The following cycle has been the course of human events for thousands of years:
From Bondage to spiritual faith … to great courage … to liberty … to abundance … to selfishness … to complacency … to apathy … to dependence and … back into bondage!
This has been the epic drama unfolding time after time, again and again. It happens to nations as well as individuals. For nations, the average cycle time has been about two hundred years. The children of Israel were delivered out of bondage only to return after fulfilling this cycle. Notice where the turn occurs- selfishness. If we as individuals or as a nation want to break this cycle, we must focus on this particular facet.
Can you imagine the ramifications if Our Heavenly Father had been selfish and withheld His plan of salvation by NOT sending His only begotten Son to the Cross? We all would be in deep trouble. We expect Our Heavenly Father to be “selfless” as we petition for our every need to be met but then we turn around and withhold blessing and charity to those who are in need.
The people of the United States are on the wrong side of the current cycle. The abundance of the 50’s and 60’s moved the nation to selfishness at the family unit level. You can simply look at the movies produced by decade and track the cycle. You can also look at the churches in the U.S. and see the same results. With all of the latest legislation, the American people are looking to the U.S. Government to bail them out of the crisis and thus have set the stage to become fully dependent on the government to meet their future needs. This path will ultimately lead back to bondage.
There have been great moves of the Spirit in the past as civilization has been cycling through these various stages. Both hope and faith have lifted the people out of bondage. Both of these attributes are necessary to receiving the fullness of the Kingdom of GOD. The Hall of Fame of Faith provides us a list of those who were led out of bondage by this critical life changing force:
Hebrews 11:1 NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
By faith Abel: By faith Enoch; By faith Noah, By faith Abraham; By faith Sarah; By faith Isaac; By faith Jacob; By faith Joseph; By faith Moses; By faith the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea; By faith the walls of Jericho; By faith the harlot Rahab; By faith Gideon; By faith Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets. Get the picture? If it just took hope and faith to break the cycle, we would be living at a much higher standard of living today. Hunger would be a thing of the past, wars would be a distant memory, and men would be at peace with themselves as well as their neighbors. The chapter in Hebrews ends with the following:
Hebrews 11:39-40
And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
What were they missing? Jesus and HIS revelation:
THEREFORE we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Faith alone is not a “cycle buster”. Jesus is the “finisher of our faith”. There is a revelation within Jesus that those great men and women of faith did not possess. It is the revelation of LOVE! I will continue writing on the revelation of Love until that revelation permeates this earth. The foundation of Our Heavenly Father’s Law is based on Love. The arrival of Jesus to minister as an example to us is based on Love. Faith will pass away and Love will remain. If you want to become a “cycle buster” then start basing your life on Love and bondage will not be able to attach its tentacles to you any longer. Things will no longer be your focus but people will. THY KINGDOM COME…