It seems sometimes that I was asleep for a decade or two and while I slept a secular mindset became the acceptable normal and the church came under increasing pressure to dial down its principles and either deny the supernatural or make it no different to the supernatural experiences or stories of our cultures.
This pervasive mindset has given us religion without relationship, word without power, government without principles, creation without creator, the created without guidance, beauty without a purpose, and supernatural experiences lacking necessary discernment. The apostolic’s great opportunity is to put these back. This is almost a complete summary of the apostolic assignment. Relationship with our heavenly father, heavens principles for living life, power to bring heaven to earth, will restore what has been lost.
The war on secularism is a subtle war. It is not as simple as finding the single source of the enemy and the direction of attack. It is about understanding the counter culture in which we live. I recently heard the definition of secularism given by Mark Sayers, Red Church Melbourne. It is the desire to have the kingdom benefits without the King. The truth of that is evident all around us. Deconstruction of the church carries this sentiment. The rejection of church as being a necessary part of our christian lives. the arguments that we can do church in other ways. The examples of leaders walking away from their faith but declaring that we must still walk in love. The constant rejection of the principles and standards of the christian walk and the statements that we expand the truth of loving the sinner to embracing the sin as acceptable. This is the evidence of the desire for the kingdom benefits without the relationship with the King.
In the process we are encouraged that leadership and authority are an old way of leading. And in our round table leadership accountability is unnecessary and just another tool of controlling leadership.
Of course there are problems with the church, they are not perfect and some have lost their way. Not all leadership carries at its centre the heart of a son, a servant leader, who lives to empower her people. And accountability has too often drawn its strength from enacting the law, rather than empowering people to be all that that they can be.
And this is where the apostolic must find its place. The apostolic is built around culture and it is cultural transformation which we need and will be the result of cause of revival. Our words without power have nothing extra to offer the world which can attain a version of heaven on earth in its standards of life and the opportunities which this material and globally activated era.
Putting our relationship with a good father God is apostolic. That one endeavour will change the culture around us. That too will give us the correct motive for purity and the application of principles in our lives. The desire to walk as close as possible to our father and to reveal his son Jesus to the world will correct our walk in the same way as loving my wife will ensure my walk of purity.
As we do this, the evidence of the goodness of our creator father is increased and the awareness that the principles of the garden and the commandments were not the restrictions of a harsh mean minded despot god but of a loving father who knows the best for us, made us in his image and gave us the ‘makers’ instructions.
And in relationship we get to walk in power. Not ours, but his, working through us for the benefit of mankind. The kingdom without the King can only be temporary. It is rooted in selfishness and in the here and now. Its philosophical roots are not new, we have been here in different forms before throughout history. But this is our time, our generation, our stage, and we are apostolic, sons and daughters of the King, assigned to expand His Kingdom in relationship with Him and the truths and principles which he gave us for life here and for all eternity.
