Have you ever been a part of a Movement? What was the first thing that came to your mind when you saw that question?

There have been many different “movements” down through the years and I would imagine most of us have been impacted on some level by a movement. Obviously, movements can either be positive and constructive or negative and destructive. Many of them are politically motivated and others are socially based and motivated. Within any culture or group of people, there could be movements that affect that particular group. When does a fad or an idea become a movement?

These are some of the questions I am asking myself right now. At my age it would be very tempting just to take a few steps back and let those who are younger create the movement. I think some of them are doing just that – setting trends, getting a few followers. Will the current trends or fads become a movement? Will it be something we want to follow and engage in?

I like what the Pharisee Gamaliel said to the Sanhedrin when they had several of the apostles on trial. In Acts 5 we see that there was a discussion among the Sadducees about the predicament they were facing. Bold believers were gathering and seeing amazing healings take place drawing many new believers into the infant church. Peter actually stood up and challenged the council saying “We ought to obey God rather than men” (the council). In verse 34-39 Gamaliel warned the council by giving them several examples of those who rose up to oppose what was going on in their time but they never amounted to anything. He then said, “Keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing, but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it – lest you even be found to fight against God.” The council agreed with him (more or less) and after threatening them, let them go. Thus the movement continued – daily, in the temple, and in every house – they were teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ! It is the greatest and most long lasting movement in the history of mankind.

I believe there is a fresh movement forming within the church that will surpass everything we have read about and seen and experienced thus far. For over 2000 years the church has continued to have at least a remnant of believers who were willing to count the cost and pay the price to see the fullness of the Kingdom of God come upon this earth with a demonstration of the love of God and His life transforming power like the world has never seen.

Compromise, lukewarmness, worldliness, sin and the like have weakened the original intent of our Father to demonstrate to the rest of the unbelieving world Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We have seen periods of time where some amazing things have taken place but none of them were sustained. In fact the movements of the past were short lived compared to what I believe the Lord wants to demonstrate to our world than is so confused and messed up by lesser movements no matter how noble they have seemed. There are movements going on today that are changing culture but I have yet to see one that is not influencing society in a negative way with the exception of a movement with the Kingdom of God at the center of it.

One of the definitions I found on a Google search for a movement is: “A movement is when people gather around a single idea or cause and do something about it. You might have heard this referred to as a tribe.” So what is a tribe? The broader definition is: “a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.” Our first thoughts might be of an Indian tribe or the 12 tribes of Israel but all of us have a tribe.

I definitely relate to and have used the term tribe for the people I feel most connected to spiritually. Not everyone in the body of Christ is a part of my tribe. My tribe speaks the same language – it is the Kingdom (of God) language. Many believers only use that term when they pray the Lord’s Prayer –“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Millions of people have been praying that very prayer for over 2000 years and there is no doubt that our God is answering that prayer. It will be fully answered in the age to come. However most of us have relegated the Kingdom to only a future time when the Lord desires for it to manifest here on earth now. Even if we just saw what the young church saw in the book of Acts, most of us would feel like the Kingdom had come to earth! But Jesus told His disciples before leaving this realm that “greater things than this will you do” (greater than what He had done during His three year ministry here on earth).

I want to be a movement maker! I want to find those who are not willing to continue to be satisfied with life as we have been experiencing it thus far. I have been in some amazing moves of God over the last fifty years and some of them impacted me personally and permanently. But they never became a movement that changed the culture of our nation.

Here is another quote I found while researching movements. “Successful movements must define their goals clearly and target the institutions that have the power to make the changes they are demanding.” That pretty much tells me why the church has been unable to sustain a move of God and turn it into a movement. We all want to see souls saved and broken lives healed but we have pushed into the future the fuller manifestation of God’s Kingdom. Books have been written on the Kingdom, individuals have taught and even demonstrated revelation concerning the Kingdom, but no one has been able to ignite a movement that would sweep around the world, across all of the barriers that have contained what the Lord wants to do worldwide.

I have a tribe – some are located in Thomasville but many of them live in other parts of the United States and in other countries of the world. Many of us know each other but there are many more who speak the same language and have the same Kingdom culture that I have yet to meet. We are all praying and believing that we are the generation and one of the tribes that will contribute to the Movement that will spread across the globe and impact nations. Find your tribe and join the Movement.

PART TWO

Last week I talked about what a movement might look like in a general sense. This week I want to challenge each of us to examine our own hearts about joining the ultimate movement – the Kingdom of God. As I stated last week, I have seen many “moves” of God but I have never seen one become a sustained movement that changed a culture for more than a few years. Legitimate moves of God have even impacted whole countries but they have never been sustained indefinitely on a wide scale.

The whole country of Wales was impacted at the turn of the last century and it affected many other countries as a result. But Wales today is very similar to the Wales prior to 1904. It has been called the largest Christian revival that dramatically effected the population of Wales and spilled over into several other countries including the United States. Called a Great Awakening, it “swept the rest of Britain, Scandinavia, parts of Europe, North America, the mission fields of India, the Orient, Africa and Latin America. Over 100,000 people in Wales alone were converted to Christianity. There was a 50% reduction in convictions for drunkenness from 1902-1907. What happened?

Human beings can have a very short memory sometimes. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. God created us in His image and likeness so that we could become like Him and represent Him to the rest of the world that has become lost in all kinds of lesser and usually more temporal things. When God intervenes for us in our everyday lives, when He makes Himself known in some obvious way, we still tend to return to our old ways after a period of time no matter how good He has been to us and how much He has made Himself known to us.

Last week I stated: “I believe there is a fresh movement forming within the church that will surpass everything we have read about and seen and experienced thus far. For over 2000 years the church has continued to have at least a remnant of believers who were willing to count the cost and pay the price to see the fullness of the Kingdom of God come upon this earth with a demonstration of the love of God and His life transforming power like the world has never seen.”

Everyone and everything was created to respond to love. Some people and animals have been so badly wounded and damaged that they have lost all trust and faith in anyone or anything else but themselves. Nevertheless, God’s love can change even the vilest sinner and the most wounded person. When that love is demonstrated in a way that causes them to let the walls of protection they have built up around their hearts down just enough for Him to pour out His love upon them, they can be completely transformed and healed. That is what I have prayed for, longed for and expect to see. I still fail the love test regularly. I don’t love people the way I know the Lord does and wants me to.

Each of us needs a deeper encounter with Love Himself. When we are so in love with Him and know that He loves each of us perfectly and unconditionally, we will then be able to love others better. No amount of money or good works will accomplish the task at hand. There are humanitarian efforts of all kinds that are helping to relieve human suffering. There is plenty of money to accomplish most anything if it were just in the hands of the righteous instead of those with evil intents. The one thing that money can’t buy and even the most noble humanitarian efforts fall short on, is the unconditional love that Jesus paid for with His own life.

The sacrificial love of country, love for our family or other worthwhile causes falls short of the kind of love we need to love our enemies and pray and do good to those who spitefully use us, who say all manner of evil against us (Matthew 5:44) But what is impossible with men is possible with God.

It is not a one-time experience but a daily offering of ourselves as a living sacrifice upon the altar of His love. It is making a choice day after day to love God with all of our hearts and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Part of being able to love this way comes from spending time with the Lord and getting to know Him better. It was said of Moses that he knew the “ways” of God but the children of Israel only knew His “deeds”. Moses encountered God on a level that most of us have not but God is no respecter of persons, so those who are willing to seek Him diligently will find Him. It involves setting priorities with our time. The great patriarchs of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament believers all understood this and practiced it. I have heard stories of one of the great preachers in the last century or two that claimed they were so busy that they had to set aside 3-4 hours of their day at the beginning, to seek God, in order to accomplish all that He had asked them to do. I fall very short in that area.

Yes, we need a Love Movement. We have seen the best that the world had to offer back in the 60’s and 70’s. Young people by the thousands came together advocating love, peace and other simple values that certainly had the potential to become a society or culture altering movement. Because it was not based in godly principles, the “free love” and other habits that were espoused in the movement proved to be the very thing that kept it from becoming a movement those with godly principles could embrace. Certainly there have been some amazing examples from history of those who really walked the walk well like Mother Theresa or even Gandhi who loved the person of Jesus as well as the Holy Scriptures (just not those who professed to be Christians). They had (and have) their followers but their cause never became a movement on the level I am expecting.

We need movement makers and movement followers. We need a movement that will change the culture of not just a community or a state or a nation, but one that someone called “the ever increasing Kingdom”. We need millions of those who know this is what they have been looking for, dreaming about and willing to pay the price to see it spread over the whole world. Are you one?

PART THREE:

My last paragraph from last week’s article stated: “We need movement makers and movement followers. We need a movement that will change the culture of not just a community or a state or a nation, but one that someone called “the ever increasing Kingdom”. We need millions of those who know this is what they have been looking for, dreaming about and willing to pay the price to see it spread over the whole world. Are you one?”

I have been trying to cast a vision to those who will read this column. As I stated last week, I believe a Movement that expresses God’s unconditional love will be the foundation for changing our culture permanently. When we “taste and see” how good the Lord really is by seeing His love demonstrated in every sphere of influence from the top of the mountains down into the valleys people will begin to respond and become a movement follower. Some of those are destined to become movement makers!

Movements within our culture a not uncommon. Call them trends or shifts or fads – most of them are short lasting. Those of you that have been alive very long at all have seen the U.S go from the “Roaring 20”s” into the Great Depression, several world wars to the “Hippy” or “Flower Child” free love of the 60’sand 70’s. Then as communications began to expand, social media began to have more influence and much of the so called news went from reporting facts to promoting the agendas of those who have the ability to control what is being said. Many people today have embraced a culture that is so unbiblical and senseless for anyone who still uses logic and applies wisdom to their lives. I can hardly believe it has happened so quickly. Or maybe it really has been happening subtly like the frog in the pan of water, one degree of change at a time finally brought him to a boil and it was too late. It seems like that is where we are at or at least where we are headed if you just look at what you are seeing and hearing.

Call me a dreamer and I will agree with you! I have been dreaming for many years to see an expression of the Kingdom of God that is so undeniable that only those who purposely choose to stay in their own deception will not join this Movement of all movements! Thy Kingdom come – on earth as it is in heaven. We have all prayed that many, many times and I believe that God answers prayer. To see a true expression of God’s Kingdom demonstrated and lived out upon this earth has only been seen and experienced in a small measure compared to what our God has desired and planned. The early disciples and apostles that Jesus Himself commissioned with this responsibility were accused of “turning the world upside down”. Actually they were turning it right side up and had it continued with the force and demonstration that it began with, we would be in the Kingdom age by now.

It seems very dark and hopeless in many situations across this land and throughout our world, but I have read the end of the Book! God would not have given us His word that the kingdoms of this world would become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ if there was anything we could do to keep that from ultimately happening. He is certainly shaking everything that can be shaken but the purpose for that is so that what is not able to be shaken will stand and will be acknowledged as the real truth.

I do not know when my dreams will come fully true. If you look back through the scriptures, many of the characters in the Bible had dreams. Some were giving guidance and direction like Joseph, Jesus’s earthly father. He received several very specific dreams that he followed quickly and specifically that protected the life of Jesus in his early childhood years. The Old Testament Joseph had a dream concerning his destiny but it took many years, lots of trials until that dream was fulfilled. During part of his life the Lord used him to interpret other people’s dreams. In fact that is what put him into the position as the right hand person for the Pharaoh of Egypt, to feed most of the world including his own natural family during seven years of famine. Daniel interpreted dreams for those he served while in captivity which promoted him to a place of amazing influence. In the New Testament times, dreams are regularly mentioned. They gave specific direction to some and inspiration to others.

Many modern day people have had literal dreams that have changed the direction of their lives. Martin Luther, a Catholic priest got a revelation of faith that changed the course of Christianity. That movement began when one brave man hung his 95 Thesis on the church doors. It quickly spread throughout the known world and opened the way for an expression of the heart of God that had not been seen for many hundreds of years. Others like Martin Luther King had a dream planted deep within his heart that was a part of a movement that paved the way to civil rights being embraced by a larger portion of our population that had been taught wrongly. He only got to see the very beginning of what he declared so eloquently in his “I have a dream” speech. But I do believe God planted that dream within him and that it will be fulfilled completely. He was a movement maker with a lasting influence upon his world and he lived his life in a way that modeled the dream that the Lord had given him.

Some of these movements will merge together to form the bigger picture. I am not sure that it will be led by one outstanding personality as in the past. I think that many of us who have had dreams planted in our hearts are going to come together under His banner. The Lord of Hosts, Jesus Christ, will lead this movement and millions of us will play our part in seeing His dreams come true. His banner over us is Love and when the world sees us marching together with Him leading the way, they will enlist in this Movement until “every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!