EXPLORING AND RESTORING

THE KINGDOM MESSAGE LESSON FOUR

 

Struggling to accept the concept of a kingdom seeking God:

Over the last decade, the Church of Christ has witnessed an increase in the accurate restoration of revelation of the kingdom, while on the other side; we are also witnessing a vicious distortion and devaluation of the meaning of the gospel of the kingdom of God amongst mainstream Pentecostal preachers. The Lack of apostolic foundation has made many vulnerable to the enemy’s strategy of confusing Christians about the true meaning of the gospel. Distortion of truth is the oldest and most powerful weapon of the enemy. He used this strategy to defeat Eve and her husband in the Garden of Eden. If you allow the enemy to twist what the Lord has revealed in his word you will fall to his attack. It is extremely important that the footing {understanding} to which we approach the definition of the kingdom should flow from God’s viewpoint alone.

Matt 13:18-19 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. NIV

Seeing from the Lord’s perception gives us a great advantage in the understanding of what the kingdom stands for. The Lord’s purpose from the beginning of time is to have a kingdom of people who can exercise their priestly ministry without restriction. The essence of redemption is to restore this purpose of living within the life of everyone who has accepted the name of the Lord. The enemy is very good at one thing and that is to pervert the principle and pattern of God. He knows he cannot stop the word of God, but he can try in distorting the truth from the minds of the immature.

Today, Christian media houses publish and sell anything as long as it is tagged ‘kingdom advancement’. Christian bookshops all across the globe are filled with humanistic materials. Know wonder many are struggling with Gods standard of true spirituality. Dropping the standard of the gospel is a powerful strategy of weakening and hindering many from pressing onward unto perfection. The term kingdom of God has certainly become the buzzword in today’s Christian circle. What characterize the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom? What is the hallmark of the gospel of the kingdom? How do you recognize a true message of the kingdom? What is the fruit of the message of the kingdom? You cannot preach or hear the message of the kingdom and not be revolutionized in your mentality. Everything Jesus said in his earthly ministry was with the view of bringing his listener closer to the place of seeing the reason of accepting the kingdom of God.

One of the most important subjects of apostolic truth that must be addressed in this new day is the reality of the kingdom amongst men. Jesus preached in his days saying; repent for the kingdom of God has come near you. This implies that proximity of the kingdom also draws by implication the very authority, supremacy and dominion of the king near the people. There cannot be a kingdom without a king. The principles and values that drive a kingdom are directly supplied through the ideology that defines the king’s life. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. When new converts joins the community of God’s people they need to be precisely re-orientated on the whole essence of life and culture of the kingdom of God.

The focus and direction of redemption must be built on a solid foundation of Christ, being the king- the supreme ruler of our lives. Many struggled to understand what a kingdom is and represent in terms of Lordship and ownership. Moving from democratic default pattern of thinking to the kingdom perspective of existence requires a shift in the psyche. God rules through his sovereignty. The Lordship of Christ over your life has no limit or boundary. He does whatever he wishes whenever he wishes. This is difficult to absolve because it sounds like control to them. One of the reasons why believers are struggling to understand and accept the gospel of the kingdom in this season is because those who defined the theology of the kingdom did not gain God’s viewpoint of the kingdom before preaching it. When Church leaders are fashioning their own image of God within the mindsets of their followers, it is impossible for their people to come into the reality of the life and message of the kingdom.

One cannot claim to have accepted Christ and still lack the understanding of the kingdom. Salvation is the accurate footing and foundation of coming into the life and purpose of the kingdom according to John chapter 3. Many today understood Christianity as a democratic {party} social gathering, governed through popular opinions. This is far from the truth. Christianity is not democratic in any way. God is autocratic in his rule and every believer young or old should understand this order of leadership.

We may be living in a democratic society; you and I belong to another order of existence, shaped by a different governmental authority. God does not fit into our little weak social order. He is God all by himself and we must relate to him from this perspective lest we miss the whole essence of Christianity. The sovereign rule and dominion of Christ is not popular to millions attending most of the mainline churches and that explains why they tend to have numerical growth and resources to promote their humanistic ideology.

 

Rediscovering the whole essence of life

A whole process of rediscovering the very essence of life and destiny from God’s perspective lays the foundation of what the kingdom of God means and represent to anyone whose desire is to serve and follow the master. Believers must be taught that life in God, is not a onetime acknowledgement of a faith confessing but rather, a process of continual acknowledgement of his will and demands over your own. This groundwork of truth gives the right perspective and value to start the journey of spiritual emancipation and transformation.

The word kingdom is derived from the combination of two words; King and his Dominion. {King-dominion} The kingdom of God is the genetic term {name} for the rulership, sovereignty and life of God over all things. The kingdom of God is filled with divine activity that can only be explained or understood through those who have regained their spiritual sight according to John chapter 3:3. The operating system of the kingdom lies within the revelation knowledge of the Son of God and nothing else. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father {the possessor of the kingdom} except through me.

 

This is one of the key principles in the scripture that gives us the clue to accessing the realm of receiving revelational knowledge. Some have argued that Christians have left behind the message Christ brought to earth and have gone preaching the messenger-who is Christ. This is utter blindness and misleading to what the purpose of the message of the kingdom of God represents. The revelation of both the kingdom and its final manifestation is captured in the very life, nature and mission of Christ to humanity. It is crucial that this piece of apostolic truth is engraved on the tablet of your heart, knowing that Christ is the central theme behind the gospel of the kingdom. This misjudgement explains the reason why many are easily deceived and confused due to the lack of proper revelational footing of Christ being the Son of the kingdom of heaven. Without him, there can be no accessing of heaven and the kingdom of God.

Meaning everything about the bible and the gospel revolves around the life, nature and glory of Christ. The scripture declares in Colossians that he is the express image of the Father, while the primary ministry of the Holy Spirit today is to continually testify of Christ glorious reign over all things. Whatever knowledge we are trying to gain or understand as believers without the precise seating of the revelation of the Christ will certainly lead to futility and error. No one can fully comprehend the kingdom without a precise revelational footing of both person and ministry of Christ being the pattern of God for both truth and the kingdom.

 

Foundation for the revelation of the kingdom

Remember in Matthew chapter 16: Jesus said to Peter after that powerful experience of identifying Christ as the Son of God. The Lord said to him flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. In other words, the Father is the revealer of the life and nature of his Son and gives the power or keys to access the kingdom. Your capacity to access the life and culture of the kingdom of God is exclusively based on your ability to gain the precise revelation of the Son of God. Peter was given the keys of the kingdom not because of his ingenuity or religious superiority but because he gained access through the revelation of the Son of God.

When you connect to the life of the Spirit through the power of regeneration of your walk with the Father, spiritual understanding becomes the by-product. Without a clear picture of why you need to make entering the kingdom of God a priority, you will definitely not see the reason of paying any price to enter. Once this knowledge is attained you become passionate and spiritually thirsty to develop an attitude that helps you build priority around the table of the word which builds the basic foundational structure to press towards the place where you are granted favour to access {revelation} spiritual realities beyond the natural realm of life.

The concept of flesh and blood not revealing Christ to Peter speaks of man’s sensual faculty of reliance. The best of human ingenuity do not have the capacity to find or identify the kingdom. Religious knowledge as we are going to see later on in the teaching does not have what it takes to discover the kingdom. A kingdom is known through its system of leadership or rulership. In other words, the king on the throne defines the purpose and direction of his empire and not the other way around. Kingdoms are made up of highly potent ideologies, cultures, traditional beliefs and ties that give and sustain the kingdom’s power of identity. This background defines the kingdom’s relationship with other communities around, either on the issue of trade or military companies. There is a clear lay down policy that informs and instructs how things are to be run within the empire even when the king is dead.

 

A witness account

Acts 1:1-3

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. NKJV

This scripture certainly gives any seeker of kingdom truth the opportunity to allow his sanctified {mind} imagination to take him trough the last forty days of Christ’s instruction about his kingdom with his disciples. One could imagine each day’s teaching bringing more clarity and precision to the understanding of these men who will be shouldering the responsibility of carrying and representing the crusade he began some three years earlier. Every moment of this intensive tutorial class imprints the very essence of the very reason why Christ came to the world. What they struggled to understand before his death began to make sense even though they still hoped for the manifestation of a literal physical king {kingdom} to topple the tyranny of the Roman empire.{Act 1:6}

 

This, the master made them realize was not for them to know the time or hour but it will surely happen at God’s due time. What made this speaking of Christ more important to his earlier teachings? His last forty days expository teaching on the issues of the kingdom laid the foundation for the commissioning of the disciples in becoming true representatives of kingdom advancement in the earth.

Note that the Disciples were not a novice to the message of the kingdom of God. After all, most of them were with Our Lord Jesus Christ when he began his public ministry by preaching “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”. The word at hand means so close that you can literally grab it, you can stretch your hand to receive. It is the same as saying the “kingdom has come near you”. The message of the kingdom of God or like some of the epistles prefer to use kingdom of heaven, starts with repentance but ends with the reality of immortality. {1 Corinthians 15:50-52} Immortality is the fruit {inheritance} of the redemption through the continual inner workings of the ministry of sanctification-regeneration. The message of the kingdom of heaven was the central theme of the gospel.

Right from the Old Testament to the new, we see a dominion and influence of two various spiritual characters seeking the agreement and corporation of man. We cannot accurately speak about the kingdom of God without mentioning the fallen kingdom of darkness seeking to retain its hold over the human soul. The subject of the kingdom is a highly complex one that most church leaders still do not have a clear insight into.

 

The level of damage organised Christian religion has done in defacing both the truth and life of the kingdom has to be accurately corrected before people can begin understanding the essence of kingdom gospel. Christ, in his introductive teachings began by introducing the importance of understanding both the meaning and implication of accepting the kingdom of God to his audience.

It was mandatory for them to be baptised into repentance in order to regain their relationship and position with God. This act opens the doorway for the restoration of lost spiritual sight and identity. One can clearly see that the teachings of our Lord during his earthly ministry were divided into two main categories: the first category primarily focused on introduction of the kingdom of God to lost sheep of the house of Israel and then to other gentiles. The Lord used ordinary day-to-day life experiences to expose and explain what the kingdom of God is like. This was to give them the opportunity to respond to the message of salvation and repentance in true clarity. Repentance is a solid apostolic foundational doctrine of the Church, introduced by the master as the opening point to a whole process of transiting and migrating into the preferred in Christ.

 

This truth lays the heart of right spiritual concept to the revelational knowledge of Christ-the pattern Son. This is the place where your dead spirit regains life through the quickening power of God’s eternal grace and love. This point of repentance could also be defined as the point where one’s spiritual sight starts gaining understanding according to heavens perspective. The message of repentance is highly crucial to the process of foundational spiritual understanding and migrating towards the destined realm of existence. As important as this message is, it only reveals one side of the coin.

 

Repentance was only an introductive reality to a whole spectrum of kingdom truth we are expected to apprehend in our journey to the City of God. The second phase of the Christ teaching ministry was afterwards reserved for those who would have gone through the humiliation of denial, rejection and disappointment of their human weakness towards the Messiah. These are the chosen ones despite the mistakes they made. They have been called and chosen to share the suffering of the master’s death, burial and resurrection. The last forty day of Jesus teachings was crucial to the destiny and advancement of the gospel of the kingdom within human hearts. This teaching was done after the disciples have failed and felt greatly disappointed about their lack of faith and trust in him who called and chose them. I do believe they felt more disappointed in themselves because the Lord had already told them they were going to desert him at his darkest moment yet he will not be alone. At the garden of Gethsemane where he called his disciples to join him in prayer he understood what was ahead of them, not even Peter, James and John amongst his supposed matured disciples will be able to resist the power of slumber.

 

Not only did they all see him perform great healings, miracles, signs and wonder they also were given the same authority and power to cast out demons when he sent them out two by two. They came back with the testimony that even the demons are subject to them. Yet, in all this backdrop of truth, they still failed. Could it be that they were allowed to fail so that the power of God could rest on them? They were allowed to get to the point of understanding a crucial principle that guides the culture and nature of the kingdom which is thou shall not depend on your own strength to stand for the truth. They had to learn that it is not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord.

 

Speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God

The presentation of truth to Christ disciples during his last forty days on earth was completely different in emphasis to his first three and a half ministry days on earth. Here is Christ rounding up the ministry of the Passover, preparing the disciple for their Pentecost, which ultimately will usher them into what will be known as the tabernacle experience. The masters eyes were on the completion of the day of Pentecost so that his eternal purpose for humanity can begin in full force.

It is important to note that the issue of the speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom is the key word in this journey. The word speaking…from the Hebrew Greek dictionary means {Lego} to lay forth, bring forth, starch forth, stand upright, reveal, break silence or extend. These meanings express the state and activity of Christ, both the impartation and instruction of the teachings of Christ to his disciples. This meaning of the speaking of Christ suggests that most of the words are present revealed truths that have not been heard before.

This word in context expresses both the order and pattern of imprinting an ideology in a systematic way. It is more like formatting the mental and spiritual psychic of the disciples so they can house the principles and instructions being given to them. This in return creates a solid value believe system that cannot be hindered, deceived, stopped or compromised by any negative external force. This gives us insight into what the Spirit of the Lord was emphasising during the last days of Christ ministry on earth. The speaking of the kingdom can only be fully understood after the experience of death, burial and resurrection.

 

Definition:

A kingdom is a state or people ruled by a king or queen. A Kingdom could also be defined as a sphere {realm, domain or area} of activity in which a particular thing {philosophy} is thought to dominate. Furthermore, kingdom could also be said to be the position of an ideology, culture or orientation of existence. This means that there cannot be a set pattern and strategic of governing! A kingdom draws its values of existence from its set ideologies.

The second point we will like to extract is there cannot be a kingdom without a king. The life of the king determines the condition of the kingdom! The king’s authority and power defines not only his influence over his people but also his capacity to expand his frontier. To the degree that he is able to stretch his influence of governance is to the degree his dominion and reign will be felt across his boarders. A kingdom must continually grow, develop and expand to maintain its influence and authority. A king must see for new frontiers to conquer in order to expand his territorial capacity.

Having said this, I will like you to remember that the very concept {thought} of a kingdom was initiated by God himself who is the king of kings and Lord of lords. The scripture says in Genesis chapter 1 after the creation of man in his very own image and likeness he gave him dominion over everything he had created both creatures and plants and the treasures within the garden. Here we see Adam being the first human crowned king. His sphere of influence, power, authority and dominion was marked out by the Lord himself.

One of the patterns of the concept of communicating spiritual things to man is through using natural physical things to explain spiritual realities. With this truth in mind, you still need to know that you cannot comprehend spiritual things except your spirit is regenerated. Rom 1:19-21 20 For since the creation of the world His {God} invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, NKJV

The place of awareness concerning spiritual truth and principles is highly vital in appreciating what the Lord desires to communicate to your spirit. Mind you, spiritual things are foolish {unreasonable} to the carnal un-regenerated mind. Why, His spiritual faculty is dead; while his human reasoning irrespective of its ingenuity cannot comprehend spiritual truth. I am trying to lay this solid foundational principle because it holds every other truth that will be considered as the Lord grants us permission. I will strongly recommend you read our material on rediscovering salvation; it gives a clearer insight into what salvation is and does concerning the reality of the kingdom.

With this footing in mind we can say the kingdom of God is a realm or domain where humans have freely allowed God’s will, purpose, counsel and desire to overrule [override] their world. Please note; God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He rules over the entire universe, yet his rulership is based on certain premises that cannot be violated. The kingdom of God is a system of life within the community of God’s people where the Christ Lordship clearly understood and is given its full right of expression.

The Church of Christ was established for the core purpose of implanting and re-establishing the lost knowledge of the kingdom {Kings Dominion} within human mentality and in return, manifests the very essence of that knowledge and glory to all men. The Lord’s desires are for spiritually blind and crippled humans through the power of lifestyle to embrace his life and light for the regeneration and transformation. There is a Church of the bride that exists within the vast reality of religious and charismatic pollution today whose core purpose is to birth God’s eternal prophetic agenda that is expressed through the seed of the ministry of the kingdom of God.

This agenda {purpose} is far beyond what has been defined or preached to be ministry; it goes far beyond the expression of religious sanctity and charismatic gifting and power show we see around. It can’t be defined by what is seen with natural human sight, it is spiritually based, yet it impacts the course of history; it is presenting changing nations and generations yet unborn. It is the very essence why Christ came to earth.

The agenda of Gods kingdom cannot be exchanged or negotiated for money, political influence, ministerial position and power. It outlives our little achievements and the empires church leaders have built all in the name of God. This agenda is the very life and value that drives the heart of those apprehended for righteousness. Let’s see what John saw about the coming kingdom in Revelation 11:15 which says, 15 “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” NIV

The beginning of wisdom and understanding of the purposes of the Father start by becoming a student of the book of revelation. The word revelation means reveal. Many have been deceived to believe that the book is difficult to understand. I can assure you that if you will trust in the ministry of the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you into the volumes of truths in the book, you will start gaining insight into the mind of God for your life and generation. Although this material is not focused on expository teaching on the book of revelation yet, it is highly important to inform you that you can gain key revelational insight that enhances your nourishment and development toward the actualization of the kingdom mandate.

There is no way you can precisely understand the kingdom of God without first having the revelation of Christ. This is a basic fact! Understanding Christ nature and ministry lays the precise foundational blocks and values to what God’s kingdom is and not. The message that culminates the end of humanistic religious Babylonian Christian concept of worship {service} also ushered in the grand reality of Gods eternal kingdom upon human affairs.

 

There is a group of people in the earth today who have completely submitted themselves to the governing processes of conforming into the very nature of Christ so that they can accurately exhibit the power and dominion of his kingdom. They have allowed Christ to implant the seed of the kingdom within their heart so that they can become one with the Lord’s eternal will and purpose. That is why the scripture says the kingdom does not come by observation; rather, it is a hidden reality that first gains root through its seed implanted within human heart before power of manifestation takes place. This concept is explained by Christ in:

 

Mark 4:26-29

26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain-first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” NIV

In the scripture above, we noticed the message of the kingdom became pronounced during the ministry of the seventh angel according to Rev Chapter 11:15. Meaning, there has been a conscious progressive journey of one’s spiritual reality from one dimension of revelational truth until one gets to the seventh {day} position of kingdom expression. The full expression of the kingdom of God is built on the seventh or what is also known as the third day of the Spirit. The message of the kingdom declared during the season of the high-level matured prophetic apostolic lifestyle starts bringing the reality of Gods purpose to a closure. This is known as the seventh day of the Lord. This kingdom message cannot be given or received with religious human effort. Another thing we noticed here is the Characteristic attitude of the angel.

There was a loud blast of the trumpet and there were also loud voices from heaven declaring “the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. This loud prophetic utterance coming from one is known as the heaven penetrated the hearts and lives of earth dwellers such that the entire human kingdom became invaded, and taking over by the rulership and dominion of God.