#525 Christianity and the Kingdom
Demonstrable Christianity
A Life Manifestation That Accompanies the Manifesto
September 5, 2012
In the last study we identified the Kingdom Manifesto and the five Manifestations that confirm the reality of the Manifesto. In other words, the Manifesto without the Manifestation is just another message that is in WORD ONLY! Surely, after so many decades of WORD ONLY messages, it has come time for the real manifestation of the truth that is freely preached about in those powerless messages. Many of these “messages” use powerful verses as their basis of authenticity. Example; “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you!” The problem has been, and now is, that a message with no manifestation soon becomes irrelevant! According to Luke 4, the Kingdom Message should have an equivalent manifestation. I am ashamed that my Kingdom message also lacks the power and authenticity that is indicated in the scriptures.
I have come to realize the for the Kingdom Message to have a true manifestation, the Christian Life and the Kingdom Life must become one and with the same dimension of experiential reality. The Kingdom Character and Discipline is essential to manifest the Kingdom power. It is because of this expectation of the visible evidence being manifested that it becomes clear why the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus CANNOT be separated. Both contain within them the exact same Character, Life, Purpose, Goals, Power and Ultimate Reality that is intended for the Christian ministry. Without these characteristics the Kingdom message will be in word only. There should obviously be some Divine Conviction that also accompanies the proclamation of the King and the Kingdom and an accompanying responce.
Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.
For many years we have heard the term “A Personal Relationship With Jesus” to describe a “deeper” dimension of salvation than just attending a church or certain religious meetings. This “relationship” doctrine sounded very good and more complete. Exactly what that meant was not very clear and there were many interpretations including prayer, Bible reading, meditation and fellowship with other Christians. Some interpreted it as “working in the church” or “witnessing on the street.”
My evaluation of this “personal relationship” cliche is this; attempting to have some “relationship” with the Divine Person without having a “personal relationship” with the “Divine Order” and His “Divine Government” is part of the problem that results in just more shallow Christianity and irrelevant ministry. The division of these two paragons of ultimate reality, the King and His Kingdom, has been a basic problem in the pulpit ministries for centuries! Also, for centuries the Kingdom aspect of the gospel has been totally ignored! This popular “relationship”cliche” appears to be just attempting to create a “relationship” with a Savior who someday will be King. This is a terrible injustice to the real Gospel which begins with the Kingdom and its predestined King and since Calvary has added a “Savior/ King.” However, the “Savior” has now received a Kingdom of which He is THE SOLE REIGNING KING. Since He is now the “Sovereign King” and ALL authority in both heaven AND earth has been given to Him, His Kingdom is the primary focus of the “True Gospel.”
Why is this partial gospel so pitiful? Because it attempts to establish a “relationship” with the Person that sits at the right hand of Ultimate Authority, Sovereignty and Government over all of creation. “At the Right Hand” indicates that He is functioning in that realm. Then, to try to ignore His Highly Exalted Position by identifying Him as just “Savior” or “friend” or “Lord” is very ignorant and disrespectful. This is certainly offensive to the Father! In some prayer meetings it sounds like the LORD is our servant and we tell Him what He needs to do. To sit at the Right Hand of Ultimate Authority means to be One in Purpose, Character, Goals and Life with the Almighty and Most High God. The Divine Order of the Kingdom is embodied in His Person. No valid “relationship” can be established with one without the other. Why? They cannot be separated because one embodies the other.
The Ultimate Authority over the whole Universe is embodied in the Almighty God; The Father, the Word [Eternal Christ] and the Holy Spirit. Now Christ Jesus has a name “the Word of God” and He is fully compatible with the second “identity” of the God Head, “ the Word”.
Rev 19:13 And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God.
Jesus was conceived by the Living and Abiding Word of God and has now become what the Word of God is, in His Ultimate Reality. Therefore, His Name is the Word of God! Jesus is of the same ultimate Life, Character and Stature of the Word which IS God! The Almighty God is the Originator and the embodiment of the Kingdom of God, therefore, Jesus, the Divine Person, CANNOT be separated from the Kingdom of God. For that very reason the real Gospel is the Kingdom of God AND The Name of Jesus!
Even though the Divine Son is not the Almighty God, He does sit at His Right Hand and has been given All Authority over both Heaven and Earth. He has also been granted a Kingdom.
Dan 7:14 “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
1Cor 15:24 then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
1Cor 15:28 And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all.
The Divine Son has been given Glory and a Kingdom and His dominion is everlasting. To acknowledge the Divine Person without acknowledging His Kingdom Government is the ultimate rejection or, at least, a very serious lack of respect. The Divine Son is now REIGNING! This is an eternal fact! Therefore, to say that the Kingdom is not yet come is first wrong and then ignorant! It is for that reason that the “Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus” MUST be preached together as one Manifesto. To preach one without the other is to emasculate the message. Why is this so important to combine these two for today’s Christianity? Because, now ONE OF US is seated at the right hand of God and He has already received the Kingdom. That means that now the door is open for each of us to be part of the MANY SONS that He will bring to this same Glory. The Prototype Son has opened the way for us to become Living Members of His Body. How? By overcoming as He overcame. To sit with Him is to “sit” in His Ultimate Body or the Body of the High Priest. Then the Kingdom of Priests, after the Order of Melchizedek, has become the Ultimate Reality when this “Body of the High Priest” begins to function from out of the Priesthood Realm of the Holy Place!
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.
His Name (the Man, Christ Jesus) has been integrally linked to the Kingdom of God and has become our hope of Glory. This should be very easy to comprehend that if the Head of the Body is integrally linked to the Kingdom, then every member of His body MUST be also linked to the same Kingdom. His Name is now THE WORD OF GOD – which is “CHRIST”, the ETERNAL WORD becoming Flesh in the Prototype Son – and IS the assurance that the Living and Abiding Word of God can also become flesh in us. It is this blessing of “ONENESS of LIFE” that links us to the Ultimate Government of the Universe and the Father of all mankind! How? By our becoming an integral and functioning member of the Body of our High Priest! It is His Ultimate and Eternal Body which is identified as His Bride which is identified as the New Jerusalem and with an integrated connection to Mount Zion. It is the New Jerusalem that is now called the Throne of the Lord. To try to join that realm with any fallen characteristics of first Adam or flesh would be dangerous!
Jer 3:17 “At that time they shall call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; nor shall they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
Here, again, the Throne of God or the Central Kingdom is integrally linked with the Name of the Lord! To separate these two is a grave mistake and is most likely very offensive in the plan of God.
Our theme is focused upon the error of attempting to develop a True Christianity without the Kingdom dimension of Character, Discipline, Integrity, Faithfulness, Sincerity and His Internal Government and Laws being obeyed. If we have lost the Kingdom, we have lost the very essence of Christianity.
My theory is this; That is exactly what has happened and that is one reason the church has become irrelevant in the eyes of the unsaved / the world. Until the church has regained the Ultimate Reality of the Internal Government of God she will just continue in these endless sequences of continually changing programs, irrelevant messages and worthless activities. In her frustration she then begins to pray that God will do MORE than He has already done or that He will bring revival to a failed system that has produced very little eternal for many years. This “Charismatic system” of “church” died in 1985 and has produced very little since 1985. Reviving ANY of the Old Systems of failure is pointless.
Conforming to the revealed DEMANDS of the Kingdom of God should become the New Normal for the church. The Matra that everything is free and all we need to do is believe it and then sit and wait for Jesus to come and rescue us is a dead message. It is true that “forgiveness of sins” is free but eternal salvation requires obedience! Discipleship has a high cost!
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.
To participate in the Kingdom, we must first sit down and calculate the cost to see if we have enough to finish. Otherwise we just contribute to the mockery leveled at the current church system. This mockery is earned and the public ridicule is real.
Luke 14:28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Just building more and more “doctrines” or even “foundations” today, week after week, has caused this stagnation and the pitiful condition of the visible church. Multitudes are not even building “Valid Foundations” because of some strange doctrine that ALL the foundation we need is Calvary!
The “church” that is no longer “SALT” is destined for the manure pile! The church that is no longer “LIGHT” is hidden under a barrel. (Hidden out of shame) If the visible church WAS really light it would be placed in the lampstand and contribute to the illumination.
A valid invitation to the wedding feast becomes invalid if we are too busy to attend and then offer excuses! Any excuse will invalidate the invitation! However, if we hesitate, someone will surely take our predestined place at the feast. Then, if out of desperation, we knock loudly and cry out to be given another chance, no one will answer the door. Is the “invitation free?” Yes! But it is NOT valid if we don’t pay the price to prepare our garments and attend the feast. It is for that reason that this “gospel of cheap grace” and the “gospel of the bargains” has done VERY serious damage to the vision of the visible church. The Gospel of the Kingdom and its serious demands is required to heal the blindness in this current religious system. Then what must we do?
SOMEONE, MUST PREACH THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM TO THE VISIBLE CHURCH OR IT WILL END UP IN THE MANURE PILE!
Some groups are already there but just don’t know it. The real Gospel of the Kingdom will shine a great light on the manure pile. What will be the response of the Manure Pile? They will refute the Present Reign of Christ and His Kingdom as another false doctrine because, they say, his kingdom does not appear until the Millennium! Some will add that the Kingdom Theology is just another extension of “Dominion Theology” that has been proven to be false! Of course it is false but “Dominion Theology” is just another perversion of the true “Kingdom Theology.” It presents a false dominion because it ignores the absolute Sovereignty of God and His Christ that alone invalidates the Dominion! However, many “Christian” groups present a false doctrine of the Kingdom also. How? Some teach that the Kingdom is not even for the church but for Israel during the Millennium. They preach a Messianic Kingdom that is limited to the nation of Israel.
When we try to define a valid Christianity as some kind of “faith” that functions outside the Divine Canopy of the Kingdom Government of God, the definition becomes foolish because it defines something that cannot exist. Christianity without the Kingdom is another parody or feeble imitation of what Christianity was meant to become. Christianity was not meant to become certain rituals, doctrines, traditions, customs or some system of religion. It was meant to visibly display the Christian / Kingdom Life. Jesus presented it as LIGHT to be seen that could be placed on a lampstand.
John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John 1:9 There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
Regardless of all the outward religious activities, if the Life has NOT become the Light that enlightens EVERY man who receives it, then there is NO Valid Christianity! We should coin a new term to make this distinction. We could refer to a “religious Christianity” as compared to a “valid Christianity.” A “religious Christianity” could be defined as certain rituals, doctrines, traditions, customs or a unique system of religion but without the radical transformation of Life that is identified with scriptural Christianity. Then a “Valid Christianity” could be identified as a “Scriptural Christianity” that manifests the Life of Christ, the Living and Abiding Word of God. Scriptural Christianity should be identified as the “Word becoming Flesh” and having a visible manifestation. All true Christianity MUST be integral with the Kingdom of God.
The “Word becoming Flesh” being the Manifesto and the Life becoming visible is the Manifestation. The Manifestation is not out of the realm of an irrevocable gift but out of a dimension of His Divine Life revealed in a corporate group. This defines the radical difference between an Outer Court ministry of “gifts” and the Holy Place Priesthood Ministry of the Power of an Endless Life. The Manifestations are similar but the SOURCE is different and the “ministry” is of a different dimension that can impart Life.
Gal 3:21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.
When we understand that righteousness is based upon receiving His Life, then our faith for righteousness takes on a new dimension of reality that is demonstrable. This is why we insist that the reality of the Christian Life is based upon the manifestation of His Life. His Life is integrally linked to the Kingdom of God!
Luke 4:18 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE (1) HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. (2) HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, (3) AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, (4) TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE DOWNTRODDEN, 19 (5) TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
All ministry MUST be based upon His Life in us accomplishing the will of God in a visible realm. The “Manifesto” is empty until there is a valid “Manifestation.” These 5 “manifestations” are the real evidence that “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME.” But we were told that “tongues” is the manifestation. That IS the initial evidence but is just in the “in part” or “down payment” measure. True ministry is based upon these FIVE evidences of the true anointing of the Holy Spirit. In other words, to preach the Year of Jubilee but have no evidence of believers returning to their full possessions that was granted to them in the New Covenant is proof that this is a “word only” message.
As merely “Outer Court ministers,” ministering natural things, we might have a valid excuse for our lack of power and God may wink at our lack of these five “manifestations.” However, this will not be winked at in the next dimension of ministry. Why? Because, the Holy Place Life and Ministry will be under the Sovereign Anointing of the Seven Spirits of God and functioning wholly within the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and He has anointed me to speak in tongues, dream dreams and prophesy is much less than “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE (1) HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. (2) HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, (3) AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, (4) TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE DOWNTRODDEN, 19 (5) TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
I am ashamed that after over 42 years of speaking in tongues and prophesy, I have not been able to transition to this “predestined” dimension of the greater anointing. I am defining this “transition” as advancing from the “Outer Court Dimension of Preparation” to the “Holy Place dimension of Life and Ministry.” This “transition” is from “the ministry of gifts” to “the ministry of Life.” Are the gifts then wrong? Of course not! But they are in the “in part realm” and NOT the fulness of the Anointing that has been designed by God for the Church He is Building. The Priesthood After the Order of Melchizedek MUST be by the Greater Anointing. Why? It is designed to bring the Outer Court believers to “perfection” and to prepare them for the work of ministry within the New Covenant Priesthood Ministry.
Why has the visible church remained in this stagnant condition for so many years? Simply because the “ministers” never made the transition from the Outer Court, natural light dimension of ministry, to the purely Spiritual and Revelation dimension of ministry. Since the Holy Place Life and Ministry and the Kingdom manifestation from this realm has been totally neglected, there is NO illumination of the Seven Spirits of God and the preparation of the saints has become stagnant or non-existent.
The tendency is to blame the church for its carnality but the real blame lies with the ministries and their lack of growth and their satisfaction with the status quo. The “ministries” have become focused upon titles, positions, authority, and ego centric entitlements but have neglected the inflexible patterns of ministry from the scriptures.
The popular “progression” to a modern system, that is more compatible with the expectation of the believers (or non-believers), is the excuse for departing from the true patterns. However, it is the pastors, who are functioning more like deacons, (servants) that has become a major problem. Why is this accepted? Because, there is no distinction between the Administrations in the church and the Operations in the church. Even a “true pastor” is not chosen to fulfill all these functions. Still, a one man ministry has been accepted as “normal” and these various and diverse ministry functions that are essential have been ignored.
Today, since the average church in USA is between 100 and 150 persons it is thought that there is only room for one “minister.” Therefore, both the “Administrations” and the “Operations” are combined into a one man ministry! The ministries that Jesus sets in the Church and the ministries that God sets in the Church are ignored because (as the Matra goes) our group is too small for more than one minister.
For that reason all the functions of an assembly has been invested in one man who is unable to bring the church to perfection by himself. Why has this been accepted as normal for centuries? Because the Kingdom and its corporate ministries have been ignored as a present reality.
Well, Brother Leo, if this is true what are you doing about it? I must confess that I am accomplishing VERY LITTLE than can change the powerless system of “having church” that seems to be universally accepted as “normal.” We are focusing upon the very few pastors that recognize that this “church system” is not producing a glorious church, without spot of wrinkle! They recognize that the visible church is NOT growing up in ALL things into Christ or being conformed to His Image! We are trying to gather a few who are willing to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow and THEN To build and to plant. Their goal is to sow the Word of the Kingdom Seed that can and will produce “Sons of the Kingdom.” Why? It is these “Sons of the Kingdom” that the “Son of Man” sows to bring forth the final harvest.
Mat 13:37 And He answered and said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; [so shall it be at the end of the age.]