A Thorough Housecleaning

The big message of the book of Hebrews is the superiority of Jesus over all else. In light of this, it's not surprising that the writer would write words like these:

His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he’s told us this quite plainly—he’ll also rock the heavens: “One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.” The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered. Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire!
 (Hebrews 12:26-28 The Message)

The contrasting of the old systems with Jesus (who fulfills all that the old systems were struggling to portray) shows the need for a shaking that will undo the old order so that the unshakable Kingdom can be established. The beginnings of this shaking happened with the birth and life and death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. But until He comes again to set up His Kingdom on earth, there will always be systems that get in the way of the beauty and superiority of Jesus.

Sometimes these systems are made up of religious practices that we have engaged in for so long that we confuse them with Jesus; sometimes they are our own internal mindsets/strongholds that have been constructed in us and adhered to for so long that we believe they are true.

But I believe the Spirit of God is fiercely jealous for Jesus and will do something in His people before the end of this age unlike what we have seen before. This will require a shaking of all that can be shaken; and because it will mess with that which we have been so certain of, there will be confusion and disorientation in the Body of Christ.

A few years ago I asked the Lord to shake all that could be shaken in my life and walk with Him, and He has been doing that. I see this happening all around me with many followers of Jesus.

In the midst of the disorientation, "let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." Gratitude to the true and living God will help steady us, and when we feel the ground shaking beneath our feet, we'll find that rather than falling into a bottomless pit, we will fall into Him, the unshakable One who is superior to all else!