Around 1500 BC, God delivered a multitude out of captivity in Egypt, to live under His guidance as a people of faith. After 500 years the nation chose to come under man’s rule and soon split into two, a north and south. Eventually, the people of faith ceased to function as a nation and were scattered.
A renewed call to have faith in God’s guiding presence was proclaimed by Jesus Christ. This call gathered people to God-in-Christ without including a natural location. However, within 500 years, the people of faith began to submit to a religious form of faith, creating a spiritual type of captivity.
While the call to live as people of faith who respond to God’s guidance would always be in the earth, another gathering was forecasted. So we ask, what about the prophesied third gathering?
A Religious Reformation
Please keep in mind, God identifies “My people Israel” (a) as people of faith. (b) [see end notes for all Scriptures] Scriptural Israelites are not a natural race of people; they are people who respond to God’s guidance while living natural lives. Israelites are a gathering of people that respond to God’s lead.
The prophet Jeremiah records God saying “I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth… He who scattered Israel (people of faith) will gather…and keep…as a shepherd keeps his flock.” (c) Isaiah also prophesied that God would gather the “dispersed” people of faith. (d) God even declared He would “put together” the spiritual and natural split that had become known as Israel and Judah. (e)
This third call to gather the scattered people is generally overlooked. Gathering them to function as a nation was to form a larger witness to this world of life under His guidance. This Biblical call to gather the people of faith into a nation came in historical stages, as a revealing and developing reality.
A religious Reformation began in the 1500s. This revealed afresh that people of faith can live free of the restraining perception that there is only one way to believe and worship God. Overlords assumed they were mediators between God and man (f) and squelched personal responses to God.
The reformer Martin Luther declared “every believer is a priest before God.” (g) Many reformers echoed the insight that salvation is by faith in God, not in submission to a religious system. Bibles began to be printed. People discovered a mental and emotional release from the restricting oversight that controlled most of Europe and the Mediterranean regions for the previous 1000 years.
At the same time, an area was discovered that was not controlled by overlords. Many people began to gravitate to the freedom this New World offered. However, for the next 200 years assurances of God’s favor remained unknown. Everyone was told to “do your best and at death you’ll find out.”
This Biblical call to gather the people of faith into a nation came in historical stages, as a revealing and developing reality.
The Great Awakening Revival
In the early 1700s, a Great Awakening Revival occurred. It revealed that sincere repentance brings a cleansing that will cause you to feel and know God’s favor is with you. As people found a release from the relentless sense of condemnation, they began to live as “reborn from above.” (h) People of faith realized that God is with their efforts to live and worship as free people. They felt empowered.
As a result of the Great Awakening Revival, the emerging 13 colonies in the New World were stirred by a fresh sense of purpose. They could be free to self-govern under God’s guidance. So they broke free of the upper-class system of control and “One Nation under God” began to form.
The idea of democracy (self-rule) allowed men of faith to draft a constitution that articulated a new government charter and form a republic (with law). Three generations later the nation was threatened by a split into north and south versions. Unlike the first gathered Israelites, it was prevented.
Historically, wealth was always acquired 
by a person or a nation taking it from others by force. The freedom to live and prosper by one’s own production and to trade what was produced formed a new source of wealth that became known as Capitalism. This began to create a prosperous new Middle Class society. The freedom allowed people to create many new services, improve modes of travel, and form new ways to communicate. The quality of life began to improve all over the world.
Research by the British economist Angus Maddison illustrates that historically 94% of people lived in abject poverty until the mid-1800s when the overall quality of life began to improve. By 2015 only 9.6% around the world remained in such poverty. Everyone is blessed and benefits when people are free to respond to God’s guidance. This is what God promised Abraham, the father of faith. (i)
In the early 1900s, Spirit Baptisms began to reveal a relational insight that improves a feeling and a knowing. Baptisms are times when people experience immersions in the presence of God. These can be overwhelming times or quiet inspirational moments when God shares with us gifts, anointing, and insights. These experiences are enhanced invitations to interact with the presence of God-in-Christ.
Everyone is blessed and benefits when people are free to respond to God’s guidance.
God’s Revealed Purpose
We tend to overlook the emerging significance of the last 500 years. The first phase began to release people from restricting overlords and the idea that there is only one way to worship and respond to God. The second revealed how repentance brings a sense of forgiveness and a rebirth of awareness that God is with us. The third revealed that His presence inspires, anoints, and enables us. These phases reveal that we can interact with God-in-Christ and function as inspired people of faith.
The presence of God that is among us is evidence that God’s reign is a functioning reality in our day! The function of God’s Kingdom in this earth is an emerging reality. As we become more Christ-like, the enabling presence of God-in-Christ Jesus that is with us becomes more obvious and visible.
America is a leading example of God’s purpose in a nation. The nation offers a freeing liberty and justice for all who want to partake. While America is largely a Christian nation, our freedom of worship and expression is not restricted to one form, religious system, or denomination. Everyone is invited to partake of this greater witness of God’s will and ways among us. As the quality of our spiritual and natural lives improves we become better images and likenesses of God’s nature.
The prophet Ezekiel related a vision he saw where God’s voice produced three actions. (j) The first directive was to “Call the scattered bones together.” This linked them into skeletons, a useful purpose. God then said “Cover the bones with flesh” to illustrate His purpose includes natural life. Then God instructed “Breathe the spirit of life into the valley.” This fortified them to function as an army and defend their livelihood. The vision describes our God inspired purpose as groups.
Did you notice how God’s instructions in Ezekiel’s vision relate to what God has been doing for the last 500 years? The Reformation revealed that different perceptions can function as skeletons (bones). The Great Awakening Revival revealed God’s purpose includes our natural lives (flesh). Immersion experiences in God’s presence (spirit) anoint and equip us to function as an army. God is inclusive!
Repentant people all over the world can experience God’s favor, both within and without various religious practices. People from every society, culture, and language (k) are invited to partake of a fresh awareness of God’s forgiving favor and experience enhancing immersions in His presence.
This third call to faith really is to “who-so-ever will” (l) in each of our various cultures and nations. Too often we fail to realize how fully the Kingdom reign of God is functioning today as a spiritual and natural reality. Rather than wait for a future, we can arise and consciously be involved today!
Everyone is invited to partake of this greater witness of God’s will and ways among us.
a) Exodus 4:22; 5:1-2; b) Romans 4:9-16; Galatians 3:6-9; c) Jeremiah 31:1, 10; John 11:59-52 d) Isaiah 43:5-7; 56:6-8; e) Micah 2:12; f) 1 Timothy 2:5; g) Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:5, 9-10; h) John 3:3; Ephesians 2:1-7; i) Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:8, 14; j) Ezekiel 37:1-14; k) Revelations 5:9; 7:9; 14:6; l) John 3:16-17
Keith Carroll, “The Relationship Guy”
Relational Gospel Founder
Created To Relate author