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AUTHORITYThe 'Kingdom' of GodAUTHORITY
מַמְלָכָה — βασιλεία
מַמְלָכָה — βασιλεία
the phrase "kingdom of God" is often understood as meaning a 'realm' of God's reign or the 'activity' or 'mission' of His Church. some have even tried to limit it (as "gospel of the kingdom") to a presumed 7-year-tribulation-proclamation by a '144,000' about the millennial rule of Christ (principally to avoid the implications of Christ's clear statement in Matthew 24:14 which set the timing of the End as being the completion of the Church's mission), whereas Jesus actually said "this gospel of the kingdom", meaning it was what His disciples had heard Him preaching (often in correction of local Pharisee teachings).
So these various limiting interpretations are all completely untrue!
"kingdom of God", as the Bible uses it, refers to the rule / authority / sovereignty of God, and it was to represent this, according to the true character/attitude of God, that human beings were made in the very beginning "in His image"
to truly represent Him.
| God's use of the personal plural in the call of the prophet Isaiah indicates that the plural here refers to the authority of Heaven's Court (Isaiah 6:8) and not 'angels' as Judaism says or 'Trinity' as some foolishly say. |
| No! It did not meaning 'domesticating' them or taking fish for a walk! |
this reason alone in the beginning, humanity was given "dominion" over all that lives –
| "God said, 'Let us make man[kind] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth'." |
this human responsibility that was fully demonstrated in the personal lifestyle of the Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, in the 33½-years of His human life and publicly shown in those last 3½-years,
and it is to undermine and negate this reality that Satan has worked as a deceiver in human history.
the phrase "kingdom of God" is often used in Christian circles for the future coming rule of Christ (inaugurated by His second coming) it is a reality that is not in itself attached to a future event. The Lord's prayer statement "Thy kingdom come" refers to
its immediate implementation in the life-experience of that person praying and not to some future end-of-the-world time.
As Jesus Himself walked on this earth, incarnating the authority of God's direct presence, so are His people meant to walk 'in His shoes' now, wherever they may be!
For this reason, Jesus, in God's love for all humanity (κόσμος/kosmos), took all blame upon Himself before God on His cross (between 12-noon when He was cut off from God, and 3pm when His separation from God ended before He died), so that
– even the weakest and most wayward might return to God and walk in Christ's name before God –
| to fulfil the mandate of human existence! |
more than
a rescue mission!
| Remember, praying in 'tongues' is not a ministry Gift of the Spirit. It is an intrinsic part of this intimate relationship to the Spirit given to all God's people who believe (1 Corinthians 14:18). Jesus did not need 'tongues' prayer because His mind was unstained by misleading presumptions. |
the Spirit of God was hovering/brooding over the earth before the days of creation began and then implemented that which God spoke into each of the six days of creation, so the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus after His water baptism by John to implement His representative function as a full human being "in God's image", and then, after the completion of Christ's Atonement,
on the day of Pentecost this same human relationship of Christ to God's Spirit was given to all who belong to Christ –
in order to fulfil the human mandate as Jesus fulfilled it!
Matthew 3:16;
Luke 3:22;
Acts 1:8
Acts 2:4, 33.
This authority, of the direct presence of God through those who walk in Christ's name, is an essential to completing what began in Christ's first coming, and therefore – any delay in this fulfilment is a delay in the Ultimate – to be seen in the visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to lift His people into His resurrection to reign with Him forever.
Satan is very aware of this, and therefore does all he can to distract, deviate, and discourage those to whom the Spirit of God was given through Christ on that day of Pentecost which inaugurated the final and complete fulfilment of this mandate in Christ's name.
Satan is very aware of this, and therefore does all he can to distract, deviate, and discourage those to whom the Spirit of God was given through Christ on that day of Pentecost which inaugurated the final and complete fulfilment of this mandate in Christ's name.
have been a useful deviation to the enemy of God's purposes, by presenting Christian action as nothing more than a rescue mission from the damnation of sin (like a 'life-boat' to rescue people from the 'sinking ship' of humanity).
So seemingly good distractions that deviate have been very useful to the enemy of God's purposes in humanity.
But, it is the majesty of God's mercy to turn-the-tables on this Enemy and use the weak, the fallible, and even take the failed and turn them into direct tools of God's grace.
Remember that Israel's king David had a number of sons, but the only son in whom the glory of his kingdom shone was his son (Solomon) by the woman (Bathsheba) with whom he earlier had committed adultery and then had her husband (Uriah) murdered to cover it up. This record illustrates to us that when a matter is fully placed in God's hands, by the truly repentant/humble,
the 'broken' even become a tool of glory, as is impossible to comprehend outside of the wisdom of God's grace.
| See: When Shame Becomes Glory! |
awaits complete fulfilment...!
