THE KINGDOM SPECTRUM

The Kingdom Spectrum
by Stephen Crosby www.stevecrosby.com

Some very interesting relational dynamics have developed for me over the last decade.

I know leaders in traditional (for lack of a better term) church environments who barely speak to me any more. I thought of them as my friends. My crime in their eyes? I associate with “de-churched” individuals in the emergent/organic/house-church move-ment who have left their churches. I cannot categorize them all as wounded and reactio-nary Jezebels with an authority problem. These leaders also label me as wounded and reactionary for not agreeing with them about their alleged “God-given” authority, and for failing to confront those rebellious people with truth.

I also know individuals in the emergent/organic/house church movement (who I thought were my friends) who will barely speak to me. My offense? I continue to relate to people and leaders in traditional church structures. I don’t just write them off as mem-bers of the whore of Babylon- a.k.a., organized Christianity. These folks think I haven’t clearly seen the light of God’s reforming move of this present hour. They think I’m a compromiser for continuing to minister and serve those in traditional expressions, and for failing to confront those blind people with truth.
 
~ O happy day ~

Building authentic kingdom relationships is not for the faint of heart, the thin skinned, the psychologically fragile, or the easily offended. Of course we all must live before the Lord in identity wholeness, personal integrity, and calling. We ultimately an-swer to Him, not one another, even as we work toward unity of spirit and faith. It’s real work.
 
Purposeful Polarity

My personal relational neurosis is just one example of a common kingdom pheno-menon: polarity.

Polarity can be either negative or positive (I couldn’t resist that one). If polarity means standing on opposite banks of the River of Life, lobbing truth bombs at each other, that’s not such a good thing. The usual result of an atmosphere where truth bombs are flying is a company of people standing on the perimeter of a hole, staring into it. Nothing gets built.

However if polarity represents the mystery of kingdom life, values, virtues, and perspectives in divine tension, that’s a good thing.

Jesus gentle shepherd and Jesus lion of Judah is a polarity. Jesus, “I love you and gave my life for you,” and Jesus, “I will kill you if you do not repent” (Acts 5, Rev. 2:21-23) is a polarity. It’s also supernaturally attractive. We need to understand that kingdom power (real kingdom power), life, and unity is found in the presence of our polarities, not in their removal or homogenization.

There’s no such thing as a North-North magnet. A magnet has North and South poles. It’s only useful as long as the polar opposites remain. A North-North magnet is . . . a rock. Without polarity, a magnet loses its power and purpose. It attracts nothing. Without polarity, the Church loses its power and purpose and will attract nothing.

Imagine two people rowing a canoe. If both try to crowd into the same end of the canoe, it will sink. The safe functioning of the canoe requires they be at opposite ends. Life depends on each maintaining their position. The challenge is to paddle in the same direction and in sync. It’s no small challenge.

Life itself is a polarity. It begins with birth and ends with death. In between there’s growth: biological, intellectual, emotional, relational, and spiritual.
 
The Kingdom Spectrum

The kingdom of God is a spectrum contained within opposite poles. Truth is abso-lute. Our apprehension and application of it is spectral. The totality of Truth is in the to-tality of the Body, not in any singular individual or ministry. Paul said we have the mind of Christ (3rd. pers. pl) not I, or he/she (the pastor, the apostle, the prophet, the leader, miracle worker, evangelist) whomever they might be, and however great his or her “anointing” might be.

We need each other, even in our strong differences. I have convictions on many topics that I will unapologetically preach and present with passion from my place in the spectrum. Each of us can do no less. Yet I understand I don’t represent the whole forest and not all the trees in the forest look just like me.

We should directly and quickly confront issues of sin (falsehood, abuse, gross doc-trinal error, corruption, etc.). However, at any given time on just about any other issue, there’s going to be a spectrum of points of view.

This is especially true of new or emerging ideas regarding methodologies and em-phases. Arriving at truth concerning our practices or what “ought to be” is a process of distillation. Distillation can take time and is accompanied by unpleasant aromas! The smell of relationship building while establishing truth can be like a men’s locker room after an overtime football game! The aroma of the brethren “working it out” is most often not pleasant, but the fruit of victory is worth it. Sweat is sweet if you’re invested in the game. (Mt. 18:15-35).

The kingdom spectrum also means that at any given moment individuals can be at various stages of life-growth in relationship to the Lord, one another, and different as-pects of His kingdom.

All of us, without exception, process the kingdom of God through the lens of the gifts we have received from Him, the measure of the character of Christ that has been de-veloped in us, and where we “are” along the way. None of us is completely objective. We perceive God and His kingdom from the seat we may currently hold in the spectrum of His life, and it’s fine to do so.

When someone discovers something new or life giving from the Scriptures or in their relationship with Christ, it’s human nature to be excited about it and to assume that the excitement should be the norm for everyone. It’s also normal to think one’s present place on the spectrum is “the greatest” and to wish everyone else was or should be, at the same place. However, expecting everyone to be at the same place with the same values is like piling everyone into the same end of a canoe! Not helpful!

Someone in the opposite end of the canoe is not necessarily “wrong.” They’re just currently postured differently in the spectrum of kingdom life. The question isn’t who is right and who is wrong, but are we abiding in Life, and bringing it/Him to those around us, wherever we may be on the spectrum? What is needed at the moment to manifest the life of Christ? That’s what is “right.”

We were not converted because we were right in our thoughts and behaviors, but because He gave His life for us and introduced us to Himself while we were yet dead in our sin. After we entered into His life, we then began to learn about what is right or wrong. Right and wrong derive from life, not the other way around. We so easily forget this and relationally suffer for it.
 
The Emergent and the Ultimate

Living things never appear fully developed. They emerge and grow. Those of us wired toward ultimate things (myself, and others like me) can tend to never be satisfied with what is. We should and must pursue ultimate things, but in that pursuit, we must not step all over what is emergent. If I am out walking in the yard everyday inspecting the grass I just planted, I will never have a lawn. I will be treading all over the present thing, looking for the hoped for thing, and in the process killing the hoped for thing!

There will always be tension between what is and what could be. That’s a kingdom polarity. Prophetic people (over generalized) tend to focus on what could be at the ex-pense of what is: “Things are terrible, God says FIX IT!” Pastoral people (over genera-lized) tend to focus on what is at the expense of what could be: “Things are wonderful, God says: LEAVE IT ALONE.” Both are true and neither is true.

The tension between the actual and the ideal will be with us until the end of the age. The contented/actual folks need to put a little “git along” in their step. The discon-tented/ideal folks need to take a deep breath and be accepting. The Holy Spirit is an ex-pert at supervising this adjusting process. He sees to it that Calvary is appropriated and applied to folks on both poles of the spectrum, and every resting place in between.
 
Doves, Rams, and Bulls

I was recently reminded of some details of the Old Covenant offerings that could have application to this topic. Old Covenant typology is not exactly a favorite endeavor of mine, so for me, this is a unique meditation.

In the Levitical system there were different kinds of burnt offerings. Short version: turtledoves (doves), rams, and bullocks (bulls). Some Levitical offerings were strictly prescribed. Others were flexible. God’s economy included allowance for people’s capa-bilities-what they could offer. There was not a right offering, and a wrong offering, per se. A turtledove was not inferior in quality or spirituality to a bullock. They were all ac-cepted as “life given.”

If in a Covenant based on inferior promises this was the case, how much more so should an accepting ethos of accommodation guide our interactions with one another in a greater covenant based on greater promises?

It’s illegitimate for those of us who may have bullock capacity, or who might be at the bullock edge of the spectrum on a developing topic or issue, to demand that folks who may be at the dove stage of things “produce” something bigger or more “perfect” to our liking. They don’t have to, and God doesn’t expect it. Their turtledove is just as acceptable as our bullock. The issue is the realm of life or death, not right or wrong. A turtledove offering isn’t “wrong.” It’s just a measure of life for that person, at that moment.

The dove to bullock spectrum applies at multiple levels: personal development, re-lationships, Body life, and “emerging” issues. We need to give each other space to be in different places of development and journey from turtledove to bullock. If someone else sees, or lives at a turtle dove place on the spectrum, who am I to say they should be dif-ferent? I was a “turtledover” once upon a time in some areas, and in others areas I still am! God does not require of us what we have not been given to see. We should require of each other no less

Love and Service
 
If I claim to be a mature, enlightened, or overcoming believer my responsibility is not to try to coerce others into my end of the kingdom canoe, to enlighten them with my superior biblical knowledge. My calling in Christ is to take on the burden of what I perce-ive to be others’ weaknesses, deficiencies, and shortcomings. They might not even be weaknesses or deficiencies, but merely a different resting place of life in the spectrum.

I’m not called to fire bomb others because they aren’t “up to standard” in the new order, apostolic, prophetic, cutting-edge, emerging church of the Joshua generation, third day, seventh heaven, Elijah company man-child of overcoming, wealth transferring, mi-racle working, world changing, covenantal sons and daughters of end time intercessory prophetic warriors. (We can be a tad pretentious concerning ourselves, can’t we?)

If we claim to be spiritually mature, if we claim to be prophetic, if we profess to be spiritual fathers and mothers, if we profess to be apostolic leaders, if we profess to have “cutting edge” insight, if we think we have Christ’s authority, our kingdom mandate is not to illumine others with our profundities, maturity, rank, and government, but to be able to stand as a vessel of grace and life in the midst of another’s death and weakness for their sake. Their realm does not affect me. I “absorb” death (in whatever form: minor to major, spiritual to natural) for their sake. I become the fertilizer for their progress out of death. Paul said it like this to a people for whom he gave his life who were rejecting him:
 
• Death works in me, but life in you (2 Cor. 4:10-12)
• I will therefore, most gladly, spend and be spent for you, though I am loved the less for it (2 Cor.12:15)

 
Summary

Someone else’s place on the spectrum, in “revelation,” character development, or methodology is not a limitation on my ability to love and serve them. I do not have to change their polarity or get them into my end of the canoe for me to love and serve them . . . unless they prohibit me from serving them.

If the castle of their soul is locked down, drawbridge raised, battlements armed, I will be unable to serve them. Even my sincere approach will likely be misinterpreted as a threat and an attempt to take over their castle, or motion them come to my end of the ca-noe.

Even so, when service is not possible, love remains. I can still wait outside their castle (maintain some degree of relationship) until the Holy Spirit enables them to drop their drawbridge and invite me into their heart. My perception of their turtledove or bul-lock status ought not to limit how His love manifests through me. No man or woman, no pastor or apostle, no method of “doing church” can limit the river of God’s love in me. Only I can do that.

Love and service are effective all across the spectrum, all the time. Love never fails.