As we saw last week, for the first time God’s eternal purpose for the earth was realized at the Ascension, forty days
after Jesus’ death and resurrection. There God delegated the authority to rule over the earth to a Man, His returned-to-Heaven, triumphant Son, Jesus (Daniel 7:13, 14)!
We saw how this is pictured in the “Ship of the Kingdom” diagram by the first vertical line from God the Father to that Man Jesus, who now rules while remaining seated at His Father’s right hand (Psalm 110:1).
oday, we pick up the story, ten days later at Pentecost, as the 120 Jesus-followers remaining from His earthly ministry (Acts 1:15) are waiting in Jerusalem, per Jesus’ instructions (Acts 1:4-8), for the “promise of the Father.”
With this as background, reading about the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 and following makes for exciting reading, as the church explodes from 120 initially to 5,000 in a few weeks. God had indeed given rule over the earth—stolen by Satan from Adam at the Fall and recovered at the cross—to its original, intended recipient, mankind. God’s Family Business went public at Pentecost!
This “public offering” is represented in the diagram by the three vertical lines connecting Jesus Christ with His three, ordained, kingdom-extending institutions. These lines take us from the “forest” of God’s activity in Heaven as He sets the stage, down to the tools by which we individual “trees” will rule—the Family, the Church, and the Civil Government,
As with all intricate, detailed tools, these come with instructions on how they are to be used, noted alongside the three, vertical lines. Two sets of instructions (authority and responsibility) direct us as we rule; the third (accountability) tells us that Jesus has not left us to rule on our own. He is overseeing our rule in every detail.
Any family, church, or civil government without all three of these characteristics—authority, responsibility and accountability—is not a Kingdom institution! These are irreplaceable necessities that always flow along these lines between Jesus Christ and the one using the tools. They bring God’s Kingdom to that place, and the Lord’s Prayer is answered: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)! Hallelujah!
As we dig into how we will use each tool to see this occur, I believe what I call my “life verse” is foundational: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but CHRIST (by His Holy Spirit) LIVES IN ME; and the life which I now live in the flesh I LIVE BY FAITH in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
This means that wherever I go, whatever I do, and with whomever I speak, it is Jesus by the Holy Spirit in me, actually doing the going, doing and speaking! He is loving them, interested in them, focusing on them—all naturally, spontaneously and unconsciously (NSU) through me! We are now dangerous! We are human, atomic hand-grenades!
In our next few postings, we will look at each institution individually in light of authority, responsibility and accountability and see how we can incorporate them into our thinking (NSU) until the Kingdom actually comes wherever we go!
