Going Forward?
Forward is the True Prophetic Sight of the Sons of God
The leaders and other believers of the New Testament church were living with an eye of expectation for the prophetic fulfillment of all that God had in mind for The Church of the Kingdom.
In our generation, we live with the same expectation…
…so we are as they were; living with a forward-look. They were not living looking back. Instead they were looking forward.
The destiny of The Church of The Kingdom is in the present and the future, not in the past. It is time for the believers of this present hour to stop looking back and longing and wishing to be like the church of the New Testament era.
Our Lord does not want us to be what they were. He wants us to be what we should be – the realization of the next stage of the fulfillment of His Church within His Kingdom.
You may argue, “…but the leaders and believers of the New Testament Church seem to have had a much greater spiritual depth than we have. Shouldn’t we long for that?”
I say, your observation may be accurate, but even so, His destiny for us lies in our future, in our experience with our Father, not in their experience. We may learn from them, but our purpose is to embrace this hour in which we live and ‘look’ forward to all that He has for us.
Consider this: If they could have seen into our day, do you imagine they would have longed to ‘reach ahead’ into all that God has in our future. Is not that something of what Peter was trying to say regarding the ‘prophetic reach’ of those Old Testament persons to whom God was revealing the New Testament revelation that would be for the believers of Peter’s day and for us as well; namely the whole truth about salvation and grace that would come to us by the sufferings of Christ and the glory that He and we obtain because of those sufferings. (1Pt 1:10-12)
We must begin to look forward to the fulfillment of His destiny for us. Our future is not in the past. Our destiny is in the now. Satan wants to divert us. He wants us to covet what does not belong to us. What those New Testament believers had was great. Do you long for what they had? Or do you long for what He wants to give to you now. Do not covet what they had. Instead, desire what He has for you.
The ‘church’ are those who come together to answer a singular calling; the fulfillment of His divine purpose in their lives. They are a prophetic people, living out of the determined destiny and plan of God. A plan and a destiny that was and still remains in front of us.
Each ‘son’ of the Father should be living out this destiny even as the Elder Brother described of Himself and said, “…The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for what things sover He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” John 5:19
To do what you “see” your Father do is not a life of mimicry. We are not reading or recalling the history of what our Father has done and then trying to repeat it or pattern ourselves after it. We are not doing what He DID. No! Instead we are called into the depths of “Son-ship” with Father. There in that place of intimate relationship with Him, He longs for us to ‘see’ what He IS DOING and then He longs to see us do it. There in that place with Him we discover true prophetic sight and with it, He takes us forward. This is the way of Sons! As sons, we draw our strength from the relationship with Father and from that relationship we ‘know’ we can do all things because of Him; for ‘a son’ can do nothing of himself, but what he SEES the Father DO!
Forward is the Prophetic Sight. If we fail to ‘see’ this we will be tempted to look back. To learn from the past is acceptable. To live in the past is not spiritual.
Isaiah 43:18-44:4 tells us, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing: now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?...”
When we live out of the past we become “weary of The Lord”. Isa 43:22ff
Only life lived ‘looking forward’ will bring us into the fresh revelation of all He has for us. He has much for us. He is ‘doing a new thing’! For some the thought of “new” is a danger to the ‘ways they already know’. New is not so different that it is wrong. New is fresh! New is alive! New is More! Shall ye not know it?!
Additional verses to consider: Luke 5:37-39; Matt 9:17; Mar 2:22; 2 Cor 3:18 and Eph 4:1-16.
Andy Kennedy: First Draft 9/19/11.
