Navigating Transition

Don't get the wrong idea….. I am all about knowing the future in advance.  That needs to be stated plainly, especially in light of what I am about to say.

Clearly, we are in the time of a significant shift.  Many are feeling this and sensing it.  Some of those who have been sensing it for a while now have set out to define it.  I appreciate their well-intentioned efforts, but i also believe there is a real danger in trying to define this time, and the time that lies just ahead, with incomplete perspective.

There is a widespread conviction that Christianity cannot survive in anything like its present form – Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom – (written in 2002, almost a decade ago)

This much we know is true.  The present form of Christianity will not survive, and isn't intended to.  The Kingdom we will inherit is eternal. The forms of approach to the Kingdom are not.  This has been a problem throughout Christian history.  We get distracted by the forms, and lose the essence.

To be certain of that, as more and more proof stacks up, doesn't mean that we know much, if anything, about what is coming.  It only means we have read with certainty the expiration label on what is.

I am concerned that many who have sensed this in a real way have equally sensed, though falsely, that their feelings qualify them to define in a broad way what is coming.  I am sure that some of what is being said is accurate, but I want to be careful not to “extend to a logical conclusion what God has only revealed in part.”  As one has rightly said, this is a direct route to deception, and this is much of what is going on, and much of what is selling.

Why?  Why doesn't God just tell us what He is going to do in concrete terms that are beyond misunderstanding and mystery? Maybe the main thing is not what is coming. Maybe the main thing is learning how to follow Him, and growing in our ability to follow Him.

Much of the definition of what is coming next that I have seen will actually disqualify people from walking in it, because it is so well defined as to make following God an unnecessary part of walking successfully into what is next.  This is a sad and likely unintended by-product of those who see something vaguely yet describe it in a detailed way.

The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.  Ps. 25:14

One (and maybe the only) way to know the secrets of the Lord is to walk in the fear of Him.  People cannot reveal the secrets of the Lord to you. That takes the Lord.  You may see and hear all the right information, but you will miss the message within it.  The Lord knows there are a vast company of those who are “brokers of the impending”, but those who make merchandise of such things are not to be trusted.

Want to be in step God and the future?  Throw down your idols.  Even the idol of knowing the future.  Abandon your heart to Him, whom the future exists within.  You will be squared away.