which way the prophetic directions for 2010?

Posted by: rogermitchell | January 8, 2010

which way the prophetic directions for 2010?

Some of the prophetic words being released for this year predict a year of unprecedented harvest and a great awakening. However they tend to be framed or interpreted with more than a smattering of the marks of church and empire. Rather than reject them out of hand I think it is important to ask how they might be understood from the perspective of a transformed mindset, a kingdom of God worldview. This is the subject of the month’s Daywatch guidelines for prayer and mindset change which is posted on the daywatch entries page. It is also the subject of my recent update on the prophetics page. Sue’s latest blog post gives us an important lead too. It’s vital that we get right the direction in which the Spirit is heading now and as I say in the daywatch material it may be that the redemptive purpose of the traces of the old mindset in which some of these offerings are framed is to challenge us to recalibrate them for the age of the kingdom of God.

Posted in prophetic insights | Tags: church and empire, future church, intercessory prayer, prophecy, prophesy; prophetic, theopolitics

Responses

Okay, Roger, some imagining on the shift and what the Kingdom looks like. . .
I note that you put forth two characterisitics: a fresh awakening that likely does not include the institutional church and alliance/ care for the poor. I would like to expand that a bit.

When I hear of a great harvest, I first think of land and food production. We have great harvests now due to the use of chemicals and agribusiness models but they are destroying the land, water and air, and most likely people too. So that cannot be a model of the Kingdom.

I also think of land in terms of other species. God created those other species too and they belong to Him. The current extinction rate, much of it human induced, is about 1000 species per week. As humans encroach on more and more habitat other species suffer. That too cannot be a model for the Kingdom.

The loss of habitat is connected to social justice and right use of resources. On the whole habitat destruction is driven by the poor as they seek to use more and more marginal land to produce food (or simply hunt in conservation areas). So right care of creation is connected to the care of the poor and social justice. In fact, many environmentalists and social justice activists have long made the connection between a degraded environment and the welfare of the poor.

So it was somewhat interesting to me that when I went to the Daywatch page I read this month’s text and then, without noticing the break, read right into last months’s. All of a sudden there was Copenhagen and global warming. And I thought – okay, Roger gets it. But then I realized you had actually written about a global harvest and social justice and not mentioned the environment.

Kingdom imagining: a renewed and righ relationship with the Creator is worked out in right relationships with other people and other species and the planet itself. Some of us will be led to focus on the land and others on the needs of people, but in the end it all comes together. Both sides are needed. God has never abandoned the earth, this planet. He loves it, delights in it and people are a part of it, not apart from it. So love for others must include a renewed, rethought, reimagined relationship between humans and other species and the planet. I suspect that means an end to large agribusiness that enslaves both land and people. I suspect that means more ways to create energy from sun and wind and geothermal as no one can own the sun, it is the most democratic, equalizing form of energy. I suspect that means, for many in North America, new type of food culture, local, healthy, and a bit less so there is not so much tossed into the garbage, though tossed into a composter is better.

So I cannot see this great harvest or social justice without dealing with our relationship to the planet. And I find, for many Christians, that is a great big blind spot. Will the harvest be outside the church – absolutely. God has been planting people many places in the world to prayerfully make change. I also think there will be a great change in relationship with Islam. Clearly by positioning me here and moving Linda to Clermont France God is seeking to address the roots of the violent relationship in terms of the first crusade (see Martin Scotts blog and my most recent entry). I see a fresh release of energy regarding this issue. Many, if not most of the world’s poor, are Muslim so our relationship with Muslims is a huge issue if we mean what we say about social justice.

Those are my initial musings: the big thing is we must include the earth when we have this discussion otherwise we are not being real or Christian. c.
By: cheryl on January 9, 2010
at 10:05 am

Reply
- Thanks Cheryl,
  This is an excellent point and I should not have missed it. Could you post it on the Daywatch blog too http://www.daywatch.eu or would you prefer me to? I am surprised I missed the obvious connection with last month’s blog and in any case the theological connection between the kingdom of God and the creation which of course means that the gospel’s use of the harvest metaphor has to mean the natural harvest first. The fact that I missed that suggests that for all my intended commitment to the planet it is not fully integrated into my mindset. So that’s an important challenge for me.
  Respect
  Roger
  By: rogermitchell on January 9, 2010
  at 8:14 pm
  
  Reply
Roger: since I have limited Internet access and time I’ll let you move the comment to the right place. Also I’ve been thinking all weekend. I realized a couple of things.
1. theopolitics really has to be theo-geo-politics (though I am not thinking of ‘geopolitical’ entities with this but of the earth) or theo-eco-politics. That is if we want to make sure we include the earth in all of this.
2. I think we need to see lots of signs and wonders in the future. I think Jesus will institute his Kingdom by training us to heal the earth. Some of that will require just hands on efforts. But there is much healing needed of rivers, the sea, air, land. We have utterly destroyed every place and every bit of the planet. That will take many, many million of miracles to repair. So yes, there will be signs and wonders, but we will be trained and learn to pray for the healing of watersheds, and landfills, and polluted airsheds. We will see signs and wonders break out in a whole new way, involving all of creation, and we will learn how to minister those signs and wonders as we follow Jesus. c.
By: cheryl on January 11, 2010
at 4:59 pm

Reply
- Thanks again Cheryl. I will position your previous post on the daywatch site and use part of the interesting new material on theo-eco-politics onto the politics and seeds of change pages as well as commenting on it in today’s post. A big thank you for keeping me on my toes! Blessings, Rog
  By: rogermitchell on January 12, 2010
  at 9:53 am
  
  Reply
I have read your blog very carefully. It is a very important for us. We can get teach to here that The Prophetic Direction words being released for this year predict a year of unprecedented harvest and a great awakening.
By: BishopJordan (@BishopJordan) on August 23, 2013
at 2:58 pm

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