12.3 Father as Principle
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Father is a God of order. Yet God’s order operates by complete freedom. Thus, God’s order appears to humans as chaos. It is not chaos, for as every particle in God’s creation moves in complete freedom in itself out from its own heart, the intentions of God are always being fulfilled.
Man, on the other hand, chose a different path. Man chose to take the Word God speaks, not as spontaneity arising from the heart of freedom, but rather as the law, under his own control, to shape himself by his own performance. Thus man, looking at God’s chaotic order seeks to bring order to that perceived chaos by external control and thus plunges everything into actual chaos and ruin.
Principles of Order
I cannot tell you how important that last bit is in our knowledge of the Kingdom of God arising through us. We keep our hands off; Christ does all things well.
Continuing on, this God of order, then, has inserted principles of order into each arena of His creation. Some principles of order apply to the physical, earth side of all things, other principles of order apply to the spirit, heaven side of all things, and a third set of principles applies to the relationships between and among animals, humans, and angels, the laws governing human action in society. The Kingdom of God includes our knowing these principles of God and the certainty that they are always working all things.
Human Control
For example, if the law of gravity ceased, the atmosphere and ourselves would drift away from earth and humans and animals would almost instantly all die. Do we busy ourselves making sure the law of gravity continues operating the way it should?
Yet there are many principles of God set into motion in creation that man does and can manipulate, laws such as the laws of aerodynamics or the laws of electro-magnetism. Because of the human desire to control, however, human manipulation of any principle of God always results in good and evil, some things of benefit, but always carrying destruction as well.
Coming out of God
But the laws of the physical and the laws of the spiritual are not the real stuff of the Kingdom, though they certainly apply. We study the laws of the spiritual inside our study of Covenant. The real stuff of the Kingdom, however, is the laws of society, of animal, human, and angelic interaction.
In order to see the whole picture, however, we will move briefly through some of the major laws of the physical and the spiritual before looking at the laws of society. But first, all of these laws come out of Father, out of His characteristics. Some try to paint creation as something totally “other” than God. This is ridiculous. How could anything exist except it come out of God, out of the Word of His power?
God Works All in All
Sustaining all things by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). God is all things in Himself. God brings forth from Himself as the speaking of Word. This Word, then, the Lord Jesus Christ, is in Himself only what the Father is, first, in Himself. Then this sustaining Word creates, orders, and sustains all things, all things in the physical, all things in the spiritual, and all things in the social.
When a characteristic inside of God passes through Word to show up in creation, we then call that characteristic of God a law or a principle. But no law or principle ever operates in creation separately from a God who fills all in all and who works all in all.
The Immediate Person of God
As we consider any principle operating in any of these three realms, we never see that principle as separate from the immediate Person of God working all things in all. The principle is that characteristic inside the Person of God now appearing inside of creation. And that principle cannot pass from the Person of God into appearance in creation except it come through Jesus, the Word God is always speaking.
And yes, we are talking about the laws of physics and the laws of economics, etc. The laws governing a herd of wildebeests thundering across the plain are coming out of the good speaking of Jesus.
Countering Rivers
The immediate problem of the Kingdom, however, is that man’s attempt to control everything, that is, all the laws of heaven, earth, and society, results in the river of destruction that always turns the good speaking of Jesus into the appearance of death in the sight of humans. This river runs counter to God’s river of turning all things towards the outcome of goodness, but only in the outward appearance of creation, not in the substance of all reality.
Our every attempt to control brings death. Our every expectation of God working all in all brings life. We will see this great contradiction, and the overturning of control by expectation, through all the victory of the Kingdom.
God Is ALL, but All Is Not God
One more thing we must understand about God’s relationship with creation through all of these characteristics. God is light, but light is not God. God is word, but words are not God. God is electricity, but electricity is not God. God is a thunderbolt, but lightning strikes are not God. God is the bringing forth of life, but the bringing forth of life, human reproduction, is not God. God is the source of all things and reveals Himself through all things, but those things in themselves are not God in Person.
God fills me and reveals Himself through me, yet I am not God.
Physical Laws
The physical realms are ruled by such laws as –
- The laws of thermodynamics.
- The electrical laws – the attraction bond in atoms as well as the separation bond that keeps electrons separate from the nucleus and so on.
- The law of gravity.
- The laws of motion – a body at rest tends to stay at rest, a body in motion tends to stay at motion.
- The laws of aerodynamics.
Spiritual Laws
The spiritual realms of the heavens are also ruled by laws in a very similar manner as the physical.
- The law of faith.
- The laws of attraction, like drawing together with like.
- The laws of appearance coming out of substance and substance ruling all appearance. This includes the dynamics of the spiritual realms breathing life or death upon their counterparts in the physical.
- The law of giving, by which abundance sustains itself.
Overlap
These two lists of physical and spiritual laws are meant only as examples out from many more laws working in each realm in similar ways. In our study of the Kingdom, it is the laws of society, however, that most concern us.
We do find a fair bit of overlap, though, between the laws of society and the spiritual laws that govern the heavenly side of heaven/earth. We also find a similar overlap between the laws of society and the physical laws that govern the earth side of heaven/earth.
The physical laws come out of Christ equally with the laws of spirit. Heaven is NOT more “God-ly” than earth.
Laws of Society
Here are some of the laws of society, laws that operate in all societies, whether insects or birds, animals or humans, angels or the family of God.
- The law of life. Life begets life.
- The law of sowing and reaping, not just for gardening, but for all actions in society.
- The laws of supply and demand, scarcity and invention.
- The law of freedom that brings forth peace.
- The law of respect, including the non-aggression principle.
- The law of giving by which free-market capitalism brought increase and prosperity to mankind for the short couple of centuries when it once existed.
As we consider all these laws of human society, of the reasons for and outcomes of human action, and many more similar to them, we can see two larger laws that serve as an umbrella inside of which all the other laws fit. Those two laws are the law of freedom and the law of giving.
If you love something, set it free, send it forth. If it belongs to you, it will return. If it does not return, it was never yours in the first place. If you need something, give something away. As you give to others, everything you need will be given back to you.
You can see how the law of life, of respect, and of sowing and reaping fit into this law of giving.
Giving Respect
Do you see how similar these two laws, the law of freedom and the law of giving, are to each other.
I never understood the directive of authority figures, including teachers, who commanded at students that, if they wanted respect to be shown them, they had to earn it. All the while those authority figures were treating these “lesser” others with disrespect bordering on contempt. I always gave full respect to my students; the thought of requiring respect from them was outside of me, out there in the horror of pretending. And I (almost) always saw respect coming back to me from my students in return.
Different Views of the Same
Let’s turn our thinking all around, then, with several different views of the same concepts. Let’s place the law of life as the larger umbrella law of all society with all the other laws as simply expressions of the larger law. In fact, the New Testament states three such laws directly, the law of liberty (James 1 & 2), the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2), and the law of love (Romans 13:10).
Here, then are verses of the primary laws of the Kingdom of God, laws that operate only inside a society of complete freedom, the same as the budgies of Australia.
- Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them (Matthew 7:12).
- Owe no one anything except to love one another (Romans 13:8).
- For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Romans 8:14). (That Spirit that arises out from the heart of the individual in all outpouring abundance.)
- Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:37).