Category Archives: Kingdom of God

December 8, 2012 · 11:32 am

Who Is Going Viral In Your World?

12-12-08_591893_44228499When we say that something has gone viral it indicates that a portion of the culture is experiencing something that is out of the normal status of that culture. In other words there is a change taking place that is evident. YouTube has become a social media site where people go to see and experience the effects of change. Thus the term going viral is measured in how many people view something that has happened.  

Some could say that democracy is still viral because we have recently witnessed four maybe five nation states oust their leaders for a more democratic form of government. Within Protestant Christianity, Pentecostalism remains virulent as the fastest growing sector as it continues to spread the deeper experience of a consciously aware relationship with Holy Spirit. At the same time many in the emergent church movement are participating in a cultural revolution within Christianity as a whole with some observers liking it to the beginnings of the Protestantism reformation.

The bigger question and the personal question is what kind of change are we expecting ourselves and others to experience? Jesus the Christ injected a spiritual strain of DNA (human mother and spiritual father) into the race of mankind that has been affecting the human culture for the last two thousand years. The Kingdom of God extends membership to all who become aware that they carry within themselves a spiritual Presence (namely the Spirit of God, Holy Spirit). And so we are all witness the effect of God’s Kingdom on the religious and secular segments of the human culture.

2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me …. To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

When cultures grow with in existing cultures they tend to feed on the host culture until it becomes the host. So there are waves of growth and resistance that takes place as the states of status quo give way to new states of normalcy. Witnessing the effects of change can be difficult because they happen gradually over time. However as we learn to develop the tools to observe cultural change it is an exciting thing to watch.

For two thousand years the Kingdom of God has been spreading throughout mankind’s culture. Also during this time our understanding of that Kingdom has changed. As we reflect on history we can begin to see patterns as understanding changed so did the growth of the Kingdom expand. The same is true for the host culture, as its understanding about the Kingdom changed its resistance to the Kingdom either strengthen or diminished.

Jesus founded the Kingdom on the principal of love. One scriptural interpretation was that Jesus was freeing people from the bondage in the world to join the Kingdom of His Father. But as we look back through history we see that some of those who have taken up this work used the tools of force and fear to spread God’s Kingdom and in every case the host culture met it with a level of resistance. The same is true when the tools of love and forgiveness were used we see great growth and minimum resistance by the human culture.

From our Master’s perspective we are given the Kingdom to set free those that are in bondage. In those times when terms of revolution was used to set free others than self we see a righteous discharge of Kingdom authority. However when these terms of revolution are used for personal gain or the gain for a subgroup of the culture one can only do like our Master and pray, forgive them for they know not what they do.

As Christians we have become agents of change or ambassadors of God’s Kingdom.  Our local community by definition is not the Kingdom; our country defined by its borders is not the Kingdom. The Kingdom is any place where the Presence of God Spirit is.  A U.S. ambassador is the embassy, any aircraft carrying the President is Air Force One. Concerning the Kingdom Presence is everything. If the Presence of God’s Spirit is within us then the Kingdom is inside of us.

Our ability to see Christ in others even before they can see it in themselves makes the Kingdom virulent. Under the Old Testament when something unclean touched something holy that thing became defiled, unclean and no longer fit for service to God. When Jesus as the Christ established God’s Kingdom, He came and touched things and people who were unclean in order to make them clean, holy and fit for service to God. We have been given that same authority. We are at the point of impact within the culture, we carry within us the Presence of God and all that we touch can become pure. This is true because it is no longer we who live in these vessels of human flesh, we have been transformed, we are the embassy of God, and all that run to us should be glad. One day they will violently try to touch you.

So I encourage us to demonstrate with intent and understanding of what we carry inside of us. Unfortunately many of us are members of religious organizations that continue to put up walls as a defense to stay undefiled from the world. We need to demonstrate to them as well as the world that we are and carry a greater Presence within, than the junk in the world. If there is fear or a need to destroy the world, it is because of a poor understanding of the power of the Presence living within. Scripture reveals that perfect love cast out all fear.

My encouragement to you is to increase your awareness of God’s spiritual Presence that is within us. As that relationship grows we will begin to notice the effects we are having on others and the effect that Holy Spirit’s Presence is having on us. Daily and hourly as we commune with God the two are becoming one. We are all individually being transformed in much the same way the world is changing. So I leave you with my original question, what kind of change are we expecting ourselves and others to experience?

 

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October 15, 2012 · 2:50 pm

Holy Spirit Removes the Burden of Proving God’s Existence

Burden of proof is a concept not only found in the legal world but also in our philosophical and scientific worlds. Each has slightly different requirements for proof and their effects are profoundly different.  The scientific burden concerns itself with the method for gathering the evidence, the philosophical burden is concerned about the meaning of the evidence gathered and the legal burden of proof is the obligation to shift the accepted conclusion away from an oppositional opinion to one’s own position.

 I believe one of the main goals of a believer in God is the task of making disciples of Jesus. This to me means to present evidence that will convince any person we meet to also become a disciple of Jesus. But presenting evidence should not be a burden to the believer. This is because the evidence must originate from the spiritual world thus rendering all the human works inadmissible.

 John 3:12-13 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 

The Kingdom of God has come to earth from heaven. Jesus himself came from heaven and if you have experienced the rebirth by being born of the spirit then you are now a resident who is seated in heavenly places. Reliance on material evidence as proof of spiritual truth will never be effective. Moses held up a cross with a snake on it, and Jesus produced bread and fish but to people using only their material senses they could not understand the spiritual proof.

 Aiding in the comprehension of spiritual truth is one of the reasons the Presence of God’s Spirit resides in our earthly human body. By doing this Holy spirit removes the burden from us to communicate spiritual understanding. There is nothing we can physically do to prove the existence of God because it never be accepted by those that are blind to the spirit realm. However when we lay down our human will and allow the will of Holy Spirit to live through us the spiritually blind can have their eyes are opened.

 No  person using material wisdom can love his enemy. No person in material body can walk on water, heal the sick, love, touch and associate with those who have been designated as social outcast. Even in American culture there are social reasons like clothing, job status, housing status, sexual orientations that put people on the fringe of society. It was not long ago when skin color and slavery kept people from full participation in society and if you are female there was a time when you were not allowed to vote having a full say in society.

 Even today some corporate and religious organizations still have a glass ceilings for women limiting their organizational influence and authority. Divorce was and is an event that separated people from their prior social standing thus allowing issues like physical abuse, incest and other social dysfunctions to enter the next generation instead of being dealt with. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom from all these things. Jesus was sent and now we are sent to carry God’s Holy Spirit into a world blind to His existence.

As we become more enlighten by spiritual truth our natural behavior will change. The cause of this change in our hearts is not from fear of failing to keep laws, but it comes as a result of the love and security we find in our relationship with our Father in heaven. We become enveloped with an understanding and a philosophy that puts others before self.  We begin to see evidence that we are all sisters and brothers equal in social status, but unique in so many wonderful ways that allows us to appreciate the diversity and beauty of every person we meet.

 More important is our understanding and belief that as we allow God’s Holy Spirit to live through us we become a personal body for Christ. Our body, design by God can do some really miraculous things that can only be described as supernatural. Jesus was born without a human father and He injected a spiritual DNA into humankind. When we eat His flesh and drink His blood our conscience beholds the true reality of our being.

 I encourage us to remain aware of our citizenship in the Kingdom of God. Not only are we yielding to the function as transport mechanism for Holy Spirit but we are yielding our members to touch, listen and see the same Spirit, wish is also resident inside those that are blind to the truth. As we respond to the Christ in others, even before they see it, we provide spiritual evidence.

 It is impossible to see Jesus with material eyes in a homeless person, a presidential candidate, a supervisor, or co-worker much less our spouse and children. But as we yield to His will our spiritual senses begin to see all of mankind as daughters and sons of God. When we yield to Holy Spirit’s will we are released from the burden of having to provide proof, and we can rest in the work of Holy Spirit who lives in and through us.

1 Corinthians 2:12-14 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy[a] Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

 

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October 6, 2012 · 12:42 pm

Relevance of Our Evidence

One of the tests for the admissibility of evidence in a court of law is that it must be relevant to a point of fact in the case. For evidence to be relevant, it must tend to prove or disprove some fact that is at issue in the proceeding. As a believer in God what is at center of everything is the relationship we have with God. Our very identity is at the heart of all our spiritual evidence. Therefore any spiritual evidence will tend to prove our relationship with God and confirm this possibility for all humans.

Mark 3:24  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

Mark 3:28-29 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”

There are many facts concerning the authority and operations of God’s Kingdom. In order to be a member or even see this Kingdom in operation one must be born of the Spirit. This second birth or awakening opens us up to possibilities and understanding that is not seen by those who have only experienced the natural birth, which is common to all humans.

When we are slapped on the bottom and we are naturally awakened at birth and we breathed and experienced separation from our mothers. Our conscious was activated and the little “I am” began to exist. Prior to that birth we were one with our mother; a growth of her physical body. We evolved for nine months prior to that separation and then we continued to develop as a physical and separate entity. Everything we do after that natural birth is therefore evidence of our physical existence.

Now that we have experienced the quickening of the spiritual birth our lives likewise begin to show forth evidence of this understanding. Instead of a life of separation, Jesus (the second Adam) established a process within us that makes us one with God. Our development is no longer in the direction of separation but now it is in the direction of unity in God as with the rest of all of His creation. We now have become an agent of reconciliation towards God in the earth realm.

To deny that operation and its evidence is blasphemy. In the very way that our finger prints, social security number and credit card activity provides evidence of our physical existence our awaken conscience provides evidence of our spiritual relationship with God. However that is just the state of infancy. As we develop spiritually we come to understand that we can host or carry the very Presence of God within ourselves even to the point of perfect unity, as demonstrated by Jesus the master example.

The point at which our evidence becomes the work of God’s Holy Spirit is the point at which denial of our spiritual evidence becomes blasphemous. When we consciously understand that the little “I am” no longer lives in this house, but the big “I am” now resides here is the moment our lives shift from material living to spiritual living. When laying down our lives daily, dying to self, taking up the cross, becoming a living sacrifice and not my will but your will be done, becomes more than Christian clichés is when we become active citizens of God’s spiritual Kingdom.

The simplicity of breathing and smiling is very relevant evidence because it is God that is living through our lives. Healing the sick, cleansing the untouchables and making alive those that are dead are big and sensational presentations to the jury of our peers. Never the less is the ordinary light we so shine before men that remains as the preserving and reconciling agency in the material world.

Everything is relevant to a conscious that is awake to the realities of God’s Kingdom operating within. We have been made daughters and sons of the living God with the sovereignty to allow His will be done through our lives. As we develop and learn to host His Holy Presence we make relevant spiritual evidence of a unique relationship that is available to every person on earth.

Matthew 5:12-16 You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

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