Not Many

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” (Revelation 12:10-11)

The hint here is that they overcame Satan by dying. His authority is confined to this fallen plane of existence. The other two items were the things they did while they yet lived. They gloried in a sacrifice on their behalf when they had nothing that would suffice for recompense, and it gave them a testimony of power and righteousness while they lived.

It’s not despair or suicidal depression if you know that your life is forfeit when you kneel at the Cross. That was inherent in the image of the Flaming Sword at the Gate of Eden. The Cross and the Flaming Sword are the same thing, in that sense. The only reason this fallen existence is worth the trouble is because His glory isn’t finished with us yet.

It’s my character to face high risk situations as if they were a game. Dying is winning, if it’s for the right reason. That’s how I’ve gotten to the place that I have so many injuries. That sense of adventure is a part of manifesting divine glory; we delight in His mission calling on us. I’m hardly the kind of guy who would run away and hide.

But I’m convinced my mission and calling requires that I go underground. It’s not a question of the risks, but of what’s most effective for His glory. I need to know what He has in mind for me. He’s the one who decides what effectiveness is, and in my life, the will of God is to avoid making myself a target right now.

I didn’t ask for this. It was not in my planning at all. But in order for me to please Him and continue serving, I have to operate in a way that will protect others from being targeted. That means a measure of anonymity. If they don’t know who we are, they can’t target us. Resigning from any pretense of leadership means I’m not leading anything that can be a target. It’s the same principle of military maneuvers: You walk dispersed enough that a hand grenade won’t wipe out the whole platoon. Thus, the force remains mostly intact and able to carry out the mission.

If they decide to target me, we need to keep enough voices alive to keep our gospel message present on the battlefield. That’s the other half of resigning from leadership. It’s more than my taking the discipline of the Word. The Lord brought me to this place and I’m only now beginning to see clearly why He did that. What some would regard as public shame actually means moving me to a different, clandestine mission. The shame was just the cover for pulling me out of the limelight. He’s not hiding me from you folks, but from those who would seek to stifle the message.

This blog remains mostly private; it’s a sort of half-way ground where I can share with those of you who sense a strong kinship. If you need a word of encouragement, I’m still within reach. Anyone wishing to be closer will have to take that extra step of coming to find this blog, and it’s a much harder target than the other, more public blog I have. Given the traffic stats, that’s a very small group. That’s how it should be.

We overcome by our shalom, and apparently there won’t be very many of us.