TL;DR We look beyond placing our own skills and resources on the pedestal, knowing that our Father deserves all the praise. We work together with love, knowing that Jesus Christ is our Foundation.
So last time I jumped into The Making of a Prince by Dr. Jonathan David, we went ahead and talked about a new way of seeing our salvation, and, more specifically, a new way of understanding what it meant for us to be a new creation. By the vision given to Dr. David we were brought to consider that, sure, we’re new here and now, but the method of how we were (re)born was also new: Taken straight from the womb, and raised completely by the Father… and the way I’m appreciating this now (as I recall all of it) is that, sure, it was emphasized that we may have less raising and exposure from the outside world… but more importantly, we were raised by our Infinite and Eternal Father, FIRST. I say this because, well, we’re in this world, here and now, and we are exposed to the world (and the ‘streets’, as you’ll read Dr. David mention) – but it certainly supplements our foundational belief of our being new creations when we realize that we were (re)born from God.
Does that make any sense? You can give a horse a headband of horns for the world to call it a reindeer, or you can paint it black and white and convince it that it is a zebra, but no matter how the world sees it, and/or no matter how it sees itself, it is a horse because it was born a horse. Same thing with us – you can try to reach the highest echelons of power and fame for the world to watch, or you can be stripped of all your resources and all the data concerning you… but at the end of the day, the Holy Spirit reminds us that we have been born again, new and righteous sons and daughters of the most High.
I only have the confidence in making such claims because it isn’t my thinking or my effort, nor is it by the world’s standards, but it is by Christ and His finished work that I have been re-born, re-defined, recreated.
Now with all that said… let’s take a deeper look into other considerations to who we are as new creations; From the account of Joseph, through the lens of Jesus.
Let’s jump into Chapter 1.
You are not made for the streets to live like a commoner. Don’t dress like a commoner, don’t think like a commoner, and don’t act like a commoner. Act like one who is in royalty. You are part of the royal blood. I said to my church people yesterday that to stand outside in the streets and wave the flag at the king is excitement, but to be in the kings car, together with him and to wave to the people outside is not excitement, it is the way to live. That’s the way to live.
To stand outside in the streets and wave the flag at the king, and to everyone else who happens to look? I imagine these are folks trying to get ‘in’, folks working to curry favor with the king. Or, well, considering how we’re currently into the official campaign period for our upcoming elections where I’m at, sure, they could be paid by the king (or someone else) to do what they’re doing, but all the same… they aren’t in.
We ought to know that we’re in. Christ died, and the veil at the Holy of Holies was torn… and, sure, that means that we’re able to get into the car with the King, but I also venture to believe that He drove through the veil Himself to pick us up. We’re in, waving with the King, and for some of us we’re relieved we aren’t outside anymore.
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.Colossians 1:13-14
Location, location, location. Dr. Andrew Farley reminds us that salvation isn’t just our being made new creations, but we’ve also been relocated – seated in the heavenly places, as Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the presence of eternity poured out upon us, so we’re here in this finite reality, as we are in heaven. I’m not claiming to say this is absolute and definite according to my words – call it a stretch of imagination, something to muse upon.
When the Babylonians had taken all the captives, they brought them together and trained them to become fit for the palace. This is what the mentoring program is all going to be – to train you, to take you out from a different culture and culturize you so that you can be fit for the king. That’s what they did; they took the Hebrew boys without defect. The same thing happened with Daniel and all his friends, they took them captive. They were taken away from their father and mother and they were trained, equipped, and taught the language of the Chaldeans to fit into the culture of the kings of Persia. This is what can happen young people have the capacity to be trained.
The Babylonians took the Israelites away from their land to teach them their culture, to use their skilled workers to enrich their own land, and consequently to weaken the lands why have conquered. The Romans had the opposite in mind. In the lands they conquered, they took their culture with them – they ‘Romanized’ the land through infrastructure (the building of aqueducts and roads), and through the blending of local traditions with Roman culture.
I guess I wanted to mention this, if only to have us consider that, while we are able to be mentored, separated from what we’re used to, there’s as much mentoring (and as much to be learned) from living our new culture in the same land.
28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.John 12:28-31
For the first Quarter of 2025 I’ve been basing my messages on the books of Daniel and of John, seeing how they tie together. One observation we made at the tail end of this ‘series’ (just yesterday, actually) was that Christ on the cross was the Stone in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, striking the idol made of many materials at the foot (made of clay and iron).
Here’s another stretch. Humanity was separated into languages and cultures at the events of the Tower of Babel – as such, nations were formed from said languages and cultures, and from these nations came kingdoms and empires, such as those depicted in the statue: The gold head represented Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, while the materials used to form the rest of the body from the chest going down were made of progressively inferior materials, signifying lesser kingdoms that followed.
If, by Christ’s death, sin and the flesh have been broken, it may also entail that whatever power it had in the establishment and maintenance of entire kingdoms has also been broken – causing the entire structure to fall and to break (so bad, in fact, that it broke into pieces as chaff in the threshing floor – the wind was able to blow it away).
We talk a lot about the end of days, and we probably should, but here, let’s realize that the judgment of the world also began as soon as Christ said, ‘it is finished‘…
But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth… And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.Daniel 2:35, 44
And it sets the tone for what comes next – because the empty tomb, Christ resurrected was the same Stone becoming a great mountain, as a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, a kingdom that shall stand forever… The Kingdom of God’s beloved Son, where we who believe have been transferred.
Christ came to us as the Romans did, and transferred us to His kingdom, as the Babylonians did… and, while we are in this world, we’re also in the presence of the King, as He is with us.
we want to make you champions, to make you men and women who will make a difference in this dying world. Those who will get out there and do something that will begin to impact everything in the region. Not just those carrying on, hanging around and just being a loser. We want to be champions for the Lord Jesus Christ and to make a difference.
I’m going to share with you some very, very important things concerning the life of Joseph that are going to prepare you for the palace and to prepare you for your primary assignment. To prepare you in such a way that you will become fit for the Masters use. So many people fail to recognize this. They go by the quality of their education, and they think if they study, study, study then they will be somebody. I know so many people who have studied and yet become nobodies. I am not saying that education is wrong, but don’t put the wrong emphasis in the wrong place. It takes more than education to make you successful in this world.
Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. Genesis 37:2-11
One of the most powerful things that God needs to work inside the life of a future prince is this –
His relationship in the house. This is one of the most important things that you and I will have to face. We must develop a relationship that is accurate in the house. First in your own home, secondly in the church otherwise God cannot raise up men and women who are going to be accurate in the future.
I would resonate with anything on social media that implies that if you control yourself, you control the world. Or, if you change yourself, you change the world. Apparently, we should probably pull it back just a bit – that is to say, when we change or control ourselves, it isn’t necessarily the world that’s immediately impacted, more than our own household. The way we see ourselves overflows into how we treat others, and when people take time to observe how we treat others, they may get an idea of how we see ourselves.
If we have no proper protocol in the house; first, inside our own family as well as inside the church, which is the house of God, if we do not know how to accurately behave in the house then we are not going to be ready for the palace.
(i) You must never bring an evil report concerning your brothers, but cover them, protect them, and honour their difference.
I’m coming to believe that any business that has any hope of starting well and staying well needs to have its own Manual of Operations. Sure, it’s going to undergo a whole lot of changes as theory hits reality, but the point is there’s a need for a standard to adhere to, even at the very beginning. I feel the same is true for any ongoing system (e.g. entities and collectives that have already been established, even down to our own personal routines) – standards need to be defined, and in this case, Dr. David implies that protocol needs to be established and ready for when things scale up. After all, I still believe the same children who were raised polite would turn out to be more professional in school, and then in their careers.
Here, we read that the first thing we shouldn’t be doing is to follow the example of Joseph, who, from one perspective, leveraged his father’s increased favor upon him (‘their father loved him more than all his brothers‘) against his older brothers. And, just veering off-topic just a little more, we see how Joseph was probably lacking self-awareness and/or just overall empathy when, on top of bringing a ‘bad report’ to his dad regarding his brothers, he also told them a dream of sheaves, and then heavenly bodies bowing down to him (if I was one of the brothers, sure, I’d be pissed).
Joseph was playing politician right at a young age. This is so dangerous, because all of your brothers are different and all of them do not have the same talents. We need the ability and the graciousness to allow others to be different, so that it doesn’t threaten you, doesn’t offend you, and doesn’t force you to compare yourself with them in order to make them feel what you feel. These are capacities that you need to have if you are going to be a ruler in the house.
That’s why one of the most important things to sort out inside your own heart is to find your own identity in the midst of all your brothers and sisters – honour them for who they are. You’ve got to honour what God has done on the inside of your heart. If you despise them it is firstly because you despise yourself. “
…And there it is. It’s the same cycle. Jesus was once approached and asked regarding His take on the greatest commandments, and the second one was ‘love your neighbor as yourself‘; Here, I suppose the other side of the coin is implied as well – if you hate others, it’s because your hate yourself. You aren’t able to honor others for who they are because you aren’t at peace with who you are to begin with.
Being secure about your own identity allows you to appreciate others for who they are. Loving yourself for who you are allows you to love others for who they are. On the other hand, loving others for who they are reveals other things about who you are that you most likely never knew before.
At this point, if you’re having a hard time loving others, sure, you can take it out on yourself and try to ‘un-hate'(?) yourself… And the world is full of systems to ‘help’ you with that – flawed systems that would have you thinking that the hate is a ‘construct’, or not your fault, or otherwise redirecting the focus and not really very helpful, much less effective. No, friends – fortunately, through Christ we’ve been brought from darkness into His Kingdom, complete with a New Covenant, our being made New Creations with a New Commandment:
For once we were told to ‘Love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds, bodies, strength, etc.‘; But in the book of John, we were told that if we were to be doing the works of God, we would ‘Believe in the One whom He has sent’ – That is, Jesus Christ, Son of God who is the expression of God loving US with all HIS heart, HIS soul, HIS mind, HIS body (quite literally, at the cross).
Once also, we were told to ‘Love our neighbors as ourselves‘, but in the same Gospel we were told by Jesus, right before His crucifixion, that we were to love one another, as He loves us.
Believe in Jesus and know how you are loved with an everlasting love… and by that love, we love others. We honor others. We communicate with love, and serve humbly with love – whether we are at a janitorial post, or making decisions impacting the future of entire nations.
Translate that into the church – if God has given you talents, He has given you abilities, you cannot look down on others as though you are the superhero or the answer for today.
But God by His grace must sort you and I out, so that we can recognize the grace of God in other people’s lives yet not despising ourselves. And we can recognize the grace of God within our lives and not despising anybody else or comparing ourselves one with the other because we are brothers and we are part of the great team.
Joseph continually brought evil reports, his evaluation of his brothers was wrong. This kind of behaviour will get you into trouble. Don’t despise others around you because success is not a solo project. Don’t despise those who are around you, no matter how good a song leader you may be, you must learn to work with every body and anybody. No matter how good a keyboardist you are, or no matter how good a dancer you are, you’ve got to learn to help everybody so that all of us as a team will make it and make it well.
Love – and not any kind of ‘love’ as defined by humanity, but instead bestowed and lavished upon us from above – is the catalyst for our movement; more importantly, it is what moves us to move with others, for others. As perfect love casts out all fear, it also causes us to naturally look out for the welfare of others, without fear.
Love has us secure in our own abilities, but it also allows us to recognize abilities in others – those that match or even exceed our own, those that they have that we don’t, and vice versa; Love has us thankful for the grace of God within our own lives, but also the grace of God in others as well. Love is naturally relational; Indeed, once we were without light, in darkness so black that all we could see is ourselves, and even that wasn’t so appealing – now, in the Kingdom, we no longer look at others in disdain, nor do we look at ourselves in frustration, nor do we look at God as a threat.
Again, we’re secure in the car, waving genuinely at those in the outside with compassion, humbled by our being in the presence of the Father, in all His sheer power, matched with absolute love. As He looks upon us with amazing grace, so we’re able to look at our fellow brothers and sisters in the car the same way – more concerned about their well-being over our own ambitions, and, again, all this time humbled and just overall thankful that we all have the same Father.
This is the value of a prince, this is a core value of a prince – the ability to protect the others, to guard others and to take their mistake on your account and helping them through makes you a champion. If you exploit everybody’s weakness and you expose him or her to make yourself look good, you are not made for the palace; you are made for the streets. Only gangsters live on the weaknesses of others, bullies live on the weaknesses of others.
(ii). Develop the ability to work in a team.
If God is going to make you a prince, you must develop the ability to work in a team. No matter how talented you are, learn how to honour those around you. Learn to work together as a team. Young people, let me say this to you, develop this mentality right from day one because life is not about you going solo, life is that we are connected to people around about us. Learn how to find good friends and always work together as a team. It’s not always that you must be the one magnified — it’s the team who must win.
You cannot be developed for the palace unless you learn to work as part of a team. This ability will allow you to become selfless instead of becoming selfish. It will allow you to put your strong abilities behind the weaknesses of others, and to undergird the weaknesses of others so that you can support them, labour with them, work with them, and strengthen them. Why? Because you see that they need your strength, but you are not using your strength to make them weak, but you are using your strength to make them strong.
Joseph was giving his father a bad report about his brothers. He was even gloating to them about how even in his dreams, he was made to feel superior.
The disciples in Jesus’ time here with us? They were quarrelling amongst themselves about who was going to sit where, and I’m pretty sure there was talk of who had more merit, and/or who added more value.
Peter, restored after denying Jesus 3 times, was given a mandate (feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep) and a picture as to how he was going to be martyred… and as quick as one verse later, he asked Jesus, ‘what about John?‘
All this just reminds me of how I think it’s just right that we’re not only referred to as ‘Christians’, but collectively, we are the body of Christ – with our own roles and our own functions. We couldn’t even say who’s better than who in what, because we all have our role to play that is unique to us… and the only thing we’re to figure out is whose function we can supplement, and/or whose function we can work in parallel with.
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
(iv) Honour your father, but don’t lose your brothers.
These are relationships in the house we are talking about. These are very important relationships. Honour your father and learn how to relate with him, but don’t lose your brothers. Don’t pit one against the other – “I’m all on the Pastors side against my brothers.” No that is a wrong thing. Don’t lose anyone. Honour your father but don’t lose your brothers because you need your brothers.
Simply put, you honor your Father by loving your brothers. Indeed, the world will know that we are truly Christ’s when we love each other.
(v) Work equally hard in all the fields your brothers are
In the book of Genesis 37:12 -14 His brothers were at Shechem but Joseph was not there. His brothers went to Dothan but he did not even know where they had gone. Learn to labour in every field your brothers are labouring in.
…and you love each other, sure, by being patient with each other as Christ is patient with us; gentle, kind, faithful to each other as Christ is too… But the thing is, the more you recognize this overwhelming love that God has for you, the more you come to the conclusion that it couldn’t just be expressed in mere words.
No, God’s everlasting love naturally brings us to action, having us working where our brothers are, being patient with them, and so on. Let me say that again – You aren’t acting to be loved by God, You’re working FROM His love.
That’s how it happens – in the church it is no different because it is children of all ages, just like Disneyland. That’s what church is all about, children of all ages. You can see that old men, and young men all behave the same way because the flesh does not grow up, and it’s ageless. Flesh will manifest with the older men, the younger men, and children, it will manifest. That’s why if you want to be ready for the palace begin to develop healthy relationships in the house.
God has to take you aside, He has to form you, He has to shape you. That’s why don’t scrutinize your brother’s words, and don’t just go out and specialize on your own. Be a part of the team, labour together, hang out together, and meet up together, because if you grow together then you become a team that is formidable.
…people are walking everywhere and they are still lonely? In the midst of a crowd they feel alone. Why? Because their whole life is detached and that’s what we must never be. We must be team players, we must have relationships in the house, and we need to have good friends and people in the house we can hang out with. We need people who can encourage us, strengthen us, and people who will labour with us so that we are always growing together, and loving and honouring each other.
In this first chapter (CD), we’ve been reminded of our mandate, made new through Christ and His finished work.
We’ve been made secure of ourselves, by way of Christ, the demonstration of God’s loving us with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Through Christ, we’ve been given the Spirit of adoption, that has us enjoying the presence of the Father in the car, humble and not smug, compassionate and not insecure, gracious and graceful.
And because we are so loved, we’re able to support each other, and we’re able to be genuinely supportive and loving towards each other.
We look beyond placing our own skills and resources on the pedestal, knowing that our Father deserves all the praise.
We work together with love, knowing that Jesus Christ is our Foundation.
Good stuff so far. I kind of rushed that last part, but perhaps it’ll jump out the second time around.
Until the next post, may the Lord continue to bless us all. Amen.
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