#300 Kingdom: The Kingdom and the Overcoming Life

Many of these Kingdom studies may seem redundant because there are always new thoughts on the same subject. This is certainly the case with the Kingdom and the overcomer. We cannot separate these two and we could say that without overcoming there is no participation in the Kingdom. The series of applicable scriptures that define this truth are as follows;

Rev 3:21] `He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne..

Rev 2:26] `And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO him I will give authority over the NATIONS; [27] AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father;

2 Tim 2: 11] It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; [12] If we endure, we shall also reign with Him;

Luke 19: 27 “But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.”

1 Cor 15: 25] For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. [26] The last enemy that will be abolished is death. [27] For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.

Rev 5:10 “And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

Rev11:15 “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”

Rev 20: 6] Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

Rev 22: 5] And there shall no longer be any night; and they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them;[the bondservants] and they shall reign forever and ever.

Many similar truths can be seen in these few scriptures. The “bondservants shall reign and the overcomers shall reign and those who endure shall reign. However, those who don’t want Him to reign over them will be in big trouble. We also see that it is priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

It is also clear that Christ is ruling now and will continue to reign UNTIL every enemy is put under His feet. Our theory is that Christ is now ruling through the church and He will continue in this mode until every enemy is put under the feet of the church, which is His body! Of course we don’t see much “ruling over His adversaries or the enemies and the revengeful caused to cease their activities by the church.” Why is this? Because it is those who overcome that have this privilege. It is also assigned to the Priests of God whom we can assume are also those who overcome. We might also conclude that these priests who overcome are also the Bondservants.

Then why is the church not ruling over God’s enemies? Simply because we are not on “ruling ground.” “Ruling Ground” means those who are priests of God who have made themselves bondservants and have overcome in this Life. Does that eliminate anyone? “Only those who don’t want Jesus to rule over them, can’t be bothered with priesthood, with overcoming or with becoming bondservants.” In other words with just about the whole visible church!

Until the ministries make this clear and absolute the “church” will see no reason to overcome, become priests of God, or to make themselves bondservants. [doulos not diakonos.] My theory is that this realm of ruling is assigned to the “manifested sons of God.”

Luke 3:38] the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

The first Adam was called the son of God but he was of the other creation that has now fallen from that original position before God. Jesus Christ is also called the Son of God and He IS the head of a whole new creation and is the beginning of a new Genesis.

It was Adam, the son of God, that was given dominion and sovereignty over the earth and the things upon it. Adam handed that authority over to the devil. Luke 4:6] And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Now we must begin this new Genesis with a recovered dominion, authority and sovereignty over the earth and over the things that creep on the earth. This includes principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, over serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. It includes fallen angels, spirits, and demons which are spirits without bodies. There is plenty to overcome and a vast area for us to rule in this present age.

The problem is not with opportunity but with understanding, experiential authority and a vision for eternity. Since the dominion has been restored to us through Calvary, the ball is in our court and the responsibility is ours. Of course those who are still of the old creation and have not made the transition to the new creation are totally impotent to use any authority or do anything about God’s enemies. This is a major problem in the visible church. Another problem is that the “church in development” has taken its pattern of lethargy from the “visible church” instead of striving for the reality revealed in the scriptures.

Since all the promises are ours IN CHRIST JESUS there are no promises for the old creation but just a dreadful looking for the day of judgement. In other words for us to participate in the promises of scriptures we must first be made partakers in the new creation. The New Covenant provides for those who are of the new creation. What we are referring to as “the new creation” is a completely “new species of people” totally different from the old species of the first Adam. Trying to guide a “church of the old creation” into spiritual dimensions is very disappointing, yet this is very popular activity on Sunday morning.

All this is just rudimentary until we understand some of the eternal promises and purposes of God for the perfected church. If we could rise above this age and see into the next age all this preparation would be logical and proven to be essential. We would understand that the transparency and perfection of the New Jerusalem is the transparency and perfection of the bride of Christ. We would also understand that this perfection is gained in this life and not after we get to heaven.

Therefore, since the overcomer will share the throne with Jesus Christ and His Father and become one with Him, the ultimate goal is to be like Him in all ways. That is in character, in stature, in perfection, in obedience, and in His purpose. The independent church that is just doing its own thing and “serving God” out of natural understanding and in the flesh will fall far short of God’s purpose during this training period. While they may be on the New Earth section of Heaven they must be ruled over by those who overcome and have become like Christ. These are those who have overcome and rule upon the earth that we saw in Revelation 2:26.

When we make distinctions between the half-saved and the saved many get offended because all are considered as “children of God.” Then when we make distinctions between those who are “saved” and those who have given themselves to do the whole will of God we offend many others. Now if we make distinctions between all those who have given themselves to God and those that experientially overcome we offend about everybody.