Radical Disciples – A Remnant Revolution

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

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

In the kingdom of God, if we are a part, we have a part. There are many parts with various functions that all fit together to form the whole. As believers, if we truly know and love God and walk in the Spirit we will naturally flow into our part and place with little thought about a label or mental effort in defining our part. Jesus gave us a few all-inclusive foundational instructions that bring our lives to flow naturally into place. He gave two great commandments that encompass all the law and the prophets.

Mat 22:37-40: Jesus said to him, �You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself, �On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets�

Jesus said to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.

Knowing we were not able to accomplish this on our own He further instructed us to abide in Him and allow Him to abide in us. This is a spiritual reality carried out by the Holy Spirit. The provision of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and then walking in the Spirit supplies the reality of loving God and our neighbor which will cause us to know and do naturally the desires of God. Thus we walk into our part and place in the kingdom.

John 15:4-5: �Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.�

Acts 1:8: �But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;�

Gal 5:25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

How do we appropriate this into a practical reality in our lives?

Jesus gave us clear instruction for this. He said to pray and to seek. This is a directive to focus our lives. He said pray for the kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven and He told us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Mat 7:7: �Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.�

Mat 6:9-10: �In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.�

Mat 6:33: �But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.�

None of these instructions are optional. None can be left out. If you don’t know what they mean, you must find out. If you aren’t sure you believe in some of them call upon God and search the Word until you are. We cannot progress into the reality of the kingdom of God until we can obey these directives and commands from our Lord.

Having received this word, you will now make a decision to commit to praying and seeking until these directives are reality in your life or you will decide to let it slide. If you let it slide, it will probably be because you think you already have it or that for some reason you don’t really need it. If you make the commitment to become obedient to these directives then the coming sessions of this material can help guide you into the reality of the promised kingdom lifestyle.

Father, in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I commit to abiding in Jesus and ask that Jesus abide in me. I commit, Father, to seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit and to seek to continuously walk in the Spirit. I pray, Father, for your kingdom to come and Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven and I focus my life to seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness before all else. God, from this moment on I am a seeker of You and Your kingdom. Jesus, empower me with Your life by the Holy Spirit to love God with my whole heart and to love my neighbor as myself. Amen

Date____________________ Signed ________________________

Kings and priests to God

Religion has taught us that we should fit into one of its defined molds of service and that it is important to know and label our part. Religion makes many distinctions, definitions, and divisions. The religious church divided the entire Body into two major categories, one labeled “clergy” and one labeled “laity”. The clergy referred to “full time ministers” who generally performed all the spiritual duties of the church. Everyone else was referred to as laity. This concept was an erroneous carryover from the old-covenant Jewish religion into the new covenant church. The old covenant provided for a separate class of men who were the priests and performed all the temple duties including the animal sacrifices for all the people.

In the new covenant church there is not to be only one who represents Christ as His vicar on earth, but in fact, every believer is to be His representative. We are a Kingdom of kings and priests. We relate directly to the King of kings and Lord of lords. We pray directly to Him. We hear His voice spoken directly to us and are each His divinely appointed agents. We are all full time ministers serving God and serving His people in every activity in which we are engaged. God’s kingdom is much bigger than church work. Every aspect of life is to be the domain of God and all we do is to be serving Him, serving His people and governing His earth.

Rev 1:5-6: ….Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

What is my work as king and priest and how will I specifically know?

What is your work in the kingdom? How can you know for sure? Simple. What is the desire of your purified heart? Psalm 37 says, �Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.� John 15 says, �Abide in Him and you shall ask what you will and He will give it to you.� The key is in abiding and delighting in Him and following the desire He puts in your pure heart.

If we need or desire to get our delights from any source other than God, our hearts� desires will be adulterated. We will have difficulty in knowing our part. Some search all their lives trying to find themselves. Who am I? What is my purpose? All the while they are delighting in many things other than the Lord.

Needy people are not free.

Only those individuals with healed hearts can be free from all need to delight themselves in something other than God. If we have unhealed pain stored in our hearts, we will always need something to make us feel better. As long as we have that need, our desires will be to fulfill it. We will get our delight in filling the needs of our hearts with money, power, position, fame, romance, sex, or whatever makes us feel better. Seeking these things will never produce the good fruit God intended. After being healed by fully appropriating the ministry of Jesus, we can choose to delight ourselves in the Lord, and our desire will be to bear the fruit God intended. We need only to follow our God-given desires, and we will walk in the middle of His plan. We each will know who we are and what our purpose is. We will simply carry out our heart�s desire.

We are then free to do the will of God. We are no longer constrained to fulfill any needs of our hearts. Freedom is the ability to live righteously in Christ Jesus by following the desire He has put into our hearts. The bondage of trying to follow a religious order or set of rules is gone. Trying to be like someone else and do what they do, like they do it, is in the forgotten past.

God has provided five special servant-gifts to edify (grow up) His people.

The Bible refers to these as apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. They are five different types of gifted people to mentor the Body. They are all servants. They each provide for God�s people, but each in a distinctly different way. Each must think differently than the others. Each must have different abilities and different revealed understandings of the Word. The shepherd will always understand the Word as it relates to his service. The evangelist and the shepherd may sit in the same gathering, hearing the same Word from the same apostle, yet each will receive the part that feeds his calling.

Ephesians 4:11-13: And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds, and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ.

The apostle tends to see the overall larger picture. He sees it first in the spiritual and then seeks to bring it forth into the natural realm. He is like a pioneer. Apostles were a major part of the original formation of the church. In this day the apostles have been restored for the re – formation of the church to its original design and intent. In this re – formation major foundational and structural changes are required that call for the gifts and strengths of apostles.

The prophet is primarily an ear and a voice to people who are dull of hearing and do not hear the voice of God clearly. Prophets were very prevalent and most important in the old covenant when the Holy Spirit did not reside in God’s people; therefore, they had no inner voice of God. In this day much of the church is yet dull of spiritual hearing and seeing. For many reasons they do not have intimacy with God through the indwelling Holy Spirit and need prophets to hear God for them and speak direction to them.

The evangelist is a seed sower who loves to plant the word of Jesus in the heart soil of those who have never received it. In the recent past the evangelist has preached the portion of the gospel dealing with being “born again” or spiritual new birth. Evangelists are now beginning to, and will in the future even more, preach the fuller gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached with the same powerful works that Jesus did. The gospel of the kingdom includes the gospel of being born spiritually that we have preached before but also includes the good news of growing up in Christ to rule and reign in this life with Him as kings and priests.

The shepherd is the mentor who sees to the growth and development of the immature as they grow into their gifts and places of service. In the religious church the shepherd was called �pastor� and served as a vicar of God. He was a person who vicariously represented Christ to the people all of their lives. This allowed little or no opportunity for the believers to mature into the priests and kings as God intended. In the relational church Christ and the mature people relate directly and not through a vicar. The sheep grow up to be shepherds or do other works as mature sons in the kingdom.

The teacher is the one who brings spiritually anointed definition to the fine points of spiritual reality. He is gifted to take natural illustrations and teach spiritual truths to the immature. In the religious church the teacher often brought dry “church doctrine” of many words and little real spiritual life. In the relational church the teacher is a light bearer bringing spiritual enlightenment in detailed pieces of real spiritual life.

These gifts function in the church, in business, and in all walks of life. The apostle in business may be thought of as one who starts businesses from nothing and serves as C.E.O. In business a prophet might be a troubleshooter. A pastor might be a personnel manager. An evangelist might be a traveling salesman. A teacher might be a technical instructor.

There are many other gifts with each having its unique function in God�s overall scheme. All gifts and parts are needed. And they all need to be in their proper places doing their particular jobs. One of the greatest hindrances to each part doing its job is the lack of understanding and acceptance of the role God has given to each one of them. Often our temptation has been to try to mold everyone into whatever we are.

We don�t need for everyone to be what we are. We need to help others to become what God has designed them to be. We must resist trying to form people in our image and stop rejecting people because they are different. We must stop thinking that we are more important than others. We must learn to submit to the servant that God has sent in the area of spiritual grace God has gifted that servant in. Our ideas that we are superior because we have some status in the church or in a business can be a serious hindrance to our submitting to the one God has sent for a specific job. Pride in who we are and in what a great position we occupy is deadly. There are no big-shots in the kingdom of God. When God sends someone with godly ability in a specific area, we need to submit to them in that area and not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.

The need to be a big-shot comes from �unhealedness� in our hearts. If we are healed by the ministry of Jesus, we feel abundance in our lives and don�t need to be bigger than our brother. We are free to allow the love of Jesus to flow to everyone. Love is the key that allows us to receive one another, to hear and see Jesus in our brothers and to submit to the Jesus in them. Also by love, we do not fear boldly stepping into the position of responsibility that He has called us to fulfill. In love, we serve one another.

Love is the greatest principle or law of the kingdom of God. God is love. Love causes the Body of Christ to fit together and to �flow life� from joint to joint. Love produces true unity, and unity leads to production and prosperity of life. Love is the power of the kingdom. It is the single greatest motivational force in the world.

�Unlove� separates and starves the members of the Body. It creates disunity which leads to a lack of production and increased poverty. Unlove flows death from joint to joint. Unlove is simply the lack of love. All sin flows from unlove. Love fulfills the law; unlove breaks the law. Every human conflict has its roots in unlove. Without unlove, there would be no church splits, no divorces, no wars, no crime, no bitterness, no angry hostility, no depression, no fear, no pride, no rebellion, no evil lust, and no need for hell.

Our first and most important �part� in the kingdom is that of loving. Regardless of what our individual functions are, we must be connected by love. Spiritual gifts, ministry, and good deeds are useless without the God-kind of unconditional love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3:Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Keep on Pursuing Love,
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

REVELATION LIGHT

1 John 1:5-6: God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

Mark 4:22: “For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.”

God desires to reveal Himself to purified hearts imparting His attributes of love, wisdom, understanding, and peace. Man by his intellect cannot receive spiritual light. Only by the revelation of the Holy Spirit does the Bible become alive and speak of hidden secrets. As the Holy Spirit reveals truth it becomes the light of God.

The written word was spoken by the Holy Spirit to man before it was written. It was light and life when spoken by God. It becomes light and life again when revealed to the reader by the Holy Spirit. There is no life in the written word without the revelation of the Holy Spirit.The Holy Spirit is essential for hearing from God.

Jesus is the word that was made flesh (John 1:14). Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). The Holy Spirit reveals and imparts Jesus into His people. Our relationship with Jesus and the Father is by the Holy Spirit.

Parables and symbolic or figurative language

God often uses language of natural things to communicate spiritual matters. Parables and symbolic or figurative language are common throughout the Bible. Jesus often taught unseen spiritual things by parable using visible natural things such as grain fields, vines, branches, mustard seeds, pearls, soil, and many other natural things. He told stories of natural people doing natural things all with deeper hidden spiritual meaning. These hidden truths must be revealed by the Holy Spirit to become spiritual light to the hearer.

God has also recorded spiritual truths in His natural creation. Creation may be thought of as an unwritten word of God, a natural expression of spiritual God. The handiwork of the Creator speaks of the One Who created it. God spoke all creation into existence. The spoken words of God carry the power to create and change. Nothing can resist the spoken word of God.

Romans 1:19-20 KJV: Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made…

Hebrews 11:3: By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Man’s intellectual understanding is limited. It always sees only a portion and mostly only the surface. The fullness and the depth of truth is only perceived by the spirit. Often the partial sight of intellectual discernment is erroneously thought to be the whole of the matter. Man seeing only a part and thinking it to be the whole is like seeing only in black and white. Everything is either right or wrong according to man’s limited view.

Religion based largely on man’s intellectual discernment, generally has a black or white, right or wrong view. Anything in between the black or white is despised as grey. In the Spirit the full color of the many aspects of whole truth can be perceived. Spiritual revelation imparts the depth of the many interlocking parts of the whole that cannot be seen by man’s intellect. Spiritual things are only perceived in the spirit of man by the Holy Spirit.

With God it is not black or white; it is all perfectly clear like bright sunlight.

We can learn about spiritual light of God by comparing it to natural sunlight. Sunlight as we see it is neither red, blue or yellow; it is perfectly clear. Yet it contains all of the colors of the rainbow. If that same clear whole light is broken down and separated through a prism it becomes red, blue, yellow, and every shade in between.

Like the light of the sun, the whole clear light of God can be divided into all the colors of the rainbow. Yet when the whole light is together, it is perfectly clear light.

“Black” and “white” are terms that can be compared to religious doctrines created by men intellectually approaching and interpreting the Bible. “Crystal clear” and “beautiful colors” are terms that can be compared to the spiritual revelation of God. Crystal clear relates to the whole revelation. Beautiful colors relate to the separated individual segments we may have received.

Have you ever wondered how so many men of God with apparent light from Him could have had so many different and seemingly opposing views? Let’s begin to answer that question with another question. Does anyone have all the light of God? Has God revealed all the light to any one person? He probably hasn’t. Only Jesus has all the light. Our revelation is partial and therefore becomes as a color segment in the rainbow of God’s whole clear light. We personally may be able to see one color such as red, blue, or yellow; but we have not received by revelation the clear whole light of God.

We have probably all seen a color wheel with the pie-shaped sections of the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue, with all the blended shades between the primary colors. We can imagine that spiritual light from God, when broken down to its different parts, is like these pie-shaped sections of natural color. If we individually do not have all the light, but we do have some light, then we must have only a part. The portion that has been revealed to us by the Spirit may be a pie-shaped piece of red. But if God has not revealed the blue or yellow part to us, then we have a big empty space in our color wheel of spiritual understanding.

Many severe problems have developed in the religious church as we began to fill in the empty spaces in our color wheel of spiritual understanding apart from the revelation of God.God had not revealed it to us and yet we needed answers to needs in that area. In an attempt to fill in the missing colors of understanding, theologians went to the Bible and sought by intellectual discernment to fill in the missing parts. But the word of God cannot be received and understood by the intellect of man. Therefore, while we searched for light, we found darkness. We began to build religious doctrines of black and white from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We became a mixture of truth from God (our revealed pie-shaped, color part) and darkness (the other parts filled in with intellectual discernment).

Differences turn into denominations as each of us, from our own perspective of revealed color (red, for example) look at our brother’s different color (blue or yellow) and decide he must be deceived. We must recognize that we do not have all the light and must receive our brother’s part to more completely fill out our circle of color.

Intellectual discernment of the Bible is darkness and will never match up with spiritual revelation of the word from God. We must receive our brothers who have been given that part of the true, revealed color to complete the color circle. We must have spiritual discernment. If by the Spirit, we can discern truth, we need not fear darkness. We can receive our brother and his area of light without fearing that his darkness will contaminate our areas of light. Light overcomes darkness.

Religion divided us into isolated denominations each with a dangerous mixture of light and darkness.

Relationship is bringing us into an increasingly harmonious body of increasing light and decreasing darkness.

Religious systems were built from someone’s partial area (color)of light with the rest of the color circle filled with intellectual discernment (darkness) rather than the light (color) revealed to others.We can only come to the whole clear light of God by spiritually discerning and receiving the additional colors of revelation from our brothers while they, at the same time, fill in their areas of darkness with our color. Harmony with all segments of our brothers is necessary to bring together the whole light and dispel our darkness.

1 John 2:8-11: “Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

If we do not receive our brothers and their area of revelation, we may say we are in the light but we will remain in darkness. We will hold to our religious darkness, despise our brother’s light and continue to be a stumbling block to others.

Different emphases for different spiritual works

Religious church sought to make every person believe the same and function as carbon copies of the leaders. Relational church seeks to bring the many different parts into harmony functioning together as one Body under one Head. Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit is the only Head of the church.

Uniqueness is of God and is a vital part of the living Body of Christ. The life of the natural body is in the blood. Each member of a natural body partakes from the lifeblood and uses its nutrients to form very different parts to do different works. The toe is different from the eye because they each have different works to do.

Individuals within a small group will have different callings or emphases that will add to the fullness of that particular group. One person may bring an emphasis on healing, another on caring for the needy, another on worship, prayer, reaching the lost or whatever.

In addition to the individual distinctions, each small group may also have a somewhat different general emphasis from other small groups. The differences will lead to different outreaches in the community.

Each person or each small group will partake of the same Holy Spirit and form different emphases of ministry. As an example, one prophetic ministry may have a clear message of judgment for the rebellious and ungodly, while another may have a clear message of restoration and revival leading toward the kingdom of God on earth. Both are correct. They are different colors of the same light of God. They fit together harmoniously when each is delivered in the right place at the right time.

Only Jesus through the Holy Spirit of God can lead all the parts to harmoniously function together to do the whole work of God. Religion tries to make everyone the same. Relationship brings the different parts into harmony functioning in their individual places all under the headship of Christ by the Holy Spirit. Balance is achieved in the overall Body by many different parts in harmonious relationship. Since individuals will have a specific emphasis, alone one will not achieve perfect balance. There are various works but they all work together to accomplish the purposes of God. Worship may have many parts but only one Object. The harmony of the many works under one Head with one focus is God’s plan for releasing the glory of God.

The glory of God will fill His kingdom Church even greater than He filled Solomon’s temple.

2 Chronicles 5:11-13: “And it came to pass when the priests came out of the Most Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without keeping to their divisions ), and the Levites who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: ‘For He is good, for His mercy endures forever,’ that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.”

The Church is to become the purified, cleansed and holy Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem of God on earth. As the Bride Church is healed and purified, she is able to come together bringing all colors of the rainbow of revelation back together and her light becomes crystal clear. The glory of God is manifested in her and God’s kingdom rules on earth (Rev. 21: 2, 9-11).

We each have a part in the kingdom of God. As our hearts are purified we can reflect the bright color of revelation God gives to us. We are then well equipped to bring forth our part and to be blended with the others forming the whole clear light of the Bride of Christ.

Keep on Pursuing Love,
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

“For many are called, but few chosen.” Matthew 20:16

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Cor 6:9-11

A disciples life must be one that is led by the Spirit. For before when we walked without Christ, no matter hard we attempted to live a “good” life we failed. For our flesh is at war with the things of God.

“‘Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding,
Who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not:
Do you not fear Me?’ says the Lord. ‘Will you not tremble at My presence?” Jer 5:21-22

Many hear of the Kingdom of God, yet never enter in for they are still using their own strength. It can never happen for we can not see the Kingdom with carnal eyes – it can only be seen with spiritual eyes.

Jesus answered, “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.” (John 3:3)

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). 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. (2Cor 3:17-18)

We can only see the Kingdom of God through the revelation of His Spirit – not through worldly wisdom, religious wisdom or even by the power of our own mind. Let us lay down our lives today and ask Holy Spirit to burn up our preconceived ideas of the Kingdom and open our eyes it its truth!