Note: This essay is an expansion of a personal journal entry and reflection originally written in the early hours of Monday, April 26th, 2021.
An attribute of God which matches each dispensation is always revealed through men.
When you study the trajectory of biblical history, you realize that the divine character does not change, but the tools chosen for the specific era constantly do. The theatre of war evolves, and so too does the nature of the heroes called to stand in the breach.
When men fought physical battles, God had His immense strength revealed through certain individuals. The ancient world was shaped by brute force, the clashing of bronze, and the endurance of muscle. Consequently, the men who carried the divine mandate were deeply entrenched in the physical reality of warfare.
Think of Samson, whose bare hands tore through lions and city gates. Think of Abner and Joab, commanders who navigated the brutal, blood-soaked realities of kingdom building. Think of David’s mighty men, warriors who stood their ground in fields of lentils and fought until their hands froze to their swords. Their gifts were profoundly physical because their dispensation was physical. The revelation of God's power had to be physical to match the stakes of the age.
The Shift in the Battlefield
But eras change. Dispensations shift. The primary arenas of power are no longer bronze-age battlefields, and the weapons of our current age look fundamentally different.
I believe each of us has a gift that is intricately matched to the dispensation we currently live in. It is not an accident that you were born in this specific slice of history. By extension, we must take up the profound responsibility to attune our gifts perfectly for what matters in the times we are in. Cultivating a gift designed for the bronze age while living in the digital age is a dereliction of duty.
If we look closely at the modern world, the mechanisms of control and conquest have shifted from the physical to the psychological and the structural.
Personally, I believe we are in the times where he who controls the media and the economy, rules.
He Who Feeds You Can Starve You
Power has abstracted itself. It no longer needs to march an army to your gates; instead, it shapes the algorithms that curate your worldview. It controls the supply chains that deliver your daily bread. It mints the currency that dictates your freedom.
He who feeds you can also starve you, mentally and physically.
If all power in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus, then all power truly belongs to Him. That must include the power over narratives, algorithms, capital structures, and media landscapes. We cannot cede these domains to the temporal powers simply because they look different from the battlefields of old.
The Joabs and the Abners of our age are not swinging swords; they are building media companies, structuring ethical financial systems, writing code, and taking ownership of the means of cultural production. They are the ones realizing that whoever controls the narrative shapes the soul of the culture.
To attune your gift is to recognize the true nature of the current war. Are you building the mental and economic independence necessary to withstand the invisible sieges of our time? The attribute of God meant for this age is waiting to be revealed. Let it be revealed through you.