Move!!!!
If we have taken seriously the last two weeks teachings and are applying them, then we should be growing deeper in God and unity as a Body of believers
If we are working intentionally to tear down the walls of gender, race, impossibility, sin, and our limits on the presence of God…
If we are choosing to lay a foundation of really being the church, allowing the Lord to give us vision and following it and truly guarding our hearts against attitudes, fears, rebellion, complaining, gossip, anger, in general, a lack of love, peace, and faith. If you missed those teachings they are online please listen to them they are critical for your success this year and our success as a family.
We live in a world and culture that is broken and divided…God is looking to us to be Jesus to the world…if we have allowed Him to heal us by tearing down the walls that divide us and if we lay the proper foundation then it is time that we get moving.
But the question is where? Where do we move to? What do we do…how do we make a difference, the problems are so big.
Allow me to talk to you for a moment as if this is one on one (Pull up stool and sit down)
You have heard me repeatedly say something the Lord gave me several years ago
“We are not the victims of an anti-God society; we are the heroes the world is waiting for to bring them to freedom.”
In fact Daniel 11:32 strengthens this expectation
“the people who know their God will display strength and take action.”
tearing down the walls and building the strong foundation should get us from a victim mentality
It is a mentality that makes us feel like “they” should give us this or that or someone owes us …Jesus told us that when we lend we should not expect in return (Luke 6:35) owe no man nothing but love Romans 13:8
we live in this nation as a privilege, we have the ability to work as a privilege, Jesus also said if you want to be the greatest in the Kingdom you must be the servant of all….serving means expecting nothing in return
If you have a victim mentality every time something happens to you, you look for someone to blame, someone to yell at, rather than to look for God’s hand to move on your behalf
Understand?
So am I saying we should just be doormats that allow people to just walk over all of us and everything we own and all of our rights
First, we have no rights as servants of the most high except the right to love, and until we learn to love purely by tearing down the walls and laying the firm foundation we will be useless in the Kingdom despite all of our platitudes that strive to make us look differently
Our demanding our rights is because we are hurt, wounded, or insecure our focus is wrong…we have to let stuff go and pursue the Kingdom and the King.
Luke 9:62
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Our focus must be on the King and His kingdom we can’t allow this world system in all of its failed attempts at successful living, the wounds from the past, limit us or our own insecurities limit us…learn from the past but keep looking forward being part of the Kingdom…look to the King
Paul put it this way Philippians 3:13-15
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
We have no rights because we don’t need them…we are children of the most high God…we have all the power, authority, and everything we need, always if we will just believe it.
Our world is lost and broken we need to model unity and love we need to model the Kingdom…we must MOVE forward
We are the victors; we are the answer, we know what is, real love, joy, and peace.
Let me talk to you about the Kingdom.
Jesus mentions the kingdom 61 times in the gospel it is mentioned 85 times overall in the Gospels.
Something mentioned that much needs to be recognized.
The kingdom of God is two-fold it is both now and to come.
Old Testament Kings and prophets longed for its coming and Jesus established it.
It is both tangible and beyond our present grasp.
Jesus, in teaching us how to pray began this way Matthew 6:9,10
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
We live and move and breathe His will being done on earth the way it is being done in heaven establishes the Kingdom here and promises of the fulfillment to come.
If we are in the Kingdom and our Father is the King, then we are all princes and princesses in the Kingdom not victims of a world system.
Paul tells us it is a process to recognize this, but it will happen as we recognize who we are 2 Corinthians 3:18
“So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
As we tear down the walls as we strengthen the foundation, we begin to move in the love God has given us, and we see the reflection of our Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in us we are transformed into being Jesus to the world around us by the power of the Holy Spirit
You can not be a victim and be Jesus at the same time. You can not stand idly by while the world collapses, your friends and family fall away, drug addiction, hatred, prejudice, fear, divisions, and insecurities overwhelm everyone around us. You are Jesus to your world; you are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. You are the answer to the problems, and you are a servant of all that God can lift up, defend, protect, and empower and fill to overflowing with His love…
We must take seriously the call to the kingdom, stop looking at our past, move from a victim mentality and move toward a servant/prince, princess of the Kingdom mentality.
Here is the work of the present Kingdom remember the Kingdom is both now and yet to come when Christ fulfills, and the earth and heavens are changed.
Let’s understand this by definition – A kingdom is not a place but a rule of a King. Throughout history, kingdoms expanded and contracted the kingdom was not the land but the rule of the King.
If the King is ruling your heart and life you are not a victim, people and circumstances don’t control how you feel, His Spirit does you are a victor, you are secure, and you are a prince or a princess who is a servant.
The Kingdom of God according to Paul is Romans 14:17
for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
But let’s look at this in context verses 18,19
18 For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.
We serve Christ and also become acceptable to God and men meaning We impact God and mankind and are meant to impact both of them by actively choosing the Kingdom living as a person of peace, joy, and right living….your language, your attitude, a victim mentality, insecurities all must fade away you are a champion and you are to build up one another even if they let you down or hurt you or ignored you…you are not a victim.
You can’t be proactive if you are afraid if you are insecure about your faith if you don’t believe you are a servant prince or princess in the Kingdom
So the Kingdom is peace, joy, and right living but we are in a position of strength when we are Kingdom thinking and living.
The kingdom is bringing hope and freedom to others through:
Healing, deliverance, victory over sin, freedom from addiction, pain, rejection, a release of the gifts, fruit, and power of the Spirit
It means having victory through
Trials, tribulation, difficulty, rejection and against impossible odds
It means we live in expectation of a future hope.
Our changing daily into His image
Our hope of Christ return
Our expectation of living with Him in glory
Our end of suffering, pain, and corruption on leaving this world
I will go into this more in the future, today all I am asking is that:
- you accept that you are part of the Kingdom of God
- You realize that you have had a victim mentality and you are walking away from it
- You choose to be a servant prince/princess
- Begin to expect great things as you understand your role in the Kingdom