The End-Time Voter: How to Stand Firm Amidst Political Chaos

When we go to the ballot box, visiting the polling station in our local or national elections, we should resist the temptation to be driven by our preconceived ideas and our assumptions.

Instead, talk to God about your preferences and ask Him what candidate He wants you to back. And be open to not liking the answer! You may not understand what God is doing, but as a subject of the King, this is the training ground where you will discover if you really have the capacity to, “love not your own life.”

And they overcame [the accuser] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death (Revelation 12:11 NASB).

Remember too, that God operates in an arc of multigenerational timings, way beyond our four- or five-year political cycles. Overall, the church is not asked by God (or even required by God) to vote one way or another, nor to back a specific system of government. The Kingdom of God does not require your preferred political system in order to grow—it grows amongst any system.

The “God” of Liberty

Ultimately, our Western ideology loves the driving master of “liberty.” Liberty is undeniably a god for almost every inhabitant of the world. However, in complete liberty, as defined by the kingdoms of this world, you have absolute freedom—without moral boundary or constraint—to be who you want to be. Once you can be whoever or whatever you want to be, there is no requirement for a Savior, nor God, because none of your sense of self is perceived as being in error. You see yourself as sinless and without need of salvation.

Therefore, absolute freedom is moral anarchy! Any people who enshrine liberty, but without the biblical definition that it is the freedom to be like Christ, will have lost biblical morality. A promiscuous society will have liberty-outside-of-Christ as its driving motivation—where each of its citizens become gods. Liberty-outside-of-Christ is the mascot, slogan, constitution, motivation, and lifestyle aim of a society given over to self-worship. Congratulations, you have made yourself god!

It is hard to know at what point a people fall into the horror of Romans 1, where God “gives them over” to their sin:

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen (Romans 1:24-25 NIV).

Here in Romans 1, God chooses a moment to abandon people to their passions, where their perceived liberty becomes enslavement, and they become their own emperors—losing all sense of the need for King Jesus. We would call this a “pre-Christian,” entirely secular, society. There- fore, expect God be extreme in how He deals with these people. Be prepared for it not to be comfortable—and for your choice at the ballot box to be, on occasions, a small part of a much bigger picture of what your nation requires.

In other words, God’s plan to deal with your nation might involve your nation being governed by tyrants who you don’t much like, to bring the people to repentance and the acknowledgment of their need of the Savior. (Of course, that doesn’t mean that you need to endorse tyrants and back tyranny—the first-century church never endorsed Nero or his mark!)

We can have all the improvements of science, modernity, entertainment, and wealth, but when the holiness of God is disregarded, He steps in and obstructs a nation’s haughty ambitions, in foundational ways. The Western liberty-oriented nations are perhaps in the greatest slavery that the world has ever known. They have committed crimes against their own welfare by the love of self-liberation, their dislike of anybody’s will apart from their own—and especially their dislike of the will of God. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19 NIV).

Watch the wrath of God come to the dictatorial tyrants who enslave, but also to the foolishness of us in the West, for we have enslaved ourselves. In light of this, you must see that your vote is playing a game in the kingdom of this world when all the while the Kingdom of God is working to a much, much bigger agenda. Know and understand that discomfort, persecution, and wars, though not easy for us to embrace (nor something to be rashly sought out), may now come to sharpen us and our fellow men and women, as God’s way to win us back.

When It Comes to Voting, Don’t Be Selfish

God doesn’t need us to look the same or have identical opinions about everything. Even the twelve tribes of Israel had different characteristics but were still considered God’s children; and as I once heard someone say, “It wasn’t the fact that Cain was meat eating and Abel was an agrarian farmer that offended God.” There may be more than one way to solve a political, economic, or social problem, and the fact that another might have a different viewpoint from you is not necessarily a sign of a deeper flaw in their moral character or in their capacity to see reality for what it is!

  In God’s eyes, my vote is not the most important vote. In fact, my vote is nearly always a selfish vote, motivated by my own personal desires, needs, and fears. But in a democracy where everyone is allowed to vote, it is good and responsible to cast a vote and be part of the process.

God will bless a nation that allows all its citizens a fair and just say in how they are governed. So have your say! But remember that, from God’s perspective, He cares more that the marginalized and oppressed have a voice. Jesus is not a big fan of those who press home their advantages in order to protect their own interests. Perhaps “loving your neighbor as yourself” means you ensuring that your neighbor gets an opportunity to cast their vote and be represented by who they want to be represented by, ahead of your own chance to vote. So, if you know a community, an area, a people group, or a person who is not currently able, or is hindered from voting, for whatever reason, do what you can to help them cast their vote—even if it is opposite to how you will vote. I believe God will bless you for doing so!

How Do We Behave in Times of War?

Conflict is on the increase in these days. The fire of our political discourse has become so heated that even family members have turned on family members. Our social media echo chambers only serve to fan the flames of tribalism that lead to civil division and even war. Prophets should prepare and behave differently in times of war than in times of peace. We should never be fearfully reactive to the threat of war, whether it be civil war within our national borders or a greater geopolitical conflict. Jesus instructed His followers to stand firm because:

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:6-13 NIV).

Nevertheless, it can become so tempting to pick up our sword and join the fight (even if our “sword” is a pen, keyboard, or our own voice). Even Jesus’s own disciples, who had been with Him as He ministered with love and compassion, quickly defaulted back to violence and human weapons—James and John (the “Sons of Thunder”), who asked to call down fire, and Peter, who took his sword to the temple guard. But in the end, each of these disciples chose differently. Following the way of Christ, they died as martyrs.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Colossians 2:15 NIV).

Our way, in the midst of war, is humility, love, compassion, no fear, and the taking away of the power of the enemy by laying down, by the power and love of God, our lives. Prophets, we must resist every notion and temptation to pick up the carnal weapons of the world and to join the fray, fighting back.

We are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Follow the example of our brothers and sisters in places like China, where the members of the underground church there are laying down their lives for each other and their enemies—it’s a martyrdom movement that is reaping a great and mighty harvest!

Let Matthew 5 be our manifesto, and may we join with Paul in saying, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 NIV).

Prayer

Heavenly Father, may Your Kingdom come and Your will be done, here on earth as it is in Heaven. Spirit of the Living God, fill me and lead me so that I might be a spokesperson and a demonstrator of Your Kingdom. Would You give me the gift of discernment that I might see and understand what is the culture of Heaven and also what is satan’s—Babylon.

Lord Jesus, empower us, by Your Spirit, that we might be a purified, prophetic, end-times church, like the witnesses of Revelation 11. May we be truly salt and light. Jesus, I choose to step into my forerunning call, to be a revolutionary who does not seek to defend myself, my reputation, my own opinions, nor my own prejudices. I choose to seek and discover what You think about things, so that I and my fellow prophetic warriors can better reflect You in compassion and through transformative, Spirit-filled power. May we, Your ecclesia, no longer look to man-made structures to rescue us, fund us, defend us, or legislate for us. We reject empire and domination and choose to lead godly lives as “foreigners and exiles” in the midst of Babylon. May we be a healthy, glowing bride in the midst of our nation.

Jesus, please forgive me when I have made my nation, my party, or my political preferences into an idol. Help me rid myself of any ideologies that are not of You and Your Kingdom.

Lord, have Your way in us. Have Your way in the nations. Amen!