Realigning With Heaven’s Pattern
Realigning with Heaven’s Pattern: Holding Tension, Releasing Life in Aotearoa 2025
There is a quiet shift happening—subtle, but strong. A sense that we can’t keep going the way we have been, not in our churches, not in our communities, not in our politics, not in the way we relate to one another or to the land. Something is being exposed, and something deeper is being invited.
Many leaders are asking the same questions:
What are we building? Who are we becoming? And does it reflect the way God has designed the world to work?
These aren’t theoretical tensions. They are embodied ones:
Productivity vs. sustainability
Work vs. rest
Uniformity vs. diversity
Structure vs. Spirit
Male and female, Māori and Pākehā
Creative flow vs. form and discipline
Human systems vs. the life of the whenua
Apostolic foundations vs. prophetic flow
The mind of Christ vs. the natural mind
We see these tensions everywhere. And we feel the pressure to resolve them quickly—pick a side, simplify the story, move on. But perhaps the Spirit is inviting us not to solve the tensions, but to hold them. Not to escape them, but to mature through them.
A Symbolic World: Learning to See
Jonathan Pageau, through the lens of The Symbolic World, reminds us that the visible world is layered with meaning. We don’t live in a meaningless universe—we live in a symbolic cosmos, one created to reflect heavenly order.
In biblical and symbolic terms, chaos and order aren’t enemies. God doesn’t destroy the chaotic waters in Genesis—He contains them. He speaks into them. He sets boundaries so life can flourish. That’s what good form does: it protects flow. It makes space for it.
This symbolic way of seeing helps us understand:
The land is not just ground—it’s covenantal, spiritual, relational.
Marriage is not just a contract—it’s an image of unity in difference.
The church is not just an institution—it’s a body, with many members, held together in love, with Christ the head.
Our cultural and ethnic differences are not obstacles—they are part of the mosaic through which God reveals His glory.
Order isn’t the enemy of life. Domination is. But real order—Kingdom order—comes from love. It honours limits. It makes room. It blesses difference. It brings freedom, not control.
The Land Speaks: Parables in the Soil
We can see the same symbolic wisdom in how we care for the whenua.
Factory farming flattens ecosystems for short-term yield. But in doing so, it strips the land of its ability to regenerate. It becomes sterile, dependent on artificial inputs.
Regenerative practices—rewilding, permaculture, Māori kaitiakitanga—work differently. They listen to the land. They discern patterns. They honour rest. And in that process, something miraculous happens: the land heals itself.
This is not just about agriculture. It’s a prophetic picture for how we lead churches, build communities, and relate to each other.
Wherever we force uniformity, impose efficiency, and extract productivity without love—we drain life.
Wherever we honour the slow wisdom of relational ecosystems, and follow the Spirit’s lead—we begin to see fruit that remains.
Holding the Tensions: What Holds Us Together?
It would be easier to pick one side: to champion freedom without form, or form without freedom. But the Kingdom is not found in extremes. It is found in the centre held by love.
Love—true, covenantal love—is what makes space for difference.
It’s what holds structure and Spirit in creative union.
It’s what allows the masculine and feminine, the Māori and Pākehā, the apostolic and prophetic, to work together, not against each other.
This is the mystery of the Trinity: unity that doesn’t erase distinction.
This is the beauty of the Body: diversity held in one Spirit.
This is the heart of shalom: right relationship across all dimensions of life.
A Prophetic Application: What Time Are We In?
What if we’re in a moment of divine pruning?
Not punishment—but preparation for fruitfulness. A stripping back of what no longer gives life, and an invitation to realign with the deeper pattern of the Kingdom.
What if the Spirit is saying:
"Don’t rush to rebuild what is falling apart. Ask instead: what does Heaven want to plant here?"
"Don’t idolise the old familiar wineskins. Let Me shape new containers for new wine."
"Don’t fear the mess of transition. I am hovering over the chaos again, speaking new creation."
And to leaders—church, community, cultural, political:
This is not a time to double down on control, or retreat in fear.
It is a time to listen more deeply. To allow the tohu (signs) of the times to speak.
To seek wisdom, not strategies. To root yourself in prayer and presence again.
To church pastors and leaders:
Let your gatherings be places of encounter, not performance.
Let your structures serve life, not stifle it.
Let your leadership be humble, honest, and Spirit-led—not driven by metrics alone.
To civic leaders:
What if policy could reflect both order and compassion?
What if stewardship of land, people, and culture came from a place of humility, not superiority?
To all of us:
Will we embrace true unity — not by erasing difference or homogenising contributions and expression, but by honouring them as part of God's design for His house in Aotearoa?
Will we choose reconciliation over reaction and retaliation?
Will we honour the slow work of God’s Spirit instead of trying to force quick results?
The Hope
This isn’t a critique—it’s an invitation.
“See, the dwelling place of God is now among the people.” (Revelation 21:3)
The Spirit is looking for a house, a people, a nation where God can dwell in wholeness.
A house of Presence and peace.
A place where heaven and earth are reconciled.
Where structures do not oppress, and freedom is not chaos.
Where love creates room, and God’s pattern brings peace.
This house is to be a house of healing—not surface-level bandaids over deep wounds,
but true, Spirit-empowered restoration:
Healing for the whole person—body, soul, and spirit.
Healing for families, for whakapapa, for fractured communities, and cultural wounds.
A place where trauma is not covered up with performance, but brought into the light, gently and truthfully, for transformation.
God is building a house ‘on earth as in heaven’ where healing flows like a river, not just for today’s relief, but for future flourishing. Not just for individuals, but for generations to come.