Building a Kingdom of First Responders

[HKHaugan]

Jesus was the ‘First Responder’ when it came to bringing reality to man’s unreality. So we want to investigate just what it means for us to be ‘first responders’ like Him. First we need to realize He has given us the equipment to be first responders. When we decided to let Him be the One who runs our life He bonded us to Him by His Holy Spirit. Second, we need to realize that He is always present in our hearts. In spite of our sin He is constantly working through His Spirit to keep Him as our focus. Third, His Word is full of first responder material. From Genesis to Revelation He leads us into its pastures for spiritual readiness.

So let’s look at the specifics of first response.

The obvious again is frequently overlooked. The obvious in this case is every next moment and every next moment carries an unknown challenge. It’s always an invisible challenge in which choices and decisions are both momentary and long-ranging. Sometimes you just have to react in the moment without evaluating and weighing alternatives. It’s those moments that require a built-in assurance to act regardless of the outcome. The long range effects are those that take planning and detailed preparation. Both of these are why we are given God’s Word. When we store up its principles the Spirit uses them to assure us that in both He is working in us. This is why Jesus tells us that “Whoever can be trusted with very little can be also be trusted with much…(Lk.16:10).”

Each next moment is small in itself but when you add them up their total is called character. Each next moment is a building block, an opportunity, a piece of the future in the construct of who we are. Being images of God it is our mind, heart and spirit that find their place in those moments. It is not the visible but the invisible that is being built.

The visible is the connecting point that brings the invisible together. This is the ‘why’ of Creation. It’s what God planned. His intention was to reflect the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit so that His images could experience Him. He gave them free will to build character. In order to be like Him He gave them a mind to choose to believe Him, a heart to trust Him and a spirit to have faith in Him. He gave them a self-conscious ‘I am’ like His and a nature of love that could relate like He relates as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And He gave them physical bodies to share His nature in their every next moment.

That’s what it means for each of us to be a first responder. Our every moment is a first for us and a first for everyone we come in contact with. What every next moment is headed for is the time when there are no next moments but only the moment we come into the momentless existence called Heaven where eternity is the moment that never ends. That is the moment for which were created. That moment is our being bonded with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in a new earth and a new Heaven.

Our moments are given us to build character but not a self-conscious character that lives only for self. Rather character is built in every moment that leaves the self behind and lets the person of Jesus surround us with His mind, His heart and His Spirit. As the mind seeks Him through His Word, our heart trusts the Word and our spirit has faith in it to be the display in which others see Him. When we are Jesus-focused as we meet with others the result is that each moment is ‘the little thing’ joining other ‘little things’ to build a ‘great’ character. So every next moment is not about me but about Jesus using me to build His Kingdom. That involves focusing on others around me so they can see Him through me. So what I am really saying here is that if my focus is on Jesus who leads me to others as my aspiration, my goal, my life’s work, then my character becomes a non-conscious result, not a first priority.

The way to watch how this first responder idea works is to gauge your own reactions. As you go from this moment to the next how are you responding to it? Take that gauge and ask yourself these questions: Am I thinking Jesus first? Am I concentrating on the persons I am talking to? Am I seeking to please Jesus in my response? What you will find is that every single moment is a new moment and you are its first responder. When you exercise this ‘First-Respondership’ you’ll find the Holy Spirit has been the first to respond to you because the Lord is His first responder which is the will of the Father whose first response is His Son in the Spirit.

The final question is this: since God is the Creator of the ability to respond first, in whom are you trusting your first response for every next moment? Ultimately there are only two choices, the devil’s sin or the Lord’s Spirit.

"9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14

More in the next posting.