Occasionally I invite someone to guest post on this site. I am doing so this week and the posts will be a little different. Heidi Basley wrote me recently and I was taken by what she had to say. She has been on a personal journey that has opened space for trauma survivors and within it is considerable reflection on theological / biblical themes that resonate wider. I asked if she would be willing to write three posts. They are by necessity longer than the posts that normally appear here. Read and let them resonate / guide.
Here is her introduction:
Heidi writes like she walks—with people.
She’s a theologian, trauma witness, and spiral-form thinker who doesn’t lead from a stage but walks among the traumatised like family. Her calling is clear: to move with those the world didn’t stay for. Not to fix. Not to rescue. But to listen, name, and stay—with Presence. Her life’s work is grounded in a deep conviction: trauma survivors are not a problem to be solved. They are a people group still waiting to be seen, known, and trusted with breath. Heidi is the founder of traumaneutics.com—a home for theology that breathes, where naming is healing, and presence is the only credential. The website is currently under construction—a space still forming, just like the people it’s being built for. But the spiral is already open. And you’re welcome in it. She writes from gardens and graveyards, waiting rooms and worn carpets—the places where theology usually stays silent. And from those places, she speaks what she has seen: that Jesus is still naming. Still sending. Still coming. Her voice carries the ache and the hope of someone who knows trauma from the inside, but also knows what it means to be met, undone, and apostolically entrusted. This isn’t content. It’s witness. If you’ve ever felt like your story was too fractured for theology to hold—you may find, in her words, a breath you didn’t know you were waiting for.
Latest article from Simon Swift… along the lines of ‘I have a dream’.
Generosity needs to be at the heart of our practice of faith. It holds in its scope the forms of goodness, hospitality, kindness and unselfishness. Giving is an action we can take, an antidote to the world of ‘take what I can’ that has infected our culture. Giving material things like food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless and a place for the refugee are important. However, most of the time, in our daily lives, it’s about sharing things like love, smiles & hugs. At other times sharing tears and sympathy or standing with someone in need. At other times it is to share the joy of living and encouragement to those struggling.
Paul said we do not wage war with the weapons of this world. We cannot win our war with bullets and bombs. Our way of demonstrating is not with marches and placards, with throwing eggs or bricks. Our war needs to be waged with deliberate, authentic love. The daily practice of love and kindness, of generosity and forgiveness. The absence of judgmentalism and vindictiveness. We then become the salt of the earth, the light of the world.
Salt can be used for good and bad. Like the Romans when they finally defeated Carthage, we can salt the earth so nothing can grow. That is the way of judgmentalism, of hate and tribalism. There is to much of that in our politics today. Instead we need to be salt that seasons and brings out the wonderful flavours of life in our diverse world. Where we go we are to turn waste lands into oases. Where there is darkness and chaos with prowling wolves looking to devour sheep; we are to be the shepherds that safeguard the weak, champions of God’s relational justice. We are to shine as the light that transforms the darkness of our post industrial world, the barren wilderness of the techno-consumer society, into a garden; a garden of colour and beauty.
In this garden Heaven intersects Earth and it becomes a place where the disabled are valued for who they are. Where regardless of ones sexuality, gender, or race, one is given the opportunity to contribute to the diversity of God’s creation without the curse of judgementalism. Transgender simply adds another colour that enhances the beauty of garden. Its is a place where both men and women have a sense of worth, with the freedom to be contributors to the flourishing of the garden. A place where our children have hope; a place to emerge into adulthood being able to bear the image in which we were created. In this garden eternal life is to be found and lived.
Perhaps then we should avoid the language of war or battling the forces of evil. After all evil has no place in the garden. Instead use the language of gardening, of tending the earth, of sowing and harvesting. The language of growth and transformation, of fruitfulness. Of trees that line the river who’s leaves heal nations. A question then: Do our alters have a river that flows out from them that is capable of feeding the land with such trees?
I am writing this post a few days after the total power outage in Spain, Portugal and Andorra. There was some impact on other nations but the power outage was total here. We still do not have our internet back, hence replying to emails and putting a post here has been delayed. At a practical level a wonderful reminder to how so many people in our world live. We were in total darkness so had the wonder of seeing the stars in a way we have never seen them in Spain before; we had no water and had the privilege of being by the sea to use sea water to ‘flush’ the toilets… all that lasted around 12 hours, minus the internet (now 72+ hours). Many in the world have no access to clean water… we remain so privileged.
Our context
Gayle had a birthday with a number of guests who were here for 3-7 days and in the middle of that time we had a session to consider where we were at vis-a-vis Europe. The global scene is in major flux with global shifts taking place. The USA, China are currently the ‘big’ powers and other players will have to find fresh alignments. Some while back as I was praying I had an image of a world map and ‘Latin’ America shifted and positioned itself under Europe; the African continent simultaneously moved under China, while India remained in position. There is an obvious interpretation and I am sure it will not be as neat as that but there was a direction of movement of the south dislocating from the north and moving eastward.
Europe will have to make some choices in the coming years as to her alignment and into that the UK will need to make choices.
Prior to Brexit, some months prior, a person we highly respect and love, LA, had a vision and in it a hand took the UK out of Europe, the result being that the colour drained out of Europe down into the earth somewhere located in the Pyrenees. Later a hand put the UK back in. Against all expectations the UK left the EU; our response was to travel with a number of others (our ‘tribe’?) to the Pyrenees to pray. Now the UK – partly catalysed by the issue of the Ukraine – is having to determine her relationship to Europe. Coming back in (not necessarily to the EU) on a military and trade basis would be totally insufficient, but we watch and wait. We call for something more.
Biblical signs
They serve two purposes. They point to what they are signing and they draw to themselves the reality of what they signify.
Spain seems to carry a ‘gifting’ of being the canary in the mine (a recently published history book used this analogy to interpret Spain in the context of Europe). Something happens to the canary and it provides a warning of what is to come. I have been convinced for some time that with we saw in the Pandemic is one of a number of chaos-producing events to come. (I have no idea on timing but I have seen that we will face something catastrophic where the global population will be reduced significantly…)
Europe
Europe has to find a new unity and learn how to travel in the flawed Chinese / far east vehicle. We were privileged to have 3 Chinese people with us when we came to the session on Europe and their presence kept us reminded of the direction for our future. (I say the ‘flawed’ Chinese vehicle – the European and Western vehicle has some terminal issues that we have learnt how to patch over – time to abandon it!).
LA some years back sent us an old map of Europe showing Europe as a queen (Europa Regina) with the head being Spain, the neck being the Pyrenees. The map comes from an era to illustrate a unity and a euro-centric view of the world. (The Queen is standing up – the head is ‘hispania’ and our maps of course would have the head to the west. The heart is Bohemia.)
Europe as we have it today:
was laid by the Greeks
strengthened by the Romans
stabilised by Christianity
reformed and modernised by the Renaissance and the Reformation (15th abd 16th centuries)
globalised by successive European empires (16th and subsequent centuries).
We prayed… or rather focused on the map at two levels – this was a past scenario, though currently pulling on this past power flow, and this was a projection, so simply rolled it up from the feet to the head, rolling it up in Spain.
The power outage – and it will be months before anything definitive is released as to the cause – almost certainly took place at the ‘neck’ of the ‘queen’, at the Pyrenees, the connecting point of the Iberian peninsula to Europe. (And connecting with the Brexit vision.)
Other aspects
In this recent period of time a major earthquake in Turkey with tectonic plates shifting. Turkey is the meeting point of East and West (and the context for much of the book of Revelation in terms of the seven churches).
Pope Francis has passed away. With regard to his appointment and the previous one I was very agitated and pulled heavily for an African pope and was disappointed that a conservative one was appointed – Pope Benedict. Pope Francis has come in and has to a significant level emptied the seat of power (marked by many staunch Catholic politicians refusing to give him the title of ‘pope’!). I have no agitation over this appointment at all – whoever comes in is coming to a seat where the power has gone.
These events mark a significant break from the past and we have entered a time of ‘silence’ waiting for what is to come. The power outage marks this period. We wait (not a passive word… in many languages wait and expect/actively hope are the same word).
Back to Europe
A new unity
A new alignment where the far east has to figure
A new generation in the foundation (not standing on the foundation) as a new foundation is being laid
This latter point is important – the language of ‘again’; books on my shelf eulogising over Europe’s ‘Christian’ past as being the guide to the future are (my opinion) seriously misguided.
The path to the future is a new one… there is a movement from ‘church’ through ‘church in the city / region’ to a grain of wheat falling in the ground and transformation rising… rising as something comes down from above and something from below comes down.
Jerusalem, Rome and Far East
There is a NT movement that seems very clear. Jesus dies in Jerusalem and declares that no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. That death in Jerusalem has been understood (righty) for our sins – though not in a penal substitutionary transactional way; but that death carries so much more into the grave – kingship, hierarchy, all human / societal categorisational divides etc… That death was essential to take place in Jerusalem (the ‘religious’ centre) where religious power pulled on political imperial power in order to kill the incarnation of the divine. This releases Paul to go to the ends of the earth – to the oikoumene of the Imperial (and one-world government) of the then world. Constantine and Christendom is then where political power pulled on religious power to – as noted above – to stabilise (turn the world upside down… NOT) imperial rule. This is why the emphasis on ‘rolling up the Roman road’ from the early 2000s was so important.
Jerusalem to Rome – for me so clear in the NT. Founded on the Abrahamic vision of his seed being promised the world (hence I do not see a ‘promised land’ in Scripture, although it is present in some texts)… now we enter a new stage. Where is China / Far East within this? There equally was an Imperial (different order) in China in the time of the NT even though Jesus came at the ‘fullness of time’. Now we are arriving there. Uncharted territory. The Gospel cannot be altered but the application and expression of it will be.
Babylon’s peace
There is a major piece of instruction from Jeremiah to pray for the peace of Babylon (using the Hebrew word shalom). There is an old order being disrupted. Jerusalem is destined to have peace and reconciliation, but not through domination. In Jerusalem all that went into the grave… The new Jerusalem that is coming down that John saw was nothing other than the transformation of the whole world order. He did not see a temple with a city (the Temple occupied around 20% of the entire city of Jerusalem) but he saw a city without a temple. Babylon is in view, not Christendom. A challenge to all that has been the focus.
Big days are here!!!
Power gives way to presence
For some months I have been focused on a shift I see. The charismatic / pentecostal paradigm has been power with the ‘we will demonstrate the power of God to convince’. Of course that is present in Scripture, but I have been seeing a deeper call to live the presence of God. I am not reducing this to a style of worship where we ‘feel’ the presence, but something far beyond that. It is moving from activity ‘to’ someone / a situation and beyond something ‘for’ someone / a situation to being ‘with’ and ‘in’ the situation / circumstances. Then miracles happen for that is the incarnational presence. As I wrote above religious and political power combined to kill the incarnational presence of the divine.
There are new foci for us all. Realignements on the global scale are imminent, and deeply pressing at the personal level.
As one world order dies so another comes to life… I wholeheartedly believe we have a ‘vote’ on what comes. ‘Embracing tomorrow’ has always been the response of the prophetic and since Pentecost it is not simply the priesthood of all believers but the prophethood of all believers.
There are various quotes about history repeating itself. Here are two such quotes:
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (George Santayana). Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. (Winston Churchill).
And Mark Twain added a nice little nuance:
History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
Not sure where this post will go but here are a few background elements that provoked me to write this morning.
I have been agitated over the various ‘again’ messages these past few years. ‘Again’ that looks back is not based in the eschatological vision of the New Testament. ‘I press on’ was one of my readings this very morning. Hence my seeking to understand how to align (chronological) time with heaven’s (‘kairotic’) time.
Late 1990s / early 2000s a major emphasis was the rolling up of the Roman way which culminated in Steve Lowton initiating a walk from Whitby (UK, where the Celtic church effectively submitted to the pattern and teaching of Rome in 664 AD/CE) to St Peter’s Square, Rome to bring that focus to a conclusion.
The strong belief that the Gospel is not from this world but is for this world. It is not political in the sense of ‘capitalism vs socialism’, or any other such supposed polarities but is deeply and essentially political with the language used being both explicitly and implicitly political.
Jesus was offered to become the Caesar of the then Roman world – he was offered the oikoumene, the term that was used of the Imperial territory.
Paul’s great desire, and understanding of ‘the gospel to the nations and then the end shall come’ was that of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Spain.
And of course my understanding of the book that shapes us is that we do not have within it ‘history written in advance’ (popularised as ‘the bible predicts…’) but as a provocative call to shape the future through our actions, relationships, prayer in the power of the Spirit.
There are other aspects I might wish to add, but the above will give a something of a window into any bias I carry!
I do not find it a great surprise that in our historical setting we have conflict within the Western world currently, as the conflict area is over the ‘offer of the oikoumene‘ – the offer to shape the territory that can express the Roman order with a ‘God-order’. Hence I respect those who are writing about how Judeo-Christian values are what has shaped European / Western culture but the conclusive appeal is normally that we need to revert to Christendom. ‘My kingdom is not of this world….’ The sword does not belong in that kingdom but as Paul points out (with great irony) in Romans 13 to the world of Imperial authority. Today the Italian PM (Giorgia Meloni) heads to Washington to represent the EU… I am not suggesting this is sinister but I do read it as a sign. Will the West be held together as ‘Christianised’ or will there be a division that will allow space for the radical followers of Jesus who are to be like the wind to manifest? (I have said for decades that the strength of Islamic ‘sharia’ law is that of Christendom. The very thing that is thought needs to be brought in place to hold the ground is the very thing that tills the ground for all levels of terrorism.)
At this critical point of history, in the shift from the West to the East, we have much work to do if we are going to find an increase of pace in the right direction. Jesus died in Jerusalem so that the Gospel could go West and bring down the Roman order – surely it is significant that Paul’s Gospel is best outlined in some detail in the letter to the ‘Romans’? – but there is nothing in the NT about the work to the East. Unfinished work.
I am no great student of history but the shift from Republic to Empire in Rome seems to carry a lens through which we can see what is happening currently. Rome was effectively an Empire before it became an Empire, but the shift came in a defined way through Julius Caesar and solidified with Augustus (in power 27BC/BCE – 14AD/CE). Jesus appeared at the ‘fullness of times’ into that era, hence what was happening in the world at that time is highly significant.
Augustus… The early signs in his reign was of the Senate allowing him to bend the rules without pushing back; of he introducing unelected people (including those of his own family) into decision-making roles, and the move was made effective through the support of the ultra-rich of Rome. (A simplified summary but one that can be expanded on should one choose to read a history on Rome.)
Through his actions Rome became what it always was – an empire in disguise. Honour was given to the god of peace (Pax) with the phrase the Pax Romana being held up as something awesome, but visit Rome and you would have seen that the temple to Pax was built on Mars field (Mars the god of war).
History repeats / rhymes.
We are in this critical period. My prayer is ‘Europe do not concede’, or better… come on those of you born from above and act like the wind. No one really knowing where you came from, or where you are going but influencing the future through helping to hold a shape for all kinds of wholesome aspects to come through.
My reading this morning was in Philippians… a city that Rome had named as being Imperial. Those who lived there were to work to make sure that Rome’s values prevailed. Into that Paul wrote that their citizenship was in heaven (nothing to do with going to heaven when we die) and therefore in that context to ‘stand firm’ in a way that was consistent with those who were waiting for a Saviour to come from heaven to earth.
Many aspects are converging. Global crises. History rhymes. Fullness of times. West and East. Christendom or Jesus.
During Passover for the Jews of the Diaspora there would be a toast ‘next year Jerusalem’. What about us in a year’s time? Tough decisions are made by politicians and from the arm chair they can be easy to critique. My focus (and not necessarily one for everyone) is of a new Europe that might point a way toward the future. We await a Saviour from heaven (not we wait to go to heaven!) and not till then will there be the end of death, destruction, sin etc; not till then will the powers (sin, death and mammon?) be finally defeated but as we align ourselves with that eschaton we pray, work and hope (give an answer for the hope that is in you) for manifestations in the here and now of what will take place universally then. I don’t think I am being melodramatic to suggest that we are seeing an increase in pace of a new global matrix.
Around 2 years ago I was praying, looking at a map of the world and suddenly the American southern hemisphere (what we term ‘Latin America’) moved eastward and was located under Europe replacing where Africa is currently, and at the same time the African continent moved east and relocated under China. India did not move. All three aspects struck me and I suspect that in some way we are about to see re-alignments play out over the next – who knows – 2-3 years.
There is a move to the East with some kind of new world order coming into play. All the attempts to ‘go back’ or to redefine our futures simply along the ‘Christianity got us here’ so we must resist all change does not carry the weight to bring in a good future… reason being is it is more dependent on Christianity than on Christ.
Understanding ‘trade wars’ is beyond me, but for sure trade is no small theme in Scripture so I am not surprised that for now conflict over trade is central.
So what are you looking for? We have got to see way beyond ‘my investments are decreasing’. Please!!! John said he ‘saw a new heaven and a new earth’; Martin Luther King said ‘I have a dream’. Both spoke into situations that were not looking too promising. One locked up on the Island of Patmos; the other soon to be assassinated. But eyes that saw. The powers were not in agreement with them – how things were was going to be what was maintained… but those two saw.
As those Jews outside the land raised their glass at Passover with ‘Next year Jerusalem’ we are about to come to our ‘Passover’ where we focus on proclaiming his death (victory over all powers that resist the future) until he comes.
The hope that is within me is so key. Not a hope that is outside but within, that cannot be squashed.
This is why I am focusing on ‘reconciliation’ in every aspect of life. And if we focus on life for sure Jesus will be present at some level. His death is probably better understood from the ‘other side’ – it is a presentation of a perfect human life to heaven… representative life, for me, for you, for the world.
In this time of global flux and resultant change we learn not to simply hold on to what has brought us thus far (and probably served us well) but to embrace uncertainty of what we hold / held firm to (what not who). I know since the beginning of this year Gayle and I have been raising many issues as we know transition is here. ‘Next year…’ might be a change of location, maybe not, but each year we proclaim ‘next year more of the kingdom of heaven’ not a greater meeting but greater shalom in our streets.
Seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its shalom you will find your shalom.
Next year then is not ‘next year Jerusalem’ but ‘next year here’.
He who saves his country does not violate any law.
So wrote on social media one world leader who had 80% of the vote from the evangelical population. Yes it is obvious who I am writing about but my concern is not primarily for that geography but closer to home, as there is a mirror for here.
The clear danger signs are there in the post: ‘saves’, and the inference ‘above the law’. However quite some god-like qualities – or NOT! God saves and in the eyes of many is above any law, hence genocide, a commitment to back up violence to ensure that the land is ‘forever’ in the hands of those who are Jews. I wrote yesterday about the Canaanite woman and her child and Matthew’s deliberate (wrong) use of the term Canaanite to show Jesus response to those who were to be wiped out!
Jesus turns everything upside down, including some portions of Scripture. And he turns our view of God upside down… God is under the law of love – other than it is not a law for God, for GOD IS LOVE. And Jesus revealed how far that love was to go – love one’s enemies, for while we were yet sinners God sent Jesus to die.
Whether we think we have the right person in the White House, #10, Moncloa, Kiev, Moscow etc. the biggest issue for us to get straight on is who God is. All the time we see God able to act in ways we are not ‘allowed’ to we will turn a blind eye to all kinds of atrocities, and fearfully acts often done in the name of our God. (One time I think I should write on the sarcastic element in Romans 13 in Paul when he writes about the authorities being appointed by God… Paul writing while Nero, the madman, is in charge!)
The quote at the beginning is the final piece in the Imperial descent, with the implicit or explicit claim to divine authority. The Emperors of Rome were the ‘saviours’, they proclaimed themselves as bringing peace – with the temple to Peace (Pax) built on the field dedicated to war (Mars). (Again the sarcasm in Paul about the sword I do not think would have been missed by his readers.) The final piece was always the divination of the Emperor.
By all means we have to vote according to what we think is best. We might currently be divided over Zelensky’s appeal for a European army – without it what will Russia annex next (and sadly there is talk of annexing in other quarters too)… and with such an army where do we go? Not easy decisions, but there is no salvation of the human race and creation that would ever come from a violent god (small ‘g’), and there certainly is no salvation coming without aligning at some level to the image of God.
God made humanity in his/her image and we have ever since been making God in our image – hence the appeal of those who look like the (our) image of God.
Jesus is the one lens through which we see God, and see the image of the divine in true form.
For the past few years I have been interested in what took place during the Roman war in the province of Palestine in 66-70AD/CE. It ended in horrendous tragedy with at times 500 captured Jews being crucified in a day by the walls of Jerusalem; with reported cannibalism inside the besieged city; with bodies of those who had died in the city being thrown over the walls into the valleys outside (including the valley of Gehenna). Inside over those years there was a battle to keep faith alive – faith that God would deliver the city, for after all they were a covenant people, and there right in the city was the Temple the place where the God of heaven dwelt with them. The prophets were essential to keep that faith alive. The might of Rome… no hope of survival, but God, but the prophets, but if only they keep the faith. And then in 68CE the Romans withdraw as Rome goes into a major crisis with civil war and the ‘year of the four emperors’.
Keep the faith. I told you so – God comes through.
Alas a temporary victory.
The danger is always we lose sight of the bigger narrative and this is clearly what took place in Jerusalem, for the bigger narrative centred on Jesus, and perhaps they lost the sight of the bigger picture of God’s love for the world.
Of course claiming that one has a bigger narrative is something that can only be done tentatively, for even those with incredible sight ‘see in part’. So hoping that what follows contains a considerable element of tentativity and is also read in that light let me suggest a few aspects that might be applicable for us in the West.
When we centre hope for change in any government we have lost sight of the pivotal chapters of Revelation, that a slain Lamb, and only a slain Lamb can open the scroll of human destiny. And it behoves us to ‘follow the Lamb wherever he goes’.
That path of the Lamb was one that withstood the powers of religion, economic oppression (the biblical prophets say that such oppression is bloodshed and the Scriptures say nothing can atone for bloodshed), and perverse political power. That still is the path.
We cannot ‘other’ those who change the nature of the population of a land – Scripture attributes a change to the failure to steward land. The prophets in Jerusalem knew who the enemy was – the Romans, and failed to see / acknowledge that the problem lay elsewhere – the very claim that ‘we have God’ being problematic in the extreme.
Jesus came in the spirit of Jeremiah with his denunciation of the city, because of what he found in the Temple (den of robbers). He disturbed the economic system, that could be justified as serving the sacrificial system, as he exposed a deeper motivation within it.
The Jeremiah prophets who call us to pray into the shalom of Babylon – this is not a time to pray into the shalom of our ‘Israel’. [‘Our’ Israel – as Israel is another Babylon, but we create Israels that suit us.]
What lies ahead in the coming few years? Trauma for sure. Trauma that will be heard in the cry of the land (nothing prophetic there as global temperatures rise and as planet and people are exploited for economic gain by the few). And beyond that, unless something changes, we will find that literal armed conflict will be present in the lands that have been privileged to enjoy peace – to be clear ‘war’.
Unless something changes… the body of Christ has to wake up that Christendom is over – and it has to be over if the Gospel is to make a difference in our world. That we lose the desire for something to happen that has the word ‘again’ in it. The future is the air we are to breathe, that future based on what has always been seen – a new heaven and a new earth where there is no more death, nor weeping. The Christian faith is much more than a philosophy or an ideology – it is air (or if you like Spirit) from another age – that blows through everything.
The future is challenging – leaving behind the supposed safety of what has been; relocating; experiencing ‘both growing together’ side by side. The past repeated is a downward spiral, the future could be the embrace till there is no other.
A few days ago I wrote around the subject of ‘is there a God?’ and of course an all-powerful God who could stop it and doesn’t has always been the big question that theologians and philosophers have sought to answer. I take a different approach, with God BEING love becoming the one qualifier to everything, and the real question is ‘does humanity exist?’, or if we made that phrase a little fuller, does humanity as a) defined by Genesis and b) exemplified and incarnated in Jesus exist?
I am a theist, I believe that humanity needs a regeneration (and that is much more than my hand went up and I prayed a prayer that someone made up for me and I was ‘declared’ born again!). Is there a new humanity?
In a dream last night I was present with a number of people I know who are on the more conservative end of the evangelical charismatic world. Their desire was to talk about the rights and wrongs of certain behaviours and where we need to draw the lines and what we need to do to ensure that we helped people be on the ‘right’ side of that line. I said by the time you have worked that out, the world we live in will have moved on… the challenge is always about a new humanity, a humanity in the image of Jesus, being transformed by the power of the Spirit.
AI – artificial intelligence… should have been around in my day when I was studying. Hand-written essays (could anyone even read them to grade them?). Imagine with a bit of AI help how smart I could be? In the dream I said the challenge is for a new humanity because within a very short period of time a new humanity is going to appear. I told them I read in the 1970s Os Guinness quoting someone about the atomic bomb – we can make it so we must make it. This is where we are at right now. I have never read anything on AI but a quick google search kicks up a very recent book ‘The Singularity is nearer’ predicting the merging of humanity with AI. I have no doubt within a few years we will have on planet earth the beginnings of a new humanity – not defined by Genesis nor the new humanity of Jesus, but defined by we can evolve so we must evolve.
Laying on one side the obvious advantages of a measure of AI (or any kind of ‘Intelligence’) to certain people who dominate the media there is a very deep challenge in and through all of this to those who claim to have been touched by the transcendent God of heaven. We always live in the context of ‘Babel / Babylon’ with the desire to make a mark for oneself, to raise a tower to heaven, to see, desire and consume – and the ‘singularity’ push is no different.
Perhaps God will in some way intervene (the story of Babel), perhaps there will be a catclymic parousia, perhaps, perhaps, but if not the call of the universe is still there – ‘is there a humanity?’
The existence of God is a big philosophical question. The existence of humanity is a question that needs responding to. Increased intelligence could help, but the level of help we need is so beyond intelligence. Life is never without a challenge and the move toward ‘singularity’ simply helps us focus on how we need to respond. In this context the next 15 or so years will be so important. By all means debate ‘is there a God’ but we have to understand the closeness of relationship between God and humanity – God is not a big human, for sure, but creation is looking for something from us.
Land – with her innate gift; place – what is on the land, either exploiting, suppressing, perverting or drawing forth the redemptive gifting; and people who recognise it is not about them but that they are agents for the freedom of the land – and in part being blind with no great knowledge of what they should do.
This brings me to the final element, that of time being aligned. Time has two functions… let me illustrate from sport… the goal is for our team to win the league, in 2024 our team was second bottom (OUCH), 2025 remarkably 2nd (EVER SO CLOSE), 2026 a big drop down to 12th position, but in 2027 we win the league. Question: when was the team in all those years closest to winning? There are two answers:
2026 as they were only one year away (we can term this chronological / clock / calendar time).
2025 as they were the closest in all those years to the top (we could coin a term here and call it ‘kairotic’ or opportune time).
Helpfully we have the two words in Scripture of chronos and kairos. Things happen when chronos does not simply trundle along one minute after another but there are interruptions (kairos) – moments / seasons when the kingdom is at hand and ‘the time has come’.
I have been pondering what elements from previous prophetic activity / protocols come with us into the next season and what elements are to be different. I am considering this as an era is unravelling. Great weight was placed on ‘knowledge’, ‘words of knowledge’, predictions of events in the past. I am not dismissing that but I sense a shift… ‘It will not rain’ said Elijah – impressive… ‘until’ – setting the time. ‘Sons of Isaacchar knew the times and the seasons‘ but did they predict what the season would consist of as in what events would take place?
This is the shift I see. If in the developing world I have been told that prophetic 101 is to ‘control the weather’ I am suggesting that it is now for us to align time so that chronos does not simply trundle on and on. It is to see and state the season and whether the events are rapid in succession and traumatic or over a period of time we might be ignorant about.
Alongside stating the season is recognising the signs of a season, and in prayer holding that in place so that the sign brings about what was being signed. Messianic figures always appear at kairotic moments – Jesus THE Messiah with his ‘the kingdom is at hand’ and false messiahs that he warned about at another kairotic (and time of judgement) time in the context of AD66-70. Those signs currently are around us. The necessity is for a holding in for the sign to produce something that is ultimately redemptive, even when there is clear judgement on what had previously held space.
I am hopeful that with the (previous) understandings of land, cities, redemptive gifts, that we can be those who do not allow time to run away but to bring it forward. That the clock that simply tells us what time it is gets unlocked so that there is true movement forward – or perhaps movement from what is to come breaking in on the present… Time alignment. We might not have predictions about the outcome – too often predictions are tied to our preferences. Time alignment is related to redemptive progress, and in most redemptive progress there is personal pain. ‘Will not rain until…’ was deeply inconvenient when his source of water dried up, nevertheless he held the space, with help from widows and creation. Help is available always – God’s packages are not wrapped in a way that we instantly recognise them.
When people work and act in harmony with the gifting of the land so that what is placed on it facilitates a redemptive direction there is a setting where God’s presence begins to dwell and people can find it easier to find their place in the divine scheme of things.
One last element though that I wish to explore, and I will put it up front here, is: the challenge is for believers to align time, for when situations arrive too soon or they arrive too late the result is the same – the fullness of what should happen does not come into reality… and the normal element that manifest to resist the opportune time (kairos) aligning with our time-frame (chronos) is false wisdom – often expressed in religious terms and quoting Scripture. I will try and explore this more fully in the next post, for my thinking is that 101 for the prophetic in this next season is that of ‘time’. I have come to that conclusion slowly over a few years and it is as a result of responding to what is understood by numerous prophetic people in the developing world as to what is 101 prophetic – that of controlling the weather. Here are numerous stories to illustrate what is meant by that so that in the next post I can use them to suggest what might be the level of aligning time that we can expect.
In Brazil I worked some with ‘the rain man’. My first encounter was at 11:00pm when I had finished speaking (time for bed!!), he stepped to the podium, raised his hands in the air, and for the next 10 minutes stood like that, and instantly and continually for the next 10 minute it was not possible to hear anything other than rain fall on the metal roof! He took his hands down and the rain stopped. He was responsible for a church that was on the edge of the Amazon, a group that met outdoors. In all the years of meeting it could rain before and after, but never during the time they set out the chairs and met. I have other stories from that time. 101 control the weather!!
I have been in Africa in a tent in the mountains with an evangelist and a significant storm was headed that way, with the tent beginning to creak… the evangelist simply stood up and rebuked the winds and there was calm.
I was in Italy and was determined to walk from the main city a particular path of maybe 15 kilometres the next day. So I got a drive into the city, the heavens having already opened with major flooding, streets awash… encouraged to bring at least a rain jacket I said no – let’s see if I arrive home wet for if I do I can always return to prophetic school!! Not a drop on my clothes. Maybe the weather report might have explained it, but at least a great experience!
I do believe in the above stories that God intervened and that there are those who are particularly gifted in this area but have never been convinced that this is 101 prophetic, hence my journey as to what is… that of aligning time. This is now becoming increasingly important.
