#450 1 H Kingdom: Walking Through the Kingdom
Establishing an Atmosphere Where Kingdom Truth Can Be Effectively Shared
Identifying The Problem; Resetting a Kingdom Course
Some think I am always just finding fault with the church. However, that is not true. I have serious problems with the “church system” that has been thrust upon the believing church that is doing NOTHING to bring the church to perfection, full maturity, into its predestined function or into its calling as salt and light upon the earth. If we are expecting to see a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless that has grown to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ, we may look in vain. I meet weekly with several pastors and corporately we wonder what went wrong with the development of the church and can we find a way to fix it? After over 7 years of meeting together we have found no answer to even evaluate the glorious church that will be ready to meet the Lord when He comes.
One problem we have found is that most pastors do not ever expect to see a glorious church in this earth realm. Others assume that as soon as someone is “saved” he is automatically a member of the glorious church without any further work of God in their life. There seems to be a general understanding among pastors that our high calling is to be “born again” or “saved.” Once we are “saved” the work is finished and we are “perfect in the eyes of God.” In this case righteousness is confused with maturity or perfection. Of course no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he does the will of God. If 90% of our church has no desire or intention of doing the will of God that presents a great confusion about what salvation really is within this church system. They handle this by saying that if we repent and accept Jesus as our personal Savior, then we have done the will of God. Entering the Kingdom is assumed to be synonymous with being born again.
There is an underlying mentality today that seeks to “manage” the decline of the church and to delay its demise. We can do that by inventing a new program or direction that will build confidence and a new expectation in the church that revival is just around the corner. First we need for you to send more money to stop the downward direction of the government and to lobby congress to change the policies about providing contraception to the schools, abortion, gay rights and dozens of other moral destroying influences. Other “prophets” are telling us that revival is just around the corner and we need to get all the pastors and churches together into a concerted effort to rush the gate of heaven and to see if God will cooperate with us in fixing the situation.
Just recently it became clear that God will not help us repair a church system that was not created by Him in the first place. This will be a great shock to those of us who discover that this church system, that is universally accepted as genuine, is not the church that Christ is building. The “Church” that He is building either repents and comes in line with His ultimate design or He will vomit it out of His mouth and that church can not be a part of His body. How do we know that? Because in Revelation 2 and 3 He walks among the Lampstand churches ( The ones He is building) and it is clear that He will accept NOTHING that does not meet His standards.
Rev 2:14 ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality. 15 ‘Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 ‘Repent therefore; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.
Rev 2:22 ‘Behold, I will cast her upon a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. 23 ‘And I will kill her children with pestilence; and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
Rev 3:2 ‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. 3 ‘Remember therefore what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. If therefore you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you.
Rev 3:15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. 19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent.
Evidently, the Lord is NOT reproving, disciplining, correcting, accusing or threatening the “church system” today. Therefore, we can conclude that either the church systems are solidly doing the will of God and nothing is amiss OR Christ Jesus is not walking among the church systems and correcting them because they have nothing to do with His plans and purpose. They may be just outside the realms of His concern or involvement and He is only concerned with the Church He is building. He may just be unconcerned with these man made, man serving and earth bound structures that are ego driven, basically self-centered and selfish! He will permit man to do the best he can in human effort but with no eternal benefit. If mankind wants to build with wood, hay or straw, God will permit it. However, one day every one will be judged according to their deeds, whether we are serving ourselves or we are serving God and cooperating with God to get His will done on the earth as it is being done in heaven. Doing the will of God is essential to experience the Kingdom. Generally the Kingdom message is readily received by those who are willing to do His will.
John 7:17 “If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself.
It is for this reason that the Kingdom message is misunderstood or rejected by casual
believers. It is also obvious that Christ Jesus is not walking among and correcting the church systems that we accept today as normal. Why is He ignoring these systems? Because these church systems have nothing to do with His ultimate purpose or His eternal design for the church in this age. It is also obvious that because of the severe way He confronted each Lampstand Church in Asia, that he would not overlook the lukewarm and casual way the modern church is today. If He was concerned with the Nicolaitan spirit then, is it not logical that He is still concerned about it today?
We are not proposing a new utopian plan or some mystical solution to the decline of the church. We are not suggesting various ways to increase the influence of the church in society. We are certainly NOT suggesting another demonstration parade or a corporate effort to expose or defy the “Gospel of Ophrah.” Our desire and burden is to see the church restored to the Kingdom Government of God. This not introducing a new vision, doctrine, program or excitement to the church. This Kingdom Government is just basic to the function of the church in every age.
Mat 21:43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.
It is obvious that the universal church has “lost the Kingdom.” My theory is that the very first priority is regaining the Kingdom Government of God in the church corporately and into every believers life individually. Until this happens in an experiential Life all the other remedies are just a waste of time and will do nothing to delay the decline of the church. Even if ALL the prophets are saying that the church is just about to ascend into its finest hour and its triumphant entry into the Jerusalems of the world, I am guessing that is just more hype and these prophesies will fall to the ground like so many in the last few years. Another “doctrine of the end time” will do nothing to change the influence of the church in the world systems that control the directions of society and sets the moral standards for everybody else.
The confrontational question that is asked those who are seeking a scriptural reality in the church is this; Why are you so concerned about changing a church system that is working fine to meet our needs? Who appointed you to be the agent of change that most others don’t want or need? Who made you the head over us? Who has hurt you so badly that you can’t just get over it and leave us alone? The Bible tells us that Christ loves the church just like it is and the church is already “perfect” in the eyes of God!
My answer to that perversion of truth is to carefully read again Revelation chapters 2 and 3 and see to whom He is speaking. Is He just speaking dispensationally or is He correcting “the church” that He is building in every age?
I have traveled to many different countries and I have observed that in each country there are disillusioned believers who are looking for and expecting to see some Christian reality manifested. Many are disgusted with the church system that is considered “normal” today. Many understand that this hierarchal system, that sustains itself by its own authority, is not producing a glorious church that is living according to the Laws of the Kingdom of God or doing His will. Very few visible churches could stand up to the scrutiny of the Lord or be recommended by Him.
hierarchy >noun (pl. hierarchies) 1 a ranking system ordered according to status, title or authority. 2 an arrangement according to relative importance or inclusiveness. Origin- Greek hierarkhia, A ‘sacred ruler’
Any “revival” within this current church system is destined to be short lived. Why? Anything that threatens the hierarchy or its longevity will be soon quenched. How can the personal Kingdom Government of God become experiential in a system controlled by those who are just looking out for their own stature and position? Is the current church systems actually preparing us to function in the “government of the world yet to come” or is it just promising us heaven someday if we submit to and cooperate with the existing church system.
The “world” which includes this church system has come into desperate times and dangerous situations that will require an intense God directed and God ordained solution that is far beyond man’s capacity to devise or initiate. Many “prophets” are announcing the time of revival must be now. If we don’t see revival soon all may be lost. The moral, economic, social and governmental fabric of our nation is in serious peril. A few religious leaders are certain that any solution devised by man will fail. Other religious leaders are meeting together and are very concerned that our nation is headed for spiritual bankruptcy. Their wisdom is that there is no solution to this decline that can be seen. However, they are seeking God for a definite answer.
My simple and uninformed opinion is this; Only God’s Kingdom that demands His design be followed precisely be set as the primary priority. Then each group must be intent upon fulfilling God’s Plan and His eternal purpose. We must discover the original pattern that is still visible on the Mountain of God. This contains the blueprint for the visible church to join the Church He is building. This is our only hope of reversing this downward spiral and decline within the church. Each of these ‘church systems” must bring themselves under the Sovereign Government of God and repent from establishing their own government and then attempting to act like Nicolaitans over the church.
We criticize our federal government for rejecting the Sovereignty of the Kingdom Government of God and establishing an independent secular government. We have placed full authority to act in our behalf into the hands and minds of fallen men who only want to fill their own pockets. Each politician votes with a new system that guarantees his reelection and longevity within the system. This has contributed to the decline of our nation.
However, we have done exactly the same thing in the church systems. These earthly systems have ignored the Kingdom Government of God and established individual governments that vary from church to church. We have authorized these “rulers” to act in our behalf and determine the direction the religious systems and church will go. In many of these “secular religious systems” God has been eliminated as far as His Government is concerned. His name is used but His standards and Words are abused. If God suddenly stopped speaking it would be another generation before they noticed.
My theory is that the situation is so desperate that revival within this “system” will produce very little difference and neither will it produce the change necessary for the church to become both salt or light and to become acceptable to exercise any guidance for a solution. The church has lost any credibility in the eyes of other leaders to offer any solution. Why? It can’t even maintain its own divine direction, let alone direct a nation. Why has it come to this critical place where the church has become a derision among outsiders? Is it because the real TRUTH has perished from our midst or because it has become unimportant to the functioning of the religious systems? It appears that the real TRUTH has been replaced with doctrines, ideas, programs, lies and traditions that support and strengthen the system.
Then are you saying that these current doctrines and traditions are not actual truth? If they were, they would be constant and not vary from one group to another. Absolute Truth is not so ambiguous, confused and uncertain. Absolute Truth is easily found within the Kingdom Government of God and within His Person. The “systems” that have ignored or postponed the Kingdom reality until some future time have attempted to establish their own truth that has little to do with the Absolute Truth embodied in Christ Jesus.
All truth that is attached to this earth is at best transitory, temporal, changeable and corruptible. Truth soon becomes religious, political, carnal, foolish and even deceiving. Absolute Truth must be firmly attached to the Source of All Truth and reflect the Absolute Truth that Is God, Himself. We now question all “earth bound truth” displayed on TV and books and we immediately suspect it has been corrupted, twisted or is just counterfeit.
That means that everything “Absolutely True” begins in the Sovereignty of God, in His desires, His purpose, His ultimate design, and that all authorized Truth has the ability to be received and experienced by us. Otherwise, if it is only objective truth, how will that change the vision of the believers, change the direction of the church or bring the church to perfection?
John 8:31 Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Thayer Definition: Truth —Gk. alētheia
1) objectively - of a truth, in reality, in fact, certainly
1b) what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious truth
2) subjectively- truth as a personal excellence , that candor of mind which is free from affection, pretense, simulation, falsehood, deceit
In other words, that “Eternal Truth” cannot be altered by personal preference, emotions, deceit, or personal benefit. Truth is established and fixed by God. Truth is something real and eternal that is experienced as true manifested reality. We can say “ Absolute Truth” can become an “experiential reality.” “Knowing the Truth” must become a subjective reality to set us free! That is what personally affects our lives and alters the way we perceive things. According to this verse, this dimension of Truth seems to be limited to His disciples! This Truth is beyond the capacity of casual believers. This “Truth” is designed to set us free from whatever has become corrupted or opposite to His Eternal, Absolute Truth.
Our Theme is Obtaining an Atmosphere Where Kingdom Truth Can Be Preached, Understood and Obeyed.
Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Mat 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10 ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
In the Kingdom order EVERYTHING begins with God and His purpose and then filters down to man and to the earth dimension. Until this Divine order is established in the church, the atmosphere will be man centered and basically selfish with a false message that the kingdom is all about “Come and Get.” Come to be blest and fill your pockets because you are entitled to the very best because you believe something about Jesus. You are now the “King’s kids” and a part of the Royal Family so start living like kings. God wants to put the Royal Robes on you and give you authority, power and dominion. You are now entitled to the “signet ring” and then you can have whatever you ask for. Get an “unlimited credit card” and start exercising your faith. We accept credit cards now. The usher will bring the automated credit card reader to your seat.
This foolishness has deceived the church in the past but this has NOTHING to do with the actual Kingdom but is just man’s selfish and self-centered desire to be blest in the earth dimension with transitory wealth. The echo is still heard “If you give to my ministry you will be blest beyond all you can ask or think.” Just come forward and bring an offering and I will lay my hands on you and you will receive the “signet ring.” Casual believers have been deceived in supporting this strange gospel and went away empty and disillusioned.
It is little wonder that the church has lost about all credibility to the ones watching and that God is not walking among these church systems and correcting them today. It seems He has lost interest in these self-promoting “ministers” and He is just focusing upon the church He is building. We can now identify that “Church” as the Kingdom Lampstand Church that has felt the severity of God and a no nonsense discipline and correction. When He speaks, His Church will tremble with fear and respect and repent and change direction.
Heb 12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Doesn’t this imply that God will personally discipline every son that He receives? If we are not being disciplined then something is wrong. Maybe we are not even children of God but just bastards. In the church systems this sounds ridiculous because we are told, Oh no, “You have accepted Jesus as your personal Savior and none of this applies to you. He is surely just speaking to those who are still in the world.” These excuses, that justify the barely saved, have reduced the visible church system down to the status of religious bastards. We could call this system the “Secret Society of Religious Bastards.” Someone should write a book with that title but it probably will not sell!
Man is busy altering the Kingdom Truth and formulating another “truth” that is more acceptable to society. For example we now have “Apostles of Comedy” that have come to entertain the troops in the casual church systems. They minister Loads of Laughs!
It soon becomes obvious that “current Truth” must be restored by revelation and that from out of the New Species Inner Man that has been birthed into another dimension of revelation truth. A repackaging of old restored truth and preaching it over and over again has reached the limit of its usefulness. We recognize that the denominations are stuck on old denominational truth that was current and cutting edge at one time. Still, that truth has been modified to be acceptable to the current generations and not the original truth or the original anointing that made the truth cutting edge for that time. After several modifications it can no longer be called God’s Restored Truth but just man’s concept of the truth that was once restored. How do we know that? Because this truth does not set us free but leaves us lukewarm, uninformed and disappointed. Man can accept this modified truth but never leave the world system or be changed by it.
The church can NEVER change others until it has been changed by the truth it is preaching. If the church is not changed by its “truth” it can never affect others. That “truth” is just theoretical and has no conviction or Life, therefore, it remains static.
For the last 40 years the ministries have attempted to bring God down into our situations and our church system to help us solve our problems and deliver us from financial crises. We have expected Him to provide health, personal blessings and financial prosperity to prove to the world that we are a special people. We wanted them to see what a great benefit it is to become Christian. Come and give your heart to Jesus and get what we got. If you make Jesus your personal servant He will serve you faithfully and also bless you with special favors.
Hundreds of book were written to instruct us how to get God to do more and more for us so we can impact society with our affluence and lifestyle. We have created a humanistic society which we call “church” that fully competes with the humanistic philosophy of the educational systems. However, our humanistic message has done NOTHING to prepare the church to take our place in the Government of the World yet to come.
It is in this strange atmosphere that we are to present the demands and sacrifice of the Kingdom. It is in this man centered and earth bound atmosphere that we are to bring the message of total surrender to the will of God and a full consecration to stop living just for ourselves. This message is very offensive to the humanistic church that has been fed a diet of entitlements and blessings and another gospel that insists that God just lives to make you happy and to meet your needs. You (man) are the center of the universe and God revolves around you just to bless you and make you happy.
This is presented as “Good News For the Natural Man.” The natural man will reject the Kingdom message and demands because that is not the “Good News” for carnal Christians.
This “gospel of the Kingdom” sounds like the Kingdom will demand everything from us and, therefore, is just more “Bad News” which we reject. The “Gospel” is supposed to be just “Good News” so don’t bring us more “Bad News.” We don’t want to be held responsible to make God happy with our lives and serve Him without reservations. We believe the real “Good News” is that He just wants to serve us and make us happy.
My theory is that the message of the Kingdom will not be acceptable to the current church system because it has been saturated with a different self-serving message that is anti-Kingdom and anti-King. This humanistic message is so ingrained in the “earth church systems” that at least some of the church system has become a “humanistic prosperity cult” where the Matra is “Now let God serve us and provide for us. If He wants to be our God let Him prove it by making us rich, like He did for Abraham.”
During the “discipleship movement” immature leaders were appointed by well meaning leaders/ apostles / teachers because they were the “best” available. This was supposed to contribute to the growth of the church and restore it to a scriptural basis. This actually contributed to great numbers leaving the “orthodox church system” and coming under the “Shepherding Movement.” Even though the numbers were increasing, the actual “spiritual growth of individuals” didn’t happen.
Under the guise of “submission to those who have the rule over you” it actually rewarded slothfulness in spiritual growth because everybody was taught to submit to leaders no matter how much foolishness was demanded. Carnal leaders have not been successful in submitting to the Kingdom Government of God but have always sought to establish their own church government. They were really exalting self, and promoting their own authority and position. Some of us just appointed ourselves to leadership and started our own movement because we just wanted to ride on the tails of what appeared successful. We got our identity from the larger movement even if we didn’t submit to it. Of course the whole structure fell like the tower of Babel and many believers were left in great confusion. Most returned to the “church system” they had left and lost whatever life that had received. My theory is this; Another Movement will not be successful. What will always work in any generation is for each of us to live within the Kingdom Government Of God.
This will permit us to be in one accord with the Kingdom Lampstand Church and The Lampstand Church to be in Harmony with God and His Eternal Government.