Having lost kingdom culture and remaining unaware that we have lost it, many of the principles, procedures, and protocols, unavailable to kingdom citizens and absent kingdom relationships, provide no context for how leaders lead and followers follow. Thus, we lack apostolic order.
By “apostolic order” we mean “the alignment envision by the King, communicated to His special representatives, revealed in blueprints for building, body, and bride, that prepare and position (especially position) for proper production of kingdom purposes, both personal and corporate.
Relationships
Relationships produce agreement when they function by kingdom culture principles, procedures, and protocols. Without kingdom culture, relationship mirror the mess of the surrounding culture. Less kingdom becomes available at the personal, family, and relational levels of the kingdom.
We come up with ideas to fix this that make it worse when those ideas ignore the need for kingdom culture. We exaggerate something at the expense of something else, and the exaggeration eats away at Truth. We settle one level lower in cultural influence because our relationships are not any better than pagans, heathens, and unbelievers.
Relationships designed and defined by God, revealed in Scripture and created as part of God’s systems to make way for heavenly influence in the earth, give us job descriptions based upon roles we fulfill in those relationships. The roles define the responsibilities for which we are accountable in the relationships. These become foundational to kingdom and apostolic order, and their absence brings greater lawlessness to the kingdom.
We are currently suffering a debilitating deficiency in order.
Relationship Malfunction
The malfunction of relationships begins with the dysfunction of leaders within those relationships based upon God’s design and definitions. We have not only blurred the lines on the charts, we have erased the lines, moved the boxes God drew, and in some extreme cases, throw away the schematic as if “love covers all” could possibly mean, “God Who is Love has fallen in love with chaos.”
He has not fallen in love with chaos! He is the Master, Ruler, Almighty: Creator, Redeemer, and Restorer of all that He created and redeemed.
What He set up in seven days remains foundational. What He set up for kingdom remains foundational. What He does now in leading His kingdom answers to the same principles, procedures, and protocols. He hasn’t sold out to relevancy or modernized His eternal ideas.
So, love doesn’t redeem. We are redeemed because of love, but love itself sets nothing free. Love isn’t the redemption but the motivation for redemption. Exaggerations of love have now become foundations for malfunction with the addendum of “just let the chaos reign and love the chaos as God does.” It is blasphemy, but its cool.
Here’s the ultimate of love: law and prophets reaching their fullness. The idea that love did away with order and expectations is hellish to the extreme, the snake couldn’t hiss this idea any louder than he has been hissing it since Eden. Love is the ultimate of order and expectation. Seeking love is seeking God’s design and definition.
Let love abound! Let chaos crumble! Let the kingdom restore its culture. God’s expectations lead us to Christ and teach us the meaning and scope of our redemption and restoration. Without them, we end up with the modern mystical mess of “God needs to do a better job of being God” because I want Him to get with it about giving me what I want and making me the person I want to be.
That mystical mess is here. It must die if kingdom culture is to reenter the picture.
Example 1, Sexual Mores
Let’s say that two young people have sex without being married. They think, “Our love demands this affection.”
Is that love? The answer to the question speaks to the very heart of the kingdom culture. No, it is not love. It is lust. Of course, it might be some kind of love, but it is not God’s love. It might makes sense in modern culture, but it is a breach of kingdom culture.
Moderns says, “Well, the only difference between us having sex and married people is a piece of paper.”
In kingdom culture, kingdom covenant marriage is not a piece of paper but a public agreement to cultural norms established from the beginning of Creation that redefine more than the relationship of the man and woman entering into that covenant. They reset the relationship between them and their parents and family.
In other words, the relationship God designed and defined for parents meets the relationship God designed and defined for marriage without damaging any of the relationships, roles, and responsibilities of those cultural norms.
“Having sex” is not love from God’s design and definition of love.
Now, apply the idea across the board for all kingdom relationships, and remember that we have lost kingdom culture and don’t even know we’ve lost it.
Example 2, Leadership Dynamics and Protocols
