The Dying Seed Breaks the Bubble
Introduction
Whilst most of the Australian population is in COVID lockdown, here in glorious WA we rarely have these sorts of problems. And with a booming mining industry we are the only state running a surplus budget. People keep saying that it’s like we are in a bubble of protection. This discernment is both true and misleading. Our blessedness has made possible an unprecedented proliferation of Churchwide prayer meetings; so far for Myanmar and India and soon for South Africa and Indonesia. I see this stirring as a herald of a coming greater movement in prayer-mission that will mark the identity of the Church here, I also sense that something much more penetrating must take place. Something which on one level will flourish within the bubble of prosperity in another dimension it will burst the spiritual power of this bubble. (cf. Barbeques for the world: Perth as an end-time city of refuge.). Like how the mission of the gospel moved forward under the civil peace created by the Roman Empire, even when its power base in the heavenlies had been dethroned by the death of Jesus (Col 2:15). To understand how such things can happen we need illumination about the depths of the distortions caused by sin and the deeper power of the cross.
Sin’s Depraved Fruit
In Genesis 1 Adam-Eve is created at the apex of a cosmological pyramid, whilst in Genesis 2 the world is created in circles around him. Therefore, when Adam and Eve turned away from the Word of the Lord by which all things were made (Heb 11:3) the universe began to fold in on itself as a judgement of God. The creation has been “subjected to futility” by God, not as a final goal, but on the way to the resurrection of us as the sons of God (Rom 8:20-21). Along this trajectory, until he Returns, the Lamb of God releases wars, famines, natural disasters, and pandemics. This is the frightening picture of the famed Four Horseman of the Apocalypse canvassed in Revelation 6, where at every stage Jesus unseals the divine plan. There is a divine pattern. The plagues of Egypt must precede the liberation of Israel (Ex 7-12), plagues must go before the splendour of the Lord as he comes to destroy his enemies (Hab 3:1-5), the darkness of the cross must precede the light of resurrection (Mark 15:33; 2 Tim 1:10) because suffering must signal glory (Luke 24:26). According to plan the present pandemic prophetically signifies a great delivering move of God. Not automatically, but through the hearts of a remnant in the Body being convicted by the ultimate complete wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:18-25).
Releasing the Rainbow
Someone was praying for the “rainbow nation” of South Africa the other day, a nation of recent violent unrest, massive unemployment (33%), and the most COVID deaths in Africa. The true rainbow of peace is created only by the blood of the cross (Rev 1:5; 4:3; cf. Gen 9:13-16; 37:31). This heavenly canopy (Isa 4:2-6) shields the earth with a wisdom that resists the way of the evil rulers in the heavenly places and is now being revealed through the Church (Eph 3:10). This spectrum of wisdom (see: Cross-Connect Vision) opposes the pragmatic, whatever “works best”, attitudes dominating culture and Church today. This wisdom releases into human life and culture the all-reconciling power of the blood of Jesus (Col 1:20). It does this by going in the exact reverse direction to the radical introversion (me/I/self-first) of all evil since Eden. It involves a Christlike Body/Bride that wills to suffer that others might live. It means the emergence of a new martyr spirit penetrating the Church.
Will to Die
I remember being taken by a Tongan princess to the site where the first missionaries preached the gospel, and where they were butchered and eaten. This happened many times across the South Pacific, which today is one of the friendliest and most peaceful parts of the world. This radical cultural shift happened because the blood of the saints has had a permanent impact on the conscience of those nations. How different Australia might have been if it was missionised before it was colonised and some of the early white evangelists were slaughtered by the Indigenous people instead of the other way around! There is a story line in scripture that can and must be renewed today. It is the will to atone, to turn away divine wrath directed at others at one’s own cost.
When the slaughtering angel was about to strike Jerusalem, David prayed, “Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house.” (2 Sam 24:17). Paul boasted, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church…. death is at work in us, but life in you” (Col 1:24; 2 Cor 4:12 cf. Eph 3:13). The angelic voice proclaims, “they have conquered him (the dragon) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev 12:11). Taking on suffering for others reverses the direction of the action of God from judgement to blessing. To understand just how we must speak of the cross of Jesus.
The Dying Mustard Seed
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24). As the grain that dies and the mushrooming mustard seed (Matt 13:31-32), the crucified Christ Jesus looked like the smallest of all (Phil 2:7), but his sovereign will to die totally (Mark 14:36) is releasing a multitude without number in his likeness (Rev 7:9). A S/spirit keen to give up everything for Jesus is the exact opposite to the comfort culture suffocating mainstream Australian Church culture. I sense. against the order of all visible realities, the Church in Perth has a specific gift, the Spirit is spontaneously sowing into the hearts of many a seed unto death. In a short time, this will germinate and become inescapably visible. With all sober-mindedness (1 Thess 5:8) I sense God is calling forth those who will die on the mission field for his own glory and the glory of the Church in Perth (as per Antipas for the Church in Pergamum, Rev 2:13)
Conclusion
We modern Westerners have vastly underestimated the power of martyrdom. We need a revelation that the self-sacrifice of a child of God is more precious in his sight than all known worlds. Given the immensity of such things it is time for us to “stand in the gap” to avert the judgement of God from the earth (Ezek 22:30). In union with Jesus, it is time to “make intercession for transgressors” (Isa 53:12)? There is nothing as kingdom-power releasing as a life freely given in death. In Christ, you are seed called to die (Gal 2:19-20). When the Church in Perth has a remnant willing to die (relationally, economically, socially, physically) then the bubble of ease (James 4:13-17) that makes her largely irrelevant to God’s global missional purposes will burst and there will stream forth into the world prayer, praise and proclamation without ceasing (John 4:21-24; Isa 2:3). This will mean a new spiritual history for the Australian Church. Ask for it and it will come!