Kingdom Pioneers
Last week I was in our church’s House of Prayer (The Upper Room House of Prayer) for Weds night prayer. While sitting in the thick atmosphere of worship, stirred by those in the room, I began to encounter the Presence of Jesus. As I encountered Him, I felt a prompting to ask the Lord, “What are you doing in TN?'' As soon as I asked this question I heard in my spirit the name “Davy Crockett.” At first I chuckled. Growing up as a young boy, I went through a phase where I was slightly obsessed with Davy Crockett. For a season, I was the kid who wore a coon skin hat and carried a slingshot everywhere. Though hearing the name made me chuckle, it also stirred something in my heart. So I asked again, “Lord, what are you doing in our state?” Again I heard “Davy Crockett”'. Upon hearing his name again, I quickly looked up Davy’s biography online and was reminded of his nickname “King of the Wild Frontier.” As soon as I read that, I heard the Lord speak again “I am raising up pioneers for the Kingdom to send out from TN that will have a heart and spirit like that of Davy Crockett (who in fact, had many of the characteristics of King David).” It became evident to me, Jesus is raising up men and women in TN that will carry a heart for justice and a zeal for expanding the Kingdom of God into “unexplored territory”. God is raising up “Kingdom Pioneers.” Believers who are unashamed of the Gospel and carry a radical vision to establish the culture of God's kingdom into every sphere of influence on the earth.
Most of us know the TN native Davy Crockett because of the heroic and sometimes cartoonish exploits, characterized in movies and TV shows. Like killing his first bear at the age of three, jumping over the moon and making the famous last stand at the “Alamo” during the Texas Revolution.
Not many of us know him because of his unpopular stances for freedom and justice for Native Americans. Stories of his personal war against corruption in government, while being elected to Congress, are never told. Many of us remember the exaggerations and tall tales of Crockett being told about him, but not many know that he kept a personal journal so that when he died the truth about him would prevail over myth. Few know his unwavering tendency to talk plain and only speak truth, eventually cost him his political career. He was absolutely unafraid to go anywhere he was called, and when conflict came he was willing to fight and prevail at any cost. Crockett did not fear death. Crockett was a simple country man from Tennessee, with a large heart and will that helped shape the Western Frontier and helped shape the American ideal of a man. He was willing to explore and fight for what was right at all cost. He was a different type of pioneer who was not led just by a sense of adventure or the riches gained by self-promotion. Crockett’s frontier exploration was grounded in seeing truth and righteousness established wherever he explored.
Our country is in a peculiar crossroads of history. Anyone can see, unless there is radical cultural reformation, that we are spiraling into the type of depravity that leads to certain self destruction. BUT OUR GOD! He has a plan, and I believe that we are a small, but powerful part of it. God’s remedy for radical cultural deprivation is radical men and women of God! People who know and are in love with the truth. A set apart people who are not interested in their own gain and personas, but are willing to go anywhere and give up anything to fight for what God has called them to. Influencers for the Kingdom, people who can see unexplored territory and the opportunity for Kingdom expansion. Those who are not afraid to leave their self-built Christian bubbles to be Jesus in places and frontiers that have not known Him before. God is raising up “Kingdom Pioneers” that will be radical, set apart ones, in every sphere of culture as the Lord prepares Heaven and Earth for His return. The next couple of weeks we will be talking about “Kingdom Pioneers”. I am excited and asking the Lord to speak to me on how to better prepare myself to see the frontiers around me that need to be explored and transformed for Jesus. Will you join me?
Love,
Pastor John