by Ed Silvoso
Though the election is over, it is quite clear that America still stands deeply divided at a crossroads with the future of her power and policies hanging in the balance. There is rampant concern about which side will prevail. I want to propose to you that the answer is not found on either side of the political aisle, but somewhere else. In that context I want to share some insights on the current crisis involving Democrats and Republicans by pointing to corresponding political expressions in the Bible. I’d like to suggest that Joseph could have been a Democrat and Solomon a Republican because there are clear parallels between the ways they handled national crises and the Republican and Democrat’s operational DNA.
Joseph could have easily run (and won) on a Democratic ticket and Solomon could have done the same on the Republican side, but neither of them would have succeeded in the long run. They were superb in the short run as they steered the ship of state through turbulent waters, but in the end the nations they presided over were left poorer, not richer.
Joseph was very comfortable with the centralization of power and its relentless expansion to control the economy, very much the way Democrats tend to be. But after solving the immediate crisis, he used it as a pretext to expand government until all private property and every citizen became a mere thread in its fabric.
He used divine spiritual insights to amass state wealth that later on was shrewdly traded in a lopsided way for the personal property of the people he was called to serve. He saved the nation but mortgaged its future by indenturing its citizens to the state. Government can be master or servant, and if not a servant, it soon becomes a hard master with an insatiable appetite for power.
Even though he was raised in a God fearing home – like many contemporary Democrats – Joseph (contrary to traditional understanding) was not driven by religious convictions in the affairs of state. He married into the establishment by wedding the daughter of a pagan priest and turned humanistic in his public lifestyle. Having cut off roots to his family, he saw in a strong central government “the” supreme provider and administrator as a subliminal substitute for God and family, very much like the base of the Democratic Party today fails to see God or the nuclear family as foundational to life.
On the other hand, Solomon began with a spiritual stirring. Like the base of the Republican Party (of which evangelical Christians are a key part), Solomon acknowledged the need for God and sought His guidance to handle the challenges of government. He built the Temple and placed the practice of religion at the very center of national life. Great prosperity and security ensued. However, as he found himself riding the resulting crest of unprecedented abundance, he became self-centered (he built too many palaces for himself) and soon afterward egotistical (he enslaved peoples and subjugated nations to sustain his lifestyle and that of his cronies), thus forfeiting the purpose for which God had given him success in the first place: to be a blessing to the world. Eventually his children became even worse than he was, and the one who succeeded him had no sense of purpose beyond increasing the spoil system to benefit himself and his cronies. And to think that this process began with a prayer meeting!
For most of the last eight years the Republican Party has occupied the White House, controlled Congress, and counted on a slightly conservative Supreme Court, in addition to holding most governorships, in great part because of the values it espoused. The country was blessed with prosperity and security. But such bonanza was too often used for partisan encroachment. Instead of a culture of values, a system of spoils was allowed that yielded the moral ground to seedy operators who ran it unchallenged.
Good intentions are not enough. Both Joseph and Solomon started with a longing to fulfill the destiny that God had placed in their hearts and for which He entrusted them with timely and extraordinary revelations. As a result, they succeeded in what they set out to do, but eventually they became self-centered. Both began with a vision from God that deteriorated into human substitutions because they failed to use their initial success to establish the Kingdom of God into the nation’s culture to serve rather than to use others.
If Joseph reflects the Democrats and Solomon the Republicans, is there a Bible character that resembles a Kingdom leader? Yes, Daniel!
Daniel had every reason to resent Babylon for having taken him captive, turned him into a slave and even castrated him – the most ignominious offense that can possibly be inflicted on a man – but he never succumbed to hatred. Even though he began his government career at the lowest level, he quickly distinguished himself as ten times wiser than his peers because he refused to contaminate himself with food from the king’s table and nurtured his soul with divine revelations, the first of which showed the Kingdom of God superseding all earthly powers. As a result, he embraced a generational perspective that enabled him to be Prime Minister under three different kings.
He was not bashful about his dependence on God concerning matters of state. Unlike Joseph, who buried his faith, and Solomon, who betrayed it for the sake of international alliances, Daniel would rather be thrown into the lion’s den than compromise his total dependence on God. His commitment was to the Kingdom of God, not to a temporal power, and God was delighted to prove him right before the very king that sanctioned his sentence and subsequently reinstated him with even greater powers.
Daniel did not expect the king to be circumcised as a precondition to being blessed with God’s revelation. In fact, he passed on divine insights to a pagan king mentored and raised in a totally demonic milieu. Let us remind ourselves that the revelational anointing on Number Two, if properly exercised, will result in Number One conferring the scepter and the ringlet – symbols of and keys to authority – on him or her. The three examples of empire transformation in the Bible have players in the number two position: Joseph, Daniel and Esther. They served pagan kings who eventually came to recognize their God.
The presidential election of 2008 is the first one in recent history in which both candidates went out of their way to prove their Christianity to the electorate. In the past, religion was considered a dead weight to be avoided whereas this year it was the tail wind both men considered key to winning. Otherwise, how can we explain their eagerness to sit down with Rick Warren in a church setting for a no-holds-barred interview?
I do not question their stated convictions, but now that Obama is the incoming President I am as skeptical about his chances for long-term success as I would be if McCain had been elected. They are both good men with a sense of destiny that, unfortunately, is anchored in them and not in God. What is needed to solve the crisis long term is a Kingdom mentality and revelational anointing to see things from God’s perspective. It is not enough to have a President who professes to be a Christian.
When George W. Bush ran for President he publicly recognized Jesus Christ as his transforming Savior. When he got elected there was a sense of confidence among Christians because an outspoken fellow believer occupied the White House. However, he turned out to be no wiser than the career Chaldeans in whom he came to rely. Well-meaning bureaucrats like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld – both professed Christians but not Kingdom-minded since they grew up eating from the king of Babylon’s table (secular wisdom) – helped Bush develop an appetite for such fare. As a result, Christians must now live with this shameful and debasing dilemma: how can a born again President end up with the lowest approval rating ever? And how could he have presided over so many major disasters if he has Jesus in his heart?
This is possible because even though Bush was elected to occupy the top position, career Chaldeans influenced and eventually took over his administration. The good news is that the opposite could be true in the incoming Obama administration IF (and this is a big IF) anointed number two’s join his administration. And the next forty days are crucial.
Forty days in the Bible is a key window of time to defeat the devil and disable his schemes2. This is why I am calling Kingdom-minded Christians to join in a 40-day intense, undiluted, highly focused season to speak peace over President Elect Obama as he makes thousands of appointments to conform the team that will help him govern; in other words, his “number two’s.”
There are plenty of reasons for God-fearing people to be angry at the recent electoral process and at the way key leaders in the Democratic Party are handling their victory, not to mention how savagely, brutally, unethically and borderline criminally born again, Spirit filled Sarah Palin was attacked during and even after the campaign. But this bitter anger directed at the President Elect is not from God, and dwelling on such incendiary rage, and worse yet, becoming part of a concerted effort to spread it through subjective “prophetic words” and questionable “apostolic reads” is futile. In addition to diverting and wasting spiritual energy, it will result in building new (and strengthening existing) spiritual jurisdictions in the heavenly places from where the devil will easily rule this nation and the world. Paul teaches unequivocally that if we store unresolved anger we will give the devil a jurisdiction (Ephesians 4:27).
The worst thing we can do today is to pass judgment on those we disapprove of, expecting some summary divine punishment to befall them, because doing so will place us under judgment. Instead we must practice the transformational principles taught by Jesus in Luke 10 and begin speaking peace over those that are bent on doing harm to the cause of God (see Luke 10:2-9)3. This is the most powerful option left to us! Why?
Because if there isn’t a “man of peace” at the other end, such peace will not reside there, and later on, when Satan falls from heaven (Luke 10:21), that person will fall too. On the other hand, if a man of peace – and I describe such as a wolf that is not satisfied with being a wolf and would like to be a lamb if there is a way to do so – becomes the recipient of such peace, he or she will switch sides and become a beachhead for the Kingdom of God where now there is a stronghold of darkness.
Please join me (click here to confirm your participation) in a 40-day highly focused, totally undiluted thrust to speak peace over President Elect Obama and his transition team, fully confident that greater is He who is in us than the one who is in the world (government). By speaking peace we may turn wolves into lambs, and if they refuse, they will eventually come down with Satan once we have voided every jurisdiction granted to him in the heavenly places.
Let us begin now! I look forward to hearing from you today. Time is of the essence.
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[1] See Transformation by Ed Silvoso (chapters 11-17) to learn how to defeat the current Babylonian system.
[2] See That None Should Perish by Ed Silvoso, particularly chapters 3 and 4 dealing with spiritual strongholds and the reality of the heavenly places as the ultimate spiritual battleground.
[3] See Prayer Evangelism by Ed Silvoso to learn how to change the spiritual climate over a city or a nation.