This is a slightly modified excerpt from my book entitled “Welcome to the War:”
I hear a lot of people talking about revolution these days. Usually, I hear it in a context similar to the following:
“We don’t need religion, we need revolution.”
If by revolution you mean a rapid change to a new perspective on life in the Spirit, then I whole heartedly agree with the sentiment. If you mean a radical consecration that the world doesn’t know how to cope with, then we are in kindred spirit. If you mean open rebellion against the Christian establishment, then I’m afraid we are no longer in agreement.
Consider the following: The prayer movement is loosely patterned after the tabernacle of David. You can’t go ten days without hearing a sermon on the Tabernacle of David, or a reference to it, or an illustration about it. That’s cool. I understand the theology around it. But, did you know that David, while worshipping love-sick in the Tabernacle of David, never removed the priests from their divine duties at the tabernacle of the congregation in Gibeon (See 2 Chronicles 1)? In fact, he sent the high priest Zadok to Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39) where the Tabernacle of the Congregation was.
What does that mean? It means that David, even in his intense desire to seek the presence of the Lord before the ark of the covenant (this is a metaphor for the prayer movement) didn’t despise the religious establishment of his day (call it the denominational structure, the institutional church, etc). In fact, he took great care to ensure that the establishment was properly administered.
We in the prayer movement have a divine mandate to honor our elders, to minister within the confines of the traditional church, AND to seek the heart of the Lord with ferver and abandon. Our duties as priests and our duties as sons are not mutually exlusive. Revolution is good, and needed in this hour. Rebellion, however, is not of the Lord and should be dealt with as sin at the heart level.
This is just a friendly reminder that we may not, under any circumstances, disrespect or war against the elders of our churches, our pastors, or the older generations, depite their attitude towards the prayer movement and our generation. We will not affect the type of change that we desire to see through rhetoric or rebellion, but through servanthood and love. Living a revolutionary lifestyle means coming before the Lord with a heart to seek his face, as David did, with a right relationship towards the establishment.
