Father God is changing this world by changing men and women on earth into Sons that are joint heirs with Christ Jesus. Sons are being spiritually transformed by the infusion of Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit imparting into our hearts and lives the Spirit DNA of Christ Jesus.
A worldwide Body of Christ is being formed and arising to fill the world with the heavenly substance of the kingdom of God on earth. In recent decades the revelation of the kingdom of God manifesting on earth in God’s people has been restored to a scattering of people across the world.
The gospel of the kingdom that Jesus taught and demonstrated was hidden from view of believers for many centuries. Intellegent Christian scholars studied the Bible diligently but could not see the deeper reality of Jesus’ kingdom message.
The gospel of the kingdom is only revealed by a deeper work of the Holy Spirit in the people. It was just over a century ago when the baptism of the Holy Spirit began again to be experienced among God’s people. This brought back the supernatural Holy Spirit works of miracles, healing, and more along with the potential to receive the true gospel of the kingdom. Believers who are filled and saturated with the Holy Spirit are prepared within with the spiritual framework to receive and retain the revelation of the gospel of the kingdom. Over the past three decades, many Spirit-filled believers have had their eyes and ears opened to the truth of the gospel of the kingdom.
What is the gospel of the kingdom?
If you are not sure what I am talking about here. Just let me say at this point that the gospel of the kingdom does not replace the gospel of salvation. The gospel of salvation as we have known it is the beginning portion of the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of salvation was mostly about being saved to go to heaven when we died. The gospel of the kingdom certainly includes going to heaven.
However, the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached has more to do with bringing heaven to earth in the hearts of His people and then out from them into the world to restore the world to the ways of God. All the works that Jesus did and more are accessible to be manifested now on earth just as He promised.
If some of this is new to you, please do not discard it just because it does not seem to fit with previous beliefs, but rather begin to pray and investigate again what Jesus had to say in the gospels about the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God. There are also good books written to help you grasp the wonderful reality of the fuller gospel of the kingdom. Some are available online free of charge at www.openheaven.com .
Moving on to what God is doing in this day with His kingdom people.
One of the most common things that I hear from people across the world who are growing in the things of the kingdom is that there are not many if any kingdom people around them in their local area that they can have close fellowship with. There is good reason why God has chosen to scatter His kingdom forerunners that bring forth the freshly restored word of the gospel of the kingdom.
We are scattered as a farmer scatters seed in the land. He does not plant a bucket of seed in a pile here and there but scatters the seed evenly so that it will cover the fields and grow to maturity producing more seed to fill the area around them.
We are referred to as salt and light in the Bible. One does not put a bunch of salt in one spot on his steak but scatters the grains of salt across the steak and each grain fills the area around it with the flavor enhancement of the salt.
The lights in a city are not all in one place but scattered across the city to light the whole city as each light spreads light in its area. Jesus told us to let our light shine around us and not put it under a basket covering.
Jesus also spoke of the kingdom as yeast in a lump of dough that though unseen spreads through the whole loaf. This is not one person gathering people around him and shining light to them all their lives. The yeast in dough grows in the part next to it which in turn grows into the part next to it and so on. In like manner the kingdom spreads from one person to the next person and to the next and on and on. The kingdom does not spread by all the parts being touched by the same special person. So it is that the kingdom grows from one kingdom seed and spreads to that which is around it.
Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit is the yeast that spreads through the whole kingdom from one person to the next. Christ Jesus remains forever the only Head of the whole body. The Head, Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit personally connects with every person in His entire Body.
Our part is to live the kingdom life demonstrating to the world around us the life and works of Christ Jesus from within us. The first and primary characteristic of the kingdom life is pure holy love through which comes wisdom and power. This is not a work of man; it is simply allowing the life of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit to consume our lives and lead us to love and give such as we have to others around us.
As we personally seek first the kingdom as Jesus taught us to do, we will know His kingdom ways and word. We will, by the Spirit, speak the words of the kingdom to the people around us, guiding and loving them toward a deeper intimate relationship with Christ in the good news of the kingdom.
There is nothing of religion or natural man’s control about the kingdom. It is by the Spirit’s leading and our following or responding. The kingdom of God is a Spirit kingdom from heaven that guides and empowers natural things of the world into God’s perfect will and order. Before the fall, the Garden of Eden was God’s perfect kingdom order on earth.
How then do we find the deep fellowship that our hearts desire when we are so scattered?
We may not find anyone that is really walking in the kingdom anywhere around us. It is very rare to find a group of truly kingdom people to connect with in most local areas.
The obvious first answer is to nurture relationships with some around you and disciple them over time to Jesus and His gospel of the kingdom. The Spirit may lead you to some who are dissatisfied with religion and may be longing for something more real than what they have been experiencing. God will cause a sense of His real love in you for them and in them for you. There will be a drawing of the Spirit to connect and to serve one another.
Jesus had three disciples who were very close to Him, and then a total of twelve who walked with Him. After Pentecost, they carried the gospel of the kingdom to all the nations of the known world at that time. Each of them multiplied and discipled some who in turn each discipled some and multiplied more.
God originally spoke to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. This is the seed pattern for the growth of the kingdom to fill the world with the kingdom of God coming forth on earth as it is in Heaven.
This could never happen through the passing church religious systems of “clergy” and “laity.” In the “clergy” centric groups, the “clergymen” were separate from the “laity” and were authority over the groups. The local groups were separated from other groups under different “clergymen” in different denominated systems.
The kingdom is Spirit led and empowered. It flows from the headship of Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, free of the design and control of the natural minds of men. This allows the release of the priestly and kingly anointing to function person-to-person establishing the natural Spirit multiplication to spread the gospel of the kingdom across the land. There is not separation into two classes of Christians, clergy and laity, and no separation of denominational groups. In the kingdom of God reality, unity comes from the focus on heaven’s higher ways from the Spirit.
Basically the world is in tension on several levels. The most basic conflict is the devilish anti-Christ spirit powered principality in tension against the kingdom of heaven that is led and empowered by Christ Jesus the Savior, Lord and King of all. The anti-Christ principality is seen as the kingdom of darkness, and the Christ centered kingdom of God is seen as the kingdom of light.
Religions of the world are in tension with one another because elements of darkness are mixed with elements of light within most if not all religions. The kingdom of God coming down from heaven as the New Jerusalem is the one pure and holy presentation of the kingdom of heaven manifesting on earth. Therefore, all religions are now at some point and to some degree in tension with the kingdom of God reality.
The good news (gospel) of the birth, life, crucifixion, resurrection, and return of Christ Jesus at Pentecost is more than people being delivered by death from the world of tension and strife into a peaceful eternal heaven with God. The good news is also more than the fact that Christ Jesus has provided the total victory over the devil and all anti-Christ forces. The good news (gospel) of the kingdom is that Christ Jesus abides in a people to bring forth the peaceful eternal rule of heaven now on earth dissolving all tension and strife and establishing RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE, AND JOY IN THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Father, Your kingdom come, and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Do not fear little flock; it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Love never fails and His kingdom never ends,
Ron McGatlin
www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net