The Holy One calls to me this morning. Wrestles can seem so dark to my mind like the watches of the night just before dawn. But when the Holy Spirit speaks the darkness gives way to light and that Light is Truth.
Today His word to me corrects any misconception I might have about His ruling authority. "The Kingdom of Heaven is not a democracy!"
Oddly enough, this brings a smile to my face and a joy to my soul. I have been caught up with all that is going on in the world of politics and feel a great frustration in my "righteous" spirit as the people and so called majority have voted for the principles of darkness to govern this nation.
I have been arrogant in past thinking that our democratically operating Republic could handle all the challenges coming against it. While I believe that this (our form of )government based on the wisdom of our founders according to their guiding principles of faith in the One True God, is the best government ever established on earth, I am brought to the truth that no external government of men is sustainable given the degree of evil that lies within the human heart.
Sin is a reality of humanity and evil has a grip on every man or woman ever born. Eventually depravity will take over and external government will fail. Today the Lord has taken me deep into the subject matter of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Living my temporal life in a place governed by the rule of the majority, even with its good founding principles locked into a constitution, I find that evil can conquer and over-rule through deception so that we, as a people, can actually be led by consent to surrender all that makes us free. Literally speaking, we can vote our way into bondage and become slaves to a system that thrives on wickedness.
Religion is no different in concept than our "democracy". Its the rules and our observation of them that make us feel secure. What a shock it is to our entire sense of well-being when we realize the government is our enemy and our observation of rules is not enough to keep us safe.
It took the 1st coming of Christ to straighten out our thinking and reveal the Kingdom of Heaven to our darkened minds. At the time of His 2nd coming He will execute judgment on all that stands in opposition to the Kingdom of Heaven and His ruling authority as King.
At the time of His 1st coming, Rome was the governing authority in the world and the Scribes and Pharisees were the technical ruling authorities over the Jewish people. Unwilling to surrender their power, they rejected the One who gave them the law of God that they were misusing to maintain their sphere of influence and ruling authority over the nation of Israel.
Jesus came to bring the good news of His Kingdom AKA The Kingdom of Heaven and to invite all to become its citizens. His Kingdom is an eternal Kingdom but operational in the world of that time and is still operational in our world today.
The Kingdom of Heaven is an upside down Kingdom in the realm of human thought. We must give to get, serve to rule and die to live, all exceeding backward and upside down to the ruling authority of our flesh. Yet the good news about the Kingdom of Heaven brings love, forgiveness, healing and peace to everyone who accepts the truth and believes that Jesus is the King.
Jesus taught people everyday about the Kingdom of Heaven and God whom He called, Father. Then one day He said to the Pharisees, "The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observations, nor will people say "here it is" or "there it is" because the Kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:20.
His words reveal that something transformational needed to happen in their thinking. In their careful observation of the external law they had failed to deal with the Godly conviction set by the internal one. The internal spirit of the law which should bring about goodness and mercy had been over-ruled by the external letter of the law that brought hypocritical adherence and legalistic judgment.
The Kingdom of Heaven is first established in the heart and the Kingdom of Heaven is a place of choice.
The good news of the Kingdom of Heaven is all about the Creator's unconditional love for the individuals He created to be in a personal relationship with Himself. The good news of the Kingdom is that all are welcome and can become a citizen by recognizing and pledging personal allegiance to the King of the Kingdom of Heaven. That King is Jesus.
Man by nature is a rebel of God's kingdom authority and presses for independence from it. The good news of the Kingdom is that God is willing on His end to bring humanity back under the safety of His governmental ruling authority after we come to deal with our rebellion of it.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a government that operates under God's Sovereign authority. Jesus brought to humanity the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, not the good news of "the church" or the good news of the "USA". It was not the good news of Rome or the good news of the Pharisees that He brought us.
The good news of the Kingdom is that God is willing to take over the government of humanity in a personal way, one life at a time. The Kingdom of Heaven is a perfect place that operates in perfect order and that brings perfect peace. For us to be ready to enter we must be ready to live in surrender to the ruling authority of the Kingdom's King: Jesus.
Jesus said, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. " Matt 4:17. What was He telling us to repent about? Was it last night's binge? Or lying about your last sick day to the boss? Actually It is neither and both for each is merely a reflection of the evil sin nature that rules our flesh in opposition to the rule of God.
It is not the individual sin acts that Jesus came to die for, it is the wholesale sin nature that lives in rebellion of God's Sovereign authority that He was crucified to end once and for all. Accepting His death as a substitute for our own, we agree that the rebellious nature must die in order for us to receive the blessing of eternal life. We agree to give him our pathetic rebellious nature in exchange for His Holy One.
Since His death on the cross, those of us who have surrendered our lives to Him, now come under the ruling authority of His Spirit from within. Sin is no longer our Master and we have the ability to reject all the temptations to live in independence of God.
Why is that such good news? Because the Kingdom of Heaven is the ultimate place where man, created in God's image belongs and can find peace and security for all eternity. People back in the day of the first coming of Jesus misunderstood his words and his mission. They thought He came to set up an earthly kingdom as an alternative to Rome. However in reality He came to reveal the Kingdom of Heaven in earth which is first internal and initially established in the heart.
The Kingdom of Heaven is just that: A Kingdom. It is a form of government that is under the ruling authority of a king. It is a monarchy. We do not get to vote and the opinion or rule of the majority holds no power. When we speak of Jesus as the "King of Kings" that describes Him as the ultimate of all authorities. But this is where the rubber meets the road in our lives as Christians. Is Jesus Christ our ultimate authority? And do we yield to His authority in all aspects of our life?
We are constantly being tempted and are contiguously barraged with the challenges to act apart from our Kingdom's Heavenly Authority here on earth. All of us fail and that is why repentance is so huge an issue Repentance re-establishes the chain of command and Kingdom authority when we rebel or fail to seek the Lord's directives and act independently in our lives.
Today, the world does not acknowledge the Kingdom of Heaven nor will it yield to our King yet.....the day is coming when every knee with bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
I am thankful for the wonderful privilege to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven and to bow before my King Jesus here in the earth realm. Today, the Holy Spirit brings me the sweet reminder that unlike with the government in the USA, the goodness and mercy and peace of the Kingdom of Heaven can never be voted away.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Today His word to me corrects any misconception I might have about His ruling authority. "The Kingdom of Heaven is not a democracy!"
Oddly enough, this brings a smile to my face and a joy to my soul. I have been caught up with all that is going on in the world of politics and feel a great frustration in my "righteous" spirit as the people and so called majority have voted for the principles of darkness to govern this nation.
I have been arrogant in past thinking that our democratically operating Republic could handle all the challenges coming against it. While I believe that this (our form of )government based on the wisdom of our founders according to their guiding principles of faith in the One True God, is the best government ever established on earth, I am brought to the truth that no external government of men is sustainable given the degree of evil that lies within the human heart.
Sin is a reality of humanity and evil has a grip on every man or woman ever born. Eventually depravity will take over and external government will fail. Today the Lord has taken me deep into the subject matter of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Living my temporal life in a place governed by the rule of the majority, even with its good founding principles locked into a constitution, I find that evil can conquer and over-rule through deception so that we, as a people, can actually be led by consent to surrender all that makes us free. Literally speaking, we can vote our way into bondage and become slaves to a system that thrives on wickedness.
Religion is no different in concept than our "democracy". Its the rules and our observation of them that make us feel secure. What a shock it is to our entire sense of well-being when we realize the government is our enemy and our observation of rules is not enough to keep us safe.
It took the 1st coming of Christ to straighten out our thinking and reveal the Kingdom of Heaven to our darkened minds. At the time of His 2nd coming He will execute judgment on all that stands in opposition to the Kingdom of Heaven and His ruling authority as King.
At the time of His 1st coming, Rome was the governing authority in the world and the Scribes and Pharisees were the technical ruling authorities over the Jewish people. Unwilling to surrender their power, they rejected the One who gave them the law of God that they were misusing to maintain their sphere of influence and ruling authority over the nation of Israel.
Jesus came to bring the good news of His Kingdom AKA The Kingdom of Heaven and to invite all to become its citizens. His Kingdom is an eternal Kingdom but operational in the world of that time and is still operational in our world today.
The Kingdom of Heaven is an upside down Kingdom in the realm of human thought. We must give to get, serve to rule and die to live, all exceeding backward and upside down to the ruling authority of our flesh. Yet the good news about the Kingdom of Heaven brings love, forgiveness, healing and peace to everyone who accepts the truth and believes that Jesus is the King.
Jesus taught people everyday about the Kingdom of Heaven and God whom He called, Father. Then one day He said to the Pharisees, "The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observations, nor will people say "here it is" or "there it is" because the Kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:20.
His words reveal that something transformational needed to happen in their thinking. In their careful observation of the external law they had failed to deal with the Godly conviction set by the internal one. The internal spirit of the law which should bring about goodness and mercy had been over-ruled by the external letter of the law that brought hypocritical adherence and legalistic judgment.
The Kingdom of Heaven is first established in the heart and the Kingdom of Heaven is a place of choice.
The good news of the Kingdom of Heaven is all about the Creator's unconditional love for the individuals He created to be in a personal relationship with Himself. The good news of the Kingdom is that all are welcome and can become a citizen by recognizing and pledging personal allegiance to the King of the Kingdom of Heaven. That King is Jesus.
Man by nature is a rebel of God's kingdom authority and presses for independence from it. The good news of the Kingdom is that God is willing on His end to bring humanity back under the safety of His governmental ruling authority after we come to deal with our rebellion of it.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a government that operates under God's Sovereign authority. Jesus brought to humanity the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, not the good news of "the church" or the good news of the "USA". It was not the good news of Rome or the good news of the Pharisees that He brought us.
The good news of the Kingdom is that God is willing to take over the government of humanity in a personal way, one life at a time. The Kingdom of Heaven is a perfect place that operates in perfect order and that brings perfect peace. For us to be ready to enter we must be ready to live in surrender to the ruling authority of the Kingdom's King: Jesus.
Jesus said, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. " Matt 4:17. What was He telling us to repent about? Was it last night's binge? Or lying about your last sick day to the boss? Actually It is neither and both for each is merely a reflection of the evil sin nature that rules our flesh in opposition to the rule of God.
It is not the individual sin acts that Jesus came to die for, it is the wholesale sin nature that lives in rebellion of God's Sovereign authority that He was crucified to end once and for all. Accepting His death as a substitute for our own, we agree that the rebellious nature must die in order for us to receive the blessing of eternal life. We agree to give him our pathetic rebellious nature in exchange for His Holy One.
Since His death on the cross, those of us who have surrendered our lives to Him, now come under the ruling authority of His Spirit from within. Sin is no longer our Master and we have the ability to reject all the temptations to live in independence of God.
Why is that such good news? Because the Kingdom of Heaven is the ultimate place where man, created in God's image belongs and can find peace and security for all eternity. People back in the day of the first coming of Jesus misunderstood his words and his mission. They thought He came to set up an earthly kingdom as an alternative to Rome. However in reality He came to reveal the Kingdom of Heaven in earth which is first internal and initially established in the heart.
The Kingdom of Heaven is just that: A Kingdom. It is a form of government that is under the ruling authority of a king. It is a monarchy. We do not get to vote and the opinion or rule of the majority holds no power. When we speak of Jesus as the "King of Kings" that describes Him as the ultimate of all authorities. But this is where the rubber meets the road in our lives as Christians. Is Jesus Christ our ultimate authority? And do we yield to His authority in all aspects of our life?
We are constantly being tempted and are contiguously barraged with the challenges to act apart from our Kingdom's Heavenly Authority here on earth. All of us fail and that is why repentance is so huge an issue Repentance re-establishes the chain of command and Kingdom authority when we rebel or fail to seek the Lord's directives and act independently in our lives.
Today, the world does not acknowledge the Kingdom of Heaven nor will it yield to our King yet.....the day is coming when every knee with bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
I am thankful for the wonderful privilege to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven and to bow before my King Jesus here in the earth realm. Today, the Holy Spirit brings me the sweet reminder that unlike with the government in the USA, the goodness and mercy and peace of the Kingdom of Heaven can never be voted away.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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