The Bright Hope of creative abundance
I woke up this morning with the idea that “I have everything I need right now to do everything that God is calling and asking me to do.” Even in the face of what appears to lack in my life, we have what we need to do the will of God right now.
This will always be true all of the time regardless of what I understand to be true about what I currently possess, I will always have what I need to “Seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Which is the catalyst to “and all these things will be added to you.”
I will always have the ability to speak light into any darkness. Because of the finished work of the cross and the provision that it made for us, I’ll always have the ability to be light in any place I find myself.
Erika and I prayed last night before going to sleep that God would show us what to do in light of the current state of things and what He is calling us to and I woke up with this thought in mind like a massive, blinking, neon sign in my mind and heart.
We have everything we need to seek the kingdom right now. If we don’t currently possess something, then apparently it’s not what we need in order to seek the kingdom 1st.
It’s probably going to come on the other side of choosing to do what we can with what we have.
It will likely fall into “all these things will be added unto you.” The provision we appear to lack will come as a side effect of us doing what we can with what we have right now to seek the Kingdom.
Right now, we don’t need a pile of money or a way to transport the family somewhere. (window exploded and the sliding doors fell off the hinge yesterday rendering the van incapable of transporting us for the time being while we sort things out with insurance.)
I feel the invitation that I’d also like to invite you into: to take inventory of what we have instead of what we need and then ask ourself how we can use what we have to seek God’s kingdom.
Then, instead of wringing our hands trying to find some way to address what appears to be a need in our life, get busy seeking the kingdom.
When we take the time to inventory what we have, especially in the western world, it becomes clear that we live in possession of great abundance.
It may not always be the abundance we want but it is still abundance and I challenge you to join me in asking “what can I do with what I have?” Instead of allowing ourselves to be drawn into the deceptive illusion of lack.
When we inventory our abundance, we will discover that we have something to contribute, something we can use to render service to God and other people. We have something to give and choosing to give when everything around us screams to us about our need is the key to unlocking the flow of Kingdom Creative abundance.
Each of us, at any given time have something powerful to contribute to the expansion of God’s kingdom.
Sometimes, when we appear to lack something, it’s merely part of the process of elimination showing us more clearly where our strength actually lies and how we are called to deploy it in service to Jesus and the people we are called to serve.
The Binary Sequence of Creation, How it was twisted by original sin and corrected at the cross
The binary sequence of creation is a 101 pattern.
1 represent abundance. It is God. It is the substance of existence, it represents value, matter. It’s the starting place.
“In the beginning God…….”
He was there in the beginning of all things. He created. He is the eternally existing creative force that makes up the fabric of all existence.
When He started, darkness covered the earth and it was without form and void.
Darkness is a void. A nothing. It can only be measured by the lack of light. It has no substance. It’s zero. It’s nothing. It’s void, lack, obscurity.
In the beginning, God created = 1
Darkness cover the face of the earth and it was without form and void = 0
God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” = 1
101
The darkness was dispelled, the void, filled. The nothing was made into substance. The lack was wiped out in the first act of creative abundance.
This pattern continues to this day as the shalom of how God set creation into motion.
We start from abundance and bring substance into every lack we face.
The Fall and the disrupted sequence
When the serpent seduced Eve it was the 1st time that a human, created in the Holy Image of God did anything from a perceived deficit.
“Has God indeed said…..?”
The beginning of the sequence was called into question.
“For God knows that in the day you eat of (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
At that point, the human, who was crafted by God, in the Holy Image of God Himself took action to be something they already were.
She was lead to believe that there was something that she could do to make herself to be like God.
It was the first time in the history of creation that a human did anything based on a perceived deficit.
It’s the first time a human was driven to action by the illusion of lack.
This is the foundation of all sin.
Eve began operating out of sequence with the shalom of Eden.
010
It’s the sequence of thinking that disregards the Divine origin of existence.
It’s the sequence of thinking that is the driving force of the ways of man.
It’s the sequence of thought behind humanism and it’s as old as Genesis 3.
It’s the contrast point to the Shalom that was in effect in Eden.
It’s in contrast to our original design.
It’s the flash point to all poverty, paranoia, wars, thievery and lack in the human experience.
This is where all of that originated.
It threw mankind out of sequence with the Shalom of Eden.
It transitioned us from 101 and put us into a 010 pattern.
It disregards the divine origin and puts the formless void as the starting point to all human affairs.
It puts the pressure of resolution on the shoulders of humans when we were never created to operate apart from trust and collaboration with God.
The 010 sequence perpetuated itself in the mind of mankind for millennia and wrought war, destruction and distraction as a result up until God Himself was born of a virgin, took the full brunt of that sin upon Himself and removed it from us.
010.
He removed our sin, the zero, thus putting humanity back in sequence with the Shalom of Eden, 101.
Repentance is the changing of our thinking that puts us back in sequence with the Shalom of Eden.
Matthew 5:16 calls us “the light of the world.” We are the solution to lack, darkness and obscurity. Our shining our light is the solution and that comes as we trust our creator and surrender to our true nature. When we surrender to our created purpose, we play our role in putting all of creation back into sequence with the shalom of Eden.
We are the overflow of God’s creative abundance. The byproduct of the eternally expanding creativity of God Himself.
The nature of His creativity has not changed through the millennia.
It hovers over that which is without form and void and then speaks the light that brings it into form and focus.
He created us in our image.
What if, when we find ourselves hovering over the areas of our life that are covered in darkness, that are without form and void, the same way God did? What if this is part of the natural progression of our created design?
What if we were made for the darkness? What if we weren’t faced with this dark and formless void as a punishment but as a canvas? What if it’s part of our created purpose to bring light to the darkness?
What if God lead us here the way an artist leads his paint brush to a blank canvas?
What if this dark and formless void is exactly where we are supposed to be?
What if we are the answer that the darkness has been waiting for?
There is no lack. There is only purpose and places where the light is about to break forth.
The only power darkness has is light, not shining.
Arise and shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
This is The Bright Hope.