The kingdom of God was established on earth in Adam. From the ruling city of the Garden of Eden, Adam had dominion on the earth and lived in God’s presence in intimate fellowship with Him. God breathed His life giving Spirit into Adam.
Gen 1:26: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Gen 2:7: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Adam lost dominion rights to Satan; the kingdom of God was taken captive, and the kingdom of darkness was loosed on earth. Adam also lost intimate fellowship with God.
The kingdom of God remained in captivity until Jesus came to redeem it. Christ Jesus came to earth to recapture the kingdom, destroy the kingdom of Satan, and re-establish the kingdom of God from heaven, on earth (Matthew 6:10).
God is and always has been in complete authority over all things. He made man in His image and chose to delegate the rule of earth to mankind. Man was made God’s agent on earth to faithfully carry out the will of God on earth. God chose to limit Himself to work with what man would do on earth. He truly gave dominion and rule to man. Man is free to make right or wrong decisions and will live or die by them. Satan and his powers of darkness were present in the Garden of Eden, but were totally powerless until man chose to disobey God and thereby released the power of Satan.
Potentially, the devil was completely defeated and the kingdom, including mankind, was completely redeemed at the cross. In actual experience, Christ Jesus is now establishing in the natural what is already established in the spiritual. Man has not been removed as ruler of the planet. Jesus became a man to redeem the kingdom. After the cross and resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit to now indwell believers, empowering men to live in obedience and thereby establish His kingdom in the natural realm on earth (1 Corinthians 15:45) (2Corinthians 3:17).
Now on planet earth, including up to the second heaven around earth, the two kingdoms are operating in conflict (2 Corinthians 12:2, 1 Thessalonians 2:18, Daniel 10:13). They are vying for control as each attempts to rule the earth. The kingdom of light and truth (the kingdom of God) and the kingdom of darkness and lies (the kingdom of Satan) both seek to sway the minds of men. Only mankind has the ability to decide which kingdom will be released to rule and which will not.
One of the greatest lies the kingdom of darkness has perpetrated is that the kingdom of God is not available on earth today. Satan’s first attempt is to try to make us believe there is no God or He is not involved with us today. If that doesn’t work he will try to convince us that God’s kingdom is for another time, not today, or for another place, not earth. Satan would have us believe that the teachings and promises of God throughout the Bible describing His glorious kingdom life are for heaven in the future or maybe for earth someday, but surely not for you and me, here and now. A university professor in Texas was quoted as saying, Everything in the Bible is in the nebulous past or possible nebulous future.
Matthew 6:10:Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
Just as Jesus taught us to pray daily for our daily bread, He taught us to pray daily for the kingdom of God to come on earth. Our daily bread is not just for the future sometime, but is a very present day issue. Neither is the kingdom (ruler/dominion) of God just for the future, but is indeed a very present day issue.
The kingdom of God that Jesus taught about is the rulership of God on earth now. It is available to us now. Its righteousness, peace, joy, abundance and presence of God are available to us now. The kingdom of God lifestyle is for us today and many are missing it. That’s why Jesus preached, Repent for the kingdom of heaven (the ruler/dominion of God, from heaven) is at hand.
Why repent? Repent because the kingdom lifestyle is here now for us and we’re missing it. We’ve preached repent for many reasons: so you won’t go to hell, so you can go to heaven, and others. All of these reasons are good; but, again, they may seem a bit distant to the person who is suffering in this life now. The at hand kingdom promises life now as well as later.
Matthew 4:17: From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mark 1:14-15: Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.
Matthew 4:23-24: Now Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of disease among the people. ….they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.
Jesus taught and preached the gospel (good news) of the kingdom of God and demonstrated the authority of God’s kingdom over the enemy kingdom of Satan by casting out demon spirits, destroying their work, and healing the people.
Matthew 12:28: But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Matthew 9:35: And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Multitudes began to come as they saw the authority of the kingdom of light overcome the kingdom of darkness. Jesus instructed and sent out the 12 disciples to preach the gospel of the kingdom is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons… (Matt.10:7-8).
When Jesus sent out the 70 other disciples, they were instructed to heal the sick and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you. But for those who were aligned with the opposing kingdom and would not receive them, they were to wipe off the dust of their feet against that city and say, Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near to you… (Luke 10:9-11).
Immediately prior to Jesus ascending to the right hand of God, He spoke these words of instructions to His disciples, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature… (Mark 16:15).
He went on to include casting out demons and healing the sick. What gospel was he talking about? Yes, He meant for them to preach the gospel of the kingdom.
Hearing the gospel (good news) of the now kingdom of God life, with all its qualities and benefits, and realizing we are missing it, is a greater reason for true repentance. This real repentance turns us toward salvation. Those who hear the gospel of the kingdom and believe will repent and be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16). When we see the goal, the abundant, overcoming kingdom-potential life of peace and joy, we will turn toward the light and persevere until we overcome. As the Spirit of Christ lives in us, we by His power overcome the enemy kingdom in our personal lives and eventually overcome the enemys hold on the world. In a practical, real sense, we destroy the works of darkness and establish the works of the kingdom of light.
The devil and all the powers of darkness fear the gospel of the kingdom more than any doctrine or teaching. The dreaded gospel of the kingdom will end their reign of darkness on the earth. As people realize the wonderful potential of Jesus Christ living in them to destroy evil and bring forth true righteousness with all its joy and peace, they will persevere and overcome. The powers of darkness will do all they possibly can to prevent, delay, and pervert the teaching of the gospel of the kingdom.
Some of the enemy’s tactics will include sending out a smoke screen of false teachings that look and sound much like the true message. These deceptive teachings will always have enough error in them to discredit the teaching when the error is discovered. This sets the stage for the disciple to also reject the truth when it comes to him, because it looks or sounds much like the false doctrine. The disciple must, from a pure heart by the Holy Spirit, spiritually discern the truth to determine the difference.
Another tactic of the enemy is to discredit the teacher and his motives. The adversary will preach and teach a perversion of the kingdom message. The perversion will make it appear that the message is a means for men to take dominion in order to get what they desire and to control from their own fleshly hearts.
The enemy will set up extensive snares to find grounds for discrediting accusations against the kingdom teacher. Insignificant incidents, that would normally be dealt with and quickly forgotten, will be blown out of proportion and used to slander kingdom men. When the enemy can find nothing, he will invent something from nothing. He will build an illusion from the impurities of a person’s own heart and cause him or her to project that illusion on the man of God. Others will accept the illusion and corroborate the accusation.
Perhaps the most effective scheme of the devil is to assist men to develop alternate doctrines to replace the truth. For many years I personally accepted some of these alternate theological teachings. I was taught that the at-hand kingdom meant Jesus came and made an offer of the kingdom to Israel, which they refused. The kingdom was in Jesus and at hand at that time. However, since they refused the kingdom, Jesus returned to heaven, taking all potential for the kingdom with Him and would return at a later time and establish the kingdom of God. The best we could hope for at this time was to get people saved and try to hang on until He came to take us out of this wicked world, or until we died and went to heaven. It always bothered me that Jesus spent most of his brief ministry and most of what He said in the recorded Gospels teaching kingdom principles that we could not use until a future thousand-year reign.
Unfortunately, many of us are testimonies to the enemy’s effectiveness in hiding the gospel of the kingdom. We yet need to know what the gospel of the kingdom really is. In the next session we will deal with the gospel of the kingdom as Jesus preached it.
Keep on Pursuing Love,
It Will Never Fail,
Ron McGatlin
http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
Radical Disciples - A Remnant Revolution 