We are looking at the Kingdom and some of the difference between the Kingdom and the current expression of the Church. Last time we examined and commented on the fact that:

1> Kingdom deals with power confirming the Word
2> The Kingdom has a fivefold ministry governmental structure
3> There is a King that all Kingdom inhabitants submit to
4> Every member is a minister and must discover their rightful place of ministry

Let’s keep moving forward in our understanding …

5> The Kingdom has a culture all of its own. Every people group has a culture and the people of the Kingdom all come from different backgrounds and cultures. But, the Kingdom also has a unique and different culture. And, if we conform to the worldly and generational culture around us we will never embrace the unique Kingdom culture. We need to understand Kingdom culture, embrace it, and then express it in the way that we live and relate to others. Thus we become a counter-culture and not just another sub-culture.

6> The Kingdom is here and now upon the earth. We have yet to experience the Kingdom in its fullness. That will happen when Jesus returns. However, we can experience the Kingdom that is currently on the earth and expanding as more people come to accept the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is not just ‘out there’ somewhere. It has established God’s rule upon the earth and is everywhere a believer lives. We are ambassadors of that Kingdom as Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:21. So, we need to demonstrate God’s rule in the earth realm as His ambassadors.

7> God’s Kingdom is not based on worldly patterns. As a result, it is often misunderstood and even misrepresented. Those who understand the Kingdom and are expressing Kingdom on the earth are “working out their salvation with fear and trembling.” Those who are simply church attenders are often critical of those who are moving forward and striving to make a difference for the Kingdom. Many are misunderstood.

8> Kingdom needs to be revealed to each believer. You can’t understand it simply by reading and studying the Bible. Yes, Jesus speaks a great deal about the Kingdom and uses a large number of parables to give us an indication of what the Kingdom looks like. However, to truly understand the Kingdom a believer needs to receive a revelation from God regarding His Kingdom. Kingdom has to be revealed to you.

9> You cannot delay or postpone the Kingdom. When God is ready to move, He will move. We are in such a time of change and shifting in the spirit realm. God is moving. We must stay in touch with the changes. We cannot express the Kingdom in the world in which we live every day life if we are out of touch with the changes the Spirit is making in the Kingdom. And, even when in touch with the current moves and changes in the Kingdom, a believer needs to learn how to express the Kingdom (and the changes) in the earthly domain so that non-believers can understand and receive the revelation and enter into the Kingdom.

10> A Kingdom mentality will give you a “scattering” structure. If you have a Church mentality you will work with a “gathering” mentality. A Church mentality is program-driven and will be designed to meet the needs of the people. A Kingdom mentality focuses on the expansion of the Kingdom, the scattering of workers into the harvest field, and the salvation of souls.

More next time…

In every generation the Lord needs to rebuild His Church so that His Kingdom can be better manifested in the earth. Because of the major and massive changes in the lifestyle and beliefs, perspective, and world view of each generation the Church needs to embrace changes to the way it expresses the heart of God. The message never changes but the methods through which we present the message must change with the seasons and the generational adjustments to how life is lived.

Jesus understood this need for change as His Kingdom responds to changes in the culture and in society generation to generation. Jesus is approached, in Matthew 9 by a number of John the Baptist’s disciples. They are coming from an old wineskin with questions for the new wineskin that Jesus is establishing and forming. In the 11th chapter Jesus explains more fully, in response to John’s questions, what He is doing.

Matthew 11:3, 5-6 “Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ … Jesus answered, ’the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.’”

Jesus is saying, “Go and tell John that I am doing everything he prophesied would be done in this new season.” Then He added, “Blessed is he who is not offended by Me.” That should be a warning to us. Jesus is saying, “If your disciples don’t get offended by the way I am doing things in this new season, they can move forward from the old wineskin which was good in its season into the new. But they must choose not to get offended.”

After John’s disciples leave Jesus speaks very highly of John and the ministry he had been given by God (Matthew 11:7, 9-11). He states that up to this point there has not been a greater man than John, but we are moving into a new season of paving the way for the establishment and spreading of the Kingdom.

Jesus continues, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John…” (Matthew 11:12-13). In other words, all the prophets prophesied up till now. The Law was developed and ruled up to this point in history, but something is about to shift. Everything they had experienced until that time had been okay; in fact, it had been good and necessary. However, now things were going to shift and change. Jesus was saying that they needed to see and understand the shift.

Essentially, Jesus was telling John that He was fulfilling all of the things that had been prophesied. If one is not offended at the changes, you will see prophecy being fulfilled. Otherwise, offence blinds us to what is happening in the Church and the Kingdom.

The same is true today. As changes continue to happen and become more and more obvious some will be offended. They want things to remain as they are. They don’t want to change because they appreciate what seems safe, secure, and comfortable. They want to maintain the status quo. They like what they have.

I mentioned in a previous blog a church I had been working with for a substantial length off time which has refused to grasp and cooperate with what is happening today in the Church and the Kingdom. At the worst, they rejected the teachings. At best, they ignored them. So, they refused to move forward into the changes that are taking place – changes that are happening with or without them. They have chosen to not be a part of what the Lord is doing. So, His life (presence, power, and peace) will no longer be experienced even in the very limited way they have been seen and experienced on occasion. God will leave them where they are and not disturb them. They will continue with their religion. Some who are hungry for the fulness of the current move of the Holy Spirit will go elsewhere but the majority will simply go on with ‘business as usual.’

However, God will ‘move on’ and find others in the area whose hearts and minds are open to what He is doing today in the Church and in His Kingdom and begin to manifest Himself to them as they follow the Spirit. In God’s heart it is never ‘business as usual.’

 

It has become very obvious to those who are in touch with the heart of God that we have entered a season where the focus is no longer the Church. For the last two if not three decades He has been preparing us to look past the trees and see the forest… to look past the Church and see the Kingdom. Many have missed seeing the forest because they are so busy with maintaining a tree – the Church as it is – safe, comfortable, and secure. However, others have noticed that the Lord is bringing major change to His Church so that His Kingdom can be better manifested in the earth.

So, Jesus is establishing – some say reestablishing – a Kingdom structure within the Church so that the Kingdom can continue to expand into spiritually dark places and the last days harvest can begin. He is taking us from seeing one tree to seeing the forest – from looking at the local church to seeing Him establish regional apostolic centers that reflect what the Lord is doing on the earth today. These apostolic centers, also to be known as ‘regional churches,’ will be the focus of the Kingdom in the next several decades and have been spoken about by many, including this author, for almost two decades preparing those who have ears to hear for such a time as this.

Seventeen years ago I started work with a small group of believers and saw the great potential they had and also had an understanding, an apostolic sense, of what the Lord wanted to accomplish in them and through them. I worked for over four years laying some very basic foundations both on Sundays and through a discipleship school. The growth in the believers was amazing. Then 13 years ago I taught on a Sunday about the new move of the Spirit and the founding of regional apostolic centers as resource centers and outposts in the Kingdom. Like the Church of Antioch in Acts 13. There was a call to respond and begin to implement changes that were needed to release life and power. No one responded.

I spent the next 13 years teaching and believing that as the leaders and people saw what God was doing and what was possible as Kingdom people they would respond. Over and over again at leaders meetings I would ask for a commitment from them to move in this apostolic direction and no loner hold to the pastoral model of the church and hope that one day they would be large enough to hire a full-time pastor. Much was accomplished during this period of time including the building of an amazing home for the church. However, there was never a solid or serious commitment to move the church into its future and into what the Lord was doing in His Church around the world.

Thirteen years after the first offer to become a regional church, an apostolic center, I shared a similar teaching about what God was doing and the raising up of apostolic centers that would be regional churches helping others enter into the fullness of what God is doing today in His Kingdom. I mentioned that it was thirteen years since God first made this offer to that local church and that He was giving them a second opportunity to respond. There was no visible response.

Eventually, within four weeks, I was asked to stop teaching on apostles and prophets, the apostolic model, the fivefold ministry, the gifts of the Holy Spirit – especially prophecy – and just teach the basics once again. They wanted teachings on the character of God, the nature of God, the love of God, and a constant repeating of the Gospel of salvation (not the gospel of the Kingdom which is the only gospel that is biblical). In other words, they wanted a middle-of-the-road pastor and not an apostle. Someone who would allow the sheep to feel safe, secure, and comfortable and not challenge them to become all that God had spoken over the local church.

The end of October, 2017 was my last day working with the people of that local church and its leaders. It is time to find a people who will respond to what the Lord is doing in His Church, among His people, and in the Kingdom today. Time to move in my calling as an apostle.

From generation to generation and season to season, the Lord rebuilds His Church so His Kingdom can be better manifested in the earth. We are in such a season. And, we need to respond to what the Spirit is saying and doing.