This is not a checklist; this a parable of how to approach the task of spreading the gospel the Radix Fidem way. This post assumes you are already familiar with other Radix Fidem teachings.
1. The Power of Prayer — This is the foundation. Nobody can make you believe this, but it’s the basic assumption for everything we can do in this world to spread the gospel message. If you don’t experience that power, you can’t do anything that matters.
It starts with changing you and I first. If you can grasp the Spiritual Warfare metaphor, then you realize that changing ourselves is the crux of all we do. We seek to build up a stronger hedge that keeps demonic agents from having access to our lives. When you pray for revival, you are asking the Lord to start with you.
And praying for revival is a two-edged sword, because it always means asking for His wrath to fall on sin. Because we seek His cleansing power, we fully expect to face His wrath as the scalpel that cuts away the fleshly weaknesses that interfere with our divine inheritance. We want shalom; we want Him to feel welcome to live in our lives. So we are actively seeking His wrath on our own sin, because we want it gone.
2. Covenant Is Everything — There is no shalom without a valid biblical covenant. We hold that Radix Fidem is such a covenant, but you can always come up with your own. Whatever it is you point to as your covenant, it must in some ways present the fullness of Biblical Law in your context.
Thus, here in America, Radix Fidem always includes an emphasis on making the church body tribal and feudal. There must be a conscious embrace of such a covenant. The people you encounter claiming Christ must be able to describe the covenant to which they adhere. You should be able to find some common ground that includes the things we know are in Biblical Law. You should have in your mind a list of essential elements. It can be a sliding scale of how close you consider that fellow believer, but it has to be based on a valid covenant of Biblical Law.
Keep in mind the teaching about the household of God: It’s not a question of whether someone is going to heaven, but how God wants you to regard them within the spiritual domain He has granted to you. At any given time, every person you encounter will hold one of three roles. Are they covenant family, an ally in service, or simply a slave who serves God’s purpose without understanding? Sometimes we refer to that last one as “cattle” God is herding.
The US is not a covenant nation. Unlike the Old Testament, we do not live under the expectation of covenant law and custom binding us to a high moral standard. Thus, we in our covenant families must treat the rest of the world around us as Israel once treated Gentile nations. We keep them at arm’s length and separate ourselves as holy unto the Lord. They are not us, and we are not them.
Further, our church gatherings under our covenant are private, not a public accommodation. Sure, we invite outsiders to join us, but they do so with no expectation of American institutional customs. This is a private family gathering, with the feudal tribal expectations we glean from the Scriptures. It’s all about that spiritual covering that drives out the demons, so an outsider is not family. They are a guest and must walk in the courtesies of a guest.
3. We Seek Shalom — The whole point is to seize back from Satan all the covenant blessings he has impounded by default. Another applicable image is that we seek to escape his clutches and return to the camp of our Father. Biblical Law is privilege, not a restriction. The Covenant is its own reward.
And we seek to amplify that shalom by sharing it with others. We want to draw them into our world, because this is the one place where bigger is better, in that it’s not just numbers, but it’s the real estate of our lives together. We want more of each of us to be occupied with God’s work. If your life is like land to be conquered, then its not enough to simply kick the demons out; we must occupy that space with productive living for the Kingdom.
4. Call for Anointing — Without a fairly specific anointing, there can be no foundation on which to build a shalom community. Somebody has to have it. It need not be viewed as permanent, but if you are the only one who embraces Radix Fidem on your mission field, then it has to be you. And if not you, you’ll know to pray for someone to come alongside who can bear that burden of anointing.
There has to be a called shepherd somewhere in this.
5. A Mission Field — God will tell you where that mission field is. The default is where you live. Otherwise, the Father will most certainly appoint you something else, like where you work, or where you spend the bulk of your social activity. Discern where your heart is on this issue, but start somewhere.
