Service Recap: Elections Are Reflections

(From Sunday, 11/07/10, Apostle Ainsworth, The Rock of Greater Burlington)

Politics are the mirror, not the means, of change in society.  They're not where our hope lies.  So what does bring true change?

About a year ago, I (all personal stories are me, Jennifer) swallowed a huge pill, ate some serious humble pie, and learned one of the most valuable lessons I'll ever learn in life.  You can be right and wrong at the same time.  You can be factually correct but wrong in your attitude or approach.  And if you're partially wrong, that makes you just wrong:  a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.  If you want to hold on tightly to your (perceived) rightness, as so many of us are wont to do, you'll end up as the man standing in the middle of a field, all alone, shouting, "I'm RIGHT!!"  Good for you, dude.

Back to politics.  In high school, politics was it for me.  I have always been philosophical and have always enjoyed a living, current relationship with God.  I thought that the political arena was the best platform for bringing change to people, for helping them know real freedom, truth, hope, and responsibility.  I was fascinated with how societies govern themselves and how they decide on laws, what's truth, what's moral.  I went to Boston University pursuing a degree in political science and a husband who would one day be president.  Seriously.

But I found a lot of striving and not much progress, a lot of facts but not much truth, a lot of activity but not much life (both in the church and politics).  I was annoyed, still hungry, still thirsty, dissatisfied, jaded.  Then I learned better.  I encountered the Kingdom of God, and it knocked me flat.  I encountered an apostle (which is the ministry gift of spiritual father, not some spooky weirdo in a robe, though there are surely weirdos in robes who call themselves apostles and confuse people, but I digress), and I realized that the Kingdom of God, of Yahweh (and not just heaven some day in the future), is the best government and means of change.  Everything else is the activities of man, a reflection of who we really are.  Suddenly, I knew where all the interests of my eager youth pointed and heard the call.  I would pour my life into the Kingdom of God.  Boy oh boy, does that ever bring perspective!

Politics can be a useful tool, but as Christians, Christ ones, believers, Kingdom people, we must know that our success lies first in the spirit realm and in hearing and obeying the voice of God.  Our hope will never lie in election results, and I cannot be moved by that system.  "The answer to grouchy people doing wrong things is not a bunch of grouchy people trying to do the right things in the wrong way" (Apostle Ainsworth).  Vicious cycle!  We do have some serious work to do and are certainly not just waiting to "fly away, oh glory."  Nor should we hole up and hide away somewhere by ourselves.  But there is a right way to fight.  The political systems of man are what we would call a "kingdom of this world," and we are forging ahead until "the kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ" (Rev. 11:15).  So what now, then?

"The answer to grouchy people doing wrong things is not a bunch
of grouchy people trying to do the right things in the wrong way."

We fight our battles, but we do not fight our battles on their battleground.  We fight on ours.  Then we see the results reflected in theirs.  We're fighting to establish the Kingdom of God, to redeem the earth and the people in it, to bring the truth and hope and righteousness and living relationship with Yahweh, through Yahshua (or Jesus), and purpose to the hearts and lives of all.  What was a natural battle in the Old Testament is a spiritual battle in the New Testament and into today.  That will never happen through politics.  Now if you hear Him tell you to go into politics, do it!  And do it well.  Stay in His presence and remember what Kingdom you're of.

You see, political systems will try to get us fired up, forgetting who we are.  Do not be lured and lulled out of your place of safety and productivity into the place where you become embroiled in complaining, confusion, fear, despondence, anger, and dishonoring authority when the tides of fickle society ebb and flow, as reflected in elections.  Your place of safety and refuge and power is in the presence of God, in the spirit, where He will speak to you and lead you through strategic decisions in life that will shake and change the earth if you'll let Him.  Do not be lured out of your place of safety to where you're fighting them ineffectively on their battleground.  You will lose your focus.  You will lose your peace.  You will lose your hope.  You will lose.  Be careful what voices you permit to sway you.  I might agree with some of the basic political ideas of entertainers like Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck (some, I said, not all!), but they are just that: entertainers.  They make money off of stirring us up and maximizing on the fears of people who don't know where their hope is, or good people who aren't sure how to make a difference.  They are fighting on the world's battleground and have become so much noise in an already noisy climate.  Shut out the noise if you must.  Hear God.  And move with power.

From Nuremberg Bible, 1483

Abner was lured out of safety, and he lost his life.  Abner killed Asahel out of necessity, only after trying to convince him to stop his pursuit.  So then Abner fled to Hebron, a city of refuge so that Asahel's avengers couldn't kill him (II Samuel 2).  Therein was his place of safety.  But alas, Asahel's brother Joab lured Abner out of Hebron "to talk."  I don't know how Joab convinced him, but as soon as Abner stepped outside the gates, out of safety and onto his enemy's battleground, Joab straight up killed him.  When David heard the news, he didn't say, "Oh, that tricky Joab is in trouble now!"  Nope.  He cried and lamented, "Died Abner like a fool.  Your hands were not bound, nor your feet chained.  As a man falls before wicked men, so you fell" (II Sam. 3:34).

So I say again!...Do not be lured by the world out of your place of safety to where you're fighting that fight on their battleground.  Do not fall, unchained, unbound, but foolish.  Guard your emotions so that they are ruled by Holy Spirit and the word of God.  Our political system is vicious, and it does not change the hearts and character of people.  It only reflects them. 

Your place of safety and refuge and power is
in the presence of God, in the spirit.

Therefore, whatever happens politically, at least in our country, gives a good indication of the state of the people.  Some people might say, "Where was God when this guy I don't like got elected!!"  I'll tell you this much, Yahweh wasn't sitting around wringing his hands, wondering what to do, nor was He sitting back laughing at your woes.  He is in charge of all things, working all together for our good, even when the "all" we give Him to work with is sometimes less than pretty.  He also works with the wills that He gave mankind in His wisdom, and "as He foreknew, He predestined" (Romans 8:29).  He often lets His judgment come by way of letting us have what we want (Adam and Eve anybody?).  You want righteousness?  He freely gives you His presence and the peaceable fruits of righteousness.  You want wickedness?  Have at it, and see what follows.  If the majority of a country wants to legalize wickedness, righteous people do not need to mourn and wail.  We need to focus on the Father and stay the course and be ready for the inevitable fallout.  God moves through His people.  Believe me, He is moving, but He wants a mature body to move with Him and do business on His authority.  Come on, somebody!!

We don't ignore what's going on around us.  We do take seriously our call to establish the Kingdom and not be ignorant of where our power lies.  When the fruits of bad behavior start to ripen, when people become more and more jaded with their government, their lifestyles, their they-don't-know-what, Kingdom people ought to then be established, strong, READY with the truth, and ready to collect by the word of God.  That is God's way:  He always works through the body of Christ, through His sons and daughters who've set themselves, like Yahshua did, to say what the Father is saying and to do what the Father is doing.  Collect the wealth of the wicked, collect the people whose very purpose for existence is a relationship with Yahweh though they may have never understood it, collect positions of authority being abdicated, and collect some more.  Let His word and presence qualify you and establish His character in you so that you are mature and ready!  In times of depression, in hard times, not everyone loses.  People who are prepared absolutely bank on it. 

He wants a mature body to move with Him

and do business on His authority.

Every system of man is Babylon, spiritually speaking, and Babylon always trades with the lives of men and breeds confusion.

"However, we are not part of Babylon!  We're sons of God!  We never relied upon them anyway.  We never put our hope in that system anyway.  We have not been living our lives hoping that they would bail us out anyway.  We're trusting in the confidence of Yahweh.  We're trusting Yahweh to be faithful!  So now we can find out who we really are.  We can find out if we're really sons of God.  If Yahweh, in His wisdom, allowed this state, [this nation], to get what it wants, which brings more confusion, heartache, and trouble, we should be busy positioning ourselves to collect!" (Apostle Ainsworth)

Live by the Holy Spirit inside you, live shrewdly according to His word, live a life that extravagantly worships and glorifies God by seeing circumspectly and moving precisely according to His word to you.  You are not without recourse.  And thereby don't fall prey to the siren song of man's systems that are "full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing" (Shakespeare's MacBeth).  Don't allow the loudness to draw you into the argument.  Don't mess up the truth you hold by being wrong in your approach.  Transcend it all by the spirit and build the only true kingdom to which people can run and be free and strengthened and made aware of their purpose by the very Creator of the universe and His abounding love. 

Rise up, sons of God!  Rise up, church!  Rise up to your purpose!  Rise up, rise up, rise up!