Yesterday before taping KINGDOMRISING, our podcast, Carman Niesley, my co-host, and I were having a little discussion. We do this to stimulate our thoughts for when we record the program. Discussion turned to the necessity for us to create an atmosphere or environment in which God can move to establish His kingdom.
Like myself, Carman is an avid reader therefore most of our ideas are probably gleaned from others, but, the thought was a good one nonetheless; which brings me to my current thought. What is God doing?
The scripture reveals that God is working in us both to will and do. In other words, He is actively working to create the atmosphere for His movement to come forth. What is God doing? Obviously it is a lot but one thing is obvious to me personally. God works upon me – spirit, soul and body – to bring me to a place of action where I walk by faith. Some of these things – these actions – look downright silly to others and cause me untold struggles with worry but so be it.
I would rather live my life attempting to do what I sense and say is, God directing me to do, then to just play it safe. As Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. I do not want to die with the song God gave me still in me.
So what is God doing becomes “what is God doing to me?” This brings me to the idea of my heart’s desire for a certain work during this stage of my life which is really not work at all but joy or as Joseph Campbell calls it, bliss. I want to follow my bliss, the song God placed within me. Call it purpose, allude to intentionality, whatever, but I am still on this journey.
For the past 30 years I have identified myself as a pastor and this is how many others related to me; initially as an associate who worked a “secular job, and then later for the last 12 years or so as a primary vocation. But who am I now? I still feel the same call to help and serve others but how is this to be worked out now that I no longer lead a church in the traditional sense?
The term the Lord keeps bringing to me is foundation – He has called me to help establish the foundation in His body and we know the foundation is Christ. My focus now can be summed up in one verse:
Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
So I am still on the journey of faith and very aware that God is working upon me, and my environment, to create an atmosphere in which He will move to establish His kingdom. So be it!
