Life in Christ Jesus Podcast

The Kingdom of God VIII - The King and His Dominion II

A Common thought among many believers is Jesus is a soon coming King, and the view is what will happen when He comes.  The question I have is if He is not King RIGHT NOW, then who's authority are you under? 
Colossians 1:11-14  May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  
The scripture in Colossians sets forth a kingdom of darkness and a Kingdom of Light.  Remember Jesus said His Kingdom is not of this world.  With that said, what is His Kingdom?  What does He reign over?  Colossians gives us good insight into God's Kingdom.  It is a Kingdom of Light.  This Kingdom is set forth through the resurrection from the dead.  It it reigns over all the works of darkness.  This is the Kingdom that you and I as believers come to, "the Kingdom of God's dear Son."
Act 13:32-39 "And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, "'You are my Son, today I have begotten you.' 34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, "'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.' 35 Therefore he says also in another psalm, "'You will not let your Holy One see corruption.' 36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses." 
In Acts 13 the writer brings into view Psalms 2 is brought into view concerning Jesus.  It is declared that the promise made to the Father's of Israel is fulfilled in Jesus Christ being raised from the dead.  God's King is set on God's Holy Hill.  My suggestion is this is through the resurrection from the dead.  Look closely at Acts 13 below.  It is declared, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you," is speaking of Christ Jesus being raised from the dead. 
If I think on this thought with the natural mind, I will most likely simply see Jesus as the begotten Son in his natural birth.  However, through the scripture and divine influence of the Holy Spirit I see this in relation to Him being birthed from the dead.  In fact Jesus is the first born from the dead, or out from the dead.  What I mean by this is He came out from the dead. 
All in Adam are dead, Paul writes.  Jesus was born into Adam, but when He was raised from the dead, He not only was raised out physically from the dead, but He was raised out from all that was in Adam.  This raising was all through the Spirit.  Nothing in man was on display, simply God.  This my friends is our new birth.  We are birthed IN HIS Resurrection.  We are birthed through the power of God out from the dead.
In this sharing we are looking at what JESUS overcome. He overcome death, hell, and the grave.  We are beginning to explore hell, death, and the grave, and Jesus dominion over the works of darkness.  Please enjoy and share with other believers. 
Blessings to you in Jesus name!

The Kingdom of God VII - The King and His Dominion

In this sharing we are looking at the dominion of the King.  What is the King's Dominion?  What does Jesus reign over? Have you ever considered it?  He reigns over sin.  He reigns over death, hell, and the grave.  He declared as recorded in Matthew 28 that all authority is given to Him in heaven and earth.  
In the beginning when God created man He gave man dominion over the earth.  However, when Jesus raised from the dead He declared that all authority in both heaven and earth.  Matthew 28:18 "Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."  Have you really considered this?  Why did He say both?  Could it be that the heaven is to invade the earth?  "Thy Kingdom Come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Much of our mind is set upon the conditions of the earth, which we see with the natural eyes and understand with the natural mind.  We must rather set our mind upon Him and what He has done, and manifest it in the earth.  Look unto Jesus.  Look unto the work that He has completed.  In Acts 13:33 the Bible declares "that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children, in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."
Have you thought on this?  The scripture says that it speaking of the resurrection from the dead.  In other words Jesus is begotten from among the dead.  Death has no more sting on Him.  Death could not hold him.  The strength of sin was broken through His death and resurrection.  Now we declare His resurrection, and ourselves being raised together with Him.  Our life is now bound up in what He has done.  When He was made alive - We were quickened.  When He was raised we were raised.  When He was seated, the Apostle Paul writes we are seated in Heavenly places with Him.  
The question is where is He seated?  Would it not be the Right Hand of God or the throne on high?  Would this then be our seating with Him.  In the Psalms 132 the Bible declares       "11 Jehovah hath sworn unto David in truth; He will not turn from it: Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. 12 If thy children will keep my covenant And my testimony that I shall teach them, Their children also shall sit upon thy throne for evermore."  Notice it is the desire of the LORD to sit upon David's throne, and He declared the children would sit upon the throne.  This is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus is seated with all power and dominion, and He has brought us victoriously into His dominion.  We are seated with Him, to manifest His dominion in the earth, and declare his victory of death, hell, and the grave.
Blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord!
 

The Kingdom of God VI - The King and His Mountain

Psalms 2:6 "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." 
When I look at this what comes to my heart is God's King and God's Mountain.  This naturally speaking of King David, of who the Lord said was after His own heart.  Spiritually it is speaking of Christ Jesus our Lord and King.  David as God's King had a heart after God.  His story is quite significant for us to understand God's work in Christ, and how it applies to us.  David was God's King, and through obedience David cut off many of the enemies of Israel, speaking of Jesus cutting off the enemies of our soul. 
David taking the fortress of Zion and placing the Ark of the Covenant there has tremendous implications to what Jesus says in John 4 in regards to God's place of Worship.  
John 4:21-24 "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 
"You shall worship the Father in spirit and truth."  This is the embodiment of Zion, the High Place of God!  Zion is a place of the Spirit, and where we come to know Him in spirit and truth.  Here we move from our mind to God's mind.  We come in abandonment to ourselves which is clearly seen in David.  David's dancing unashamed before the Ark speaks of self-abandonment.  He being King of Israel was lowering himself in humility before the Lord.  How this speaks of Jesus, who being the Lord of Glory and lowered himself to buy our salvation.  
Ultimately, David's heart was to build a house for God, which naturally came through Solomon.  This has tremendous spiritual significance.  "Christ as a Son over His own House, whose House you are."  God desired Zion as His rest forevermore.  The writer of Hebrews said we have come to Mt. Zion.  God's rest is forever settled in Christ Jesus where we now dwell.  We are stones of the building, built up in Christ for a Holy Habitation of the LORD!  This is why Zion is the joy of the whole earth.  God is there!  God's presence is in Zion.  Brethren let us comprehend this great truth and reality in Christ Jesus our Lord!
 

Worship in Spirit and Truth - Mt. Zion 2

Jesus said in John 4 that the "true worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and truth."  He goes on to say that God seeks such worship.  God is Spirit and is seeking a people to worship Him in spirit and truth.  Jesus says in John 14 that He is the truth.  The word truth, Strong's 225, comes from a word Strong's 227 words that mean the reality of something revealed. According to Thayer's Lexicon this word means not hidden, unconcealed.  This word comes from two other words, one being Strong's 1 Alpha and the other being Strong's 2990, which means someting hidden.  Jesus was hidden in the Old Testament.  He said all scripture speaks of Him recorded in John 5.
I have a strong thought  that even the words used for truth show this.  God hid what he was planning to do in Christ in throughout the scripture.  From the beginning of the creation, of man, to the faith of Abraham, the deliverance of Moses, the establishment of the Kingdom with David, and the building of the Temple in Solomon, God was speaking in types in shadows or through symbolism of what He was going to do through Jesus  Christ.  All of these spoke of Him.   I am afraid this truth escapes many believers.  For example, many still want to worship God in an Old Testament understanding.  When they look at the scripture pertaining to God building a House of Worship, and establishing His people they still regard this according to the natural and flesh, and do not see it after the Spirit.  According to the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter, God has laid the stone for His House, Ephesians 2:13-22 and 1 Peter 2:4-10, which He prophesied of through Isaiah, Isaiah 28:16.
The believer is now the dwelling place of God.  He dwells in you as Jesus said would happen in John 14.  Read that Chapter carefully, "my Father and I shall make our abode with you." "I in you."  Jesus  is in the Father, you are in Him, and He is in you if in fact He has come to dwell in you.  This was the heart of God throughout the Old Covenant, shown through the types.  For example God lived in the tabernacle.  God lived in the  Temple.  Now He has taken up residence in the House He built through Christ Jesus.  Christ is the Son of His own house who we are, according to Hebrews 3.  This is truth, which is in Christ.  Instead of comprehending by the Spirit this truth, and worshiping God from this understanding, many still walk in the types and shadows. This is what Jesus said the Father was after to worship Him in Spirit and Truth.   
Consider, how much of your Bible is given to the Temple of God.  Coming to the reality of the Temple must be of great significance if we see how much in the Old and New Testament are given to it.  This reality can only be found in Christ Jesus.  Let us see through Him this great House God has built, and declare it to the earth.

Worship in Spirit and Truth - Mt. Zion

In this podcast we are looking at text in John 4 - John 4:2-24 "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 
Much of the teaching we may hear today speaks of a new House of Worship or Temple in the Middle East.  Jesus said "Believe ME!"  not in Jerusalem or in Samaria will be the place of worship.  God is a Spirit and is looking for a people to worship through the knowledge and understanding of the Spirit of God.  The Apostle Paul write that we the believers are the House of God, or His place of worship.  The writer of Hebrews writes that We have come to Mount Zion the City of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem.  This is in fact what I believe Jesus is referring to in John 4.  This high Heavenly place in Christ where we come to a spiritual understand of our Father's House,, and worship out of the understanding of God.
Isaiah 2 speaks of the House of God being established in the top of the hills and the mountains, and the law coming from Zion, and the word from Jerusalem.  This great Mt. Zion is where it is established.  The rock it is built upon is Christ.  The word that is given is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It moved from Him to His disciples that were with, and from His disciples into the Church, and this word is still moving through the earth today, enlightening minds and hearts to the knowledge of the Lord and our King.
 
Blessings!

The Kingdom of God V - Vision of One

In John 18 it is recorded that Jesus said, "My Kingdom is not of this World."  The rule and transforming power of Jesus is not simply him telling us to do things, and we go and do them.  It is the Holy Spirit bringing us, the believer, into the Vision of Christ, and us living out of that Vision in the earth.  In John 17, Jesus declared concerning the church "that they may be one, I in them thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one."  This is a very significant statement in regards to the Church - One Body. 
While we all have an individual relationship with the Lord Jesus, it is His heart that we see His Body as One, as Himself.  When Saul of Tarsus had the encounter with Jesus on the way to Damascus.  Jesus said to Paul, "Why do you persecute me?"  Saul was persecuting the Church.  Jesus' regards for the Church is ONE - HIS BODY, or Himself as is shown here (Acts 9).  When we rail and have dissensions with other believers, we are effecting the Church. 
Our minds and hearts must be transformed.  We must see the Body of Christ as One.  Too long we have allowed man to keep us bound into Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, and many other denominational names.  We must come to a Vision of the Lord and His Body, regardless of any name we are labeled with.  We must begin to minister our Oneness with Him throughout the Body of Christ.  If I am one with the Lord, and you are one with the Lord, we must see we are One with each other. 
In the Book of Acts, we see the power and the move of the Spirit in great might.  I believe there are some keys to why this great move was upon the land.  It is recorded in the Book of Acts that they had all things in common.  It is recorded that they had one mind.  This is more significant than at first glance.  They were regarding the Body as ONE!  The Body of  CHRIST JESUS our LORD!
 

The Kingdom of God IV - The Nature of the Kingdom

In John 18 it is recorded that Jesus declared to Pilot that “my Kingdom is not of this world.”  If we can hear it, Jesus was taken by the Kingdoms of the World to be crucified.  He was taken by the Jewish nation and crucified by Rome.  The Kingdom of Judah operated to physically overthrow Jesus as it was threatened by His teaching, and demonstration of power through the Holy Ghost. Consider that during the taking of Jesus by the High Priest and the Jewish soldiers that He did a notable miracle.  Peter cut off the High Priest servants’ ear, Jesus healed the ear.  Can we for a moment consider this.  As they were taking Jesus to kill Him, a man’s ear was cut off and Jesus healed him.  You would think that with a miracle like this that they would have turned their hearts to receive Him, but they refused Him.
In the taking a Jesus, as recorded in John 18 and other gospels, we can see the Kingdom of the world in operation, and the Kingdom of God in operation.  The hardness of the Jews hearts when they took Jesus, and He healed the man in front of them expressed the kingdom of the world.  Peter taking out his sword and cutting off the High Priest servants’ ear expressed the kingdom of the world.  Jesus healing Malchus’ ear expressed the Kingdom of God.  While they were going to kill Jesus, He was expressing the nature of love and mercy in the healing of Malchus.  Also, He gave Himself up to them that had come to take Him, in order that the disciples with Him could go free.  The expression of the Kingdom is laying down our lives, that the nature of God comes through.  This is the nature Jesus had, He gave His life as a ransom for the world.
In Isaiah 2, the Prophet speaks of a day when men would beat their swords into plows.  Many are looking for that day to come somewhere out in the future.  If we look closely by the Spirit of God, we will see that both Peter and Paul beat their swords into plows.  As we considered Peter above in John 18, He was a man of the sword.  When He was filled with the Holy Ghost, as recorded in Acts 2 He became a man who began to sow the SEED of God into men’s hearts, taking the plow of God and God’s pruning knife to bring forth fruit unto the Father.  The same can be said of the Apostle Paul.  Paul is transformed from Saul of Tarsus, where he was murdering Christians to a man who is harvesting with the Lord.   Paul writes in I Corinthians that he is a fellow worker with God in God’s field.
I Corinthians 3:5-9 “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
 Let us allow the Spirit of God to beat our swords into plows and pruning knives to work in God’s field to bring forth fruit unto our Father.  Let the Word and Spirit of God work within us that we are would become transformed and seek the production of God’s fruit in ourselves and in our neighbor.  God’s Kingdom is simply the rule and reign of Christ Jesus our Lord IN our hearts and minds.  This rule and reign will put down everything in us that exalts itself against the power and authority of the Lord.  May it fully come and be manifested through the saints of the Most High!

The Kingdom of God III - Furtherance of the Kingdom

In the last teaching we looked at how the Kingdom of God came, and understood through the Parable of the Sower and the seed that the Kingdom of God was sown into our hearts through the word of God, and expands as that word increases.  In this teaching we are exploring the furtherance of the Kingdom.  The Kingdom moves through us as we share this word.  Christ gave his word to the disciples, and the disciples began to proclaim it on the day of Pentecost.  As that word is sown the Kingdom advances.
The media of the Kingdom is the Lord Jesus Christ.  As he is revealed, this media of Him is proclaimed in the earth.  From his work as he did as he walked the shores of Galilee to the cross, and to the fullness of God in Christ.  This media or Word is declared throughout the earth.  May God fill the earth with His Glory!