Choices

Declaring the Kingdom of God

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We have over the years been schooled into an understating of Kingdom, which has brought its own challenges.   Each of us comes from a reality into which we have been educated, instructed and worked, all of these paradigms  groom our thinking.   Many of us are still coming to terms with what we call “KINGDOM” the scriptures and the revelation of God regarding what we call the central message and only message of Jesus, The Kingdom of God is still unfolding.   It would be dangerous to state I know it all, have it all, and be the fount of all knowledge,  as there is the breath of God which is ready to unpack yet more.

Kingdom in itself is different to every  other kind of teaching, it has a life in itself, it has within it, the voice and the message of the King.  Teaching can be taught and returned to within a teaching cycle but this Kingdom message once introduced will allow the rule of the Father to flow into every area of function and practice.   In essence once introduced it has a way of touching into areas not previously considered.    We can talk about the rule of God and the implications of that manifesting in my finances but before we know it Kingdom is working and marriages come under scrutiny, parenting, relationships, etc…..  The Kingdom of God seems to have a life of its own, the rule of God invades our lives at every level.

I would even go as far as to say that the Kingdom of God ‘deconstructs’ everything, practices, theology and functions to bring the rule of God to bear.   Everything we do is deconstructed, but not in the way commonly accepted, deconstruction has had a negative connotation attached to it in some circles,  but what we see is the Kingdom deconstructing in such a  way that anything that is not  representative of the Kingdom of God is challenged.   The Spirit then works to bring about  change to enable the Kingdom to flow.  Therefore we should expect that how we live on Sundays, or Mondays to Fridays will  all  have to come in line with this Kingdom.

Jesus, John the Baptist, and the apostles went about proclaiming the kingdom–not the church (Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 10:7; Acts 28:30-31). The influence of the Kingdom is through out all creation, the rule of God holds all things together, within this rule we have the Church, Church and the Kingdom being one yet one word describes a called out people under the rule of God – Church and the term the rule of God over all and in all creation – Kingdom.   So we then say ‘although the church is in the kingdom, it is not the entire kingdom”.     When my children were very young there was a British children’s program called ‘Playschool‘ in the middle of the 30 min program they would be asked a question regarding the topic under focus “Which window shall we look through children?” was the question, a round open window, a square one, and a third shape were then all displayed.    Through one of three windows a view of the world would be seen.    Life surrounds it self with similar views, we choose to look at life’s issues and practices through our own reality windows, this is so plain to see regarding the understating we live by in regards to the Kingdom of God.    That is,  if you and I see through a Kingdom of God shaped window/reality we see the Kingdom and the Church as one, they are synonymous, one movement of God which cannot and must not be separated, are seeing through the Kingdom or the Church shaped window is the foundation of our world view, our perceive paradigms.

I have come across some folk who use the excuse, “well I am given to the kingdom” – meaning they want the liberty to be independent rather than live and understand the structures of the church,  yet a Kingdom understanding makes the Church and Kingdom one in such  a way that it cannot be separated, one being the product and the other continuing the proclamation etc.   Then you have those who look  only through a church window, a local church window  and see a conflict between the two, the church and the Kingdom.    Watchman Nee had an impact on some of the separation of Church and Kingdom, I would suggest that was unhelpful, as they are one and the same,  the Church is in the Kingdom, but the Kingdom and the rule of God is greater.    We must not see separation but see only one message, one Kingdom, one people of the Kingdom and one message proclaimed by the people.

So be careful and ask yourself the question,  “what window am I looking through?”

“Kingdom” denotes the rule of God over the whole cosmos, not just one  single entity here on the earth, like the church.  In spite of this, most preaching today has as its goal, to get people to make a weekly two-hour commitment to come to a building on Sundays and give tithes to support that building! This is because a spirit of religion has captivated the church and blinded the minds, so that we now have a very limited church mindset, instead of a kingdom perspective. This has had a negative result and the Spirit is again addressing a change so that the Kingdom message can have its full and ultimate effect.

While considering this let me suggest the following contrasts between these two mindsets:

A kingdom mindset will release all saints/all people of God, the called out ecclesia, as ministers in the marketplace, empowering them to make a radical, foundational transformation in that community. A church mindset trains people to serve in its church structure, especially on a Sunday, Sundays are solely an implication of the chosen expression decided upon, in this format  we work on getting worship teams, stewards, children’s and crèche workers, catchers, etc, etc, these may be necessary due to the choice of shape we have decided upon rather than being the true  ‘works of service’ to our world and communities.

A Kingdom mindset will work and believe to create wealth, to transform a community and ultimately a nation. A church mindset motivates giving to build our own church programs.

A Kingdom mindset is a holistic approach that integrates the gospel with politics, economics, and public policy. A church mindset insulates the gospel from politics and public policy.

A Kingdom mindset will see the Bible as a blueprint, as a guide to structure every aspect of society that brings us to realize that everything in  life is spiritual.  A church mindset views the Bible merely as a book that enables us to escape the world, enter heaven, and be spiritual.

A Kingdom mindset enables the church to embrace and love their surroundings the  un-churched communities. With a church mindset churches only embrace converted individuals within their faith communities, and see a big separation between the church and world,  staying with a siege mentality and retaining their separation.

A Kingdom mindset will train people and prepare them for all of life. A church mindset trains people for church life and activity.

A Kingdom mindset nurtures leaders who are world changers and “culturally creative” who articulate truth to society. A church mindset nurtures leaders who speak religious language relevant only to church people.

A Kingdom mindset speaks of the rule of God over the entire created order.    Church mindset speaks of the rule of God through church offices and gifts, deacons and elders over those in a church congregation.

A Kingdom mindset Ministries of God will release people to their vocational callings in the marketplace. A church mindset controls people by marginalizing their marketplace callings and emphasizing only their Sunday ministries, ministries within their structure.

A Kingdom immerses people into their world, that they become influencers at every level to their world, enabled to be effective in society and every walk of life.  A church mindset involves a spirituality that separates from the natural world, it keeps us thinking of escape from a fallen world rather than be partakers of the Restoration of the Cosmos that God so loves.

A Kingdom mindset is a working toward a Restoration of a world where Christ fills all walks, all ways and the whole of creation.  Those with a church mindset merely strive for a particular expression, stream, denomination, and structure of Christianity to be filled.

A Kingdom mindset churches equip 100% of the saints to fill up all things in every realm of life (Ephesians 4:10-12). Those with a church mindset have as their primary goal to equip the 2-3% of the congregation called to be full-time church pastors, ministers, and missionaries.

YOU have a Kingdom message, a Christ rule, to bring the ultimate intentions of God to bear on the whole of the cosmos “God so loves the cosmos (world) he gave” Kingdom is the giving, taking root and affecting the whole of  life.   I have written these to provoke further discussion, enable us to discover what God is still bringing to us in our understanding of the Kingdom, these thoughts are not conclusive stances necessarily they are listed to provoke debate so come and talk.   Neither must I say are they statements made between any particular shape or model of church function (mega, simple, home, celebration, cell, the list is endless) it is an attempt to grapple and consider a biblical grasp of Kingdom and Church of our century.

Giveaway God

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Focus on Free

Consider the Fathers challenge it is his Great Story this is his Great Challenge, Gods Great Challenge is how to give away God.  God has great difficulty doing this, you would think everybody wants God but the response goes something like this “Lord I am not worthy I would rather have religion and morality which gives me the impression I can do it on my own”.    The response often is to out line with various reasons why I am not up to being “spiritual” or to say “I have to get more spiritual” or chase after God to show I am worthy before I am able to get you.     It seems that is better if God gives me the structured, institutional church rather than me being the church the Ecclesia of God, a people who are an outcome of the given-ness of Gods life to humanity, it’s better that I control than to give myself to your given gift, your free gift, no strings attached gift.   Let us learn to receive what you give away freely your kind-of-life!

Mary’s response shows how we should respond to this great grace and gift, it indicates she had an egoless response.  It was not a cry of “I am unworthy” but a “How”, she simply asked for clarification and has become Gods and therefore our picture of how to be receptive and that we should follow.
She shows us how to be a person who can respond with a resounding YES, an unquestioning YES to a free gift.
Catch this worthiness has never been the question put to us, of course we are not but God is giving himself to you no strings attached free, for freedom we were set free to say “be it unto me”.

Essential, Primary for our TIME

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my times are in your hands

Three seasons of time are spoken of in relation to Jesus, “… yesterday, today and forever…”     I would suggest to you that time is a gift created by the Father and given to you along with a place, both creational gifts given to humanity.     We make the mistake of seeing eternity as a long period of time but actually its no time, a place where time is no, the place that time was created form as a gift to you and me.      Place and Time are to be celebrated, but let us focus on Time for now, time is to be redeemed, time is to be accounted for, we learn to “…number our days…”, asking the Father to teach us to make them count. This is not a heavy judgment but the celebration of looking forward to making each day full in destiny and purpose.

Hebrews 13:8 tells of these three seasons whether Christ of God should be found in yesterday, today, forever, in other words in every day, hour, minute, even second, it encourages us with the statements of “For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.” (Message).

Within yesterday, today, tomorrow we are engaged in many activities many focuses, many visions that require us to take up another three resources we have in life, we employ the these three resources time, money and of course people. In these three seasons of yesterday, today, tomorrow we have three resources people, time, money and it is in the way we take hold of these resources and combine them in the seasons that will have a major impact and influence on what we call the Kingdom of God.

Let me suggest to you a further ‘threesome’ that are necessary in life’s scope, to make sense of sometimes a senseless world and to bring clarity in confused circumstances. I will offer this threesome as questions, firstly to ask that you might ponder them, considering our ways in the light of each answer we might furnish

What is the Primary purpose of God in History?

What is the Essential purpose of God in Christ?

What is the Essential message of God for our time?

I have a one word answer for you to ponder, it is the answer to all three it is RESTORATION

But what do I mean by that?   Simply as a definition one could say “ bringing things to their final state”  or “Progress of God’s purpose to its fullness”. For we are not looking to restore back to any particular moment of history or of time, but restoration embodies the restoration of Gods full intention when he spoke into being seasons and time.    Restoration to Gods ‘ultimate intention’, what He had in view when he said “Let there be…”

In order to understand the message of God for our time lets call it the “now” word of God we must first note the phrase “Times (seasons) of restoration” Acts 3:21, and must equally note that Christ with the culmination of time after in such a season as this.

Seasons – what picture does this word cultivate “times of refreshing”, the ages of mankind, childhood, youthful seasons?    We often hear today of the necessity of Revival with which I would concur with completely. However Revival must flow into a Reformation, which in turn must bring Restoration, anything less would be a distraction and a loss. Revelation must flow to renew which must go through a season of establishment so that very revelation must become part of life, each one flowing into the other, each one leading from one to another to achieve a climax.

Although we look through history, history that we can appreciate unravelled when a season flowed from one season to another such as Luther, Wesley, and Whitfield each had its impact and made its contribution.    What about in our lifetime baptism, gifts of the spirit, healing, supernatural, worship and praise, discipleship, faith in life, restoration of apostles and prophets, Kingdom focus all these of being seasons that each one of us have seen flowing from one to another. Yet we are still waiting ‘…times of restoration…’, of fullness. These seasons are accelerating by rushing into each other to become part of each other as each one of these revelations and experiences belong to the whole.

This is an unstoppable move of God as we see the rushing of the Holy Spirit to complete the eternal purpose the bringing of the church to its fullness and the final glorious condition where all of creation would declare the Christ of God (Heb 11:10,16; 12:22; 1314; rev 21:2, 21:10).    Maturity in the church, making her the instrument of blessing worldwide not so much as all of us becoming evangelists, although we must all share our faith but a corporate evangelist communicating the life of God to mankind in a way that they might become the Disciples of Christ. In a way that is incarnational and culturally relevant “…explaining the father…” John 1:17 (NASB) to our generation and time.

This is the Essential message of Jesus.

God fully expressed in mankind “Word became flesh”, you and I might be the incarnation that our neighbours and work colleagues might find the full expression of God in their daily routine of life. But this is no science-fiction story but a truth that God’s ‘Tomorrow-Age’ mankind, mankind in its final condition in the image of God will rule and fill creation (mankind the lover of mankind, mankind the communicator of God, mankind the disciple maker).

The essential message of Jesus brought mankind and God together to be engaged in a throne destined.

The message of God to our time is not so much what we are saying but it is what you and I are becoming, that the word might be made flesh again, that our words might become tangible in them through lives. Should be seen in these two simple statements:

What we are becoming as individuals in Christ

What we are becoming as a corporate Christ the church, ecclesia

But this tomorrow aged people flesh out the:

Love of God

Life of God (happy, content, excited, fulfilled)

Nature of God (Creator, Saviour, Father, James 5:20 disciple)

Being as he was, the is “ perfect” – complete, holy, righteous, well-adjusted

Perfectly at home in humanity

Perfectly at home in God likeness

All this brings demands upon us as we seek to  become mature in the fullness of Christ we are to:

Know God – right concept, your view of God

Know ourselves

Live in reality

Live as a community of the King

Live in the power of God’s life

What is the message of our time?   WE ARE

A closing thought, If ours does not prove to be the final generation of TIME, let mankind look back on what “WE ARE”, not what we taught, information only. As we serve God in our generation.

His purpose: his interests: his will and goals.

We pray that history about time will have more to say about the many much more, the mature, full corporate people than just the one or two.

A Necessary Focus – part 3

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Keys of the Kingdom

Here we go the last section of this article, it is my concluding thoughts on the reason why we must proclaim the same message of Jesus Christ – Kingdom of God, we will complete this session with the implications if we agree in any way on the thoughts presented happy reading and i trust you will be stirred as I am to see the Kingdom of God in fullness in your home, town, city, and world!

-The message of the Kingdom of God  empowers and involves everyone, it stimulates the world changes (entrepreneurial, leaders, managers, politicians, statesmen and women) that come into the churches to come on board.   When these world changers are told that their highest calling is to minister for two hours on a Sunday it disengages them. The Kingdom of God gives the why of our salvation.

-This message brings about the necessity for every believer to search the scriptures so that they might have a voice to their particular marketplace, ensuring a demand to think biblically and gain an ability to speak into their world.

-This Kingdom message brings about a world view and challenges each minister not to continue to preach a therapy gospel making people feel good, but takes each servant of God and empowers them in their works of service with all its challenges.

-The message of the Kingdom of God would release the creativity of God, releasing writers, actors, artists. Once again the church preaching the kingdom of God would become the founders of universities, hospitals and our governments would be affected by this kingdom message, because the people of God are bringing kingship and rulership after possessing the gates of the Worlds once again (Genesis 17:5-7)

-The Kingdom of God proclaimed, will deliver our preaching from being a single message dealing with life after death which alienates world changers  sending them into the world with a feeling that their gifts were not appreciated by the church. The message will deliver us from only nurturing platform, ordained preachers to appreciating and endorsing people called to our culture as profits like Joseph –  Genesis 37 to 50 and economists will save the nation; Daniel –  Prime Minister profit brought national transformation, as well as city bodybuilder such as Nehemiah

  • Proclaiming Kingdom message will empower parents to “ bring up the child in the way they should go” discipling them to be ministers of the kingdom.
  • A Kingdom viewpoint  empowers the theologians just see an entire view of both Old and New Testament to bring about a model, to see and establish judicial laws and thus herald the coming of the Kingdom as a means of bring a relevant structure to our society
  • The kingdom of God demands a reinterpretation of many passages from the scriptures that have been traditionally practiced with an individualistic application, it demands a corporate body application.     Luke 4 passage is a great mandate declaration of King Jesus and it has been used to release individuals that have been oppressed and held captive yet it cannot be just for the deliverance of the individual, it has at its central core a Kingdom concern for justice in re reading Isaiah 61 we see that communities and cities are lifted by a Kingdom message not just individuals.

If we take up the message of the kingdom, and agree in any way in the list outlined, it has an implication on you and I as the readers, it has practical hands and feet that have daily implications on each of our lives.

The message of the kingdom of God has therefore brought:

  1. An understand that being born again is not about going to heaven but more about bringing the Lordship of Christ to the whole cosmos.
  2. An  understanding the word doesn’t have spiritual and non-spiritual things but brings us to a place of realization that everything is spiritual whether in the unseen or in the material world and we must bring the will of God. Paul was not Christ the “ word made flesh” which must have an implication that flesh is not evil.
  3. An understanding that the ministry of Ephesians 4:11 are equipping ministries for life and its marketplace to fill up all things, Christ all in all (Eph 4:10-12)
  4. An understand “ that God so loved the world”  has an implication which is much more than the and about the redemption of the “cosmos” –  world
  5. An understanding that the people of God, the ecclesia is to be the primary agent of the kingdom to be salt and light in this world, to realize that your light resides in darkness and is not hidden away (Matthew 5)
  6. An understanding of the body of Christ is to nurture world influences and changers not just to find a place for ourselves.
  7. An understanding of the Christ as the king of the Earth as well as the head of the body – The church.
  8. An understanding that we as the Christ must be in our world, not delivered from our world. The kingdom means being immersed in our cities and serving our cities and not anxiously waiting to escape and be delivered from our world, hence seeing our Sunday gatherings as a respite, a temporary escape from our evil world, but understanding that God and his Christ loves this world that we have seen as evil for far too long.
  9. An understanding that  the scriptures were never written as a book about heaven but more about heralding the kingdom of God and therefore the stewarding of Peoples and nations and the Earth
  10. An understanding that we have an ultimate call, not for revival but for Reformation which ultimately will bring Restoration

We discovered that the scriptures are blueprints for people, grouping people in localities, forming faith communities, to be first in the household of faith then moving out to structure society and be salt and light, bringing Christ to our world.

We have before us the challenge of society, realizing that it will either be under the rule of godless human religions and biblical traditions, or under the rule of the kingdom of God, we have the responsibility to preach, teach, and be the hands and feet to the message of the kingdom of God

Embrace – Announce – Herald the Kingdom of God

A Necessary Focus – Part 2

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Eye Eye!

A Necessary Focus – I wonder with what mind are you reading these crafted thoughts, with an open mind or a preset mind, a perception that is heavily walled and set, I pray that you mind find a freedom to hear the voice behind the printed words and hear the Spirit through the few words on this electronic page.

I have taken time to write not to give me something to do, as we all have enough on, or with a hope that I get better at writing, but with a conviction that what I pen has significant weight in our day to bring a now gospel impact that will transform people to become world changers, transformers.

I admit that I am a bit of a science fiction buff, I like the films and programs and am looking forward to the next sequel in the Transformed film due out the end of June 2011.    How ever that film will cost million and make millions and pass on but these words will bring around transformation when we take on its focused message, the single life style and message of the Christ and make it the first cause of our lives, this is why I write to be a TRANSFORMER and to inspire others to TRANSFORM their life, home, street, community and world.   TRANSFORM WITH ME AS YOU READ ON.    These words will not pass by like the film but will bring about the goal of times work

As previously mentioned I am laying out my reasons why I proclaim the Kingdom of God, I trust this will firstly clarify my own thoughts, secondly I trust it will be of benefit for those who read.    My appeal is that we once again strongly announce, herald and preach the Kingdom of God with open hearts, not as those who have heard it before, or done it in the past, got the tee-shirt, rode the ride, but with new eyes looking and listening again.

Here are my reasons I trust that you will join and agree with me:

– It is only the Kingdom of God that seeks to release all of God’s people, that are part of the ecclesia, to serve as ministers in his kingdom in their works of service set for us all before the foundation of the earth. We understand that the Kingdom message empowers people to take up their various callings, to mature in their roles in the marketplace. The Kingdom has need of educators, politicians, economists, social workers, factory workers, builders, lawyers, etc.

-The Kingdom of God saves us from misrepresenting the cross for individual redemption, rather the kingdom understanding brings back the focus of the cross to the purpose of reconciling, bringing back all things, including the created order back to God’s full purpose (Col 1:20)

-The proclaiming of the Kingdom of God cannot be done holistically outside of releasing the Holy Spirit which will bring a wave of creativity with it. The first “day of Pentecost” let me suggest is when the Spirit hovered and in the beginning was sent forth at the creation of all things (Genesis 1, 3). The Holy Spirit is still hovering in creativity in the image bearers of God as we work and function in our marketplaces. To proclaim the kingdom without the Holy Spirit  would not be a full Kingdom message.  Therefore to preach the Kingdom is to be the spoken word that releases the Holy Spirit, to be the “Let there be” once again.

-This message is the only message that Jesus, Paul and John the Baptist preached it is also the primary focus of the New Testament (Matthew 3:2, 4:17, Mark 1:15, Acts 28:31)

-The kingdom of God is the only message that is generational. It connects all the seeds throughout the Scripture (Genesis 3:15 – seed of the woman; Galatians 3:29 – seed of Abraham who would become the church; Genesis 12:1-3 –  children of God who called to bless the families of the Earth; Genesis 17:5-7 – rulers of the kings of the earth;  Genesis 22:17 –  possesses the gates of our enemies, this only outlines an application that our children’s children should be engaged in our world and the practical affairs of this life are to be under the influence and blessing of the kingdom.

-The Kingdom message demands the church to consider its collective stewardship to manage the cosmos and the Earth, it challenges us not to preach escapism but to be accountable for the world that he has planted,  to extend and increase the garden of God. For we are the first garden, i.e. the garden of our lives under the order of God (Kingdom of God) that we are to take the seeds of our lives and go forth and rule extending the garden into our families, streets, communities and marketplaces.

–If the ecclesia, the church, the called out ones of God would once again embrace and preach the message of the Kingdom of God it would most definitely result in cultures being transformed, cities being transformed, and Reformation would come to the nations.

The nations of the world do not need governments, PM’s, presidents, or healing crusades but primarily they need the people of God to be in government, the apostolic government would bring the King in order, therefore allowing the rule of God to root out corruption. By preaching the kingdom of God and making it practical, wisdom for building and for the restructuring of nations under the rule of God would soon follow.

– Psalm 2 outlines the inheritance of the Messiah which the Kingdom of God continues to announce. Jesus died to redeem all nations and people groups not just the individual this sits along with our inheritance of saints (Eph 1:10-11, Matthew 28:19) being commissioned not just to reach individuals but to disciple all people groups and disciple nations,  once again we will see all nations baptized and born again  as outlined in the narrative of Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus they “might see the kingdom of God”.

 

Here is another 8 reasons added to the 3 already outlined in Part 1 still have a few more to challenge you with let me know whats it stimulating in you!