TheGoodNewsCast.com

Many religious groups emphasize ideas such as spiritual elevation, moral improvement, or Divine supremacy—and often associate such ideas with a desire for a higher status. Labels like "Savior," "Holy One," and "the Chosen" can easily be misunderstood and turn individuals into an elevated state of being.

 

People are inherently drawn to meaning and desire to be part of something greater, but belonging to it tends to make those within the circle compare themselves to other communities, believing they are more devout, awakened, or spiritually developed. Sometimes people enter religious groups to cope with insecurity, but any system, whether it's religious, political, or philosophical, can become weakened through a false sense of superiority or authority over others.

 

However, Isaiah the prophet of God describes a space where people aren't elevated; rather, what is holy is brought down: He describes it as "...[a people who] really want God in their lives" (Isaiah 58:2). His prophecy describes a God who is with us on Earth, instead of a people who are with God in heaven.

 

One of the most enduring ironies of human history is its persistent need to enter a sacred space that is far from Earth. A space that was once explicitly designed to humble humanity is routinely repurposed to secure a place at the top of a heavenly hierarchy, desecrating the name of our "Savior," “the Holy One," and His “Chosen ones."

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Isaiah 58 shows a people whose hearts are filled with a desire for an elevated state of being, trading in what is human for what is divine, intoxicating the world with moral superiority. That urge comes from an inborn need for significance, an urge to be part of something bigger, seeking the assurance that we are on the RISE. But the moment it is forged, it swings into comparison, measuring devotion, intelligence, and spiritual maturity against others, creating groups of greater superiority and authority. While religious, political, or philosophical systems help people to cope with internal insecurity, these very systems can easily morph into mechanisms designed to project inferiority and invulnerability behind a mask of righteousness.

 

Yet, a radically different perspective cuts through this self-elevating trajectory, finding a voice through the prophet Isaiah. He describes how humanity’s relentless urge to build towers of piety to reach godlike status is disrupted by the only God who refuses to stay sequestered in the heavenly realm and shows Himself among humanity in the small things everyday.

 

Isaiah's prophetic message finds its ultimate way in the Gospels, where Jesus teaches his followers how to pray, "Let thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." This is not a prayer to escape the world and join a spiritual upper class, but a call for heaven to coexist here on earth. A holiness in the realities of human life working among and within the humbled.

 

Ultimately, Jesus' prayer shifts our perspective from a spiritual realm to an earthly, incarnational faith that reaches out to the heavens and asks our Heavenly Father to live within ourselves and our communities and to help us clean up the issues right in front of us, such as poverty, homelessness, fraud, exploitation, bullying, slander, demoralization, injustice, oppression, hunger, and neglect. In that space, heaven becomes a shared grounded reality where the Holy One comes down and lives in the midst of what He calls…life.