Stop repeating the past. Start creating the future. Mark Batterson, The Lion Chasers Manifesto, Chase The Lion
God put you on this planet (with all of your unique quirks and kooky character issues) to abolish the status quo and thereby establish His dominion.
So how do we do that?
It is going back to God’s perspective of reality and living as if we really BELIEVE it. His purpose-His reality-is to raise up a delegated group of people who work with Him to destroy the works of the devil, who demonstrate and prove the will of God here on earth as it is in Heaven. That is the core of the Great Commission, and it is your privilege and mine to co-labor with Him in it.
– Bill Johnson, How God Sees Me [emphasis mine]
Our mission, is to bring Heaven’s dominion to earth, and I believe the time is now.
Breaking with the past
I guess I started “rocking boats” as soon as I came back to the Church (as a reforming prodigal) who just didn’t know any better than to listen to Jesus and try to do what He said. It seems I skipped Church Politics 101, and went straight to, How to Rock the Kingdom by Rocking Boats!
That was the day I wanted to start a food bank in my church to help out single moms. The pastor-in-charge informed me, “We don’t have those kinds of people in our church!” Silly me.
So, I decided to simply ignore his statement, and instead, go out and buy groceries myself. After all, I was the one who had listened to their weeping prayers at our last singles bible study. I knew for a fact, they were sweating out the last few days of the month until their next check arrived, wondering how they would feed their children.
I don’t know, maybe I have always been the square peg.
I was a prodigal for ten years, and by the time I came back to the Church I had a lot of baggage.
Frankly, I now believe, it was that dented, and a little crazy, beat-up-desperation of mine, that caused me to grab on to scripture as fiercely as I did. Not that I got everything right every time.
(Oh no, not even close!)
But, my past did give me this “red-neck-dirt-road” kind of outlook on the Church, and so for sure, I knew I just didn’t FIT the stereotypical “church lady mentality and image” of what I couldn’t, or shouldn’t do.
(I guess I still don’t if truth be told.)
And I take a lot of carefully-put camouflaged flack for the way I blog.
You see…
I’m supposed to be, “… more touchy-feely. I’m not supposed to be so blunt. I’m only supposed to talk about churchy-things and do it in a churchy-way. And for heavens sake, “Don’t tell it ALL! (Gulp!) TMI girl! T.M.I!”
The problem with that prevailing ‘tude, is that there is already a plethora of parrots out there doing that churchy-thing in the “acceptable” churchy-way, and I’m thinkin’…
“Do we really need another one of those blogs?”
I decided when I began this whole blogging adventure that I would try to transparently tell my story in my own square-peg fashion.
(Who knew trying to be authentically-me would rock so many boats?)
But Jesus rocked boats, didn’t He?
In point of fact, the Bible is chock-full of boat-rockin’-fools who just, “went for it” with a true square-peg-gusto!
Establish A Dominion Mindset
I love what Chuck Swindoll said about eagles and parrots!
I believe God calls all of us to EAGLE-faith with wide-seeing and wide-soaring. You can’t do that by staying inside a neat little box, doing what has always been done, making everyone around you feel comfy and cozy.
No, I think Chuck got it absolutely right…
Eagles are independent thinkers.
It’s not that they abandon the orthodox faith or question the authority of God’s inerrant Word . . . it’s simply that they are weary of being told, “Stay on the perch and repeat after me.” Eagles have built-in perspective, a sensitivity that leaves room for fresh input that hasn’t been glazed by overuse.
The church today is in desperate need of eagles—people who come to their tasks with the abandonment of that keen-minded Jew from Tarsus. If you need an illustration, read Romans. Like a careful midwife, Paul assists in the birth of doctrine, allowing it to breathe and scream, stretch and grow, as God the Creator designed it to do. And he isn’t afraid to say it for the first time, using a whole new vocabulary and style that is as original as it is accurate. There’s not as much as a parrot feather on one page of that one-of-a-kind letter.
So then, which will it be? If you like being a parrot, stay put. But if you’re an eagle at heart, what are you doing on that perch? Do you have any idea how greatly you’re needed to soar and explore? Do you realize how out of place you are inside that cage? Even though others may not tell you, eagles look pretty silly stuck on a perch picking over a tasteless pile of dried seeds.
I’ve never heard anybody ask, “Eagle want a cracker?”
Creating the future
My point is this. If you want bring Heaven to earth and storm the gates of Hell? You are going to have to rock some boats. You are going to challenge people who like the status quo and resent you BIG-TIME for messing with it.
But The Great “I AM” said,
I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a path right through the sea. I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses, to lie beneath the waves, dead, their lives snuffed out like candlewicks. But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I’m going to do! For I’m going to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Don’t you see it? Isaiah 43:16-19 TLB
So, I’m hoping you shake-off the parrots eagles… and RUN to the roar!
FOR MORE: The Power of Genuineness, Kris Vallotton Bethel Church
Women With Destiny 