It's Time To BREAK THE GAME!
Recently, I read Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest installment in the Hunger Games series. The story takes place years before Katniss and Peeta enter the arena and centers around their mentor, Haymitch’s, game.
I read it because our daughter, Abigail, asked if I would read it, so she had someone to talk to about the story. I’d read the others alongside the kids, as well, so after she finished, I borrowed her book.
I didn’t expect to hear God speak through it, but He absolutely did.
While there are multiple themes, one that stood out to me was Haymitch’s offhand remark and later decision to try to “break the game.” Without giving too much away, let me share enough to be able to explain what God spoke to me.
There’s a moment in the training session before the game begins when both the Peacekeepers and several of the recruits are armed. Haymitch knew the recruits outnumbered the Peacekeepers by four to one on that particular day, and if they moved quickly, they could probably grab other weapons in the room and, if not subdue the Peacekeepers, they could at least do significant damage. He said as much aloud to another recruit, and Plutarch, who worked for the Capitol, overheard him. Plutarch’s genuine questions to Haymitch were to ask him why he didn’t take action and why he submitted to it all.
As the training continued, Haymitch discovered the arena in which the recruits were sent to fight to the death was a machine; he recognized that machines could be broken, and as the story unfolded, he decided to do all he could to “break the game,” even if he died trying.
What I heard God say is that it’s time to break the game.
You’re probably asking the same question I did. What does that even mean?
He showed me how we live according to traditionally accepted ways of doing things in every sphere of society. It’s the “game” we play and participate in without question because it’s what we’ve always known.
What’s the “game”? It’s the world’s system.
God is breaking that game and is inviting His sons and daughters to partner with Him in establishing something from heaven instead.
It’s far more comfortable to sit back, watch things unfold in the world, criticize it, and leave it to someone else to take action around it. Yet, Matthew 11:12 says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
I’m NOT suggesting literal violence. Hear me clearly on that. What I am saying is that there’s a forcefulness to God’s kingdom advancing on the earth, just as there’s a forcefulness to plowing new ground in preparation for seeds to be planted for harvest.
When we choose to forge new paths, we’re often met with resistance in the natural or spirit realm. Will we shrink back and give up, or push on to dismantle the old and build what God is showing us, even if it comes at a cost?
I heard a warning. If we don’t take up our roles and responsibilities in “breaking the game,” the rebellious will, because the game WILL be broken.
The question God asked me was, “Which fruit would you rather eat?”
What does it look like to break the game of the traditional ways of doing things in business, education, government, and more? God wants to have that conversation with us in every area of our lives, show us what needs to be torn down, and give us the blueprints to build anew with Him.
We’re designed to be pioneers, innovators, inventors, and those on the forefront of society as sons and daughters of the King of kings, ruling and reigning in every area of society. That’s our mandate from the beginning of creation.
It’s time to break the game and advance God’s kingdom in every area of society. The question is, are we willing to lay down our lives, sacrifice, and pay the cost of breaking the old and building the new?
If we don’t, others will rise in our place.
Either way, we’ll eat the fruit of what is established.
It’s time to break the game.
Living for Him,
Andrea