We have to move beyond our contentment with merely a ‘point of view’. We need the prophetic unction of the speaking Voice that kindly cuts & brings us to our knees.

A lost, wandering sheep, straying near to the edge of a 1000ft drop, in a misty storm, wouldn’t be reassured by a vague, difficult-to-hear, can’t-quite-make-out, faintly-heard Shepherd’s voice in the distance.

It would want to urgently pinpoint exactly where the voice was coming from and exactly what the voice was saying – it would want a foghorn.

Otherwise, what hope would it have in moving safely from where it was? Perhaps it just wouldn’t move? Perhaps it would die of exposure or hypothermia?

Or a ravenous wolf.

The Church are like this lost sheep: we’re somehow lost in the fog of corporate disunity, divided by the haar of theological funk, quelled by the abnormality of calloused sensitivity.

All of this clear-as-day reality is compounded by many “perspectives”…and very little change. The furniture might be rearranged but the house remains a sinking mess.

Conviction is proved genuine by the nature of its action; faith is demonstrated true by the fruitfulness of her deeds.

There comes a moment of gracious sobriety (a fleeting moment of profound opportunity) when the disaster is at its very worst, and it is precisely then that we must discern what change is required, determining with every faith-filled fibre of our being not to be unmoved.

What if we don’t?

The moment of sobriety will fade, it will disappear, human nature will resume and overwhelm any gracious trace of conscience-conscription. We will forget and the intended reality targeted by the sobriety…will continue as it always has.

The promises we made in our desperation will not be kept.

We need the jolting, thunderous Voice that strips (Psalm 29) away our dross, unbelief and idolatry. Our priority should be to pursue this – a pursuit more urgent and more ardent than that for ‘water in a dry and weary land…’

If the Church will not humbly enter into a long-term posture of prayer, intercession & repentance, the benevolent sobriety of God will loop back around like an unwanted boomerang, but with intensified force.

He is commanding change.

And even if we’re not yet sure what that change will ultimately mean, this surrender must nevertheless happen in the heart of man.

Continue reading “Zion, We Have a Problem”