Shouting from Rooftops

Last week, God brought a verse from Matthew 10 up to me. It's been rolling around in my spirit ever since.

"What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops.” Matthew 10:27 (Amplified Bible)

What does He want me to proclaim from the rooftops? What is He whispering to me in my ear in the darkness or the night seasons?--The Gospel.

I read through Matthew 10 again, and a great scene from the Matthew Visual Bible Movie played through my memory. Here in the movie, Jesus is instructing the 12 disciples in their first evangelism trip out in the world. His instructions are so amazing. . . don't bring food. don't bring your wallet. don't worry about what you are going to say. don't even bring extra underwear!?

Was Jesus implying that the Gospel and it's ministry is under the covering of Total Dependence? Sounds like it to me! Here in Matthew 10, Jesus is instructing the 12 to go out and tell everyone that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and here is what it is going to look like: heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, cast out demons. Jesus is saying that the Kingdom of Heaven is going to look like “THIS”: All things coming together and Life that is in Heaven coming to earth. The Kingdom of God is going to have THIS kind of impact through those that speak from a place/state of oneness with Him.

I love this verse from Matthew 10:32 in the Amplified Version:

“Therefore, everyone who acknowledges Me before men and confesses Me [out of a state of oneness with Me], I will also acknowledge him before My Father Who is in heaven and confess [that I am abiding in] him."

Do you ever suppose that the disciples experienced conflict in their identifying with Jesus? I guess I had always romanticized their experience in dropping everything they ever known to follow Him. They didn’t know who He was in completion. They hadn’t read the New Testament yet like I have. Why would I think they didn’t grapple with leaving their old life behind. Giving way to heaven’s perspective on life instead of the world’s. Letting go of pleasing parent’s expectations. Giving up on being “Normal” according to the world’s understanding. Allowing God Himself to take his Holy scalpel and cut them away from the world’s financial physics. God defies time and space with His will. He created it. He can cause a dead man to sit up and go back to taking care of his family and he can cause a coin to come from the fish’s mouth. The Gospel deals diligently with all these things, these inner conflicts of the mind and outward pressure of the culture, until the one communicating it [The Gospel] is a living example of the Kingdom.

I’ve been grappling lately with provision. Not just provision for groceries, or a bill. I’m planning to go to China in the fall. I’m not going to make friends with a foreign culture, or finally get together with pen pals, or do something kind--like build an orphanage. I’m just planning to go and preach the Gospel to people who want to hear it.

I’ve been questioning my “responsible role” in my family’s income to spend several thousand dollars on a trip to share The Message to a small group of people. And I have been asking God’s perspective on this. I have been crying out for God to just give me a word. Just a word. Then I will know I am supposed to go and I know provision will follow.

So what answer did God have for me? It dawned on me this morning as I began digging into Matthew 10:27 again in a few translations.

"What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear!" (NLT)

"Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now." (Message)

"That which I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light, and that which you hear at the ear, proclaim on the house-tops." (YLT)

I read through this verse this morning in the translations I listed above. And now I feel fresh fire boiling inside of my spirit and an awareness of a deep conviction for the Gospel. Jesus sent out the 12 that day, as recorded here in Matthew 10, and he gave them instructions. These instructions not only defined what they were to do, the importance of their mission, and the scope of their mission, He actually spelled out how dependence on Him would be a key in experiencing Oneness as they went out to preach The Good News to the poor. What I am seeing, is a group of men who were sent out to release the impossible…..the very Kingdom of Heaven…into the earth realm, but within the context of a life that demonstrates Oneness with Jesus Christ as well.

When I married my husband, I left my family and cleaved to my husband. I left my family name. I left my family’s household, fridge, and cupboards. I left my dad’s checkbook. I left my household rules. I left my old life and my old room there. I no longer return to that house the same as I left. Now I identify with my husband. We have a new life in a new land and a different house in which to live. This is my life now. I am identified with Tony Williams now. I am legally named Mrs. Tony Williams.

These men, the 12 disciples, were learning about oneness through trust and demonstration as they were sent out to share the Message and Purpose for Jesus coming to earth. “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! And here is what it is going to look like. … ..the sick made well, dead raised, demons gone, lepers cleansed.” Jesus was on a mission to alert the world that their Messiah had come. That the Kingdom of Heaven was so close to them they could reach out and touch it. He wanted the disciples to be one with Him in that mission; therefore, total dependence on Him was necessary. They had to walk in a state of oneness in identification with the One the Father sent. They had to identify with Jesus Christ. ….even if persecuted, even if rejected, even if they were living against the flow and the norm of culture. Otherwise, they would hold tight to their abilities, their own methods of income, their own persuasive tactics in communication, their own band-aids for helping the hurting. To cling to independence and still try to communicate the Gospel of the Kingdom is double-mindedness and it simply doesn’t work.

I feel such a strong conviction today, as I read through Matthew 10. I feel so connected with the 12 disciples even where I sit today. I feel like I’m standing in the group, robes and all. Standing on a precipice again, way out there on the edge, and Jesus is getting me ready to believe in the One God has sent all over again . Allowing me to experience the death of the Cross in how I live out life here this world--this world system that goes against everything the Kingdom represents. This death is thrilling and scary. No extra tunic? No purse? No extra pair of underwear? This IS a narrow road and yet it cuts deep and wide in my consciousness. It wants to undo patterns of thinking oriented to the world’s methods. It will only produce deeper dependence on the One living inside of me, so that His life in me will produce life in others. The Kingdom of Heaven at their hand, just waiting to live inside of them.

Jesus Himself revealed His Gospel to me. The perfect, effective, and mighty work of the Cross. This Gospel, revelation upon revelation, is fire in my bones. I can’t help but shout it from the roof top of my life. It is more important than the money I make. It takes precedence over all things. It is why Jesus broke into the time continuum to reconcile us to the God of the Universe. And now I am feeling faith to believe that God really does not only desire us to go and shout about the Gospel in China. He wants to provide for it. It’s part of the mission. Oneness revealed through dependence, Jesus living his life through us and His Kingdom Comes. It HAS to look different than what the world can produce.

The best part about all of this is that I’m not just a disciple walking around in a group with Jesus on a dusty road outside of Jerusalem, waiting to understand how Jesus would become King. Because He has revealed to me that I died with Him on the Cross, because I experienced His burial, because I now live in the power of our resurrection together, I get to live out my life with Christ IN me. I am ONE with the Kingdom of God. It HAS come. It’s not just at hand anymore. It’s in my DNA. Wow. That’s something to shout from the roof top.