the way, my new cornea is doing great; the doctor is amazed at how healthy it is every time she checks it. Thank you, God!
He Loves Us, Warts and All
As another example of how physical symptoms, illnesses, or dysfunction can point us to areas in our lives that need emotional and spiritual healing, I offer the story of the wart on my index finger. I had this unsightly wart right on the knuckle of my right index finger. It developed a couple of years ago, I guess, and with all my eye problems, I never paid much attention to it. But after making a great deal of progress with issues concerning my eye, I felt like it might be time to address this relatively minor but still aggravating condition.
I started by asking myself what symbolism relates to the afflicted body part. In other words, what does the index finger stand for? The first thing that came to mind was "pointing the finger," or judging. I was disappointed at that consideration, because I felt that I had been quite judgmental in the past, but that I had let go of that. As I prayed about it, however, God showed me some significant ways in which I was still judging others rather than taking responsibility myself. After working through that for a few days, I checked the wart to see if any changes were apparent. I thought it might be a little smaller, but I attributed that to my imagination.
Next I considered what other symbolic meaning the index finger has, and I realized that we stroke the right index finger with the left index finger when we say, "Shame on you!" Shame was certainly an issue for me, I knew. I had grown up in a very poor family. My parents were anything but "normal," and I was often ashamed of them. My father was bipolar and had horrific manners; my mother, although very sweet and kind, was schizophrenic. So I prayed about these issues again, although I had addressed them to some extent already.
As I was going through this process, the Lord put together some events and words that were spoken to me in close conjunction so that I found myself experiencing an uncharacteristic level of anger. Although I first assumed it was my husband's fault (who else?), upon closer reflection I realized that my anger at the small thing my husband had said was completely out of proportion. I was also experiencing a crazy headache brought on by exposure to rubber, which I have been sensitive to for as long as I can remember. It turned out the anger, the thing my husband had said, and the rubber were all related. As I was praying, God gave me a memory that was key to all three, and it was related to childhood sexual abuse I had experienced. Again, I thought I had already dealt with this issue, but the shame was still there. I struggled in prayer with the Lord that day, and He met me in a powerful way, giving me the grace to fully forgive the perpetrator while gently showing me my own sinfulness and His forgiveness and grace toward me.
Within a couple of days I noticed that the wart on my finger had shrunk by about half. It was not my imagination this time. Over the next week, it continued to shrink. I also prayed about feelings of being unattractive and gave those to the Lord.
Now that the wart was hardly noticeable, I wondered if I needed to do anything else. One day on a prayer walk I began to ask what other symbolism resides with the index finger. I thought about pointing out problems and directing (as one might point to someone and say, "You stand over there.") It occurred to me that those are actions that might represent the redemptive gifts of Prophet and Ruler, respectively. I considered all the Prophets with whom I had had difficult relationships and the Rulers toward whom I might feel animosity. Some friends and relatives came to mind, and I prayed to release judgment, forgive, and bless each of them.
The ones who seemed to be more significant were my two sisters, and I remembered a few of the more significant hurt feelings and prayed about those situations. When that was done, I felt that there was still something else. I remembered Arthur Burk's (Plumbline Ministries) teaching of reconciling the parts of your own spirit with each other. Having been raised with schizophrenia, I just didn't like Arthur's concept of speaking to the different portions of my own spirit in order to encourage them to get along with each other. Let's not foster multiple personalities, was my view!
Nevertheless, I felt that I had squelched in some way my own spirit's redemptive gifts of Prophet and Ruler. I'm a Teacher, but everyone's spirit contains some of each gift, and we become more well-rounded individuals when we can nurture the best qualities of all seven gifts. I could see that as a child when my feelings were hurt by my Prophet or Ruler sisters, I probably made an inner vow of "I'm never going to be like her." That judgment I made subdued the portions of my spirit that would be good at spotting and solving problems (Prophet) and organizing, directing, and administering (Ruler). So, feeling rather odd, I spoke to my own spirit and told my Prophet and Ruler portions that I released judgment toward them, I forgave them, and I blessed them, giving them permission to perform their functions in my life. I did have the feeling that I was a more complete person after that time of self-reconciliaton.
Well, you guessed it. After a week passed, there was no sign whatsoever of my former wart. I had never taken a single vitamin for getting rid of warts or applied a single topical agent to the wart during the time it was disappearing. God healed the inside, the soul and spirit, and the outer, physical healing followed.
Now Paul's statement in II Corinthians 12:9b - 10 takes on a new meaning: "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknessess, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
If we viewed each physical problem as a hint from the Lord that He wants to heal something emotional and spiritual inside of us, how would our lives change? And how much healthier would our physical bodies be?
I'm thinking more and more that the physical is a picture of the emotional and spiritual, just like the physical tabernacle on earth represented the Heavenly tabernacle.
One of the catalysts that directed me toward inner healing was losing my sight in my left eye. In the fall of 2005 I contracted a rare parasite that infected my left cornea. After several months of severe pain, I was left with no sight in that eye. The first corneal transplant I had failed after six weeks, and I was again blind in my left eye for six more months until I could have the procedure repeated.
At my husband's chiropractic clinic, the doctor and staff had been performing emotional release techniques to help patients find more complete physical healing. One of the resources we use is the book Feelings Buried Alive Never Die by Karol Truman, which lists the common emotional roots of many physical complaints. Since I wanted to give my new cornea every possible chance of success, I determined to search for and resolve every possible emotional and spiritual root that might affect it. That "opened my eyes" to the world of inner healing and how it can affect our physical health. I discovered there were indeed many spiritual roots behind the loss of my sight, and as I dealt with those in prayer, I grew closer to the Lord and found healing for many past hurts and lies that I had believed.
By the way, my new cornea is doing great; the doctor is amazed at how healthy it is every time she checks it. Thank you, God!
He Loves Us, Warts and All
As another example of how physical symptoms, illnesses, or dysfunction can point us to areas in our lives that need emotional and spiritual healing, I offer the story of the wart on my index finger. I had this unsightly wart right on the knuckle of my right index finger. It developed a couple of years ago, I guess, and with all my eye problems, I never paid much attention to it. But after making a great deal of progress with issues concerning my eye, I felt like it might be time to address this relatively minor but still aggravating condition.
I started by asking myself what symbolism relates to the afflicted body part. In other words, what does the index finger stand for? The first thing that came to mind was "pointing the finger," or judging. I was disappointed at that consideration, because I felt that I had been quite judgmental in the past, but that I had let go of that. As I prayed about it, however, God showed me some significant ways in which I was still judging others rather than taking responsibility myself. After working through that for a few days, I checked the wart to see if any changes were apparent. I thought it might be a little smaller, but I attributed that to my imagination.
Next I considered what other symbolic meaning the index finger has, and I realized that we stroke the right index finger with the left index finger when we say, "Shame on you!" Shame was certainly an issue for me, I knew. I had grown up in a very poor family. My parents were anything but "normal," and I was often ashamed of them. My father was bipolar and had horrific manners; my mother, although very sweet and kind, was schizophrenic. So I prayed about these issues again, although I had addressed them to some extent already.
As I was going through this process, the Lord put together some events and words that were spoken to me in close conjunction so that I found myself experiencing an uncharacteristic level of anger. Although I first assumed it was my husband's fault (who else?), upon closer reflection I realized that my anger at the small thing my husband had said was completely out of proportion. I was also experiencing a crazy headache brought on by exposure to rubber, which I have been sensitive to for as long as I can remember. It turned out the anger, the thing my husband had said, and the rubber were all related. As I was praying, God gave me a memory that was key to all three, and it was related to childhood sexual abuse I had experienced. Again, I thought I had already dealt with this issue, but the shame was still there. I struggled in prayer with the Lord that day, and He met me in a powerful way, giving me the grace to fully forgive the perpetrator while gently showing me my own sinfulness and His forgiveness and grace toward me.
Within a couple of days I noticed that the wart on my finger had shrunk by about half. It was not my imagination this time. Over the next week, it continued to shrink. I also prayed about feelings of being unattractive and gave those to the Lord.
Now that the wart was hardly noticeable, I wondered if I needed to do anything else. One day on a prayer walk I began to ask what other symbolism resides with the index finger. I thought about pointing out problems and directing (as one might point to someone and say, "You stand over there.") It occurred to me that those are actions that might represent the redemptive gifts of Prophet and Ruler, respectively. I considered all the Prophets with whom I had had difficult relationships and the Rulers toward whom I might feel animosity. Some friends and relatives came to mind, and I prayed to release judgment, forgive, and bless each of them.
The ones who seemed to be more significant were my two sisters, and I remembered a few of the more significant hurt feelings and prayed about those situations. When that was done, I felt that there was still something else. I remembered Arthur Burk's (Plumbline Ministries) teaching of reconciling the parts of your own spirit with each other. Having been raised with schizophrenia, I just didn't like Arthur's concept of speaking to the different portions of my own spirit in order to encourage them to get along with each other. Let's not foster multiple personalities, was my view!
Nevertheless, I felt that I had squelched in some way my own spirit's redemptive gifts of Prophet and Ruler. I'm a Teacher, but everyone's spirit contains some of each gift, and we become more well-rounded individuals when we can nurture the best qualities of all seven gifts. I could see that as a child when my feelings were hurt by my Prophet or Ruler sisters, I probably made an inner vow of "I'm never going to be like her." That judgment I made subdued the portions of my spirit that would be good at spotting and solving problems (Prophet) and organizing, directing, and administering (Ruler). So, feeling rather odd, I spoke to my own spirit and told my Prophet and Ruler portions that I released judgment toward them, I forgave them, and I blessed them, giving them permission to perform their functions in my life. I did have the feeling that I was a more complete person after that time of self-reconciliaton.
Well, you guessed it. After a week passed, there was no sign whatsoever of my former wart. I had never taken a single vitamin for getting rid of warts or applied a single topical agent to the wart during the time it was disappearing. God healed the inside, the soul and spirit, and the outer, physical healing followed.
Now Paul's statement in II Corinthians 12:9b - 10 takes on a new meaning: "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknessess, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
If we viewed each physical problem as a hint from the Lord that He wants to heal something emotional and spiritual inside of us, how would our lives change? And how much healthier would our physical bodies be?
I'm thinking more and more that the physical is a picture of the emotional and spiritual, just like the physical tabernacle on earth represented the Heavenly tabernacle.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The Mercy Season
If you know me very well, you've probably heard me talk about the Redemptive Gifts as enumerated in Romans 12:6 - 8. The teaching on the gifts has been extremely meaningful to me, and I love trying to figure out what gift a person has. I've even gone so far as to create a questionnaire to use to determine people's gifts. Why are these gifts so important to understand? "Identity is central." If you know who you are and who you were designed to be, you will be better able to make decisions about what you should be doing in your life and how you should be doing it.
As I understand the gifts, each person is designed with one primary gift in which to operate. We do well to cultivate the strengths of all the gifts, but one of them will feel like "home" to each of us. Here's a brief description of the gifts (in order, which is important, as we'll see later).
Prophet: designed to solve problems based on understanding and application of God's principles
Servant: designed to create an atmosphere in which everyone else can thrive
Teacher: designed to heal those who have been spiritually or emotionally wounded by applying God's truth to their lives
Exhorter: designed to reveal the nature of God through encouraging others
Giver: designed to provide resources for people and programs
Ruler: designed to pull together a team of people to accomplish complicated tasks
Mercy: designed to bring the spiritual climate into right alignment through the blessing of presence
Bill Gothard (of the Institute of Basic Life Principles) was the one who first recognized these seven gifts as a different category of gifts from the "manifestation gifts" of I Corinthians 12. Arthur Burk of Plumbline Ministries has fleshed out the concept by coordinating the redemptive gifts with other lists of sevens in Scripture. For example, a Prophet may gain special understanding of himself and his design by studying the first day of creation, the first words of Christ spoken from the cross, and the first letter to the churches in Revelation.
Arthur Burk went on to apply the redemptive gifts to land. As part of a city-reaching strategy, he encourages believers to determine the redemptive gift of their city and to pray and act with that design in mind. When I first heard this teaching, I was quite skeptical. How can cities have redemptive gifts? Yet each of us knows intuitively that one city "feels" different from another. Cities do seem to have a personality of their own; could this be the redemptive gift coming through? After listening to Arthur Burk's "Redemptive Gifts of Cities" CD set, I'm now comfortable with that concept.
In fact, I've tried my hand at determining the redemptive gifts of some cities in my area. I may give more details in a future post about how I have arrived at these designations.
Champlin: Servant
Dayton: Mercy
Anoka: Teacher
Brooklyn Park: Giver
Maple Grove: Giver
Osseo: Mercy
I had lots of fun applying this teaching to cities; it helped me view my mission field in a different way. I was pleased that I had been able to wrap my mind around this concept and gain fresh insight because of it that I hope to be able to use to advance Christ's kingdom.
The next time I turned around, however, Arthur Burk was applying the redemptive gifts to time and history. This was indeed a stretch! I was starting to question whether my favorite Bible teacher had gone off the deep end, but I decided to hear him out. After listening to his "Mercy Season" CD set, I was easily able to see how the redemptive gifts can be applied to the seasons of the New Testament era. Having been raised in a fundamentalist Baptist church and Bible College, I had heard many sermons and teachings about how the seven letters to the churches recorded in the book of Revelation parallel the time periods of the Christian era. Since Arthur Burk believes the letters parallel the redemptive gifts, this is another way of expressing the same concept. Here are the eras that Arthur Burk suggests:
Prophet: Jesus through the apostles
Servant: the persecuted church from 100 - 300 A.D.
Teacher: the dark and middle ages; the monastic era
Exhorter: the Renaissance and Reformation
Giver: the century of missions (the 1800s)
Ruler: the 20th century in which institutions and programs were built
Mercy: the current era, beginning in 2004
Arthur gives reasons for placing the conception of the Mercy Season in 2004. His primary rationale is that at that point leaders in many different streams of the body of Christ began to notice that the things they had been doing weren't working anymore. Have you noticed a change in the way the time "feels" now compared to four or five years ago? You may feel slightly out of place, or restless, or unfulfilled. A major hallmark of the Mercy Season seems to be that institutions pale in importance compared to intimacy and relationships.
Does the Mercy Season have eschatological significance? Well, we know that the Bible says that the end times will have something in common with the days of Noah. Genesis 5:28 says, "He (Lamech) named him Noah and said, 'He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.'" Sounds like mercy, right? The mercy gift parallels the seventh day of creation in which God "rested from all his work."
Arthur believes that we are entering only the second Mercy Season since the beginning of time. He suggests that the seasons look like a wave: Time began with Adam in a Prophet Season and the curve descended through Seth, Enoch, and Methuselah until it reached its nadir at Noah; it then began to rise throughout the Old Testament period, revisiting the gifts in reverse order. Here's my suggestion for how the time periods might have lined up.
Mercy: Noah
Ruler: Abraham through Moses
Giver: Joshua and Judges
Exhorter: Israel's united kingdom
Teacher: Israel's divided kingdom and the Exile
Servant: 400 years of silence
Prophet: Jesus' first coming
The wave then continued with the seasons coming in one through seven order. This could mean that we are in the final season before Christ's return--we are nearing the second nadir of the wave. Then again, there could be another cycle--who knows?
It seemed funny to me that time would end at the nadir of the wave, but then I considered that the seasons could go backwards again through the millenium, reaching a zenith with another Prophet period at which time God would create a New Heaven and a New Earth. Time ceases at that point (I think).
What should we do about the Mercy Season? The mercy gift is all about relationship, spiritual intimacy, and worship. I have observed that the youth of today have no tolerance for facades; they value transparency. Of course, there is no true intimacy without transparency. I believe God will (and already is) working differently in the Mercy Season than He did during the Ruler Season. It was easy to focus on performance in the Ruler Season, and we were probably able to get away with it. But now God is more than ever calling us to BE the church, not just DO church. Our faith must permeate all facets of our lives, from our employment, to our friendships, to our community involvement, to our family relationships.
Now more than ever I believe God is calling us to have relationships with our family members that represent who He is. To reach our communities during the Mercy Season, we need to have our act together. We need to be able to be transparent. Reconciliation within our families and then within the body of Christ is "Job One," at least for me for now. I don't believe we as individuals will be released to impact the culture until we have done the hard work necessary to be reconciled to everyone in our lives. Jesus said, "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift" (Matthew 5:23-24).
For those who have already passed this milestone, I think it's time to connect with people on a very real and intimate level. I don't think people are going to be reached primarily through church outreach programs. They will be reached by the Church in the marketplace: everyday Christians exerting their influence on society and in one-on-one relationships. I believe the prayer evangelism approach planted during the latter years of the Ruler Season will mature and bear its best fruit during the Mercy Season.
But, when it comes down to it, I'm just as much a learner in this Mercy Season as everyone else is. We are waiting on God to see what He will reveal in this new season. I just know it's going to be exciting, and I want to be in the middle of it getting my hands dirty!
As I understand the gifts, each person is designed with one primary gift in which to operate. We do well to cultivate the strengths of all the gifts, but one of them will feel like "home" to each of us. Here's a brief description of the gifts (in order, which is important, as we'll see later).
Prophet: designed to solve problems based on understanding and application of God's principles
Servant: designed to create an atmosphere in which everyone else can thrive
Teacher: designed to heal those who have been spiritually or emotionally wounded by applying God's truth to their lives
Exhorter: designed to reveal the nature of God through encouraging others
Giver: designed to provide resources for people and programs
Ruler: designed to pull together a team of people to accomplish complicated tasks
Mercy: designed to bring the spiritual climate into right alignment through the blessing of presence
Bill Gothard (of the Institute of Basic Life Principles) was the one who first recognized these seven gifts as a different category of gifts from the "manifestation gifts" of I Corinthians 12. Arthur Burk of Plumbline Ministries has fleshed out the concept by coordinating the redemptive gifts with other lists of sevens in Scripture. For example, a Prophet may gain special understanding of himself and his design by studying the first day of creation, the first words of Christ spoken from the cross, and the first letter to the churches in Revelation.
Arthur Burk went on to apply the redemptive gifts to land. As part of a city-reaching strategy, he encourages believers to determine the redemptive gift of their city and to pray and act with that design in mind. When I first heard this teaching, I was quite skeptical. How can cities have redemptive gifts? Yet each of us knows intuitively that one city "feels" different from another. Cities do seem to have a personality of their own; could this be the redemptive gift coming through? After listening to Arthur Burk's "Redemptive Gifts of Cities" CD set, I'm now comfortable with that concept.
In fact, I've tried my hand at determining the redemptive gifts of some cities in my area. I may give more details in a future post about how I have arrived at these designations.
Champlin: Servant
Dayton: Mercy
Anoka: Teacher
Brooklyn Park: Giver
Maple Grove: Giver
Osseo: Mercy
I had lots of fun applying this teaching to cities; it helped me view my mission field in a different way. I was pleased that I had been able to wrap my mind around this concept and gain fresh insight because of it that I hope to be able to use to advance Christ's kingdom.
The next time I turned around, however, Arthur Burk was applying the redemptive gifts to time and history. This was indeed a stretch! I was starting to question whether my favorite Bible teacher had gone off the deep end, but I decided to hear him out. After listening to his "Mercy Season" CD set, I was easily able to see how the redemptive gifts can be applied to the seasons of the New Testament era. Having been raised in a fundamentalist Baptist church and Bible College, I had heard many sermons and teachings about how the seven letters to the churches recorded in the book of Revelation parallel the time periods of the Christian era. Since Arthur Burk believes the letters parallel the redemptive gifts, this is another way of expressing the same concept. Here are the eras that Arthur Burk suggests:
Prophet: Jesus through the apostles
Servant: the persecuted church from 100 - 300 A.D.
Teacher: the dark and middle ages; the monastic era
Exhorter: the Renaissance and Reformation
Giver: the century of missions (the 1800s)
Ruler: the 20th century in which institutions and programs were built
Mercy: the current era, beginning in 2004
Arthur gives reasons for placing the conception of the Mercy Season in 2004. His primary rationale is that at that point leaders in many different streams of the body of Christ began to notice that the things they had been doing weren't working anymore. Have you noticed a change in the way the time "feels" now compared to four or five years ago? You may feel slightly out of place, or restless, or unfulfilled. A major hallmark of the Mercy Season seems to be that institutions pale in importance compared to intimacy and relationships.
Does the Mercy Season have eschatological significance? Well, we know that the Bible says that the end times will have something in common with the days of Noah. Genesis 5:28 says, "He (Lamech) named him Noah and said, 'He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.'" Sounds like mercy, right? The mercy gift parallels the seventh day of creation in which God "rested from all his work."
Arthur believes that we are entering only the second Mercy Season since the beginning of time. He suggests that the seasons look like a wave: Time began with Adam in a Prophet Season and the curve descended through Seth, Enoch, and Methuselah until it reached its nadir at Noah; it then began to rise throughout the Old Testament period, revisiting the gifts in reverse order. Here's my suggestion for how the time periods might have lined up.
Mercy: Noah
Ruler: Abraham through Moses
Giver: Joshua and Judges
Exhorter: Israel's united kingdom
Teacher: Israel's divided kingdom and the Exile
Servant: 400 years of silence
Prophet: Jesus' first coming
The wave then continued with the seasons coming in one through seven order. This could mean that we are in the final season before Christ's return--we are nearing the second nadir of the wave. Then again, there could be another cycle--who knows?
It seemed funny to me that time would end at the nadir of the wave, but then I considered that the seasons could go backwards again through the millenium, reaching a zenith with another Prophet period at which time God would create a New Heaven and a New Earth. Time ceases at that point (I think).
What should we do about the Mercy Season? The mercy gift is all about relationship, spiritual intimacy, and worship. I have observed that the youth of today have no tolerance for facades; they value transparency. Of course, there is no true intimacy without transparency. I believe God will (and already is) working differently in the Mercy Season than He did during the Ruler Season. It was easy to focus on performance in the Ruler Season, and we were probably able to get away with it. But now God is more than ever calling us to BE the church, not just DO church. Our faith must permeate all facets of our lives, from our employment, to our friendships, to our community involvement, to our family relationships.
Now more than ever I believe God is calling us to have relationships with our family members that represent who He is. To reach our communities during the Mercy Season, we need to have our act together. We need to be able to be transparent. Reconciliation within our families and then within the body of Christ is "Job One," at least for me for now. I don't believe we as individuals will be released to impact the culture until we have done the hard work necessary to be reconciled to everyone in our lives. Jesus said, "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift" (Matthew 5:23-24).
For those who have already passed this milestone, I think it's time to connect with people on a very real and intimate level. I don't think people are going to be reached primarily through church outreach programs. They will be reached by the Church in the marketplace: everyday Christians exerting their influence on society and in one-on-one relationships. I believe the prayer evangelism approach planted during the latter years of the Ruler Season will mature and bear its best fruit during the Mercy Season.
But, when it comes down to it, I'm just as much a learner in this Mercy Season as everyone else is. We are waiting on God to see what He will reveal in this new season. I just know it's going to be exciting, and I want to be in the middle of it getting my hands dirty!
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