I have been thinking a lot about the kingdom of God
lately. The gospel according to Jesus is the gospel or “good news,” “glad
tidings,” of the kingdom. I want to be real clear; I am not referring to the kingdom
of church. We as believers should be in the process, about the business of,
establishing the kingdom of God. In order to do that it is imperative that we
know exactly what the kingdom of God is. I will be doing a few posts that will
be in search of the kingdom of God. Hopefully, they will discuss both what the
kingdom is and what it is not.
I want to begin with Jesus exchange with Pilate.
He clearly told him that His kingdom, the kingdom of God was not of this world.
It must therefore be transcendental. It must transcend the kingdom of this
world. We hear the phrase “in the world but not of the world” all the time.
What bible verse is that found in anyway? Oh… it is not in any… at least that
particular verbiage is not to be found anywhere. The concept is found in John
chapter seventeen. Specifically in John 17:14 -15:
John 17:14-15 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (15) I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
Something that I have come to realize lately is,
that when in John’s gospel one sees the term world, it does not mean the world
as we have defined it in church doctrine. It is not the world that does not
know Christ and is non-religious. When John uses the word world, in context, he
always means the religious unbelieving Jews. It was the religious unbelieving
Jews who hated Jesus. It is very clear that Pilate did not hate Jesus (John
18:28-38). He was basically oblivious to Jesus. It was not the pagan world that
hated Jesus, and he was not referring to the pagan world when he spoke the
words in the above passage of John. We really need to re-evaluate our use of
the term world in Christianity.
At any rate, Jesus says that His kingdom is not of
this world. He does not go on to say that it will one day be of this world. The
kingdom of God, is the reign of God. The reign of God has always been and
always will be so the kingdom of God, reign of God is eternal. The good news of
the kingdom of God is that God reigns. Added to that is that God loves
humanity. Added to that is the forgiveness of sin. Sin is separated from
humanity as far as the east is from the west. God will remember sin no more. We
are reinstated in a relationship with God because of Jesus and the cross. We
can believe the truth about us, and about God. He thinks we are very good (Gen
1:31.) He is happy he created us and wants a relationship with us.
This is the knowledge that will help transcend the
kingdom of men. This will transcend the kingdom of church, and religion that
has a death grip on so many. We can be smack dab in the middle of the kingdom
of men and still be citizens of the kingdom of God. We can begin to follow the
rules of the kingdom of God. We can love. We can love one another. We can
control our greed. We can feed the hungry, give shelter to the homeless and
clothe the naked. We can see that the kingdom of God operates in the man-made
kingdoms whether it is the kingdom of earthly government or the kingdom of
church.
Years ago God revealed to my wife and I that in the future ( the revelation we had was in 1989) those at the bottom would be at the top and those at the top would be at the bottom. I think this applies to both the religious world and the non religious world. Obviously, those who are at the top of both these worlds are so due to their expertise in the flesh. And those who are at the bottom are those who are not of this world but who are, nevertheless, in the world. I think a reversal is coming in which those in the flesh will no longer reign and rule and those who are in the spirit will take their places. The kingdom of the world trusts in money as it's power base. In the kingdom of God, He is our power base and we don't trust in money. I'm thinking as God arises in His people to rule the power of money will decrease and those who trust in money will be left powerless. I think that now is the time for this to happen and is already happening. I expect great things to come!
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
DeleteInteresting revelation. That may indeed be the case but, what I am seeing is that the structure of the kingdom is not like a worldly structure. It is essentially spiritual, and operates based upon spiritual understanding and being spiritually in tune. Those who are truly kingdom citizens will operate in love and will not be over-lords... Didn't Jesus tell his disciples not to lord over people like the Gentiles... in that instance he no doubt meant the Romans and earthly government. One thing is certain the times they are a changing.
Joe
http://www.freespirit.freehomepage.com/SisterEva.htm
ReplyDeleteanother look at how kingdom dwellers act.