Purpose and power

Generation Z are a generation of activists. They desire real change and want to see justice restored in their lifetime.

What I see in our generation is passion; passion for injustice, passion for oppression, passion for all the things Jesus came to restore order to and yet with no biblical direction. It's important we don't condemn this passion but redirect it.

Revealing Jesus to a generation that desires justice looks like showing God is a God of justice.  Justice is at the core of His Kingdom. If we, as the Church, do not reveal to them Jesus, the restorer of justice, then what can become the propellant for change will end in destruction. 

The Magnificant, Mary’s song that you just read in Luke 1, is a radical message detailing what Jesus had come to do. It was so radical that throughout history many nations have banned it being sung in Churches because of its clear identification with those who are weak, poor, and oppressed in society. 

During the British rule of India, the Magnificat was prohibited from being sung in church. In the 1980s, Guatemala’s government found the message of God’s preferential love for the poor to be too revolutionary and dangerous and banned any public recitation.

The desire to scatter the proud, bring down the mighty, exalt the lowly and fill the hungry is a ‘radical’ message Gen Z identifies strongly with, yet they do not know that Jesus is the one who fulfilled and is fulfilling this mandate. Even with such a ‘radical’ message, there was a specific way that Jesus went about restoring Biblical justice. 

As someone passionate about change, justice and restoration myself, God had to show me what biblical justice looks like. Oftentimes, God's justice looks like delay but it truly is mercy. He is exceedingly patient because He wishes for none to perish. God does not delight in the death of the wicked, He made them just as He made us.

Do our hearts carry that same level of compassion and mercy as we seek for justice or do we just want to see people shamed and brought down low?

As Christians who will never have to pay for our sins because we believe in the atoning power of the blood of Jesus, who are we to desire others to be punished in full for their sins. Believers are to show mercy yet never compromise clear Biblical standards. It's God's truth that confronts the sinner, not our own opinions. That being said, absolutely everything done, thought, and said will be held to account, either in this life or on the day of judgement. 

Jesus’ mission was not one of revolution but of reformation and restoration. While revolution talks of the forcible overthrow of the old in favour of a new system, reformation highlights making changes in order to improve and restoration underlines the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition. Jesus was not here to create a new system, He came to bring mankind back to original design, in intimacy with the Father and ruling as kings and priests over the Earth.

Gen Z believes their responsibility is to create something new because the systems of the world have failed. What is needed is to reform and restore what has been lost. Our mission is to see the original purpose, will and heart of God for our nations and communities manifested on earth as it is in heaven. We have to realign ourselves back to divine perspective and mission. The story is bigger than us, we do not have the authority to change what is established in the heavens.

It's important that as the Church we affirm the passions and purposes of Generation Z. There is a place for them in the kingdom of God. Every burning heart is a sign to a divine call. The fact that Generation Z burns for change shows that this generation has a divine call to shake nations and restore God's order and truth to humanity.  If we redirect it rather than condemn it, then the church will be able to steward a revival that could be the last one before the Lord comes. 

Gen Z, is a generation of reformation not revolution. Redirecting Gen Z’s passion for justice and revealing them Jesus’s way reminds them to take judgement and justice out of their hands and remember everything, whether we see it in this life or not, will be judged and will be corrected. The scales will be balanced and His truth will prevail! It also reminds them that the perfect design for the world came from God and our mission is to reveal His purpose and will in our society.

The truth of Jesus is: He is passionate about justice, His kingdom is one of power, He exalts the lowly, and He has a place for every gift, passion and burning heart in His kingdom.