Tension is a dirty word. It can leave us thinking of stress and headaches and problems and junk. Yet it is tension that fuels our Kingdom Theology. It is the tension between grace and the law; mercy and judgment; love and discipline. It is the people of unclean lips lifting praise to a holy God. It is God wearing flesh, and Gods imminent return. It is life between the first and second coming of Christ. During this time we experience many blessings, but none of them in the fullness that we will experience when Jesus returns. In the here and now we are more than conquerors, yet even though Christ has defeated the power of death, we are still dying. We are made holy by the blood of Christ, yet we are continually becoming holy. Jesus said that the work was done when he died on the cross, yet James says that "faith without works is dead." We pray for healing, yet not everyone we pray for gets healed. We believe in a God who sets captives free, but we know Christians trapped in bondage. Do we stop praying for healing? Absolutely not! Do we become complacient with bondage? No! Do we try to be more effective in the way that we pray? Absolutely! but it's not the primary thing we focus on. The primary focus always has to be increasing in knowledge of our heavenly Father's will. Seeking first the Kingdom.
Colossians 1:9-10 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.
We need to grow in knowledge of His will, His ways, His desires, His purposes, His thoughts and His heart. We can only do that by becoming a people who continually seek his face. Jesus said "...I can only do what I see my Father doing". He is our example and model. If we want to see more people healed, we need to spend more time seeking the Father so that we can see what HE is doing, and then do that.
Psalms 27:4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
All that being said, there's a BIG place for signs and wonders when we dwell in the tension. Not everyone knows Jesus. Nothing will close the gap between belief and non-belief faster than watching someone being supernaturally healed, or when someone is given a word of knowledge (Check out John 1 to see how Nathaniel was called as a disciple). It's the will of the Father that ALL people be whole, physically, emotionally and spiritually. All of the awesome gifts that we were endowed with through Holy Spirit and our inheritance are meant both for edifying the church and evangelism.
Is there a place and a time for everyone in a given location to get healed? YES!, is there a time for the shadow of a Son or Daughter of the King to set captives free? YES! Is there a time for changing water to wine? YES! So the question becomes how will we know when that time is? By living a life of worship, pleasing and acceptible to the Father, by Seeking first the Kingdom, by practicing Love...and when the time comes, by walking in all the authority that you've been given as a Son. Live in the tension.
It is messy and stressful and beautiful and exhilarating. It is the tension between The Now And Not Yet. Let it leave you longing for His return.
Embrace Grace, Seek First the Kingdom, Practice Love, Walk in Authority.
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