PreKnown Not Predestined: Just Do Your Part!

1/29/2024

What is the difference between children blessed to be amongst the Ekklesia, versus those growing up in a heathen family in Syria or Venezuela? Is God “unfair”?!

First, let’s be clear that “two against three, and three against two in the same household” is a Jesus prophecy that won’t be avoided. “Few will be those who find eternal life.” There will always be children amongst us who choose flesh and pride and greed and independence—over bowing a knee to Jesus. “We are happy to be religious, but I will not have this man be king over me.”

Since God knows the beginning from the end, picture it this way:

Consider all the souls who have ever been born, about 15 billion, or will be born before the end of the Age. Picture 15 billion stars scattered in the sky. Abba knows which ones of these will CHOOSE to have soft hearts and seek the Creator — rather than seek the creation. They are all scattered in the sky together NOW, simultaneously, to HIM. There is no time to God so He sees all at once the ones which He caused to be “born” 6000 years ago, 3000 years ago, 1000 years ago, one year ago, and 15 years from now.

Since “Few will be those who find it,” according to the Author of Life, no harm-no foul-no problem for those who will NOT seek eternal life, but like Lucifer will seek “self” life. Those humans are props that are 99.999% empty space — and without God‘s Spirit in them. We need them to deliver DoorDash and groceries for us, raise our vegetables, invent technology, and run the banks. Every one of them is “without excuse” because God has made himself evident to them and very few have chosen Him instead of this present age and pampering their own flesh with self-imposed blindness. “We will not have this Man to be king over us.”

But what about those children raised in kingdom life and Ekklesia? Like Demas, some will “love this present age” and “their going out proved they were never among us,” as John said. It is a heartache for sure. No mistaking that. But “three against two and two against three in the same household” was always mandatory as truth spoken by the One who knew the beginning from the end. The good hearts in the ocean of constellations and stars will rise to the top, and those who chose the creation and intentional blindness will become driftwood and disappear. That’s how it goes. That’s how it is. There’s no amount of “information” that can save a person who doesn’t want to allow God to be God. And similarly, whether in China, Venezuela, Russia, or the Bronx, no amount of bad teaching or bad influence or lack of ecclesia life can keep a person with a “good and honest heart” from seeking the Creator rather than the creation. It bears repeating, “everyone is without excuse,” and every last person in the ocean of stars in the universe is given the opportunity to seek God and bend their knee, or to be like Lucifer and the third of the angels — who saw God’s face and turned away anyway.

That to say, as God sees that ocean of 15,000,000,000 souls, some born to the Earth and departing the Earth, some currently alive, and some yet to be born, He knows which ones will bow their knee and which ones will not.

He also “determines the exact time and place where men should live.”

That’s a really big deal. Do the children in the church of Jesus growing up together with truth and saved people have an advantage? “Much in every way” to quote God on the topic. But remember that God plucks stars from the universe and puts them in the wombs of those scattered in the nations or amongst the ekklesia as He pleases.

He’s not choosing who will be saved. He is choosing who will be raised as Special Forces — Navy Seals, Green Berets, Rangers, Intelligence Forces, and combat-seasoned forces for His Purposes. And He’s choosing those who HE ALREADY Knows will choose to be liars and looters, sometimes putting such in the wombs of believers in order to test and season and strengthen and build wisdom and discernment and courage in His Special Forces He is raising up.

God is not increasing the number of saved people by putting them in ecclesia, per se. He’s increasing those who receive special training to do special work for him. Out of 800 in an average denomination attendance building assembly, there might be five or 10 as passionate about Jesus as anybody you know. And they will be as saved as anybody you will ever know. But they will mostly be useless—except as Bible class teachers in that attendance-based system and will not become special forces there in all likelihood—until they leave that place. They just won’t have the training or the opportunity. They will be squashed. We’ve seen it 1000 times.

So the question? Are the children amongst us just lucky to be with us, so more can be saved? That’s actually a wrong perspective. Only those with soft hearts who learn to hate the flesh will be saved, and geography doesn’t determine that. The quality of the heart determines that. Everyone is without excuse. No matter where they live or when they live.

Father determines “the exact times and places where men should live” so that he can train and build his army for his purposes. He decides which stars he plucks out of the universe of little lights, little lives, and puts in the wombs of believers and unbelievers, in nations and through the centuries.

Of course, we have never known who was going to “make it” or not make it as we birth and raise children, with any great certainty. And we pour our hearts out doing our best for them as we can. This is OUR Training, to see things as He sees them, to value things as He values them, and to cleanse and train for His Purposes. But in the end, it will always be up to every individual, child or adult, to choose the creation or the Creator, who is ever to be praised.

Pre-known is very different than predestined! Good thing.

A lot of Folks will be washed and “get their 100” by the Blood. Only a small fraction of those will have ever gotten a chance to “+1” very much, beyond reading a CS Lewis or Tozer book and “trying to apply” things even in their blindness resulting from the LACK of Hebrews 3:12-14 and twenty other verses about “one another-ing.”

This solves the predestination dilemma. This solves the “Is it my fault if my child, all my children, aren’t saved?” This solves the “Are you so exclusive you think you are the only one saved?” and “What about the people in other countries that don’t hear Christian teaching?” and a couple of other major dilemmas.

A couple weeks later...

To those of you who still are uncomfortable with the fact that you can’t make your children be saved no matter how good of job you do, consider this conversation from earlier today:

Of course because the cares and worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches are weeds that damage life that we need to help them pull, and because weeding, fertilizing, and watering enhance life, those are all things that we would be foolish and selfish and irresponsible to not do. But you still can’t make them choose Jesus over their own strong flesh. God couldn’t and didn’t make Lucifer choose him after giving him everything. If they’re going to choose Jesus and we don’t do our job they will be almost useless. Wood hay and stubble. If they are going to choose Jesus they can be special forces rather than useless.

•  God Is Not Bound by Time