|
Chapter Two
Gospel of the Kingdom of God
Herein is the solution for all to man’s needs:
(Mat 6:33 KJV) But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
I see this as God’s top priority. This is the order that God has established for us to follow in our search for the Truth and the fulfillment of our life. God’s Kingdom is God’s supply for all the needs of man. In my forty plus years of being a believer I have heard very little about the reality of the Kingdom of God that Jesus demonstrated in His life and ministry on this Earth.
The question comes to my mind -- Could that disobedience to Jesus’ directive (to seek the Kingdom of God first )-- be the reason for the lack of power in the Christian Church today? Could there be an ignorance about the reality of the Kingdom of God and its place in our lives?
As Jesus has established the Church as the pillar and ground of The Truth it is then necessary for the Church to be the teacher of the Truths of the Kingdom of God. What seems to have happened is that the Church has become the teacher about itself and the message of the Kingdom of God has fallen by the wayside.
The Church is a body that can be seen and felt. The church buildings are on the corners of the world and it is a real place where we as believers can go and see each other. We can worship there and hear praise there. We can learn there -- but we aren’t learning about the Kingdom of God. Instead --we are hearing about how and what the Church is supposed to be and do. Since the Church hasn’t come to the place of the Lordship of Jesus -- she never comes into the fulness of the stature of Christ and has become focused on herself. The present day Church knows very little about the reality of the death of self rule in order to make Jesus Lord.
The same thing has to happen to the Church as a whole as has to happen to each of us. She has to die to her self-life and go on into the perfectness of Christ in us and let Him live through us. Then she will be able to forget about herself and walk in the reality of the Kingdom of God.
When each person makes Jesus Lord of their lives they will then go outside of the Church walls and be Christ alive in the earth. That is when we will walk in the reality of the Kingdom of God as Jesus and the disciples did.
The Kingdom of God is an invisible Kingdom and you can only see it if you have eyes of faith. You can be looking right at the Kingdom of God and not see it with your natural eyes. Jesus Christ was standing right in front of men and women as the King of His Kingdom and still most all people didn’t see Him for who He is or His Kingdom as a real place to live in now.
Jesus’ miracles authenticated the reality of the Kingdom of God operating in and through Him. Should we expect that kind of power in our daily lives?
(John 14:12 KJV) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
(John 14:13 KJV) And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
(John 14:14 KJV) If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
I believe that there is a big difference between the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the gospel we hear today. We hear much about going out to preach the gospel -- but the question is what gospel? Paul talked about another gospel in Galatians. Then he said -- but it isn’t really another gospel because any other gospel isn’t really the good news of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. If the gospel isn’t the Gospel of the Kingdom of God -- then it’s a Lie.
So right here I want to put what I have found to be the True Gospel of the Kingdom of God. This is the Gospel expressed in its simplest form. It’s easy to understand so that a child can grasp it. We find it in a couple places stated this way. It is -- (Heb 6:14 KJV) Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. (blessing by inheritance). We see the True Gospel in the crucifixion of Jesus on the Cross. Jesus’ blood gives us our son-ship when we receive it as payment for our Sin. The body of Jesus gives us our blessings by inheritance -- drawing us into the Kingdom of God to live out our lives -- now in this life.
The Difference
So-- How is this real Gospel of the Kingdom of God different from the gospel we hear today?...It is different in every way. The gospel of today is a message of you must be born again and then you become a Christian. The real Gospel is you become born again and you become a Son and therefore --you become a King in the Kingdom of God. Then --you are sent out as an ambassador to represent the reality of that Kingdom on the earth. When people are drawn to that Kingdom and want to live there also – you tell them about the King of that Kingdom.
Then the false gospel says you must become a member of the local Church and win others into becoming a Christian and do what you are doing. Then keep doing that until Jesus comes and gets you to go and live with Him in Heaven.
That isn’t the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is that you must be born again to see the Kingdom of God. When you see – meaning understand – the Kingdom of God you realize that you are a son of God and therefore-- a member of a royal family. You have been born a King and that you are to live in the Kingdom of God here on the earth now. You are to take dominion over the earth and rule as a King in your Father’s Kingdom while you are here. Your home is here – not in Heaven.
(Gen 1:28 KJV) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
By that I mean that your home is here in the reality of the Kingdom of God – not here in the kingdoms of this world – but here in the Kingdom of God.
So the first half of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is that you have a new relationship to God as your Father and Jesus Christ as Lord and King. Jesus is the King over kings which you have become. This born again experience has established a new relationship between you and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The second half of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is also far different from the gospel we hear today. The second part of the gospel we hear today is that you should join a Church and follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior winning as many people to the Lord as possible. Then you are to live in this world and not be a part of it -- looking all the time for Jesus to come and get you out of here as soon as possible.
It is impossible not to participate in the kingdoms of this world unless you know that there is another Kingdom for you to live in now.
We are to be blessed here by taking dominion here on this earth and live by inheritance as a King. That means that we are to receive all things as ours by inheritance -- not any kind of works. Our works are to be the fruit or evidence of the blessings we receive because we are kings in our Father’s Kingdom. The deception all happens in our heart first. What we do is only the evidence of what we believe in our heart.
Example
When we believe the Lie that we aren’t Kings and have no inheritance -- we have no other option except working in the kingdoms of the world to be blessed A wife can do many good things for her husband to the extent that she becomes a servant as a substitute for being intimately one with him as a wife. She begins to serve him rather than know him. A servant wife and maid doesn’t have an inheritance. She sees herself as someone that is hired to do work.
A man can do many good things for God with the money he earns while he is breaking the laws of God in the ways he obtains the wealth. He sees’s himself as a hired person and so-- he expects to get paid for what he does. He doesn’t live believing that he has an inheritance.
This is the hardest kind of rebellion to detect. It looks good and will be very hard to establish as part of The Lie in our society today. A wife can serve her husband in every outward way yet --she isn’t committed to what the Lord has given him to do. She is like a person that is riding a two seated bike. She is going with her husband wherever he steers -- but she isn’t peddling.
Or-- the man is likened to the same thing. He appears to be obeying the Lord by working hard -- yet he is really a rebel at heart. He believes he can get blessed by working in the kingdoms of this world and giving some of the money he earns to God while all the time living apart from the reality of the Kingdom of God. At that point --in his heart --he has ceased from being a King to being a employee.
Eve could bring the fruit to Adam as an evidence of God’s Kingdom blessings to them by inheritance. That would have been acceptable -- or Eve could bring the fruit to Adam as some work they could do to be like God. That is The Lie that says you can do works in the kingdom of works to be blessed and you won’t die.
A person could bring an unblemished lamb to God as a reminder of what God had given him by inheritance as a son of the Kingdom of God. That is The Truth of the Kingdom of God -- or he could bring a lamb to God to remind God what he was doing for God making himself like God by doing something for God. That’s The Lie.
They are both doing the same action but one is righteousness and the other is sin.
When you don’t believe you are a Son and a King by birth you become Sin.
The subtlety of Sin is this: If I write The Truth in its simplest form it would be ...God imputes righteousness to us as a gift when we receive it as a gift. Then -- because we are righteous by a gift -- the good works we do are the evidence of the righteousness we are by a gift. That statement is The Truth.
Now all that happens to turn The Truth into The Lie is that I reverse the order of the Truth. I -- in effect -- start at the other end of the sentence and say -- I will do good works for God and it will make me the righteousness of God. That is The Lie.
That is the difference between living in the Kingdom of God as a Son and a King and living in the kingdoms of the world as servants to the world. The Kingdom of God is blessings by inheritance and works is blessings for work. One is inheritance and one is payment for work. If I don’t see myself as a Son and a King with an inheritance then I will see myself as a servant doing works to earn my blessings.
Here is another example of wrong belief that is even more subtle. I start out with the belief of the Word of the Lord to me that says by the strips of Jesus I’m healed.
I believe that promise -- but I don’t see the manifestation of that healing yet. The Lord says to me – I want you to eat this certain kind of food because it’s good food and let it remind you that your body is healed because that is your inheritance as a son and king. The Lord is doing all of this -- but He is using something tangible to keep reminding me that it is He that has blessed and healed me.
So I begin to eat that food or take that herb to remind me that I’ve received my well being by inheritance as a king in the Kingdom of God. So that food becomes like taking communion as a reminder that the Lord has blessed and healed me. Now the food or whatever the Lord chooses to use may have things in it my body needs -- but it is given to be a reminder to me and not to heal me.
If I’m not real careful it won’t be long before I’m eating that food so that I will be healed and the food will become my healer rather than the Lord. That leads me into living according to The Lie that if I do something good I will be blessed.
If I fall into that Lie the food has become my healer and my eating it is working to be well. The Lie always leads me into living in the kingdoms of the world. So-- Do you see the importance of putting the first part of the Gospel first? The first part of the Gospel says that I’m created in the exact image of God and that I’m a son or daughter of God by a gift. That relationship makes me a king in the royal family of the Kingdom of God. Then-- because I’m a king in my Father’s house – my inheritance is healing. So --healing is mine by inheritance and not from some works I do.
So if I try to be healed by some other way other than inheritance – then I have to do some sort of works to make it happen because inheritance doesn’t come to me unless I receive it as a gift from my family heritage.
Jesus said – aught not this daughter of Abraham who satan has bound these eighteen years be healed from this sickness? So Jesus is saying because she is a daughter of Abraham to whom the Covenant is given: Be healed because of the Covenant. The answer is yes --she should be healed because of the Covenant and not for any other reason.
Then we see that The Lie says: here --take this food-- or take these herbs and you will be healed and that will make you like God or put you in the family of God. That is The Lie and all that I did was reverse the order that The Truth has established.
When the disciples ask the Lord to teach them to pray -- the Lord said -- Pray like this. Thy Kingdom come -- Thy will be done. That is in the imperative tense. That means-- Pray that My Kingdom will come -- Now; That My will be done -- Now -- before this opportunity passes and God isn’t glorified. You can pray that while still believing that you aren’t a king in the Kingdom of God and therefore-- your faith won’t activate that Truth.
Seeing yourself as a son and king will cause your prayer to be a prayer of believing The Truth and therefore --the power of the Kingdom of God will be released to bring to pass what you have prayer for.
So Jesus was saying -- Pray expecting an immediate answer. Expect an immediate answer because you are living in a real Kingdom where its laws work as soon as they are applied in belief. Praying without believing is just a religious exercise that produces nothing good.
Well the question comes up then -- How is it that so many people miss the significance of the simplicity of this message?
(Mat 13:10 KJV) And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Talking in parables would seem to make the clarity of the Kingdom of God message even harder to understand. Surely Jesus’ purpose in teaching the True Gospel this way is to make it easy to understand -- or is it?
(Mat 13:11 KJV) He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
(Mat 13:12 KJV) For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
The question is -- He who has not what? The answer is -- He who has not a heart’s desire to know the Truths of the Kingdom of God. I believe that Jesus is saying -- if you don’t have a heart to know Me intimately -- you will not be given understanding about My Kingdom.
(Mat 13:13 KJV) Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
(Mat 13:14 KJV) And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
(Mat 13:15 KJV) For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Do you see the order that God has established? You are to seek the Kingdom of God first. When you do -- your heart is enlightened and you become converted -- or born again. Then -- after being born again and seeing the Kingdom of God -- you are changed -- by entering into the Kingdom of God as a real place to live out the rest of your life. When we begin to live that life -- more of that life is added to our experience and we have been blessed with eyes and ears to see and hear more about Kingdom living.
(Mat 13:16 KJV) But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
(Mat 13:17 KJV) For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
I ask you to consider this. This is saying -- there have been many prophets and righteous men that have desired to hear the things that God is saying about His Kingdom and have not been able to understand them. Well -- Why can’t they hear what God is saying -- they are righteous men? Shouldn’t they be able to hear what God is saying?
To me -- this is saying these righteous men were born again and made righteous by the blood of Jesus -- yet -- they couldn’t hear the Truth that God was saying about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
I must ask -- Why couldn’t they hear? I believe that they weren’t looking for the Truth of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God first in their life. They had some other message they thought was more important than seeking the Kingdom of God first.
When we don’t seek the Kingdom of God first -- our message isn’t the whole Truth so we can’t walk in the power of that Kingdom with miracles following. So -- no-one will listen to what we are saying. I don’t believe that people would have believed what Jesus was saying if it hadn’t been authenticated by miracles. Those miracles weren’t given to prove the message. They were the evidence that the message was true. The wetness of water isn’t given to convince me that it is water. The wetness is the evidence that it is water.
When we begin to teach about the Truth of the Kingdom of God and that teaching isn’t accompanied by miracles because we don’t really believe it -- people just won’t believe what is said -- and they shouldn’t. Then -- because of the lack of interest in the people about what we are saying -- we alter our message to suit the likes and dislikes of the people. We mix the world’s ways into the message we teach. This draws many people into accepting Jesus as their Savior -- but they don’t live in the reality of the Kingdom of God. They aren’t even told that they can live in such a place. Most often the teacher doesn’t even know you can live in such a place.
Those born again believers have a King -- but they can’t see any Kingdom to live in except the kingdoms of this world.
You will find them everywhere trying to live the reality of the Kingdom while doing everything the way the kingdoms of the world does them. I don’t mean living in some outwardly sinful way -- but rather living a religious way. Talking about the Jesus that they have learned about but never really knowing Him on a daily basis.
How can we learn so much about Jesus and still never know Him? Learning about Jesus can make you smart about the things He said and did -- but knowing Him in an intimate and personal way involves personal changes within us. Jesus resists the proud and gives grace to the humble to know Him. Jesus’ humility is part of His character. If I’m to know Him -- it requires me to become like Him. To become like Him -- I have to die to myself. Knowing a lot tends to make us proud and lifts us up -- especially if miracles are part of our relationship with Him. Miracles given to us out of His grace for our ignorance rather than for the power of our faith.
After the disciples went forth with the power of Jesus on them -- they did many miracles. They came back from doing the Lord’s work and we’re lifted up by the things that they were able to do under the anointing of Jesus. We know that they were lifted up because they were arguing about who should be the greatest among them. They must have been comparing who did the greatest or most miracles as though they had done them by their own power.
Spiritual Fornication
Getting people saved without telling them about blessings by inheritance -- Kingship and the reality of the Kingdom of God as a place to live in is what I call spiritual fornication.
Sleeping with Jesus in order to get saved and then trying to follow Him by the methods of the world is spiritual fornication. What we see happening today is the result of that error. Lots of people being born again and then knowing about the Kingdom of God afar off -- never knowing that they are Kings with authority and so -- they are unable to live in the reality of the Kingdom of God where Jesus is Lord. They are people that are receiving Jesus as Savior but not as Lord. They don’t know that they are kings with the authority of a king to take dominion over the affairs of their lives and make them conform to the Word of God to bless them.
We see nothing like that in the ministry of Jesus. He taught the Truths of the Kingdom of God and the miracles authenticated His teachings. There was total commitment to Him as Lord of His Kingdom and the reality of that Kingdom of God was lived on a daily basis. Their witness changed their world.
Sixty-nine times the Kingdom of God is mentioned in the New Testament. Thirty- two times the Kingdom of Heaven is mentioned. That Gospel is the True Gospel and it holds center place in the teachings of the early New Testament believers.
|
