Tag: Kingdom of God (Page 4 of 6)

The Kingdom Perspective

April 4, 2019 / Dan Beaty / 0 Comments

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First the Kingdom, Part 12, The Kingdom Perspective

With all this talk about the Kingdom of God, some might wonder “what’s the big deal?” Does it really matter that we think in terms of how our actions are involved in this grand plan that seems to be taking a very long time to complete? Besides that, the majority report does not even agree with the things I have been saying. Who are we to question the more famous Biblical scholars in our day?

Today I will be taking the opportunity to address these questions. First of all, I hope that you will not be simply persuaded by my exhortations but by the Holy Spirit Himself, and through your own thorough studies of the scriptures. I am convinced that given that investment, you will at least see that the Good News of the Kingdom of God was important to Jesus. If understanding, loving and serving Him is important to you, this should become a priority in your life. He instructed His followers to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. He also told His disciples to pray that the Kingdom would come, and that God’s will would be done in earth as in heaven. Finally He told His followers to repeat everything he told them to the nations as they were being discipled! That in itself is a very big deal.

There is the fact that the Christian faith is advancing God’s will in the earth already, even among people who are not consciously thinking in these terms. God is always at work within us to fulfill His good pleasure, even when we do not fully know His plan. However, there are advantages to understanding His plan. And I think I have the backing of the apostles, prophets and even Jesus in that statement. There is the matter of having light on our path, a vision that we might not lose direction, and the wisdom that understanding brings.

Is it possible that believers in Christ could be more effective in spreading His Gospel than they already are? While I am encouraged by every sincere effort, some of the mistakes we make can easily undermine our efforts. Take for instance the competition that exists among churches. Is it possible that we have embarrassed ourselves in front of the watching world as we compete with one another over already converted souls? Would it not be much better to have a Kingdom perspective? Does Christ really receive the glory due His name when we are more concerned with pleasing people than Him? Why do we feel the need to constantly change our style of worship to keep up with the latest fad? Why do we fear losing members over trivial disagreements? why do we think so much about numbers and the church budget — things Jesus never talked about?

Is it because our vision is too small? Is it because we fail to present a victorious Savior who has no competition? Does a bigger, more luxurious building really serve to advance the Kingdom of God more than a small group praying in someone’s home? These are all things I have struggled with, and in which a greater perspective of the Kingdom has brought liberation.

While the Gospel is about meeting our need for deliverance from sin and death, it is also about satisfying the Father’s great desire for us! The Kingdom perspective is God’s perspective. It is the bigger picture. It is greater than our individual church groups. If all we are building is for our own church family, then maybe we are more interested in our own little kingdoms than God’s glorious eternal Kingdom that cannot be shaken or moved!

Here is a liberating thought: Everything is here for a purpose. Even after the fall due to Adam and Eve’s sin, there exists evidence of harmony in the universe. Life on earth depends up the balance between plant and animal life. Plants need carbon dioxide which animals generate, and animals need oxygen, which plants generate. The sun, moon and the planets move about in perfect order.

The only thing that is out of order is humanity.

The imperative, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” is the call for a “paradigm shift.” This is a change in perspective that works. It is a return to the balance and harmony that existed in the beginning. Paul the apostle put it this way, The Kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17) In this chapter, he was dealing with specific rules of conduct like the Jews had in their dietary laws. He was fine with those who continued to avoid certain foods according to their own consciences. It is just that the Kingdom of God is something else, on an entirely different plane. The paradigm shift is a shift in focus to this higher realm in God.

The shift in perspective that Jesus brought was to reorder our thinking to God’s thinking. He created each of us with a purpose. When we resist that purpose we are in fact resisting His righteousness, peace and joy.

It is also a change in allegiance. Whether we knew it or not, before the change in direction to follow Christ, we were actually in service to the enemy. Chaos is the devils friend. God’s order of righteousness, peace and joy is not easily seen from this lower, earthly plane of existence. That is why believers are called to seek those things which are above, and to be seated with Christ in heavenly places. Our enemy is in the business of distracting us, in order to keep our focus off of the Kingdom of God.

To seek first the Kingdom of God is to have a preoccupation with the person of Jesus Christ, His Lordship and His agenda in this world. If my traditions in the church begin to get in the way of His purpose, I have the freedom to let go of them. If my patterns of thinking are a hindrance, they can be cast aside as well. Sorry to say, some of this change has not been without an inner struggle. I have been so committed in the past to some beliefs and habits, that He had to literally tear them from me. And yet am I ever thankful that He did!

So here I am, reaching out to anyone who will listen, hoping others will receive what God has burned within my heart. The walls of traditional thinking have become so thick that my words often come bouncing back to me. Others who feel they have been freed from tradition can be equally hard to reach. The man-centered gospel has actually high-jacked Kingdom terminology to be grossly misused. It breaks my heart so see the greed, the pride, the arrogance of those who even see Christ as a means to getting the luxuries that they want in this world. It is even worse when this is identified with the Kingdom of God!

What will happen to these so-called “kingdom” people when the kingdoms of this world fail? Everything that can be shaken, will be shaken. If we are so tied to these worldly kingdoms, we too will fall. In Christ we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken, that will stand forever.

God is in the process of recruiting warriors who are willing to stand with Him. They see the bigger picture and are willing to deny themselves for a greater cause. If the cults and political activists can recruit their millions to support their vision of a perfect world, why is the church afraid to proclaim the true vision that God Himself has given to us? Jesus started with a small band of followers whose limited vision of the Kingdom enabled them to sacrifice their lives. How clear is your vision today? Will it sustain you through the times we are facing?

Our wonderful Lord encourages us with these words in Luke 12:32:

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
KJV

There must have been times when they trembled before the physical might of Rome. In Acts they gathered for prayer and God answered by filling them anew with the Holy Spirit and a greater boldness than before! What about us? Have we been intimidated by the recent flood of immorality in our modern world? Are we tempted to retreat into our Christian comfort zones? Or are we tempted to take up worldly weapons of anger, intimidation and the use of political power?

It amazes me that believers have so little interest in their history. We have so much to learn from the mistakes and the victories of the past. Those who had a direct connection with Jesus and His apostles were powerless in this world but oh so powerful in Christ! The more they were oppressed, the more victorious they became. Their total trust was in Christ, and not any worldly strategy.

Obedience to Jesus was their greatest weapon against the darkness.

Since we are 2,000 years removed from the experience of the early Christians, we tend to see things from our own perspective. And yet, we have the same Word of God and Spirit of God to help us recover the original intent of God, and how to apply the same simple and effective methods they used. I submit that their methods were effective primarily because of their Kingdom Perspective.

We hope this series on First the Kingdom has been helpful to you. To continue in this study with us, we invite you to “like” and “follow” https://www.facebook.com/livingtruthcom/ or subscribe to our blog on https:livingtruth.com

The Promise of the Kingdom Continued

February 27, 2019 / Dan Beaty / 0 Comments

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First the Kingdom, Part 7: The Promise of the Kingdom Continued

The New Testament of the Bible begins with a gigantic emphasis on the Kingdom of God. 2,000 years later we are beginning to hear more about the Kingdom of God again, and that excites me. What also really excites me is learning that the ages of time leading up to the First Century were actually the preparation for what was to begin unfolding for the Early Church and is continuing to unfold today!

We are part of God’s great plan of the ages! I have suggested that an important part of that plan is for us to understand the promises God made to many Biblical characters from Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, Moses and many others.

The New Testament writer and apostle, Paul, made Jesus and His message of the Kingdom the center of his life. He had this to say concerning the Old Testament prophecies:

Acts 26:22-23:
Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:

That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.
KJV

In another places Paul explained even further how God’s promise to Abraham was relevant to the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

For instance, Galatians 3:8-9:
The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
NASB

When we isolate the message of the New Testament from the Old we can miss the bigger picture. We can easily get wrapped up in our tiny part in God’s economy. Then we might miss the value that it represents when placed along side the other parts. It is like playing with the pieces of a picture puzzle and never attempting to fit them together. And if we do not understand the overall plan that began in the beginning, we are like people working a puzzle without the illustration on the puzzle box!

The children of Abraham did multiply greatly. By the fourth generation they settled in Egypt during a famine. Eventually there were millions of them but now they lived as slaves to Pharaoh. So God raised up Moses to be their leader and through demonstrations of supernatural power they were led out of Egypt and began their journey to the land promised to Abraham.

Moses delivered the people from bondage in Egypt, but he looked forward to a deliverer who would save them from themselves. He foresaw the next individual who would also demonstrate supernatural power and words of incomparable truth. Where Moses saved the people from slavery to men, Jesus would save them from their sins. (Deuteronomy 18:15, John 6:14, Acts 3:19-26, 7:37, Matthew 1:21).

Israel finally occupied the promised land and David eventually took the throne. Being also a spiritual man, he was given understanding of the Kingdom that would come. David wanted to build a house for God, a resting place for the Ark of the Covenant. The prophet Nathan agreed, but God visited Nathan with His Word on the matter. David would not build a house for God, but a house would be built.

1 Chronicles 17:11-15:
‘And it shall come about when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up one of your descendants after you, who shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build for Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My lovingkindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. But I will settle him in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.”‘ ” According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.
NASB

David’s son Solomon built the beautiful temple in Jerusalem, but his throne did not last forever. Hidden in this prophesy concerning Solomon is another glimpse of Christ and His Eternal Kingdom!

One of the most intriguing stories is that of the prophet Daniel and his interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Daniel explained that God was revealing how four great kingdoms were described in the dream, symbolized in a great statue made of gold, silver, brass, and iron mixed with clay. we know them as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece under Alexander, and Rome. In the dream a rock was cut out of a mountain without hands, which struck the stature and destroyed it, to become a great mountain that filled the earth. (Daniel 2:31-45). Then Daniel declared that the mountain was the Kingdom of God!

Dan 2:44-45:
“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. “Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
NASB

This prophecy and others in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and Malachi would be remembered by the people living under the Roman occupation of Israel and Judah. They believed that the promised Messiah-King would free them as Moses did from Pharaoh centuries before. However, many could not see the deeper deliverance that would come. His name would be called the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. The nations will willingly come to learn about the Lord, beating their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, to no longer war with one another. Many of them failed to see that righteousness, peace and joy can only come from the Holy Spirit living within us! (Isaiah 9:6, Micah 4:1-4, Romans 14:17)

God through Jeremiah foretold of a change of heart that would change everything. The people who worshiped God would no longer measure their success according to their performance, but they would begin to relate to God in a way that only a few had understood until then. He said He would write his laws upon their hearts and minds, and that they would know Him for themselves. Ezekiel spoke a similar word from the Lord where He would give them a new heart and His Holy Spirit would live in them so they could do His will from a pure desire. (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:25-27)

Is it possible that these prophecies are relevant today? Do some of God’s people need to return to that fresh innocence when they first received a new heart towards Him?

Please consider these things and stay with us as we move from the Old Testament times of promise to the New Testament times of fulfillment! Is is easy to “like” and “follow” our Living Truth Facebook page or subscribe to our blog on https://livingtruth.com

The Promise Of The Kingdom

February 22, 2019 / Dan Beaty / 0 Comments

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First the Kingdom Part 6, The Promise of the Kingdom

One of the great blessings of my life was to be born into a family of believers, and into a church family that values the Scriptures in both the Old and New Testament. They understood how the New Testament was concealed in the Old, and how the Old Testament was revealed in the New. To put it in another way, Christ was concealed in the Old and revealed in the New!

Even if one decides to start their reading of the Bible at the beginning of the New Testament, this will become evident. In the Gospel according the Matthew there are so many references to events in the narrative that fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. I submit that the New Testament cannot be fully understood and appreciated — that Christ Himself cannot be fully understood and appreciated without the foundation that was laid in the these ancient scriptures, which Jesus referred to as the Word of God, and that Jews today recognize as their Bible.

When John the Baptist and Jesus came preaching, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” the people of their day already had a sense of anticipation and enthusiasm built in them for the Kingdom. The prophets of ancient times had planted the seeds for that anticipation. Looking back we have the advantage of understanding their perspective better, but more importantly we have God’s perspective of the message that John and Jesus brought!

We have looked at the “Original Blessing” that the Creator spoke over the Creation and the humans He created. Then we saw how David, the King of Israel wondered how humanity could be worthy of this high calling to rule the creation and be reflections of God’s divinity. This is the context within which the entire Bible was written. In the Old Testament there is the promise and the mystery concerning how it will be fulfilled, and the New Testament is where the fulfillment begins to come into view.

First let us look at some of the outstanding promises found back there.

From the fall of Adam and Eve, things became progressively worse. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and was warned of the great flood that was to come upon the whole earth. (Genesis 6:8, 13).

After the Lord saved Noah and his family along with all the animals in the ark, He renewed the Original Blessing to be fruitful and to multiply.

Genesis 8:20-21:

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.”
NASU

Genesis 9:1-2:

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ” Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.”
NASU

So while sin had entered in and death because of sin, God was still intent upon blessing us! As we continue, the plan to fulfill that blessing is revealed a little more each time. Until then He reassures us that a cataclysmic judgment to destroy every living thing will never happen again!

In Genesis chapter 12 we see the call of God to Abram, who would later be called Abraham.

Now the LORD said to Abram,

“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. “ (Genesis 12:1-3)
NASB

Abram believed God and followed Him. Little did he know how these promises would come to pass. This was an early indication that the full original blessing might still be available. Abram would both be blessed and a blessing! He was to be fruitful and multiply in the way God had originally planned. Of course we know that things were not perfect for him and his descendants. This is still the time of promise.

Isaac would be born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, and Abraham’s faith would be tested through him. Abraham proved willing to obey God by offering his promised son, and would make a powerful prophecy himself. He declared that the LORD would provide Himself a sacrifice instead of Isaac, and 2,000 years later God would provide His only Son Jesus to sacrifice for our sins to restore the Original Blessing to humanity!

Abraham’s descendants were to be as innumerable as the sands of the seashore and the stars of heaven! This foreshadowed the 2 groups that would inherit his faith. Those descendants that were born from the natural process and followed in his footsteps, and those who would come later through Christ and their trust in Him! (Galatians 3:16, 26-29; Ephesians 2:11-22)

This great nation of both Jews and gentiles is God’s instrument for blessing all the families of the earth. It is a nation that incorporates every member in the world-wide Body of Jesus Christ! Do you see yourself as a recipient of a blessing, but also as a blessing to the nations of the world? If not, maybe you need to dig into the Old Testament a bit more!

We hope you will stay tuned until the next installment, as we continue to explore the wonderful promises presented from Genesis through Malachi! It is easy if you simply “like” Living Truth on Facebook, or subscribe to our blog at livingtruth.com

Tag: Kingdom of God (Page 4 of 6)

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