By: General Jim Green (p. 8 in Issue Five of The Tribal Call) Text: 2 Kings 22 and Deut. 29
As far as this group here, we have been a community for twelve or thirteen years. But, we have not pushed into the fullness of what God has and that is why I want to take the time to deliver these messages: to let others know what God wants and what is available and the power behind “unity.”
The world is involved in the concept of “unity,” with disarmament, nations getting together, laying down arms, embracing other religions, being open minded, accepting different races, trying to understand people, all of these are attempts at unity. But, you cannot have true unity without God involved in it. There are five key concepts that I will bring forth which will build a strong Christian community. These concepts are for God’s people to attain the very best. I am not talking about the best in terms of materialism but the best in terms of the Kingdom of God. We are being cheated. Pastors and religious leaders of this generation and past generations have literally defrauded the people. They have stripped them bare of anything that they could have in God, higher than what they present. They present a “pig trough religion”: get down and slop it out with the hogs, grab all the world has, and get involved in the world—try to win the world and get all dirty, filthy and soiled, instead of going higher, cleaner, and holier in God.
God wants a holy standard, but God’s people have lowered themselves to such a pig existence, becoming hoofed whoremongers, whores, and pimps, and prostitutes. That is what we have today, and even though the religious don’t like to hear this, it is the truth anyway.
The community that God wants is not “churchianity,” but this community goes back to the beginning of time. All throughout the Old testament, all throughout the New Testament, you will find community. You will find tribes, you will find a holy people, a tribal people, a tribal community, an army of God; the Bible talks about all of these. But, what we have today is certainly not that. We are fragmented and we have factions all fighting against one another and none of them is really grounded in the unity of community concept.
The text is II Kings. Josiah was a young king, a sincere king; his heart was right with God, which was rare in those days as most kings were wicked. He had sent some of his workers to do some money transactions and to repair the house of God and in that effort, these men came across a book which they brought back to Josiah. When it was reviewed, it was discovered to be a missing book of the laws of God. In the 22nd chapter, Josiah initially didn’t know what this book was about, but as it was read to him, he rent his clothes as he discovered that they (the people of God) were not even living under the covenants of God. That is what we have today, in America and universally, religious works, but not under the covenant of God at all, but simply religiosity without righteousness.
This was a discovery to Josiah when the scriptures were read. In verse eleven, it says, “It came to pass when the king read the book of the law that he rent his clothes.” Now, jumping over into verse 13, it says, “Go ye and inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that is found. Great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book to do all of that which is written concerning us.” Well, when that book was written and you go back and read the book of Deuteronomy, which we have in our Bibles, you will see that it is the self same covenant book of Deuteronomy that was discovered. This covenant book is where we will be going For the five concepts which are the keys to a prosperous community in the Lord.
Now, I am not talking about churches—these things organized under the government of whatever country you may live in, whereby you have to get civil permission to serve God. THAT IS NOT WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. I know that we as Christians are guilty of fearing the governments of men more than we fear God Almighty and His government, and it is sorrowful that we have come to that. But, I have news for you, and I am boldly declaring that God wants a theocracy and not a democracy. The western nations, especially America, have been bent on pushing democracy on everyone all around the world. For this cause, wars have been fought, millions have died, all in the name of democracy.
Then on the other spectrum, tens of millions have died for the causes of communism and socialism, whereby men are trying to play god and establish the godless community, this is also a failure. As Christians we have been cheated to believe in any of these systems of men as though a form of government could solve all the world’s problems. We need to return to the roots God intended and that is why I am going to take us back into II Kings because it is here we find roots to our inheritance, to the keys to success in God.
The existing order, at least in this nation, of churches organized under the 501, that is not what God wants; that is not the Ecclesia. Ecclesia in the New Testament was a community of believers living together as a unit. It had nothing to do with various little churches. It was individuals brought together in community unity as laid down by Jesus and the Apostles. Community, not church was the true foundation which we were meant to build on. It was a people living, functioning, working, and witnessing together for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God upon this earth. It had nothing to do with paying a pastor to teach you and tickle your ears, giving you fancy revelations that don’t do your soul any good or teach you how to overcome sin. That is what is lacking today: the community aspect, living together in harmony upon this earth. God’s intention was not what has evolved with only a pittance being given to God instead of the totality which He intended for His people. God’s people have actually been cheated into settling for only a fraction of the blessings that God desires to give them. What God actually wants and will have in the earth today is a theocracy. God is calling forth His people to gather together, irregardless of how much carnal men do not want that, and irregardless of how much governments try to abolish that, God will have His people under His rule. The call is going forth around the world, and God is letting men and women know that this is the hour to name Him as King of Kings and come under His authority. We have too long feared men and their systems and have not feared Almighty God. That is exactly what Josiah came to recognize. Because their fathers had not listened to what God had to say, they did not teach the children right and here they were, living in blatant sin without knowing it, living in a broken relationship towards God because they had not been taught the truth, so they didn’t even know the covenant.
Josiah was a mover. When he came into the knowledge of righteousness, he took action to revolution. He implemented what he knew and went into high gear and changed the status quo. He brought Israel back into a covenant relationship with God. People that is what we need today, radical revolutionary movers who will obey God and make changes! Every church member will weakly defend themselves, declaring that they already have a covenant with God because they belong to a certain church of some kind or the other. But all of that is lip service business, because the living and the talking do not match up. We have to keep God’s commandments and dictates to us, not just mouth them while we live our polluted lives full of worldly garbage and religious hypocrisies. We cannot warm a pew and live in sin and expect the blessings of God over our lives. How do we make those changes of radical revolution? By abandoning the church cell and moving out into the community concept, going ALL THE WAY FOR GOD. GIVING UP OUR PRIVACY, OUR COMFORT, OUR THINGS, THAT WE CAN BECOME A UNITED SHARING PEOPLE WHO WILL ABANDON ALL TO SEE HIS KINGDOM COME IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN! ! !
Turn to Deut. 29:9: “Keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.” Now, that is the blessing, doing what God wants us to do. We have been cheated by the prosperity lust dogs, who have taught God’s people to salivate after materialism and yet have not taught them about the blessings that come from obedience. God is not asking us to salivate for the riches of this world, but He is telling us to desire the riches of His kingdom, to seek to receive the same. People have stooped to unbelievable levels of degradation trying to meet the deluded idealism of “prosperity Christianity” thinking they received the blessings when really what happens is that their wicked deeds bring upon them curses. We do not have to be reduced to the level of dogs, but we can keep the covenant, and God can give us what we have need of. He knows the kind of prosperity we need, be it in our health, our wealth, our understanding of His word, our fruitfulness as labourers in His vineyard. When we obey, He prospers us. God never intended His people to love things. He intended His people to love Him first, and then other members of His corporate body, His community. Never once did God command His people to love things! The love of things is pure and simple idolatry, and it is not scriptural. So we can see that the concept here is to “keep the covenants and you will prosper, keeping in the laws of obedience.”
Today, if you try to obey God, people accuse you of being under bondage, under the law, being an Old Testament legalist, etc. but the truth is, when we refuse to obey God, we are in rebellion, plain and simple. Rebellion is the same, be it in the Old or the New Testament orders. God’s moral laws and high standards of righteousness never change, and when we seek to obey those we are blessed. Even though we are not under the death threat for not keeping all these laws, it would do us good to observe the guidelines as in areas of eating and sexual behavior. After all, look at how many are dying from eating the wrong foods or too much of them and from indulging in sexual practices that are unnatural and that cause diseases to flourish. How much better off we would be if we would pay heed to God’s laws and His standards of righteous behavior. We here are seeking to obey God, so that we may live and be prospered by God.
The five key concepts we will be studying will show us what God wants us to know in order for us to be more well pleasing to Him, that we can come into unity with His desire, abandoning man-made order and come under Him.
When it is really studied out, we see that for too long, we have been duped into believing that God’s order for the New Testament was the church, which is not His order at all. The church was simply a meeting place. What God ordained was the Ecclesia, a called out body, or a community. It is amazing that we can be so defensive of something invented by men, yet when God faces us with truth, we have the choice to obey, or disobey and continue in our rut. But God desires radical revolution in this hour, and if that means forsaking the existing, accepted order, then we must obey Him for He is the life. The first concept which we will study is on the Transcendent God. This basically means that God is the Creator and we are the created; it means distinction. There is a clear distinction between God and man, and God is obviously the transcendent God because He is higher than man. No matter how many men try to present themselves as God, they are not God. Adam thought he could be God, but obviously he could not. Men desire to be God because they want to create and be in control. They want all power, they want to kill, they want to do what they want, and have all of the powerful attributes of God. God is transcendent, and He is higher than men that is why men imitate Him because He is the Creator. He is distinct and He is higher; therefore, He has the authority over us, we are His subjects. No where in God’s Word does He relinquish that position to men, to have authority over Him. Many men have tried, but they have lost, for God is authority and He is transcendent, far above men. Unless men abide by God’s standard, they cannot tell others what to do, that is they cannot bear righteous rule. Too many today are attempting to be rulers but they have not allowed God to rule over them; therefore, their rule is unjust.
So in the second key concept, we see that we must not only have God’s transcendence, but we must likewise have and recognize His authority, His hierarchy. Then we will deal with the subject of ethics, which pertains to standards of morality, of lifestyle, the righteousness, the holiness of God and man. What happened to the standard of God, and what happened to the commandment of God to His people to abstain from sin? What has happened? Why do men and women sit in front of a television all day long and suck in Sodom day in and day out? Viewing television brings in all manner of evil, yet most Christians do it every day with no shame. And yet they claim to love Him. They lie and they betray the ethics that God wants for His people. In order to have a true prosperity in God, there must be the godly standard—ethics whereby God’s people are given the laws and they adhere to them. The next concept we will touch on is sanctions, which God will place on us for either cursing or blessing. God will either bless us or curse us. So many ministers and ministries are cursed, constantly begging for money all the day long. They cannot even preach without begging someone, anyone, to pay their bills. That is a curse for they are relying on the arm of flesh and not on God. So, they receive a unfavorable sanction from God. Sanctions is intertwined with our commitments that we make to God and He makes to us. We can break our oaths and bring reproach on ourselves or we can keep our oaths and bring peace upon ourselves. Many times, God is forced to break His oath to His people because of their sinfulness.
The last point to be studied will be continuity, which means continuing. God wants us to continue our life in Him, not becoming circumvented along the way, not giving up, or compromising. God has a desire to be fulfilled in His people and through community. We shall see that He brings forth His desire. This is the generation when God is putting out the call to His community to be in unity, unity of purpose and life, and unity of standard and aspirations. This is the time to live His Word and fulfill Him. We shall have more on this in proceeding Issues of Tribal Call.
Its is time for Christians to come out of their prison cells and come into the fuflness of God. God does not ask us to live in a teaspoon relationship, but He wants us full of the richness of His presence as He evidences Himself to His community of believers. The call is going forth, all around the world. Spiritual Christians are feeling the call to community, for the Book of Acts was not intended to end, but to continue.