#390 Kingdom: The Basic Realities by Experiences

We have been sharing about “beginning” to “press into the Kingdom dimension” by experiencing each and every foundation that has been prepared by God. No “foundation” is non-essential or superfluous! Each foundation is designed to either remove something from us OR add something to us that is essential to functioning in the Kingdom realm.

For example; No one who walks in the flesh has any inheritance in the Kingdom of God. Therefore, the problem of flesh must be dealt with BEFORE we can participate in the Kingdom dimension of God’s Eternal Government. Why? Because the laws and government of the flesh is ALWAYS in conflict with the Laws and the Government of the Kingdom.

God has provided the “addition” of the indwelling Holy Spirit to commence a war on the flesh. Our personal death and burial with Christ, along with resurrection, is essential for this warfare within to be effective. Why? Because we are held responsible to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this active conflict.

Rom 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

It would be difficult to confuse what is clearly written here. Unless the Holy Spirit has a completely open door to our new inner man he cannot finish even his beginning work in our lives. Until the flesh is conquered there is no way to please God. Even the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. Therefore, it is clear that just to conquer the flesh is essential before we can begin the real Christian Life. Until the flesh is no longer a power in our life, the Kingdom is just a distant dream and without reality.

One of the things we have noticed over the years is that many believers have received the Holy Spirit or been “baptized in the Holy Spirit” but have never really opened up their inner lives for Him to effect that drastic inward change that is necessary to “walk in the Spirit. This “change”/ “rectification” / “growth” is essential to enter into the priesthood ministry of the Holy Place. After witnessing thousands of lives that have been touched by the Holy Spirit, it has been disappointing to see how many never advanced beyond the basics of speaking in tongues or simple prophesy. They certainly did receive the Outer Court anointing but never were “ordained by God” or completed their “consecration offering” or passed through the “Veil of Truth.”

To overcome the habits and things remaining that we have inherited from the “lower life” of Adam requires BOTH the death and burial of the old man! Only then can we experience the resurrection of a new species of person that can become a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Following death and burial it is then that the indwelling Holy Spirit can begin the constant battle with the lower nature or the flesh! It is amazing that even though the scriptures are clear about these logical truths, the church still ignores proper believer baptism in water as ESSENTIAL to our fulling the purpose of God.

These attributes of Adam remain AFTER we are severed from Adam and his genealogy. Why? Because we have been severely contaminated, influenced and corrupted by his fallen attributes. After we have fallen into the sewer of this world system and we are rescued, we can be forgiven but then we still need to be cleansed of all the corruption we contacted in the sewer. We can soon identify the corruption that remains by the putrid evidence that is openly manifested in our life and in the visible church. The picture from Israel is clear. The blood was shed in Egypt and they ate the Passover Lamb and Unleavened Bread in Egypt! Then Israel was “baptized into Moses at the Red Sea” but all the corruption of Egypt remained in Israel until they died in the wilderness.

Since none of these “adamic” things CAN be included in the Pure Gold Lampstand, they must be dealt with by accurately laying the foundations for the temple of God. If the foundations fail to solve these basic anti-Christ, anti-Kingdom, anti-God characteristics they will always be visible in the church, the same as was experienced and manifested in Israel. Since God has assigned the conquering of all the anti-Kingdom things to our preparation in the Outer Court experiences, to ignore these things as actual experiences creates the current problems we see in the church. The Holy Spirit has come to assist us in bringing ALL these anti-Kingdom attributes into the death of Christ.

Thank God for what Jesus accomplished on Calvary but He said it would be three days before the temple could be built. In other words “resurrection” is essential for the temple to be completed. Can we really be the “temple of God” without the essential foundation of resurrection as our personal experience? Then why does our experiential resurrection into the next dimension of the Holy Place face such hostile criticism? Because it cannot be understood by the natural man and appears to the natural mind as not even logical or ridiculous. Why? Because it is refuted by empirical evidence!

The question is this; Without an effective repentance, faith, baptism in water and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, can there be an effective and experiential resurrection of Life? If we “fall into the dirt ream and die, get planted or buried but never come to growth or resurrection of Life, can we expect to bear fruit for eternity? How can we escape the “dirt realm” EXCEPT by resurrection / metamorphosis into a new species? The Kingdom dimension is NOT of this dirt realm!

Psalm 11:3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"

Even those ministries that “talk” about the foundations seem to neglect the actual experience of the foundations as essential to further growth and understanding. After we become righteous by faith in Christ, how will we fulfill God’s purpose unless the foundations are firmly and experientially laid? The frustration is this; What can the righteous then do?

It appears that Paul is connecting the lack of growth and understanding to the lack of genuine life experiences of the foundations in Hebrews 5 and 6. It seems he is connecting babes and milk with the lack of genuine foundations.

Paul laid the foundation of Christ in Corinth and he expected another would build upon it. Obviously that didn’t happen because when he went there he discovered a church full of babes who could not receive anything but milk. Giving solid food was just not possible! If this was NOT a great problem today, we might dismiss it as irrelevant. Since it is nearly a universal problem today we need to discover why. Is the visible church more predominately in the baby stage or the children stage than it is in the young man stage? Of course! Then we need to ask why? The answer is quite simple. Many pastors are still just in the baby stage and only share their milk bottle with the congregation on Sunday. In many places there is not even enough milk to go around and synthetic or a mixture of dry milk substances are given that has nothing to do with God or His eternal purpose.

Heb 11:10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

God is NOT neglecting laying perfect foundations for the eternal city that He is building. He is building His foundation upon solid rock and not upon sand in this dirt realm! God has also laid His foundation in Zion, His holy mountain.

It seems clear that the foundations for the New Earth are different than the foundations for the New Heaven and certainly different from the Twelve Foundations for the New Jerusalem. There is also a tremendous difference between “believers” and Priests after the Order of Melchizedek who function in the Presence of God. There is a great difference between the “children of God” and the bondservants, both here and in eternity.

Since what is revealed in scripture about the foundations is rather prolific there seems to be no reason to neglect teaching them to the church and insisting upon them being experiential in the believers lives. The fact that the foundations are severely neglected in the church points to either ignorance or the lack of the patience or understanding to firmly lay them.

“Just accept Jesus as your personal Savior” has been assumed to be the ONLY foundation that is necessary. This may be attributed to an outright ignorance of the scriptures and God’s Eternal Purpose. Of course it may be attributed to the “flesh in the ministry” that is hostile to God and His methods. Making sure that every foundation has been laid in the lives of every believer would require too much time and too much patient teaching for the average visible church ministry! This would certainly interfere with the “other, more important work” of the ministry. It is my opinion that ALL “other work” will be irrelevant and ineffective until the foundations are truly laid. The “other work” will only focus upon the “earth dimension” and produce no eternal benefit. New programs will NEVER replace the Old Foundations.

Since “Let us go on to perfection” follows the laying of the foundations, it seems clear why the church is NOT going on to perfection. Neglecting the foundations has crippled the church and rendered it ineffective and much less than a pure Gold Lampstand!

However, to be fair, the root problem is not in the people attending church but in the ministries that are supposed to be guiding the church into God’s Eternal Purpose. If the ministries have neglected their own personal foundations as genuine experiences, what will the righteous do? They will suffer through the unconquered flesh of the ministers and their big egos, entitlements and carnal authority. The believers will have to suffer through the celebrity status of the “old species” ministries.

This was visibly seen and experienced in the Shepherding Movement from the mid 1970s up until about 1985! Exactly the same thing is repeating itself again today in some of the larger G 12 ministries. It has generally been continuously seen in the celebrity ministries. There are “ministries” today who are enraged and throw childish tantrums if anything they say or do is humbly questioned or challenged. They consider any act other than complete obedience to their will as being in rebellion against God and bordering on witchcraft. How can we identify these ministries? The flesh is in control simply because it has never been dealt with through death and burial of the old species and the resurrection into a completely new species, who after Christ is created in the image of God.

Those who are living on the wrong side of the “renewal” may still not realize they are “in the flesh.” All the worldly distinctions and the “prima dona” attitudes will remain in the ministries UNTIL the renewal is complete. It is the “new self” that is in the process of “renewal” and there is NO HOPE for the old self to ever change. The “OLD SELF” in the pulpit is a disaster just waiting to happen.

Col 3:9 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 11 --a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

This ability to be blind to any distinctions is the characteristic of the “new inner man or the new self.” It is not difficult to identify which “self” is trying to minister and is being manifested. These following characteristics identify the “new self.”

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.

Eph 4:20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you (believers) lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you (believers) be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

It should be clear that the “new self” or “new man”is a completely different species from the species of Adam. Then the “church” that He is building is not of the “old species” but wholly constructed from the “new species.” Since it is “pure gold” it cannot be a mixture of the “old species” and the “new species.” The “old species” belongs wholly to the first Adam and the “new species” belongs wholly to the Last Adam. It is extremely and eternally important that we are certain we have made the transition into the “new species” in Christ! He, {both Head and body} is ONLY of the “New Species.” The “church that men are building” gladly receive the old species into membership and add them to their numbers as evidence of their success in ministry. We wonder if God is impressed with their “success.”

It seems possible that the “old species” cannot be saved as far as the Kingdom. Of course the “old species” can be forgiven as we see in the thief on the cross. Still, it is clear that ONLY the “new species” can inherit the Kingdom of God or the New Jerusalem or to function in the third heaven experience. The “old Species” is intertwined with flesh while the “new species” is intertwined with the Spirit. This fact separates them for all eternity.

It is interesting to note that there are souls in eternity that are on the New Earth who are given white robes even though their character has not been transformed.

Rev 6:9 And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also.

These souls were under the Bronze Altar in heaven. They were crying out for vengeance against the ones on earth that had shed their blood. They were given white robes and told to wait until the rest of their group [that would be assigned to the Bronze Altar location] would be killed. Obviously they had not advanced to the character of Christ BUT they had received mercy and were now in heaven! However, in eternity they would be assigned to the New Earth realm of heaven. We assume this will also be the home of the thief on the cross who barely made it into heaven. Maybe there will be a multitude of those who made it in to God’s mercy through death bed repentance around that Bronze Altar but I wouldn’t count on it!

If the foundations do not transform us from the “old species” to the “new species” how will we ever participate in the next restoration or participate in the Holy Place Life and ministry? In that dimension everyone will be priests after the order of Melchizedek.

This “priesthood” cannot be of the “old species of Aaron” because that was a dirt priesthood that ministered to “dirt people”; {Adam people}. Only the “new species” can be an eternal priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek. It is again assumed that the foundational experiences of the Outer Court are designed to transform us from the natural light of the Outer Court into the fullness of the “Spiritual Light” of the Seven Spirits of God! It is within this “Light” that the “new priesthood” after the order of Melchizedek functions.

Unless every foundation is firmly laid in our experience, this Eternal Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, the manifested sons of God, the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the overcomers that sit with Him, and growing up into the King / Kingdom perfection is just another religious fantasy. We are hearing more examples of the Christian cliche that “We are ALL a Kingdom of Priests.” We wonder if those who say these things have ever read the Bible! When we ask what qualifications they have to sit and rule with Christ over all the works of His hands and be a Kingdom of Priests, the answer is “Simply because I believe in Jesus as my personal Savior.”

 2Thes 1:5 This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering.

2Cor 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Even a casual reading of Scriptures will reveal that this life is the preparation for our Life in eternity. Those who are lukewarm in their preparation will be very disappointed when that eternal time comes! Those who don’t bother to get grafted into the Vine and bear fruit will be amazed when they are cut off and thrown into the fire. {John 15}