The
Kingdom of God
I realize that a lot has been said
and written about the Kingdom of
God, but I thought that I should add my thoughts to the sands of the
sea which are available to you, dear reader, to sift through - that you
might find a precious nugget here or there.
It seems to me that the Kingdom of
God consists of a King - God, and
all those who are truly loyal and obedient to Him - His people.
In addition, His Kingdom also consists of everything that is necessary
and proper which are needed by His people to do His will.
The Christian Bible says that the
Kingdom of God is 'hidden', and that
wise people are able to find that hidden treasure, and out of joy they
purchase the field where the treasure is hidden in order to make it
their own!
My observation is that the Kingdom of
God is only hidden in the sense
that certain people are able to perceive it and become part of
it. I once had a vision of a man wanting to enter God's Kingdom,
which was surrounded by an insurmountable stone wall. The only
entrance was a very short door, and those who wanted to enter had to
bow themselves as low as possible in order to enter through that
door! hmmm
I have also observed those who were
not able to perceive the Kingdom of
God. I once attended and participated as an usher in a meeting of
perhaps five thousand people where the guest presenters at the meeting
were leaders of the 'Brownsville Revival'. It appeared to me that
many people were being touched by the Spirit of God because there was
great joy, and some healings and lots of peacefulness. There was
also lots of excitement because many people were being touched by God
in new and different ways. But in the midst of that large group
of people sat three or four pastors of a church I once attended with
their arms crossed and disapproving expressions on their faces as they
observed the 'holy chaos' of the prayer time at the end of the meeting,
and when they heard the testimonies of people who had been touched by
God's Spirit in many different and unique ways. It appeared to me
that almost everyone at that meeting could perceive the Kingdom of God
in action, but those few who were too dignified to participate could
not perceive God in action. Jesus talked about the 'blind leading
the blind', and I thought I had a glimpse of certain blind leaders that
evening.
It is easy to tell what is - and what
is not - a manifestation of the
Kingdom of God. The apostle Paul, in Romans 14:17 makes the
statement that "the Kingdom of God is
not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit."
And that's all I have to say about
that, dear reader.
Well, that's not entirely true.
I do have some other comments
about what is and what is not the kingdom of God.
First, loyalty to God is the first
and foremost attribute of the
Kingdom of God. But one cannot be loyal to another king and still
be loyal to God. Therefore we must all choose whom we will serve,
and then serve our king faithfully according to the king's will.
Just doing kingdom things does not make one loyal to the King!
Second, the end does not justify the
means. God does not allow
ungodly means to be used to produce Godly manifestations and results. For example, one cannot
steal and give to the poor and expect God's approval for stealing is
against God's law.
Third, and most importantly, only
Jesus Christ can produce in us the
loving loyalty to God which is the essence of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus Christ is the King Whom God the Father has appointed to rule
until the time when Jesus turns the Kingdom over to God the Father, and
Father rules all in all!
1Co_15:28
Now when all things
are made subject to Him [Jesus Christ], then also the Son Himself
[Jesus] will be subjected to Him [God the Father] who subjected all
things to Him, in order that God may be all in all.
This may shock you, dear
reader, but the fundamental attribute of the people of God's kingdom is
not faith, it is humility - also called spiritual poverty.
Spiritual poverty begins with a combination of brokenness and
contrition. Brokenness is the realization and acceptance that one
cannot please God or do His will unless one is abiding in Jesus Christ
and Jesus Christ is abiding in that person. Contrition is the act
of admitting that there is no hope of pleasing God or doing His will by
ourselves apart from Jesus Christ. Righteousness, peace and joy
all come only from The Righteous, Peaceful and Joyful God of creation
living in a person. No one has true, constant, eternal
righteousness, peace and joy in and of themselves.
God has this to say about that:
Rom_3:10 Just as it is written:
"There is none righteous, no not one.
What
does this mean to the average person? It means that we cannot
imitate God, and that all of our efforts to imitate God are wasted
effort at best, and contrary to His plans and purposes for us at
worst. In a word - every effort to imitate God is sin. (!)
Why? Because in and of ourselves we have NO IDEA what God would
really do in any situation, and we don't have the ability to do what
God would do anyway because we are not God.
We may think that we would know, but we would not unless we have God
actually dwelling in us, and we are free from all other influences
including ourselves.
GOOD NEWS ALERT! Here is some
Good News for you, dear
reader!
2Co_5:19
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not
reckoning their transgressions to them, and committing to us the word
of this reconciliation.
And here is some more
Good News:
2Co 5:14 For
the love of Christ
compels us, having concluded this: that if One died for all, then all
died;
2Co 5:15 and He died for all, so that they who live should live
no longer for themselves, but for the One who died for them and rose
again.
What does this mean?
does it mean that because Jesus
Christ dies on a cross two thousand years ago that we are able to live
for God rather than for ourselves? I don't think so. I
think that it means that Jesus died and was raised from the dead in
order to generate the grace by which we can get ourselves set free from
our selfishness and pride and waywardness from God in order to be free
to get Jesus Christ to live our His perfect life in us and thorough us
to fulfill God's calling on our lives. Faith is not just
believing that some spiritual fact or condition is true. True
faith is wanting to do
God's
will, and trusting
Jesus to give us the ability to do our Heavenly Father's will.
For example, in Acts Chapter 8 we
find the account of an outbreak of
the Kingdom of God in a place called Samaria. God had
directed one of His children named Philip to go to Samaria, to
proclaim the Kingdom of God there, and the people there believed the
Good News which Philip proclaimed to them, and they humbled themselves
before God in water baptism to claim the death of Jesus as their death
to sin, and to claim Jesus as their Source of the righteousness, peace
and joy of God. Lots of great things were happening, and then God
wanted to send the Good News to the land of Ethiopia. So He
directs one of His messengers to tell Philip to go down the desert road
to Gaza. Philip, not relying on his own understanding but
trusting God's directing through the messenger, obeys. Philip
meets an Ethiopian eunuch, evangelizes him, the eunuch wants to be
baptized, a pool of water is available on this desert road to Gaza (!),
Philip baptizes the eunuch in the water, and immediately the Spirit of
God catches up Philip and apparently transports him to a place called
Azotus while the Ethiopian eunuch goes home to Ethiopia rejoicing!
Now I ask you, dear reader, would you
have thought of that chain of
events to result in the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom of
God in Ethiopia? No? I didn't think so. Neither would
I have figured out that plan, let alone being able to carry it out to
successful completion. God's ways are simply not our ways, and we
have to abandon our ways if we are going to live life God's way!
The Apostle Paul makes some
statements which show the essence of the
Kingdom of God, and are totally inconsistent with learning God's ways
out of a Book and imitating God on our own:
Gal 2:20 I
have been crucified
with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
Gal 2:21 I do not annul the grace of God; for if righteousness
comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing."
1Co_15:31 I affirm, by my boasting in you which I have in Christ
Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
And our Lord Jesus Himself said this:
Luk_9:23
And He [Jesus] said to them all, If any man will come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
[accompany] Me.
I think that is all I have to write
about that.