Start a disciple making culture in your church or company

February 1, 2022

Sacrifice in God’s Economy

Kingdom economy is truly a discussion of supernatural, heavenly provision. But it is equally a discovery of the “way the kingdom flows”. Furthermore, it must also be a contemplation of the importance of a sacrificial lifestyle. The force of kingdom movement in the heavenlies and throughout all creation has a directional flow. What I mean by this is that there are principles and laws (like the laws of physics) that have been set into place from the beginning of creation that govern everything. And like physics, if you cooperate with these principles and laws, you discover powerful dynamics; but if you resist or contradict them, they steamroll over you. It’s like a river with a powerful current. If you “cooperate” with the currents, they can offer amazing solutions like transportation or electricity. But if you believe you should have the right to swim upstream at your will, you will find the currents overtaking and destroying you.

Much of the pattern of this world is designed to obscure and hide this kingdom “river”. Human reasoning is dedicated to convincing humankind that there is no kingdom current and resistance to its directional flow is a simple matter of rational thinking. Sickness and disease is not the result of resisting the current and we can find the solution through our own clever ability. Strife, violence, and hatred are not a consequence of swimming upstream, and the solution is to trust the “correct” government that has the proper experts to provide the needed utopia. Any intelligent human can see the rational wisdom of this way of thinking; or so we are told.

If we are to properly understand the importance of sacrifice as a believer in Jesus, we need to understand the reality and the tension of the world’s fight against the flow of the Kingdom. Yes, the Kingdom economy is a wonderful revelation of the supernatural provision and lavish goodness of our Heavenly Father; but it requires our cooperation. The kingdom of God makes demands of its citizens that makes no sense to the world. But what we often do not understand is that what seems like a sacrifice, in the kingdom of God, is usually just trading something with limited value for something with eternal value. The sacrificial lifestyle of the believer is actually a call to “see” the kingdom currents and trust the Kingdom flow. The result of our sacrifice is infinitely more valuable, satisfying and prosperous, not to mention eternal.