ABOUT US

The Story of God and Us

 

Introduction

In an attempt to give some context (especially those newer to the Bible) to the terse doctrinal statements often found in this section of a church website, we have used a narrative approach to explain these terms within the bigger picture of the story of God’s love and pursuit of Mankind. We hope the extra content will help bring to life the character, nature and work of The Father, Son and Holy Spirit and in doing so, change how we experience God and influence this world. 

​

Our Origin

Before this universe was ever created, God desired an expansion of His family so others could share all of His goodness and experience the perfect loving, unified, fellowship that eternally exists between The Father, The Son, and The Spirit. Unable to grasp the mystery of this union His followers coined the term the “The Trinity” which we will reverently refer to functionally as His “Family Fellowship” in an attempt to describe how they are so totally united relationally and practically in their shared purposes and yet have now invited us into this union.

 

We learn of their plan to create man (men and women) to be just like Them (image bearers) so we can be part of their family and to fellowship and flourish with Them in the perfect peace, purpose, and love that They have always enjoyed. To that end, an entire universe was created for man and the Messengers (angels) who would serve alongside us in this Kingdom realm.

 

God’s plan necessitated a choice, a potential tragic point of failure. In God’s redemptive plan, this epic failure would also become the source of our greatest success. Nonetheless, things didn’t look good at first. Everyone in His household whether sons (Image Bearers) or servants (Messengers), must understand and practice His prime directive to put the wellbeing and needs of others ahead of their own. This is necessary if they are to successfully exercise the awesome privilege and power that comes with bearing His name. In His Kingdom there is never compulsion, manipulation, bribery or anything of this nature, only giving to one another out of the heart for their good. For this culture to flourish it requires freedom, but real freedom brings the opportunity for real rebellion.

 

The Great Turning Away

It was the messengers who failed first. Lucifer along with a third of the Messengers, who used their freedom to attempt to create a world in their own image and turn their back on the God who had created them. Then, under the influence of these darkened ones, the first image bearers succumbed to the same choice.

 

As a result of their unfaithfulness, the damage to their relationship with God was devastating beyond comprehension. His image bearers had driven a wedge between them and Him, the very source of life and perfect peace they needed to thrive. In doing so they exchanged the beautiful ordered world of the Kingdom of Light for the chaos of the dominion of darkness.

 

The consequences would apply to all of their offspring and the opportunity for human beings to live in His Family Fellowship, seemed to be gone for good. Where there had just been perfect peace, there was now blame, shame, fear, guilt, anxiety and all forms of darkness that immediately manifested. Paradise seemed lost and Lucifer seemed to have won. But God, in His kindness and mercy, immediately foretold of an ultimate comeback to help sustain hope for the many millennia of hardship that the generations to come would experience for man choosing their own way. 

 

Hope Renewed

Throughout the generations to follow, God never stopped revealing Himself to His image bearers while laying the groundwork, step by step, for His great rescue and our great comeback. In a time when a powerful earthly Kingdom ruled much of the known world, The Father chose to implement His rescue plan. Israel, the name of the people and the land God had chosen to be the conduit for His plan, were under Roman rule and in deep darkness. However, just when it seemed darkest, the dawn of a new age began to break as Jesus left the opulence and perfect peace of Heaven’s Family Fellowship to take on human form and become like us. Instead of the grandeur of Rome, The High King of Heaven, was born into a place of total obscurity with no earthly power or credentials, to show us the way.

 

This is where the story suddenly gets very relevant for us! The possibility for image bearers to become sons (sons and daughters) once more was made available to all of mankind. The Kingdom of Heaven was now available again in the earth realm. All of us, though enemies of God, once more able to choose to fulfill His greatest desire by becoming His sons and heirs just like the Son He had sent. So, how was this possible? Jesus not only showed us who He really is, but also bridged the gap between man and God. Through His life, death, burial, and resurrection a doorway back into the Kingdom family was opened and could never again be shut.

 

Although we are dead spiritually due to our rebellious choices, Jesus made it possible for us to put our trust in Him and choose to live as sons of God just as He had always intended. By choosing to die on a Roman cross, His shed blood paid the price for our sins and by rising from the dead, He delivered us from the power that sin had over us. The good news does not stop there as we have hope of complete redemption as one day even the very presence of sin will itself be destroyed. He allowed the might of Rome and their temporal Kingdom, to put Him to death, only to rise again and reestablish His everlasting Kingdom on Earth for us to enjoy now and forevermore. God’s plan was back in full swing.

 

Unbreakable Family Fellowship

To further His plan, the resurrected Son sent The Holy Spirit to be present in us and empower us to do the will of The Father just as He did when He was on the earth. He commissioned His earliest disciples to implement His new family infrastructure (the church) to be the expression of His Family Fellowship on Earth. He refers to the whole Church as His “body” with Him as the head of this expanding household and the center and life of it all. Throughout the centuries and under the careful guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit, this household exploded in both size and impact as it influenced all areas of society with the culture and principles of Heaven. The local expression of His family throughout the whole earth is the very heart of God for us to grow and flourish as His sons. By entering into the everlasting covenant community of the Family-Fellowship of Heaven in the here and now we can show its realities to the world around and enjoy its bounty.  

 

The Story of God and Us gets better and better the more we attach ourselves to it and detach from the old story. Staying attached (abiding) to the Source, Jesus and, through The Holy Spirit, detaching from the old story controlled by the world, the flesh, and Lucifer, is a primary function of the Body of Jesus. We do this by living out the covenant family reality together as His disciples. In His Kingdom, there are no converts or adherents, only sons who are learning to live as one. In becoming a son, we became His disciple (student), able to relearn to do everything during this life together with Him, so that we become more like Him. To do this we must have clarity on our identity, purpose, calling and giftings and how to be equipped and deployed accordingly by The Spirit.

 

Meaning in all things

From the very beginning, God designed all our activities and work to function as acts of worship. Every act, no matter how small, has purpose and value to Him when done with Him and through His strength. This is why He gives us spiritual gifts and why we learn to integrate all areas of our life into our life with God. We learn to live in the utter freedom of no longer having the burden of owning or needing to control the outcomes of anything and letting Him own and control them instead.

 

These are things that Transformation Church of Montgomery believes about God and you, and

is committed to helping you to experience. The story of God and Us is an ongoing story that is moving us into His likeness during this age until His coming again to end this chapter of the story. The story will then keep unfolding through eternity, but for now we get to be part of bringing the reality of the King and His kingdom of heaven to all the earth right now, so that His Kingdom will come, and His will can be done here just as it happens in Heaven. God’s vision for His fellowship family is now a reality and we are invited to participate fully in His-Story of Himself and Us.