I don't know about you, but I sometimes wonder if I am hearing correctly from the Holy Spirit. The very last thing I would want is to be in error. If I seem to be out of step with others in the Body, I begin to grow concerned about this. I try to research and back up with supporting scripture whatever I may be hearing or thinking about in the Spirit. I certainly don't want to take scripture out of context, or misapply it. I don't want to deceive myself, or others. So when I have felt out of step in this manner, I have said to God, "I feel like I am out in left field." Today I heard Him say, "Well, we need players in left field also!"
I know very little about baseball. What is unusual about left field? As you can see from the diagram above, the left-fielder (blue circle labeled "LF") is positioned all the way at the top of the diagram. He and the other out-fielders are a good distance away from the bases, and other players. When looking up the position, I found a set of pointers for being a good left-fielder.
First of all, a left-fielder is a defensive position. Being successful requires practice and hard work. You need to be able to throw a ball for a long distance. I remember when I was young, I would throw one of those pink rubber balls extremely long distances. My friend, Sharon, and I would play catch in the elementary school playground, throwing the ball from one end of the long playground to the other. When I would get home from school, my friend, Robert, and I would play a similarly challenging game of catch. He would stand in the backyard of my tall 3-story house, and I would stand in the front yard. We would throw to each other over the top of the house. As the scriptures say, we need to develop strength and endurance in order to send that word or prayer wherever, and to whomever, it needs to go. We need to exercise and build up those throwing muscles to be up to the task at hand. When we are needed to keep the ball in play, we can't say, "I'm too tired", or "It's too far," or "Let someone else catch it."
Not only are you throwing a long distance as a left-fielder, but you will probably have to catch balls coming towards you from a height and a far distance. This requires a good out-fielding glove with long fingers, and a deep pocket. In other words, a left-fielder needs to be properly equipped. Applied spiritually, we have to have a strong foundation in the word, a hearing ear stretched out to hear, and heart reaching out to receive. We need to have an appreciation for the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers that our Father has given to properly equip us in all spiritual truths (Eph. 4:11). They provide us with the long-fingered spiritual "gloves" we need to catch the ball, or truth, from the distance and height, and with the deepness of our spiritual glove pocket, we can hold onto the word that has been delivered to us without fear of dropping it. A spiritual left-fielder might sometimes feel out-of-step, or alone in what he is hearing from the Lord. These revelations are coming from long distances, and great heights. (WARNING- Do not even think about trying to catch these long, high balls bare-handed (in the flesh). For a left-fielder, it is disaster.)
Someone who is not an outfielder on a spiritual team might not be equipped to catch or receive these revelations of the highest and farthest kind. These types of revelations are especially associated with Apostolic and Prophetic ministries. Mysteries are revealed, and first-hand, direct revelations from Jesus are received through these ministries. There are many examples of left-fielders in scripture (I Cor. 11:23, 1 Cor. 15:51, 2 Cor. 12:4, Rev. 4:1, Acts 10:11-16, Isa. 6:1-3). An outfielder receiving these types of spiritual things, might have to adapt the speed and height of the ball as he throws it in to a differently equipped teammate. We don't change the truth, but we make accommodations as to how the truth is delivered, otherwise our fellow player receiving our throw might be more likely to drop the ball, than to successfully catch it. I wouldn't throw to the shortstop in the same manner as I would while trying to throw a ball over my three-story house.
Another requirement that makes for a good left-fielder, is the ability to keep your focus and attention on the whole game, the big picture, not just your position. You always need to know where you have to throw a ball, if it comes to you. You have to know where the runners are, and where your nearest fellow defensive player is located. This is usually, but not always the short stop. You have to get the ball to him quickly, and hopefully, without making an error. It is comforting to have read that, generally speaking, errors by the left-fielder are rare. Spiritually, we have to be ready to give an account for our faith at any time, and we might be called upon at any time to deliver the truth accurately, without error. We have to understand that while our part is important, there is a larger, over-all plan of God. (Heb. 10:13, Rev. 11:15, Mt. 6:10, Rom. 11:25-26, 2 Cor. 5:17, Rev. 21:5). Spiritually, we have to understand that we are not alone, that the "team" or Body has many participating parts with whom we interact to get the good outcome (1 Cor. 12:12-14, Eph. 4:16). We must understand where a challenge (runner) is coming from, be ready for it, and see the best way to counter it, or defend against it.
However, because you are playing out in left field, you are also expected to contribute to the team's effort by having a dependable bat. You need to be able to hit that ball when called upon. Other players may be faster, and involved in play more often, so the left-fielder must show his value with hits. We are not allowed to sit back, spiritually, and spend our time waiting to catch a ball. We must give to the team actively also. The team is depending, not just on our gloves, but on our ability to help score offensively. So a spiritual left-fielder, especially, has to be diversified in his contribution to the team.
A left-fielder must also "back up" the third baseman. If the ball is overthrown, or misses the mark, we must be prepared to back him up, support him, catch the ball that he misses, or cannot catch. In the Spirit, we are the back-ups for the team member who drops the ball, or misthrows. When a brother drops the spiritual ball, we are there to pick it up without missing a beat. A brother or sister likes to know we "have their back" when we are needed (Gal. 6:2, 1 Thess. 5:14).
A left-fielder should avoid showy feats like diving to catch the ball. You are positioned too far out for that move. Those risky moves can cause errors that can allow the opposing runner to get to the next base. It is better to allow a ball to land in front of you, and field it from the ground, rather than to try diving for it. Those balls, or spiritual truths, are precious, and our first and most important responsibility is to get hold of that ball securely, and pass it on to where it needs to go. The left-fielder is not what is most important in the game, but it is the ball, the life-giving truth, that is most important, and must be kept in play (Ps. 138:2, Mt. 24:35, Col. 1:17).
In the same way, trying to throw that ball to home plate from your left-field position, is also risky. It is better to throw the ball to another position, like the short-stop, or third baseman. You may not get the accolades, but you will have contributed more to a victory. Sometimes we want to make that great play, but better results come from throwing the ball to the correct receiver. If the ball falls to the ground between third base, and home plate because we insisted on throwing it to the wrong teammate, the ball falls out of play, and the opposing runner may cross home plate and score (Mt. 6:10, Mt. 26:42).
Lastly, the list of hints to left-fielders says the most important thing a left-fielder can do is exercise, and practice. Practice catching and throwing from long distances and great heights. Exercise to increase strength in the throwing arm. Do drills that increase speed and reaction times. Study to know the best way to interact with teammates in order to be most effective. What does this mean spiritually? We study the Word, to show ourselves approved. We exercise spiritual truths in everyday life to increase our endurance and strength. Our spiritual understanding should not just be theoretical, but for greatest effectiveness, it has to be experiential. Watching a baseball game from your living room is not the same as actually playing the game. It is only by repeatedly practicing and experiencing, that our spiritual muscles learn and memorize what needs to be done in any given situation. Our teammates depend on our being able to perform effectively as left-fielders (2 Tim. 2:15, 1 Cor. 9:24-27, Phil. 3:14, James 1:22).
Do you feel that you are out in left field sometimes also? Being a left-fielder isn't bad. God has equipped us well, and has entrusted us with those long, high balls from His heavenly throne. We just have to understand the purpose and value of our position, and our part in the "Big Picture".
See you out in left field!
"Play ball!"
Our Father can use some players in left field.
"Press Toward the Mark"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjmhQWcwQ7Q
"I Will Run the Race Set Before Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUcrJqGdPSg
"
Who's On First?" (Abbott and Costello)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg
I think it was around 1966-67, and I was in 7th grade. I belonged to the Chorus of my Junior High School. We were about 40-50 students. We met an hour before school started, and our director was Miss Lyles, one of the music teachers in the school. I don't know what her first name was. She may not have had one. We were a little afraid of Miss Lyles, because she could be tough. She expected you to try your best, and she wasn't one to put up with nonsense.
It was just after our return from Christmas vacation, and we were beginning to rehearse for our spring concert a few months away. One of the selections Miss Lyles had chosen was "The Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah. None of us had ever heard it before, and when we got the music booklets, we were stunned because it was 14 pages long! We started at the beginning, learning each of our parts of the four-part construction of the piece. When we had learned a new section, we would end our rehearsal time by taking the piece from the beginning and singing up through the new part we had just learned.
It took us a couple of months, and in the middle of that time, Miss Lyles was absent for about three weeks, because her sister had gotten sick. Another music teacher had taken her place for our practices in order to keep us making progress through this piece. He was a nice, quiet man, but he was no "Miss Lyles". At the end of those three weeks, one morning during our practice time, Miss Lyles came running down the aisle of the auditorium, her coat flapping, still carrying her suitcase. We were so happy to see her return that we started cheering. She had a big grin on her face, and the other poor music teacher laid his head down on the piano in relief! Miss Lyles was back, and we immediately got down to real business.
On the morning that we finished page 14, the last page, we started from the beginning, and sang all the way through successfully to the end. We were thrilled. We had done it! It sounded great- to our untrained ears, anyway. We continued to rehearse it each morning.
One morning, Miss Lyles was late. When she finally came into the auditorium, we knew something was wrong. Miss Lyles made the announcement, "The Hallelujah Chorus is out. We're not going to be performing it."
We were stunned. After working on it for so long, how could it be out? We asked her if it was because were weren't good enough. Was she displeased with us? "No, no", she said. "It had nothing to do with that." "Then why, Miss Lyles?", we asked.
She told us that because we had worked so hard, we deserved to know the truth. She had been called into the principal's office that morning, and he had asked her what musical selections she had been preparing for the coming spring concert. She told him the selections, including, of course, "The Hallelujah Chorus" for the finale. He told her we couldn't do that selection, because it was too religious. She argued that it was a classic. He said "It's out." She told him that if he could just come to the auditorium, he could hear for himself how hard we had worked, and how well we sang it. He said, "It's out, period." He said he didn't want to hear anymore argument about it. We were shocked-nobody talked to Miss Lyles, of all people, so disrespectfully. She ended practice early, and told us that we would begin learning the new, substitute selections next time. I have to admit, I couldn't like that principal after he did that, although, now being older, I can see it's possible that someone might have made a complaint to him about the selection, and he had no other choice than to do what he did. But at that age, I felt it was his job as principal, to stick up for us, and stand for the right thing.
What are we teaching our children by what we refuse to teach them?
From that point on, I knew that there was something wrong with the world. I didn't know what it was, or why it was, but whatever it was, it could impact my life, even though I was still a kid. I also found out for the first time, through this incident, that some thought there was something wrong with being "too religious".
However now, whenever I hear the Hallelujah Chorus, I sing my part the way that Miss Lyles taught me all those years ago. I still remember it very well.
"And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left." Isa. 30:20-21
"I will teach you by the hand of God; What is with the Almighty, I will not conceal."
Job 27:11
Our Father provides us with precious teachers.
"Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah (Dedicated to Miss Lyles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUZEtVbJT5c
As we leave this Christmas season, I felt a need to write about the Roman Empire. Some people are not very interested in history, but I am. As the saying goes, "You can't make this stuff up." Since this was the world system at the time of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, as well as at the beginning history of the church, the Empire plays an important role in those events. I think it also teaches and warns us about circumstances concerning our present time, and also the events of the future, as we will see.
We start out with Rome as a republic, being governed by a body called the Senate. The United States borrowed this model of government as part our own as our country was founded.
In the time when Rome was still a republic, three very powerful generals conquered foreign territories and brought great wealth, and slaves back to a Rome that consumed everything on which they could get their hands. They were early examples of what we currently see in our own society: conspicuous consumption and invidious consumption. Even we today sometimes forget that the food, clothing, electronics, and other items that we buy and consume daily at bargain prices may come from exploiting other people's and nations' resources and poorly paid labor.
Eventually, foreign slaves made up 30% of the population of Rome. The harvests of all Northern Africa fed Rome for 8 months. It took 200,000-400,000 tons of grain to feed the all-consuming Romans for 1 year. The great economy of Rome had become expectant and dependent upon the spoils of these three great generals, called the Triumvirate (headship, or leadership, composed of three persons). Marcus Crassus, Pompey "Magnus" (The Great), and Julius Caesar made up this group of three.
It was Pompey the Great who conquered the area of Syria and Palestine in 63 BC.
Eventually, as happens with ambitious man, these three generals became rivals for power. Crassus had died earlier, and Rome entered into a civil war with Julius Caesar and Pompey in the final power struggle. Pompey did not live through it. He fled to what he thought was a friend, Egypt, where he was killed immediately.
Julius Caesar became the great power of Rome. The Roman Senate decided to give him the title of Emperor, which would virtually end the Republic. Before the title could be conveyed, Caesar was assassinated by a conspiracy of some of the Senators with their assassins. After his death, the Senate conferred divinity upon Julius Caesar. Caesar was survived by his great-nephew by marriage, who was his adopted son and designated heir, Octavius. Since Julius Caesar was made "divine", Octavius could be called, at this point, a "son of a god". Caesar's only birth child, a daughter, who had been married to rival general Pompey, had died young.
A second triumvirate now arises with Octavius (Julius Caesar's heir), Marcus Lepidus, and the great Mark Antony as rulers. This triumverate split up the governing of the empire, and ruled their territories as dictators. Rivalry entered into this triumvirate as well causing Lepidus to be exiled, and Mark Antony to commit suicide after being defeated in battle by Octavius.
Again, the Roman Senate sought to convey the title of Emperor, and succeeded with Octavius. He was given the name Augustus Caesar, Augustus meaning "worthy of veneration and worship". Coins of the empire carried his image, with the inscription "CAESAR DIVI". Emperor worship was practiced in Rome, and the other territories of the empire. Even Pontius Pilate would one day build a temple in the Syrian province to honor and worship Emperor Tiberius in the years that followed. More modern kings of history would take the same name of "Caesar", adapting it into a royal title in their language: Tsar, and Kaiser, and even the English word "king" (cyn in the old language) being examples of this, so powerful became this name, and the legacies of Julius and Augustus Caesar.
Augustus proves to be a very efficient administrator, and Rome prospers as never before. Even the conquered territories see great building projects and expanded trade, although they were ultimately taxed into poverty, and their most precious goods were taken for Rome's consumption. The relative peace, order and affluence (for some) brought by Augustus was heralded with phrases like "PAZ ATQUE QUIETA", and "PAX ROMANA". Some nations even invite the take-over of the Roman Empire because of the peace, order, and economic advantages of Augustus Caesar's reign. When the Judeans were offered Jesus as their king by Pontius Pilate, the chief priests cried out, "We have no king but Caesar." (Jn. 19:15).
It is a good place to note that, impossible as it may seem, nations and peoples are sometimes willing to give up their own sovereignty, identity, and personal freedoms in exchange for promises of peace, order and economic stability and prosperity. We saw this same circumstance again in the last century when a newly free German republic, because of economic collapse, and the threat of communism from within and without, handed power to a small, extreme minority political party headed by Adolph Hitler. He didn't have to take power because it was handed to him. He was invited into a position of government leadership. Scripture tells us that we will see this same type of occurrence again in the future, when much of the world will hand power to an evil devil of a leader who promises the same kind of "peace" and economic order.
Back to our story. The tales that spread heralding Augustus Caesar's great rule and accomplishments were proclaimed with the Greek term "euangelion", from which we get the term "evangelize", and is translated to mean "good news", or "gospel". These great tales only served to increase Imperial Theology: that the Emperor was a god worthy of worship. At the height of his reign, Augustus headed 25 Roman legions in addition to "Auxiliaries"- armies of foreign troops conscripted from territories ruled by Rome. (As a side note, it is rumored in history that this "divine" emperor was poisoned by his wife, Livia, who thought he had lived long enough, and she was anxious to see his step-son heir, her son Tiberius, come to power. She believed that she would have much more power and influence under her son's reign than she had under her husband's.) These are the ways of the kingdoms of men.
However, something greater than the Caesars and their kingdoms appeared.
In the middle of this man-made divinity of Augustus Caesar, and the Roman kingdom of so-called peace and order, a child is born, and a host of angels comes to bring the real evangelism, good news and glad tidings of peace and good will regarding the birth of a truly divine King of all kings, who is Christ the Lord of all lords (Lk. 2:10-14, 1 Tim. 6:14-15, Rev. 19:16). Human history was changed, and the Kingdom of God was inserted into the earth!
There is much more to tell of the history of the Roman Empire as it intersects with the history of the Kingdom of God, but this seems like a good place to stop for now. Perhaps I can continue the story for the Resurrection season.
"...I will shake heaven and earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the chariot and those who ride in them; The horses and their riders shall come down, everyone by the sword of his brother."
"Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" Hag. 2:22, Rev. 11:15
The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Father, and of His Son!
*note: Map at the top of the page: The area ruled by the Roman Empire
"Unto Us a Child is Born" (Handel's Messiah)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-61gjgy9GiE
"Hallelujah Chorus" (Handel's Messiah)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUZEtVbJT5c
