Kingdom Paradoxes  
 
Kingdom Paradoxes in Worship and Spiritual Warfare


A helicopter pilot was once flying some passengers from Manhattan to Islip airport on Long Island. It was a very foggy day and the chopper got lost. They were flying a bit low in order to locate certain landmarks. The pilot noticed an office building not too far from where they were and flew closer to the window. He saw a man in the building drinking coffee. The pilot quickly scribbled “Where are we?” on a piece of paper and held it up for the man in the office to read. The man in the office shook his head as if he was asked the most stupid question ever. He wrote the answer down on a piece of paper and showed it to the pilot. It said “You are in a helicopter”. At once, the pilot knew exactly where they were in relation to the airport and in a couple of minutes, they safely landed. One of the passengers was curious about the whole incident and asked the pilot how he found his bearings. The pilot smugly replied – “Well, when the guy in the office showed me his answer, I knew we were near the Computer Associates building, because only a techie would point me to the obvious without really addressing my question in a way that would help me. After that – it was easy to get to Islip airport.”
(I can tell this joke only because I am a techie, and I work at Computer Associates!)

Well, today I hope to share with you a lot of “obvious” information, but I do sincerely hope and pray that it is helpful. The Word says in Ecclesiastes 1:9, that there is nothing new under the sun. But when the S-O-N comes, He makes everything new.

Before we really dive into what I want to share today, I do want to get some terms defined up front. The first term is “contradiction”.
Function: noun
1:act or an instance of contradicting
2 a :a proposition, statement, or phrase that asserts or implies both the truth and falsity of something b:a statement or phrase whose parts contradict each other <a round square is a contradiction in terms>
3 a :logical incongruity b:a situation in which inherent factors, actions, or propositions are inconsistent or contrary to one another

As you can see, I had to then look up contrary:

1:a fact or condition incompatible with another
2:one of a pair of opposites
3 a :a proposition so related to another that though both may be false they cannot both be true
b:either of two terms (as good and evil ) that cannot both be affirmed of the same subject

Another term that I would like to get across is – paradox
1:a tenet contrary to received opinion
2 a :a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true
b:a self-contradictory statement that at first seems true
c:an argument that apparently derives self-contradictory conclusions by valid deduction from acceptable premises
3:one that possesses seemingly contradictory qualities or phases

The Difference Between “Contradiction” and “Paradox”
A lot of times we use these terms interchangeable – but they are really two different things. Simply put – a contradiction is self-destructing, and cannot exist. For example, 1 John 4:20 says - If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
You must have heard some people say – I love Christ, but I don’t love Christians, or I love God, but I don’t love people – that is a contradiction. Another word for contradiction is – a lie.

A paradox is a “seeming” contradiction. When you first hear it, it sounds like a contradiction, but it actually might be true. Lets look at one of my favorites:
This is from Luke 6:38 where Jesus says : Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure, pressed down , shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
How in the world can you get by giving what you have? That totally defies natural law and common sense.

Another one that is a hot favorite: This is when Jesus says in Luke 6:29: If anyone hits you on the cheek , offer the other also. And if anyone takes away your coat, don't hold back your shirt either.

That is just a preposterous statement. Man, if any one slapped me on the cheek, without a second thought, my hand would be on his cheek by reflex. Well, putting this verse in the right context, Jesus really is talking about responding to insults – not necessarily (and not just) physical slapping. But regardless, it’s a seemingly contradictory command.

But there really is the paradox – by giving what we have, we receive more. And by responding to insults with blessings, we become victors instead of becoming victims. I have a term for paradoxes within the context of our walk with God – I call it “Kingdom Paradoxes”. And boy, do we have examples of those.

Another term that I want to throw in here, but we probably won’t spend too much time with it is oxymoron – its a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (as cruel kindness, bittersweet ); broadly :something (as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements
Interestingly, the word oxymoron itself is an oxymoron. The Greek word “oxys” means keen or sharp, and “moros” means foolish.


Now, what I’d like to do is spend some time on how the Lord desires us to be in balance and harmony with His Word and His will by embracing certain Kingdom Paradoxes. Especially in the areas of worship and spiritual warfare.

2 Chronicles 20:1-30 – A Collection of Balanced Extremes
This is probably one of my favorite passages in scripture. Here we have a king who has his priorities straight. A mighty army has surrounded the kingdom, they are hopelessly outnumbered, and there is no way out. I remember a friend telling me once that when faced with calamity, you should do all that is in your power to resolve the situation and then when you are out of options, you should go to God. I disagreed with that completely. When faced with calamity – even if it is seemingly solvable – we have to bring it to God first. He will give us the strength and wisdom to overcome it. You must have heard another comment that goes – “Well, we’ve done our bit, now its up to God to do His bit.” What a lie!! We can do all that we want, but if God is not in it, He will not bless it! Jehoshophat knew that, and the first thing he did was initiate prayer and fasting. Not just him and his family – but the entire kingdom. I guess if you are the king, you can do these kinds of things. The word says that he was afraid, and therefore he resolved to seek God. What a guy! Don’t you love the honesty of the Bible? It doesn’t mince words. The king was afraid – for himself and his people. So he resolved to seek God and called on his entire kingdom and those around his territory to join in that fast.

Notice how he prays – verses 5 through 13.
1. He first affirms God’s sovereignty, His love, and mercy
2. He brings to remembrance all the blessings that the Lord had given them in the past, and of all the mighty works He had done
3. He dwells on God’s promises for protection
4. He petitions his case – “we spared the neighbors, but now they have come to attack us”
5. He confesses their weakness and calls on God to pull them through

Balanced Worship
Worship is all about giving God His worth. Its all about Him – not us. Yes, there is a time to sing “Help”, or “touch me” and “heal me”. But worship is all about giving God glory for who He is and what He has done and will do. Its about us coming to Him with a broken and contrite heart and saying – “Lord, you are in control. I have no idea why all these bad things are happening to me – and I have no idea why I feel so defeated. But I know that you are the Lord of heaven and earth. All things are in your hands. You are kind and merciful, and you command justice. When you act, who can reverse it? You oh Lord deserve all praise and glory – no matter what I’m going through. No matter what my circumstance – You still remain GOD!!”

Now, I want to be very clear here. God does not want us to ignore our situation or make light of it – He certainly doesn’t do that. He does, however, want us to focus on the greater thing – which is – Him! Our problems are big – but He is bigger still.

We cannot manufacture worship. In fact, God doesn’t need our worship, and He doesn’t seek it either. You see, the angels in Heaven are worshipping Him 24/7/365.25. He does not seek worship. He does seek worshippers!! Jesus in John 4:23-24 says “But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

So here is our first Balanced Extreme – God doesn’t seek worship, He seeks worshippers.

He is not interested in our music, or the sound of our voices. He is interested in our hearts, and our attitude. When we worship Him in the midst of difficult circumstances, with honest and contrite hearts, I can imagine Him raising up His hand and silencing all of heaven just to hear the cry of our hearts. Our songs may be out of tune and our tears salty and bitter to us – but to him, it’s the sweetest taste ever. Worshipping Him when everything is fine is actually a good thing too. We are acknowledging that all we have is from Him, and that our hearts are ever grateful. Without the awesome reverence of God in our hearts, its just a bunch of people in a room making noise. Worship is a lifestyle and in most cases, it involves silence rather than singing.

We in the Vineyard have been blessed with a regular dose of intimate worship. You ready for the next Kingdome Paradox? – True intimacy begins with the fear of God. How can you love someone and fear them at the same time? Well, we do that in our relationships everyday. To fear someone doesn’t necessarily mean being afraid of them. Its more so to do with dreading to displease them. I love my wife, and though I am not afraid of her, I do all that I can to make sure that she is taken care of and is pleased. I avoid (as much as possible) to displease her; because it would really hurt me to know that she is unhappy because of me.

Don’t mess with this guy!!
A man and woman were on their honeymoon after a long and very happy courtship. On their honeymoon, they decide to take their horses through the beautiful mountain passes of Europe. As the horses were crossing a small stream, the woman's horse mis-steps and jostles the man's wife. Once across the stream, the man dismounts, walks over to the horse, and stares into its eyes. Finally, he states, "That's one." The man remounts his horse and they continue their ride.

A bit further down the path, the woman's horse stumbles when stepping over a fallen tree. The man dismounts, stares the horse in the eyes, and boldly states, "That's two!" He returns to his saddle and they move on.

As the afternoon sun began to set, the woman's horse once again lost its footing on a mossy slope. The man dismounts, moves to the woman's horse, and helps his wife out of the saddle the man. Moving to the front of the horse he stares it in the eyes and firmly says, "That's three," removes a pistol from his vest, and shots the horse dead.

The woman, quite upset at seeing the beautiful horse killed, says to her husband, "That's terrible, why would you do such a thing!"

The man stares at his wife and firmly says, "That's one!"

OK – that was a little dark. How about this one - -
A young couple were on their honeymoon. The husband was sitting in the bathroom on the edge of the bathtub saying to himself, "Now how can I tell my wife that I've got really smelly feet and that my socks absolutely stink? I've managed to keep it from her while we were dating, but she's bound to find out sooner or later that my feet stink. Now how do I tell her?"

Meanwhile, the wife was sitting in the bed saying to herself, "Now how do I tell my husband that I've got really bad breath? I've been very lucky to keep it from him while we were courting, but as soon as he's lived with me for a week, he's bound to find out. Now how do I tell him gently?"

The husband finally plucks up enough courage to tell his wife and so he walks into the bedroom. He walks over to the bed, climbs over to his wife, puts his arm around her neck, moves his face very close to hers and says, "Darling, I've a confession to make."

And she says, "So have I, love."

To which he replies, "Don't tell me, you've eaten my socks."

While we are invited to boldly come into His presence, we are advised to do so with humble reverence. In the book “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”, the children have just been told by the Beaver family that they are to meet with Aslan.

“Oh,” said Susan, “Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will dearie, and make no mistake”, said Mrs. Beaver, “if there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most, or just plain silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy
“Safe?”, said Mr. Beaver. “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who says anything about “safe”. Of course he isn’t safe. But he is good. He is the King I tell you.
“I’m longing to see him,” said Peter, “even if I do feel frightened when it comes to that point.”

Isn’t that our hearts as well? How we long to be in the presence of the King…who also happens to be our Father.

Balanced Spiritual Warfare
Worship and spiritual warfare are closely connected. Let’s just get some basics down. God is the author, creator, and sustainer of all things. The devil is NOT an equal and opposite force. Opposite, yes – but equal – no way!! The devil, according the Bible is a fallen angel that was once close to God. His mission in life is to destroy the most prized creation of God – you and me, and all of humankind. When Adam and Eve sinned, we gave up our ownership to the devil. Our penalty for that disobedience is eternal separation from God. Whether we like it or not, we are born into a sinful state. The only way for us to get restored to intimate relationship with God is to accept the death and resurrection of Jesus – God’s only Son – as the substitutionary penalty for our sins. We cannot reach God by ourselves – only God can reach out to us. And He has done so through His son Jesus.

Once we belong to God, by faith in Jesus, the devil and his army of fallen angels will do what it takes to get you back. Jesus says that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The Bible calls Satan the father of lies – the accuser of the church – a roaring lion seeking to devour.

Our decision to follow Christ is an automatic draft into God’s army. It’s not a question of whether we want to go to war – war has already come upon us, and we are in the thick of it. The good part is that we are on the winning side. Victory has already been won; it only needs to be secured.

Spiritual warfare can occur in several forms. It might be a communal attack – for example the rampant sexual immorality we face today, or the oppression of women in certain cultures. It can also be personal – for example, you seem to be falling sick for no rhyme or reason, especially when its time to pray.

One of the enemy’s favorite tactic is not make Christians backslide into an unbelieving lifestyle, but to make them complacent. I’ve heard a lot of people say – I’ll be a Christian, but I don’t want to be involved in spiritual warfare. Too late for that. The dart has been thrown and your heart has been pierced.

Here is the next Kingdom Paradox – If you want to overcome, you must first surrender.

The Lord spoke through Jahaziel, one of the prophets and proclaimed – the battle is not yours, it is mine!! The people were to go out to war, but they weren’t really supposed to do anything. If they were to be victorious, they had to surrender their strategy and the outcome to the Lord. It doesn’t mean that they did absolutely nothing. They still had to put on their armor and take up their weapons. They still had to prepare. But this battle would be won in the spiritual realm, not the physical realm. Verses 14 – 17.

Paul explains in the book of Ephesians 6:18 onwards that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers. Its not the people who are our enemies, it’s the spirits behind them. You cannot win a spiritual war with physical weapons. But our physical acts done in obedience to God has a profound impact on the spiritual realm.

Here is the next Kingdom Paradox, and one of the key principals in spiritual warfare: In order to defeat the powers of darkness, you have to work in the opposite spirit of the enemy.
If you discern that the prevailing spirit over a place is
˙ sexual immorality – then you live a lifestyle of sexual holiness
˙ greed – then you be as generous as you can
˙ racism – then you go out and make friends with people who don’t look the least bit like you
˙ faithlessness – then you have faith for big things
˙ prayerlessness – then you start a prayer meeting in your house

You cannot defeat the enemy with his weapons. God has given us the greatest weapon of all – His Word. Read it. Meditate on it daily. Apply it to your regular life. And use it!!

This is a story of a friend of mine back in India. He had a condition when he was in his teens where the synovial fluid in his joints would dry up. It became really bad and he was bed-ridden. No medication strong enough was found to cure him. His family was desperate – they called on all kinds of Hindu gods to heal him, but the condition got worse and worse. His neighbors were Christians and had kinship in their house every week. One day the pastor came to my friend’s house and asked if he could pray for him. The family agreed – they had tried everything else – what’s wrong with asking the Christian God, since no other gods helped. The pastor anointed the young man’s joints with oil and asked the Lord to heal him. Nothing happened right then and there, but that night, my friend slept like a baby. The next morning, without thinking, he got up and went to the bathroom all by himself. It was only after he was done that he realized what had happened. His family was in an uproar! Their son was healed, but it was Jesus who did it – a foreign God! It didn’t seem to bother my friend – he chose to follow Jesus that very day. But his mother being a very religious lady asked him to go to a temple in their village and pay homage to their family god.
My friend’s aunt was a medium. She was the person into whom the “god” came into and prophesied. As soon as she saw my friend, she started convulsing. She was from the village and did not speak any language but her own dialect. However, when possessed by the demon, she spoke in clear English to my friend – “You think you are a Christian! Tell me what is the 5th commandment.” Now, my friend had just come to the Lord a few days ago, and he had no clue what a commandment was – let alone the 5th commandment. He had a Bible at home but hadn’t read it yet. Not knowing what to do, he prayed to Jesus to help him at this moment. He then spoke back to the demon and said – “Before that, you tell me what is the first commandment.” As soon as those words left his mouth, the demon shook violently and left the aunt’s body. The villagers at the temple were extremely confused as to what happened. My friend took this opportunity to share how Jesus healed him, and they even sang some worship songs in the temple before he went back home. The first thing he did was read up on the ten commandments. Whats the 5th commandment? Honor your mother and father. But what’s the first? I AM the Lord, there is no one beside Me.

The devil may twist God’s word to confuse you or to trick you into defeat. Why, he even tried it on Jesus!! Therefore we need to be equipped with God’s word so that we can respond appropriately.

Spiritual warfare involves labor, but it involves rest and reward as well.
A US army general sent his troops for a special mission in Iraq and they return to the homeland in 4 months. 3 of the officers in that team did exceptionally well and he wanted to reward them. So he called them to his office and said – “Boys, choose two points on your body, I’ll calculate the distance and give you a hundred dollars for each inch.”
So the first soldier says – count the distance from the top of my head to the soles of my feet.
General – that’s 70 inches, a hundred buck to an inch – you have 700 dollars. Well done.
Soldier #2 – count the distance between the tips of my outstretched arms.
General – Great! That’s 72 inches. You’ve just won 720 dollars.
Soldier #3 – well, count the distance between my thumb and pinky on my left palm.
General – well, that’s a strange request, but its fair. OK, here’s your thumb…but where is your pinky, son?
The third soldier says – “Its in Iraq”.


Here is my last Kingdom Paradox for today.
We have to rest and wrestle at the same time. Many of us tend to think that spiritual warfare is a constant battle against the enemy and we will get burned out. Well, you will if you don’t rest. The beauty of it is that you can rest and wrestle at the same time.

Imagine if I went against Arnold Schwazzernegger in an arm-wrestling match. He wouldn’t stand a chance! Just kidding. Well, All he has to do is keep his arm up and hold it there. I probably have to use my entire body weight to even move his arm an inch. He’s still wrestling with me, but he is resting as well. Because he knows that I am no match for him.

Similarly, in spiritual warfare, God and I make a majority. Together we are the stronger force. The enemy has no chance against us. We can fight him, but we can rest while doing so as well. It is the quiet confidence, the peace that passes all understanding that guides our hearts, minds, and bodies as we navigate through this world and wage war in the spiritual realms.


Solomon in the book of Proverbs 7:18 says that “a wise man who fears God will be able to avoid both extremes”. It is very easy for us to look at things one dimensionally and think that this truth exists in a vacuum. Well, it doesn’t. Yes, the truth is absolute. But it is not restricting. The Word of God challenges us, but it also comforts us. Let us not only dwell on one aspect of God’s kingdom, but rather seek His wisdom to learn to avoid extreme views while embracing the Kingdom Paradoxes.

Ministry:
˙ Soldiers feeling defeated that God wants to reinstate
˙ People unable to break from fear to intimacy to receive breakthrough
˙ People who find it hard to concentrate while worshipping to receive focus