Governments
Corporations
Civil society organizations
Social clubs, formal and informal
Small/medium businesses/enterprises
Non-profit and private voluntary organizations
This is generally the
current set of organizations for human activity at the international, national,
regional, state, provincial and local level. We spend much time, money and
energy organizing ourselves in such entities as our ‘performance platforms’ from
which to do (launch) things. This includes ensuring that, organizationally, we
have congruence in our thoughts, words/vocabulary, and deeds. Though we
designate many of our organizations as ‘legal entities’, and treat them
judicially as ‘persons’, they clearly are not.
Interesting also how,
during His life in earth, Jesus also had this objective. He laid the
groundwork and sowed the seeds for establishment of His organization, The
Church, which was to grow into an influential local, regional, national and
international presence.
These entities have one
thing in common: they will not appear before The Judgment Bar of Christ to be
judged for their deeds, good or evil.*
Though Christ
organizationally established His Church in the earth, it is insightful that He
never charged this organization to challenge and change any of the many
other organizations in its midst. Rather, He insisted, ‘...Render to Caesar the things of Caesar...’ wOw, how could He
miss the succulent opportunity to charge The Church, organizationally, to ‘...change Caesars, and influence how Caesar
uses his things.’ Was this an incredible oversight?
Jesus prophesied that, ‘Lawlessness will abound!’ Knowing
the power of spoken words as an instrument of releasing faith, He well knew
what He was saying. He revealed that, ‘I
only say and do what I see/hear The Father say/do.’ Umm, so we can assume
The Father told Jesus to say these words. If The Father wanted lawless to not abound,
Jesus would have said otherwise, and our lives today would be far different.
God’s higher objectives are being achieved in the earth.
Rather than charging His
Church to target the many ways in which we humans organize ourselves into ‘performance
platforms’, He simply charged us to be Light in an increasingly dark
world. Light does not/cannot strain itself to extinguish darkness. It simply
shines, and in doing so, the immediate surrounding darkness is temporarily
extinguished. Genesis 6:5 reveals why darkness will not/cannot be permanently
extinguished in this life.
Rather than targeting our
organizational platforms, Jesus charged His Church to address the needs
(spiritual, physical, social, etc.) of persons/individuals, and also to ‘Make disciples...’ of them. This can
only happen as we share The Gospel of Christ, God’s Spirit changes people’s
hearts, and they decide to become a Christ-follower.
So what happens when we get
it backwards? We target all of the above-noted organizational platforms more
than the individuals that comprise them. We spend tremendous amounts of money,
time and energy trying to change their ‘Caesars,
policies, strategies, programs, audiences, budgets, tactics, and results’,
endeavoring to get them to see and follow our light. Meanwhile, the individuals
who comprise these organizational platforms are unimpressed. They either
have not yet been touched by the Light, or may have been touched, but not
adequately discipled to allow that Light to penetrate their lives to the point
that it substantially influences their choices, as manifested in their thought
life, words and actions. As a result, they resist, and their resistance becomes
a strong tool in the hands of spiritual enemies of The Church in their
efforts to block the message and impact of The Gospel of Christ.
The demonstrated western
approach to warfare is to ‘sever the head
of the snake!’ The efficacy of this approach is debatable, however, as
recent efforts to apply it have only resulted in a proliferation of
multi-headed snakes.
The Church has seemingly
adopted this approach in its ‘organizational warfare’, warfare against the
perceived ungodly platforms in which we humans organize ourselves. In doing so,
we not only miss the target Jesus set for us. We also inadvertently sow, water,
and cultivate seeds of incredible resistance to our core message, and to the
Light we purport to shine.
All these organizations will be absent,
And for them, Heaven will issue no warrant,
To appear at God’s Judgment Bar,
Yet with them, we all fuss and spar.
Better to target the people for whom to pray,
And to them, the ways of Christ to put on display.
Could it be they who may need to change and be discipled,
When organizations don’t meet your Godly approval?
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* NB: Revelation 20:11-15 makes absolutely no mention of any organizational entity appearing to be judged:
‘Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.’ (NKJ Version)
