Truth 2.0
God has a response to the darkness and delusion of our present time. It is a matter of us perceiving and responding to what He is currently saying and doing. Truth never changes (Hebrews 13:8), but its expression and application do. Spiritual principle: when sin increases, grace also increases (Romans 5:20). Grace is the empowering presence of Jesus Christ.
The Father sends servants and messengers to earth to serve as conduits for heavenly solutions. These men and women are referred to as prophets. God makes prophets intimately aware of issues close to His heart and provides revelation from heaven to address these issues. Prophets share God’s heart for humanity. They partner with God to accomplish the salvation of the human race.
Under the New Covenant anointing, all believers operate as prophets in the sense that the Holy Spirit has connected us to the throne room of God. We share the mind of Christ and communicate His heart to a dark and unbelieving world. As ministers of reconciliation, we partner with Christ to advance and realize His kingdom (2 Corinthians 5:18)
The Holy Spirit is spontaneous. He illuminates Truth but also makes known to us what the Father is saying and doing in the present moment. He is a river of living water, not a swamp (John 7:38). The River of Life flows from the throne room of God through the hearts and minds of believers (Revelation 22:1). Abiding in the presence of Christ allows this river of revelation to flow freely. Solutions from heaven cannot flow if there is a blockage in the river of holy spontaneity.
What often try to confront sin and darkness using solutions that may have worked in a different time or place, but are no longer viable in the present. One hundred years ago, telling someone that they need to repent of their sin may have brought conviction. Today, telling someone the same thing may result in the person telling you, “that may be true for you, but I don’t believe in God.” We try to fit square pegs into round holes. In a post-religious culture, throwing Bible verses and dogma at issues doesn’t fix issues - it just makes us look self-righteous and arrogant.
Truth is Truth and the gospel is the gospel. Truth is always powerful and attractive. The crowds flocked to the ministry of Jesus (Mark 10:1). Our issue today in the Church is not that people hate Jesus or the gospel, it is the self-righteous presentation of the gospel that people can’t stomach. We are much more adept at making converts to an ideology than we are at introducing people to the empowering presence of Jesus Christ. An unbelieving world does not need something to believe in, but someone who believes in them. As God’s prophets, we must seek His will for a fresh and vibrant presentation of gospel truths that will meet the needs of hurting and broken people.
This truth can be illustrated through an episode in the life of Moses, perhaps the most famous prophet of the Old Testament. Moses leaves the Israelites to meet with God on the top of Mount Sinai. There, alone in the presence of God, the Lord fashions for Him the Ten Commandments for the Israelites. The Lord Himself engraves the tablets (Exodus 32:16). The Ten Commandments embody the Truth of the living God. Upon his descent from the mountain, Moses finds the Israelites engaging in idolatrous worship, dancing around a golden calf. Moses smashes the tablets on the ground and rebukes the people. The Lord tells Moses He will no longer abide with the people, but Moses intercedes on their behalf. Moses then begins to have “face to face” meetings with the Lord. The Lord speaks to Moses as He would a friend (Exodus 33:11).
Moses begins to personally experience the glory of God. The Lord promises Moses that he will see His glory, goodness, compassion, mercy, Presence, and signs and wonders. He invites Moses to re-write the tablets while in God’s presence on Mount Sinai. When Moses descends from Sinai, his face is radiant (Exodus 34:24). Despite the disobedience and rebellion of the Israelite people, God has allowed access to greater glory, now embodied in the new stone tablets and radiating from the face of Moses.
We are Moses. We behold the face of God and, in doing so, are transformed into His glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18). Just as Moses wrote on the stone tablets before God, the Lord invites us into His presence in order that we may hear from Him and bring His heavenly solutions into the earthly realm. What is so interesting about this story from the Bible is that the first time Moses goes up the mountain, we read that God was the one who wrote on the tablets. During Moses’ second time on the mountain, God is not the one who writes on the tablets - Moses is. This is after Moses’ personal experience in God’s presence.
God invites us, His prophets, to meet with Him on the mountain. In this place of contact, He invites us to co-labor with Him in the creation of heavenly solutions that will present life, purpose, and meeting to the masses. God’s heart is not that we just hear what He has to say to us, but that we take responsibility for earth’s problems and craft solutions in partnership with His Spirit. This is symbolized by Moses’ writing on the tablets during his second experience on the mountain. God invites Moses to write on the tablets.
We are God’s prophets, called to engineer heavenly solutions to the problems that plague the earth. These heavenly solutions come about from us assuming an intercessory heart for the lost and broken and co-laboring with Christ. God writes these solutions not on tablets of stones, but on our hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3).
