Kairos. The Fullness of Time…Christian convergence in one’s life.
Kairos. The Fullness of Time…Christian convergence in one’s life.
You may have wondered why you have been led into a time of chaos in your life and wondered why it is happening and why God is allowing this. Is there a reason for the chaos? I recently went through such a time of emotional and relational and missional chaos. Christ brought me through it, with my emotions and relationships and my mission intact and strengthened. And God has revealed to me why it has been happening.
I did not know how to define what was happening. But after a conversation with a wise pastor, I realized that God was doing a work of convergence on my life. All elements of my life and all the loose ends were coming together. Confusion was fading as I entered into another season of life. I found the reason for my operating as an isolated house church for 14 years. I found the reason for some marital strife. I found the reason for relational issues with the kids. I found the reason for my years spent in UBF learning to be a 1:1 Bible teacher and a shepherd in a single family house church setting.
To me it felt like I was in a life boat adrift on the sea for years. But God was working. He was fulfilling his plan. Julie and I have found our mission together in life. We have a new love and appreciation of each other. God has introduced me to vast new mission field with a colossal role to play. I didn’t know how to describe it. I went along with things knowing that God has a plan. But leaving it there was a defeated attitude. A more positive outlook is saying that God was bringing convergence on my life and my family. I just discovered the Biblical concept of “the fullness of time. ” It is when chaotic element align themselves in such a way as to bring about a act of God. That is what happened in my life and I hope it will happen in each of yours. Here are two short exerts to help define what has occurred. One is defining, “The Fullness of Time” and the other is a devotional. Enjoy.
Fullness of Time Moments
There is an interesting word in the Greek language, kairos, which is translated “the fullness of time” in the Bible. The Greeks coined this word to describe the arrival of these crisis times, these crossroads in life when changes occur. The Bible speaks of only two such major events: the fullness of time when Jesus was born (Gal 4:4) and the fullness of time when He will return again (Eph 1:10). However, there are kairos moments occurring all through history and even in our own lives.
The fullness of time means the time when all things are in place so that changes can be made. When the earth reaches exactly right point in its rotation around the sun, seasons change. In the fullness of time, spring arrives out of winter and summer out of spring. This terms conveys a unique sense of God’s timing.
Today, kairos moments are all about us in the world. Extraordinary events are flowing out of the intercession of God’s people, directed by God’s timing.
George Otis Jr. wrote in The Last of the Giants that if we are into a new season of God (and I believe we are), “new rules apply, all bets are off, and we cannot return to business as usual – ever.”
Otis says that kairos events, especially if they involve the demise of kings and ideologies, tend to create spiritual vacuums. If God’s people do not understand their role and seize the moment, chaos results. The enemy is then able to turn things to his advantage.
— Terry Law, The Truth About Angels
An Experience Offered to All
Some people say: “I never had an experience of the fullness of time. … I am just an ordinary person, not a mystic.” Although some people have unique experiences of God’s presence and, therefore have unique missions to announce God’s presence to the world, all of us – whether learned or uneducated, rich or poor, visible or hidden – can receive the grace of seeing God in the fullness of time. This mystical experience, is not reserved for a few exceptional people. God wants to offer that gift in one way or another to all God’s children.
But we must desire it. We must be attentive and interiorly alert.
For some people the experience of the fullness of time comes in a spectacular way, as it did to St. Paul when he fell to the ground on his way to Damascus (Acts 9:3-4). But for some of us it comes like a murmuring sound or a gentle breeze touching our backs (1 Kings19:13).
God loves us all and wants us all to know this in a most personal way.
— Henri Nouwen
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