The Ekklesia is the called out ones. They would meet in the city gates, hear their King’s desires as He decreed from His throne, and go out to accomplish not their will but that of the King.
Our homes are the prototypes of the Ekklesia and our children are our first disciples. We call our families out to live under the reign of Christ. Each family possesses an identity from God with a purpose. As parents, we search the heart of God for our family’s identity.
In Deuteronomy 6:2, God says, “. . . so you live in deep reverence before God . . . you, you and your children and your grandchildren.” In verses 6-9, God decrees, “Get them (My words and your identity) inside you and your children.” We establish this by talking of His Kingdom as we walk, work, eat; as we do life. Before we had kids, we sought God for a scripture that would be our family identity, WHO we are and WHY we are here as a family. We created boundaries that reinforced that identity. Within those boundaries, each personality could be fully expressed, but when the boundary was crossed there were consequences. We worshipped and danced, we prayed, we kicked demons out of people’s lives, we forgave, we healed the sick, we gave, we served, we welcomed people of all backgrounds. What Randy and I did, the kids did. We surrendered and still are growing in the Kingdom. Now they are all standing on our shoulders and going further.
Our family is a battle axe in the hand of God to smash the nations(Isaiah 41:11). Two of our five distinct boundaries to support our identity were:
1. Leadership with integrity.
2. Open communication established at the dinner table.
When Josiah was in his late 20s, he was talking with some friends. They were reminiscing of their rebellious teen years. Josiah realized he never thought he had a choice to rebel because that was not who we were and what we did as a family. God had used our family, us leaning hard into Him, to cover our mistakes and give us great grace to establish His identity and purpose in Josiah (and our girls) even in his teen years.
Seeing the heart-desires of our King, our Father overtake the earth is first seen in the family unit as each family becomes His Ekklesia, discipling the children to establish Ekklesia homes and so it continues. The family of God expands and overtakes the world with the desires of the Father.
