The Kingdom of God Is At Hand Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure the lepers, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received! Matt. 10:7-8 The Kingdom of God has been something that many have been waiting for over the centuries of time. With anticipation of the glory to come they have longed for this Kingdom to arrive. Yet Christ spoke through His disciples and directly to the church by Himself and told them that the Kingdom of God was already here. But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you. Matt. 12:28 But because of so much teaching on this subject by those who claim to read and understand God’s Word, this kingdom is believed to this day to be a place with gold streets and angels playing on harps. It is also believed that the kingdom of which He spoke is a literal place on this earth where He will sit on the throne of David in that city called the city of David, Jerusalem. This might suffice for some as what the kingdom of God is and where it is to be found, but if God is right (and He is) then the kingdom is far different than anyone has ever imagined or believed to be. When the entire discord is read of Matt 12:28 we will begin to see that God was talking about Himself as being the kingdom just as Satan is his own kingdom. Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, Could this be the Son of David? Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong mans house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. Matt 12:22-30 In order for either side (Satan or God) to do anything as silly as working both sides of the fence in the struggle of evil over righteousness would be to be divided against THEMSELVES. But because men only see the world around them and what they have determined what the word kingdom means to them, they do no see that God speaks a totally different language with a totally different understanding that comes from another place that is not of this world. Then Jesus answered, “I am not an earthly king. 1f I were, my followers would have fought when I was arrested by the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of the world. John 18:36 Even after Christ said this, man continues to see in their mind, an interpretation that allows them to believe that God is talking about setting a kingdom on this earth, and that someday He will come and rule with a rod of iron with them at His side as sub-authorities. Those who believe that doctrine just as the leaders of Israel had done, see God as using their form of rulership and worship. But of course to believe that they must ignore the action of the Messiah in NOT being a part of the system of temple worship that all of Israel was participating in. From the point of animal sacrifice to the acceptance of human (church) authority He walked a path that showed that He did not accept the ways of the law and order and proper protocol as man had defined it but instead walked in the Way of God where God was the Ruler and King of the Kingdom in which He lived in. Christ said what His Kingdom is and just where it was to be found, but very few have ever heard it. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. Gal. 4:22-26 His Kingdom has never been of this world, but is of that city that is above that He rules in. Denominational structures have attempted (with a pretty good outcome as it would seem) to convince others to see the church as a kind of spiritual Jerusalem and therefore imagine themselves as being those who are the righteous and saved for eternity as long as they are a part of that spiritual kingdom. Yet God has spoken that the real Jerusalem is above not below on this earth even though men try to convince themselves otherwise. But if we will see with Spirit filled eyes what Christ was saying to those who would listen, we will see without any doubt in our minds that He was referring to Himself when He spoke of the Kingdom of God, that is why He said: “Didn’t you ever read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone rejected by the builders has been made the honored cornerstone;” how remarkable! What an amazing thing the Lord has done? What I mean is that the Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and given to a nation that will give God his share of the crop. Matt. 21:42-43 The Stone the builders rejected was going to be taken from those who would not give God His share of the crop and would be given to those who would give God His share (just how much does the Creator own?) That stone was none other than the Messiah, Himself (the Kingdom, the Stone that has become the Cornerstone.) So the Kingdom of God which was Christ, was taken from literal Israel and given to the Israel of God. And now that we are Christ’s we are the true descendants of Abraham, and all of God’s promises to him belong to us. Gal. 3:29 May God’s mercy and peace be upon all of you who live by this principle and upon those everywhere who are really God’s own. Gal. 6:16 The crown of Israel was taken from them and given to a people who would do what God had asked from the beginning. The joy of our hearts has ended; our dance has turned to death. Our glory is gone. The crown is fallen from our head. Woe upon us for our sins. Lam. 5:15-16 This crown, this Kingdom can be lost, but for those who will hear the voice of God they are commissioned to keep the Kingdom that has come. But that Kingdom can only be kept by worshiping in Spirit and Truth. Jesus replied, “The time is coming, ma’am, when we will no longer be concerned about whether to worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. For it’s not where we worship that counts, but how we worship—is our worship spiritual and real? Do we have the Spirit’s help? For God is Spirit, and we must have his help to worship as we should. The Father wants this kind of worship from us. John 4:21 We need not wait for some kingdom to come, all have already been invited into Him (The Kingdom of God) to rule in us and to do in us what He desires. For those who will hear it, ‘the Kingdom of God is at hand for everyone, everywhere,’ and for those who will accept Him to themselves and let Him shine out through them, it can be said of them that the Kingdom of God is living in them just as it was told to Israel of old. One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God begin?” Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God isn’t ushered in with visible signs. You won’t be able to say, ‘It has begun here in this place or there in that part of the country.’ For the Kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:20-21 There is a great sadness at this point, that so many will not accept what God has said except through the doctrine of interpretation so that what God has said now means something else. But for those who stand for the Truth no matter what others may say, to them the new creation (what they have now become) lives in the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of God lives in the new creation. They do not wait for some physical sign of the return of The Kingdom, for it lives within them! Sadly, if we do as others have done before us and judge God by what we see with our eyes of flesh (worldly vision) then we will never see with Spiritual filled eyes those things that are only found by investigation of the Word of God. God is willing to give to us what we need, are we willing to let Him give it to us? So many times we stop any advancement of truth because of our preconceived opinions and ideas of what we think is right. But if we are right then what hurt can investigation bring but top prove that what we believe is the Truth. An author of old wrote a timely and insightful view of this subject. They wrote: If a brother differs with you on some points of truth, do not stoop to ridicule, do not place him in a false light, or misconstrue his words, making sport of them; do not misinterpret his words and wrest them of their true meaning. This is not conscientious argument. Do not present him before others as a heretic, when you have not with him investigated his positions, taking the Scriptures text by text in the spirit of Christ to show him what is truth. You do not yourself really know the evidence he has for his faith, and you cannot really clearly define your own position. Take your Bible, and in a kindly spirit weigh every argument that he presents and show him by the Scriptures if he is in error. When you do this without unkind feelings, you will do only that which is YOUR DUTY and the duty of every minister (messenger) of Jesus Christ. When new light is presented to the church, it is perilous to shut yourselves away from it. Refusing to hear because you are prejudiced against the message or the messenger will not make your case excusable before God. To condemn that which you have not heard and do not understand will not exalt your wisdom in the eyes of those who are candid in their investigations of truth. And to speak with contempt of those whom God has sent with a message of truth, is folly and madness. If our youth are seeking to educate themselves to be workers in His cause, they should learn the way of the Lord, and live by every word that proceeds out of His mouth. They are not to make up their minds that the whole truth has been unfolded, and that the Infinite One has not more light for His people. If they entrench themselves in the belief that the whole truth has been revealed, they will be in danger of discarding precious jewels of truth that shall be discovered as men turn their attention to the searching of the rich mine of God’s word. (EGW, CWE pp. 50,51) Interestingly enough, this is the same position that the early reformers took upon investigation of the Word of God during a time when to say anything that was different from the church and all its extensions of authority was to take your life in your own hands. Yet despite their cries for liberty to study and liberty to speak in an open forum, the church with its self proclaimed authority, would not allow it. Now in the day of information as men are racing from here to there and working harder and moving faster, what have we learned? Are we repeating the same mistakes of the past and falling into the trap of proclaimed authority? Have we learned to live by law for so long that we can no more see God’s Way than did Israel when they rejected God and demanded men’s rules and laws to be king over them? Or will we be like the reformers and study together and pray together so that whatever God has for us to see that we will stand as one united force against sin and Satan? God’s true people will. So... May God be given control of His people once again, so they may become the light to the world as the apostles of old.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 12:15:23 +0000
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