It is not often that I recount personal experiences in these sessions. I believe this personal account is the best way to communicate some universal realities of receiving the revelation of the kingdom.
The Living Word
For many years I read and studied the Bible. It was the focal point of my life, my guide and source of direction. The living Word continued to amaze me day by day as old familiar passages continued to yield new light and meaning. To some degree I was accustomed to this wonderful phenomenon.
From time to time, as fresh revelation shed new light on the Word, it seemed my whole Bible became new. When I was born again, the Bible suddenly spoke clearly of salvation by grace through faith in the cross of Jesus Christ. Later, when a deeper experience of Holy Spirit baptism occurred in my life, passages suddenly became alive to me that I had some way not even noticed before. Many scriptures about healing, miracles, powers of darkness, casting out demons, healing the heart and the baptism of the Spirit “appeared” in my Bible.
These and other experiences, as great as they were, had not fully prepared me for what happened to me in January of 1986. I had left the ministry where I had been serving and had no other occupation at the time. My days were spent in a nice, quiet travel trailer beside the house praying and studying the Word. I had begun again to read the book of Matthew. This time one word seemed to be on almost every page and again and again came from the lips of Jesus. He seemed to preface many of His teachings with this word. I knew I had read it hundreds of times, but it had never really “been there” before. It had always just seemed to flow “under” or “behind” what was being said without adding meaning to the passage.
Because this word had suddenly “appeared,” and because I knew little or nothing about it, I became curious. So, I prayed a simple prayer. The answer to that prayer changed my entire life forever. Suddenly, in a moment of time, it seemed everything I had ever known was shaken and began to take on a whole new light, a new meaning. Mysteries began to clear up about things I had wondered about for years. Pieces began to fit together that I could never get to fit before. A deep satisfaction began to come into my heart as things began to become real and make practical sense for the present instead of religious ideas and doctrinal systems from the past or for the future.
I had simply prayed, “God, what does this word “kingdom” mean? What is the kingdom of God – kingdom of Heaven – why did Jesus talk about it so much? That simple phrase, “kingdom of God,” that did not even appear to be there before, has become the focal point of my life as it was with Jesus. In the days that followed this prayer, the heavens were opened to me. God was closer to me than ever before. Every question I asked was instantly answered with staggering impact and clarity. I was amazed again and again and often overwhelmed, my mind reeling as God poured simple yet profound revelation of His kingdom into my heart. I became very careful about the questions I asked.
Revelation from God often will not match up with our previous understandings.
One of my reactions to all of this was that of thinking that people would surely come against me because many of the things God was revealing to me were different from the way my church had taught them. I had never before heard a word of the kingdom message like God was giving to me. I was afraid I would be the only person with this radical message. Then, God told me He was giving this message to certain men around the world and that it would eventually just seem to come up from everywhere like the grass in a field.
In the years that followed, He allowed me to receive tapes from men in various parts of the world who had received the same message.
Now, in the mid-2000s, this has come to pass just as He said it would – like grass in a field seemingly coming up everywhere at once. Not as a few tall trees, but close to the ground, all at the same level. The seeds of the gospel of the kingdom are sprouted and growing forth into the world. Today there are many men of God proclaiming the message of the kingdom and a great shift has begun.
This is the season for rediscovering the gospel of the kingdom of God. The history of man has completed six millennia and has begun the seventh millennium since Adam. Since Jesus, two millennia have been completed and the third has begun.
Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world to all nations, and then the end will come.” The word “end” in this verse is the Greek word “telos,” which means a definite point or goal.
A new wineskin is required to hold the revelation of the kingdom.
When Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom two millennia ago, many religious people had a hard time receiving it. The message He preached didn’t fit their system of theology.
Jesus warned them not to try to fit the new revelation into an old system.
Luke 5:36-39: Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
The revelation of the kingdom cannot be patched into the old garment; nor can it be contained in old containers. Receiving the gospel of the kingdom makes all things new, more alive, more real and very satisfying to the soul.
To me our wineskin is like a filing system. We each have within us a spiritual data filing system, a system of mental file folders with headings and sub-headings. As an example, some of our headings might be something like: salvation, the cross, resurrection, Pentecost, Holy Spirit, baptism, healing, deliverance, second coming, and many more.
Each piece of new data, when received, is analyzed, compared to the data in the system, and then filed under the proper heading.
The new wine of the gospel of the kingdom will not fit our old filing system. We don’t have a folder for it. And the revelation of the kingdom will not fit under any of our headings. We cannot simply make a new folder and stick it in somewhere. It will not fit under any other heading. The gospel of the kingdom becomes the system into which all other revelation and truth of God regarding man and earth will fit.
The kingdom that Jesus preached is the major heading under which all other God-given understanding about God’s relationship to man and the world can be filed. We must have a new wineskin.
If we try to patch in the gospel of the kingdom, we will become frustrated.
Receiving or becoming a new wineskin or a new garment is the process of laying down all our previously held religious convictions at God’s altar and allowing Him to reform and return to us those He desires for us to keep. The others are just left there and will be replaced with fresh new spiritual reality. Our file system must be redone under the major
heading of “The Kingdom of God”.
WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
The phrases “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” mean exactly the same thing and are used interchangeably in Scripture. People have different thoughts about the kingdom of God. Some see it as a generic term for anything relating to God. Much the same as one might say “the animal kingdom” when referring to everything about animals.
Others relate kingdom to heaven someday. Some think of the kingdom negatively as a human attempt to impose religious rule over other people. Others think of it as a means for men to gain personal wealth and self-gratification. Some others think of cults or false extremist sects when they hear the words “kingdom of God.” The enemy desires that doubts and confusion would enter our minds when we hear the word “kingdom,” because he greatly fears the kingdom of God coming forth in God’s people. The enemy knows that, when the kingdom matures in God’s people his inordinate rule on earth is completely over.
So what was the kingdom Jesus taught so much about? The Greek word “basileia” is translated “kingdom” in English. Jesus spoke of the kingdom (basileia) over one hundred times in the Gospels. Ern Baxter, one of the wonderful men of God who began to hear the gospel of the kingdom in the 1980s, said he had trouble with the word “kingdom.” He asked God for another word to replace kingdom and heard the word, “government.” A kingdom is a government ruled by a sovereign. Perhaps it will help us to think of the kingdom of God as “the government of God.”
Most of Jesus’ teachings were aimed at explaining the kingdom (government) of God, how it works and how to enter it. The thread or general theme of the kingdom of God runs through all the teachings of Jesus and much of the rest of the Bible. But the Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul in Romans 14:17, gives us perhaps the most clear, concise, spiritual definition of the kingdom of God.
Romans 14-17: … for the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The word translated “kingdom” in the New Testament is the Greek word “basileia” which comes from the root word “basis”. “Basileia” means “foundation of power, realm, rule, or royalty.” “Basis” means to walk, to pace, or foot.
KING / DOM
“King” means “ruler or sovereign.” “Dom” is the root from which we get words like “dominion, dominant, domain and dome.” Thus, the kingdom of God means the “sovereign ruler/dominion walk of God, the ruler/dom of God.
The kingdom of God is a realm or walk. It is a lifestyle, sovereignly ruled by the basic foundational power of God through which God’s ruler/dominion is established on earth.
The kingdom walk or lifestyle is produced by the appearing or manifesting of Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit within God’s people.
When the character and nature of Christ is developed in the hearts of God’s people, they become the purified Bride of Christ. God’s love flowing in and through His bride produces obedience and righteousness prevails. Righteousness always leads to peace and joy. The bride or wife of Christ carries out her part as pictured in Proverbs 31:10-31, and the ruler/dominion of God is functioning in the world.
The secrets of how to rule our planet God’s way are locked up in the revelation and understanding of the kingdom of God. They are extremely potent and can produce the overcoming of any negative force in the world. There is nothing impossible to those who possess the reality of the practical working of God’s government on Planet Earth.
This powerful possession of some of the secrets could bring quick self-destruction in the hands of impure men who would seek to use it to establish their own kingdom. That is why God’s kingdom ways will be revealed only to the purified heart.
The kingdom of God begins with the purification of the motives of our hearts.
Only a pure heart can hear the secrets of God’s kingdom. This means a heart free from all other allegiances, a heart healed of all the enemy’s wounds, a heart that not only intends to serve God and no other but also has the freedom to actually do it. It is a heart that has no needs or desires apart from God. That is why Jesus saves the lost, heals the brokenhearted, and proclaims liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
God will give us ears to hear His kingdom truth to the level that we are purified.
My personal purification journey. For about two years before I began to hear the word of the “kingdom,” the Lord dealt with me extensively in what I call the personal ministry of Jesus. He led me to people who had gifts and anointing to assist in appropriating the ministry of Jesus to heal my broken heart and to bring about my deliverance.
For many years I had sought to serve the Lord with great zealousness and commitment.
Yet, areas of serious lack and defeat were in my own life. The best I could do with all the help I could get was not enough. The zealous application of all the biblical doctrines I knew could not keep me on track and bring me through. The firm directives to adhere more firmly to doctrine by my well-meaning brothers in Christ only worsened my condition.
It took a bold, fresh revelation and work from God to loose my bonds and set me on a road to restoration and greater heights than I had ever known before. For me it also required my life to be turned upside-down and the severance of all things that were precious to me – all the bad things, all the good things and all the people from which I drew life. He wants to become our only source of life.
When the Lord revealed “kingdom” to me and commissioned me to plant the seeds of the kingdom in His people, it seemed He was directing me in two directions at once. One was the kingdom lifestyle, and the other was personal ministry. He has since shown me they are not at all different directions. The personal ministry of Jesus is the cleansing process that we must go through before we can walk into the purified Bride of Christ, kingdom of God lifestyle. Personal ministry and kingdom revelation are not separate directions, but are aligned in one direction toward the kingdom of God lifestyle.
The goal of personal ministry is to eliminate, remove, or heal all hindrances to the manifesting or appearing of the life of Jesus in the person.
In Luke 4:18 Jesus said, “He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed”
Keep on Pursuing Love,
It Will Never Fail
Ron McGatlin
http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
Radical Disciples - A Remnant Revolution 