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Chapter Eight
Trying to Understand
Most of us that have a computer understand what WINDOWS mean. There are different versions of windows that are programs that you can buy to run on your computer. Windows 95 -- Windows 98 and so on.
Well that is an old idea. Our Bible is a book of windows. As you click on each verse you open a window of information. That verse takes you to another verse that -- if you open that verse by asking the Holy Spirit to tell you what it means -- it takes you to many Truths hidden in the Word of God.
So the Bible is a book of windows that will last forever as far as revealing the will and wisdom of God to us. So as I search the scriptures with the mind of Christ to guide me -- I learn about the depth of the riches of Christ in me.
In the Gospels of -- Matthew -- Mark -- Luke -- and John -- Jesus says fifteen different times -- but I say unto you. First Jesus quotes an Old Testament commandment spoken to you through your ears. Then Jesus said -- but I say unto you and then He tells us what His position is on that subject as it pertains to the Kingdom of God. Then He tells us that He would write those commandments on our hearts so that we and they would hear them from the inside of them instead of from the outside.
His position was and is -- Moses gave you the law and now I’m going to write the law on your heart so that you will love to do it. You will love to do them because they are the laws that make the Kingdom of God bless us.
Jesus is saying -- I can only write on a heart that belongs to Me. I can’t write My laws on the heart that belongs to someone else. So-- for Jesus to be able to write on my heart He has to own it. He can only own it if I give it to Him as His.
When Jesus is Lord He owns my heart and I become a son of God and a King in the Kingdom of God. I’m still in training but I’m a son and a King from my new birth.
What Moses and the prophets said was what the Law demanded of a person in order to live a blessed life of the Kingdom of God in this world. Those laws were on the outside of you -- demanding you live a certain way. An honest person will soon come to the conclusion that living that way can’t be done in our natural strength. Moses never gave those laws to Israel so they could become righteous by keeping them. Israel’s righteousness was to come to them through the promise of the redeeming blood of the Messiah. Then the Laws of Moses were given to tell them how to be blessed by inheritance. The people then and the people now don’t understand blessing by inheritance -- so Jesus was teaching them the Truth about those Laws.
Then Jesus said -- But I say unto you. Jesus was saying the laws of Moses tell you how you must live if you want to experience the best that God has for you even if you want to try to do it yourself. Then Jesus says -- but what I’m saying now is -- how to live in the reality of the Kingdom of God now so that God will give you His blessings by inheritance. Jesus is saying -- In My Kingdom -- those Laws of Moses are written on your heart and because they are -- you delight to do them. You don’t do them to get an increase – you do them because you have the riches of God’s Kingdom as yours.
(Psa 40:8 KJV) I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
If you don’t delight to do them -- they are not written on your heart yet. You can easily check yourself to see what direction you’re growing in. Are you more of a – meet your own needs person and so-- work for all that you have or are you a person that is resting in all that the Lord has given to you by inheritance?
Ask yourself -- Do I love my wife more now than I did when we first got married? Do I delight her more than I did then? Does she delight me more than she did then? Do I seek King Jesus more today than I did when I first met Him? Is He my first love? Would I rather be with Him more than anyone else? Do I take time to talk with Him and ask what He would like to do today? Do I see Him as my Husband and supply and so take the time to enjoy the blessings He has given me?
If your answer isn’t yes -- then you are growing apart from the very one that created you to be with Him and to give you the riches of His Kingdom by inheritance. If you are a Truth seeker -- you know if those things are true of not. It doesn’t matter what other people think about you. What is true about you on the inside is what you should be concerned about.
You can fool other people into thinking you are growing and shame on you if you’re doing that -- but the greatest danger is -- Are you fooling yourself?
The Laws of the Kingdom haven’t changed -- but Jesus was speaking to people that were seeking His Kingdom and were ready to leave the kingdoms of this world behind. Not leave this world in death -- but leave the bondage of the kingdoms of this world that demanded a way of life that was a law to you rather than a love that you had for Jesus and His Kingdom.
Was Jesus teaching -- these are the ways of the Kingdom of God here and now -- but you can’t ever come to the place where you can live in them now? No -- He wasn’t saying that because Jesus and His disciples lived in the reality of the Kingdom. The miracles were the evidence of that reality. The early Church lived that same way and we see it in the first four chapters of the book of Acts.
So what enabled them to enter into the reality of that Kingdom of God -- living where -- even Peter’s shadow healed people when he walked by? Jesus’ seeking heart for the reality of the Kingdom of God caused even the waves and wind to obey Him.
I believe that first -- the early believers were seeking the Kingdom of God with their whole heart. I mean that they were looking for a real Kingdom to live in now on this earth. When they were doing that -- they found themselves in one place and in one accord. They were gathered in the upper room waiting for the reality of the Kingdom that Jesus taught them was coming.
There were many people that came in contact with Jesus and the reality of His Kingdom -- but there were only one hundred and twenty of them really looking and seeking for the reality of the King and His Kingdom. They came into a oneness of purpose and directed their whole life in that search.
They had found a treasure hidden in the earth that Jesus told about and they were looking to sell all that would stop them from living that Kingdom life now. They wanted to buy that field or life where the Kingdom of God was a reality.
(Mat 13:44 NIV) "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
I believe that is our part in coming into the reality of the Kingdom of God. God’s part is at the appointed time -- the Holy Spirit falls and there is an anointing given to every hungry heart that has no other purpose than to know the King and the reality of His Kingdom now. Are you seeking and waiting for the manifestation of the King and the Kingdom of God for your life? Jesus’ responses to the events of the kingdoms of this world were always that the kingdoms of this world were subject to a higher Kingdom – the Kingdom of God.
(Jer 29:13 KJV) And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
I’m placing a strong emphasis on -- Now -- because Jesus did. He said pray that His Kingdom would come -- Now -- into your present circumstances -- today. That His Kingdom would be displayed for all to see within your circumstances today -- lest this opportunity pass and God not be glorified. Jesus’ instructions were given in an imperative tense. That meant for us to look for God to manifest Himself in every circumstance of our daily life.
Until our belief of what Jesus said rises to meet every circumstance of life -- we settle for getting our needs and others needs met by the power of the kingdoms of this world. We must know the difference and seek the power of God’s Kingdom until we get it.
We are sons of our Father and we have an inheritance and we are Kings in our Father’s Kingdom and we have authority.
I believe that God’s people -- that understand this Truth -- are still living in the kingdoms of this world -- yet ordering their lives according to the Truths of the Kingdom of God. Their eyes are on the promises of God to bring forth the hidden Kingdom within them.
In that place -- it is very dark and we can’t see very far ahead. We -- by faith -- are believing what we have heard Jesus say to us in His Word. It seems like such a long journey -- but there is an end and our expectation won’t be cut off.
So this book is endeavoring to help us realize that -- although we live in the kingdoms of this world because of our weak faith and wrong teaching -- we will not settle for that. We are going to seek the reality of the King and His Kingdom until we live in it every minute. What is the cost of such an experience -- everything? Except a man forsake not all that he has he cannot be my disciple.
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