Invisible Hero’s

The doctrine of dispensations shows the Church Age believer where he stands in the panorama of human history, when a Church Age believer advances to maturity, he has a positive impact.
In Old Testament dispensations God worked through visible heroes like Abraham, Moses, David, and Daniel. In the Church Age God works through invisible heroes. The difference is that every Church Age believer has equal privilege and equal opportunity to become an invisible hero. The positive impact of the royal family comes from the individual believer's personal execution of the protocol plan of God. As Christ distributes to the mature believer, those blessings benefit the believer’s periphery and his nation. The reverse also is true. God may protect and bless the nation as a means of blessing the mature believer. Therefore, the vigor of a generation and the divine blessing it enjoys spring from those believers who thrive under God’s plan, not from political, social, or religious crusades to change the world.
The negative impact of the royal family also comes from the individual believer. The believer who rejects the plan of God brings suffering and divine discipline upon himself and becomes a source of adversity in his periphery and nation. Therefore, every individual Christian has a major role to play in his generation of the Church Age. Believers can be invisible heroes or invisible villains, but there are no ordinary Christians in the royal family of God.
The great power experiment of the Church Age was designed to create invisible heroes. An invisible hero is any Christian who advances to spiritual maturity. In maturity he has fivefold impact.

1. Personal impact. Individuals in the mature believer’s periphery, including family, loved ones, and the organizations to which he belongs, receive blessing by association.

2. Historical impact. The client nation receives blessing through the mature believers who reside within its borders. The vigor, prosperity, And survival of the client nation revolve around mature believers. This is the principle of the pivot (1 Kings 19:1; Matt.5:13-16: Rom. 11:2-5; Eph. 1:21-23). A pivot of anonymous, unsung, invisible heroes is the spiritual solution to national degeneracy. Beyond a certain level of national decline, the spiritual pivot is the only solution and a nation’s only hope. Blessing to the nation is an escrow blessing our Lord distributes to the mature believer. In this way Jesus Christ earns all the glory, and His reputation is not obscured by the questionable judgment of over-zealous Christians attempting to play power politics in His name. Those who vainly strive to establish the kingdom of God on earth during the Church Age overlook this principle of invisible impact. As a good citizen (made better by his Christianity) the believer contributes positively to his nation; he does not crusade in the name of Christianity to remake his nation in the image of his personal faith (Rom. 13:1-7).

3. International impact. Nonclient nations are blessed by association with mature believers who come as missionaries from a client nation. This is one of the responsibilities of the client nation. Unfortunately, not all missionaries are mature believers, but the missionary who is an invisible hero is a source of blessing to two nations: the nation in which he serves and the nation from which he is sent.

4. Angelic impact. God summons the invisible hero to the witness stand, as it were, to provide testimony in the appeal trial of Satan. Angels constantly observe the human race (1 Cor. 4:9; Eph. 3:10; 1 Tim. 5:21; cf. 1 Pet. 1:12), and mature believers are strong evidence of the grace of God. The devil cross-examines the mature believer through suffering (Job 1:6-12; cf. Matt. 4:11; Eph. 6:11-12). By using divine resources to pass evidence testing, the invisible hero has far-reaching, unseen impact among the angels (1 Cor. 4:9; Eph. 3:10).

5. Heritage impact. The loved ones and close friends of the mature believer receive blessing after his death. David presents this encouraging principle, making this blessing an example of continuity through the dispensations (Ps. 37:25). The mature Christian can face death with complete assurance that God will care for those he leaves behind. His survivors are blessed not necessarily because they are spiritual winners themselves but because of God’s high regard for the departed mature believer. Indeed, spiritual losers and even unbelievers can receive heritage impact just as they can receive personal impact during the mature Christian’s lifetime.

Today the Christian’s privilege of having impact as an invisible hero is being infringed. Many ministers neglect their responsibility to teach their listeners Bible doctrine but instead goad them to become involved in emotionalism, personality cults, church programs, social work, or political activism. Trends in Protestant Christianity show signs of an imbalance that emphasizes the visible at the expense of the invisible, the material at the expense of the spiritual, the believer’s overt image at the expense of the inner dynamics of Bible doctrine in the soul.

This problem takes root in ignorance of dispensations. The overwhelming majority of Christians do not know what God has provided for them or why He has given them so much. After salvation, what? What does God desire the Christian to do? If believers do not realize that they belong to the royal family, how can they fulfill their destinies? How can they execute the protocol plan of God for the Church Age if they do not know such a plan exists? Ignorance undercuts every good intention. No matter how a Christian desires to make his life count for God, if he is ignorant if God’s plan, he fails to glorify God. At best, the impact of his life is fleeting, no sooner achieved than dissipated. At worst, his impact is for evil as he inadvertently struggles in Satan’s cause to improve the devil’s world.

Ref. THE DIVINE OUTLINE OF HISTORY
R.B.THIEME, JR.
R.B.THIEME, JR. , BIBLE MINISTRIES
HOUSTON, TEXAS
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