Last week, I had the opportunity to share a series of devotions on the Christian Businessmen’s Connection PrayerNet call. I encourage you to check out PrayerNet each weekday morning, at 6:30. The conference call number is (518) 318-7962.
For four days we explored the relationship between finding the center of God’s will – for protection and maximized impact in the storms, chaos, and crises which are heading our way – and participating with God in the restoration of His reign, intimacy, habitation, and glory with and within His children. This article contains the introduction devotion; I will post the others in coming weeks:
- Restoring God’s Reign
- Restoring Intimacy with God
- Restoring God’s Habitation
- Being Restored as the Vessels and Instruments of God Glory.
Introduction
As rough as it has been the last three years, we are still only a third of the way through this decade of storms, chaos, and crises. So far, we’ve had Covid (at least once), supply chain disruptions across the world, a continuing war in Eastern Europe, and cultural divisions and riots here in the United States. Crises seem to be popping up everywhere: addiction, suicide, immigration, loneliness, etc.
Our education, healthcare, insurance, and political systems are breaking down. The sexual revolution has matured into an evil we would not have imagined five years ago. Did you know the United Nations estimates there are between 3 and 6 million children trafficked for sex around the world and that half the content on the internet is pornography? Did you know that the United States is the first or second leading producer and consumer of pornography in the world?
These are things that are not going away any time soon; and on the horizon are the threats of another pandemic, a war in the Middle East, and the massive disruption by Artificial Intelligence. People in the IT industry predict that AI will displace between 50 and 100 million jobs, in the U. S. alone, in the next eight to ten years. Soft-totalitarianism and persecution of the religious are not guaranteed outcomes, but seem more and more likely as failing institutions and the elite attempt to stay in and increase their power.
Where is God in all this? Where are God’s people?
God is right here. In fact, He has allowed and created the storms, chaos, and crises for a number of good reasons.
- To discipline us.
- To test our faith and obedience.
- To force a decision.
- To transform us.
- To get His people out of the stands and onto the battlefield.
- To inspect, restore, and prove our houses.
- To ultimately destroy what does not belong.
- To advance His kingdom.
It is important to note that God is more interested in His people than His enemies – for blessing and correction.
It would be easy, even natural, to hear and see what is going on in the world (our very close world), and assume all is doom, gloom, and destruction. Do not miss this: To think this way is to fall into the enemies’ trap of fear and hopelessness.
The LORD God Almighty still reigns, and He is sovereign over all creation. We can still choose to receive the loving Father’s discipline with humility and repentance. By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can pass every test – tests that will strengthen us into mighty men and women of God. We can decide to pursue transformation by the renewal of our minds over further conformity with the world. We can become God’s weapons of warfare against the evil around us. And we can be agents of transformation in our spheres of influence.
We are living in a time of great influence potential for the church of God – for those who will listen and courageously obey. The key for Christians at all levels of maturity is our response to God’s creative purpose, salvation, and empowerment for the opportunities that storms, chaos, and crisis provide.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:10-12.
Brothers and sisters, we must not let the enormous challenges of our day distract us from the opportunities.
Leaders in the cognitive sciences – psychiatrists, psychologist, sociologists, and neurological scientists – have raised the alarm regarding the various mental crises plaguing our society: loneliness, despair, delusion, addiction, and suicide, calling it the “Meaning Crisis.” Again, doom and gloom to worldly thinkers, but not necessarily so to the followers of the Way, Truth, and Life.
One cognitive scientist, an unbeliever, has said, “The ‘Meaning Crisis’ provides the opportunity for religion to once again be the source of meaning, purpose, and wisdom for our society.” A door is opening. The big question is how do we step through the door God’s way, for maximum impact, in the spheres of influence entrusted to our care? Also, how do we become houses that stand in the storms as refuge, encouragement, and wisdom for the lost and wandering children of God?
To take full advantage of the opportunities before us, we must inspect ourselves to ensure we are in the center of God’s will, that we are focused on the ultimate purpose of God: to restore what He lost through our rebellion in the Garden.
All Will be Restored
In the conclusion of His story, in the book of the Revelation, we discover what God has been up to since that fateful day in the Garden of Eden: We find what He is working to restore – particularly in versus three and twenty-three:
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. Revelation 21:1-4, 23
Oh, what a glorious day! It is the day we long for, when “all things are made new.” It is the grand finale of God’s great story (at least the part He has revealed). In John’s description of this great day, we find a tight synopsis of His restorative purpose:
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“He will dwell with them” – It was always God’s intention to inhabit His people. This is the spiritual reality of that which will be physically manifested in the New Jerusalem.
God will fully restore the habitation He intended to have with His people.
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“They shall be His people” – We can only imagine the depths of intimacy God had with Adam and Eve in the Garden – and His loss in their rebellion. God sent Jesus to make a way for the restoration of His relationship with us.
God will fully restore the intimate relationship He intended to have with His children.
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“God Himself will be… their God” – The third thing God lost in the Garden was His reign in the hearts of His people. Before they disobeyed God’s command regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve determined to be their own kings. They rebelled against God in a futile attempt to become like Him.
God will fully restore His reign in the hearts of His subjects.
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“…the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” – In our rebellion, God lost mankind as the vessel and instrument of His glory in the earth. Jesus came and suffered to make a way for the restoration of God’s glory in and through His men and women.
God will fully restore His glory in and through His sons and daughters.
In the next four articles, we will look deeper into each of these great and mighty purposes, and explore how we might participate with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their restoration work.
We will explore the restoration of God’s reign next. In the meantime, read and meditate on Revelation 21. Allow it to captivate your heart, mind, and soul as your destiny and spiritual reality right now.
Affirmation
God will restore all He lost in mankind’s rebellion. He uses chaos to transform us and our spheres of influence. We are privileged and responsible to participate in the work, for His glory and satisfaction.
God bless you with courage and wisdom for His restorative work in the storms, chaos, and crises which are heading our way.
Have a strong day in the Lord,
Rob
#iamjustthepen