The Path (Fire on the Mountain Series) (17 page)

“Christian publications and programs focus on great churches, great missionaries, great missions, great artists and musicians, but altogether I think these are less than one percent of the true work of the kingdom. The majority of churches do not stand out like that, yet they are doing the majority of the work of the kingdom by being faithful in their daily walk with God—witnessing, teaching, praying, counseling, and seeking to build others up and help them find their way to the kingdom.

“For several years, I asked every large gathering of Christians that I could how many had come to the Lord through a crusade, Christian television, or evangelistic campaigns. Less than two percent of those I asked had come to the Lord through these means. All of the rest, over ninety-eight percent, had come to the Lord through the witness of a friend or relative. So where is the real work of the kingdom going on? Is it with the great ministries and campaigns, or with faithful believers who are daily being faithful?”

“It is with faithful believers who are daily being faithful to witness,” Jen replied. “I still don’t make the connection between this and my question. Is this real Christianity the way it is intended to be?”

“What you are experiencing here is real, biblical Christianity. What others are experiencing, that may be at a much slower pace and far less spectacular, can also be real Christianity. The time that you spent in what now seems like unreal and unsubstantial Christian life did help prepare you for the path you are now on.

“I have traveled the world and the church world about as much as anyone I know, but I am continually encountering huge movements and streams in the body of Christ I never knew existed. The body of Christ is big, and even those who may have traveled as extensively as I only see part of it. I have begun to see every expression of Christianity as a possible on-ramp for those who would seek this path to the city of God.

“If we are going to perceive truth and walk in it, we must keep in mind we only see in part and know in part. Do you remember when they put the Hubble telescope in orbit? This allowed astronomers to see further into the heavens than had ever been seen before. They focused the telescope on some stars and saw that what they thought was a star was actually a galaxy with billions of stars. Instantly, the universe was many times bigger than we ever thought. The universe was always that big, but we didn’t have the eyes to see it until the Hubble. When you get to the mountain you will have a similar experience seeing just how big and how diverse the body of Christ is.”

“That’s interesting,” Jen retorted, “but I’m still having trouble making the connection.”

“Being on this path is also like that. It is hard, and it is dangerous, and it is a place of revelation where your vision and your heart are constantly enlarged with such intensity that it’s easy to see anything less as not being real. We’ve just started on the path, and it is easy to think that everything we did before was shallow and insignificant in comparison, but it is all a part.

“This is not to imply that some, and maybe most, at this time are trapped in a form of Christianity that is not real. Just as biology teaches that anything that stops growing starts dying, if we are on the path of life, we will constantly be expanding and growing.

“I think the first person to look through the Hubble must have been astonished at how limited his vision had been before. Walking here is like looking every day through a more powerful lens. Here you begin to see everything from a different perspective. Then, when you get to the mountain it is magnified many times over. All of this has been here, and we could have walked this path at anytime, but we did not see it until now.”

“That is how I have felt every day we have been on this path. It is challenging and humbling, but wonderful. Why are there so many more people on the ship than here?” William asked.

“It is as the Lord said, this path is narrow, and few are finding it. When you look at the glamour and opulence of the luxury ship and then at this path, it is a wonder any would choose this path. You would never choose it unless your spiritual eyes have begun to open. In a sense, we have to be taken out of the mundane life of earth and taken to a spiritual orbit, like the Hubble, before we can see. As we walk this path it is not what we see in this wilderness, but what is taking place inside of us that is being magnified. Our hearts are being enlarged, because we are seeing more each day with the eyes of our heart.”

“So why could we all of a sudden see and the others on the ship couldn’t?” another asked.

“You had begun to set your heart on things above instead of the things on this earth. This is what begins to open the eyes of your heart, your spiritual eyes.”

“Is that what it means that ‘
Many are called, but few are chosen?
’” William interjected.

“Yes. Everyone is called, but not many respond to the call. Not many go on to make their calling and election sure.“

“I have experienced even more opulence than was on that ship, and I would not trade any of my experiences in the world for what I have already received on this path,” William added. “I’m alive again. In fact, I am so alive now I wonder if I was ever truly alive before. I merely existed before. Now these people with us have become like the stars they focused the Hubble on. I’m sorry, but before I would hardly have paid attention to any of them, and now I see more in them than I’ve ever seen in people before. It’s like what was seen through the Hubble—each one was a star that I now see is a whole galaxy.”

“The eyes of your heart are opening, William. Even the least of these could lead millions to the kingdom. Others here may not lead people, but rather give vision to an entire field of knowledge, such as a science, opening the eyes of all who see through such things as biology or physics, to the One who created it all. There will be some who are now on this path, or soon will be, who will give single messages with such power that nations are transformed.

“This has happened at different times in history, but on a small scale. Those were all seeds, and now we’re coming to the harvest. There was an evangelist in the early American colonies called ‘Johnny Appleseed.’ He used to say you can count the seeds in an apple, but you can’t count the apples in a seed. Faith is like that seed.

“Here’s the point. Reality is the universe was always as big as we’re now coming to see it, but we could not see it. Our reality was, at one time, so small that we thought the sun and stars all revolved around the earth. Now we know differently. Just as our eyes are being opened to the true extent of the natural world, we are also being opened to the extent of the spiritual realm. It’s always been there, but few have seen it, and few have lived in this reality.”

“Why aren’t churches leading their people here? Churches need transforming messages preached to them as well. It is true that I have not seen many, but I have visited quite a few. In none of them did I find such a reality as I have found here. How can they continue to grow so large while being so shallow?” another asked.

“I have read and listened to some of the great preachers of just a few decades ago. Today, you don’t hear the kind of transcendent messages that they preached. In general, we seem to be getting more and more shallow,” another commented.

“That may be true, but back up just a few months before you began gathering as the Society of Bonhoeffer. When you first began to gather, you were taking your first steps toward the mountain and did not even know it. All over the body of Christ right now there are many on-ramps that people are beginning to find that will lead them here, just as you were led here. You may be ahead of them in time, but that is so you can become servants who can help them.

“Even though you may not have found them yet in your limited experience in the body of Christ, there are great churches that are gateways to the kingdom, preparing their people for this path. They will soon find it, and they will be a part of the last battle.

“But you are right, most of the church world has been built more with modern advertising techniques than with the substance and power of the kingdom. Almost all people now, including Christians, have been conditioned to respond more to hype than truth. You can build the biggest churches and the biggest ministries with good marketing, but is the Lord in them? Can you find Him there?

“The Lord will bless many things He will not inhabit. He will even visit places He will not inhabit. But where is that place, the people, in whom He will dwell?”

“It’s interesting that you would put it like that,” William replied. “This has confused me a great deal in the services we had on the ship. I rarely felt drawn to God and rarely felt God in those meetings. I did, at times, but it was rare.

“I kept attending, hoping I would feel Him again, but most of the time I only felt people just getting excited about principles. Even when the messages were great, I rarely felt drawn to God in those meetings. I felt more compelled to learn principles. I know principles can be important, but this did not really satisfy my soul.

“I had already considered leaving the ship when I met that little group in the Society of Bonhoeffer. Even though I had nowhere else to go I could not bear to waste any more of my time there, until I met these seekers. I soon learned that the fire in them was really fueled by knowing about this path and determining to find it and walk it. Now we’re here. They did what they said they would do, and it is already much better than I ever expected.”

“What is in your heart, what you are seeking, is what man was created for—fellowship with God Himself. We are created to be His dwelling place. We will never be at peace or fulfilled until we dwell in Him and He in us.

“Christ was born in a stable. He is still being born in stables—some of the most humble, unlikely places. Just as it was with His birth in Bethlehem, you still need revelation to find Him. I assure you that there are many small, hidden, and usually very humble places where you can find Him, where He is dwelling. That is where most of the messengers of power who will lead His people to Him are being prepared.

”Understanding this is crucial, but we must also keep in mind that the Lord also dwelt in one of the most audacious temples ever built, where everything was overlaid with pure gold. He is big enough and diverse enough to be in both. Can we have big enough vision to see Him in both?”

“You’re trying to get us to see Him in all places,” William commented.

“That’s exactly what we must do. We can’t just see people or institutions where they are, but where they are called to be. Then we must help get them there. To see the Lord, we must sometimes have the vision that Simeon and Anna did, able to see in a mere infant the salvation of the world. We often miss Him because we are looking for Him as we expect Him to be, rather than as He is.

“This is why the two men on the road to Emmaus could not recognize Him when He drew near to them. It says, ‘
He appeared to them in a different form
.’ I think the main reason we often miss Him when He tries to draw close to us is that we expect Him in a familiar form, and He comes in a different form to help deliver us from our prejudices and opinions.

“I’m sorry if I reacted a little strongly Jen, but we can’t start seeing the path we are on now as the only ‘real Christianity.’ The men on the road to Emmaus would have recognized Jesus if they had known Him after the Spirit instead of just after appearances. One of the main things we must learn in this wilderness is to see further, deeper, and wider than we have seen before, or we will continue to miss the Lord and the great opportunities He’s given to this generation.”

“No, this is helpful,” Jen replied. “No doubt I was starting to go down a wrong path with my thinking. This path is such a drastic contrast to my whole previous experience that I was already becoming proud.”

“Jen, you are, according to Proverbs, a wise person. Stay that correctible, and you will stay on the path. We cannot start thinking of ourselves as better than any others, or we will fall. If we have been given more grace, it is still more grace. He gives His grace to the humble and resists the proud. We can quickly go from God’s grace to God’s resistance, if we go that way.”

It was a long time before anyone said anything else. I did not want to talk too much and wondered if I already had. It was so refreshing to be with so many interesting and spiritually hungry people. William finally spoke and confirmed to me that I was trying to say too much:

“Today may not have been as exciting as some days, such as when we had the lion attack, but it’s been like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant. I’ve been trying to take notes on what I’ve been learning, and I can’t write fast enough,” he complained, but with a smile.