#365 Kingdom: Bringing The Kingdom Down

Heb 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

The Writer Of Hebrews says that we have NOW COME to Mt. Zion AND to the city of the living God. Mt. Zion represents the manifest Presence of God. It is the location of His Throne and place of His Eternal Government. We may wonder how we have already come there since everybody is waiting for that to take place sometime in the future. Obviously this will only happen after we depart this life and go to a place called heaven.

For many years we have heard the testimony of those who have sought to scale the heights of Zion much like those who try to climb Mt. Everest. Mt. Everest requires all the human effort that is possible for man to achieve to the heights. Climbing to the heights of Zion has been shared as various forms of consecration etc. Many physical requirements and limitations are taught to ascend unto Zion.

Jesus said to Pray “Thy Kingdom come that God’s will may be done on earth as it is now being done in heaven.” This focuses more upon God coming down than in man trying to come up. Heb 12:18 For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word should be spoken to them. 20 For they could not bear the command, "IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED." 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, "I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling."

The example that is given concerning Mt. Zion is the whole picture of Israel’s experience at Mt. Sinai. First God came down AND THEN man was supposed to go up the mountain, hear God’s voice, keep His covenant and obey. This was a requirement so that God could make them a Kingdom of priests. The sequence is not man FIRST coming up and THEN God will come down to meet with man. The initiative is first with God.

The 70 elders along with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and Moses and Joshua (75 persons) went up Mt. Sinai part way but Joshua went up farther and Moses went up still farther on the mountain. God had come down on Mt. Sinai before they went up. All of them saw God’s feet and ate and drank with God and were amazed that they didn’t die.

Many over the years have sought for “human perfection” by mis-interpreting the “going on to perfection” in Hebrews 6 or the “Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Math 5:48 This “perfection”was approached by the doctrine of “entire sanctification.” Few will confess that they have achieved this state of sanctity. The error is probably seeking the ascension of the human being into a state far beyond their capacity as human beings.

While the consecration offering is essential to begin our “perfection” it becomes the end of the “human being” rather than the sanctity of the human being. Our body becomes a “living sacrifice” rather than a dead sacrifice. However, the “Life of Zion” is not the fallen life of the human being but the infused resurrection Life of Christ. Perfection has to do with Christ living His Life in us after we surrender our life to Him.

My point is this; The Kingdom begins when God comes down and not when men go up. Since it is scripturally true that salvation is a matter of God coming down to save man and then inhabit the redeemed person, we need to pray for eyes to see into this realm of Absolute Truth. Praying that we might ascend into the Kingdom is not scriptural but praying for the Kingdom to come into this realm of earth is scriptural. However, to anticipate that Jesus will some day take His seat on a throne in earthly Jerusalem and THEN BEGIN His Kingdom rule is very shallow. He must first find a people in which He can dwell and in which He can rule as the King eternal. His Government AND His laws must be experienced in the inner man here and now.

2Co 6:16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.

The question that we need settled is this; Does He dwell in us just as “Savior” or does He dwell in us as the King eternal? When God becomes our God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit dwells in us AS GOD.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.

The word “with” can also be translated as “in.”

CEV) Jesus replied: If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them.

I am assuming that IF We love Him and Obey Him by keeping His word means more than accepting Him as personal Savior. My theory is this; When the Kingdom has entered into a person then the Father will feel free to dwell there also, along with the Spirit of Christ and with the Holy Spirit.

Man can only fulfill God’s purpose and bring joy to God’s heart in the degree that man has permitted God to establish His Life in man and then participates with God by receiving EVERYTHING necessary for the Kingdom LIFE from God to be manifested. This is the key to going on to perfection. It is Christ living His perfection in man and not the human being growing to perfection. The “inner Kingdom” is involved in God dwelling in us.

Heb 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

“Sanctity” then is God coming to His fulness within us and NOT the result of “human effort.” In fact “human effort” is the enemy of the “inner Kingdom” because it seeks to do things apart from God and by human ability. Living a “good life” as a human being has often been mistaken for the Christian life but the “human being” is still just human. If the “human beings” were eliminated from the Sunday service many churches would be empty. For God to find a Sabbath “resting place on earth” where “His will is being done” He must first establish His Kingdom in that life. This removes the “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” out of the universal and abstract and brings the Kingdom down into our personal experience.

My theory is this; For God to communicate with us He must first communicate Himself to us. Why? Because God speaks from between the Cherubim. [ The Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit] He speaks within the Most Holy Place in our inner man.

For God to come to live in one of His created beings seems incredible and for the Creator God to dwell in one of His created beings, now on earth, appears impossible. If we are ever going to “BE” the revelation of the Father among men, it must be as the vessel in which He dwells. The “vine-branch union” is still a great mystery but this IS the key to bearing much fruit. More human beings out evangelizing cannot produce this kind of fruit. “LIFE-UNION” then is the key to the next restoration.

If God actually does communicate HIMSELF to man it must be on the basis of who God, Himself, is and NOT on the qualities of the creature or created human being. If we used the term “union with God” {that is derived from the “Vine-branch union” in John 15} as the normal Christian Life we are immediately confronted with the difficulty of joining two totally different substances. There is no similarity or compatibility between Divinity and humanity. The difference is between Spirit and flesh which are always in conflict and not compatible with “union.”

My theory then revolves around the necessity of becoming a new creation. That means that God MUST create a new man that is of the same substance as Himself so that He may dwell in the New Creation Man. The new creation man is NOT a human being but is living within the body of a human being. He is a “new creation” living in the outward body of the “old creation.”

Eventually we {the new I} must put off the body of the old creation man and exist wholly as the new creation man who after Christ is created in the image of God.

Col 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him

It is clear that anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech along with evil practices are all within the character of the “old self.” How, then, can God live in union with this fallen nature? He cannot!

Col 3:12 And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

The characteristics of the “new self” is a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other. Of course there are many other qualities of both the “old creation” and the “new creation” that we see in the scriptures. The confusing thing among believers is all these things seem to be in the same person. It is like there are two fountains within us, one pouring out sweet water and the other spuing out garbage.

It is obvious that one of these “creations” must be in a continual state of increase and the other in a continuous state of decrease. The “old creation” must decrease in the proportion that Christ is being formed within the “new creation man,”

To assume that Christ is being formed in the “natural, old creation man” is ignorant because they cannot be joined in union simply because they are of totally different substances. One is temporal and the other eternal. One is human and the other Divine. One is creature and the other Creator.

If we begin our search for the Kingdom knowing that there is NOTHING in my old nature that is homogenous with God, we soon realize that we must become totally “new creations.” Immediately we understand that Kingdom Christianity is not about what I believe or how I live outwardly but about the transformation of the new inner man until Christ is formed in me.

Mt. Zion then is not about the natural man scaling the heights of Zion but of the King of Zion descending into my new person and my new man growing as Christ is being formed in me. The objection to this theory is that IF Christ was formed in me then the “ME” in which He is formed must become Divine. My next theory is that the John 15 “union of Life” demands it and the much eternal fruit requires it.

If we took a totally negative example from scripture of a demon spirit totally inhabiting a poor human being and driving that human being into doing incredibly evil things, we might see the positive example of God possessing the new creation man and causing that new creature to do incredibly good things. We might even see that the New Covenant promises that very thing.

Eze 36:26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

The body can be the temple of the Holy Spirit but He dwells more precisely in the New Creation Man who also lives in the same body. However, when we lay aside this body we have a dwelling place made by God, eternal in the heavens. The Holy Spirit will be with us forever but NOT in this body.

John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.

This “union with God” is NOT a matter of mere knowledge or theology or degrees or titles or positions but is the basis of the Christian life and the eternal priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Most of the time it seems that John 15 is taken and preached very casually as some sort of option. John 15 IS THE BASIS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE and is the transition point between the Outer Court light and the Holy Place life and applies to bearing fruit in ministry.

John 15:6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

This sounds very ominous to those who just want to believe something about Jesus and go to heaven someday. If ONLY those who were in a Vine-branch union with Christ were invited to church on Sunday, many of the churches would be empty. However, this would reveal the shallowness of the average church experience and the predominance of natural light over the visible church!

The casual church member probably never has heard or taken seriously the requirement of the life of total consecration to qualify for the priesthood ministry or of sonship. The totally consecrated life is what we are calling the “Royal Pathway” to the Kingdom. However, it should be clear that this is also the basis of the real “Christian Life.”

It is AFTER experiential consecration that so many things become irrelevant and we can finally focus upon the one ultimate reality of Christ living His Life in me and His LIFE being formed in me. This ultimate reality of Christ in me is my hope of glory. Striving for this Glory by any humans means or self-effort or asceticism is a big waste of time.

In that last few years several prophets have stirred up some believes to lust for a much greater power and to begin to do the “greater works” that Jesus promised. They laid on hands and prophesied great things. No thought was given to the shallow lives and carnal nature of these believers. Of course God annulled the prophesy to protect these believers from straying into areas they were not prepared for and had not the inner life to survive in that dimension of power.

What we are calling “The Royal Pathway” is the pathway to manifesting the greater works. When “it is no I who live but Christ lives in me” we are on the “Royal Pathway” to the greater works. The fully developed inner life of the new man IS the pathway to this greater Power. The “greater works” are the result of Christ being formed in me. These “greater works” are not the result of a “greater gift” but the manifestation of a much “Greater Life.”

When this transition of Life takes place, the lust for power seen in the carnal Christian is removed along with the human characteristics that seeks for the first places in public ministry. When God, Himself, sustains us with His Life from within, His Life also provides the protection we need to survive the popularity and public acclaim that comes with the greater works.

Consecration is NOT Just outward but surrendering all the “good things” we have used for ministry in the past. It surrenders my voice so His Voice can be heard. We have heard enough from the clamor of a multitudes of human voices and now we have come to the time of just wanting to hear His voice and the words from His mouth. No longer are we satisfied with just the anointing upon “our words and thoughts” but excitement now only comes when the words that come from His Life within form the Words and thoughts to minister. The world is no longer impressed by our words or another Christian Philosophy and these things no longer edify the church or transform the believers into a true Lampstand church.

The Christian phrases and even some pathetic cliches carry an element of truth. However, they take on another dimension of truth as light increases. Then it will be evident that “truth” broadens, deepens and has height and width. For example; We have translated “regeneration” as a new beginning or a new Genesis. This is true but not the full truth.

As “Truth” unfolds we see in this time period that “re-generation” is the beginning of the “Genesis” of the Sons of God coming into experiential reality. In other words “We are now a chosen generation and now a royal priesthood, and now people for God’s own possession.”

Consecration is not just how much of His Life we possess but how much of our life HE POSSESSES. It is not just that we have assimilated Christ into our life but that Christ has assimilated us into HIS LIFE so it is no longer “I” that live.

It is not that the cliches are wrong but that they are way too shallow to convey the Truth for today. The “re-generation” {Genesis} of the Sons of God is seen when the “sons” manifest the Image and Likeness of the Son of God and are an extension of His Character and being on the earth. This is the “Pathway for the Kingdom” to come to earth. THEN the creation can be set free from its bondage to corruption. That means FREE Both within and without, but in the spiritual realm we are associating this with the Holy Place Life and ministry!

Always assigning these scriptures to sometime in the future has emasculated them of their reality today. It is my opinion that the Son of God will be manifest on earth first out from the sons of God before He will be manifest visibly and every eye shall see Him. My question is this; Will He come secretly in His church before He comes visible for His church? If He does, it will solve some of the ambiguities in the Book of Revelation.

If the priority of being conformed to the image of Jesus is confined FIRST to the inner life it will certainly clarify some of these scriptures we have used before to identify “Christian growth.” If we think it is the outer human being that must grow up in all things into Christ, most anyone can see the problem. This is why the visible church has rejected these scriptures for us as valid today. If we see the scriptures apply to the new inner man {who after Christ was created in the image of God} much of the mystery is removed.

The restoration to the “true knowledge” (epignosis) is assigned to the “new man” and is not further education of the old man. This has been the error of theologians who are continuing the education of the natural man but leaving the new inner man undeveloped. They gain more knowledge (gnosis like the gnostics) but are lacking in the “epignosis.”

Col 3:10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him

The “human beings”doing religious things have run their course of accomplishing anything eternal. The visible church is full of human beings and many pulpits are paralyzed by learned human beings. Multiplying this kind of church structure is a tremendous waste of time, money and effort. More self-help programs or self-denial platitudes or seven steps to self-reform has accomplished nothing in the past and are helpless to change anyone now or in the future.

ONLY Christ being formed in us is of any consequence in this next restoration. The measure of the inner Christian Life (the Life of Christ in the inner man) is the measure of Christianity, both internal and external. The manifestation of the sons of God will be the manifestation of the Life of Christ revealed from out of the inner man.

The revelation of the mysteries of God that have been hidden from past generations will not be known through the church in the present time by learned human beings. This is the precise reason the mysteries were lost to the church in the first place. God is NOT withholding these things from the church BUT the natural man just cannot understand these things. Therefore, they are lost to the natural, visible church in which the natural man has been accepted and promoted because of natural leadership abilities.

God is NOT withholding the Kingdom from our present reality but the Kingdom MUST come down into the realm of the new man in Christ and set up His government there. True Consecration presents to God a Throne in the earthly realm but in the New Inner Man from which He can Rule BOTH in the Life and Through the Life.