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Realizing the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God.
ReVision

Around

Consider the all-aroundness of God.

Kingdom Perspective (4)

And Elisha prayed, and said, “L
ORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORDopened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 2 Kings 6.17

The all-around God
One of the great lessons we could learn today from the saints of Celtic Revival is the sense of the “all-aroundness” of God.

The Celtic Revival marks that period of Church history between the years 430 and 800 AD, when Irish missionaries and preachers brought Christ’s Kingdom to the world and the Church with renewing and transforming power. Thomas Cahill chronicled this period in his book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, and that title just about says it all.

For Celtic Christians God was not far away in some inaccessible region beyond the clouds. Or rather, He was indeed far beyond the clouds, to the far reaches of the cosmos, but He was everywhere present with them as well. They met God in lakes and rivers, woods and creatures, storms and gentle rains, and even the humble food that grew wild around them. They met God in their fellow believers, saw Him at work preparing lost people for salvation, and sensed His presence in ways that caused them to tremble with rejoicing.

And they invoked the presence and protection of God and all the unseen hosts of heaven in memorable prayers, songs, and chants.

“Patrick’s Breastplate”
Nothing from this period expresses this “all-aroundness” of God better than their lorica poems. A lorica – or “breastplate” – poem acknowledges the presence of God with us at all times, and calls upon God to surround, sustain, precede, protect, direct, and keep us every step of the day. Here’s an excerpt from the best known of these poems, “Faeth Fiada,” or, “Patrick’s Breastplate”:

May Christ protect me today
against poison, against burning, against drowning, against wounding,
that many rewards may come to me.
May Christ be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ to my right, Christ to my left,
Christ where I lie down, Christ where I sit, Christ where I stand,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in the eye of everyone who looks on me,
Christ in every ear which hears me.

Celtic Christians lived in the then and there, here and now, not only because of their clear vision of the unseen realm and of the hosts of heaven arrayed and marshaled for their protection, but because of the promise of Christ, that He would be with them always. They took that promise seriously and looked to Him and His angelic hosts to guide and guard them through the trials and duties of daily life.

Power at hand
The power of Christ’s Kingdom is not merely something to talk about; it’s a power to be lived (2 Cor. 4.20) in the everyday circumstances of life, a power deriving from eternal conditions that can enable us to rejoice, be strong, and have hope no matter the circumstances of our everyday lives.

But we will only know how to engage the presence of the all-around-us God as we work harder to develop our Kingdom perspective on the life into which we have been born again by the Spirit. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places! Every aspect of our lives have been hidden with Christ in God! We live above our temporal circumstances because we always have an eye on Christ exalted and our souls grounded in His Word of promise!

And we can peer beyond the veil that separates time from eternity and call upon the Lord to be all around us and to accompany and protect us on our journey in life with the help of saints, angels, and the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to live from a Kingdom perspective, for all who have made the Kingdom turn.

Next steps: How do you experience the “all-aroundness” of God? How can Christians help one another experience the presence of the unseen realm around them more consistently? Talk with some Christian friends about these questions..

T. M. Moore
Additional Resources

This week’s study, Kingdom Perspective, is the second of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

Sign up for ViewPoint Leaders Training, free and online, and start your own ViewPoint discussion group.

Want to learn more about the Celtic Revival? Visit our website and sign-up for our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore

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