The
Kingdom…
The ultimate desire… to be with the King!
A
return to better days… Let us restore… Nostalgia is an impediment
to faith. It causes us to want to believe it was better before, it
distracts from the present, it blinds us to and diminishes, that “All things work for the
Good…”
The devil loves to separate. He
constantly tries to separate us from each other and tries to separate
us from the reality of the present. If we allow him to draw or lose us
in the past through feelings, or sentimental thoughts, we have missed
the opportunity to serve in the present moment, but if we believe it
was better in the past that we might try to live in those moments of
memory rather than deal with the present effectively we will be lost
to the eternal kingdom.
Seek Him Now! Did we seek Him for
His purpose or our own?
If we live in faith we seek Him in His coming for us now… Maranatha!
Salvation is
Jesus, He is not for the past or a moment or for a period in time, He
was then and is now and forever.
A slight insight of
the Kingdom that Jesus has given us.
“The Kingdom of God is within you”
Where do we live, in the world of the seen or by faith in the
Kingdom unseen?
Faith believes in what cannot be seen in this world.
Faith is not based on knowing something but on knowing someone.
Yet because knowing Jesus has not brought instant gratification as to
our choosing, we find He is not enough for the delights of our carnal
man. We then attempt to fill in the blanks, what will make us feel
comfortable; this opens the door to any number of half-truths to draw
us away from the love of Jesus. This is the stuff of religiosity,
exercising in loveless rites and rituals to make us feel we’re good,
without doing any good for anyone but ourselves. Then it becomes “The
let’s do this to show the world we’re good club” Self-love
contends with the love of God.
This has brought us to an unwillingness to live in faith for our
resistance is established with cries of contentment. Look what we’re
doing for you God we’re getting peoples attention.
Living in faith is not comfortable. But we cannot please God without
living in faith. So we find our outlet in talking about faith and
understanding what it is; knowledge supplanting the love of God,
choosing self-love over the love found in the blood of Jesus.
Our example begins
with Abraham; his faith is in his response to God’s call. He leaves
his family, friends, home, his entire way of life, all that he knows
in obedience to God. He sets out to meet God in a place of
inheritance. Yet he sets out not knowing were he was going. This is
faith following day by day the voice of God. Having left all behind
him, his life of following was not based on experience; which is often
limited and wrought with discouragement. Faith, to Abraham was, to now
believe in things unseen and not experienced; he in effect set out on
an adventure in pursuit of the will of God.
He simply listened for the voice of God and obeyed. It was tenuous, it
was difficult and he spent a lifetime in pursuit of the will of God.
He endured to the end.
The twelve are simply
asked to follow; for them there is no promise given and no reward in
sight. They are given a place of prominence in heaven because of their
faith. “We have given up everything to follow…” They heard the
voice of God in Jesus. Paul heard the voice of Jesus. Have you heard
the voice of God? Is that your point of departure?
To hear is to obey… to pick up your cross… daily.
Do you hear His voice today?
God operates through faith.
You have no excuse God has given you a measure…
You must use it!
God is faithful to those who are faithful.
Without faith we cannot know the difference…
Faith does not need ability, talent, temperament or aptitude.
Faith does not need anything in this world, certainly not money.
Faith provides…
Not within our understanding but by grace… this is the basis of
miracles.
The Kingdom that is given is not to be understood it’s to be
received in faith.
The kingdom is within; it is Jesus He is the place!
The kingdom is not about self-knowledge or self-knowing it’s not
about self or knowing it’s all about God as seen in our faith in
Jesus.
Faith finds us not returning to something we know or have found it is
moving to what is unknown and presently unseen… which God will
reveal. We will see Him face to face!
The Kingdom is
designed by God we have no part in it’s function. The Kingdom is not
what it might or could be. It is not a respecter of what we think or
feel. It is not subject to us, we are subject to it. If we do not die
to self, in daily submission then we are void or outside the Kingdom.
It does not move. We by selfish acts without repentance, leave of our
own accord. We choose to leave not finding it to be to our liking or
what we want, in choosing against it or in spite of it.
We cannot alter, adjust, compromise, reshape, mutilate or
change the Kingdom.
You can only misrepresent it.
The Kingdom is a given… you can do nothing but receive it.
The
Rock we stand on is not on Earth; He is the good news of eternal
standing… love is not rooted somewhere… it is someone… Jesus!
What is beneath our
feet is the shoulders of the eternal.
We are not going back to Jesus alive as a man on planet Earth; we are
going forward to the resurrected King. John the disciple, who had his
head on His chest and knew Him intimately, throws himself down at His
feet when He sees Him in His Glory on Patmos.
This is the Jesus we will see face to face, who presently by faith is
alive in us.
“Unless you become
like little children you shall not enter”
“Behold
I make all things new!”
Healing is making new! What you can’t see as blind, God
allows you vision for, to see in Jesus. Healing takes what is
corrupted and makes it whole.
The Kingdom makes the imperfect, perfect!
Faith gains us the
vision for the King, here and there beyond our physical sight, in our
heart, in the hearts of others causing us to see in the darkness by
the light of His love now and forever!
Faith works by love! Love is our light!
In faith we cry in one voice Come Lord Jesus… Come!
Thus allowing the world to hear our destination… Jesus!
Love that is with us saves us; love comes for us both in the same…
now and forever!
The King… is the
ultimate desire…
Heb 9:28 “…the
forgiven who eagerly seek His coming; these shall He come for!”
Maranatha!
Jesus
Christ’s
Community at Hebron
www.jesuschrists.com
