This has weighed heavy on me for some time and I have fought with it in myself and at times seemingly by myself for so long but tonight as I lay in bed, (yep an hour ago and no sleep) these thoughts keep coming back to me and I KNOW it is the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart and mind. You see, I have a love-hate relationship with the news. On the one hand, I feel it is important for any of us, especially Christians, to stay informed as to the goings on in the world. But on the other hand, I see the rampant corruption in high levels of one government or another and my passion for what is right and what is wrong flares like crazy!!

The trouble is it isn’t righteous anger as much as it is the flesh wanting what I presume is rightfully mine. I live in America, we pride ourselves on living by a fair Constitution that guarantees certain rights to ALL of its citizens. But, like so many others, I see those “rights” eroding away and I get torn between patriotic pride and what the Bible says is important!

The truth of the matter is this; and this is what the Spirit has been trying for the past weeks to drill into me and I believe so because of the dawning of a New Year; that as a CHILD of God, I am a citizen of a totally different Kingdom; a Kingdom that is based in the Spiritual Realm, a Kingdom that is of the spiritual for the spirit and not for the flesh. Yes, I am a citizen of the U.S. of A. but that is in the natural, and only secondary to my true citizenship.

When I surrendered my life, my will, my ALL to my Lord and Redeemer, Christ Jesus, I gave up citizenry in this natural order of things and became a citizen of the spiritual Kingdom of our Heavenly Father. This land is no longer my home, these so-called rights we have a tendency to want to cling too only tend to muddle up what our true mission as a citizen of Heaven is meant to be! You may not totally agree with me, but I gave up those so-called rights when I became a spiritual citizen reborn to a new and spiritual way of life. Yet the flesh still wants to hang on, to drag us down, to slow us up and to hinder us from our real goal and mission in this life, this calling; to be an example of God’s Love and Christ Jesus’ Redeeming Grace and Mercy to others and to do all that we can spiritually AND naturally to love others to demonstrate that spiritual change that is and can be a hope to all!

I have read so many wonderful and Spiritually Anointed messages the last few weeks that show me exactly what the Holy Spirit is calling the Church to do and to be! It is one confirmation after another that we are to get back to what identified the “Church of the Nazarene” meaning of Jesus, and that thing that identified the True Church was active Love for one another. Not in saying I love you to one another, but in DOING love to one another and not just other “churchy” people, but all those around us as we have the power and ability to do.

This is NOT protesting our right to this Amendment or that Amendment as in the United States, but in loving those who choose to rob us of those rights. In praying for their salvation. That is how you bless those that persecute you, you PRAY for their eyes to be opened spiritually and their spirit to be reawakened! Doesn’t the Bible explicitly tell us that if someone wants to take our jacket, give them our shirt too!? God, our Heavenly Father will NOT let us go naked! His promises to His children are true!!!!

Why do we cling to the things, the material things and the supposed rights that this world has to offer us when we aren’t even claiming to be citizens of this world??!! The Bible tells us we ARE in the world, we are just no longer OF this world!!! As a LOVING Christian man or woman, why are we afraid that we need to protect ourselves from the evil in the world? I have never been much of a “pacifist” per-se, because I have always been able to speak my mind and not always for the better of it. But, doesn’t our Heavenly Father also tell us in HIS Word, His Living Word, His Faithful Word, that if evil falls upon us do not seek to repay evil with evil for vengeance IS His and HE will repay?!

Now when you think back to all the examples written down in Scripture of how Jesus handled things, can you not in all honesty SEE the strength of His character by LIVING the very Word of His Father? It is no wonder that Jesus, the Anointed One IS the Living WORD and dwelt in our midst!!! AND, He still dwells in our midst in the form of His Holy Spirit, sent back to strengthen, guide, comfort, etc., etc.

It is hard to watch the things going on in the world and realizing it truly is getting worse; but there IS truth to that old saying that “it is always darkest before the dawn!” There is a greater darkness coming, but there is an even greater LIGHT that will be coming quite soon after and it is our job, our calling, our mission to let people know the truth; and to demonstrate the truth in actual loving of one another and not clinging to the things of this world that will soon disappear anyway!

The greatest weapon we have is not for use against flesh and blood; against the natural world, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,” – 2Corinthians 10:3-5.

And;

Ephesians 6:10-13, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Our greatest weapon, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12.

Jesus demonstrated and gave us the example of His true love for mankind, by dying on a cross that was meant for each of us, but also by fulfilling the Whole Word of God! If we are truly Christians, then that means we are followers, disciples of Christ Jesus. Christ means the Anointed One and as Christians, TRUE Christians then we also are followers of the Anointed One and are to help others become a reflection of the Anointed One by being a reflection of the Anointed One, Christ Jesus ourselves!

In closing, we don’t accomplish that mission by fearing what the world has in store for us or what the world may take from us. We fulfill that mission by showing the world how much MORE it can have where it counts and where what they gain will never perish! “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” – 2Corinthians 4:16-18.