Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time…

A conquering King invaded a land; defeated its army, subjugated its king, princes and lords; set up a brand new authoritative structure; then carefully hand picked, trained and established in offices people from the land to govern and administer it in His name. Though they suffered a crushing defeat, the former king of the land and his crew were not immediately executed, but left to exist under the heavy authority of their former subjects whom they had robbed, abused, and disrespected for decades.

The conquering King also established an intricate and highly effective com-link between Him and His lords, vassals and governors over the land, to ensure they would remain faithful and have immediate access to Him as needed back in His headquarters. Before leaving, He established, across the land, the word of His representatives as His OWN word, as valid and powerful in every respect, as long as they remained faithful to the requirements of their service, and kept in intimate contact with the new King. The requirements included paying homage, fealty and politico-military service to the new King. This system was to be carried on throughout successive generations until the King returned.

Sounds a bit familiar? Perhaps??

This is exactly equivalent to what God did via Jesus. They had originally established, in Adam, Their authority and dominion on Earth. Adam was to exercise this authority and dominion, principally with words, starting with the gargantuan task of naming every non-man creature on Earth! Some time either before or after he finished this task, he and Eve sinned, effectively handing their Earth-wide authority and dominion over to satan and his crew of fallen angels, who became king and lords over all things earthly. They had a front row seat during the creation of man and woman, and heard the ‘word-based delegation of authority’ Adam and Eve received from God via Jesus. (Yes, pre-incarnate Jesus was in The Garden of Eden.)  With this intelligence, satan and his crew were able to use deceptive words to trick Eve into disobedience. Their plan worked, and worked well for ages, until the Redeemer Whom God promised would come, actually came. But His coming would be in two strategic stages: first, to do exactly as was done in the story above; then later to establish His personal Kingdom on Earth, one that eventually would be without end.

Problem: Through successive generations of His reps, the authoritative structure and com-link He established appears to have gotten somewhat off track. Descendants of His carefully selected people have now been duped into a rather passive existence, allowing the former king and crew to reap havoc in restructuring all the world’s systems to fit their likings, and forcing the new King’s reps to ‘fit in’ or be derided. The world’s entertainment and work-for-money systems were the best restructuring efforts of the former king and his crew. The com-link established by the new King now seems to be used heavily, if not primarily, to beg the King to do from His headquarters (Heaven) stuff He authorized His reps to do in His name. Their authoritative ‘doing’ was to be by their ‘saying/speaking’ in faith, and the King’s power would be evident in their sayings (words in His name and authority) as long as they lived/walked in Love and especially forgiveness, and as long as they kept in close touch with Him in order to learn His ways and will, etc. He even sent extensive instructional letters (The Bible) advising how His systems work, including examples on the power of the tongue/words in our world.

As in any relay race, and for a myriad of reasons, Kingdom effectiveness wanes with the ‘passing of the baton’ to successive generations. While the problem is clear, the root causes are complex and deep. No human knows how many more generations remain to be born, mature, and face the challenge of passing on our spiritual heritage. Alas, it all remains in the capable hands of the Spirit of God to sift and sort through the human fingerprints all over God’s will as it unfolds on planet Earth, and unfolding it is! Even within yet unborn generations, God has already pre-positioned pivotal believers across the ranks who will lead many to righteousness, and who, along with their supporters, will one day rise from dusty graves to receive eternal stardom in God’s Kingdom on a new planet Earth.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake,

some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament,

and those who turn many to righteousness [will shine]

like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:2-3)