See the series here
While reflecting on this concept, The Lord took me on a revealing 5-scene tour of His perspective on this topic.
In the first scene I saw images of the church in which I ‘grew up’ in Norfolk, Virginia, where my parents had joined well before my birth. The focus sharpened on a string of men who, over my ~2 decades there, seemingly had ambitions of replacing the aging pastor, and reimagining that church per their personal visions. Whether, due to The Lord’s ‘callings’, or their impatience, one-by-one, they departed to start their own reimagined churches, some taking with them several members of the already small congregation. After ~30 years, my Father, a humble, tested and proven servant, became the next pastor, a role in which he faithfully served over 30 years.
In the 2nd scene, I saw a university friend who started a church, and was a long-term, faithful pastor to a small congregation. He embraced a man who was interested in ‘learning the ropes’, and serving this congregation. That man eventually captured the hearts of a large segment of the congregation, and convinced members to leave with him, to start his own reimagined church. My friend is still dealing with the fall-out from this …coup d’état equivalent.
The 3rd scene shifted to The Lord’s innumerable company of angels, organized in ranks and files, with different powers to perform assigned functions. Their core functions are to worship, honor, obey Jesus, The Loving, Gracious and Merciful Lord God over all created beings and things, and to benefit FULLY from His boundless GOODNESS. In the tour, I understood this was The Lord’s 1st ‘church-type’. Angels were apparently given the gift of free will, just as humans were subsequently given. You know the story. At some point, Lucifer, a high-ranking angel, attempted a coup d’etat to reimagine Heaven according to his own desires, with him replacing Jesus on the shared Throne of God and Jesus. Lucifer convinced a third of all angels to rebel with him. They lost the battle, were kicked out of Heaven, and fell to Earth, and Lucifer became satan.
On Earth, they witnessed The Lord’s creation of mankind. The Lord’s plan for us was to be His 2nd ‘church-type’, a unique type of created beings who, on a unique, heavenly planet, would love, worship, and obey Him (as the remaining two thirds of holy angels do), and to benefit FULLY from His boundless GOODNESS. You know the story. Adam capitulated to satan’s temptation to sin and to reimagine life on Earth to his liking. In rebelling, Adam ceded his God-given authority over all things on Earth, to satan’s kingdom of devils and demons, who, with our help, have wreaked havoc, on The Lord’s church-type plan for us.
The 4th scene shifted to The Lord and Moses on Mt. Sinai, shortly after the exodus of Hebrew slaves from ancient Egypt. There, The Lord summarized His plan for the nation that would become ancient Israel. Israel would be a called-out people who would reflect and glorify The Lord by their lifestyles, and would benefit from His boundless GOODNESS. In the tour, I understood Israel was to be The Lord’s 3rd ‘church-type’, a ‘nation church’. But even well before Israel settled into the promise land, some Hebrews had begun to reimagine and reshape The Lord’s plan to suit their sinful lifestyle desires. This attitude greatly expanded after Israel settled into the promise land. As a result, she was subjected to a long string of warnings and ramped-up judgments from The Lord, eventually culminating in His decision to split the people in to two nations – Israel and Judah. Subsequently, He allowed the land to ‘vomit’ both nations out of the promised land via invasions of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman armies that killed, captured and scattered many.
Stay tuned for the 5th scene of this tour.
