As I was preparing my next and final blog posting about the Ship of the Kingdom, I felt the Lord was prompting me to take a break from the Ship and focus on a verse that I mentioned in last week’s posting: “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). When I first noticed this verse a couple of months ago, its significance hit me like a ton of bricks. The Law of God, received…
We have pulled up our anchors and set sail in our Ship of the Kingdom, as we travel inexorably to our destination of seeing the Lord’s Prayer answered—“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on the earth as it is in Heaven.” Last week, we looked at two biblical prophecies 300 years apart—one by David and one by Danel—both of which prophesied the very same momentous event! That event (pictured in the Ship of the Kingdom diagram below) was God the Father giving His…
The natural, spontaneous, unconscious (NSU) nature of the pursuit of our commission to rule over the earth has taken center stage in our discussions. However, it is important to realize that the result of that spontaneity will, ultimately and ironically, very naturally result in visible, definable structures. Periodically over the years, I have explored in these postings what I believe the Bible teaches those ruling structures to be. The following diagram of the concept of “sphere sovereignty” is a beautiful explanation of them that…
The church at Antioch, that we discussed last week, was truly an NSU (natural, spontaneous, unconscious) church that had no vision of changing the world. Their vision was to simply find a life in Antioch where they could live daily by faith, trusting their Heavenly Father for everything, just as they had learned in the church in Jerusalem after Pentecost. But “surprise, surprise,” they changed the world anyway! In a similar manner, right now, in places where we know litle about Christianity’s growth—China, Iran,…
When God sovereignly decides it is time for us to experience ”living by faith,” our Daddy gives us that experience. It is solely at His discretion. We are always the object in the experience, never, in any way, the subject. He may or may not let us know what He is doing—I discovered what was happening to me years after my experience of His beginning to do it! It is exciting to look back and see what He has done in our lives and…
Last week we discussed how I just recently became aware that I had been camping in a campground which I was totally unaware even existed, in my “journey to the City with Foundations.” I realize now that this campground is nothing more than “experiencing living by faith!” “Living (or walking) by faith,” or “living (or walking) in the Spirit” are synonymous terms Paul used that have become cliches in many of today’s churches. “I have faith that Jesus is my Savior, and I am…
Last week, I shared with you my own distinct, unique campsites where I have pitched my tent on my life’s trip to the City with Foundations of Revelation 21. I was prepared to post a diagram this week that shows, beautifully and succinctly, how God is using the camping experiences in all of our lives to extend His Kingdom. I even mentioned to you “A picture is worth a thousand words” in anticipation of that diagram. However, in the famous words of a 1966…
Since the Fall of 1958, I have been on a spiritual journey, of which, until the last 15 years, I have been largely unaware. It was in 1958 that a 20 year old “Christian,” living in the Sigma Nu house at the University of Oklahoma, discovered a relationship with Jesus Christ that was not simply intellectual (Gk.,eido – mental assent to facts), but experiential (Gk., ginosko – personal, existential involvement with those facts) In 2013, I wrote a book chronicling this journey, entitled Waiting…
“The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU” (Luke 17:20, 21). This is the New King James translation (and the KJV is the same), and many Christians use this passage to teach that the civil government aspect of the Kingdom of God is a personal, private, neutral affair (“within you”). They often go on to say that when externalized and public, politics becomes a dirty…
What I am saying in these weekly blog postings may not be what you are hearing at church, and I recognize it may even fly in the face of much accepted Christian teaching today. For example, Jill just heard a popular Christian leader say that one gets closer to God in their Christian walk by “more carefully obeying God’s law.” One of my staples is “Our efforts to obey the law of God is deadly legalism, and true, biblical obedience is always only the…