THE KINGDOM

THE KINGDOM © 2018 by Jim Palmer

Introduction

Today the Kingdom of God is spoken of frequently among Christians evoking great excitement and anticipation for its fulfillment.

Along with these discussions comes unfortunately much confusion as well. Much of it clouded by various eschatological points of view that attempt to explain it based on timelines that best support the position of the speaker. Others get the church and The Kingdom confused and a few actually get it right. The ones I perceive as getting it right will be included in the dialog of the book to bring greater clarity and understanding.

As I believe this is one of the most important realities we must consider at this point in time and in an attempt to share my personal journey in comprehending The Kingdom, I am persuaded to write this book.

First off, I am not nor do I present myself to be a theological scholar. I’m an entrepreneur; a business man. I’m someone that made a discovery by direct revelation twenty years ago this year that utterly changed my life and brought me into an awareness that is becoming more and more obvious. You see, twenty years ago there was little mention or discussion about the Kingdom at least that I was aware of.

What I learned, I learned directly from a close encounter with My Abba Daddy, The Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit. It had such a radical impact on my life that I made the decision to pursue it for the rest of my life purposefully, deliberately, and without wavering all though I have had my moments of getting off track where correction was needed.

There is so much I want to share with whomever may be directed to this writing that I am bursting at the seams to get started. I’m planning on writing this book as if you were the only one reading it. I desire to share this because it has the potential once embraced of tapping you into the greatest most creative life journey beyond your wildest imagination.

I’m talking about entering into a partnership with the Creator in fulfilling His purposes for your life where there is no option for failure only guaranteed success. But success from His perspective which may or may not align with how you see it.

Get ready for the most amazing discovery of your life; The Creator actually designed you for specific purposes that He is completely dedicated to seeing fulfilled in your life. This is what awaits you as you discover the fullness of the Kingdom.

Much of what I will be sharing comes from my personal encounters, experiences and adventures on this ever-expanding personal realization of The Kingdom.

It continues to astound me as I grow in my experience and revelation of just what this entails. It literally affects every detail of my life right down to my likes and dislikes, preferences and unique personality traits. More on this later.

I will couch all of my personal experiences and opinions in scripture as our final authority on such matters and will remain open to other opinions, thoughts, and other points of view.

I welcome your feedback.

In this process I hope to bring some fresh illumination from my personal experiences with the desire to expand our comprehension of this eternal reality. Some of what I intend to share may sound radical and perhaps somewhat controversial. If so, it is not my attempt to be so but rather to bring a fuller understanding of the Kingdom.

I invite you to join me on this adventurous journey in discovering The Kingdom.

Chapter One

There’s only One Kingdom

Kingdoms come, and Kingdoms go in the earthly realm.

History records the rise and fall of empires across the globe. One consistent fact is shared by all of the them. They are all temporary. As fascinating as they all appear and are often surrounded by interesting facts in their existence, not one has remained in tact for eons except one; the one true Kingdom.

By definition a kingdom is a realm of demonstrated authority, of rulership of a king reigning over a nation in a sovereign way.

We Americans have a hard time with this concept since our existence came about through revolution against a sovereign king. It’s in our DNA to resist the idea of a totalitarian ruler or governing body. We will have none of it. Our constitution prevents it from occurring and instituted the first of its kind governing body where power is held in balance through the presidency, the congress and the judiciary branches each keeping watch over the other to keep a balance of power. It’s great and amazing and I would not want to live under any other form of governance as a red blooded American.

There’s just one problem with this. We all do live under One ruler who is even acknowledged in our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and even indicated on our money.

The founders believed that freedom was an inalienable right of everyone given only by a Sovereign God not by a governing body. They also believed that a governing body must submit its duties and responsibilities under the Sovereign dictates of the God of the Bible.

Many have observed that our form of government actually closely resembles the Mosaic governance of Israel. Not a bad model to follow.

Its interesting and noteworthy to point out that Great Britain’s rulers as far back as kings and queens have ruled there all were required to submit to a solemn ceremony of abeyance to the Sovereign Lord of the Universe. They believed that they were selected by God and therefore must honor Him in their leadership. The ceremony also closely resembles Judaism in installing rulers.

These acknowledgments by leaders including the president solemnly swearing to uphold the constitution at the inauguration is done with his right hand placed on a Bible.

These are solemn acts that carry great significance in the Kingdom. They also make the point that the Kingdom is not only superior to all human institutions but that it exists in a superior realm over all that occurs in the earth realm whether countries acknowledge this fact or not.

A hallmark scripture and there are many that sum up the Kingdom and its ultimate authority and reality is in Psalm 145:13 “Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.”

Another similar verse is found in 1 Chronicles 29:11 “Yours, O Lord , is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and on the earth; Yours is the dominion and kingdom, O Lord , and You exalt Yourself as head over all “

And this one that in Hebrews 1:8 quoted from Psalm 45 “But about the Son [the Father says to Him], “Your throne , O God , is forever and ever , And the scepter of [absolute] righteousness is the scepter of His kingdom .” This gives full acknowledgment by God the Father of the Son; Jesus as the rightful Ruler on the throne forever and ever.

The obvious conclusion from these verses are that the Kingdom is Eternal and His Throne as a symbol of His Rulership is Everlasting. Forever and ever includes the forever past and forever future.

The point of this discussion is the Kingdom has always been and always will be. It is not some future event based on when Jesus returns to the earth or when the world comes to an end as we know it.

According to this scripture and others the Kingdom has always existed and is the only Kingdom that never ends and never begins. It is Eternal.

To go forward in this discussion, there first needs to be an acknowledgement from the heart that other preconceived ideas and theological views do not hold up in light of these verses. At least be willing to set these views aside for the time being and give consideration to the scriptures.

As I said in the introduction some of this may appear controversial however any view that projects the Kingdom into the future is unsupported from scripture. You can’t make the case without removing key passages that say the opposite.

So with that foundation laid this in and of itself is a revolutionary truth.

There is nothing you or I can do to stop, reverse, or prevent the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom.

There is not one verse in the Bible that supports this idea. This is usually a teaching used to control people and to get them to do right. It is the opposite of the reality of the Kingdom and how things happen. If it were true it would mean that you are more powerful than the King and Creator of the Universe.

This by the way, does not negate our free will and ability to make choices. The sum total of all the decisions you will ever make however, will not affect the Kingdom plan from being fulfilled. It also does not negate the importance of our participation and partnership with the Kingdom.

His Kingdom is unstoppable. Our participation is optional.

His Kingdom Plan will be ultimately fulfilled with or without us. It is so much better with us choosing to participate now and this decision does have eternal consequences for the good in terms of rewards now and later.

However, His plans are un-thwarted by our choices. His Omniscience allows and permits our freedom to choose without effecting the outcome of the Kingdom. It’s all factored in.

So, we need to move beyond any illusion that we determine what ultimately happens in the Kingdom.

We do have the option of participating in impacting the world and in the expansion of the Kingdom which includes fulfilling our preplanned and appointed purpose designed specifically for each of us.

His Kingdom plan involves us but is not dependent upon us for its successful fulfillment. It includes His foreknowledge of all things including all the decisions we will ever make.

His desire is that we fulfill the plans He purposed for each of us within His Kingdom.

The choice is ours to make.

As believers in Jesus Christ as our Lord, which is another word for King, we are given the greatest opportunity and offer of all time; that being to participate in the progressive, active, ever increasing realm of the Kingdom.

It actually is a choice we get to make, and it has amazing rewards now and into eternity for our participation.

The remarkable fact is that we can only make these choices and decisions as we are led by Holy Spirit.

So even though we greatly benefit from our participation ultimately the Lord Jesus, King of the Universe gets all the credit, all the praise and all the glory for what is accomplished in and through us for the Kingdom.

As an Eternal Kingdom that is ever expanding bringing all things into alignment and subjection to the King, as believers, we too get to participate in this amazing process both now and into eternity.

It comes down to our willingness to embrace the Kingdom which includes its rules and principles which are readily available to us. But don’t look to the Mosaic Law to find them. These are spiritually discerned and only those filled, empowered, and relying on Holy Spirit for revelation will know and experience the reality of the Kingdom.

The knowing comes from listening to the King, hearing His voice, and cooperating fully in His directives.

Personally, I believe this comes at a point in time when significant revelation comes just as when we believed in Jesus and were saved.

We take a step forward by faith to enter into the Kingdom, when we are willing to put everything that we think or believe, in submission to the decision to unconditionally surrender to the Kingdom.

On Mari and my honeymoon, we had the wonderful experience of Hawaii. We both wanted to visit Pearl Harbor which is a moving and solemn experience.

We concluded the tour on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri. We stood in the exact place where General Douglas MacArthur accepted the “Unconditional Surrender” of the Japanese.

Think about those terms to end the war. Unconditional meant that Japan made no demands and put no conditions on their surrender. It was completely up to the U.S. to decide what would happen to them after the surrender.

Fortunately, General MacArthur was a benevolent enforcer of the surrender. He worked for years to help rebuild Japan. It is a certainty that Japan would not be the powerful nation they are today without the help and support of General MacArthur. But Japan had no say so in the matter.

When it comes to the Kingdom the terms are the same; Unconditional Surrender. Those who move to this realm by revelation and surrender to the King, are offered the opportunity of a lifetime to begin to build your life around one purpose; serving the King and joining in the building of His Kingdom for all eternity.

This is why I consider this book important. There is nothing more important in life than living in the realm of the Kingdom.

All the power, All the resources of Almighty God; King of the Universe are available to you to support the fulfillment of your purpose for life in the advancement of the Kingdom.

Knowing about this is not enough to make the transition. More trips to the alter won’t do. Tears and prayers are not enough where you ask God to help you. It must come by Revelation of Holy Spirit and it comes when you are ready and will not settle for anything less.

It is a decision that will cost you…everything and where you in exchange gain the unlimited resources of the Kingdom of God.

There’s only One Kingdom and only One King. His invitation is to join Him by Unconditional Surrender.

There is no other way.

Chapter 2

The Eternal Kingdom

As I stated in the introduction and previous chapter, the Kingdom of God is Eternal; meaning with no beginning and no end.

In my previous book; “The Deeper Heart of God”, I spent a good bit of time discussing what eternity past and the realm of the Godhead; Father, Son and Holy Spirit was like and where what they were discussing, contemplating, planning, and actualizing resulted in creation.

I also shared what Heaven was like before satan fell. A place of pure joy, and peace, in a perpetual atmosphere of love, optimism, hope, and genuine excitement of the hidden mystery of the Eternal Plan beyond creation of man to the fulfillment of the redemptive plan. A plan that would place mankind on a level of experiencing the fullness of the Godhead within our own lives even existing within us, actually.

If you haven’t already read “The Deeper Heart of God” , I encourage you to do so. It is available on my blog; Escalator2 on WordPress and yes, it’s free. Just click on the link.

The purpose of this chapter with that as a backdrop is to explore the Eternal realm of the Kingdom as revealed to us in the Bible. My hope is to enlarge our comprehension of the vastness of this reality as a foundation for what will be shared later on.

I start with the verses shared in the first chapter that I will elaborate on as to what they say to me about the Kingdom.

Psalm 145:13 “Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.”

First of all, it is His Kingdom. He established it from eternity past and as the sole source for all forms of life emanating from Him, He is the rightful owner of His creation including you and me and everyone else. Therefore, He alone has dominion over it all.

Dominion is a soft word for dominance which means we didn’t have a say so in any of it and still don’t. He made us and everything else in creation. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to fulfill His creative purposes which He determined before we existed or for that matter before time was.

Ephesians 2:10 states that “we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus…” which lays claim to His ownership and that we were created in and by Christ Jesus to fulfill His purposes.

It has no beginning, extends to all generations and has no end. That means everyone that has ever lived or ever will is subject to the Eternal Kingdom.

As with earthly kingdoms, you have good and bad subjects. Those that choose to live in subjection to the king and those that choose to reject the authority of the king and live in rebellion even though they are subjects of the kingdom and subject to it’s authority and the consequences of rejecting it’s authority. Those who choose not to submit are dealt with according to the laws of the Kingdom, including the laws of the Eternal Kingdom.

I know this notion is difficult for believers to grasp because we have perhaps been taught and therefore believe that only believers are subjects of the Kingdom of God and in fact we are heirs of the Kingdom through Jesus Christ. However, all Creation is subject to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and eventually, “every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord or King.” That includes everyone and all created beings; no exceptions.

Now if you are getting a bit uncomfortable with the way that sounds and maybe feeling a bit rubbed the wrong way, that’s actually a good thing. We independent folk struggle with this idea down to the core of our being. As I said earlier, it’s in our independent DNA. It also is at the heart of the issue of who’s in charge here and “who’s the boss of me” and that would be me, right? We really don’t like the idea that we aren’t our own. After all aren’t we free moral agents with a free will to exercise however we choose to exercise our freedom?

It raises the sometimes-well-hidden sleeping giant within us of self determination or another way to put it our rebellious bent.

Now that we both are feeling a bit exposed, let’s explore this a bit further to try and bring some resolution to the uncomfortableness of it all. Like I said in the introduction, this is not designed to make us feel good about ourselves necessarily but rather to reveal the reality of what it means to be a productive subject of this Eternal Kingdom.

All of us want our rights to be valued and appreciated by others. We want our private space and value our self determination in our decision making and hold it in high regard. We want to call our own shots, do what we determine is in our own best interest and make it clear that “you are not the boss of me”. Just hang around a two-year-old for a while and you’ll see this is truly imprinted in our DNA as their favorite word becomes,” NO!”

Actually, these traits are not all bad in fact there’s great value in recognizing our own individuality and having respect for it as well as for others. Jesus said after all to “Love our neighbors as ourselves.” So we are expected to love and respect ourselves which comes with an appreciation for who we really are in creation and especially as “New Creations”. The primary point of my book, “The Deeper Heart of God” addresses the identity issues of knowing who we are by understanding Who He is and how He feels about us.

Healthy self-respect emanates from having a good grasp on how much God loves us and even respects our freedom to choose.

So in a discussion of the Dominion of God over us and all of creation it’s important to point out that His dominance does not diminish our individual freedom and ability to make our own choices.

Last chapter I began to delve into the realm of His Dominion over all He created and by virtue of Him being the Creator, having established His Rulership and as the Author of Creation having Authority over it.

I also stated that we get to choose to what level we want to participate in His Divine Plan and Purpose for which we were created. I also said that our choices are within the realm of His Sovereign (there’s another King sounding word) Plan and will not affect the outcome of His Plans.

I realize this is a challenging thought because we like to think that what we do matters including the choices we make so let me break this down and explain what I meant by this.

His Eternal Plan is flawless. It includes the mess our first parents made in the garden that impacted the entire human race and put us at odds with Him. He was not caught by surprise and in fact had prepared a marvelous mysterious solution in Jesus coming as a man and taking on the judgment and wrath of Almighty God against mankind so that we who choose to believe in what Jesus did for us escape the due penalty for our sinfulness and by Holy Spirit can receive the new birth of the new creation.

His Plan will not fail and will prevail regardless of the choices we make. We do get to choose at what level we want to experience, participate in and benefit from His personal plan for each of us.

We are winners or looser by our own choices even after we are born again into Eternal Life. There’s plenty of evidence of this as we observe even fatal decisions people we know have made that resulted in early loss of life or poor quality of life with self-imposed health issues resulting from unhealthy choices.

Jesus made this Kingdom principle abundantly clear in numerous Kingdom parables that all pertained to the individual choices made by those identified in the stories.

Here’s some examples;

The parable of the talents– three servants were given certain amounts of money entrusted to their safe keeping to do with as they saw fit. Two prospered and one lost everything by their own individual choices. The one who lost everything gave an excuse that demonstrated a limited view of the master as hard and someone to be feared, reaping where he didn’t sow, actually a bit judgmental.

The master responded in kind to the servant’s harsh view of him where as those who served faithfully and willingly looking out for the master’s best interest received an abundant reward. They obviously saw Him as a generous rewarder of faithfulness. A very different view of the Master which is why it is so important that we have the proper view of our King.

The default position ingrained in our souls resulting from our flawed human DNA and life experiences is what is called a “victim mentality”. It is at the core of our human condition dating back to our first parents who took no responsibility for their poor choices but rather cast blame even to the extent that Adam blamed God for the woman He gave him. There’s no limit that our unrefined hearts will go to in justifying ourselves and blaming others.

Only through a conscious and thorough examination of our heart before God allowing Holy Spirit to bring objectivity to us can we escape the victim mentality trap where we see ourselves as victimized by other’s choices, even God’s. He also uses the wisdom and counsel of others, if we are open to it.

I’m not diminishing the fact that true victimization occurs in the world today as evidenced by violence against innocent ones, even those unborn. It is a fact.

I’m simply pointing out our ingrained responses to self-imposed victimization and attitudes of our heart where a faulty view of ourselves, others and God leaves us feeling trapped and victimized even when our own will and choices may have landed us there.

The wheat and the tares– A clear parable about choices based on the condition of the soil.

The seed is sown indiscriminately. The soil conditions were the variable. Jesus explained the parable by stating the seed was the Word of God and the soil represented the hearts of the listeners. For some no seed grew and the enemy was there to scarf it up and make it null and void in affecting the listener.

Another one had too much “stress” and “distractions” and even prosperity to care for the seed so it withered and died. Then there was the “good soil” that openly received the seed, protected and cultivated it and the result was an abundant harvest. But notice even in the case of the good soil some received a 30-fold return, others a 60 and others a 100-fold return. What made the difference we might ask? The condition of the soil seems in this case to be the same.

We really aren’t told in the explanation of the parable by Jesus what made the difference. The unspoken conclusion is left up to us to contemplate and determine on our own. In my humble opinion, as the soil represents the condition of the heart of the hearer, I think the size of the harvest has to do with the choices we make in terms of cultivation of the Word (seed) planted within us.

James says it this way, “…humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

Once again, personal responsibility plays a determining part in the results produced regarding the application of the Word in our lives. This is a principle of the Eternal Kingdom.

Our decision to submit to the “Perfect Law of Liberty” as James calls the Word, brings us into alignment with the Eternal Kingdom.

The Word of God is alive and sharper than a double-edged sword and is able to do an internal surgical work within us to free us from lies and wrong perceptions and liberate us from the inside out into the glorious freedom of the Kingdom to be all we were created to be.

There are many other examples regarding reaping and sowing that involve our choices in stewarding what we have been given.

Back to the parable of the sower, and my own take on this, I believe all the soil types received the same amount of seed. The determining outcome was based on the condition of the soil or as Jesus explained the condition of the heart. The heart is where decisions are made, by the way, which is another indicator of what determines the outcome.

In the Young’s literal translation, which is one of my favorite translations because it is a literal word for word translation, it translates as “the Word of the Reign” and “The Reign of Heaven” in place of the Kingdom of Heaven or of God.

Some try to say these are two different things. I will not waste time on that discussion which seems obvious to me that they are one in the same. Matthew was clearly written to the Jews who wouldn’t say God’s name out loud which is probably why Matthew uses Heaven instead.

Jesus gave most of the parables as a demonstration of what His Eternal Kingdom was like and the principles that it was established upon. He also acknowledged our freedom to participate at whatever level we choose.

We are absolutely free moral agents free to choose whatever we please, however, the choices we make have a direct effect on the condition of our hearts as a consequence of those choices.

How we choose to view God, ourselves, and others impacts the state of our hearts from which flows all the issues of life and how we perceive and measure all that effects and concerns us.

The truth is we are in most cases victims of our own choices with the exception of the willful violence of others against us where we have no choice in the matter of our involvement with the perpetrator. For those who have suffered this kind of true victimization, I would say there is a King who cares and who you will find to be full of compassion, kindness and willing to bring healing to the wounds inflicted upon you by others. He is even willing to bring healing to the self-inflicted wounds if we are willing to come before Him with honesty and agreement with His view of our circumstances and a genuine desire to see change for the better.

You may be asking yourself right about now, “what does this have to do with the title of this chapter, “The Eternal Kingdom.”

That’s a good question. The answer is, everything. The Eternal Kingdom is established and based on one primary principle; His Rule is right all the time. The Eternal Kingdom is an expression of the King and as the Sovereign over His creation, He decides what is right and wrong, fair and unfair, just and unjust and the rewards of lining up with His agenda and the consequences of choosing otherwise.

It has always been that way with no exceptions. His is a Kingdom of Righteousness, Peace and Joy for those from eternity past to the present and into the future who choose to align themselves and willingly submit to His Rule and Reign over and in their lives.

His truth and His established principles emanating from Who He is cannot contradict His essence and very being.

Fortunately, He is a loving and benevolent Ruler to those who willingly surrender their will and their lives in subjection to His Kingdom Authority. To those who understand that He above all can be trusted with their very existence and that He only has good and their well-being in heart will experience His Kingdom blessings.

Those who remain independent in their approach to Him as their Sovereign Ruler suffer the consequences of a lesser experience. Even believers in Jesus can miss out on the fullness planned for them from before time began, by their own choices as the parables of Jesus illustrated.

Notice in your study of the parables how many of them began or ended with “whoever has ears to hear let them hear”. It is an invitation to listen and listen well because the lessons taught and principles illustrated are keys to the Eternal Kingdom.

Many prefer a more comfortable and somewhat distant relationship usually based on a faulty notion of what He is really like and personal trust issues. Those trust issues are based on lies they have believed. Some have been led astray by well intentioned faulty instructors or by misinterpretation of life experiences where they think that God let them down. Whatever the reason, they resolve to keep Him somewhat at a distance, at least an arm’s length distance so that their lives can be ordered to their desired comfort level.

What this is not is you deciding to do something for God on your terms. That may feel right to you but if you haven’t received your specific assignment from the Throne of the King, you are wasting your time and could be launching into dangerous territory of self-determination and self-direction that can end in dire consequences. Those who try this usually end up in a bad place and then look to blame God for not blessing their plan for serving him. The Kingdom doesn’t work that way with us telling the King what we will or will not do for Him on our terms. His first requirement for participation is unconditional surrender of all our plans, desires, and preconceived ideas of what life should look like according to us.

The Kingdom allows freedom for this but with much regret as the true intent of the King is to see His subjects experience the fullness of all that has been purposed for them.

Each one of us choose daily, even moment by moment as to who’s in charge, “who’s the boss of me”.

In my experience, the more I welcome and invite the King’s Presence the greater my sense of Peace and well being (Shalom). My willfulness leads to much frustration, regret, and consternation.

Freedom comes by willingly admitting and agreeing with the King about my personal choices and my willingness to surrender unconditionally to Him and His Plan and Purpose for my life that has its foundation laid from Eternity past. It is perfectly suited to me, my temperament, my personality and ultimately is what will satisfy my soul’s desire for significance, worth, purpose and sense of value. It is the key to experiencing all I was created for and destined for. Yet it remains a choice we each get to make.

When you consider that the Eternal Creator purposed in His Heart to make us in His image and then to come and dwell within us by Holy Spirit, and that He has had all of eternity past to make His plans for us and since He knows everything about everything, it makes good sense to surrender to whatever He has in mind for us.

As you probably have already surrendered your life to Him by accepting the free gift of salvation offered through Jesus Christ, the next step is really a no brainer when you think about it, to throw all caution to the wind and surrender your will and your life to the care of the One who made you and loves you with an Eternal Love birthed in Eternity past which really means it has always been. He has always loved you and will never stop and therefore He is worthy of your complete trust and surrender; unconditionally to His Rulership as your Sovereign King.

It’s your choice. As you contemplate that choice made actually moment by moment whether we are conscious of it or not, you can find what you have always longed for in the deepest part of you.

You will find that you have always been in the Heart and Mind of the King of the Eternal Kingdom.

That’s where the Abundant Life Jesus came to gives is found.

It begins when you bow before Your Eternal King in complete and absolute unconditional surrender.

Once you have made the leap into His Eternal Kingdom plan for your life, abundant life truly begins and continues to grow, expand and increase now and forever.

CHAPTER 3

SO WHEN AND WHERE IS THE KINGDOM?

The Kingdom of God always has been and always will be. It is a “Now” always in the present reality. It is outside of time. Time is part of creation. The Creator is outside of it in a state of what I like to call the “Eternal Now.” That’s why He sees the end from the beginning as one thing. Don’t strain your brain trying to understand this. It is not possible for we are created finite beings, for now trapped in time, who have been given the opportunity to get plugged into the Eternal flow of the Kingdom and its purposes.

The Jews in Jesus day were much like a lot of Christians today wondering when will the Kingdom come? After all we don’t see Jesus ruling and reigning yet on the earth, right? So, when they came to Jesus this was the question they had for Him. “When will the Kingdom come?”

In Luke 17:20-21 He answered them. “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

There’s no further dialog at that point so I suspect they walked away scratching their heads wondering what He was talking about as their understanding of the Kingdom was based solely on their history dating back especially to King David and Solomon in the glory days. They were expecting an earthly monarch that would straighten out the world through global domination and who would usher in unimaginable peace and prosperity for the Jews with everybody else subject to them. In some ways it’s kind of like that within Christian thinking and theology especially eschatology or end times doctrine.

The reality Jesus reveals is that the Kingdom is inward; on the inside. That hasn’t changed and never will by the way. It’s really the whole point of Jesus coming and establishing His Kingdom rule and reign on the earth as it is in Heaven.

It’s a matter of the heart. It is the realm of His dominion. It begins and ends with who we say He is and what right we recognize of His authority to rule us completely and totally apart from what we think is best for us. It is a growing thing as well.

His parables regarding the Kingdom used illustrations such as “it’s like a mustard seed that grows into a giant plant from the tiniest seed. It’s like yeasts that spreads through the whole lump of dough.” “It’s like seed scattered that produces a crop..”

A lot of the parables use illustrations of growth and increase. It is a key principle of the Kingdom.

It’s worth noting that proclamation of The Kingdom was the primary message of Jesus and His disciples. Just read all four gospels and highlight Kingdom. Kingdom is mentioned 147 times by Jesus. Being born again is mentioned once, in private to one person.

John 3:16 has been the churches go to verse for eons and is still one of my favorites however Jesus came to proclaim His Kingdom Has come and now His will is to be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

So where does this take place? In our hearts. It’s where we choose to respond to the invitation of “whosoever will believe in Him…” which is our entry into His Kingdom. From there the focus is on bringing others to awareness of His Kingdom and how to enter in.

We are designed to grow and increase from a single seed planted within us (the Word) and as we nurture and watch over it, water it, protect it, cultivate it, the results manifest in an ever growing ever increasing realization of the Kingdom within us.

When you think about the internal aspect of the Kingdom everything changes.

So much end times rhetoric emphasizes the condition of the world and much of it has to do with things getting worse and worse politically, morally, spiritually, environmentally so that the best-case scenario is to get yanked out of here by the skin of our teeth, so we miss the mass destruction and sordid degradation of the planet. In fact, this is right in line with the humanist / environmentalist who are declaring doom and gloom for the planet not to mention the teachings of Islam.

It’s a shame many Christians have jumped on “the doom and gloom train” , hoping for the great escape before the train runs out of track and plummets to its demise into the pit.

This fatalistic view of life in fact parallels Islam as with them actually doing all they can to bring about the destruction even faster to usher in the new day through jihad.

It is outward focused and fueled by negativity and destruction.

This according to Jesus is not the Kingdom.

I’m grateful that I got off that train along time ago and see things as actually progressively getting better and better as the Kingdom expands and makes the world a better place eventually suitable for the returning King. We all have a vital role to play in seeing that happen, by the way.

His Kingdom begins within us and continues to grow and expand within us as our consciousness of His Presence which is experienced as His Rule and Reign takes hold and transforms us. We, by the Spirit are actually transformed from the inside out, as we behold Him in all His glory as our Sovereign King.

We become like Him; kingly.

One of the proclamations in Revelation 17 and 19 declares Jesus as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

This certainly applies to all kings and lords or rulers however we also are referred to as kings and priests within his Kingdom in Revelation 1 and 5.

When Jesus left the earth one of the last things He said to his disciples was that “All power and authority in Heaven and on earth has been given unto Me, go….”

The commissioning was with the power and authority to perform the command given backed by All His Power and Authority.

As ambassadors of Christ, we have been given unlimited power and authority to fulfill His command.

We are kings and priests under the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Kings operating on behalf of the King of Kings and as priests on behalf of those we minister to before our Heavenly Priest. He entered the true Holy of Holies with His own blood sacrifice in the Heavenly tabernacle that has always and will always exist making intercession for us who believe and have received forgiveness, complete pardon and the gift of righteousness.

This is a heart issue. The realm of the Kingdom is on the inside. There will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It will be the day of final accounting of everything that has transpired. It will be when all things are reconciled and brought into alignment with the Kingdom. There will be no more misalignment no more rebellion or resistance and when all agree with the King that He is the rightful ruler of His Universe and all He has created.

From that day forward the Kingdom will as it always has been, continue to grow and expand ever increasing in glory, scope, majesty and magnificence.

This growing from the inside out Kingdom has a destiny that cannot be thwarted, detoured, or side tracked. It has a predetermined agenda that will be realized.

What we do with it now in this life has eternal consequences resulting in future rewards accordingly. The completion of the agenda will take place in eternity and will be worked out as an inevitable forgone conclusion. I think the difference individually is how much of a head start we get while we sojourn here.

You do understand that ultimately Heaven and all it contains comes to Earth, right? This actually is our home for eternity with the interlude, should we pass over before the King descends with a shout in His return to earth, where we will reside temporarily with Him in Heaven. Just thought I’d throw that in for good measure.

The good news is we get to choose to be a part of it. We also get to choose our level of participation which by now you see is a recurring theme of my writing. It is the most significant part of the Kingdom equation because it is up to us to choose and determines our level of experience of the Eternal Purpose of God for our very existence. Nothing carries more weight in importance now and into forever.

We kind of like to not think about this as it is so weighty that we really don’t want to be burdened with such a great responsibility, but it cannot be avoided because it is the mandate of the King. He will have it no other way. It is a choice each of us have to make individually with eternal consequences.

You see even those outside of the Redemptive Covenant blessing of God are still left to their own choice in the matter. The offer has been made to “whosoever will…”

As the Sovereign Creator He chose to create us with the ability to choose freely. This amazing fact is astounding to think about and to realize. The risk He took is incomprehensible, you might say and that would be true.

In the final analysis, even our choices have been considered, taken into account and every decision will be accounted for ultimately at the end of time as we know it.

For the ones of us who have bowed our knee and confessed with our tongue the Lordship of Jesus Christ have entered into the blessings of His Blood Covenant with the Father on our behalf. We have forever to look forward to with past, present and future failure forgiven and removed even from the memory of God as the account was settled with the payment of the blood of Jesus.

So, He says He has no memory of them. If He remembered any of them, He would dishonor the sacrifice of His Son who paid the ultimate price and penalty for all our sinfulness; past, present and future. All our sinfulness was, after all in the future when He died. Right?

All others refusing the offer will bear the weight and consequence of their decision forever.

Recently Holy Spirit illuminated a verse of scripture to me that I had never seen or contemplated before that deals with this subject of the weightiness of our choice in the matter of our participation in the Kingdom. It also reveals the depth of and significance of our inner reality and realization of the Kingdom.

It is a verse I have never paid attention to that jumped right off the page into my spirit recently. I have been chewing over it, researching the original Greek word for word and still have more to do but what I have discovered, I want to share with you.

Before I do, a disclaimer. I can find no translations that communicate what I see in this verse. I think there are reasons for that that I won’t take time to discuss right now. What I’m about to share definitely qualifies for “Hidden riches, treasures hidden in secret places.”

So here it is: 2 Thessalonians 1:11 “Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power.”

That’s the version you will see in all the translations, however, upon a deeper dive into the Greek, a different message is revealed.

Notice the two Greek words from which the translations draw their meaning and interpretation from:

Greek version:

“We pray always for you that you (axsiose) the calling of the God of us and (pleroo) every good pleasure of goodness and work of faith with power so that to glorify the name of the Lord of us Jesus in you and in Him according to the grace of the God of us and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Axsiose means to reckon as worthy, matching value to actual substance – i.e. worth as it corresponds to reality

Pleroo means fill to individual capacity

So here’s my version:

“We pray always for you that you recon and consider the worth; weigh as in a scale to determine the value of the invitation; the calling of God of us, being full to capacity, considering all the parts that make up the whole of every good pleasure of kindly goodness and work of faith with power so to glorify the name of the Lord of us Jesus in you and in Him according to the grace of the God of us and the Lord Jesus Christ”.

What I discovered from days of study and meditation is that there is no direct statement that indicates we are to be found worthy of the calling by God.

It’s not there at all. Rather what is there is that we are to count, weigh and consider the worth and value of His invitation or calling offered to us. This puts a whole new light on what I believe Paul was trying to communicate.

So, here is my paraphrase;

“We are to always consider the worth, the weight or glory, as in a scale, determining the great value of the invitation of God for us to join in partnership with Him. Being filled to our highest capacity as we consider and personally experience all that makes up the good pleasure of kindly goodness and the course of conduct which springs from faith with God’s power. This is to bring high esteem / glory to the source of this power that flows from His good pleasure of goodness so to honor Him as the source. Simultaneously bringing honor, esteem and glory to the Lord of us; Jesus, both in us and in Him, down from above to us by the grace of the God of us and the Lord of us, Jesus the Messiah.”

I realize that’s a mouth full but if you think that’s a lot consider that almost the entire chapter down to this point is one long run on sentence by Paul. No offence Paul.

Here’s the key points that I am drawing from this;

1. We are given the charge to carefully weigh as in a scale the weight and the value of His invitation to partner with Him. His calling is in the form of an invitation. It is an invitation to participate and partner with the King of the Universe in His eternal plan and purpose for our lives. The very reason for our existence. Under His rule, authority, and protection, empowered with All His power to perform and fulfill all that He has determined for us to accomplish. In other words, the invitation comes with the power to fulfill the call as we weigh and consider it.
2. We are charged with being filled to capacity as we consider all that makes up the good pleasure of goodness. This is the part that jumped out to me and caused me to dig deeper. “good pleasure of goodness”. What I am drawing from this is that as we carefully weigh His invitation or calling to partner with Him, we are as a result filled to capacity and are then elevated to behold and to begin to grasp and experience His good pleasure of kindly goodness. Meaning, we begin to come up higher in experiencing and understanding His good pleasure of goodness in and for us as a result of gaining insight into the weighty invitation / calling into partnership with the King of the Universe in fulfilling His created purpose for us in His Kingdom. It’s like a recycling and filtering process that grows and increases with our level of comprehension and experience of partnering with Him and being exposed to His good pleasure of goodness.
3. The result of this is understanding the “course of conduct” produced by faith that we take in the pursuit of fulfilling the call, in response to the invitation of the King to partner with Him in doing what we were created to do.
4. This ever increasing and expanding experience results in glorification of God and Jesus in us and us in Him through the unifying experience of revelation by Holy Spirit of His good pleasure of goodness.
5. My best shot at understanding the phrase, “the good pleasure of goodness” is centered in His goodness that is kind and by what He defines as good pleasure. He being good incarnate would seem to mean that good pleasure of goodness is more experiential than intellectual. It’s inherent meaning is therefore “spiritually discerned” and is only available from a personal encounter and is probably something that can only be tasted and experienced and is beyond description. It reminds me of the verse in Psalms, “O taste and see the goodness of God.” As we taste we then see or understand or begin to comprehend His goodness.
6. We are encouraged in this passage to not take lightly the invitation of God but to weigh it carefully and therefore treat it as having the greatest of worth and as we respond to the call we step into the “good pleasure of goodness” that is beyond description centered in the source of all good, God the Father and Jesus Christ revealed and experienced by Holy Spirit’s revelation of the tangible, experiential knowledge of His goodness.
7. The result of this process and our participation is that God the Father and Jesus Christ are glorified in and through us as the Kingdom expands within us and through us.
8. It is all by His grace for our benefit and for His glory.

This is the inner realm of the Kingdom and how we enter in to fully experiencing it. It’s based in our own individual decision to participate. We alone limit our experience of it by our choices. The more we desire alignment of our lives with it the more we experience it resulting in the desire for more of it. Growth and expansion experientially is the result. As this happens God is glorified.

Every choice we make to participate in the Kingdom results in our experiencing the “good pleasure of goodness” and the King is glorified.

The King designed us to experience His good pleasure as we fulfill that for which we were created.

In other words, doing the King’s bidding is always pleasurable. Even the hard things we endure in the process result in the blessings of His good pleasure of goodness. On a deep unexplainable level, our spirit releases joy and a sense of fulfillment that is the highest form of pleasure. This is in response to His Spirit interacting with our spirit in the cooperative working out of His purpose for us.

It’s not just hard task-oriented stuff that we want to avoid. It is in all the things we naturally enjoy as well as the experience of traversing the tough challenges we face knowing that the result will be transforming. In the trials we can know and realize the good pleasure of goodness in spite of the circumstances as we draw our strength and support from Him.

Whatever we face the reward is the same when we are following the King;

“the good pleasure of goodness.”

Consciously contemplating the inner realm of the Kingdom invitation and our desire to surrender ourselves to it on a continuously deeper level, results in empowerment for growth and expansion and the manifestation of the experiential reality of the outward expression of it resulting in Jesus Christ being glorified in and through us.

Dive in. The water’s fine and gets better all the time. This is the inner reality of the Kingdom.

Chapter 4

Kingdom Encounters of the Personal Kind

Twenty years ago, this August marks the twentieth anniversary of my personal Kingdom Encounter.

I was 45 and appeared to be rising fast in a corporation that had recently gone public. I was one of four selected to head up New Business Opportunity segments of the company designed to demonstrate that the company was going somewhere. After 18 months my group was one of the only successful units. My reward promised for this achievement was a substantial salary increase and bonus plan scheduled to hit in June that year.

I had just completed a difficult transaction that involved the Polish government and a distributor there that was on track to bring in millions in new revenue for the company. After gaining the approval from the Polish government and signing up the distributor, the next day as I arrived at the corporate office I was told that an HR person was in the next room waiting to give me my walking papers including a nice severance package.

Totally caught off guard with no options and in a state of shock I signed the papers and was asked to turn in my laptop, but I got to keep my office furniture which I still have and use to this day.

I have often described this experience as being on a fast track train that suddenly ran out of track and crashing head first through the windshield landing face down in the dust wondering what just happened.

I know this is not an uncommon story for those who have had similar experiences in the corporate world.

The company had made high claims as to projections of profitability and when their annual report came out showing that they had missed it by quite a bit their stock value dropped like a rock and they began looking for heads to cut. I apparently stood out due to my success and promises made for increases.

After a few weeks, I decided it was time for a retreat to the mountains to clear my head and hopefully hear from God. In fact, I was desperate to hear from Him and purposed to fast and walk around in the mountains for three days or until I heard from him. Something I hadn’t done for quite some time as a practice. I was a good Christian you know paying my tithes and showing up for church and even volunteering to do extra stuff. But now at 45 I felt lost, confused, disillusioned with corporate life to say the least and wondering “what now?”

I stayed at Vogel State Park in north Georgia in a cabin with no TV, no Wi-Fi, and no phones. Intentionally, I might add. I wanted no distractions. I was on the hunt to hear from God and was not going to leave until I heard something from Him.

I fasted for three days and heard nothing but birds chirping and the wind blowing through the trees until the third day.

On the third day it was if He came and sat down for a talk with me. I didn’t see Him, but I felt His presence strongly and I definitely heard His voice clearly as an inner voice.

He spoke and at the same time showed me a vision of what His Kingdom looked like from a business perspective. He then showed me how there were vast areas of influence in the world that He intended to dominate including government, education, the arts, media, communications, religion and all aspects of business.

He showed me His perspective from His Kingdom’s view point. This was something I honestly had never given much if any thought to.

I began writing down what I was hearing which concluded with Him telling me that He wanted me to start my own business. He didn’t tell me what I would be doing but on August 18, 1998 he gave me the mission statement of the business. I was to “To harness all of our resources for the expansion of the Kingdom of God.”

I remember feeling totally overwhelmed with the bigness of His perspective and how it was His mission to influence and bring change to every dimension of life. To use business, innovation, new technology and financial resources to bring change in tangible ways to the world.

He showed me how it was possible to shift nations with business strategies that could be offered to developing nations to improve their well being but only if they would agree to certain conditions that would bring freedom and equality to their people and to eliminate persecution of His people as a prerequisite for the government receiving the benefits of new business strategies and technologies.

All though I have received great favor and in ever increasing measure, I have yet to experience this dimension but expect it to become the norm in dealing with countries that mistreat or allow persecution of Christians. Why else would He show this strategy to me unless He intends to bring it about?

I personally believe what we are seeing in North Korea is an example of what He showed me twenty years ago.

I was just listening to Rush Limbaugh detail what took place behind closed doors in the meeting with Kim Jong-un. President Trump showed a presentation to him on his lap top of what North Korea could look like with hotels, high rises, and condos on the beaches.

Trump sold him on how valuable his real estate was for development and assured him that he would support the development of the country once he gives up his nukes. The country can be transformed literally overnight once he complies with the requirements which are for total denuclearization of his country. The alternative is total destruction and annihilation of his country. Tough choice, right? There is no doubt in my mind that this is a done deal after the first meeting in Singapore. Already there are reports of North Korea opening up their communications allowing western media reporting in their country. Amazing! It took a businessman rather than a politician to pull this off.

This encounter twenty years ago changed my whole perspective and world view and shifted my sense of purpose that has marked me and will continue to, for the rest of my life.

It was a defining moment for me and a decisive crossroads that would shape the direction and motivation of the rest of my life.

As a result, I made the decision to turn down an offer to go to work for a company with a generous salary and all the perks and benefits and take a leap into the adventure of my life as an entrepreneur.

It is this path that I have chosen to follow for the past twenty years and plan to follow for the rest of my life.

The primary decision that I made to take this path was conditional on my part. The condition was that the Lord be my partner and the Chairman of the Board. I agreed to go in this direction but only under His divine direction, continual interaction and guidance.

One of the decisions I made was to set aside one hour each day for interaction with Him. Reading His Word, meditating on it, and waiting to hear what He had to say to me. As I began this daily practice the time gradually expanded to two or three hours or sometimes all day.

It was during these times that I would gain insight, wisdom for decisions, and direction. I learned that the primary work was wrought in prayer and my encounters with the King. The outworking was the relatively effortless part because He always has been there partnering with me in whatever I have done.

Though I did this for hearing from Him about what to do in the business it grew into a much deeper and more profound encounter of the personal kind with the King of the Universe.

That doesn’t mean it’s been easy. It has been the most challenging time of my life. It has also been the most rewarding in terms of my relationship with the King.

He has a plan just for me and just for you that is perfect in every regard that He has the greatest desire and interest in seeing it come to pass. He delights in it even more than we are capable of understanding.

It is His joy in seeing us fulfill His purposes and plans for our lives as we partner with Him each step of the way.

You see, He had a plan for me that has taken me around the world where business often led to my sharing of my experience, hope and faith in Him many times with total strangers and definitely with anyone I happened to develop a business relationship with.

I’ve had the privilege of sharing Jesus with a Muslim in Turkey that had never even heard the name of Jesus. I even had the honor of smuggling Bibles into China and sharing the Good News of Jesus with Chinese businessmen and women. I shared the Christmas story to a group of Chinese college students who heard it for the first time.

Having hearty debates with internationals about who Jesus is at a sidewalk café in Paris and proclaiming from the Bible the deity of Jesus with angry Muslims in Hyde Park in London at speaker’s corner.

After being abandoned in Africa by a would-be business associate, and not knowing anyone there, I was introduced to key leaders that resulted in meeting the second in command of the country and as a result being issued a VIP Visa granting unlimited travel access for ten years to that country.

That exploratory business trip in 2003 opened the doors to my present business and even through a set of very unusual circumstances that deserves a book all to itself resulted in my meeting my beautiful wife.

Twenty years ago, I had no idea where the decision I made to believe in the encounter with the King and taking on His vision as my own, would take me. It has taken “unconditional surrender” totally to following Him.

My passion for seeing His Kingdom manifested in the world continues to grow in proportion to my realization of my King’s loving design and plan for my life. It is the only way to truly live experiencing His Presence and involvement in every detail of my life; moment by moment.

He really is looking for those who will join with Him to promote His Kingdom and His invitation is not limited to a select few. It is offered to whomsoever will respond to His call.

The primary transformation is from a perspective of “building my own kingdom” to shifting to being consumed with building His Kingdom. It is a paradigm shift that takes you on a journey that you were designed and created for that far surpasses anything we can come up with on our own.

He is “trust-worthy”. It is the safest bet. There is really no risk whatsoever even though it will cost you everything. That’s the deal. It’s all or nothing with Him. Those are His terms. You are required to give up your preconceived ideas of what your life should look like and embrace Him and His plan for you.

He may choose to leave you right where you are, or He may have something altogether different in mind for you. It’s a trust issue and as I said, He is absolutely trustworthy. Others will let you down. He never will.

You will never be disappointed in making this all-in decision to surrender fully all that you are to the King. He’s the only one with all the resources to fulfill your purpose and destiny.

It’s really a no brainer. I challenge you to consider the decisions you are making about your life and ask yourself this question, “Am I completely dependent on the King or am I hedging my bets by directing my own support base and steps to make sure I am safe and secure with the least risk as possible?”

There is no place for this form of half way dependence on the King to bless your decisions to take care of yourself. This will not do if you want the full experience of the benefits of His complete Rulership over your life.

Half measures will not do. It requires total unconditional surrender of all that you are and all that you do that makes you feel secure.

He requires full dependence and total surrender of all that we are to Him as our sole source for life and whatever we think is best. It’s a big leap into the most liberating experience of His care and concern resulting in freedom and fulfillment beyond description.

I invite you to experience the fullness of what you were created for; serving and partnering with the King.

I encourage you to take some time to sit and talk with King Jesus about these matters and then listen for what He has to say to you, personally.

This has truly been a remarkable adventure that just keeps getting better all the time full of experiences of the “good pleasure of goodness” through encounters of the personal kind with the King of the Universe.

Chapter 5

The Kingdom is within you

“Jesus said that “the kingdom of God is within you”. This means that the kingdom of God is not some physical place. It is within you and it is where the abundance of resources is. So if you want to experience abundance in your life, be conscious first of the abundance inside you. Then, what is inside you will become a reality on the outside.

Beloved, God doesn’t want you to be conscious of the lack you see outside you. He wants you to be conscious of the abundance within you because His kingdom is within you!” Joseph Prince

This is such a great introduction to this chapter that I wanted to share it with you.

One point of clarification; I mentioned in a previous chapter that all creation and all humans are subjects of the Kingdom. This is true however the only subjects in the Kingdom that are able to participate directly in the Rulership and Enforcement of the Kingdom are believers in Jesus who have personally encountered the King and within whom His Spirit dwells. Yes, I did say Rulership. This is actually what we were made for as Co-rulers with King Jesus.

Here are several verses that refer to this elevated position;

“Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17.

“Grace to you, and peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is coming, and from the Seven Spirits that are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born out of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth; to him who did love us, and did bathe us from our sins in his blood, and did make us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him [is] the glory and the power to the ages of the ages! Amen.” Revelation 1:6

‘Worthy art thou to take the scroll, and to open the seals of it, because thou wast slain, and didst redeem us to God in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and didst make us to our God kings and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth.” Revelation 5:10

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9

Our Rulership in life has nothing to do with ruling over others. However, as Kingdom people, we carry the Kingdom within us so wherever we go, we carry His influence, His authority, and His creative power to bring about disruption in the status quo of our surroundings and impacting those we encounter.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes you may walk into a store and you may be the only one there? Within a few minutes others show up. You may not be conscious of the effect you have on the environment where you show up but you do because you carry the Kingdom within you.

One Christmas, we had given the grand girls gift cards to Forever 21, a Christian owned company, by the way. Just look on the bottom of their shopping bags. I mentioned this phenomenon to my grand girls as we were the only ones in the store at first then within a few minutes the store began to fill up with customers.

My youngest grand girl saw this and as she walked out of the store with her mom she asked her, “ Is what Grandad said real?” Her mom said well let’s see what happens in the next store. So they walked in a store with a few people shopping and within a few minutes the store was full of shoppers. She saw and believed.

You carry the Kingdom of God within you and whether you are aware of it or not, His Presence and influence exudes from within you as a beautiful, attractive fragrance of Christ.

Here’s what is says about this in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 “For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life.”

You represent the King whether you are aware of it or not. It’s mandatory that all the children of God smell like him. I’m not saying that sometimes we frankly stink in our attitudes, actions, moods, words and replicate our old dead nature when our subconsciously implanted former mode of operation erupts through “emotions of death.” (Romans 7:5 “For when we were in the flesh, the emotions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.”)

As believers, our default position is to carry the aroma of Christ wherever we go. The other stinky stuff is not who we are anymore. If this is an issue for someone it always has to do with a lack of understanding and appreciation for their new personhood as new creations in Christ; their actual new identity.

Religious folk have the hardest time with this because they are still stuck on the treadmill of trying to please God by their good works. If you are sour, start eating the right stuff. Galatians is a good place to start.

We are actually designed to be happy, joyful, loving people who attract others with the fragrance of Life that is the actual fragrance of King Jesus, Himself.

We are already Kings and Priest in the Kingdom. It does require revelation from Holy Spirit and our buy-in to the reality of this realm known as the Kingdom. It’s a reality whether you realize it or not. (More on this later.)

It reminds me of the story of a dirt-poor family living in a shack in west Texas barely surviving then one day an oil company discovered that there was a huge oil deposit right under their feet. It was always there. They were already hugely wealthy. They just didn’t realize it until the oil company came by one day and informed them of what was literally under their feet.

This is what it’s like for those who are believers in Jesus but are unaware of their actual position in the Kingdom. It would certainly be sad to live your life and never discover you’re actually royalty as a King’s kid. Aren’t you glad that you know who you actually are?

I was prompted to elaborate on the “Kingdom within” this weekend as I was meditating on the internal reality of the Kingdom.

As I previously mentioned, this is an internal Kingdom within every believer of “Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 14:17.

My take on this phrase is that the foundation of the Kingdom is Righteousness; the Righteousness of Jesus that was exchanged for our unrighteousness.

In 1 Corinthians 5:21 it says, “For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him.” The Passion Translation.

Our experiential knowledge of this amazing truth provides a solid foundation for us to stand on as righteous New Creations in Christ. The more we embrace this reality and consciously live accordingly the greater our experience of peace will be. When we know that God’s not mad at us and waiting to punish us for what we do and live free of condemnation since there is none, we consciously grow in our awareness that there is no separation between us and our Abba-Daddy. Jesus truly removed everything that put us at odds with God. It really is all gone.

This awareness produces emotional peace and well being as we live in the Peace of God which passes all our ability to comprehend and understand.

Living in His Peace produces great joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Once again, the Passion Translation says it well in I Peter 1:7-9 ^{“You love him passionately although you did not see him, but through believing in him you are saturated with an ecstatic joy, indescribably sublime and immersed in glory. For you are reaping the harvest of your faith—the full salvation promised you—your souls’ victory!”}

In Greek the word for “joy” is “xara”. It means a leaning favorably towards and is close to the word “xaris” which means grace. The essence of JOY is being aware of God’s grace favorably towards you which produces joy. Joy is grace realized.

As we come to know and experience the Love of God for us in ever-increasing measure, our joy increases especially knowing His Love and Goodness towards us is undeserved, unmerited, and unearned by us.

His grace is His expression of His Love that will always produce joy consciously and on a deep level emotionally within us.

This is the inner quality of the Kingdom available for us when we first know that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ resulting in an abundance of Peace that releases Joy beyond measure.

It is the responsibility of Holy Spirit to bring us into this reality in ever-increasing measure as we welcome and yield to His influence, instruction and counsel.

Here’s a great word on the nine fruit of Holy Spirit that I came across today:

“Let the nine fruit of the Holy Spirit, reign in and through you.

Exhibit love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23).

As you do, His fruitfulness in your endeavors will abound.” Joni Faith Ames

I especially liked her reference to letting Holy Spirit’s fruit “reign in and through you”.

Reigning refers to our will submitted to our King. This can be tough on an emotional level which the fruit address, but Holy Spirit makes His fruit available constantly and freely as we yield our mind, will, and emotions to Him.

His Presence and His Peace are constantly available to us along with the rest of His fruit that touch us on a deep emotional and psychological level.

He alone produces His fruit in and through us. We can exhibit His fruit as we remain yielded to Him.

We have the option of stepping out of His Peace at anytime we choose to think or act negatively. He is always there to welcome us back into His Peace in the moment we repent.

Repent in the Greek is the word “meta-noia”. It simply means to change your mind. It doesn’t require tears and emotions of remorse all though those may at times be appropriate. All that is needed is to bring our minds back to the truth that we are the righteousness of God in Christ and His Peace and Joy are restored.

If we offend someone in our outburst or actions, it is always appropriate to humbly apologize and to ask for forgiveness. It is more for our sake than theirs to realign our inner self with our true identity as New Righteous Creations of God.

As we humble ourselves before others it’s wisdom to tune in to their feelings and allow their free expression.

By remaining mindful of our undeserved righteousness and remaining in humility and peace, life’s storms usually settle quickly.

Emotionally it takes around twenty minutes or so to settle back down. So, allow that time with yourself and others as a means of expressing the Love and grace of God which we all need and none of us deserve.

Then move on and keep negativity at bay especially self-condemnation which serves no good purpose and is counter to the truth of our righteousness in Jesus Christ.

One of my go-to verses for this is Romans 8:1 “So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One” The Passion Translation

I especially like the footnote regarding this verse in this translation,

Footnotes:

1. Romans 8:1 Or “Those who are in Christ Jesus cannot be condemned.” Although there are some manuscripts that add to this verse, “for those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit,” the addition is not supported by the oldest and most reliable Greek manuscripts.

This is an excellent comment. The original language stops at this statement; There is NOW no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. (PERIOD, END OF SENTENCE.) It is not conditioned on any behavior on our part. It is entirely the work of Jesus Christ where nothing is to be added.

Therefore, we are not to receive condemnation from ourselves or others that would take away from the finished work of Jesus which was completed on the cross.

ALL condemnation fell on Him when He became SIN so that we could become the Righteousness of God in Christ. We are now in permanent right standing with God declared by Him to be Righteous; even as righteous as Jesus Himself.

This experiential knowledge frees us to experience His Peace as we are at Peace with Him and the result is JOY unspeakable and full of glory!

This is the internal working of the Kingdom within us as a work of Holy Spirit.

This life transformation began when we said, “yes” to Jesus and will continue to grow and expand within us from now through all eternity in ever-increasing measure.

This is the will of Abba our Daddy God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit for you and for me.

Though we fully possess all the fullness of God within us, the outworking of it is a work in progress.

Let’s embrace it, live it and share it with the rest of the world.

If you are on board, I suggested taking some time to talk to King Jesus about all this and the impact this can have on your life and if you are excited about joining in this amazing experience of Kingdom living, welcome to the best part of your life!

Hang on, it’s even better than you think.

He’s made all His power and all His resources available to you for you to Rule and Reign in life with Him.

Chapter 6

Kingdom Power

The King has no limits to which He will go to bring His Rule and Reign into the realm of this world. He will use unusual means as necessary to bring about His plan even bypassing the church if we choose not to rise to the challenge.

He has an agenda and it requires broad sweeping reforms for the entire earth and He will get it done with or without us.

He prefers to have us willingly participate but He’s not waiting around for us to get our “end times” rhetoric correct before He moves. In fact, He’s on the move big time and has been since establishing His Kingdom on the earth when He rose again from the dead and returned to His Heavenly throne.

There is a final return sometime in the future when He has subdued and abolished all other kingdoms and rulers; even death in His final conquest. He will then hand over the completed Kingdom to the Father as everything is placed under His feet as a footstool.

This imagery found in I Corinthians 15:24 illustrates where His Kingdom is headed, absolute, sovereign rule and reign over all creation. In ancient times, when kings were defeated they were often required to bow down before the triumphant king and become his footstool. This is what is found here illustrating the Almighty Conquering King; King Jesus. His absolute Power and Authority reigns over all He has created.

Two years ago, He gave me a song one day called “Fire Wind” where I saw a vision of a fire tornado coming through the desert drawing in and transforming everything in its path. I later was directed to this passage where He gave me the understanding more completely of what I saw in the vision which happened to occur on Pentecost.

It is found in Psalm 50. Here is the portion that illustrated the vision.

“1 Yahweh, the God of gods speaks; He summons the earth from east to west.

2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God appears in radiance.

3 Our God is coming; He will not be silent! Devouring fire precedes Him,

and a storm rages around Him.”

The message I received from this vision was “God is on the move!”

I had the sense that an unprecedented move of God, at least in our generation was taking place that would rock the world.

It was as if He had heard enough of the cries of His people and it was time for Him to do something about it. Yes, Him personally.

No longer would it be just business as usual with us praying and asking Him to move on behalf of the conditions of the world but that now He was on the move.

The Psalm goes on to explain that that as He rises and moves out His purpose is clear. It is to bring the world into alignment with His Kingdom purposes. I had the sense that this would change the world quickly and would continue until He returns to the earth to Rule and Reign in Person.

This would result in more answers to our prayers for the past two thousand years that includes the words, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

I sensed a great awakening of His majestic Power being released in the earth realm from Heaven where demonstrations of such great magnitude in the earth will take place that there will be no other explanation than He is behind it and responsible for it.

It would be good to read the entire Psalm which concluding message to the saints is, “Call on Me in a day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you will honor Me.”

I did a deep dive into the Psalm and most translations seem to put the emphasis on the correction of his people. I found this is not in the original but rather the reference to judgment has to do with Him implementing and injecting His Righteous Kingdom Principles into the earth realm to bring it into alignment with His character and nature. The last part of the Psalm does deal with judgment of the wicked but it definitely is divided into two parts; one for His people and the second for the rebellious who are still subject to His Rule and Reign whether they acknowledge it or not.

This by the way, was before Donald Trump had won the nomination to represent the Republican Party by a few months. The reason I mention this is that this was an historic event. For someone who had never run or held office before to secure the nomination and then as we all now know go on to become the 45^th president of the United States was nothing short of miraculous.

The changes we have seen in such a short amount of time just slightly over 500 days at the time of this writing is also miraculous. A sudden and swift change in the economy literally over night from election night to where we are today has been meteoric in scope.

The global political scene has shifted dramatically as the U.S. emerges as the world leader it was destined to be. Truly being made great again.

It is undeniable even though the left-wing media is dead set against him, that what is happening is absolutely amazing.

This in my opinion, is a clear demonstration of what I heard was about to happen. God is on the move!

For the naysayers and doom and gloomers who are hoping the world will degenerate and become under a one world dominate leader are conflicted to say the least.

Jesus is definitely coming back again. Unfortunately, most of the end times rhetoric that has plagued the church for the past almost two hundred years is in direct opposition to seeing His Kingdom come and His will be done. It is centered in the belief that the world must get worse and worse, so Jesus can come snatch us away and destroy the earth. Then He’ll remake it and we’ll all come back when all the bad guys are gone.

May I suggest you take a fresh look at the end times teaching starting in The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Notice it is not the revelation of the anti-Christ.

Pray before reading the first chapter and ask Holy Spirit for fresh revelation. Then read it slowly and notice the context and time frame suggested. Jesus speaks of quickly and soon and comments that the very ones that pierced Him would see Him return in the clouds and will mourn. How is that possible as a future event? How is soon and quickly interpreted as 2,000 plus years?

The explanation is that it did happen quickly, in fact a few years after it was written at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This may rock your world to consider this but if so, it needs to be rocked.

A great free book I recommend is entitled, “Raptureless”. You can find it here on line and it details the historic events that satisfy all but one event in Revelation, that being the final return of Jesus as King of Kings and the final judgment of the world.

You may be wondering what this has to do with Kingdom Power.

Kingdom Power is always manifested in a restorative, redemptive, healing manner as it pertains to the purposes of God. It is ever increasing, expanding, and has no limits and never stops growing; ever. It is driven by the purposes of Love to reconcile the whole world to the Father.

As I said, yes, there is a final judgment, but it only happens at the end of those who rejected God’s offer of grace; salvation through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Jesus made it abundantly clear that His mission and purpose was to save the world not to judge it. There is no judgment of God taking place in the world today. People who are confused try to make natural disasters and terrible things that happen to be God’s wrath and punishment and a sign of the end times. Not so. People and even nations may suffer the consequences of their poor choices, but it is not the judgment of God.

Natural disasters have always occurred as history attests to and even though insurance companies refer to these as “acts of God” there is no evidence in the Word of God for such assumptions. The earth has always been a volatile place with earthquakes that sometimes cause tsunamis and then there are horrific weather events. All of these activities of the earth may indicate as Romans 8:19-22 says;

“19 For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship].

20 For the creation (nature) was subjected to [frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it—[yet] with the hope

21 That nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption [and gain an entrance] into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

22 We know that the whole creation [of irrational creatures] has been moaning together in the pains of labor until now.”

The earth was designed to respond to mankind just as the rest of creation was subjected to us. Many have lost sight of this fact stated clearly by God in Genesis. We collectively and individually have authority over the earth by virtue of creation. As the Children of God emerge into our glorious freedom in Christ all creation itself is set free from its bondage to decay and corruption.

If you think about it, Adam was formed from the dust of the earth. There is a direct connection with the dust that covers and makes up the earth. Our bodies require the minerals that are found in the earth for our very existence.

As we grow in our comprehension of the revelation of who we truly are in Jesus Christ and that all His power and authority has been already made available to us for the purpose of accomplishing our individual and corporate Kingdom mandates, the earth itself responds.

I have witnessed this phenomenon on many occasions with the weather. Living here in Northwest Florida we are very conscious of the weather. We love our sunny days and prefer them to the rainy ones not to mention the tropical storms and hurricanes that have plagued our coastline.

Since arriving here in 2005, there has only been one hurricane touch our shores until recently. Hurricane Dennis hit land near Pensacola further west from where we live. It did some damage along the beach in Panama City Beach where I was living at the time. I evacuated and headed to Atlanta during the 4^th of July.

The next threatening hurricane was Katrina. Katrina’s original path was headed straight for Panama City Beach. I remember going to the beach and speaking to the storm and forbidding it from coming to our shoreline. The remarkable thing about Katrina is that you can go back and see the path as it did a 90 degree turn in the gulf and headed to the west. Hurricanes don’t typically make right angle turns in their course but this one did. Here’s the link to the path.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one praying and perhaps speaking to the storm but that is what happened. Since then we frequently speak to the weather and command it to dissipate in the gulf. For the past 13 years we have not experienced a severe tropical storm or hurricane in our area that has brought any destruction, just rain until Michael which I will speak to.

When the Deep-Water Horizon oil spill occurred, I was in Atlanta. The day I returned the news had already exploded with the “fact” that our beaches here would soon be covered with oil. I went to the beach and stood at the shore and told the oil it could not come to our beaches. I along with many others, continued to pray daily and to speak against the oil spill.

I also watched the water currents in the gulf to see what was going on. There was a circular current continually present that served as a buffer between the oil and our beaches about a hundred miles off the coast. The oil came right up to the current and was swept back out away from the shore. No oil came to our beaches from Fort Walton Beach east. There was one day that oil showed up on Pensacola Beach, but a storm came that night and swept the beach clean of all oil. The clean up crews walked up and down the beaches with nothing to do. Further west the shores were not as fortunate.

On other occasions I have rebuked storms and seen them dissipate. One of my business partners became a believer in this when he saw me rebuke a heavy rain storm heading our way near Phoenix that would have disrupted testing. He watched as the storm split in two and bypassed where we were. The next week when I was back here in Florida he texted me and asked me to pray as another storm approached. He texted back later that the same thing happened.

Yes, I talk to the weather and often it complies. Not always but often enough that I believe in the power and authority we possess over nature. I even command the clouds to move out of the way, so I can get sun while floating in my pool. They usually comply.

One of the problems with all the detailed weather reporting is that often the drama creates a “group think” that corresponds to the predictions, so out of fear and collectively we agree with the prediction.

Last year when Irma was threatening the gulf coast, several of us who were in agreement regarding the power of our words over weather were all speaking to Irma commanding it to turn back into the Atlantic and dissipate. It was heading straight for us when it stalled and began to move eastward. The problem we observed was that massive amounts of people were tuned in to the weather reports and believing the worst. We could actually sense this in the Spirit as a pulling of collective minds focused on the worst outcome in agreement with the reports.

The storm changed course and ended up not being as destructive as predicted and shifted up the east coast. Several unexplainable and remarkable phenomenon occurred. Three separate bays had all the water sucked out to the point of exposing dry land. In the Caribbean, Tampa Bay and even Saint Andrews Bay between Panama City and Panama City Beach were all drained dry.

The hurricane never entered the Gulf of Mexico yet had this bizarre effect on the bays. This was the opposite of what the weather reports predicted, by the way. The reports predicted massive flooding due to high storm surges at high tide along the gulf coastline. This never happened. We spoke against these things as we addressed Irma and saw the storm dissipate and detour up the east coast.

Hurricanes are horrible and the destruction they bring are devastating and never to be trifled with.

Our coast was just hit last week with Michael.

Much prayer and declarations were made against the storm yet it unrelentingly attacked our coastline.

Many have suffered loss of property and some even their lives.

I have grieved along with all those suffering from this powerful storm.

The winds were clocked as high as 187 miles per hour at Tyndall airbase which is a category 5 hurricane.

I just spoke to my business partner and dear friend who lives in Panama City Beach. His entire business base as a property manager has been wiped out with over fifty homes damaged or destroyed throughout the area. He said it looks like an atom bomb was dropped over the area. His townhouse on the beach was unscathed which is miraculous as businesses along his street were demolished. (Since then his property management business has increased beyond the level before the storm and his real estate business is booming better than ever as the rebuilding has begun.)

He also said people are rallying from the President on down to bring relief and start the clean up and rebuilding of our beautiful coast.

In the midst of the devastation and losses I have looked for and see the mercy of God.

As Michael approached the panhandle we prayed and spoke to the storm even from Arizona where I have been for the past several weeks.

I made arrangements for Mari, Adam our son and Dixie our miniature schnauzer to evacuate to Montgomery Alabama to be a safe distance from the storm. I am happy to report we had no damage at our home other than a few branches removed that needed to go and lots of leaves from the bamboos in our backyard.

Our prayers and declarations towards Michael shifted when we saw it was not going to dissipate in the gulf and was going to make landfall.

It’s original target for the eye and front side was to make landfall at Panama City Beach. We spoke to it and told it to shift eastward to a less populated area. Had the eye hit directly on PC Beach and Panama City the devastation would have been catastrophic as these are the highest population areas along the coast.

It shifted eastward and the eye passed over about 25 miles further east over Tyndall Air force base between there and Mexico Beach. From there it traveled inland where it primarily was forest between the coast and Tallahassee; the least populated area along that section of the coast. Granted, Mexico Beach, Callaway, Lynhaven, and Panama City and PC Beach did sustain a great amount of damage however the front and worst of it detoured through the lowest populated area along that section of coastline.

Once it hit land it dropped to a Cat 2 fairly quickly as it passed through the heavily forested area east of Tyndall airbase.

Please understand, I am not making light of the damage and pain many are suffering through right now. All I’m saying is it could have been much worse if the eye and front side of the storm had made landfall where it was originally headed.

It is amazing to watch our great country respond to the crisis. Yesterday, President Trump and Melania , our first lady flew by helicopter right over our house on their way to Panama City.

People from as far as Bethel Church in Redding, California have made their way there to help the hurting and displaced with basic necessities of food and water along with the huge clean up effort.

Next will come the rebuilding which will take time but it will happen. That’s the way we roll.

All that said, I look forward to returning home in a few days and doing whatever we can to bring hope, comfort and love to our beautiful yet wounded gulf coast. I will continue to remain diligent in exercising the power and authority I have been given to speak to the storms of life and with expectancy see them yield and move.

I have one more quick story to share that happened here in Arizona this past weekend.

I awoke Saturday morning to the sound of heavy rain with a forecast for more on its way. This was not good as we were having a large piece of machinery delivered to a project I’m working on here.

My business partner texted me to warn about the storm and to ask me to pray and speak to it which I did.

It was amazing as I drove through heavy rain until I reached the project site. It was dry except for a few sprinkles the entire time of the unloading of the machinery until it was set in place, then came the rain.

The sky above the site was light clouds that you could almost see blue through that were rimmed by dark ones. You could see the rain at a distance surrounding the site.

I have video to prove it but a few descriptive terms from one of our crew were used in a positive way that were picked up and I don’t know how to delete them.

As I drove away from the site the rain began to pour.

The Lord heard my prayers and my speaking to the storm and it listened.

In Proverbs 18:21 it says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those loving it eat its fruit.”

I believe we are just beginning to understand how powerful our words are in determining outcomes.

We are way too comfortable with the notion that we are just helpless victims here without a lot of say so. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have two strong witnesses that declare the opposite.

In the Genesis account where God Almighty declares that we will rule over the earth as clearly stated in Psalm 8:

“But when I look up and see

such wonder and workmanship above,

I have to ask you this question:

4 Compared to all this cosmic glory,

why would you bother with puny, mortal man

or be infatuated with Adam’s sons?

5 Yet what honor you have given to men,

created only a little lower than Elohim,

crowned like kings and queens with glory and magnificence.

6 You have delegated to them

mastery over all you have made,

making everything subservient to their authority,

placing earth itself under the feet of your image-bearers.

7-8 All the created order and every living thing

of the earth, sky, and sea—

the wildest beasts and all the sea creatures—

everything is in submission to Adam’s sons.”TPT

And the last words of Jesus before He left the earth in Matthew 28;18 ; “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So by virtue of creation and the restoration of our authority by Jesus Himself, we are told that ALL authority in Heaven and earth has been given to Him.

I recently heard Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, California say, and I paraphrase; “All means All. So how much authority does the devil have? “

And this authority has been made available to us. With His authority comes the power to carry out what He has commissioned us to do, “make disciples of ALL nations.” We have the mandate with the authority and power to accomplish this command and the responsibility to fulfill it.

How we view life and the potentiality of what is possible is of primary importance to our achieving successful results. One of the subliminal effects that I mentioned earlier that warrants a deeper dive that plays a strategic role in what we experience is our view and beliefs regarding the “end times”

Your belief and understanding of the “end times” will have a direct impact and effect on your approach to life. It will be either gloriously positive or notoriously negative.

The truth is, the end times belief of the majority of Christians today looking for the anti-Christ and the world to become darker and more dangerous especially for Christians, is more in line with the beliefs of Muslims who are contributing to bringing about the end through jihad when they believe their version of the anti-Christ will bring the final destruction of the world.

If this is your view, you may not want to finish this book because I intend to point you in an entirely different direction filled with hope and optimism for the future of the world. Or you may want to give this hopeful future a deeper look. It might just change your view of life for the better.

You see, there are many references in the Bible to the whole earth being filled with the glory of God. It’s true that all creation reflects the creative glory of God. But we haven’t seen the world dwellers respond yet, but it is the intention of the King to be glorified in and through His subjects and to fill the earth with His glorification; the revelation of Who He is.

His greatest desire is to be known by those He created.

Glory is a revealing of the Majesty and Greatness of God. In Hebrew the word can mean to literally shine and also means a heavy weightiness in His Presence that has the effect of pressing down upon you resulting in worship and awe. If you have felt this before you know what I mean. If not, stay tuned you will soon. I’m beginning to feel it even now as I write this and will take a break now to go sit before the King in His weighty Presence.

Well, I’m back; one week later. It took a while but here I am again to complete the discussion of Kingdom Power. That was an amazing experience by the way but less it happens again and stops me from writing, all though I wouldn’t mind it a bit, it is time to continue.

One of the primary ways that God’s glory, majesty and greatness is expressed is through us. We need to think about that for a moment or as the psalmist often said, “selah”.

You see, as New Creations in Christ, we carry the “fullness of the God-head” within us. Time for a deep breath and another pause to reflect.

When someone gets “saved” as we like to call it or “born again” something miraculous occurs; we become alive spiritually and in essence “breath in” His Spirit as we say “yes” to who He is and what He did for us by becoming our sacrifice for all our sinfulness. The word in Hebrew is “ruach” which means spirit and also means breath. It’s the word used for when Yahweh breathed life into Adam and he became a living being.

When Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, He breathed on them and said, “receive the Holy Spirit”. This is what is called the “second birth”. This is when they became “New Creations”.

So in our common Christian jargon we often get a bit confused on what actually happened. We say things like, “I received Jesus into my heart and I was saved.” The fact is Jesus in His resurrection body is sitting on the throne in the Heavenly realm, physically right now.

So what did happen? The Spirit of Jesus, which is also the Holy Spirit and is the Spirit of the Father known as the Holy Triune God or Holy Trinity entered your very being and you came to life spiritually.

Paul put it this way in Colossians 2:9 in the Amplified Version, “For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].

10 And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power].“

Our tendency is to separate what cannot be separated. That is to divide God into three separate gods. Since there is no division within the Godhead, there is no division within the indwelling Christ as Holy Spirit who inhabits all true believers.

As this is the reality for each believer, there is no limit to the potential realization and experience of His power. The only limits are the ones we place on ourselves. We already possess the fullness of the Godhead bodily by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

His power is manifested in and through us as needed to fulfill His Kingdom purposes. There is an order to this. It’s not unlimited power and resources to do as I please. That would result in absolute chaos and confusion.

His unlimited power within us is for the purpose of accomplishing the works we were created for.

Each of us were uniquely designed for a specific role within the Kingdom. This nullifies competition within the Body of Christ as each one of us has a unique purpose to fulfill that no one else shares. Any sense of competitiveness is soulish and possibly demonic and to be avoided at all cost.

You have your place in the Kingdom that is all yours. Listen to the voice of the King and He will direct your steps, ordered specifically for you before time began.

Paul’s description in I Corinthians 12 is of the body of Christ being made up of many parts each dependent on the other working as a complete whole. He says that when one member suffers, we all suffer. The opposite is also true. When one part is successful, the whole body experiences the benefits.

All of this is subject to the King’s authority, rule, and desires which are all centered in His Love. He wants His entire Universe to be in harmony with His Kingdom right down to the smallest member on an atomic level; right down to smallest atomic particles that comprise our individual bodies. He wants them vibrating with the frequency of His Love.

Just imagine the entire Universe down to the smallest atomic particle or quark vibrating at His Perfect frequency of Love. That is His objective and Perfect will that will be accomplished progressively for now and for all eternity.

My first prayer of the day is “Lord, I surrender my body, my soul, and my spirit to you. Take me over. Fill me to overflowing with Your Presence.”

Quite frankly, I am an addict. I am addicted to His Presence and His Peace. It is the guiding force of my life. When I feel (yes, I said feel) out of sync with His Peace I can’t stand it. I need a fix. I have to have it. It becomes the all-consuming passion and desire of my heart. I am desperate in that moment and nothing will do until I have a conscious awareness of His Peace which comes from experiencing His Presence.

I know that He is ever-present and according to Paul in Acts, “we live and move and have our being within Him.” Yet there is a level of awareness when life get’s me off track through distractions that divert my mind from being “stayed” on Him, that I can lose my peace or a sense of it. I say my peace because He has given it to me as a gift and it is the only Peace that is permanent and always available to me no matter what life experiences may come my way.

One of my primary go to verses for this is Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing but through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God and the Peace of God which surpasses our understanding will guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.”

In another version it says we exchange our anxiousness for His Peace when we communicate with Him specifically and always with a thankful heart, letting Him know exactly what we are concerned about.

Being thankful is important here because it is an acknowledgement that He’s already taken care of what concerns us and that we are truly trusting Him to handle it. That’s when the exchange takes place.

In Isaiah He is called “The Prince of Peace”. This means that He rules with and over Peace and has established His Kingdom on the foundation of Peace. It is something tangible that affects us down to the core of our being; experientially in our emotions. It is made available in a split second when we turn to Him with a simple prayer of “Help!”.

It was made a reality when we entered into relationship with the Father through faith in the redemptive work of Jesus as revealed to us by Holy Spirit. He made peace between us and our Father through His blood sacrificed on our behalf.

As I stated in the previous chapter, There really is now no condemnation for those of us in Christ Jesus therefore there is no division between us and God. It has been removed and all that is between us now is His Love and His Peace. No more warring between us. We have “unconditionally surrendered” to His plan for redeeming us through Jesus and His sacrifice so the Peace treaty has been forever validated by His own blood.

Knowing in our deepest being that we are at peace with the King causes us to experience His Peace. The lack of internal peace is always in direct proportion to a false sense of condemnation and therefore a sense of separation from Him. Since there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus then any feelings of lack or not measuring up are false feelings and are feelings leading to death which are produced by the Law.

In other words, when we get short circuited and feel cut off from His Peace and His Presence, in that instance we have slipped back under the Law and the result is a feeling that something is dreadfully wrong.

The dreadfully wrong part can also be an alarm going off by Holy Spirit as a warning that we are not where we are supposed to be. This is not always about something sinful or some temptation. It can also be something contrary to His Plan and Purpose for us.

I had this happen last year when after getting my first colonoscopy, at sixty-four, that I should have had much earlier, it was determined that there was a large polyp that couldn’t be removed by the procedure so the doctor recommended surgery to remove about a foot of my large intestine as a preventive measure against developing cancer which there was no indication that I had yet.

So, I went for the consult with the surgeon. After meeting with him who made the procedure sound like as routine as removing a flat bicycle tube, I left the meeting and immediately was overwhelmed with a sense of absolutely no peace. It wasn’t so much fear all though that must have played a part in the feelings it was more of a sense of the absence of peace.

That terrified me. I became desperate for His peace. I frankly was freaking out inside. I prayed and calmed myself down but still no peace until I got home, went in my office and cried out to the Lord for direction. I immediately heard, “Mayo Clinic”. As soon as I heard those words, peace was restored in a sense of overwhelm-ness. I took a deep breath and looked up Mayo Clinic which I found in Jacksonville and found the specialist I needed to contact. The next day I set up an appointment and I’m glad to say, I still have my colon.

The point of this story is to illustrate how important staying in His Peace is to keeping our lives on track with His Plan and Purpose. When things just aren’t working, and you can’t figure it out and you feel stressed and overwhelmed, take a break, seek His Presence and His Peace will always return for where He is there always is Peace.

In my experience, He is always guiding me by His Peace. Even in the slightest ways, very subtly as gentle as a whisper often and unfortunately often ignored. One of my ongoing prayers has been, “Lord turn up the volume, so I can hear Your voice clearly.” He still hasn’t answered that one because He wants me to be so familiar with His promptings that I am tuned in as with radar to His slightest impulse. Staying so mindful of Him, in the moment, that I can pick up on what He is saying intuitively and respond in kind.

This is a skill that I am still working on and desiring to a greater level. The correct prayer would be, “Lord help me hear Your voice and sense Your promptings in an ever-increasing greater measure.”

In other words, help me tune out all other frequencies but the frequency of Your voice; Your Love and Your Peace.

This is key to our experiencing His ever ready, always available Kingdom Power. By His Peace He will guide us into His Kingdom purpose for our lives, moment by moment. And as we flow in His Peace His Power is released to accomplish His plan and purpose as we need it.

I love how the Amplified Bible says it, ““I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]” Philippians 4:13

I would encourage you to do a meditative study on the Hebrew word, “Shalom”. Every time the word peace is used in a scriptural text it is actually the word “Shalom”. It is a full word rich in meaning. It contains peace but is so much more. It is what His Kingdom is full of as the Prince of Shalom. In short it means full well being on every level of life. A completeness and wholeness with no lack. Check it out. It’s worthy of a deep dive study and meditation.

The reason for this side bar regarding His Peace in this chapter on Kingdom Power is that His Power always flows through the channel of His Peace; His Shalom. No exceptions. His is a Kingdom of Peace and unlimited Power always available in unlimited measure to advance His Kingdom in and through us.

Chapter 7

The Kingdom of Prophets

“Do not despise or prevent prophecy” …1 Thessalonians 5:20.

I lead with this verse from the New Testament because many relegate prophecy and prophets to the Old Testament.

Just in the way of back up and support for prophets in the New Testament, here are a few examples.

In Acts 11:27 reference is given to prophets from Jerusalem and in Acts 21:9 mentions the four daughters of Phillip that had the gift of prophecy.

In 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul states that he preferred a word of prophecy over an unintelligible tongue with the exception of someone who could interpret. He also says that we should desire and pursue the gift of prophecy above all others. “especially that you may] prophesy [to foretell the future, to speak a new message from God to the people].”

Here’s the full message with a strong warning from Paul in I Thessalonians 5: “Do not quench [subdue o be unresponsive to the working and guidance of] the [Holy] Spirit; 20 Do not scorn or reject gifts of prophecy or prophecies [spoken revelations—words of instruction or exhortation or warning]. 21 But test all things carefully [so you can recognize what is good]. Hold firmly to that which is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil [withdraw and keep away from it].”

This indicates that prophecy is to be paid close attention to and to treat it in an ignoble manner is to “quench, subdue, or be unresponsive to the working and guidance of] the [Holy] Spirit;..

I realize that many may be unfamiliar with modern day prophets as many churches see this as a gift that passed away with the first century church.

As I just illustrated it was an accepted practice in the early church and only by bending scripture to suit a particular view point, there is no reference to any of the gifts of the Spirit leaving the church or not being available and viable for the present.

I personally was totally unaware of modern day prophets until about fifteen years ago when I was brought into the modern day prophetic movement. It rocked my world and continues to be a tremendous source of encouragement; which is actually the primary purpose of it.

It is completely dependent on the influence, prompting, and revelation of Holy Spirit.

In Revelation 19:10 it says that, “the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.”

So, it is a means by which Jesus speaks to us through others in agreement with His Word.

Mari and I have been active participants in the prophetic movement for many years.

One of my concerns about the movement is its fixation on the future to the extent that our present reality is reduced to constantly waiting for the “breakthroughs” and “turn arounds” which are always hopeful but puts many in a constant state of counting on the future.

I myself am in possession of numerous prophetic words that have not materialized yet and I am still hopeful for their fulfillment. The truth is in the realm of the Kingdom, if they are genuine its a given they will happen. From a Kingdom perspective they are already done.

It’s worth noting that in the Hebrew language there is no future tense. Everything has happened or is happening.

To see this, read the Old Testament in Young’s Literal Translation. He’s the only translator that stayed true to the original tense of the text.

When God spoke and gave promises, they are always in the past tense such as, “I have made you a great nation” when He spoke to Abraham about his future children. This is why all of His promises in His Word are “Yes and Amen”, guaranteed. From His perspective they have already happened as He knows the end from the beginning and sees it as already done.

Delays are based on our perception of how we think things should work. All things happen for a reason and according to a Sovereign Plan that has already been fulfilled in exactly the way and when it was intended to happen as planned according to the King.

There is a deeper issue here and that is the present reality of the Kingdom. Included within the Kingdom is all fulfillment of every true promise of God. There’s no delay in these promises. To think otherwise would put something or someone above the Ruler of the Universe. That’s not going to happen. Never has and never will.

I have personally received specific prophetic words from genuine prophets that came true and were used to confirm the guidance of Holy Spirit in major areas affecting my life.

The rest I am waiting for I intentionally see them as already done.

I use my imagination and see them and declare them as a “NOW” reality. This puts me in direct alignment with the King and His decrees that I have received, believed and am standing in agreement with as my present possession.

This is what faith looks like, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” as it says in Hebrews 11:1.

The word hope in the Greek is translated as, “a confident expectation of good.”

So faith is alignment with the thoughts, purposes and plans of the King and is the substance or reality of our confident expectation of good things before they are seen. As if they already are.

I have grown in my personal experience of clearly hearing and delivering prophetic words to others as a growing, developing and maturing skill.

It is in direct proportion to my yieldedness, availability, and sensitivity to the voice of the Lord and it is an ever increasing multidimensional experience.

You see, the Lord is speaking continually not just with speech but through all of our senses being heightened and aware of the beauty of His tangible Presence. He will make Himself known if we will tune in and listen.

Jesus said in John 10, “My sheep know my voice…” As believers, we intuitively have the ability to hear Him. It is within our New Nature; the New Creation, within our New DNA to recognize our Abba Daddy’s voice and even intuitively know what He wants without hearing a word.

Often it is an impulse on the inside, a drawing or pulling from within towards something or someone.

He continuously speaks to us as we listen for His voice and as we read His Word. What we hear intuitively will always line up with and agree with His written Word without exception.

Have you ever had the experience of thinking about someone right before they call or text you? How does that happen? I believe it is through our spiritual connection with the Father who wants us to see Him in and through our collective connectiveness. It is by design.

The primary purpose of these experiences is to make Him known. It will always result in joyful encouragement. This is the flow and purpose of prophecy.

The purpose of this chapter is to call attention to this vital component of the Kingdom. As believers, we truly are One in the Spirit. We have all partaken of the same Spirit; His Spirit that unites us and brings us into the collective consciousness of the Kingdom.

EVERY GOOD GIFT

Every good and bright idea that has resulted in new inventions that make life better all come from the same source; our Father of Lights.

In the book of James, it says, “Every good gift and every perfect (free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning].” James 1:17.

Every means every. All good things in life are gifts from the Father of all Light who is Pure Light to such a degree that He casts no shadow when He turns.

Light is what brings revelation and glorifies. Our Father is glorified as He gives revelation to us of the good things He has in mind to give us as His gifts.

If we were able to step into a time machine and travel back to the time of Jesus, I guarantee that once we stepped out to what life was actually like, we’d jump back in and want to head back here in a quick minute.

Since the time of Jesus, the world has progressively gotten better. New and better ways of doing things; new inventions, better ways of governing, human rights, better treatment of women, humanitarian institutions, schools, hospitals and orphanages. Study history and you will see it is true.

All these good things originally came in the name of and because of Jesus Christ without exception.

His Kingdom set the pattern for graciously caring for others that the civilized world has adopted.

The world had never been that way, until Jesus came and ushered in His Kingdom on earth. He literally shifted the course and direction of civilization from darkness to Light in ever increasing measure.

It will continue with greater acceleration and ever-increasing momentum on this enlightened trajectory until the day He sets foot on earth again and then forward for all eternity.

It is a perpetual progressive transformation from darkness to light. It is unstoppable. It is inevitable. It is a certain reality; guaranteed.

The evil exposed by the Light will never extinguish the Light but will be shown for what it is and it will be overcome. It’s a work in progress destined to reach its perfect objective; complete alignment with His Kingdom.

“Every good giving and perfect gift..’ is how it reads in the Young’s Literal Translation which I highly recommend for deeper study of the Word. You can find it on the YouVersion app. I also recommend Biblehub.com where I often use the interlinear feature to do word studies within the text.

I just did that for the word “perfect”. Here’s the Greek definition of the word used here:

téleios (an adjective, derived from télos, “consummated goal”) – mature (consummated) from going through the necessary stages to reach the end-goal, i.e. developed into a consummating completion by fulfilling the necessary process (spiritual journey). [This root (tel-) means “reaching the end (aim).

You see, all His gifts are for our good and the good of all His creatures and they are perfect and complete meaning they are designed to grow through stages to reach the end-goal; to develop into a consummating completion fulfilling the necessary process; reaching the end aim.

This is an apt description for what has transpired over the past 2,000 years or so since Jesus left the earth.

His Kingdom continues to expand and enlarge with every increasing acceleration and momentum and is destined to fill the whole earth with His glory.

I believe that’s the day He will arrive, in style, with the whole world welcoming His arrival; every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus is Lord; King of the Universe. True, some will still reject His Rule but at the final judgment, they will bow their knee and confess Jesus is Lord, without exception.

Life continues to get better and better as new discoveries and technologies advance. These are ALL good and perfect gifts from our Father. He wants us to see it as so.

Think about it. We drive air conditioned and heated cars even with cooled and heated seats on paved roads, live in air-conditioned homes, talk on cell phones and use computers as a way of life. (I’m especially conscious of how vital air conditioning is after spending most of the summer in the hottest region of Arizona with an average of 115 degrees. It was even 108 at night. Brutal.)

Our kids and grand kids were here for Labor Day weekend and we spent most of the day with them on Sunday. As we sat around after dinner we were talking about cell phones.

I shared with them how when I went to Singapore in 1998 I was amazed that everyone there was on a handheld cell phone every where I went. It was the same in Malaysia. This was before they were in wide use here in the states and Europe etc. They were way advanced beyond our technological development at that point in time. That was just twenty years ago.

I noticed my two granddaughters who are eighteen and twenty had incredulous looks on their faces like they were hearing stories from a time they couldn’t even imagine; as they both held their phones in their hands texting their friends. They have never known life without cell phones, texting, Facebook and Instagram.

We talked about Google and how we wonder what we ever did before it.

I shared how when I used to travel in the 1990’s to Europe, I always had to lug around giant Atlases containing maps of Europe to find my way around. They all laughed as if Grandad was sharing stories of back in the pioneer days.

The last time I was there, I used Google Maps the same way we do here to find my way around.

These are amazing technologies that we quickly grow accustom to and often take for granted.

ALL these things are good and perfect gifts coming down from our Father of Pure Light.

We give way too much credit to the inventors and tech developers without acknowledging the true source of all innovation and creativity; our Father; our Abba-Daddy God. After all, He is the Creator of the creative.

The use and way of expressing the gifts is up to each gifted one. Some consciously use them for His glory and others not so much. However, in the expression of the gifts He is glorified as the Creator of the creative and the source of all their creative abilities.

We each have gifts; natural born ones and as believers we also have access to all the “grace-gifts” as well. In the fullness and power of Holy Spirit our natural and spiritual gifts are fully enhanced as we willingly glorify Him in the expression of the gifts.

OUR ABBA – DADDY GOD

All creative expression in the arts, music, tech, or any other forum all flow from the Creator; our Abba-Daddy God.

I use this phrase a lot because Jesus used it. This is what He taught us to call the Father; “Abba”. This is Hebrew for “Daddy”. It’s what little Jewish kids still call their daddy’s. It’s a sweet, affectionate, loving name that every baby learns as one of their first words like, Dada or Ma-ma.

When you read or recite the “Lord’s Prayer” try to de-formalize it the next time and use the same word Jesus used, “Our Abba”…

Paul liked this word as well. He used it in Romans 8:15 where Holy Spirit had even the English translators leave it as it was written where it says, by His Spirit within us we “cry “Abba Father”. The first time it’s in Hebrew “Abba” and the second time in Greek “Pater” from where we get the English word Father.

He is truly our “Daddy-God”; our “Abba” and He wants us to know Him in that sweet, intimate, loving way. Not some distant, far away old grey-haired bearded man sitting on a throne somewhere way out there. No, I haven’t seen Him yet, but I know that’s not what He’s like.

First of all, that’s not what He looks like. Nobody is old in heaven. Aging is an earth thing resulting from the fall of Adam and Eve. Everybody is young and vibrant in heaven. So, I ask for “as it is in heaven” and that I stay young in ever increasing measure, Amen.

Our Heavenly Abba is fully engaged and involved and deeply interested in us, just like a loving earthly daddy is for his precious children only more so.

He loves us so much He couldn’t stand being separated from us and had to ask Jesus, His only Son to come and lay down His life as a substitute for us where He poured out His righteous wrath and judgment upon Him, so we could go free who deserved the punishment and judgment. It’s all gone. Only Love remains.

“For God SO loved the world… “Selah”. Stop with me for just a moment to think about this and to give Him praise and thanks.

The Internet Connection

I believe that what we see in the tangible world represents an even more significant reality in the parallel realm of the Spirit.

The nature of a global communications system linked through a complex structure that uses 0’s and 1’s to carry information is in my opinion, a reflection of the eternal realm of the Spirit.

The internet is truly a remarkable gift. I still don’t get how it works and how all these different servers all talk to each other and keep us connected.

Today through the internet we are connected globally like never before. There is an unprecedented opportunity for global connectivity within the prophetic community. I frequently get confirming and encouraging words from The Elijah List and other sources from across the globe.

I post on my blog; Escalator2 where this book and my other writings are found. I have been able to reach over a thousand people globally with no promotion or advertising. I am amazed to see people from China, Singapore, Australia, Africa and other places reading my posts and now my books.

We are in an age where communication has become instantaneous from anywhere on the globe. Truly amazingly good gifts from our Father of Lights.

With the tools He has provided, energized and directed by Holy Spirit our ability to connect and communicate His Heart and His NOW message has never been more readily available.

Holy Spirit is the connecting energy that links all believers together, globally.

He has the ability to release a message on one side of the planet that corresponds in direct relation to the experience of another believer on the other side of the planet.

He has incorporated the tangible realm into His system for communication and expansion of His Kingdom globally.

I’m on board an airplane that has taken me from my home in Northwest Florida to DFW in less than two hours. I’ve driven it before and it takes about two days. In the 1800’s it would have taken two months. All these developments are good gifts that come from the Father of Lights; our Abba Daddy.

These are gifts that give the Kingdom mobility for carrying its ambassadors to every corner of the globe for His glory.

Every good and worthy tangible gift is a reflection of His Kingdom and ultimately can and will be used to usher in His Kingdom to every nation.

It is important to make the connection between the two realms and see the synergistic force behind them for completing the advancement of the Kingdom. Take a moment to consider this as we tend to segregate into spiritual and secular realms. In the Kingdom it’s all spiritual and the tangible is always subservient to and originates from the Spirit.

No doubt the good things He inspires and brings about can be misused and abused however the good things remain good in their essence and are here for our enjoyment and to make the world a better place to live.

This should fill us with hope and optimism for the future and inspire us to be a part of making things better all in the name of expanding the Kingdom globally.

I believe that as we are connected to the prophetic realm, new creative ideas, inventions and innovations will be revealed to us for the benefit of mankind and for the building up of the Kingdom. This is one of the primary reasons this is an essential element of the Kingdom.

We need fresh downloads from the realm of the Spirit; the Heavenly realm, to participate in the greatest expansion and advancement of the Kingdom of God to ever take place upon the earth.

His desire is to bring His good ideas about through His children. Sometimes they get the right idea as is evidenced by the Wright brothers who decided that flight was possible. They were two of God’s kids as are many others who have made great contributions to the betterment of mankind.

However, as I’ve said before, He will have his way with or without us. If you examine the current technological advances centered in Silicon Valley, most of these companies are headed up by Abraham’s kids; Jewish folk.

I pray that these mega-wealthy ones come to the true knowledge of Messiah Jesus. Each of them became successful by the desire to make improvements in the way things are done. To make the world a better place.

Perhaps those ideas were meant for one us to discover and we just weren’t tuned in to receive the download.

TIME TO GET ON BOARD “THE PROPHETIC KINGDOM”

This is another really good reason to get on board with the Prophetic Kingdom.

Revelation is at the heart of prophecy. When we don’t tune in, He will find someone who will.

So, with that said, let’s take a deeper look into the significance of prophecy in the Kingdom.

Since Jesus’ day, the population of the world has grown from around 300 million to over 7 billion and still climbing. The vastness of the population puts the church at a decisive disadvantage. The shear numbers are overwhelming with the thought of reaching them for the Kingdom.

It is doable however. It will take great financial resources unlike anything we have ever seen before and a joining together of the body of Christ like never before to reach the vast multitudes occupying planet earth. No room or time for competition.

We are one Family under One Loving Abba for those who are in Christ Jesus. None of us perfect outwardly yet but we are to see each other the way our Abba does, as New Creations. He always sees potential realized and as completed.

That’s, as we read the definition of perfect; a process that leads to consummated completion. He sees the end from the beginning as already done. The more we see ourselves and others this way the less stress we will have and the better able to stay focused on loving and not wasting time judging and evaluating ourselves and others. A waste of time and energy and counter-productive to Kingdom advancement.

We are complete in Jesus; period.

See yourself and me and others that way and you will enjoy life a whole lot more. Just LOVE. Period.

Jesus gave us the command to reach the nations. So how do we get the job done and what does this have to do with prophecy?

I believe prophecy is a significant key to getting the job done.

I believe this is one of the reasons for the resurgence of the prophetic in the past few years for the advancement of the Kingdom.

As we grow in our respect and appreciation for this gift and cultivate it within the Kingdom community we will experience a new level of global communication with transformational Power beyond measure.

We need to be grounded in the Word of the Lord. There are two words for this in the New Testament. One is Logos; the written Word as expressed in the Old Testament and of Jesus recorded in the gospels and letters of the New Testament. Then there is the Greek word Rehma.

Rehma is the present NOW word revealed for specific direction from Holy Spirit in the realm of prophetic utterances. Rehma will always agree with Logos and is subject to it and will never contradict it. However, it may add new insight of a personal nature or application to the written word as applicable to current situations we may find ourselves in. Especially when we need specific direction from the Lord.

The Kingdom is spiritual and its tools and methods for advancement are spiritually derived. To accomplish the mandate in the present world to reach the lost and to fill the whole earth with His glory will require functioning at a higher level of intuition and flowing in the realm of the Holy Spirit where immediate revelation is needed. This is the realm of the prophetic that is an essential component of the Kingdom advancement agenda.

There are no limits to what accessing this level of communication with the King can accomplish in fulfilling His plans and purposes in and through us.

It is important to understand that none of this is random. It is all by design with exact precise timing, intersections of resources and people led by Holy Spirit and our Commander in Chief, King Jesus.

There is a divine order to His Plan and He has chosen to fulfill it through you and me. That is an amazing thought in and of itself. Yet true.

How are we to know in an instant what He is leading us to do? Certainly, the indwelling Holy Spirit is readily available to reveal His plan directly to us however in His infinite wisdom He knows we need objective confirmations to what we hear primarily due to the fact that we are incapable of being objective about ourselves.

This is where the prophetic gift comes into play through its exercise in the body of Christ. He sends people to us at just the right time with just the right message to confirm often what we already have heard. This is a key function of the gift of prophecy. It always has a joyful encouragement to it when it’s truly from Him.

Even with great increases within the prophetic community and advances in communication tools, I believe we are just on the cusp of what is to come.

In His desire to be known, He also desires to be heard and obeyed. It is essential to the completion of His glorification in the earth realm. Once again, He desires to partner with us to bring about His plan for reaching all the nations of the world for His Kingdom.

Prophetic revelation is His way of preparing us for the future while guiding us one step at a time. That’s all we need in the moment. He is willing to share His vision and what’s on His Heart for us and for reaching the nations; the ones He gave Himself for. He will have them, and we have the great privilege of partnering with Him to see it become a reality.

Dreams, visions, words of knowledge and specific revelations all comprise the realm of the prophetic all though each a distinct gift within itself.

It is the supernatural revealing of the Heart of the Lord for us and for His world.

Of all the “grace gifts” which is what charismatic means in Greek, Paul concludes his description of his list of gifts by encouraging us to above all seek the gift of prophecy. He understood the essential nature of the divine revelatory gifts for the body of Christ to connect with the Kingdom realm as a primary means for the realization of the Kingdom of God.

Let’s let the King speak through His prophets and learn to cultivate this gift within us so that we will have a word “in season” for such a time as this.

It would literally take another book, which I may write at some time, to share all the ways the Lord has used prophetic words to encourage me and to confirm His word to me. I daily depend on His fresh Rhema Word for guidance in decision making. It assures me that I am plugged in and anchored in His Purpose and Plan on a moment by moment and daily basis.

Of course, all prophetic words are subject to the Logos, written word of God and will never contradict it. They always run like two tracks of a train in perfect parallel harmony consistently supporting and reinforcing one another.

Jesus’ testimony is the Spirit of Prophecy and His commands flow through this revelatory gift. (Revelation 19:10)

Let’s prepare for the ever-increasing elevation in the Spirit where, as the body of Christ we see our collective connectiveness as the means He has chosen to speak to each other and to the world His prophetic message of Love, Unity, Harmony, and Restoration.

This is the purpose of the Prophetic Kingdom.

Chapter 8

The Kingdom of Priests

God’s plan has always been to partner with us from the dawn of creation to the present to work in conjunction with us for the subduing of the earth and redemption of mankind.

Before the fall, He would come in the “cool of the evening” and walk with and talk with Adam and Eve. What do you think they talked about? I’m sure He would delight in them sharing their new discoveries from the day. He enjoyed hearing about all they did that day, just like we all enjoy hearing about our kid’s days when they decide to share with us.

Isn’t it a precious thing to you when they get beyond the one word “fine”? You really do want to know the details and most importantly you want to know how they’re doing. How they’re feeling and making sure they really are “fine”. Why? Because we love them and would do anything for them. Even lay our lives down for them.

Our Creator God is like that and I’m sure they knew it and felt loved, valued, and treasured by His smiling face and genuine interest in them.

I’m also sure that they collaborated on their plans for the next day and maybe even beyond. He would have been completely engaged and available to support their efforts and when they sought His counsel and wisdom He freely offered it.

His Kingdom Plan was far reaching beyond the safe confines of Eden. He truly meant it when He said to them and in fact commanded them to subdue the earth. He meant the whole earth. He knew that they would be fruitful and multiply and that they along with their children would gradually expand the reach of their God given authority to rule and reign over the earth.

All this was great until that fatal day when they stopped believing who He said they were and listened to the lie that they weren’t enough; that the Creator was holding out on them and therefore couldn’t be completely trusted.

The next “cool of the evening” encounter must have been extra cool because they covered up with foliage and went into hiding. Everything changed, and the intimate trust relationship was broken with the Creator.

In this dark moment the Creator emerges as the Redeemer; the One who would do for them what they could not do for themselves; provide a way back to intimacy with the Creator even though as broken, fallen, estranged creatures. There was only one way this could happen. A sacrifice had to be made; a blood sacrifice.

Animals were sacrificed by the Creator and clothing was made from the skins as a covering for them. This was and has always been the only way back to the Creator for which He had made provision for from all eternity past; Jesus, the Lamb of God sacrificed from the foundation of the earth.

His redemptive Plan did not replace His Kingdom Plan but rather became the means for it’s true fulfillment.

It became the means by which His very Presence would come to reside within us who believe in the ultimate sacrifice made for us by Jesus through His blood offering in the great exchange of our sin for His righteousness.

From Adam and Eve forward the understanding for the need for a substitutional blood sacrifice was known and practiced until the time of Jesus who made the final and ultimate sacrifice of His Body and Blood.

God never lost sight of His original Plan which was to see the earth subdued by mankind thus we now have over7 billion folks on the planet doing just that. The unfortunate dilemma is that many are going about it in a contrary manner to His intended purpose.

Even though life is progressively getting better with new innovations daily to increase and improve our quality of life, there still remains the separation issue between a loving Creator and His creatures. The lost ones who He longs to be in harmony with so that His purpose for creating them can be fulfilled as redeemed children.

Many of us have been through heart breaks with our kids as they have wandered away or never come to know the One Who made them and Loves them with All His Being. The heartbreak we feel, and experience is infinitely magnified as billions remain lost and on a collision course with eternal separation unless there is a course correction.

Think of His loss in seeing His purpose and plan for each one aborted by the will of those who willfully reject His offer, who will never know Him as the Loving Creator with an awesome offer for all eternity unrealized. The word says that He doesn’t want any to perish but for all to come to the knowledge of Him as King and Redeemer.

That’s where we come in. His redeemed, righteous children filled and empowered with His very Presence. We are the Kingdom Priests who can offer redemption, healing, wholeness and eternal fulfillment to the lost ones. We are called to share what we have received freely, freely with them.

The All Sufficient One came and met Moses on the back side of the desert. Speaking to him through a burning bush that was not consumed. By the way that’s what His fire is like for us as well. It never harms what it consumes but energizes and gives life.

So, jump into His fire and be consumed by Him and become like Him.” Lord, consume us by Your Holy Fire that we may experience who we truly are; Your holy, redeemed, children who look like and act like you. In Jesus Mighty Name, Amen.”

Back to Moses. God made an offer to Moses to be the I AM; All Sufficient One to meet Moses at his point of weakness and need. He would make up for what Moses lacked.

He wanted to redeem His people held captive in Egypt. It was what Moses was made for but only enabled to do in his complete dependence on I AM. In Hebrew the name is YHWH.

The letters in Hebrew are pictures. God speaks in pictures to by-pass our intellect and activate our imaginations. YHWH in Hebrew pictures is Y- Yud as hand, H is Hey which looks like an open window and speaks of grace, W is Vav and is a picture of a spike or hook, then Hey again.

It gives this picture:

YHVH = Hand of Grace Nailed in Grace. Yes, it is a picture of Jesus; Mighty God, King of the Universe, nailed to the cross so that by His grace we are redeemed and made whole. Hallelujah!

Selah; take a moment to think about it and thank Him. (I also thank Joseph Prince for this amazing revelation.)

His plan once Israel was liberated from their captives, was revealed to them in the desert. The offer was that He would be their one and only God and they would be His people.

He called them to His original vision of subduing the earth as Kings under His divine Kingship. He also made the offer for them to become a Kingdom of Priests.

They chose not to take Him up on His offer but rather told Him to just tell them what to do and they would work it out on their own. Thus, the Ten Commandments which they all broke before Moses had time to get back off the mountain with the first set. They broke them, so he broke them on the mountain rather than bring them into the camp where they all would have been destroyed by them.

The second set came straight down the mountain and were placed where? In the Holy of Holies, behind the curtain of separation and inside the Ark of the Covenant directly under the Mercy Seat, where the blood of bulls and other animals was sprinkled as a covering of atonement.

We are told that the law was given to show us our need for a Savior because it shows us how we don’t measure up. Paul talks a lot about this in Romans by the way.

The point is, God’s purpose and plan has never changed. It has always been to bring mankind back into harmony with His Kingdom and expand it throughout the earth.

As His Kingdom Priests, under the King – Priest Jesus, we too can rule and reign with Him even now as His earthly representatives.

As Kingdom Priests, we carry the fragrance of Christ as spiritual incense burning where ever we go.

“But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere,

¹⁵ For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God, [discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:

¹⁶ To the latter it is an aroma [wafted] from death to death [a fatal odor, the smell of doom]; to the former it is an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]. And who is qualified (fit and sufficient) for these things? [Who is able for such a ministry?” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16

It is the fragrance of Christ that attracts the hurting ones longing for redemption and also repels those who are dead set on staying on their self-destructive course void of involvement with God and His redemptive Plan.

Thus, the analogies in the New Testament of goats and sheep. Some have taken this to mean nations. I have some trouble with this as His “whosoever will” invitation is to the whole world and there is no doubt “goats and sheep “are in every nation.

I don’t know of a place on the planet where there are no believers in Jesus. If there are such nations, I am unaware of them. But even if there is one that has not even one believer, the offer is still made to them until Jesus returns.

As priests of God, we have to examine the call of God and the implications of this assignment.

What He has called us to He also has provided what we need to fulfill the calling.

He has “anointed” us just as the priests and kings of Israel had oil poured on them as a ceremonial declaration of being set apart for their role and calling. So we too have been anointed by Holy Spirit Who equips us for the tasks prepared in advance for us to do.

In 1 John 2:27 it says, “the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you”. In other words, it is already within you waiting to be released. You already have within you all that you need to fulfill the calling of God upon your life.

Priest intercede on behalf of others. That is our responsibility. As we pray on behalf of others the most effective means is to be tuned in to the frequency of Holy Spirit submitted and willing to pray as He leads.

The flow of our corporate anointing in worship, intercession, and moving in the “grace-gifts” within the body of Christ helps lift and liberate those who grace our gatherings for the purpose of equipping the saints for the work of the Kingdom. From there we then face outward together to reach those still in darkness to shine the light of Jesus and spread His fragrance to draw those seeking life.

Praying in the Spirit releases His anointing within us enabling His flow to bypass our intellect and to speak through us by His Spirit. We are then better able to frame our prayers as we receive His downloads, direction and intuitive leading. This is the primary grace-gift for releasing and activating the other grace-gifts and opens us up to a freer flow of Holy Spirit moving within us.

Praying in the Spirit is in fact an exercise of submitting our entire body, soul and spirit to the will of Holy Spirit where we allow our intellect and will to surrender completely to His Rule and Reign over us.

It is an act of faith, trust and surrender where we let go of control and yield to His.

If you have never experienced praying in the Spirit, I encourage you to pray and ask Holy Spirit to release this grace-gift within you. Simply ask Him. It’s already yours. He does not limit you in experiencing His gifts. We do. Here’s a prayer to help you get started:

“Father, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, I ask that You release this grace-gift within me. I surrender all that I am to You. Speak through me, Holy Spirit. I want to know and experience Your fullness and all that You have provided for me through what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection. As on the day of Pentecost when ALL who gathered in the upper room where filled with Your Holy Fire and spoke in Your Heavenly language, so baptize me, Holy Spirit and speak through me now.”

Open your mouth and let it flow. It will come as you yield and allow Holy Spirit to speak through you. You may hear a syllable or two at first. Just go with it. The gift grows as you use it. It always comes with an abundance of peace and joy. It will help you trust Holy Spirit and grow in your awareness of Him and intimacy with Abba-Daddy God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. You are safe with them.

Don’t allow your thinking to overshadow your spirit. You can’t analyze this and get there using your intellect. It truly is a faith surrendering experience that will take you to a new level of experiencing the Presence and Power of Holy Spirit in your life.

It is a key that unlocks your potential for accessing the grace-gifts.

Especially do not listen to the lies of the enemy which always come with a dose of fear. “What will others think?” “I may lose control and sound foolish or act stupid”, “This sounds like baby-talk”, “It’s not for me. It may be for others but not me.” “I’ve been a believer for this long without this, so I’ll be fine without it.” “I sure don’t want to act undignified like those crazy charismaniacs”.

If you have thought or heard these messages I assure you, they are not from God and need to be rejected. Don’t let the enemy short circuit the Power of Holy Spirit flowing from within you. For your sake and others sake cry out to Holy Spirit for all that He has for you and bow in surrender to His Rule and Reign over you and yes, even your tongue.

When we pray, we do so based on our position in Christ; sharers of His Righteousness and possessors of All the Fullness of the Godhead that resides in us by Holy Spirit’s Presence. This is the only basis for functioning as a Kingdom Priest.

For many years now, I have enjoyed and appreciated the ministry of Joseph Prince and learned much from him on the subject of the “righteousness of faith”. Here is one of his comments:

Romans 4:13 says, “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”

“God promised that you would be the heir of the world. It is the same promise that He made to Abraham. And because you are Christ’s, you are Abraham’s seed and an heir “according to the promise”. (Galatians 3:29)

“When God made this promise to you, He made it so easy for you to receive—“through the righteousness of faith”. All you have to do is believe that as the heir of the world every blessing is righteously yours because Jesus died to give them to you. He also rose from the dead to enforce them in your life. So, don’t try to earn your blessings “through the law”—through your efforts or performance. Freely receive what God freely gives to you through Christ and His finished work at the cross.” Joseph Prince.

All power and authority of King Jesus is available to us continually when we focus on Him and see ourselves as righteous as Jesus. Not by our doing but by His blood Covenant with the Father on our behalf. God has declared us righteous. We function as Kingdom Priests by faith in His work of redemption in us whereby we are declared NOW to be the righteousness of God in Christ.

This is where the power and authority to go and make disciples of the nations flows from. This is where we can lay hands on the sick and they will recover and even see the dead raised.

With His Power flowing through us, as we are directed by His indwelling Holy Spirit there is no limit to what we can do in His name.

As Kingdom Priests this is our mandate to go as representatives of His Redemptive Plan and share the amazing grace and love of our King Jesus with the world. This is the greatest desire of our Abba-Daddy and is why Jesus came and we are now commissioned to be His Kingdom Priest Ambassadors.

His greatest desire is to be known by those He created for who He actually is; Love.

His redemptive plan for the world is His means for bringing His Kingdom reign throughout the earth. After all it is a matter of the heart and works itself out from the inside as each of us bow in unconditional surrender to the King of Kings and High Priest; Jesus.

It is one half of what we have been called to do; to be Priests of God on behalf of the world.

Chapter 9

The Kingdom of Kings

The other half of what we have been called to do is to be kings under the rulership of King Jesus.

Here’s an amazing passage from Ephesians 3 where Paul reveals this mystery;
My passion is to enlighten every person to this divine mystery. It was hidden for ages past until now, and kept a secret in the heart of God, the Creator of all. ¹⁰ The purpose of this was to unveil before every throne and rank of angelic orders in the heavenly realm God’s full and diverse wisdom revealed through the church.^[b]11 This perfectly wise plan was destined from eternal ages and fulfilled completely in our Lord Jesus Christ, so that now ¹² we have boldness through him,^[c] and free access as kings^[d] before the Father because of our complete confidence in Christ’s faithfulness. The Passion Translation.

Jesus is a “Servant-King” so we too as His subjects are to serve Him and others with ALL the authority and power of His mandate to make disciples of the nations.

His dominion in us is to meet every need that we have flowing endlessly from His heart of Love.

We are to be the conduits for His love to flow through to the world. We do this by laying our lives down for each other and loving each other as He loves us. This is how the world will know that Jesus is the King of the Universe and what kind of a King He actually is.

Our purpose is to be His purpose. That being to seeing the whole world benefit from His Rule and Reign. This happens when the world sees us unified as one and how much we love one another.

That’s what Jesus said in John 17:20, “And I ask not only for these disciples, but also for all those who will one day believe in me through their message. I pray for them all to be joined together as one even as you and I, Father, are joined together as one. I pray for them to become one with us so that the world will recognize that you sent me. For the very glory you have given to me I have given them so that they will be joined together as one and experience the same unity that we enjoy. You live fully in me and now I live fully in them so that they will experience perfect unity, and the world will be convinced that you have sent me, for they will see that you love each one of them with the same passionate love that you have for me.” TPT

It’s not even showing them how much we love Jesus all though that becomes obvious by our love for one another and our love for those yet to know His love personally.

Our unity as believers shows the world the love of God for us and through us and is proof of Who Jesus is; that the world will recognize that He was sent by the Father as King of the Universe. This is the power of our unity and the love we share that flows from God to us and to the world He SO loved.

Within this Love, we have each been given assignments within our realm of influence operating under the direction and power of Holy Spirit.

As kings of the Kingdom, our first priority is to tune in and listen to the voice of the King. He is speaking continually through the flow of Holy Spirit within our spirit, but our will is involved as well.

Our will determines what we focus on at any given moment. The King is always available. He appreciates us taking time to tune in and give Him our undivided attention.

This is way more than a one-way conversation where we lay out our grocery list of needs ended with an “In Jesus name, amen.”

There is a time for that but what I am referring to is taking time to listen to Him. Getting quite before Him and asking Him what’s on His mind.

This is an essential practice to becoming a productive and profitable king in the Kingdom.

If you think about what a physical kingdom would look like it would always be subject to what the king or queen wants, and everyone stops what they’re doing when they speak to listen.

The practice of listening and tuning in to King Jesus is the single most productive use of time and energy imaginable.

It is what we are invited into that results in experiencing fullness in the good pleasure of His goodness.

As we partner with the Creator of the Universe who sees us as righteous kings ready and able to serve Him, nothing is impossible. Whatever dreams and visions have been cultivated from time with the King are doable.

There are no limits to what can be done for the advancement of His Kingdom agenda.

We need to encourage each other in this and challenge each other to listen and share what we are hearing from the King. This should never be intimidating or offensive to us or taken as questioning our motives and choices. It should always be at the top of our minds; what is the King saying to us?

If we’re not accustom to this then we need to change our focus. It should be our common practice as kings in the Kingdom to know moment by moment what we have last heard from the King. It requires daily attention to this as our highest priority.

What can be more important than our time with our King Jesus. We should walk away from a genuine encounter with Him with a clear focus, direction and massive amounts of joy and encouragement as He speaks and directs us. As He speaks, we are built up, edified, filled up, and empowered to do what He says to do.

It goes back to the recurring theme of this book; our will engaged with His Kingdom. Unconditional Surrender to His Plans. Laying down our lives, our plans, our agendas and being willing to risk everything on His All-Knowing Faithfulness and Love.

There is no better way to live life than this. It is what we were made for and when we connect with that, there is nothing that can stop us or separate us from fulfilling our eternal destiny as kings in the Kingdom.

Being kings; Royalty of the Highest Order, is a tall order to say the least. It is who we are. To the degree we exercise our authority is a matter of faith in the faithfulness of the King. It is His Kingdom and His Power and for His glory that we experience and express our authority as kings of the Kingdom.

Many live way below their calling and ability due to ignorance or unbelief. Thus, the motivation behind this book.

My greatest desire echoes the heart of the King. That being to see all His children operating to their fullest capabilities and callings for their good and His glory.

He paid for our freedom to be all we were created for with His own blood.

Let us live up to our full potential as kings in His Kingdom. What He has created us for and called us to, He has provided all the resources, power and authority for us to fulfill His purposes and plans.

Remember, All means All. All His power and authority has been made available to each one of us to do what He determined before time began for us to do.

[ God’s Generous Grace ] Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing him who has called us by name and invited us to come to him through a glorious manifestation of his goodness. 2 Peter 1:3 TPT

There is absolutely no limit to His resources for each one of us to achieve our Kingdom destiny.

We live in various cultures in the world that dictate how we are to see ourselves and others.

For generations here in the U.S. we have been programmed to “mass think” that reduces individuality and demands conformity to “politically correct” language and behavior.

The idea of exercising freedom and expression of individual identity is limited to the fringe extremist who are always portrayed as “victims” requiring everyone else to comply to their preferences and choices.

This victim mentality unfortunately is pervasive in the body of Christ as well. The idea of uniqueness is suppressed by the vice-grip pressure of conformity. This is not what we were made for.

Trying to look like, act like and be like others is a subtle but real form of “idolatry”. There is only one we are to conform to and His name is Jesus.

One of my favorite passages in the New Testament that speaks to this is found in 2 Corinthians 3.

^{16 “}But whenever a person turns [in repentance] to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away.

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).

¹⁸ And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit”.

This full and rich passage has a lot to say about our identity in Jesus Christ as the Only One we are to conform to.

It starts with the conclusion of Paul’s discussion of the veil over the hearts of those under the law that is removed when they turn to the Lord.

The veil is ripped off and taken away.

It then continues with the declaration of liberty; emancipation from bondage into freedom.

I propose that prior to Holy Spirit tearing away the veil over our hearts we were all lock step into conformity to the Law which produces condemnation and death and forbids individuality.

This is due to being in bondage to performing and never measuring up. Thus, the veil keeps us from seeing the liberty and freedom available to us and becomes as it was for Moses, a way to hide and cover up our inadequacies and lack.

There are two ways of dealing with this; both two sides of the same coin.

One is to feel less than which is a more accurate and honest dealing with the condition and the other is pride and arrogance and false sense of superiority. Both are delusional, confused, and in a state of darkness and ultimate despair.

Coping methods with this lost condition are only limited to the corrupt imagination of fallen-ness. All the perversions and atrocities of self-serving lost ones who self-inflict and hurt others out of this state of desperation are all too obvious in our present cultures.

Some attempt to stand out and others attempt to blend in. All in an effort to deal with the emptiness and darkness within. It is a sad and desperate way to exist and the fate of all who haven’t encountered the King of the Universe, the Redeemer King, the King of Creation, the King of Love; Jesus Christ our Lord.

The pressure to conform to other’s dictates is ever present and subtly embedded in every aspect of the culture. Media, movies, social media, education, politics, the church; you name it and it is prevalent.

For those of us who are carriers of the Kingdom the battle is continual and requires a conscious intentional guarding of our hearts and minds. It also requires a constant reprogramming and “de-fragging “from the subtle influences constantly bombarding us.

Holy Spirit is our source of Freedom from this malaise. The Word of God is the “hard-drive” we must be constantly connected to for maintaining mental programming that continually over-writes falseness.

Offering ourselves completely as we surrender our body, soul, and spirit to King Jesus is essential for a progressive growing into all that we already are as His New Creations.

To stand up and stand out rubs us and most everyone else the wrong way. After all sweet Jesus wouldn’t do that, right? Go read the gospels. Jesus had no problem “offending” others where the truth was a stake. He actually in some cases went to great lengths to offend the religious folk in an attempt to shake them and wake them up to their bondage.

This is not to say that we are to go out of our way to step on toes, but we also need not shrink back where the Kingdom is concerned. We are here to Dominate the World. That’s what it means to rule, by the way. The fortunate aspect of this Global Domination is that it is on behalf of the rightful Ruler; the One who created everyone and everything. It all belongs to Him.

As I previously stated, His is a Kingdom of Eternal Love founded upon the principles of Righteousness, Peace and Joy. No one gets hurt in the Kingdom or run over or neglected. We are all equals in the Kingdom with unique callings and responsibilities, but we are never called to be “liked” nor to be like anyone else.

The fragrance of Christ is offensive to some while others are irresistibly drawn. We don’t ever “change the fragrance” to appeal to those who want nothing to do with Him.

There are spiritual and human forces within the present world system that are fighting tooth and nail against everything you have just read about individuality within the Kingdom.

The reason is, when you shine in your own unique way, you glorify King Jesus in a way that only you can. No one else has your particular hue of glory that radiates from your being as an expression of His divine creative work that is you.

Just as the body has many parts each with a unique function, no two exactly the same, so we as kings in His Kingdom have abilities that we have been called, even chosen, to fulfill that no one else has.

You and I were created and called for such a time as now to shine with the glory of our King as we operate in His Power to bring about His Purpose; seeing His glory fill the earth as kings in His Kingdom.

When you feel pressured to conform to someone else’s agenda or controlling influence hit the reject button. Holy Spirit’s persuasion comes without pressure, only peace and is reasonable and right.

James calls this Godly wisdom. Listen to the difference in God’s wisdom:

“If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.” James 1:5

“Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the [unobtrusive] humility [which is the proper attribute] of true wisdom.

¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth.

¹⁵ This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demoniacal).

¹⁶ For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices.

¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first of all pure (undefiled); then it is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). [It is willing to] yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is wholehearted and straightforward, impartial and unfeigned (free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity).

¹⁸ And the harvest of righteousness (of conformity to God’s will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for and make peace [in themselves and in others, that peace which means concord, agreement, and harmony between individuals, with undisturbedness, in a peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts].” James 3:14-18

Operating in the Power of Holy Spirit yielded to His influence and dependent on Him alone for wisdom will always result in peace and harmony with those operating in the same way.

But don’t be alarmed or surprised if some don’t respond in the same manner. They will be the ones who will attempt to throw their net of fear, control and condemnation over you to bring you captive. This is what Holy Spirit set you free from. Even from your own old patterns of thinking and self-condemnation.

Romans 8:1 says, “There is NOW therefore NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

Now is Now and NO means No. This is what our hearts and minds need to embrace as the truth of who we are.

From this place of Freedom, we grow in ever increasing glory. That’s right. We get to share His glory which as expressed through us gives Him glory. It’s in and through us that He is glorified. So go for the glory that is yours in Jesus Christ as you are transformed from the inside out into His likeness in ever increasing glory; and this by the work of Holy Spirit.

As we grow in conformity to Jesus, not by our works but by surrendering our will, righteousness of faith takes hold and we begin to soar in His likeness.

The cool thing is that as we grow in this we become more fully alive in our own uniqueness. This by the way goes on for all eternity as we are continually being conformed to Jesus. Greater expressions of the unique creations each of us are continues to grow through our individual personalities expressing His Life in and through us, from now through all eternity.

This is a call to rise above the mundane; the status quo. To reach out for all you were created for. To become all you already are in Christ as we shed layers of falseness and who we truly are is revealed. From glory to glory and all by the work of Holy Spirit; To the glory of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s time to take our calling as kings of the Kingdom to the heights we were uniquely designed for and to occupy in His Kingdom.

Chapter 10

The Kingdom is Now

You know that yesterday is gone forever. Tomorrow does not exist. It is a figment of our imagination. All we have and can experience ever is right NOW.

This doesn’t preclude planning and having hope for the future. In fact in Jeremiah 29:11 it says the Lord knows the plans He has for us; plans to prosper us and not harm us. To give us hope and a future. So we can be excited and at peace about our future in the hands of our Loving King Jesus.

Throughout this book I’ve attempted to make the point that there is a plan for now that goes into our future and on into eternity. This plan has been in the heart of God from all eternity past. It is His ideal reason for creating us and is His greatest joy to partner with us as our Creator to see His plans realized.

As I eluded to in the introduction and earlier chapters, there are erroneous ideas floating through Christendom that projects the Kingdom into the future realm mainly centered around Jesus’ return to the earth. It is true He will physically return to the earth at a given point in time to rule and reign in person on the earth at the end of the age. But as I also pointed out His is an Eternal Kingdom with no beginning and no end.

The fact is the Kingdom is NOW and has always been NOW. I am devoting the final chapter of this book to discuss this in depth because once we connect with this it changes everything, radically.

Our minds have an amazing, virtually limitless ability to create through the gift of imagination.

Einstein once said that “imagination is superior to knowledge” . Accumulation of knowledge is a life-long process that actually will never end as we gain more experiences and the knowledge that grows with these experiences. But that’s all limited to time and what we learn from experiences that lead to more knowledge including study and observation.

Imagination is quite different. It has no limits. It can be accessed at will and employed for great good or not depending on how we choose to use it. We use it constantly whether we are conscious of it or not. It works on a subconscious and conscious level simultaneously. We weigh and evaluate continually tapping into our knowledge base and developing options and potentiality for the next thing we experience.

One thing we are no good at but continue to try and get a handle on anyway is judging. We are way too limited to accurately make judgments about others. We aren’t even able to make accurate judgments about ourselves though as I said we keep trying.

I remember one morning driving down a country road in a rural area where there was an abundance of evidence of poverty. Run down houses with old washing machines on the porch and rusted out trucks and cars in the yard; you get the idea.

I’ll never forget that moment when I thought to myself, “How in the world can people live like this?”. In a flash I hear the Lord say, “Jim, you can choose to judge, or you can choose to love but you can’t do both at the same time.”

That was a much-deserved smack down that has stayed with me as a continual reminder for me to check myself out to see if I am judging or loving. The best choice is to give up on judging all together since we don’t have the ability to do so accurately and never will. To do so, we would need to know everything about everything and everybody to make an accurate judgment. We do not have that ability.

Only God does but we do have the ability to love, with His Love poured out in our hearts by Holy Spirit. Once we tap into how much He loves us and are overwhelmed with His Love that is NOW and forever total complete acceptance and delight in us, we then can love others the same way He loves us; unconditionally. Holy Spirit has the ability to love others through us this way. It’s our choice to let Him.

So back to imagination. I believe it is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. Through it every invention that has ever been made first started in the imagination. It is the engine that harnesses all the stored data in our memory banks and gives us the ability to take it and formulate new possibilities.

What often gets in the way is what we choose to focus on. Focusing on the past is a waste of time when it comes to judging. Looking at the past through God’s eyes of Love is where He literally wipes out from His memory anything about us that is not in line with who we have now become in Christ. That includes present and future failures on our part. He has no knowledge of them. All He sees is the potential of His Son living in and through us and us as perfect and complete lacking nothing. That’s His stated reality for us NOW and for all eternity.

This is where our imagination comes in to play. We are told to renew our minds to line up with how HE sees us. We are told to no longer conform to the world system of thinking which is judgment based and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds with the NOW truth that “there is NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1.

As we continually wash our minds with His truth of being New Creations in Christ our living will line up with our thinking and what we choose to believe.

This mind transformation is a shift from an untruth to the truth; we are and have already been made righteous before God forever.

It takes a conscious effort to bring our thoughts into captivity. We are told that we are to bring all of them to align with the obedience of Christ. When we weigh our self-thoughts against the obedience of Jesus who obeyed to the point of death on the cross to secure us and our forgiveness and righteousness forever, everything changes.

It takes harnessing our imagination and bringing it captive to this one thought and principle. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. I am secure in Him.

The battle in our imagination is also to keep our thoughts in the NOW. Right now. Not five minutes from now but right now. Again, I’m not suggesting we don’t think about things we need to think about as far as planning but rather forging the mindset that NOW is where we live and where we need to primarily keep our thoughts in order to experience Peace.

I’m also not negating the importance of creating dreams and having visions for the future under the tutelage of Holy Spirit as we interact with Him and see the impossible as possible. It’s what gets me up and going every day as I live for the hope He’s placed in me for the future. It is a constant source of motivation and energy for my life. But as I said earlier, I use my imagination to see the dreams and visions as a present reality or as one of my business partners says, “as a done deal.” Even before I see the manifestation, by faith my imagination sees it as if it already is a NOW reality.

God lives in the Eternal NOW. He is outside of time. Therefore, NOW is where and only where we can experience Him, His Presence and His Peace. That’s why Jesus said, “do not worry about tomorrow.”

Staying focused on this principle harnesses all the resources available to us from our King Jesus and is the only place we can access them because it’s where He lives.

His Eternal Kingdom is a NOW Kingdom. We must consciously determine to live in the NOW to fully experience His Kingdom.

If this is challenging or perplexing to think about, just try an experiment for a day. Watch your thoughts and see what they are focused on. Yesterday, tomorrow, or today; right NOW. Then continue to stay focused on being and living NOW. It will change your life for the better. It will give you access to all your creative imaginative abilities and enable you to focus on surrendering them to King Jesus and seeing them as He sees them; as a done deal.

So let’s take a deeper dive into the NOW of this Kingdom and upload it’s potential.

A lot happened when we said “YES” to Jesus. I’ve discussed much of it so far in this book and my last one.

There is another level and realm that bears looking into that is a vast and amazing mystery revealed to us by Paul.

Paul, as you may know, was a unique apostle of Jesus. He met Jesus after persecuting the church and encountering the Resurrected King Jesus. This literally threw him off his horse face down in the dust at His feet. The blinding light of Jesus’ Presence caused Paul to go completely blind for three or four days.

He immediately called Him Lord even before he knew who He was so to be clear, Paul knew this was a God encounter. Jesus revealed himself to Paul as the one he was persecuting because that’s how Jesus identifies with us.

When we suffer, he feels it as if it was happening to Him. Selah. Think about it.

After Paul recovered and was prayed for his sight returned. There’s evidence that his eyes were never quite the same as he refers to having to use large print when writing one of his letters and another place where he says in one letter that the readers would have gladly given him their own eyes. It reminds me of Jacob’s hip after wrestling with God for a night. It was never quite the same and perhaps left there as a reminder of his encounter.

Paul had a special place in the heart of Jesus. For several years after this first encounter he went away into the desert to sort out his experience. Jesus appeared to him on several occasions and once took him on a trip to heaven to show him around. After which Paul was persecuted regularly by Jewish opposition that he begged Jesus to remove as a thorn in his “backside”. Jesus said no and that His grace was sufficient for him and that in his dependence Jesus’ power was manifested in and through him. So Paul concluded that it was better to allow the distress in exchange for the Power of Christ resting upon him.

I share all of this as an insight into the unique relationship Paul had with Jesus. It was more than a servant to King relationship, I believe they became best friends.

Do you ever think of King Jesus, Abba-Daddy God and Holy Spirit as your best friend?

I admit that I usually think of them up there and me down here. But I am growing in my appreciation for Jesus as my “Older Brother” and best friend and in reverence and awe of Him I find Him approachable and fun to be with.

He thinks of us this way and revealed the amazing mystery to Paul that I’m about to share with you.

This somewhat takes up where my last book left off; “The Deeper Heart of God.” If you take time to read all 10 chapters and a mere 45 pages, you will experience a transforming encounter with Holy Spirit. But you have to read it all the way through to the end.

If is from that presupposition of you having read my last book that we take a look at the most amazing revelation of the Kingdom.

Paul shares this mystery with us in the book of Ephesians.

The entire first chapter requires slow, methodical reading that builds to the climax revealed in the second chapter.

Paul gives a clue right off the bat in the first chapter when he says ”³ May blessing be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual (given by the Holy Spirit) blessing in the heavenly realm!”

So “has blessed” is past tense meaning it already happened right? Our Father and of our Lord Jesus has already blessed us in Christ with EVERY spiritual blessing. Where? In the heavenly realm!”

The exclamation mark here indicates Paul is shouting with excitement!

Here’s where all this leads to in chapter 2, “Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation

⁶ And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).”

Now if your saying, “I’ve read that and already know that, praise God!” Well that’s good. I’ve heard it quoted quite a bit with a knowing tone of “after all we’re already seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly realm.” But I have rarely had a deep conversation with anyone about what this really means.

I’m still growing in my understanding and awareness of this experientially. Paul gives a clue to this earlier when he prays that the eyes of our understanding would be opened to see the awesomeness of this reality.

Here’s part of his prayer;

“By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),

¹⁹ And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength,

²⁰ Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places],

²¹ Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come.

²² And He has put all things under His feet and has appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church [a headship exercised throughout the church],

²³ Which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all [for in that body lives the full measure of Him Who makes everything complete, and Who fills everything everywhere with Himself].”

Take a moment to read this a few times out loud to yourself.

Now put that together with the previous statement by Paul that says we are NOW seated already with Jesus in the heavenly realm.

Notice where Jesus sits. At the Father’s own right hand. So, where are we? Seated in Jesus Christ at the Father’s right hand. The right hand in Hebrew speaks of the place of honor and power. All power and authority has been given to Jesus. With this he sends us. But where we go He goes. Where He is so are we. As He is so are we.

There’s no separation here only His life living in and through each unique one of us.

As I shared in “The Deeper Heart of God”, which I hope you have read through by now, we died with Christ.

The revelation Paul received on the back side of the desert was that his old life was nailed to the cross in Jesus and was buried with him. When he arose so we too rose with and in Him.

The life we now live we do so by the faith of Jesus or faith in His faith and faithfulness. Our old life is gone. You may remember it and think it’s still alive but it’s dead. We live now by His Spirit that lives within us; uniquely so that our personhood; our individual personalities are made brand new and are restored to the manufacturers original design, only better.

As we continue in these bodies, the life of Jesus continues to permeate us; body, soul and spirit and while we remain here we are continually growing into His likeness from the inside out. This as I said will continue forever.

We already possess the fullness; nothing lacking on the inside of us. It’s the outworking of the inward reality that takes us from glory to glory in ever increasing measure. The revealing of who we truly are in Christ.

As such, we are suited for the heavenly realm and have already receive EVERY spiritual blessing heaven has to offer us in Christ. That includes being seated next to Abba on the throne in Jesus. We are in Him as He is within us. This understanding comes only through Holy Spirit revelation.

For this reason, we are equipped to rule and reign with Him in His Kingdom NOW and forever.

I ask you to consider the NOW Kingdom and ask yourself is this my present perspective of the Kingdom of God or am I still locked in to thinking about it in the future?

Breaking free from this illusion and stepping into the reality of the NOW Kingdom takes a deliberate act of faith. It requires believing that you already have all that you need to fulfill your specific Kingdom assignment. There’s nothing lacking.

It is a progressive unveiling process of growing into all you were destined for but NOW is when your journey begins that will continue into eternity. Just say, “yes” to the NOW Kingdom and take the next right step as Holy Spirit reveals His Perfect Plan for you NOW.

As I conclude this book, I want to walk you through an exercise of using your amazing imagination to see yourself as your Abba Daddy God sees you, seated in Jesus right next to Him.

I suggest you take a few minutes to pray in the Spirit before reading on.

Now ask Holy Spirit for a deeper revelation of who you are in Christ in His Kingdom.

(Add your name in the blanks.)

‘_____________, my chosen child. You are the delight of my heart. I longed for the day from all eternity past when you would be formed in your mother’s womb. I was there. I formed you as I had seen you and known you for all eternity. You see, ______________, there is no one like you.

You are my unique creation woven together with the threads of your ancestors from your parents all the way back to your first grandparents; Adam and Eve. You were in them then and have always been a part of my plan for such a time as this.

Yes, I have known you from before time and had held the dream of you, _____________ forever with My plan to bring you to life for this specific point in time.

I was there the moment you took your first breath as a baby and have never left you for even one second ever.

As you grew as a beautiful child, I was there every moment smiling over you, ___________. Every new experience from your first steps to your first step towards me, I was there as I AM NOW.

Yes, I was also there during the painful moments as well and felt your pain even when you blamed me for it. I love you, ___________ with an everlasting undeterred affection that is beyond your comprehension.

I loved you with all that I AM when My Son agreed to come in your place ___________ and give His life for yours. All this was done before time began as we knew it would be the only way we could come and make our home within you as your Redeemer, Savior, and Lord.

As King of the Universe, my desire has always been to share my rule with my children. We knew that with creating people with the freedom to choose there would be the risk of betrayal and rebellion.

Within Our Kingdom; as Abba, Jesus, Holy Spirit; Three in One Triune God, we decided in advance that We would provide the ultimate Sacrifice for you, ______________, as a public display of Our Love and affection before the entire universe.

The day you said, “Yes.” to our offer of forgiveness through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, you entered the Kingdom as My child, born from above by Holy Spirit who applied the blood of Jesus to you to cleanse you for all eternity. You stand before me now, righteous by His blood. I hold nothing against you from your past, present or future. His blood cleansed you completely. All is forgiven and forgotten forever.

When you said, “Yes”, ____________, We came in to live within you by Holy Spirit and you were made a New Creation within your spirit. A blending of Holy Spirit with your spirit where you came alive and remain who you are with the fullness of My Presence within you.”

(Ask Holy Spirit to enlarge your understanding as we take the next step.)

“My Kingdom is Eternal. It has always been and always will be. It has been expanding from all eternity past and yet fills every part of the universe which continues to expand at the same time.

It is growing within you even now as you experience My Presence moment by moment in ever increasing glory.

As you are connected by My Spirit you have entered the Eternal Realm of My NOW Kingdom.

Have you ever heard of a king who wanted to share his throne with his subjects? No, of course not. Neither will I.

However, kings do share their thrones that represent their authority with their children. It is quite common as they pass down their rule to the next generation.

In My Kingdom, which never ends, there’s no time like the present, to begin sharing My Throne with My children. I want them as near me as possible; on my right-hand side in fact.

You ___________, are my child and joint heir with My Son Jesus. He sits here next to Me and shares My Rule and Reign over all We created.

Our greatest desire is to share. We love to share. All that We have is yours to share with Us.

You see in the realm of the Kingdom there are no limits. Everything is in abundance and is ever increasing. It’s as if everything is available to everyone with no end in sight as if they were the only ones because it never ends; truly limitless.

It’s like my Love. Eternal Love. It means I love you, ________ with my Never-Ending Love as if you were the only one yet I have the same Never-Ending Love for everyone else too.

My Kingdom Plan has always been to share all that is Mine with Jesus My Only Begotten Son who has always been, but We wanted to have more to share with than just Us. That’s what you ____________ and all those who come to know us by faith in My Son were actually created for.

So, you ________ and all My other children who become New Creations in Jesus were created to share in all that is Ours, including having access to All Our Power, Authority, and Resources to fulfill Your Divine Purpose.

Your Purpose was designed to make you happy. It was designed specifically for your unique personality where your gifts and talents could reach their fullest potential and capacity.

This is not some future destiny to one day be fulfilled. It is all about NOW.

You see _________, My Kingdom is complete yet continues to expand, grow, develop and enlarge. That’s the nature of it. No limits and ever increasing. No lack and always fulfilling and overflowing.

NOW, ___________ is your day of destiny. NOW is where you know and experience My Presence.

The future is a figment of your imagination. Yes, it’s on its way but when it gets here it will be NOW.

So, you may be wondering how you can be where you are NOW and be seated in the Heavenly Realm at the same time?

By My Spirit.

My Spirit that fills you joins you with Us; Abba, Jesus, Holy Spirit; Triune God. Where you are We are. Where We are you are. It is a NOW reality that you grow in; to know, experience and understand.

Paul wrote the most about this. He came to heaven for a visit and learned things he couldn’t share and really didn’t have words to explain it.

It’s spiritually discerned. That said, ____________, you are welcome to use your creative imagination to think about what it’s like and allow Holy Spirit to fill in the blanks.

Close your eyes for a moment and ask yourself, “where am I?” Then wait a few seconds before opening your eyes again.

With your eyes closed, your mind can fill in the blanks creating the last scene that you saw before you closed your eyes, but really, where are you? Without physical cues in the dark your spirit is what you are aware of. Yes, living inside your body but where are the limits you can perceive from your physical awareness?

You can get a glimpse of the expansiveness of your spirit through this exercise. The reality is that by My Spirit, there really are no limits and I AM really Present within you.

By My Spirit, you are forever joined with Us; Abba, Jesus, Holy Spirit. There is no distance between us. You are in Jesus as He is by His Spirit in you.

The Kingdom is the realm of My rule. There are no limits and there is no distance between where I AM and where you are.

It is far more than a place even more than the heavenly realm where Jesus is physically present. Heaven is where Our Throne is far above all rulers and authorities in the universe.

We share all that We are and all that we have with you _________ to support you in fulfilling all you were created for. This includes ruling and reigning with Us in Our Kingdom.

Paul used the illustration of the body to give a picture of how my family functions. Each has a unique part and is joined together with Jesus as the head ruling the body. This is a good picture for how you sit with Him in the heavenly realm on His throne of authority at My right hand.

You have full access and are welcome to come before Our Throne of Grace in your time of need where every provision has already been made for you to fulfill your created purpose in My Kingdom.

There’s no separation or distance between us. I invite you __________ to come in confidence boldly at anytime before My Presence. As My child, there’s no one to prevent you from coming near to Me. As you draw near to Me I draw near to you. It is my greatest joy and pleasure when you come into My Presence.

When you speak to Me, you are in My Presence. When you think about Me I AM Present. I AM always with you, ____________ and you are always with Me seated here with Me in Jesus your Lord; your King.

All My authority and All My power is NOW yours to fulfill your dreams, visions and My plans for you.

You are NOW living in My Kingdom and able to access all you need to fulfill your created purpose perfectly designed to fulfill you as you walk hand in hand with Me; Your loving Abba.”

“And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).”

You are destined to reign with Jesus as your King. Your destiny is NOW.

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