Learning the Principles of the Kingdom

The book of 2 Kings is full of eternal principles of God’s kingdom that He has established and will never change. As believers, we are invited to believe the Scriptures as our final authority and to live out the principles that God has set up. Many of us, however, who call on the name of Jesus, seem to be in the dark regarding many of His ways. We have either never been taught them or have simply opted to disregard them for an easier, extra-biblical road. 

Elisha and the King of Israel

In 2 Kings 13:15-19, we are given a little glimpse into a terrifying reality. We find the prophet Elisha nearing his death and welcoming the king of Israel to come and see him. When he does, he leads him into an obscure and strange prophetic act of shooting arrows out of the window. Next, he tells him that the Lord will deliver him and Israel from the Syrian army and instructs him to strike the ground with an arrow. He does this three times and stops. Elisha becomes angry as he asks the king, “Why did you stop?” He explains that if he would have continued striking, he would have utterly demolished the Syrian army. But as a result of striking the ground only three times, he will only defeat them in three battles, instead of utterly destroying them.

Settling For Less

What are the lessons to be gleaned for us today from such a passage? The primary teaching surrounds a challenge to not settle for less then the fullness of what God has intended to do in your life and through your life. If the king would have continued striking the ground, the victory and fulfillment of God’s purposes, which were evidently to cast down the entire Syrian army, would have been realized. He stopped and turned back well before he had laid hold of God’s desires. He didn’t contend for the plans and purposes of God, but settled for only a portion of what He wanted to accomplish. A striking fact is that God did not override this. He allowed him to attain the smaller victory. He permitted him to settle for less. He will not violate the free will which He has put into humanity. It is our decision how much of God we will embrace and how much of our lives we will give to Him to use for His eternal purposes on the earth.

How Much of God Do I Really Want?

I sometimes ask myself the question, “Ryan, how much of God do you really want?” I can have as much or as little of God as I’m willing to contend for. If I am willing to do the work (and it is hard work) to pursue Him wholeheartedly, allow Him to transform me and to root myself in Him, then I am on my way in contending for His fullness in my life, seeing His plans and purposes realized in my life. If I am ho-hum and complacent in my pursuit of Him, I am buying into the mediocrity that will keep me sidelined from usefulness in His kingdom.

God’s Will

It is God’s will to form us into the likeness of Jesus and along this journey we will be exposed to much pain, hardship, and trial, which are the foundations of spiritual growth and maturity. If we will open ourselves and embrace Him, He will lead us to high spiritual victories and break us through tough lessons, all for the purpose of investing Himself in us as we become His vessels. I am convinced that many of us are living at spiritual levels tremendously below what God intends for us. I do not believe that it is God’s will that so many believers are shirking the biblical mandate of basic discipleship (embracing the cross and denying self, growing in intimacy with Jesus, surrendered to His Lordship, grasping the Word in order to teach it to others, etc). I cannot accept it as God’s plan that the church is so full of those who are weak in their faith and being coddled in their Christianity, not challenged and called to the high standard of the New Testament. It is not God’s purpose that there are still countless people groups where the Kingdom of God is not advancing and flourishing.

What’s Gone Wrong?

These facts beg the question of what has gone wrong. Has God not held His side of the bargain? Or have we not embraced the fullness of relationship with Him and His urgent rescue effort to reach all people groups? The answer is quite simple but the implications quite difficult. God has been waiting 2,000 years for a generation who will take Him at His word and contend for all He wants to do in them and through them, not merely settling for the smaller portion.

Life’s Hardships…Our Response

There is a sense of fatalism that I often find among believers. We look upon our lives and horrible experiences which may have happened to us, assume that we are disqualified for use in God’s kingdom, and live a mediocre life in God as a result. Or we look at the mountain size circumstances before us and assume that God must be leading us to do something other then facing these tremendously difficult circumstances. We choose to be content instead of proceeding into the deeper life in Christ, or choose not to go after the sense of calling we have, or decide that the debilitating sin we’ve been succumbing to is unable to be overcome.

We stop short of moving towards the plans and purposes of God in our lives because the outlook of overcoming seems too hard. I have learned that God will never allow us to go untested in moving towards His plans in our midst. At some point all of us will come up against a barrier that seems insurmountable. Through this He is testing our resolve and commitment to walk in Him and in His purposes. It grieves me to think, however, that most turn back and quit at this point, refusing to do the hard work of contending with God and by default accept a spiritually mediocre life in God. He has great plans that He has ordained us to walk in, but it takes traveling the narrow way with Him.

Often we’ve let our painful life circumstances define us. Things like inflicted sexual abuse, a horrible home life, abandonment, or other deep wounds can wreak havoc in our lives. Even with great hardships in our past, however, we have a decision to make. While these hardships in themselves do not define us, our response to them definitely does. Will we draw near to Jesus through actively forgiving those who have hurt us, submitting them to Him, praying for them and receiving healing from Jesus’ presence? Or will we choose bitterness, unforgiveness, and self-centeredness instead, cutting ourselves off from God and His blessing.

Ways to Contend

How do I contend for God’s plans and purposes in my life? First, regardless of who we are, where we’ve come from, or what we’ve done, we must believe that God loves us, accepts us and that He wants the best for us and to use us for His purposes. If we don’t truly believe this deep down, we are not going to be able to move forward. Secondly, we repent for allowing deceptions, lies, compromise, complacency and dull spirituality to dominate our lives. The only way that Scripture advocates a renewing of relationship with God is through an owning and a turning from sin, which is repentance. Many of us have cast repentance aside and been afraid of God, instead of pouring our hearts out to Him in absolute honesty and vulnerability, which He absolutely loves and affirms.

Thirdly, we commit ourselves into His hands to mold us, teach us, and help us to pursue Him with discipline and dedication (in studying the Scriptures, in our prayer lives, in serving others, in fasting, as worshippers, etc). We cannot try harder in our following of Him, instead we submit to Him and ask Him to help us follow Him better, a prayer He answers with complete joy and commitment. Next, we make an active choice to do whatever it takes to pursue holiness and purity. Give God permission to deal with you in this area and permission to have His way with you. Don’t settle necessarily for the standard other believers around you are living at. Be willing to stand out and be different. Offer yourself to Him as the Lord and ruler of your life and everything related to it. Give Him complete reign over your life. Take the crown of authority over your life off of your own head and give it Jesus. This includes all that you hold dear; your hopes, dreams, ambitions, personal goals, desires for a spouse, plans for your life, worldly loves, etc. Commit to be about that which is most important to Him.

Read books about men and women whom God has used and who have contended for His plans and purposes in their own lives. We only know what we’ve been exposed to. Through reading we grasp deeper revelation of God’s ways through experiences He has given to others. It is a critical exercise to broaden our experience of the ways of God.  Lastly, don’t ever give up. Things will be difficult and times will get hard, but if you remain faithful and obedient and contend for God in your life, you will suddenly turn a corner and experience breakthrough. This type of life is one of joy, not sorrow. The hardship we face is sweet as we know that it leads us to greater intimacy and revelation of Jesus.

Moving Forward

As we move forward, let’s make a decision in our hearts today to contend fully for the plans and purposes of God in our lives. Let’s press in and press on to lay hold of the high call of God in Christ Jesus. I don’t know about you but I don’t want the Lord to ask me one day, “Ryan, Why did you stop? There was so much more I had for you but you didn’t contend for it.”