is increasingly bringing His government upon the earth to quicken
mankind towards His image and intentions. It is time to assess and
discuss the complex aspect of human behavior from a kingdom perspective.
I pray we ask the Lord often to reveal to us what needs to be known—that which may be hidden—and help us to receive it and implement it in
our lives for His glory. He desires us to be free, and empowers us to
act against the very nature of self.
The gospel of the kingdom is the redemptive manner in which God intends for
His will to be accomplished in the earth. This, in itself, should alert
us to the misappropriation of prevailing messages of the “preparing us
for heaven” gospel. Yes, thankfully heaven is in the mix, but the place
called heaven is for later while the work of spreading heaven on earth
is present and ongoing.
This kingdom is more than the redemptive act accomplished in the Person of
Christ, resulting in our going to heaven. We are thankful for
redemption, but we cannot remain stuck there, waiting on Him or heaven,
while all the while, He is waiting on us. He has empowered us with His
Spirit and therefore the power of heaven is within us. No more hanging
on for Jesus to return when He is hanging out with us to occupy until He
comes.
The
sheer weight of the word kingdom carries governmental connotation,
which lovingly demands a behavioral response from us. Christ presented
and demonstrated a “Father-pleasing” life that is beyond doctrine and
rituals. There must be a response to the declarations of, “The kingdom
of God, is at hand, and the kingdom of God is within you,” and I hear the
echoes of apostle Paul’s cry of laboring until Christ becomes fully
formed in us.
Most
of us have read the Bible or have been taught that heaven is the main
focus of our new birth in Christ. Our final destination and prize is
eternal life with our Lord and Savior, but was it never meant to be the
main focus of our life and message. Being born of the Spirit is the
entrance into the kingdom of God, and the beginning of an amazing kingdom journey as the manifest sons and daughters of Almighty God.
Our
destination is secured, but our calling and journey is to be living in
the realm of the Spirit while being the glory of His heavenly essence
upon the earth. Heaven can wait, but while we are here, the family
business of “Almighty and Sons” bring the power and presence of God into
every sphere of society. As we shed our religious ways and allow God to
expose the darkness and distractions in our lives, His light and nature
will supernaturally come forth in power through each of us.
The
new birth represents the coming out of darkness and being reborn into
the kingdom sphere of agape and light. When this occurs, we are
empowered with kingdom understanding, and are free to act against
ourselves or the nature of self. We become human as God intended, we can
love as God intended and we are free to become His intention of love
for the world around us. Christ was the firstborn among many, the first
of humanity to be empowered by the Spirit of the Living God.
The new birth is Father’s insemination of His eternal seed to each person who receives and embraces Christ.
John 1:12 says, “But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God” (NLT).
It
communicates the essence of the New Creation by restoring to me eternal
Life, and being raised up in the form of His agape. This means that
anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is
gone; a new life has begun! This is indeed, that which was taken from us
in the transgression of Man and now restored to us in the last “Son of
Man.”
As His children we once again have the “God in us” potential to be
human as God intended. His life, given to me, is that which enables me
to act against myself, since my life is not my own, and since now I have
chosen to live as a Father pleaser.
God
is Love and Christ appeared as love incarnate for the sole purpose or
rather, the specific purpose of being the one that could and did act
against Himself.
“So
Jesus explained himself at length. ‘I’m telling you this straight. The
Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing.
What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and
includes him in everything He is doing” (John 5:19-20, AMP).
This
He did for the single purpose of bringing in a new creation, one that
is capable of acting against self in order to live as Him for the world.
His life showed the way and His death and resurrection secured the way
for all of us.
That
purpose is stated in Hebrews 10:9: “I come to do Thy will, O God” (KJV). This, of
course, is restated in the encounter at Gethsemane: “Not my will, but
Yours be done” (Luke 22:42, NKJV). We can now see the manner in which Father intends for His
will to be accomplished on the earth through us who also say, “Father,
not my will, but yours be done in my life.” Becoming incarnate
ambassadors of God’s nature, which is agape love, is His will for us.
The
activated ingredients of His nature are present and revealed through
His children. Many have said a prayer without revelation and the
actuality of becoming an empowered follower of Jesus and His ways. As
Christ is becoming fully formed in us through becoming disciples of His
way, His truth and His life, His nature will increasingly and
supernaturally be revealed.
Living a life that Father intends for each
of us is the evidence of the power of God within us. This is not works
based on anything but an outward flow of His agape nature in us.
Religion has rules to follow that create a form of godliness, but it
falls far short of His power, His glory, and cannot be sustained.
So
we live under His governance and His kingdom government has no end.
Nations will continue to rise and fall, but His kingdom will continue to
come while His people rise up as kingdomized servants who carry the
hope for humanity. These are exciting times, as the opportunity to
present everlasting hope has never been better.
We have the freedom
through Christ to put down our nature, and live in His nature. There is
no greater measurement to our daily living than how much we love our
Father and love others. We each have come a long way, but we continue
to grow from glory to glory in His wisdom, stature, and favor. He is
with us, He will never leave us and the gates of he shall not prevail
against us or His eternal kingdom.
About the author: Robert Ricciardelli and his wife,
Joyce, are the founders of the Converging Zone Network, which desires
to connect people and provide a platform to share their unique passions,
experiences and purposes. Through their blogs, newsletters and social
networking platforms, they
bring collaboration to more than 100,000 each week in various spheres of society.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.