Bottom Up vs. Top Down

Following is an email I sent in response to a prophetic call for prayer. I had no problem with the contents of the call, per se, but there seemed to be something missing. I have received positive feedback from several people who received the mail so I decided to post my comments here. At the end I've also appended some further thoughts.

It does appear that troubled times are ahead, yet I am struck by the lack of focus on what I see clearly as the primary focus of God throughout his dealings with Israel and the church—justice for the poor and oppressed.

We need to open our eyes to the real sore that Katrina revealed—a city in America where 1 out of 4 people were impoverished, mostly women, children and elderly! This has nothing to do with the Supreme Court or the political government. It has to do with the church!

Here's what Ezekiel told Israel led to the destruction of Sodom:

Ezek. 16:49 “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen."

For too long the enemy has seduced us into thinking that we need to change our government to bring about revival. THIS IDOLATRY! Only God can bring about revival and he's not interested in the federal government nearly as much as our self-government. When this inward change happens, the changes we hope for in the outward expression (political government) will fall naturally into place.

This inward change, though is NOT primarily focused on external issues such as homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Homosexuality is a symptom of internal brokenness in our society. It is a sign that the moral order of creation is breaking down. We can prune the tree all we want, but until we GET TO THE ROOT, nothing will change.

For too long the enemy has blinded us to the simple message God has given us:

Micah 8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 9 Listen! The LORD is calling to the city— and to fear your name is wisdom— “Heed the rod and the One who appointed it. 10 Am I still to forget, O wicked house, your ill-gotten treasures and the short ephah, which is accursed? 11 Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights? 12 Her rich men are violent; her people are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully. 13 Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins.”

Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God...If the church will focus on this statement and all its myriad implications, then revival will come. Jesus did not spend his time railing against the injustice of the Roman government. He challenged the Jewish leadership, yes, but He did not bring about the downfall of the Roman empire through political action, he did it by becoming "obedient to death—even death on a cross!"

Hallelujah! He will complete the work He has begun. Let's pray for revival in our hearts that we may apply His simple call to take up our cross and consider other more highly than ourselves. This is what turned the world upside down in the early church and it will do it again.

Maranatha

The feedback I got was not all positive. In particular my pointing out the risk of political activism sliding into idolatry was offensive to some. My intent was not to accuse anyone in particular of this, but to warn us all against something that I, myself, have fallen into in the past (indeed, since anytime we shift our focus away from God we border on, if not commit idolatry, I am sure I still fall into it in various areas of my life...Praise be to God that He has sent His Son to free me from this bondage!).

As I pondered this further, I came to the following conclusion: God works from the inside out, from the bottom up, but we try to reverse this. Jesus did not try to overthrow the Romans or the Herodians by direct confrontation (top down), but by reconstituting Israel around Himself, one disciple at a time (bottom up). Throughout the gospels and the rest of the New Testament the focus is on how we treat each other on an individual basis. We start in Jerusalem and spread to Samaria and then to the outer parts of the world. This is not nearly as rewarding as the sense of power one feels when standing with a group of 500,000 other chanting for a change at the top, but as HisStory proves, it is far more effective over the long term.

This is not an anabaptist call for withdrawal from political involvement (at least not yet). You should vote. You should engage with the world and make your views known. You should pray fervently for political leaders!

But if we really want to change our political and justice system, we need to do from the inside out. If it worked in the midst of the authoritarian Roman regime, surely it will work in our democratic governement that is "of the people, by the people, for the people."