Vital signs- Tuesday, November 8th, 2022
When you purchase a game of checkers, you’ll notice that on the top each piece is the insignia of a crown. That is because each checker was created to become a king.
Once it is crowned because it has successfully made it to the other side of the board, it will have the right and authority to maneuver and function at a much higher level than it could prior to being crowned. The reality is, however, that most individual checkers will not successfully make it to the other end of the board to be crowned because the opposition will jump them and knock them out of the game. Whether a checker achieves its created goal of being crowned as a king is fully determined by the moves that are made underneath the hand of the one controlling it.
When God created men, He created them with a crown because each man was made to rule under the authority of God. God created the man prior to creating the woman, like pouring a foundation first, because the success or failure of God’s created purpose of building His kingdom in history would be directly related to a man’s relationship with and submission to God’s rule over his life. Foundations don’t have to be fancy or pretty, but they do have to be strong. When a foundation is weak, everything resting on it is at risk. God holds the man ultimately responsible for keeping steady what He has entrusted to his care while simultaneously advancing His kingdom program.
However, as with the first man, Adam, Satan is seeking to “jump” men to keep us from fulfilling our divinely ordained kingdom purposes. He goes to great lengths to remove us from functioning in alignment with God so that our families, churches, communities and nation experience the negative consequences and confusion of men living independently of God.
It is evident that our lack of spiritual energy has kept too many men in a cycle of defeat, discouragement, confusion, rebellion, addiction, and a myriad of other things that have resulted in the spiritual, social, racial, and political chaos we are experiencing today. Far too many men have become either neutered and domesticated or abusive and irresponsible, resulting in a society that is torn, tattered, and in utter dysfunction.
Yet, despite all we see around us, there remains hope. If God can get His men to rise up as the kingdom men He has created us to be—men who pursue an intimate relationship with Him while simultaneously representing Him in all we do, He will reverse the downward spiral of the culture. God is waiting on His kingdom men to rise from our spiritual slumber to accept the responsibility of reversing the decay and disunity that engulf us.
“But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,”
Matthew 20:25-26 ESV