Disrupting the Status Quo

I love God’s commitment to our wholeness, growth, and freedom. He is not willing that we stay bound in any way.

We can look at all that is happening within the Church at the moment and think it is a time of disarray, with traditional beliefs and ideas being challenged, people going through times of deep questioning, and some even dismissing much of what they previously believed, thinking it is the work of the devil.

Yet Jesus Himself often disrupted people’s thinking in order to move people beyond the status quo. He did so to bring change, challenge religious mindsets, and release a move of God into the earth that carries on even today.

In John, chapters 3–4, we see a couple of examples of Jesus disrupting people’s beliefs to bring truth and change.

First, He tells Nicodemus that he needs to go back and start over, to be born again, perhaps the most apt image for disruption ever (John 3:1–21). Then He speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well and tells her that the location of worship doesn’t matter at all (John 4:19–24). This was the equivalent of Jesus saying that the temple practices of their day were not what worship was about. Jesus was saying that what matters is the attitude (or spirit) and authenticity (or truth) of the worshiper. He then calls some religious leaders “whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27–28).

Jesus was calling for a radical disruption in His religion, and a similar disruption is needed today in the religion that names itself after Him.

In a Time of Reformation

We are currently in a time of God-initiated reformation. During a reformation, ideas, traditional beliefs, and mindsets are challenged and shifted; people feel out of place, like they no longer fit where they once did… and more.

Reformation is not comfortable, and it is not pretty. It can feel chaotic at times and extremely disconcerting as God challenges our thinking and realigns us with the truth about Himself and the way His Kingdom works. We only have to look back through time to see this. (Photo via Picryl)

In times of reformation, or new moves of God, those who are wedded in their hearts to old moves and have become dogmatic in their beliefs will tend to attack the new move.

Because we don’t understand what God is doing, we turn instead to categorizing or labeling people or ideas. Instead of taking time to ask those people what has led them to their conclusions, we distance ourselves from those brothers and sisters in the Lord. We shun them and sometimes gossip about them, tainting others with our misguided and often wrong opinions.

Seeing Our Brothers and Sisters as Christ Does

These past few weeks I have felt the Lord saying very strongly, “THE NAME CALLING HAS TO STOP!”

We are called to see our brothers and sisters after the Spirit, not through our fleshly mindsets (2 Corinthians 5:16–17), to love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34–35).

God is calling us to love our brothers and sisters. He is calling us to see them as He does and love them as He does, despite our differences. There should be no “us vs. them” mindset.

Questions to Ask Ourselves

In this time of reformation, here are some questions we can ask ourselves:

• Have I become dogmatic in my beliefs (feeling I have the truth and nothing I believe could possibly be wrong)? Has religious pride found a foothold in my life?

• If I feel upset by things others are saying, why am I feeling threatened? Am I afraid of having my beliefs challenged? Why do I feel defensive or want to go into attack mode? (Photo via Pxfuel)

• Have I stopped to ask the Lord whether He is challenging my thinking, or if it’s the devil, or if it’s just the human response of feeling challenged by someone not agreeing with what I believe?

• Have I taken the time to ask the person what brought them to their new beliefs, or did I make an assumption and jump to a conclusion?

• Am I willing to allow God to challenge me and my current thinking? Am I willing to allow Him to give me new revelation?

• Am I willing to see my brothers and sisters as God sees them and lay down fleshly thinking?

• Am I willing to undergo personal reformation to enable me to work with God in what He is doing, rather than work against Him?

This word has been a weighty one, but one that is necessary at this time. Let’s each use the questions above to check our hearts and make a fresh choice to walk in the fruits of the Spirit, especially self-control, taking control of the way we think and speak about each other and bringing our thoughts and words into submission to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5; James 1:19–20, 26).

Lyn Packer
Rob and Lyn Packer Ministries
Email: lyn@robandlyn.org
Website: www.nzpropheticnetwork.com | www.robandlyn.org

Lyn Packer is respected as a prophet within New Zealand, and the other nations she’s ministered in, for her five-fold prophetic role. Lyn is a member of the NZ Council of Prophets. She leads the School of Prophets Aotearoa/New Zealand and oversees the New Zealand Prophetic Network.