“With great power comes great responsibility.”
~William Lamb~
Rick Joyner often says that Christianity is the greatest adventure ever! It’s unfortunate though that that’s not the experience of many. I remember a colleague who professes to be Christian but drinks. When I asked him how he reconciles both his faith and his alcohol he said to me, “The faith was too boring for me, I had to spice it up with some buzz.”
Where then is the adventure in Christianity? It is in the rights and privileges we receive as born again citizens of God’s Kingdom. As exhilarating as that might be, it is only the threshold of the adventure for all who truly believe. The peak of it all is when we carry the weight of the crown.
As we discussed in the previous series on the kingdom, seeing the kingdom means experiencing the privileges of the kingdom. There is however another level – entering the kingdom.
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)
To be a citizen with rights one has to be born-again, similarly to enter His government, one has to be endowed with power from on high.
In the Greek scriptures, the word Kingdom actually means “government”. And we enter His government by being born of the water (of the Word) and the Spirit (of His Power). Seeing the work of the Kingdom government exposes us to our rights, but entering into kingdom government saddles us with responsibilities. And without endowment of power we cannot discharge our duties and responsibilities. The responsibility to administer healing, justice, direction and provision is now made possible because we shoulder His government.
There is a wise saying;
Once we enter the kingdom, our priority changes from exploring our rights to administering our responsibilities.
John F. Kennedy rightly said;
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
Rights ask what the Kingdom can do for us, Responsibility asks what we can do for the expansion of the Kingdom.
I shared the example from the life of Jacob and Esau; how Esau being a type of Christ gave up his birthright for his brother. And a question was asked, “How was Esau to have rightly sacrificed his birthright? Especially if there were no direct scripture he was fulfilling?”
It is for the same reason great leaders sacrifice their rights in office so they can better carryout their responsibilities. Like Nelson Mandela and George Washington before him who took no salary to serve their country with a firm foundation.
Jonathan, son of King Saul was another man who had an understanding of this principle. In 1 Samuel 23:17 he said to David:
“Don’t be afraid . . . My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this.” NIV
The Kingdom of Israel was Jonathan’s birthright, but prophecy had bequeathed the Kingdom to David and Jonathan was eager to honour God’s will. Jacob and Esau were born within similar prophetic conditions for Rebecca, mother of the twins, had already received a prophetic word in (Genesis 25:23):
And the LORD said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.”
The idea of sacrificing one’s birthright to take up one’s birth-responsibility remained a mystery until Jesus explained it in the gospels.
…he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. (Luke 22:26)
The weight of the crown is not in the responsibilities we carry, it is in the rights we may have to forfeit while carrying out those responsibilities.
Adams Allison.