FREEDOM! AND WHY THE WORLD NEEDS A KING PART II

Check out Part I...

True freedom is only found in the character of the Trinity. Freedom begins and is lived from our own individual hearts. Papa’s children were born to live free in their hearts from the system of this world. In my short number of years reading the Bible, I have come to realize that this book is filled with countless stories and messages about God calling his people back to his heart. I am convinced that this book from Genesis to Revelations is a wooing of Love and a message of Freedom. From the flood to the resurrection is about the bigger story of our Papa’s desire to share the relationship that the Trinity has had for eternity with the created human race and us sharing that same relationship with each other (Jn 13:35).
In my sincerely poor and “small piece of an eternal puzzle” opinion the current and possibly since Genesis, consecutive state of the human reality is found in 1 Samuel. I believe in this familiar story you will find a display of Papa’s desire for us to live free and our ultimate fear of freedom and horrible substitute for His Kingdom. You will see the essence of the system of this world and how it has deceived the children of God into thinking that they are free.
1 Samuel 8:
It appeared that the old testament children “perceived” God to be a schitzophrenic ruler who was ready to smash and crush anyone that did not obey his every written law. But in Papa’s everlasting love there laid an opportunity for the children of God to come close and get to know their heavenly Father when the new judges appeared to pervert and abuse God’s ways as Samuel grew close to the end of his life. The new judges “turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.” When Israel became wise to their ways, with frustration setting in, they spoke to Samuel. Instead of seeking God’s Kingdom to rule they sought Samuel to appoint them a king to “judge” them. I don’t know how much we can blame them, they would have had to otherwise seek a way of life that had never been displayed in their lifetime. Every square inch of any civilized portion of the world was ruled by a king.
When the people requested a king of Samuel it disturbed him deeply, and Samuel spoke to Lord about this matter. The faithful Lord respond to Samuel to “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day-with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods-so they are doing to you also.” Imagine, even Samuel has been a part of a system that has created a veil between God and Man. Papa tells him look Samuel don’t take it personal, it has never been about you and them. Our relationship has been about you and me, and I have been attempting to show my relationship through you. I have brought my people out of Egypt and since then I have been attempting to woo them out of the system engrained in their hearts. I believe that Papa knew that they have had a king over them the whole time whether it be Moses, Eli, or Samuel, they are just finally admitting what they wanted the whole time…A King not Relationship.
Why not relationship? Sounds like fun doesn’t it? The Encarta Dictionary describes relationship as the significant connection or similarity between two or more things, or the state of being related to something else. True relationship bares souls and leaves naked the heart of individuals. For some people that is a very scary thing. True relationship rightfully indicates vulnerability, which can result in you being horribly betrayed or misled. True Godly relationship means loving without intention, agenda or control. You are able to relate without deriving your identity or losing your identity in a relationship.
Isn’t it much easier if you just tell me how you would like me to act to be in your good graces instead of me discovering what unlocks your greatest joys. Being ruled by a king is about you remaining safe, entering relationship is about the other individuals benefit and not about you.
Well the Father tells Samuel to choose a King for Israel in place of relationship, but to forewarn them very specifically about what a King will bring upon these people, and then let them decide. Shortly after Samuel told the people beginning in vs. 11 “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harves, and some to make his weapons of war an equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, , cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men,[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the LORD will not hear you in that day.” Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the LORD. So the LORD said to Samuel, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.”
The good thing about Papa is he will work in any system to touch his children’s lives. He continued to move through Saul and among his kids because he is good. Unfortunately this generation never had the chance to see the awesome relationship they could have had with the Trinity here on earth. A relationship filled with faith, love, romance, adventure, and true fulfillment. We also know the result of Saul’s life and the consequences of a king remain true even today. It was unfair to Saul for the people to hold him in a place and “office” that only the Trinity was intended to fill.
You can read in Exodus 19:6 that God told the people of Israel what he had intended for them to be. “You shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Priest is another word for prince. God is the king and we are his prince and princesses. He is our father and although we walk in royalty we are not the kings nor are we to look for Kings. For one is your King, the Father who is in heaven.
How does this relate to freedom, you may ask? There is a cry for freedom in our predestined human hearts. Some have followed this cry. The name’s listed in the beginning, declared this cry. Unfortunately, in most cases the system of this world has drowned out the cry. Christians cry out to Pastors, “be our king and tell us when we are right and when we are wrong.” We relay a message to our leaders that if you are disappointed in me then God is disappointed in me. If you are rebuking me then God can’t possibly be happy with me. I need a king’s approval to know that I am right with God. Meanwhile your heart contradicts your worldly conditioning with a cry of “FREEDOM!”.
Freedom to follow your heart’s leading. Freedom to speak your revelations. Freedom to serve one another. Freedom to Love without an agenda. Freedom to communicate without an annoying push for conversion. Freedom to Love until someone wants the Love you have. Freedom to give freely without reluctancy and compulsion. Freedom to lead in relationship communicating in the five gifts that Papa has placed in friends all around us for the growth of each other.
You see it takes great faith to live in relationship. It is much easier and safer to live according to what a king lays out before you. The need for the gifts that Papa has placed in us for each other is imperative and the time that you spend with any number of the saints is priceless. There is no substitute for a true relationship that relates without expectation.
The revolutionary Son of God, Jesus Christ did not consider three different systems. Jesus only recognized two kingdoms; the kingdom of darkeness and the Kingdom of Light. He lived and exploded in the middle of the kingdom of darkness which is riddled with performance and obligational living and made a profound statement that is many times under appreciated and counted as ABC’s or discounted as basics. “The first of all the commandments is ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these…on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:39; Mark 12:29-31) Everything we say and do to portray His Kingdom depends soley on the evidence of these two intentions in our hearts.
In summary, we claim that we want freedom but unfortunately we are conditioned to appoint a man-king in our lives to dictate and exalt as God’s voice in our lives. We miss out on the greatest message that Jesus died to bring us. Could it be that as soon as an individual has a king-like title, they strip themselves of relational value? Can it happen, that we respect the relationships in our lives that offer the five gifts Papa pointed out without losing relational benefits and friendships? I have been challenged to re-evaluate the five gifts that are mixed throughout all of us, and ponder the thought that maybe they are best operated in a relationship instead of a hierarchy.
Jesus never said Repent or you will burn in hell. Jesus proclaimed “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand”. I would like to proclaim today STOP!!! RECONSIDER YOUR WAYS BECAUSE THERE IS A KINGDOM AND WAY THAT CAN BRING AN UNRELENTING PEACE TO YOUR LIFE. THERE IS A KINGDOM THAT YOU WERE CREATED FOR. A KINGDOM THAT IS NOT OF THIS WORLD!!!