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Chapter 2
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Understanding
When I’m born again -- I can see and receive knowledge of this new Kingdom of God so I can understand how it works. Without understanding I can’t give myself to this new life I have been born into.
The Lord said to me the other morning: I have a dream. I replied -- Lord -- You are God; You can have anything you want can’t you? He said -- No; I can’t make a person love Me and I can’t make people want to have Me to be King over them.
Then He asked me -- Will you choose Me to be King over you -- every day? You see -- in My Kingdom you can leave anytime you want to. You choose every day who will reign over you.
To see and experience the Kingdom of God in my life as a real place to live on a daily basis (like giving us our daily bread) Jesus said -- I have to surrender lordship over my own life to the King of the Kingdom of God. When I do that -- I become a citizen of that Kingdom and come into all the privileges of that Kingdom.
(Luke 14:26 KJV) If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
(Luke 14:27 KJV) And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
What Cross? Not Jesus’ Cross -- but my cross and my cross is giving up lordship over myself. I must come to the place where it is no longer I that live -- but Christ that lives in me and the life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God that gave Himself for me.
(Luke 14:28 KJV) For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Do I have what it takes to give over my life to the Lordship of Jesus? That is the question before every believer today. If I won’t do that or can’t -- I will just become religious.
(Luke 14:29 KJV) Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
(Luke 14:30 KJV) Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
How does a person start to build? He hears the message of the Gospel of the Kingdom and says -- Yes -- I want to live in the Kingdom of God. Then -- he submits himself to the Lordship of Jesus over him and he can see the Kingdom of God as a reality.
Then -- he gets up the next morning and has a choice. Will he choose to let Jesus order his day and to live His life through him? If he won’t do that -- he is a person that starts out but can’t finish what he said he would do. If Jesus isn’t Lord every day -- then I haven’t submitted to His Lordship over me.
(Luke 14:31 KJV) Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
(Luke 14:32 KJV) Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
Who are these kings? We are those kings. One king is my spirit-man that made Jesus Lord over me. The other king is my soul and body (my self-rule) that still wants to be lord over me.
If I’m born again -- the spirit-man within me is trying to make the other king in me (my natural man) give up his love for the rule of my body. The foundation is laid within me -- if my spirit-man is surrendered to Jesus as Lord.
So -- within me I have these two kings squaring off to make war as to who will rule within me. Notice the other king has twice as many men as the spirit-man has. That is because the spirit-man stands alone with Jesus as Lord.
The soul stands with the body against the spirit king. He either stands and fights using the weapons of the Lord’s warfare -- or he tries to make peace with the enemy and live together with the body and soul in charge.
That choice is sure defeat for a life in the spirit with Jesus as Lord over me.
(Luke 14:33 KJV) So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
(Luke 14:34 KJV) Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
The spirit-man within you is the salt of the earth. You’re made of earth or dirt. The spirit-man in you is the salt of the Kingdom in you. He makes you love the things of the Kingdom -- but if he loses that ability to draw the other king (your natural man) into that Kingdom -- then he has lost his reason to live on the Earth.
(Luke 14:35 KJV) It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
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