A New Post By Jay Ferris!
What I am seeing of late is a choice between two kinds of “time-shares,” two places to rest, two places to live, even a choice between two kingdoms. How can we leave the one without entering the other? Getting out of “Babylon”, it seems, is a call to every one of us, but where are we to go if we are given no alternative? Does “the gospel” consign us to some kind of mental holding pattern until Jesus comes back? Why should people living in darkness want a piece of that action?
We need to live in the Spirit’s alternative to Babylon and we need to live there now. My experience tells me that this is well within reach of the faith once delivered to the saints, and still available even in our own day. What we are presently calling “church” isn’t fooling anyone, except perhaps ourselves.
The way things are now, people haven’t the faintest idea of what the Bible is really offering us in Christ. People living in darkness need very badly to know that there is another place to live, another place to rest. If I understand it right, believers were to be a demonstration in that darkness. Instead we say, “Oh well, maybe next time?” – NOT!
What Jesus offers us is bad for business, any business:
…To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children who sit in the market place. . . Luke 7:30-32
We sit in a market place with an eye to doing business. We have business on our mind. It is this “what’s in it for me that I can buy” mentality that stands in opposition to our ability to enter the Kingdom of God. It is a change of mental location that we need in order to come out of Babylon and enter another place.
The book of Revelation is a strange kind of letter. It tends to scramble our sense of “past” “present” and “future.” A “beast” is revealed there who will burn Babylon in the future, Revelation 17:16.
The book of Revelation also reveals another place to live. This other place is called “The New Jerusalem,” Revelation 21:2. The problem is that what’s calling itself “church” has been so locked into futureness that we have missed the burning that is going on in the present. This burning is the result of a fire Jesus kindled at the cross. This is to say, we don’t have to wait until the eleventh hour to get out of the burning tower. The fact is, the fire Jesus set at the cross has already gutted the building.
One way of indicating where the gospel takes us, as contrasted with where we have been, is to summarize the contrast between two economic “systems.” One system finds its expression in a market place, a place where people go to buy and sell. The rock bottom object of the market place is a redistribution of the necessities of life. The economy of God does this by the blood of Christ. This is the transaction of the cross, where we exchange our garbage for His love.
Love!
Loving Like God 
Jay’s own intimacy gave him the depths of insight to expose the root of everything that was superficial in the religious system.
“The rock bottom object of the market place is a redistribution of the necessities of life.”
That is profound. Truly, this is actually the religious deeds of the people that give them a false sense of worthiness before man and God.
May this voice be trumpeted for all to hear.
I believe we, as true Believers, are meant to invade the marketplace and release the kingdom in our daily lives, wherever we are. It’s a covert operation. We are atmosphere changers and we have to release God’s kingdom, on purpose, everywhere. This is done by speaking those things that are not as though they were, declaring the Truth over the facts, and manifesting the fruits of the Spirit in our daily living. We must be able to see how things are in heaven so we can release them on the earth.
Very true, Maidena. Christ in us releases God’s kingdom for the world to see. Like Jesus, we say what the Father says, we do what we see the father doing. However, like Jesus, we do not move until we hear from the Father. Jesus’ physical ministry was directed by His Father. Jesus did not take the knowledge of Heaven and move about on his own accord. He always waited on the Father, for this is the very present work of the Father according to His knowledge, not ours; not any more than it was Jesus’. He is not interested in changing the world, making it a better place to live, because the present form of this world is passing away. He knows those who are His and He is growing His own into a mature body that He may receive His bride blameless and spotless. His focus is not on humanity, but on those He has called out of this world. Like the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin,…these are the ones we are to seek out. We listen for the same Spirit that dwells within us. In order to do this, we must be empty of ourselves and our agendas, and become simply available as servants for the work of our Master.
Thank you all for your comments! Quoting Jay here, “We sit in a market place with an eye to doing business.” This business mindset is so anti-relational and is in direct opposition to each other. It has a guise of relationships and spirituality, however, but it is still so based in a fear of intimacy. The problem is if you leave the system, the relationships you thought you had in it are shaken. There is a ‘place’ however that can never be shaken:)