TEACHING

Don Atkin

GOD’S PURPOSE IN GEOGRAPHIC ALIGNMENT

The church of the first century following Pentecost was aligned and identified by city or region in keeping with her high calling and purpose in the earth. That she has become fractured, marginalized, compromised, stunted and impotent within every community in every nation is directly related to loss of this proper alignment and identity.

Wrong understanding, worldly methods and/or willful ambitions have been at the root of this bad fruit. Here’s a quote from Richard Halverson, former Chaplain of the U. S. Senate:

Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship. Then it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, then it went to Rome and became an institution, and then it went to Europe and became a government. Finally it came to America where we made it an enterprise."

Men have packaged and marketed doctrines, principles and concepts for financial gain. Others have built their little (sometimes not so little) kingdoms around particular points of doctrine, treating what may be a part of the whole as the whole. Still others have isolated themselves in the pursuit of purity and holiness. Many have hearts toward God. Bottom line, we have been divided, and consequently conquered – or at least neutralized.

We can still win the war!

The spiritual hunger that many of us are experiencing is finding some degree of fulfillment as we enter into and walk in sweet fellowship with one another. We are finding common ground, common understanding, and communion as sons of God and joint heirs with Christ. We are affirming Jesus as our King and Head of the church, which is His body.

We are finding one another within the global community. We are in cyberspace, on the cell phone, traveling to meetings, going beyond conferences and conventions into roundtable dialogues and forums. Our hearts are connecting in the Spirit, as we taste of the power of the age which is to come, through our participation in the divine covenant between the Father and His Son.

Alignment has begun, as the precious oil upon the head, running down the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments (Psalm 133:2). We are just beginning to realize how blessed we are, that God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased (I Corinthians 12:18). God has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:18). Now then,

We are ambassadors for Christ

As though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God (Verse 20).

So long as we remain simply ambassadors for a particular way of believing, or a particular way of teaching, or a particular way of serving, we will be perpetuating the denominational dilemma that fractures, marginalizes, compromises, stunts and renders impotent the body of Christ. We will not win the war.

However, we can actually remain faithful to our calling as ambassadors for Christ without compromising our convictions or altering our alignments. It is a matter of changing our focus by allowing the Holy Spirit to change our hearts. We can have the heart, motivation and passion of Christ, and pursue relationships on new levels, in a variety of venues.

As ambassadors, we can faithfully represent our government (the kingdom of God) by manifesting the character of our government (righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit).

We can give expression to the priorities of our government (abiding faith, hope and love).

This witness belongs both in the marketplace and in the church community. I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him (Acts 10:34-35).

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9). (Repentance is to become a lifestyle for growing believers.)

As ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not to be slack concerning His promises. We are to be longsuffering toward one another. And, we should not be willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

On earth as it is in heaven

Discerning the sphere of our assignment, our ambassadorship, is essential to God’s purpose and to our destiny. In a general sense, the earth is our sphere. However, we must become more specific.

Some are allotted regional or national spheres. Others are allotted global spheres. Each of us should also be concerned with our local spheres. Granted, some with national or global spheres will not have much to do in their local communities. Nevertheless, we should be concerned with and praying for the kingdom to come in our particular part of the earth.

Many of the past errors that have led us astray have come about because of our propensity to run ahead of God, and try to finish what He has begun. Nevertheless, we should not shrink back from what is clearly God’s will and intention out of a fear of making the same mistake. To lag behind Him is equally the works of the flesh.

Jesus is building His church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). It would be fruitless to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done,” and not be given to the building of the church that is to overcome the darkness! We must be living stones who are willing to receive the master builders whom He sends, and willing to be built up a spiritual house for His habitation.

Can we grasp the local/regional implications of this word picture? Can we get hold of the practical ramifications?

God’s purpose in geographical alignment

1. We need one another to be complete. We complete one another. Paul’s revelation of the mystery is: Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). This is not simply a revelation about me. It is a revelation about us ~ together! It is Christ in you all together who is the hope of glory.

2. The revelation is in our midst. Each of us knows in part and prophesies in part. It is together that we get and can portray the big picture, the fullness of Christ.

3. The resources are in our midst. Everything that we will ever need to fulfill the will of God in our lives and communities has been deposited somewhere within and among us. While there are global resource responsibilities, we fall really short if there are not local manifestations of the corruption-eradicating sons of God.

4. The strategic equipping ministry may not be fully available in each home fellowship or local congregation. But, these gifts are for the body, and are to be broadened in scope until every believer is mended, equipped and released into the work that God prepared for him/her.

The war will be won in geographical spheres

And they (the brethren) overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of theirtestimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. – Revelation 12:11.

(It would be both easy and understandable to spiritualize the following. But, bear with me.)

Daniel made intercession for Jerusalem. Finally, after three weeks of fasting, God’s messenger came to Daniel in a vision, explaining that he was delayed twenty-one days by war in heaven.

Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.

“But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days.” – Daniel 10:12-13a.

It is beyond the scope of this article to delve into the issues of personally assigned guardian angels, their role in the heavenly battle, and the connection between our prayers and their success.

We should be able to see in this account that the forces of hell are geographically aligned. It doesn’t take much discernment to realize that the powers of darkness have strategic influences in specific cities and regions. I’ll name the city; you name the prevailing evil influence. Las Vegas. San Francisco. Dubai.

God has set us over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant (Jeremiah 1:10). Paul wrote,

For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? – I Corinthians 3:3.

Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. – Verse 7.

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. – Verse 9.

Paul was a team player as well as a master builder. He patiently labored in the midst of a diverse and divided people, graciously fathering them toward God and one another. He clearly laid foundations and affirmed elders from city to city, geographically identifying and aligning the church.

Solomon penned inspiring insights for the bride of Christ in Proverbs 31:

Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land (Verse 23).

Not much will be built or planted until we are aligned in order and unity by the clear directive of the Holy Spirit. Man cannot make this work. We have tried and failed, time and again. Nevertheless, we must keep the vision before us, and eagerly receive and embrace those with whom God joins us.

Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather healed.

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. – Hebrews 12:12-14.