What a few weeks wrestling with some prophetic words about God's imminent judgement on Christchurch through earthquakes and a tsunami! It has been a unique time of church leaders working together to try to discern what is happening and what we should do. But there has also been a growing sense that even if this started with people of goodwill genuinely sharing something they thought was from God something has gone really wrong and now there is great fear and terror. What we are dealing with now is not about discerning what’s of value in a couple of prophecies but how to see people set free from fear and terror?
The consensus is that the effects or fruit of these prophecies has been really bad (that’s not really rocket science is it?) Funnily enough Jesus said it’s pretty simple really – that’s how you test these things. Do they have a good influence on your relationship with God and your walk with him, do they take you to a good place in God – do they lead to life, growth, peace and joy? I found it interesting that someone gave me a genuine warning prophecy on Friday and it was so different in its feel and impact – it opened up possibilities and drew me towards the goal rather than producing guilt or fear – it was a blessing.
The other really sad thing is that so many people have lost sight of the fact that because Jesus loves his people he appoints shepherds to look after them – pastors and elders are called shepherds and part of their role is to protect the flock from savage voices that strike terror. It is incredibly tragic that some people are so caught up in some battle in their hearts that the very fact that there is unanimous consensus among church leaders that these prophecies are unhelpful, to them that just proves the prophecies are right (yep you read that right!) – a kind of logic that church leaders are totally unspiritual, lost, corrupt etc etc – when they are an expression of Jesus' love for his flock – sure they/we aren’t perfect and we stuff up at times. But Jesus grabbed hold of us to love his sheep and to protect them. Let me suggest the appropriate group to be a key part of discernment will be the shepherds of the group being spoken to – and then hopefully their judgement witnesses or resonates with the wider community who of course also have the Holy Spirit. There’s an order to this thing.
And it seems so many of these people are locked into a way of viewing God and the world that is not centred on what Jesus was doing in our world. As his representatives the main thing we do is reach out to the lost, build church communities, and be a positive influence in our world. This is not going soft on sin – it cost Jesus his life! But our mission is to save the lost not to condemn them. It’s kind of simple really but it doesn’t sound very deep or spiritual to some.
As I have come to understand that this whole phenomenon moved way beyond the question of whether some prophetic words were right or not to oh my goodness my city is gripped in a spirit of terror, the question is how do you break free of that? It’s such a difficult psychology. See the chances of it being true are so small but the consequences if it is true are so massive that you feel caught. Also they say it’s going to happen on that day and well I can’t say it’s not going to happen on that day can I, because I am not God, and I don’t know! (Actually that’s an easy one – there’s a little trick there – the answer is I can say there is no more chance it will happen that day than any other day – I can say that – it might happen tomorrow, it might happen today – nothing has changed from what might happen any day)
Interesting that the recent combined church meetings were called a “celebration of hope”. The opposite of terror is joy, happiness, laughter; the opposite of fear is hope – if fear is dread of the future, hope is a confident expectation of good for the future. So really there is nothing more opposite to a spirit of terror than a celebration of hope. (and nothing so distracting from a celebration of hope than a spirit of terror!) But how do you get there?
There are good reasons for the church to be excited. We have never had a more holistic mission context, there has never been the openness, need and opportunity for Christian service.We have a message of comfort to the fearful and traumatised. We have a message of encouragement to those who are working for the rebuilding of the city. Authorities are open to the church in ways we wouldn’t have imagined a year ago. I mean when I drive home, there is the bishop’s face on the side of the bus shelter!The most exciting challenging fulfilling days of our lives lie ahead. Indeed the world’s eyes are on Christchurch. The worlds of social work, disaster relief, town planning are watching and listening. Churches around the country are watching how individual churches are responding and how churches are finding new ways of working together. And they are praying and they are giving and they care! For many of us, we gave our lives to serve God and we find ourselves in a place for such a time as this. Thank God we get to serve in such a significant moment!
But even that’s not enough. What breaks the hold of terror?
You see the one thing more terrible than an earthquake and tsunami is when you believe God is doing it, that he is directly intervening to inflict this on us, that he is here to punish us.
Let me suggestthe opposite is both the truth and the key to breakthrough in this moment:
GOD IS WITH US!
God is not only NOT punishing us, he has not even simply left us with a task to do for his glory – actually he is stepping into our world in ways unexpected before now. He is here with us! He is always with the broken, the downtrodden, the struggling – to bring comfort and hope (Read the Beatitudes; read Luke 4). It is the devil that puts the boot in when you are down!
Where have I seen that God is with us? Well I reckon I saw it in the Campbell Live story. Slightly awkward after announcing I was going to be interviewed that I got three sentences and got upstaged by Jason Urquhart surrounded by cute kids and him saying heroically but so calmly and wisely “we will be open on Wednesday” and Leo Hannsen powerfully declaring ‘This is not biblical!” I think God orchestrated that. It’s pretty biblical – two or three witnesses, no one person but God glorified.
Also Natasha Utting, the reporter was really concerned to not stir up fear and to do a good job. I have been wrestling with this thing for about three weeks. Last Thursday I had a sense that there was a real spiritual dimension of terror to this. A couple of other praying people had a similar sense and we have been praying and wrestling with how to see this shifted. Then blow me down Natasha Utting after 24 hours in the city absolutely nails it with a brilliant introduction where she says you may wonder why we are dealing with this but if there’s anything real here it is the real fear. The story has had really positive response –that’s John Campbell and Natasha Utting – and that’s God. And even a geologist talking about the psychology of dreams! God is with us in this work, actually he’s at work first and our job is to keep up and step out when he calls. He’s above, beyond, before and behind. It’s not just a big burden on us. He’s at work and his angels are being dispatched from heaven and that’s sure going to shift things here!
2 Chronicles 13:12
God is with us; he is our leader. His priests with their trumpets will sound the battle cry...
Isaiah 8:10
Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
Ultimately this is the real heart of the good news of Jesus:
Matthew 1:22
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
Everything else Jesus does flows from the fact of his presence. Everything else is him responding to whatever develops as he steps into our world to liberate us!
I think that needs to be our thought, our cry, our praise and our song: God is with us!
And because of that we should expect to see God sovereignly doing stuff. We should expect to see God’s favour on his people and leaders, causing doors to open so they can serve with influence and scope. We should expect to see joy and celebration. We should expect to see people excited to hear about God and coming to God. We should expect to see radical innovative church initiatives and new models of church cooperation. We should expect to see a whole new way of churches being united in the city and genuine friendship and cooperation between church leaders. We should expect to see the church of the city in ways that other cities will look and say wow! In a season like this we should expect the challenge will be the stretch to step up and out and beyond. Winter is a season of reducing to the bare essentials, spring is a season of new things springing up, but summer is the season of bounty, harvest, fulfilment and the biggest challenge is capacity for harvest. Joseph is a great model of the fulfilment of the people of God serving a community in crisis – combining character, wisdom, supernatural gifting and a heart to serve with great influence and positive effect. Called and blessed to be a blessing in our world.
“The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity” - that’s our challenge because God is with us.
If you want a summary:
Don’t get on board with the spirit of the prophecies:
- Look at the effects
- God’s shepherds reject this as something destructive coming among the flocks of God.
- The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing: our mission is not judgment and wrath but reaching the lost, building church communities and being salt and light in our world. The prophetic needs to get in behind that agenda.
- Prophecies don’t do dates; Jesus didn’t do dates.
- It is obvious that what Christchurch needs now is precisely the opposite spirit - of joy, celebration, and hope. What spirit puts the boot in when you are down? (John 10:10). What spirit brings good news to the poor, binds up the brokenhearted, gives hope and faith, brings joy and life and peace?
Instead celebrate with hope and expect exciting days ahead because God is with us!
(PS quite a good way to get this established in your heart - listening to songs like "How Great is Our God." Just a thought)
