We want people to return to Eden. With Creation itself, we all long for a restoration of what we lost. When those of us appointed to eternal life have fully manifested our identity by a shift in orientation away from the fallen path and back to the divine way, then Creation can celebrate, and we with it. As Paul says so very clearly:
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the [full] adoption, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:18-23 NKJV)
While we have not the slightest inkling how God decides whom to adopt and whom He has created for destruction, we are left with hoping that as many as possible will join us. The whole point of revealing that there is such a thing as predestination is that we should not get hung up on saving every soul we encounter, as if it depended on us. It does not. God is master of the whole process from start to finish; we are just along for the ride. He uses us in this mysterious miracle process, but the only thing we can possibly control is inside of us.
So the battlefield of Spiritual Warfare is your own soul. You are the turf over which you fight. Don’t blame the Devil for doing the job God assigned him; blame yourself for coming up short of God’s glorious ideal. You aren’t fighting Satan, but your own carnal nature. The only way we can do anything good is by the Lord’s power working in us. So we trust in Him for every little thing.
The only way we can participate in His redemption of Creation is to cultivate an awareness of how He communicates in our hearts. Only under the rarest circumstances will something be obvious to our fallen senses. The vast majority of the time it is a very subtle pressure from our own convictions in our hearts. This requires a lot of stopping to shut out the world so we can hear His voice in our hearts. It means cultivating a very otherworldly orientation, a tendency to ignore the things that captivate those still totally trapped in the fleshly nature. It means putting all their concerns in a context they cannot comprehend.
So inevitably we will upset the applecart of human anxieties. We will not be railroaded into doing things their way, of caring about what matters to them. It seems to them that we are crazy. That’s our job. We invoke an awareness on a different level, and willingly bear the brunt of their misguided demands. Sometimes our actions will be a subtle passive resistance. Sometimes we will speak out, either cryptically or maybe plainly. Sometimes we will fight tooth and nail to resist their ways. It varies with your calling, mission and the context, but nothing is out of range for seeking His glory.
In the given context of life in the US, that calls for a very firm grip on certain themes in Biblical Law that reflect the unique sins of Americans. We harass this whole slavish devotion to reason and Western epistemology. We can never allow for one moment to let slip the awareness that this constitutes a flat rejection of Scripture. It means we aren’t seduced by wild notions of political and social democracy, when God makes it abundantly clear that we aren’t designed to live that way. So we promote clannish tribalism and ANE feudalism, a very fierce decentralization of human government. God’s revelation says nobody has any business telling you how to live unless they are related by covenant. Without that common covenant, and a conscious assent to it, there is no grounds for exercising any interest whatsoever.
One of the dirtiest tricks in America’s culture is to evoke a sense of ownership and responsibility over things God says aren’t your problem. Divine feudalism is nothing like the deceptive Western feudalism that makes everyone else a part owner in whatever God has give to you. They have no claim on His turf in your life. You owe them nothing.
This hideous lie of democratic social accountability is fake; it’s a lie that makes you vulnerable to the theft of those in power. The whole thrust of American society and government demands that you lie supine on the ground, nailed down by bogus controls, and wide open to raping convenience of TPTB. Government officials take no interest or responsibility if that constrained openness to government rape also leaves you open to the rape of many non-government predators. Government convenience is far more important than your insignificant life. You are nothing but an economic asset of TPTB.
How and when you resist that bogus assertion will always be a matter of the leading of the Holy Spirit, but it first requires that we reject the false assumptions so that we can expect His voice. For some of us, it could mean at times taking human life to satisfy the demands of divine justice in the context. Those times should be rare, requiring a very unquestionable demand for our convictions. But our restraint is from Biblical Law, not from secular social and legal expectations. If you can’t see the difference between those two, you will never understand holiness in this life.
We prefer to simply mind our own business, our divine calling, and leave others in their reckless drive to Hell. However, there are times when the Lord will need us to say or do something that gets their attention to divine justice. Whether they even receive, much less respond to that message is another matter only God can handle. Get rid of the false Western notion that you have an interest in their lives, until God brings them into your feudal domain. Only when they somehow come under your divinely granted authority can you do anything for them. You have no power to bless them otherwise.
This is why it’s so important for you to grasp the nature of divine feudal grants of dominion in this world. You should always keep track of where God draws your boundaries, and focus your attention on those He brings inside. That alone will be more than most of us can handle faithfully. The typical evangelical panic that they might somehow lose a soul they could have theoretically “saved” is not a biblical concept at all. Yes, reach out when the Spirit moves you to broadcast divine revelation. Make some noise on behalf of His glory. Always be ready to celebrate with Creation when something feels right. But don’t assume you have somehow failed if some random audience member isn’t manipulated into making a psychological conversion. It’s not in your hands how people respond. Be faithful in the message; the response is entirely in His hands.
