He Gives and Takes Away (Fullness Through Emptiness)

Long version of my response to a great post on Paul Cole's Blog.
Read Paul's blog 'It's PRE not POST!'.

My Extended Comment:
Great point Paul. One of the biggest mistakes that a Christian can make is believing that Christianity is on the decline simply because main stream media is bias to a dominant world view. If we aren’t careful we will become discouraged by viewing Christianity in today’s world as non-influential and irrelevant. As believers, we cannot mix our ideas of where society and the church are headed with the truth of God's desire to draw us closer to Him and to each other. The anointing of God is more powerful today than it was 4000 years ago. Christ is more alive today than he was 2000 years ago. There are more believers in more countries today then there were 100 years ago. We serve a progressive God. The proof is in His patterns.

I agree with the idea of a circular pattern of “God’s giving and taking away”. Only it ministers to me in a slightly different order: He gives -> then the expanding takes place -> and finally he takes away only to come full circle to giving again, but to a greater capacity than each time before. The best illustration I can think of to support this view is in the preparation for competitive food eating. Months before the competition, the contestant drinks large amounts of water in short periods of time; increasing the amount and shortening the time as the training moves along. This stretches the stomach to a much greater capacity in a shorter amount of time. As the training moves on, water is replaced with solid foods. You can see where I’m going. The giving is the consumption of the water or food, the expansion takes place to train for greater capacity to contain, and then the taking away occurs naturally…we’ll leave it at that. Next time that the giving occurs, there is a greater capacity to hold the food or drink.
As the competitive food eaters train, they stretch their insides so that less pain might occur and so that the demanding conditions are healthier overall. The training leads to the day of the event, when the contestants push themselves to the very edge. Minutes into the event, painlessness and health are nowhere to be found. You’ll see all involved sweating, shaking, gasping, groaning, and even doubling over in pain as the final seconds close in. No matter how hard they trained and stretched, for the sake of victory they endure unimaginable amounts of pain and discomfort. The pain will eventually subside but the glory of being champion will stay with the competitor for a life-time.

Genesis 12:1-3, God establishes his covenant with Abraham to be made a great nation, that his name would forever be great and that he would be blessed, and that the whole earth would be blessed through him. None of these things happened within Abraham’s lifetime. In fact, the last part of the deal did not begin until Jesus was born out of the same blood-line almost 2000 years later. The Israelites went through countless circles of gaining, expanding, and suffering loss. But if they hadn’t endured this long period of stretching and expanding their capacity to receive God’s promise, Christ would have never come to endure the suffering of the Cross. And it was through Christ’s loss of earthly life, that he gained all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt 28:18), making us the recipients of an expanded anointing (John 14:12-14), making us a blessed people through being reconciled to the Father and thus fulfilling the covenant between God and Abraham.

Of course, with our having received the gift of unbroken fellowship with God comes the inevitable next phases of the circle – expansion and taking-away. James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

This is most definitely the “Pre-Christian” Era. The best days are ahead for those who stand on the Rock. Let’s remember to not focus on what we’re going through, but what we’re going to. I’m happy to be 31-years young and on fire for God. I can only imagine everything that God is preparing to pour out on His people in my lifetime. Here’s to the best years of glory-to-glory being ahead of us!