As we have been discussing, our Promised Land is nothing less than bringing the kingdom of God to the earth. We are preparing the way for this now. His kingdom is coming, not just to take control of the earth again, but to restore it.

For this reason, we must seek to have God's heart for restoration in order to help prepare the way for His kingdom. We should look at every problem, every devastated marriage, family, relationship, church, city, and even nations, to consider how we can help to restore them to their original purpose. Of course, in every case this begins with reconciliation to God, the Creator, without which no process or strategy for restoration could last.

First and foremost in the plan of God is that restoration must begin with us, mankind, who are being restored to the image of the Creator. Mankind and the earth will ultimately be God's dwelling place. This is the highest calling in all of creation, and He has chosen those who have fallen and been restored as those He will dwell with.

Once we begin to see the overwhelming purpose of God in restoration, we can begin to understand everything that is going on in our personal lives. Everything that is happening to us is basically allowed to help us be conformed to the image of Christ. After understanding the work of restoration in our own lives, we need to discern how restoration is working in the church. We will revisit these in a bit more depth later, but for now we can understand much more about what is going on with us, and our churches, when we begin to view them through the looking glass of restoration.

Spiritual vs. Natural

Now, for those who are wondering where heaven comes into all of this, you can be sure that it will. There is a resurrection to the divine or spiritual nature that we need to understand and will look at in more depth later, but for now we must keep in mind that heaven is a different realm from the natural realm. It has more substance to it than this physical realm to the degree that the things on earth which reflect the heavenly realm are called "shadows" of the heavenly. Therefore, for God who is Spirit, to dwell on the earth with mankind, there must be a bridging and a free interchange between the natural and spiritual realms.

This bridging of the realms will be through men who have transcended the original creation man to become the "new creation," which we become when we are born again by God's Spirit. For those who are born again and go on to maturity, they will become at home in both realms, though we should actually be more at home in the heavenly than the earthly. This does happen gradually as our minds are renewed in Christ, and we learn to abide in Him who sits above the heavens. If this is not in process, then somehow a major element of our spiritual maturity has been stopped. How could this happen? There are a number of ways, but the most frequent we will discuss below.

As we have discussed previously, the messengers of God are to ascend and descend upon the Son of Man, Christ Jesus, entering heaven and then bringing back to the earth practical evidence of heaven's reality. When we preach the Gospel of the kingdom, it should be in demonstration of the authority of heaven over the conditions on earth. This is how the Lord preached the kingdom when He walked the earth. He went about continually demonstrating how the authority of the kingdom had dominion over any conditions on the earth, and the authority of heaven could change those conditions with His touch. We are called to do the same as His body, that which is Him touching the earth at this time.  

So to a great degree, the work of restoration is the building of the bridge between the two realms so that the power and authority of heaven comes to the earth to do this great work. We begin building this bridge by repentance which leads to redemption and reconciliation to God. Then, we are not perfected so that we can come close to God, but we are perfected by drawing near to Him. As we read in II Corinthians 3:18, "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." The closer we get to the Lord, and the more of His glory we see, the more we are changed and restored.

Again, we need to understand that for the work of restoration, the bridge between the natural and spiritual realms must be completed. If it seems that I am belaboring this point too much, it is because it has been the disconnection between the spiritual and natural realms that have proven the downfall of many great ministries and movements in the past, and it is this same disconnection that stunts the spiritual maturity of many.

This disconnection happens when movements, which become involved in restoration, often get so focused on the natural needs of people that they lose their spiritual vision, and therefore the power to bring about true restoration. We were sadly confronted with this disconnection by former great missions like the Red Cross and Salvation Army after Hurricane Katrina. I do appreciate how they help people with their needs, especially in an emergency like Katrina, but the Salvation Army was once one of the greatest forces for the Gospel on the planet. It is still doing great humanitarian work, but very little spiritually.

There was a Salvation Army relief base near our Katrina relief base, and a number of church groups went over to see if they could help them in any way. These church groups were turned away because the leaders of the Salvation Army base said they could not risk appearing to be ministering the Gospel, saying they were afraid of losing their funding if they did. I appreciate the Salvation Army and all that they do to help people with their physical needs, but they are no longer the army of salvation that General Booth foresaw.

Much of the church has so overreacted to the "social gospel" movements that they have neglected to help with people's natural needs. That is not the answer either. What is our mission? It is supposed to be both, properly balanced. However, just as many former great Christian missions and schools have been neutralized by dropping their Christian missions because they can receive more resources. Many charitable organizations have done the same.

We received a good taste of how tempting this can be through our own Katrina relief base. The physical needs in that situation were so overwhelming that almost all of our people got consumed in meeting those needs, and began neglecting to minister to people spiritually. When we reviewed our Katrina relief efforts in our debriefings, we learned that we could be much more effective in the next disaster response if we resolved to send chaplains, pastors, counselors, and evangelists who would not get involved in the physical restoration work. We simply found that when they were involved with trying to meet the physical needs of people, they became consumed by that and were too weary to do much ministry.

We are facing the same with our School of Ministry. Though we have been authorized to offer Associates Degrees by the University of North Carolina, and we are planning to expand our degree programs, we have to draw a line that we will not cross in any partnership with the government or we can quickly find ourselves being restricted from doing what we are called to do. There are huge grants available for those who will water down their devotion to the Gospel. In a way, this is the same temptation that Jesus endured from the devil. The devil offered Him everything He was called to have, including ruling over the world, but more easily and quickly, without having to go to the cross. All He had to do was bow down to the devil or submit to his ways, and He could have attained it immediately.

There is no doubt the devil's way may have been much quicker, easier, and less painful, but there is no doubt that by remaining true to the Father the Lord Jesus has received a far greater kingdom than the devil could have ever given to Him. Just as Cain was "a tiller of the ground" (see Genesis 4:2) or earthly- minded, those who are of "the seed of Cain" are earthly-minded. To remain true, Jesus had to keep His attention and devotion on the kingdom that was to come, not the present kingdoms of this world. We must do the same if we want to be a part of preparing the way for and building the kingdom that is to come.

By compromising, we can have huge resources for building physical facilities for our schools, and they would probably be used well for meeting people's physical needs. However, like so many other great Christian schools and ministries, I think we would quickly lose our real purpose. By waiting and trusting God to give us what we need when we need it, I think we will ultimately have far more resources to do what we need, even to the point of having enough to "lend to many nations" (see Deuteronomy 15:6).

Those who hold the course in preparing for the kingdom to come will be accused of being so heavenly-minded that they are not any earthly good. However, those who become so earthly-minded that they are no longer any good spiritually will be the ones who ultimately weep while those who stay true to the Lord will rejoice forever. What good is it to feed and clothe people and give them shelter while their soul remains in eternal jeopardy?

As we prepare for the coming kingdom, we must keep in mind that at the end of this age everything that can be shaken will be shaken, so that only those things which are built on the only foundation that can stand will remain. Even the greatest buildings and institutions that are built on compromise will not make it through what is coming. In relief work, we want to meet people's physical needs, but not leave them in eternal jeopardy.

There is a ditch on either side of the path of life. If we overreact to the ditch on one side, we will fall into the ditch on the other. We must keep in mind that the restoration of the earth, or the natural realm, requires a bridge to the spiritual realm, the kingdom of heaven. It is not either one or the other, but both. If we are growing in our spiritual nature as the new creation, it will be manifested with practical help for the natural. If we only focus on either the natural or spiritual, it will not work for the true restoration of which we are called to be a part.

This is why Paul the Apostle had to make tents for a living. We may think this was a tragic waste of the great apostle's time, but the Lord required it of him to keep him moored to the practical so that he could be given the great revelations which he received. For this reason, do not run from the drudgery in your life. Resolve to turn it into worship. Do all that you do as unto the Lord, and He will be able to trust you with more. We need much more.