Following Judah's Lion

Behold, I Show You a New Way

A certain group of believers lived in a city that they protected from any and all oppressors. They did send out missionaries to reach lost people in the world.

Eventually a certain group of unbelievers came to capture their city and place these believers in bondage. These believers fought hard and with much violence, and they prayed that God would give them favor in their quest to defeat these aggressors. But in the midst of this war a little 10 year old girl came to the elders and claimed she had heard from God and desired to share His message to them. The elders were skeptical, doubting that God would pass them over to give a message to this young and untrained little girl.

“What is this message that you think God has given to you?”, asked the elders.

The little girl stood up and calmly shared what God had told her. “God has asked me to tell you that He desires to love and save these aggressors, and that He abhors the violence that you are using against them. Furthermore, the Lord desires for you to submit yourselves to Him and submit yourselves to their oppression. Lay down your arms and surrender to them immediately.”

The elders were astonished at what the little girl had said, and they quickly and without hesitation rejected her message and could never accept it as coming from the Lord. But after several days of praying and fasting, the Spirit opened their hearts to the possibility that this message was indeed from the Living God. And in two weeks they surrendered to the aggressors and submitted themselves to their rule. But although they had done what they believed God had commanded, they were still perplexed as to how this could further the cause of Jesus Christ.

Years went by and the community of believers, now in subjection to their captors, began to love and pray for those same people who had invaded their city and altered their lifestyle. At first the captors treated the believers with harshness and without compassion, but after a while they began to notice how humble and loving the believers were to them, even in the face of such adversity. And in spite of their efforts to remain untouched by these believers, it eventually became evident that the Spirit was using these believers in their lives. And miraculously a few of their captors secretly believed in Jesus Christ, until there were many believers among the captors. Some even came out publicly.

The little girl who first received the divine message grew up to be a Godly woman. One day one of the original elders, now way up in years, came to her and asked her to more fully explain the message she had received so many years ago. The woman told her story.

“The Lord desired to bring a mission filed into our midst, but for so long we resisted His efforts, and even with violence we killed those in that mission field in order to protect a way of life that was so often not His way at all. We had placed our way of life and our earthly community above the redemptive purposes and calling of Christ. And yet, when we surrendered to God’s direction and allowed ourselves to be taken captive upon this earth, we released the redemptive power of God that began to work in the hearts and lives of the people we used to view as barbaric enemies.”

“Go on”, asked the elder.

“Well,” the woman continued, “God’s power within us is greater than the power in the world. And even under oppressive circumstances when we submit ourselves to the humble life of the cross, God can and does reach those whose goal is to use and dominate us. In weakness we become strong. Have we sacrificed some of the earthly amenities and freedoms that we once enjoyed? Of course. But we gained treasure far beyond that which passes away, including the souls for whom Christ died. And instead of killing others, we died so they might live. That IS the story of Christ.”

The elder walked away broken and humbled, but with a fresh revelation of just who is Jesus Christ and just what His mission is all about. You see, to what extent we follow the ways and dictates of this world, is to the same extent we are not followers of Christ. Everything must be scrutinized in the context of the life of Jesus, and especially those things we think we know. Everything must die in order for us, or anyone around us, to live.