#306 The Kingdom: Triage Centers
Amos 9:13 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine, And all the hills will be dissolved.
Amos 9:14] “Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them, They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. [15] “I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them,” Says the LORD your God.
JOEL 2:1 Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near, [2] A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations. [3] A fire consumes before them, And behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, But a desolate wilderness behind them, And nothing at all escapes them. [4] Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like war horses, so they run. [5] With a noise as of chariots They leap on the tops of the mountains, Like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble, Like a mighty people arranged for battle. [6] Before them the people are in anguish; All faces turn pale. [7] They run like mighty men; They climb the wall like soldiers; And they each march in line, Nor do they deviate from their paths. [8] They do not crowd each other; They march everyone in his path. When they burst through the defenses, They do not break ranks. [9] They rush on the city, They run on the wall; They climb into the houses, They enter through the windows like a thief. [10] Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow dark, And the stars lose their brightness. [11] And the LORD utters His voice before His army; Surely His camp is very great, For strong is he who carries out His word.
When the Kingdom Restoration begins to take place there will be chaos in the land. People will be fleeing from one disaster to encounter another. Thousands of people may be arriving in one day seeking help. There will be a famine in the land.
Amos 8:11 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. [12] “And people will stagger from sea to sea, And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it. [13] “In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst.
When the Hurricane Katrina struck the gulf coast near New Orleans, Louisiana the last Friday in August 2005 thousands upon thousands of people were in a desperate situation. Complete cities were wiped out, destroyed and flooded. Some houses were under water up to the roofs. Hundreds were abandoned on the roofs in the hot sun with no food or water. The sick had no medicine, the infirm and helpless had no one to take care of them. Babies were born on bridges while the dead lay decaying in the heat. Thousands of bodies were under ruble or floating in the water. Sewage was overflowing everywhere and all water was contaminated. Levees were broken and the pumps that were to remove the water from the cities were under water. There was no electricity in the city to run the pumps anyway.
The problems were so massive and the destruction so complete and the chaos so widespread that government officials were helpless to oversee a solution. Everybody was caught off guard and totally unprepared to deal with the situation. The Mayors of the cities were totally unprepared for such a disaster and had made no provision for this kind of crises. Neither had the Governors of the states. Local governments began to loudly criticize the federal government and blame President Bush for the disaster. The Homeland Security was blamed for being totally incompetent. Everyone was in confusion and the victims of the hurricane were left with no help, no food, no water and no shelter and with no hope.
After several days some help began to arrive in some areas. 16,000 people found refuge in the Astrodome sports arena but there was no city water, the toilets wouldn’t flush, there was filth and sewage everywhere. Riots broke out and people were killed. The criminal element broke into houses and stores and stole everything they could find. Prisoners escaped from jails, found guns and began shooting at the helicopters that were trying to rescue people from the rooftops. The hospitals had no power, water, lights or drugs. No one could come or go and there was no place for the helicopters to land to evacuate the patients. Private citizens used their own boats to get people to the highway to drop them off and go back for more people who were stranded. Then the hoodlums pushed the people out of the boats and stole the boats that were trying to rescue the helpless.
After 5 days buses and the National Guard began to arrive to transport the people to other cities and bring in some food and supplies. Many people were still not rescued from their homes. Houses began burning and city blocks that were spared from the hurricane went up in flames. Arson was suspected.
Everybody was blaming anybody in authority for the disaster and the fact that government officials had made no provision for such a disaster. Of course the buck stops at the President of the USA. New Orleans is a city that is 8 feet below sea level with water all around it. It was protected by levees that were constructed to hold back the water. When the great surge of water from the hurricane broke the levees the city was immediately flooded with no warning and those who ignored the warnings to leave were trapped or drowned.
Triage Centers were set up to evaluate the persons fleeing from the flood and to separate the people into groups according to their needs. Basic physical help was given but the needs were so great that all the Triage Units could do was just separate the desperately ill from the others and plan for evacuation to hospitals in other states. The logistics of such an undertaking was insurmountable by those volunteers and the government was overwhelmed by the utter magnitude of any solution. One young black man saw a school bus in the water, found the keys and drove the bus on to the highway and picked up 80 people and drove them to Houston, Texas. He had never driven a bus before. The people pooled their money to buy gas for the bus.
In Houston 12,000 people arrived at the Sports Arena in a few hours. Politicians showed up and begin to complain that there was not a list posted of all the people there and free phones available to call their families. It was like everyone had lost all logic.
Can anyone imagine the desperate spiritual need the citizens of the nations will find when these scriptures are fulfilled and how desperately unprepared the church is to handle the chaos. What if God required us to set up Triage Centers to process all the harvest that was trying to escape the devastation and participate in the Kingdom Government of God. Suppose 12,000 souls arrived in New Philadelphia in a few hours and was desperate to “enter the Kingdom of God” and to seek refuge from the anarchy out in the world.
The Triage Center would have to separate the people according to their need and then have “disciples” trained to meet those needs. Some will have great physical needs because of disease and sickness and require immediate attention. Should we have doctors on call or should we have disciples trained to pray? Remember, this IS the Kingdom realm these people seek to enter. Should we “read them a verse” or give them a teaching about the Kingdom or should we demonstrate the Kingdom with the power of healing and deliverance? Is the general church member even remotely equipped to help in this ministry?
There will be those who hunger and thirst for spiritual food because of the famine in the land. Reading them a verse will not meet their need. Ignorance of this spiritual dimension will render us ineffective and we become another statistic of “Christian failure”, a workman totally ashamed.
There will be nominal Christians who “believe in Jesus”but will have no real Christian experience. Few in the visible church are equipped to minister just the basics of forgiveness of sins, water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Very, very few would be equipped to explain just the basics of Kingdom Citizenship.
Everybody would be blaming everybody and condemning the “leaders” of the church for this disgraceful failure. The “leaders” would be hiding behind closed doors and refusing to answer their phones. Some might even dare to fly over to “access the damage” and determine who is to blame. Some might drop leaflets about “accepting Jesus as your personal Savior.” Obviously, it is too late for that because these people will only settle for the reality of the Kingdom of God’s Government in their experience.
In this total desperation even the leaders and prominent people in the church will begin to act like monsters and criminals in a totally undisciplined life. Chaos will be equal in the church or in the world and anarchy will reign everywhere.
In the midst of this devastation and anarchy God will call His Kingdom people to set up a Triage Center to demonstrate the Kingdom Government of God and give real help to the desperate seekers. Suppose God flew in to view the work of His servants and declared that the relief effort was totally unacceptable and people were just being healed and helped superficially.
Jer 6:13] “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. [14] “And they have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, `Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace. [15] “Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush.
It will be quite popular to get on the Television and condemn those who didn’t seek God when He could be found and attend church regularly and be faithful. Those who can’t even heal the people superficially will be the most vocal and critical. Some will show up to minister the “last rites” to those who are sick and dying and will be recognized for their humanitarian zeal and compassion. Rock stars may show up to sing a song and the Hollywood crowd will blame President Bush and the environment. The “tree huggers”and the “animal rights people” will be out in force to take advantage of the publicity.
The religious dispensationalists will declare that it is not time for the Kingdom because certain “signs” have not appeared. They will identify these people as part of the lunatic fringe who are just caught up in the emotion of the radical Kingdom movement. They will preach that the Kingdom will come someday but this is not the time for it. These “religionists” will set up their own Triage Centers to supply natural water and natural food to “Kingdom seekers.” The desperate “seekers” will ignore them and hold up signs that say “Help us” or “Where are the Kingdom people?”
Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton will loudly proclaim that the black people are being ignored at the Kingdom Triage Centers and this is another evidence of “ethnic cleansing” and disregard of the poor black people. The devil’s disciples will show up to shoot at the Kingdom seekers and the politicians will say they are justified because they have been ignored. Therefore, just burn it all down.
If a natural disaster produces such utter confusion and helplessness and reveals the complete lack of a workable plan how much greater will a “spiritual restoration” reveal the “fallen church” that has no answers to Kingdom questions. If the “Church” can offer no Kingdom solutions to spiritual hunger it cannot be the “church that He is building.” If the “visible church” cannot respond immediately to the Kingdom demands, much of the final harvest will be lost to the flood of more Christian humanism and Christian philosophy. Kind deeds and Kingdom response can be in totally different realms.
In natural disasters “kind deeds” are visible and welcomed and appreciated but to respond out of a Kingdom Life with Kingdom solutions is of another dimension that reveals “eternity” in the present day. Then the Kingdom has come near.