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The Deep State is a term used to describe government employees who actually pull the levers of power. The belief is that elected politicians are nothing more than pawns in a more nefarious world in which the Deep State is in control. These puppeteers are said to be throughout various government agencies like the CIA, FBI, NSA, and others. In modern day politics, these forces are allegedly aligned against Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement.
I have no idea if there is an organized, secret, collaborative effort to steer our nation in a particular direction. I am quite certain that powerful individuals pull levers. But are they collaborating and organized…I do not know. I do know that there is a lot of passion and energy spent fighting this fight. Both sides believe that the heart and future of the United States is at stake. Both believe their calling in life is to build this country in a certain way. And both fight against those who hinder their building.
They operate according to the sequence that building leads to fighting. What you build determines what, or who, you fight. But how does one know that they are building the right things? Here’s an interesting thought to consider – If you are building the wrong things, then you will fight the wrong fights. How woeful would it be to get to the end of your life and discover that you built the wrong things and fought the wrong fights? Conversely, how powerful can it be to live today knowing that you are building the right things and fighting the right fights?
Certainly, to be in Jesus is to build and it is to fight. Everyone of us who have given our lives to Jesus and been baptized in the Spirit have been set apart by our Father to accomplish His will. We are called to build. And in so doing we will surely encounter those who will war against our success. We are called to fight.
Watch how this works in King Jotham from 2 Chronicles 27. In previous sessions, we have seen that he is called mighty because he ordered his BE, BUILD, and FIGHT according to the LORD. He stepped into his identity as King. Because he is King his building assignment is to strengthen Judah. He strengthens Judah by fortifying Jerusalem and building cities, fortresses, and towers throughout the land. Jotham did not build a tower in the hill country so that he could have a tower in the hill country. He built the tower as a part of strengthening Judah.
Because his building assignment was to strengthen Judah, his enemy(ies) was anyone seeking to weaken or defeat Judah. In King Jotham’s reign, his main enemy was Ammon. Ammon, a nation of people descended from Lot whose origin story you can read in Genesis 19, was a continual thorn in the history of Israel. According to Judges 10:6-9, at one point Ammon “afflicted and crushed” Israel for eighteen years!
Because Jotham’s assignment was to build Judah, seeing Ammon as his enemy was easy. So, he fought Ammon. 2 Chronicles 27:5 says,
He fought also with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed over them so that the Ammonites gave him during that year one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand kors of wheat and ten thousand of barley. The Ammonites also paid him this amount in the second and in the third year.
Because Jotham built the right things, he fought the right fights.
Let’s see how this works in our lives.
In Christ we have BECOME sons and daughters of our Father. Each of us is called to co-labor with the Holy Spirit and BUILD our Father’s Kingdom. Think of the Kingdom like King Jotham’s nation of Judah. The cities, towns, and villages Jotham built in Judah are like the churches and ministries we build in the Kingdom. But the goal of the cities and churches is NOT to have cities and churches. The goal of the cities/churches is to provide life, security, community, and provision for people. For individual people.
As we BUILD our churches and ministries to effectively love, heal, train, and send people, we are going to have to FIGHT. We will certainly fight our own sinful desires to control our lives and not be faithful to our Father’s call. We will also fight the messages and lures of the world. And we will come face to face with demonic spirits who actively seek to steal, kill, and destroy the very people our churches and ministries are built to heal.
Remember, our goal in church or ministry is to liberate souls. We are not content with people in pews. We want to BUILD people. You cannot build people without engaging dark places in their lives. Entering their stories. Healing their wounds. Correcting their bad teaching. Loving them. Empowering them to live in the Holy Spirit.
You cannot succeed in this work without fighting.
We fight for others because Jesus has fought, and is fighting, for us. As we have experienced victory in the war, and our Father has used His children to help us, we go and help others.
I have no idea if there is a Deep State controlling our country. Maybe in some ways I care. Mostly I don’t. The Deep State cannot stop me from loving people. Cannot stop me from building my Kingdom assignments or fighting my Kingdom fights.
I fear the lure and the noise and the distraction of the political climate in our country has persuaded many of our brothers and sisters to engage in fights for which our Father has no heart.
It will be a great tragedy to stand before our Father and discover that you wasted your life fighting the wrong fights because you built the wrong things.
But what a POWERFUL joy is available to every one of us when we dedicate the entirety of our lives to BUILD and FIGHT only what we have been created to build and fight!
This is life in the Overflow…
