Edition 38. April 26th 2010
In this edition:
●The Kingdom of God
●Statistical review.
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Statistical review:
The daily statistics for this website have been very encouraging indeed. We are now almost at 500,000 regular visitors. Many of these are unique or first time visitors, but a large amount are returning visitors. There is a growing number of people who stay on the website for over an hour at a time. We also have regulars from all over the world. Although the site is only in English at the moment, we have a growing number from nations which aren't English speaking. We also have a growing number from some Arab countries. We have regular visitors from. The US, Canada and South American countries. Then we have a lot from South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Ethiopia. We have regular visitors from Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia Libya, Turkey, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Russia Finally we have some from Australia.
I've had many very encouraging emails as well as some negative comments from a few from people who are traditional die-hards. The great majority have been very positive and encouraging indeed.
The glorious eternal Kingdom
Firstly we must identify what the Kingdom of God is. You may be shocked to find out!.
The Kingdom is essentially everything that is and will be under the headship of the KING of KINGS. It is therefore not the church. The church (not all of them) only makes up part of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is: Those within the church that are born of the Spirit of God. The unsaved that will become saved at some point (God knows them) It also is the Jews and Arabs that are and will become truly saved. It is heaven and all of the universe, as well as this earth. The earth and the entire universe are going to renovated and purified.
In a certain sense even hell is part of the Kingdom of God, simply because Yeshua / Jesus has authority (the keys) over hell, but we won't get into this now.
In essence the Kingdom of God is infinitely greater than we can imagine.
This Kingdom has a King. We need to understand just who He is.
Let me tell you who He is not. He isn't the lamb...gentle Jesus meek and mild who came to this earth as the suffering servant. Yes of course its the same person but that's now past. Its the resurrected Christ...the Lion of the tribe of Judah. It's our Jewish Messiah as He is now and will be forever.
Many people incorrectly call the book of Revelation, Revelations. It is THE Revelation (singular) of Jesus Christ. Yes the book contains many revelations of various things, but the central issue is the unveiling and revealing of Yeshua / Jesus as He is now and will be for all eternity. No wonder the book itself promises a double blessing to anyone who reads it!
Right here we have one of the biggest problems of our day. Most believers have very little idea of who their King is. They are taught very little of the full truth and as a result have an incomplete, half baked spiritual state. They know plenty about Jesus as He was when on earth, but nothing of who He is now.
Our King of Glory:
I want to share with you just some of the descriptive terms used in the Revelation of our wonderful risen Messiah. He is:
"The Beginning and the End the First and the Last". "The Almighty, The Son of Man, The Son of God". "His eyes are like a flame of fire, His feet are like fine brass and His voice is like the sound of many waters". "Out of His mouth goes a sharp two edged sword and His countenance is like the sun". "He is the judge of all." "I am alive forevermore." "I have the keys of Hades and death." "I will give him to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God." "I will give you the crown of life" "To them that overcome I will give power over the nations...I will give him the morning star." "And they shall walk with Me in white for they are worthy...I will not blot his name from the Book of Life." "He has the key of David...He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of God."
"He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone and there was a rainbow around the throne...from the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices...before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal." You are worthy O Lord to receive glory honour and power"."Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive riches, wisdom, strength honour power, glory and blessing." "There shall be no more curse, no more tears...behold the tabernacle of God is with man." "His name is KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."
Some other titles for our risen King found in the scriptures include: "The Lion, the Eagle, the Fortress, the Tower of our strength, Lord of all the earth, The consuming fire, the Judge of all. The Light of the world"...and many more.
We need to develop Kingdom mentality with Kingdom eyes! As we do this we will be more and more liberated from worldly mentality. Kingdom mentality is all about resurrection life. Its about life on the far side of the cross.
Kingdom mentality liberates us from human or man orientated thinking. Obviously it liberates us from all church division. You can't be Kingdom minded and be content with a divided church...impossible! Earthly minded people form and create divisions out of their non-kingdom view. Jude 19 "These are soulish people who cause divisions, not having the Spirit."
Only the Kingdom is unshakeable and eternal:
The Bible declares: Hebrews 12: 26-29 "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven...Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."
We are fast approaching a grand climax of conflict between good and evil. Both will grow and ripen together. But God will shake everything that can be shaken. Everything that people hold onto for security will be shaken. Perilous times are coming. John 9:4 "The night is coming when no one can work." Isaiah 60:2,3, 15 "Darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people, but the Lord will arise over you and His glory will be seen upon you." vs 15 "I will make you an eternal excellence." (This is speaking of the Jew, but it does applies generally to believers.)
There is a dramatic and somewhat shocking statement from God in Revelation 22: 11 "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still and he who is holy, let him be holy still."
This simply indicates that the times we are entering into now are going to see the fence of separation between good and evil rise higher and higher. It also contradicts the theory that in the end all will be saved. That verse says let the wicked and evil be and let us get on with our King's business. It is only our Lord's holy Kingdom of righteousness that will endure.
Let me tell you another shocking thing. The church (much of it) will be shaken to the ground! "NO", you say, "its the Kingdom". Well, I say, "no its not". The divided sectarian church is a creation of man and will not survive ultimately. Yes those who are born of the Spirit of God within churches will be saved, but institutionalised, organised modern churchianity is a kingdom divided and destined to fall.
I want to ask all pastors, very reverends and priests in their pretty frocks this question: If there will be only one body of Christ in eternity with no divisions, why have them now? The answer is simply because they don't have a Kingdom vision or mentality and have no fear of God. Many of these leaders say they are seeking the Lord, but they won't find Him, because He's not in those churches! God's message to the seven churches in the Revelation is shocking. Please see edition 11 titled "Glory and Horror."
The Kingdom is deep!
The Kingdom is within us declares our Lord, but the Bible also says that unless you are born again, you won't see the Kingdom. So we need spiritual eyes to even get a glimpse of the Kingdom. "Deep calls unto deep" says the Bible, and this is really where we need to go in terms of study, prayer and devotion. No casual enquirer will find the deep things of God. We need to pursue Him and wait on Him with abandonment. To those that hunger for righteousness they will be fed...to them even bitter is sweet.
Sometimes it seems that the Kingdom is far off. This is simply to cause us to become more diligent in our pursuit of God. It never ceases to amaze me how shallow many Christians are. They are bound by the distractions of the god of this world and all their works will be burned up like fire hitting grass.
Draw away from the conventional my friends! Your Christianity must be a glorious adventure and a constant discovery of new things as you go forward and deeper with our Lord. You can't live on second-hand revelation or on the wisdom of other people. Yes they can inspire you, but you need to go on to the depths of God personally and in solitude. You will stand alone before God one day and you alone are answerable and responsible for your spiritual development.
This 'me now' generation of superficial Christians are worldly wise and Kingdom ignorant. They have an imaginary Christ and essentially an imaginary salvation!
Hosea 2:14 "I will lead her into solitude in the wilderness and there I will speak to her heart." Psalm 119: 130 "The entrance of Your word gives light, giving understanding."
The Kingdom is perfect..A call to perfection!
It goes without saying that the Kingdom of God is pure, perfect, holy and without fault. On this side of eternity we, unfortunately are not, but dwelling in our hearts is the pure, perfect and holy One. Our re-created spirit is perfect already. It's the soul or mind area that needs all the change. But if we have the Perfect One in our hearts and He has made us perfect in spirit, all we need to do is surrender our minds to Him and He will leads us on to greater things.
Hebrews 6:1 "...Let us go on to perfection." Now this obviously doesn't mean that we will never sin. It means that we need to be moving forward to deeper maturity. It is gloriously symbolised in Proverbs 4 :18 "The path of the righteous is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day." As a child of the King and a citizen of His Kingdom this is what we need. You need to be moving ever forward with our Lord. If you're not, you are in danger of losing momentum and backsliding.
We become what we passionately desire!
There are two sides to our development as believers. The first is our internal growth and the second is our actions. Too many times the internal character negates what we do!
There is coming a time soon where we will stand face to face before our Lord and everything in us and about us that is not pure and of Him, will be stripped out. Amazingly Jesus says in Mathew 5:48 :Be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect." In this day and age that's quite a statement, but nevertheless it stands! Yes this relates to attitude and relationship, but it most certainly has effects on our outward actions.
2 Peter 2:3-4" His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given us exceeding great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." This discourse ends in verses 10 & 11 "...if you do these things you will never stumble and so an entrance will be supplied to abundantly into the everlasting kingdom."
You see, if we add to our faith and move forward with our Lord now, it will be so, so worth while and we will be forever thankful!
On a practical level, to mature in our Lord we need some serious internal development in terms of pure doctrine, prayer, and getting to know our Lord more intimately. In terms of our outward actions we need to make some serious changes in direction and the things we do and don't do and this needs serious discipline.
On a personal level, I can tell you that I'm really drawn to people who know our Messiah deeply and are holy. They stand out from the crowd!! They have an incredible depth to them, which you can sense. They condemn the world not with words, but just by their actions and the things they deny themselves and will have no part in!
After all this is the message of the cross isn't it. The tragedy of our day is that too many churches and their offspring are actually enemies of the cross! Philippians 3:18 speaks of these people. No cross, no denial, no forsaking, for us they say, Jesus did it all. They aren't enemies of Christ, they are enemies of the cross of Christ and the application of it. Read it.
The application of the cross deals with and kills the influence of the world, the power of the flesh and the demonic in the believers life. No cross...you're a friend of the world, the flesh and the devil!
Godliness the Godly way is a life of purpose, meaning, depth and reality. It's like an illusive fragrance, the fragrance of our God. People know you've been with God. They may not respond, but they know that you are His. If you are no different to the people of the world, you're a giant failure of a Christian!
It's so exciting to meat someone who is a Godly radical and who is totally different from the world and its ways...its inspiring! You want to get inside their head and discover the wonders of what (or who) motivates them to be like this.
If we have the living God, the King of Kings in our hearts by the new birth, His characteristics will impact us and we will be drawn to His will and ways. This creates in us a glorious identity crisis. There has to be a growing clash in our very hearts between His ways and our old-nature ways.
If God is in our hearts, He is perfect and therefore we will be drawn to perfection. We will know what it is and be empowered to get there, if we throw off the hindrances and surrender to Him.
Psalm 119: 133 "Direct my steps by Your word and let no iniquity have dominion over me."
Job 41: 5,6 "I have heard of you Lord by the hearing of my ear, but now my spiritual eye sees you and I repent in dust and ashes."
Isaiah 6:5 "Woe is me for I am undone...I dwell in the midst of the unclean; for my eyes have seen the King."
After Pentecost:
The feasts of the Lord have amazing typology wrapped up in them. The feasts plot our journey. The feast of Passover relates to the crucifixion and our salvation. Then comes the feast of Pentecost. This relates to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the infilling of the Spirit, which gives us power to live the Christian life. Finally, we have the Feast of Tabernacles. This relates to our dwelling in our Lords presence. I'm not talking about heaven here, although that is the case as well. What I'm really referring to is a new dimension of dwelling in the secret place of our Lord now, which only comes through absolute surrender! Very few believers today know this place! It is the highest level of intimacy, relationship and Kingdom living. It is the place of deep inner rest and untold joy.
This is our Kingdom journey. It's from Passover to Pentecost to Tabernacles or from salvation to power to dwelling in His presence.
You are of infinite value to our God and His Kingdom. The image below is of the Hope Diamond. It is the most valuable in the world. It's like a piece of dung compared to the value of you in the Kingdom.
This is the end of our salvation.
The conflict of the ages
Romans 14:17 "The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." This is really the full characteristic of the Kingdom in just one verse. The Bible contrasts it in various places with the characteristics of the unsaved world. There is no peace for the wicked and all of its works are worthless.
Hosea 4 Speaks of the downfall of a nation, but the principle can be perfectly applied to an individual. It says because there is no truth or knowledge of God in the land, the people will break all restraint and the land will mourn. So it is the knowledge of God that causes restraint in us.
Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint."
Proverbs 28:4 "Those who forsake the knowledge of God, praise the wicked."
We need to die to and forsake the moulding influences of the world deep within us. Every aspect of Hollywood and it's people is rebellion to God and His ways. It will all end in hell, yet this is the subtle major influence of the majority of Christians today.
In this day we need to know our Lord more deeply, yet this is the time of bubble-gum, shallow, digital-head Christians with no time or desire for the deep things of God.
Complete character renovation and desire-change doesn't come easily, because of all the pressure of the world, but it is so, so worth it!
Genesis 32:28-30 Records the time when Jacob wrestled with God and almost endured. That's how strong the power of the flesh is. But then when Jacob gave up and allowed God to triumph, he called the place where it happened Peniel which means "I have seen God face to face and my life is now preserved."
The way to victory in our personal conflicts is the way of absolute surrender in all humility to our King. We need to reject and forsake the ways of the world.
Amazingly, with our Lord's help, you can battle something for a long time and then one day you wake up and you just know you are free, transformed and renovated. Sometimes that comes quickly, but most times its a conflict and battle that takes time, either way it's the way to glory.
It's good to know that the conflict of the ages has already been won positionally and will soon be completed in time and space.
Conclusion:
"Thy Kingdom come" says the Bible. Many will never see it. For many it's here already. The future aspect of the Kingdom will see it's full manifestation in total glory with the total defeat and destruction of everything that is of the kingdom of this world and its god Satan. Enlightened self interest should dictate whose Kingdom you need to be a part of! The fullness of the Kingdom of God is coming anyway, weather you like it, believe it or not. Please make the right choice.
The Kingdom is eternal, universal, timeless and theocratic. Did you say theocratic? You mean it's not a democracy? You mean God won't consult me and consider my views? Yes. The Kingdom can't be joined. People can only enter it by birth. It can't even be seen outside of the new birth! It is not the church. It's above the church which by definition is only those born of God and not those who think they are Christians because they've joined a church. The Kingdom of God is great and it's our eternal home!
My friends, we are entering exciting times. Times of great short-lived conflict and horror and a time of glory forever more!
Psalm 110: 3 "Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power, in the beauties of holiness."
Isaiah 9: 7 "Of the increase of His government there will be no end..."
Heaven or hell:
Old lady, if you get born again you will see the Kingdom of God. You don't even need your natural eyes to see right into eternity. If you are born again you will see wonderful things with your spiritual eyes. You will become part of things too magnificent to even explain in language. My dear old friend...you need to be born again and made new now, your days are just about up.
Young woman you have your future ahead of you, but its not going to be as long as you think. Time is short. You may be caught out if you intend delaying your entrance into the Kingdom of God. Even in the short time left, you have incredible potential to fulfil God's call and plan for the remainder of your life. Do you know that just like a jig saw puzzle piece, God has a plan and a place that only you can fulfil in His Kingdom? Don't gamble with your life!
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In closing here is a woodcut by Gustav Dore entitled 'Paradiso'.
Kind regards and many blessings...Shalom and grow in grace!
