I stand at the entrance to the bridge to the kingdom of Obedience.
The man from Obedience stands beside me and speaks.
“Both in the kingdoms of mammon and Intention is the expectation placed upon God to fulfill the dreams of man. In both kingdoms is the focus on material gain. Every message in the kingdom of intention treats God like a bank or a lottery. It is all about what man wants and desires, ignoring all that the Father desires of His servants.
Such a belief system creates a correlation between the provision of God and the existence of God. So if God does not give what is asked, man will stray from the faith and begin to resent God or doubt His existence altogether.
So then requests become demands and when demands are not met, hope is deferred. When hope is deferred, the heart gets sick.”
Me:
“So things like depression, anxiety and loss of faith all occur because God does not submit to our picture of how He should provide for us? This is what happened to me! But how do those who build empires in the kingdom of God do it when so often everything about their message is totally at odds with what Jesus teaches? This is another thing that caused me to become depressed. I saw the righteous forsaken and the ruthless blessed abundantly.”
Gatherer:
“The narrow path is a very long one son of sorrow. Those who walk upon it must be content with the possibility of never seeing the fruit of their labors within their own lifetimes.
Those who place ambition above obedience will be as King Saul, wreaking destruction to create empires. To them the collateral damage is acceptable. And the god of this world rejoices in such things. Be the Shepherd lazy, doing nothing or active, waging war to achieve domination, any path but obedience to the son brings much joy to the enemy.”
Me:
“But did Jesus not curse a tree for having no fruit? Is fruit not the most important thing to a God who takes from the lazy steward to give to the effective steward? Jesus Himself set the precedent for such aggressive success-driven Christianity!”
The man from Obedience:
“Ahh friend, but He also set the rules of the race! What does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul? The rules are set for the protection of all players. And those who break the rules to win the race miss the point of the race itself.
If His kingdom is to be established on earth, it must be a kingdom of love. Any other kingdom, be it in His name, is not His kingdom. It is in the image of the man who built it.”
Gatherer:
“For the son of God did not come to create bondage. He came to bring freedom. And false promises from false idols falsely declaring the Lordship of Jesus Christ bring bondage and deferred hope upon all who hear.
For He is not Lord to them, He is a convenient name to be taken in vain for personal profit and power. This same counterfeit gospel leads to demands made of God that do not benefit the kingdom. And God seeks only the advance of His kingdom, which is heaven on earth!”
Me:
“All this talk of a kingdom of love is good to the ear but I don’t see a practical strategy. People need plans and directions to follow. If we are doing it wrong, show us how to do it right!”
The man from Obedience:
“If love is at the center, every plan will be of God. But having love at the center comes at a great price. You must now walk over this bridge so that this revelation may be made know to all who read what you record.”
Gatherer moves ahead and I follow.
The bridge from the kingdom of mammon to the kingdom of intention was very wide with people coming and going to and fro.
The bridge to the kingdom of Obedience starts out narrow and gets narrower towards the end. You won’t drive a car or even a bicycle over this bridge. No backpacks or suitcases would fit through here with you. It gets so narrow that I have to stop. I am now wedged between the sides of the bridge so tightly that I cannot breathe.
Me
“I can go no further. Even if I were to lose weight, I would just get stuck again.”
Gatherer:
“Neither flesh nor bone can enter this kingdom.”
Me:
“Well, that is inconvenient. I happen to be made of those exact things!”
Gatherer:
“You must leave those things behind son of sorrow. The kingdoms of intention and mammon feed the desires of the flesh. To walk in the kingdom of Obedience you must walk in the spirit. The kingdom of Obedience cannot be entered with your own plans, ideas or ambitions. This kingdom is a kingdom of complete submission to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ and every word that proceeds from His mouth. There can be nothing that is earthly desire in this kingdom.
Do you wish to cross this bridge son of sorrow? Or do you wish to turn back?”
I stand there, wedged between the sides of the bridge and lay down every plan and desire that I have crafted in my mind. I lay it all down but nothing happens.
Gatherer:
“Happiness and peace cannot be conditions of obedience son of sorrow. If an assignment causes you pain and grief, will you still follow through with it? Will you do whatever you are commanded in the kingdom of Obedience?”
Me:
“Many do not like the word ‘command’. What about free will?”
Gatherer:
“Those who despise authority are slaves to fear. If you shake off your fear and submit yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, even a suggestion from His lips will be a command in your ears. Those who love authority walk as conduits of unlimited power.
Can you lay down your ego and become a true servant son of sorrow? Can you lay down even your need to be happy for the sake of the kingdom? Are you willing to be nothing but a conduit?”
I take a deep breath and let go of every condition I have set upon God. If I am to be happy, so be it. If I am to be persecuted, so be it. I want to be obedient above anything else.
I am spirit. My flesh stays upon the bridge as I move across to the other side and what I see there amazes me.
Everything is green and lush and beautiful. I am in the Garden of Eden. There are tens of thousands of futuristic dome type houses are everywhere, all have their own stream running past the front door and a play area for kids. The houses are simple but spacious with everything a large family might need.
There are stack farms, aquaponics farms, hydroponic farms and even steamponic farms everywhere and people help themselves to whatever they want.
I notice that everything is bright and fun with toys, bikes and theme parks everywhere.
The toys and rides are for both children and adults. This place is incredible!
Gatherer:
“The Father loves it when His children play.”
Me:
“How does a place like this survive? It looks like nobody works!”
Gatherer:
“All follow their natural passion as a command from heaven. Some love to build, others love to grow, others love administrative precision. There is no need to do anything other than your passion here son of sorrow.”
I am speechless. I have so many questions that I do not know what to ask first.
We keep walking through this incredible place and come to a huge warehouse.
Inside the warehouse, normal soil is compacted and turned into sections of the houses we just saw. All of it is automated.
The sections get put on the back of trucks and head out to different areas around the kingdom.
Me:
“What is this place?”
Gatherer:
“You will recognize it soon enough son of sorrow.”
We walk to one of the entrances to the kingdom.
This entrance happens to be the bridge to the kingdom of mammon.
Many people come through here and are set up in hostels where they are taught how to love in the kingdom of Obedience before being moved into their own homes.
Every entrance has a big sign that reads:
‘Work contract:
Your job is to love one another.
This job entails the following:
Serving the community in your skill area for a minimum of three hours each day from Monday to Friday.
Upholding our code of honor.
Violation of any of these agreed terms will result in disciplinary hearings and possible expulsion from this kingdom.
Upon expulsion you are welcome to restart your application process at our restoration academies.’
Me:
“What IS this place? Is this a cult of some sort?”
The man from the kingdom of Obedience laughs from behind me.
“We are an earthly experimental estate that uses the words of Jesus as our law. All who live here sign a work or education contract so that we can have legal control over who comes and goes. The entire estate is focused on reprogramming those in poverty to serve their communities and walk in love. Every rule, law and contractual clause focuses on creating something that is as close to heaven on earth as possible.”
Me:
“Wow! Sounds awesome! Where is this place?”
Gatherer:
“Not ‘where’ son of sorrow – ‘when!’.
You will soon recognize the ‘where’.
We walk further and suddenly I recognize the prayer tabernacle and children’s bible theme park.
I realize that I am walking on a prayer path.
Me:
“This is what we are building?”
Man from Obedience:
“The command is to bring heaven to earth. This is done by preaching the good news to the poor, setting captives free and mending the broken hearted. Such things are not done with good intention and a few prayers. They are done with wisdom, focus and obedience.
To make disciples costs time that mammon will steal from you if you give it the chance. People must be loved and taught and held to account for what is sown into them. Once they are whole and healed, they will go and duplicate what is done here.”
We walk past a school with a thousand children in the hostel.
Man from Obedience:
“Every one of these children are from poverty stricken areas. All will grow up secure, loved and educated. They will then be sent out into the world where they can choose to return and expand the kingdom or follow whichever path they choose.”
I laugh. This place is like techno Amish! Hahahaha
Man from Obedience:
“Indeed, a place like this will draw much criticism but know that the focus is to create renewed minds within every person so that those who were once weak can truly say ‘I am strong’ without having to lie about it. It is much easier to sell a one liner than it is to change a life friend.”
Gatherer:
“For this reason must all that you are be about obedience to the kingdom son of sorrow. For the power of the kingdom is in the deeds of its citizens, not the intention of its leaders. The fruit is in the works. This is why faith without works is dead. This place is called the kingdom of Obedience because this will be the fruit of your obedience.
You are upon the land beneath Michael’s calf to prepare you for what is to come and to allow you to lay down every idea that contends against your assignment.”
Me:
“I used to dream about things like this Gatherer. But I had no idea how to put it together or how to create such incredible changes within those who need help. With a vision like this we can wipe out poverty completely!”
Gatherer:
“Fear not son of sorrow, we shall guide you and show you what must be done. For you are to become the man from the kingdom of Obedience and many shall be known by that name in the heavenly realm! Simply write all that you are shown and make the vision plain.”
Me:
“So the actual name of this place is the kingdom of Obedience?”
Gatherer:
“No. This is to be named as you choose. But this shall be its name in the spirit.”
Builder joins us and places his hand upon my shoulder.
Builder:
“Well intentioned, not knowing better and sometimes arrogant in this ignorance has the body of Christ built many things in the image of mammon. For truly helping someone comes at so great a cost that it is much easier to say ‘here are two coins and a hot meal, Jesus loves you’ than to open your house to the homeless and feed every hungry mouth.
Know this son of sorrow:
When the power of the Holy Spirit is truly released in a place, not one mouth shall go hungry and not one family shall be without shelter. For it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to take up residence within a man’s heart without that man becoming overwhelmed with love.
A form of Godliness with regard for all that is mammon has made many churches its stronghold and thus has no power. Just as a form of Godliness with regard for ritual has no power.
The true power of the Holy Spirit is love for all of mankind and this love thinks of nothing but the broken, the hurting and the lost.
Those who seek after signs and power are wicked to the core. For such things are a lot more convenient than helping those in need and bring much glory and fame to a single man, not to the kingdom.
The time has come for this great reformation and the expansion of the kingdom of love as never before.
Record all that you see. Make the vision plain. When reformation sweeps the church, revival shall sweep the earth.
The kingdom is all!”
I wake up smiling.
Now THIS is something I can get excited about!