Paradigm Shift
During the last decade, an interesting shift has been taking place among certain Christian circles. I'm of course not talking about half-baked Christians who have never really decided whether or not their life is truly surrendered to God's will. I'm talking about the ones who know that their sole purpose for existing is to do whatever their Maker intended for them to do (And if you've never tried it yourself, before you knock it you should know that to be such a one is to enjoy all of the blessings and pleasures that said Maker bestows on those that obey Him; the benefits are well worth any sacrifice).
For many, many years it was widely believed that those who had truly surrendered their lives to God's will and who had a "calling" would leave behind every ambition and spend the remainder of their years on a mission field of some sort, be it in the slums of Mexico or on Skid Row, U.S.A. Many of these God-lovers dropped out of college to go to Bible school or became a full-time missionary. The financial needs that these people had would often eventually lead them to take up "secular" jobs to care for their families, and while serving in these jobs they would somehow feel less "spiritual" and less useful to the Kingdom of God. Their only spiritual fulfillment would come when serving in their local church or on a short-term "mission". I can't tell you how many times I've seen churches take a young man on whom they had witnessed a "strong calling" and try to turn him into a youth pastor, an assistant pastor, or a salaried evangelist. Imagine if the Jewish leaders exiled in Babylon had witnessed the calling on Daniel's life and tried to take him from the king's court and install him in the local synagogue.
But in the last several years, the dialogue has changed. I truly believe that it was God Himself that started this new dialogue, as countless servants of God from region to region suddenly began to all say the same thing, albeit in different ways. God's message for the time we are now living in was that our traditional view of "the ministry" was just a little bit too small for Him. Terms like "marketplace ministry" began to be heard, and believers were told they no longer had to be ashamed or burdened by their "secular" positions, and that they had actually been called to be there.
You see, God is after the greatest harvest of souls ever to occur and the Church as we knew it was ill-equipped to ever produce or retain such a harvest. We have rejoiced over the raising up of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers in the household of God, but God is letting us know it is time to get positioned outside of the temple. It will not be possible to harvest cities of 4 million people by requiring everyone to come to a local church on Sunday morning in order to be ministered to. Most pastors are burnt out with the 50 or 200 they already have.
Ephesians 4:11-12 says that God has given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers "for the equipping of THE SAINTS for the work of MINISTRY." In his book, The Day of the Saints, Dr. Bill Hamon writes that just as Martin Luther taught the revelation truth of "the priesthood of all believers", the end-time move of God will proclaim the MINISTRY of all believers. Hamon states, "We are going to see a mighty spiritual army of professionals, laborers, students, hommakers, and retirees demonstrating Christ Jesus' ministry and overcoming power over all the forces of darkness."
Now let me clarify. I am not saying that those who laid down ambitions and careers in the past to serve God were wrong to do so, or that none of the gifted young men and women in our congregations should serve as pastors in the local church. Not at all. We are all required as individuals to obey when God speaks, and I know that to many of them He told them to do as they did. But here is the way I see it. God works progressively, and it may be that where the Church was and the way things were done was necessary for a time. I believe that over the last few generations, God was requiring a large number of his people to "come out from among them" and consecrate their lives and their futures for the gospel. God hates idols, whatever form they may come in. While generations ago, doctors and lawyers and business owners may have been idolized by Christians, in recent years it is those in full-time ministry who have been given idol-status by many believers. There may be those among us who will have to lay down their ambition to be a full-time preacher and instead start the business God is telling them to.
What I am saying is that the manner in which many in my generation will consecrate their lives has changed. Many will do so by heading back in to the boardrooms, the classrooms, and the courtrooms and demonstrating righteousness and justice from positions of influence. There will be apostles in business, prophets in government, godly teachers in our schools and universities, evangelists as Sales Directors in Fortune 500 companies, pastors in Human Resources. They will minister to their employees, witness to their clients, buy and sell land to be used for righteousness, prophesy into the destiny of nations, and manifest the love of Christ wherever they go.
I believe there is a powerful biblical parallel to what is occuring before us. In Genesis 15:13-16 God told Abraham that his descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs, held in bondage for 400 years. He said, "Then in the fourth generation they will return [to Canaan], for the sin of the Amorite is not yet complete." For centuries the Church of Jesus Christ has been in bondage - to false doctrines, to the world's system, but deliverance and truth have come both because of the cries of the oppressed and the measure of sin that has now increased and been made "complete". There is a generation of believers crying out for what has been promised. And there is a world out there that groans under the oppression of godless men and women who rule them.
But between the deliverance of Abraham's descendants and their journey back to Canaan lay a wilderness. It was in that wilderness that the pattern for God's house was given. The tribe of Levi was consecrated to serve as priests in the tabernacle and among the people. The law was given, the Word of God. Sacrifice was initiated, and consecration, service, and atonement realized.
But then the day arrived to cross the river. The tabernacle would go with them, but they would no longer camp around it. They would march in and take cities. They wiped out armies and turned every corrupt city and town inside out. On every place where they set their feet, they would take land. And then they set up righteous societies that lasted their entire generation. There was only one tribe called to carry the ark. The others were to go to war and take the cities.
I believe the Joshua generation is ready and we are already crossing over. The time in the wilderness, when we stood at the Tent of Meeting and worshipped and learned to be priests was all necessary. And some of us will continue to serve as Levites, carrying the ark and ministering in the house of God, serving before the people and before the Lord. But most of us will be called elsewhere. We are called to the cities. We are called to take the strategies of God to depose of principalities and powers that hold in bondage entire nations.
We honor the priests among us, but we do not despise our own callings. We embrace them. They are our passion. At night we dream about reforming the criminal justice system, about finding cures and breakthroughs in medicine and bio-chemistry, about restoring prayer in our schools, creating righteous legislation, forming new businesses that will bring wealth and opportunity where only poverty has existed. We are tired of watching the wicked foul things up. We are ready to take back the land that was promised to us.
Many of us are still catching on, and frankly some will just have to die in the wilderness. But make no mistake, this is the new day that has dawned. There will be battles, and sometimes failures, and even sin in the camp. But we will have our victory.
Recommended Reads:
The Day of the Saints by Dr. Bill Hamon
God @ Work by Rich Marshall
Anointed for Business by Ed Silvoso
Ruling in the Gates by Joseph Mattera
