10.2 The Opposite
Although the world bears a slight similarity to the Kingdom in that it functions as an entire ecosystem of relationships, though twisted and contrived, the heart of the world is the very opposite of the heart of the Kingdom.
The verse that best expresses this opposition is this. Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But let it not be so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves (Luke 22:24-26).
An Unseen Rule. The heart of the Kingdom is a relatively small group of humans who have entered into Father’s heart and thus are most like Him. These people “rule,” almost unseen. They have no need for recognition. But the manner by which they rule is always to be lifting other people up, by blessing, by kindness, by offering a cup of cold water to one who is thirsty.
Much more than these outward actions of love, these people rule by their intimacy with Father, an intimacy that allows the Spirit of God to flow forth into the knowledge of all, bringing life and blessing everywhere and to everyone. This relatively small group of people is the Lord Jesus Christ embodied.
A Heart of Cruelty. Seeing this Heart of the Kingdom, then, allows us to turn and understand the heart of cruelty that rules this world. Again, we are talking about a relatively small number of people.
When we say that psychopaths, people with no conscience at all, who perceive other people only as objects to be manipulated for self-gain, constitute about 6% of the population, we then further realize that there are three types of psychopath. First are the less intelligent who commit inhuman crimes against other individuals and go to prison. This is the only group the world calls “psychopathic.”
Those Who Do Not Care. Second are those psychopaths who perceive the rules of society as beneficial to their self-purposes and thus who actually benefit others by their ruthlessness. We see these in realms of leadership, whether in business or government, but because they are unconcerned about what other people think, they become primarily successful.
Let me give an example. As I observed my students in the public school, I watched a very definite RULE that operated every single time. When something unusual happened in a classroom, every eye in that group turned towards the one person who DID NOT CARE what anyone thought about him. And every person in that room responded the same way he did.
No Conscience at All. A psychopath is simply unbothered by the normal law governing psychotic humans – “What will other people think about me?” And for that reason, they are often much more successful in life, to the benefit of others, though that was never their intent.
But there is a third group among those humans among us who are not like most people. That third group constitutes less than 2% of any population, but still, that is 1 or 2 individuals in every 100 – and yes, they are there. These are individuals who have no conscience at all, but who also possess a higher IQ, are crafty and shrewd, and know how to work together to get what they want.
Domination over All. And the one thing these people want is domination over all others. They want to command, and they want others to obey. These are the cruelest individuals in society, able to order the torture and death of another human being, or to torture and kill of themselves, one moment and enjoy dinner with the family the next. And they always do it for “the good of the group,” as Jesus said.
And no system of government on earth allows for the ascension of these most cruel of psychopaths to rise into places of power over all other humans than modern political government as found in all nations today. I see NO difference between the government of China and the government of the United States; I am speaking absolutely.
Political Government. It is impossible to rise to any prominence in any political government on earth today without first having sold one’s soul to the evil one for momentary gain in this world.
But the most intelligent, dangerous, and deviant of the world’s psychopaths do not choose the path of politics, but rather the path of money. Every politician you can name has already been bought, before you heard their names. There is no other possibility. You can’t sell yourself for gain unless someone is buying.
Money buys power; thus money, in that role, represents the root of all evil. The “richest” people are not necessarily in this group, but rather, those who know how to use money to buy power.
The Power Group. Now, we intend to study this phenomenon in human society more completely in “The Mystery of Iniquity.” Here, our focus is on the overall world, that is, the effect on all humans of this central “power group.”
You see, money knows that in order to control the government it must control the population first, and in order to control the population, money must first control the media, the production of how people think and the flags they wave. The problem is not the power-hungry people in society; the problem is the entire human race. Everyone looks outward to spin their own false story, and everyone sits in judgment against their neighbor’s false story.
Unrighteousness. That’s a real key; I have been looking for that exact statement. Everyone looks outward to spin their own false story, and everyone sits in judgment against their neighbor’s false story. This is the unrighteousness, then, of the world.
Each individual person is the image and likeness of God as they are, yet each one rejects being any such thing. Humans can’t stand being like God; every one of them, including most Christians, lust after being like their image of an angel of heaven. And every human sees that outward image in the face of the group, judging it always to be false, yet always striving to be the “greatest,” the greatest spinner of a false story.
Inflicting Cruelty. I simply do not comprehend the willingness of human beings to inflict unspeakable cruelty upon people they do not know. A family in Libya, whose lives have been broken forever by American violence, is no different to me than any family at church. How can they be any different?
But that cruelty inflicted on people that are not known is also matched by the cruelty inflicted on members of the “group” who do not conform to the assumed rules of the group. When ten thousand Christians around me stand to worship the battle flag of the beast, and I stay seated with my family, I know that they do not tear me to pieces only because they are Texans, and therefore polite.
Conform to the Group. I have testified and will continue to testify that as I lived in the Christian communities in northern British Columbia, I saw the love of God everywhere I looked. Yet I know, just as much, the extreme cruelty (restrained by Christian politeness, of course) exercised against those individuals who “left the group.”
There is no greater cruelty than using “God” as your whip. This is the heart of the world, as strong in the church world as it is in the secular world. Conform to the group or we will make your life hell. To make God’s precious people convinced that they are at war with and in trouble with God is the very heart of the evil one.
Eyes on the Wrong Thing. The real rulers of this world are not the people who carry the face of being “the rulers.” The presidents and politicians are just the red flag of the matador, designed to keep everyone charging the wrong thing. The president of the United States serves only one purpose, to get everyone to blame him for problems or to praise him for waving the right group banner. That is, to get everyone’s eyes on the wrong thing.
The real rulers of this world know that, in order to rule, they must bend the cruelty of the group to their own purposes, and they must do that in a subtle way so that everyone imagines they are superior by their own design.
Group-Think. The visible politicians are just one part of that subtlety. Far more important is the manipulation of group-think.
Let me define group think. Group think is where every individual identifies themselves with a particular group and then lines up their entire world view to reflect the view of the group. The view of the group, however, is created by the interests, desires, and beliefs of a handful of the strongest personalities at the center of that group. This group-think, then, is the opposite of the beautiful togetherness of the Australian budgies, in which each individual is fully free, yet each honors those next to it.
Group Dynamics. I sat and observed the powerful dynamics of group-think operating inside the circle of elders in which I sat for several months in the Blueberry Christian community. I have come to understand what I observed only slowly and only by the present revelation of Christ my life. Everyone in that group was careful to bend their own thinking to the thinking of the three strongest individuals in the group. And the subtle infliction of pain on someone who did not conform was not visible to most, but it was overwhelming. Yet these were kind and good people, and at one time or another, each of those three came personally to me to apologize for a thoughtless abuse of power.
The Greatest Contrast Ever. The heart of the world is always cruelty; the heart of the Kingdom must be its opposite in every way.
Consider the greatest contrast ever in all the experience of creation between these two hearts. It is not possible to come up with a more specific illustration of every single aspect of the powers who rule this world, than the men standing before Jesus as He hung naked upon the cross. No matter what angle you study about how power works in our modern world, you will see that angle more perfectly right there among those Pharisees. Pilate might have been the show of power, but these men knew how to contrive Pilate into doing exactly what they wanted.
A Very Human Man. Here are the thoughts going in in Jesus’ head as He hung there, silent, looking out at these men (from Psalm 22). All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head – trouble is near – Many bulls have surrounded Me. They gape at Me with their mouths, like a raging and roaring lion. – Dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. – They look and stare at Me.
Jesus was a very human Man, and these thoughts were very natural and right. BUT – here is what Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
The Greatest Crime. Let’s back up just a bit, though. What was Jesus’ crime? Jesus was willing to be the likeness and image of God, something all pretending humans cannot tolerate or allow to exist.
And thus we see that the heart of the world, the core of this dysfunctioning, chaotic, and cruel ecosystem, is the agreement Adam made with the serpent. No human being is allowed to be what they are, the image and likeness of God. Should any individual live only out from all the good speaking of Christ, rather than by creating a false story, that individual must be punished cruelly or eliminated.
Do Not Love the World. And we see this heart working among Christians in this world as much as it works in the world. I now understand how to place one of the most important commandments in the Bible, one that is almost the MOST disobeyed of God’s commandments among Christians.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). The Spirit of God does not mean, in these words, that these people are not born again and filled with the Holy Ghost; He does not mean that they do not experience the drawing of God towards living in the Holiest of all.
Requiring False Stories. The Spirit of God means that loving the false stories and requiring false stories of others, especially the group lies about nations and armies and battle flags, of this world takes the place of Father’s heart in the heart of the believer. Christ might be in them, the Holy Ghost might be anointing them, but the one thing they cannot be or know is the love of the Father, Father’s heart through them.
And if “Do not love the world” is almost the most disobeyed commandment of the New Testament, what is the most disobeyed? Be just like God. Be the image and likeness of God. Love just as Father loves. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Complete Uselessness. This is so cool. I had no idea at all it would come out this way. We do not know the Kingdom of God by studying anything in this world. It is the complete opposite. Now that we are beginning to know the Kingdom of God arising among us, and especially Father’s Heart beating as our own, now for the first time, we are able to look at the world, from afar, and understand how it works, its emptiness, its confusion, and its complete uselessness.
We do not understand the Kingdom by seeing how it is not the world. Rather we understand the sadness of the existence of any “world” at all, only out from knowing and being the goodness of the Kingdom.