Identity Theft

In both the natural world and the world of the Spirit, one fact has become undeniable. Change has come. The infrastructure of human society as measured by trade, finance, politics and international relationships are all experiencing unimaginable change. Although these changes were decades in the making, they appear to be suddenly unfolding. The confluence of these changes gives the sense of a tidal wave.

Man was created to be a son of God. As a son he was designed to be the "radiance of his Father's Glory and the exact representation of His Being." This identity and the accompanying purpose was stolen from man at the fall. It was replaced with the burden of being one's own provision and protection, wrapped in the culture of an orphan.(When Adam, who was "the son of God," hid from his father, he rejected the relationship with his Father and became an orphan in the process).  Man ceased to see God as his Father and developed and refined the culture of fatherlessness, with help from Satan. God sent Jesus, the only begotten son to redeem Adam, the son whom he had created.
Against this background, the unfolding plan of God is to restore man to his original intent, and in so doings to bring judgment on the angels who sinned. God's intent is to put on display in the earth the glory of his nature, through mature sons. The righteous character of the mature sons of God is the basis of the judgment of the angels. The comparison of their faithful obedience to God will be contrasted with the unfaithfulness of the angels who sinned. By this, the justice of God will be vindicated, and the angels who sinned will be justly judged and condemned.

Since this is the plan, Satan and the legions with him have a vested interest in keeping man from understanding his destiny. The temptation at the fall was to separate man from his father, and by extension, from his divine purpose. The intention of the enemy was to steal the son's identity and to recast him in creation as an orphan. The Roman view of salvation was that the goal was to save man from Hell and to get him to Heaven. That emphasis remained the focus of the Reformation, (hence the deba tes over predestination, salvation by grace compared to works, and access to God and to heaven through the priesthood of believers), and has continued up to the present time. It was into these conceptual frameworks that every major revelation of God has been subsequently received. Each time God has broken in on these paradigms, man has resisted the loss of control inherent in change and has reconstructed the familiar ecclesiology.

The Gospel was always meant to be the reconciliation of the Father and His sons through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the last Adam, to pay the full price necessary to accomplish this reconciliation. In the closing epoch of man's history, God intends to "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers," as an earthly sign of a great spiritual reality. By contrast, the church has largely retained the culture of the orphan as a means of control over the people. It followed the Roman model of interposing itself between the sons of God and God, seeing itself as the indispensable broker of access to the divine inheritance of God's children. Its true purpose is to confirm their status as children of God and to prepare them to carry His presence.

The church then could be a description of the Body of Christ, comprised of spiritual houses in which the heirs of God would be trained to maturity. The gospel would be the story of our reconciliation to the Father, and our mature representation of his nature and character in the earth. At that juncture, we would actually model heavenly culture in the earth, and provide light in an environment of growing darkness. Bereft of spiritual authority and power, we have settled for a seat at the political table. In the days of Eli, the voice of God was seldom heard in Israel, and there were few visions because the leadership of Israel had become addicted to their own pleasures. Then God suddenly inserted change by raising up a young man who could hear God.

There is a great hunger for the truth in the hearts of a remnant of people in the earth today. Change that once could have been incremental is now sudden and abrupt. No one participating in the current season of God will be permitted to bring their favorite traditions with them into the new season. The institutions cannot migrate into the current purposes of God. The order of God will raise up His house, and His children will become mature. The test of their maturity will be "to the fullness of the stature that belongs to Christ." They will not be susceptible to the deceptive schemes that preyed upon them in the days of their infancy. They will have become mature representations of their heavenly Father.

If a leader from the last season is going to be a leader in the present season, he must be a mature representation of God the Father himself; otherwise he will lack the competence to lead. His leadership will represent a primary commitment to impart the character of God to spiritual sons. Since this cannot be accomplished through the conference format because it is an inherently personal undertaking (Jesus and the twelve), leaders are going to be fathers, first and foremost. Making disciples will be the same as developing mature sons, not securing intellectual acquiescence to a series of statements and the recitation of a prayer. Those who are willing to make the transition will see the glory of God radiate from them into human society, and they will become the Light of the world. They will be part of a city on the hill. The old form of preaching a gospel of escape and doing charitable work to establish religious credentials is over. It has no relevance to heaven's mandate. The new season is about the Father living in us doing his work through us. Whatever is done apart from him, including religious work, will be done in greater measure by the world.

Now is the time to repent from dead works, and to migrate into the purposes of God.~Sam Soleyn