Kingdom of God
Defining the Kingdom Of God
Posted by ladynada • 9/20/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS]
Tags: citizenship, king of kings, kingdom of god, kingship, mandate, miles munroe
In July 2007 I ordered three books by Miles Munroe on the Kingdom of God and I have begun studying them this week, September 2007. They can help us define what the Kingdom of God is.
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Here are the titles of the books:
Rediscovering the Kingdom
Kingdom Principles: Preparing for Kingdom Experience and Expansion (Understanding the Kingdom)
Most Important Person on Earth
I have read about 25% of the preparing book before I realized that I need to read the rediscovering book first, because it came out sooner (2004). I am in a kind of rest period in my activities (less blogging) so my current commandment is to spend more time with my Mom and study these books.
I have already learned very very much that I had no ideas about at all. In the next few days I will post about them in this discussion.
Thanks to blogcatalog for this opportunity and outreach.
nada -
This is really awsome keep it up -
I haven't started reading Munroe's book yet (though it is on my list) but I have been interested in the subject of the Kingdom for some time. Our congregation has recently adopted the statement "Jesus Kingdom Made Real" as our mission statement. With this in mind I've started examining the Kingdom Gospel - Matthew. I'm posting it to my Java-and-Jesus blog and would really appreciate your input; especially if you can relate it to what you're reading in Munroe. -
I have Rediscovering the Kingdom on CD. It's awesome. I really enjoy Miles' teaching.
living-water-of-life.blogspot.com/ -
It is good to see that the message of The Kingdom is being preached. Please continue is this as our Lord graces you with his strength to do so. Ever since we have started to preach only the Kingdom of God. The lords grace has caused us to be recieved offically as ambassadors one nation. And now the grace of God has given us five acres in another country to build and embassy. This and so much more has happened since we started to preach the Kingdom of God as Jesus' grace provides. Keep up the preaching of the Kingdom!
In HIM,
Apostle G. Maitland
www.hisimageministry.org
blog.hisimageministry.org
info@hisimageministry.org -
Hiya,
I've only just now glanced it over, and it is beautiful!
Give me some time to get back to you, as I can only bookmark it for now.
java-and-jesus.blogspot.com/
nada
p.s. I'm excited about your input for our study here! -
I'm just excited about all this, period!
wow!
nada -
Look!
I just started this group, this is God's group y'all!
I am not in control of ANYTHING!!!
nada -
If you laugh it is because you are giddy in the Holy Spirit. I had waiting for me, a comment on the KOG blog, where hardly anyone comments.
kingdomofgod.wpbloghost.net/index.php/2007/09/21/498/#comment-215
I want to post it here, because he covers all that I have not been led to post, yet, from Miles Munroe's book re: defining the Kingdom of God.
One Response to “What did Jesus mean by “church”?”
1. Apostle Says:
September 21st, 2007 at 12:59 pm e
Kingdom Communication and The Church
Today I want to talk to you about Kingdom Communication. I truly believe that this is vital for every citizen of The Kingdom of God to understand! I will show you in the following scripture how the Church is to be built per Jesus’ instructions, and most importantly who is to build it. Before I do that I believe I should clarify and show you what the word “church” means; so that we can see what Jesus exactly meant when He said He would build His church.
The word “church” Is the Greek word “ecclesia”. Ecclesia means – The called out ones under authority
The ecclesia was not a church as we see it in the world today.
The church as we have it in the world today, divides the people by separated authority. Jesus said that man cannot have two authorities (Matthew 6:24). There can only be one authority and that is from heaven; even though man is an authority he is not rule over other men. He is instead to serve them as a representative of The Kingdom of Heaven.
The “ecclesia” as established by Jesus Christ is under one authority. In a Kingdom you can only have one King. Nominating another King is an act of treason high treason.
The Ecclesia in the Greek language has nothing to do with religion whatsoever. It is not a religious term but a governmental term of governmental service. Why is this important? It is important because Jesus came not establish a religion but a representative government called the Kingdom of God. In fact Jesus in His entire 3 1/2 year ministry preached nothing else!
The “ecclesia” in the time of Jesus was a governmental body of the Roman Empire. Every person in the Judea would have totally understood this term. The reason why they would understand this term is that every one of them without exception was subject to the Roman “ecclesia”.
When The Roman Empire took over a country they would establish “ecclesia”; a called out, governing body of authority. It would be a ruler-ship group of people that were called out under the dominion of Rome to institute the will and demands of The Roman Government. The “ecclesia” was responsible for training and equipping the new citizens, or servants with the will, rights, and privileges afforded to them by Rome.
As you can now see Jesus in the Following statement was not establishing a religious organization but a governmental body of ruler-ship, to equip the “newly acquired citizens” with ways of The King and His dominion. Notice He did not call them Christians here either! He called them Church “ecclesia”. With this explanation you should now understand why this term was very familiar to His disciples.
Follow along with me in Matthew 16:13-20 and you will begin to understand what Jesus was saying. My comments are bracketed for clarification.
Matthew 16:13-20 (King James Version)
13When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. (This was a Kingdom Communication) 18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock (the rock, is the method of Kingdom communication) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19And I will give unto thee the keys of The Kingdom of Heaven: (“keys” grant access to the King-Dominion) and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (This statement has been somewhat misunderstood in the religion of Christianity; it means that what you see in heaven is what shall be done on the earth (Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2, John 5:36, John 9:4). Peter saw that Jesus was the Christ in Heaven so to speak, he responded to The Kingdom of Heaven’s communication about who Jesus was. Jesus then affirms this communication.) 20Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
In final, Jesus came to establish a Kingdom through called out representative that would establish His ruler-ship in the citizens so that they could share His dominion. With this knowledge I believe that we have some reformation to do in what we call the church, because I’m not sure that Jesus would call what we have today “His Ecclesia”. -
The Kingdom of God; what is it?
The Kingdom is exceptance of The Kings (Jesus Christ) Dominion through grace. In fact grace is not a belief it is the person of Jesus Christ. He is our only way, He and his life style is the only truth, and he and his works are our light (revealed knowledge that releases understanding).
The Kingdom is the Domain of the King. We are born into the Kingdom. In the Kingdom of God the King is the greatest servant. If you dont accept his service first you will have no part of his Kingdom.(We alll need to learn from this) It is always about what he provides first! You are not allowed in his Kingdom to provide for yourself. You own efforts are rejected. In fact if you provide for yourself you reject the King, and commit treason.
He did one act of service that freely gives you access to his blessing, this act is the cross. You perform one act because he first performed his. It is called the act of faith in your King.
In HIM,
G.Maitland
www.hisimageministry.org
info@hisimageministry.org -
"You own efforts are rejected. In fact if you provide for yourself you reject the King, and commit treason."
so true!
I am keeping a keen look for grace confirmations as yours is the third significant mention in my life this week.
thanks,
nada -
I think the kingdom of God can be us having the ability to enter his presence on a daily basis, through our intercessor, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. -
Then how did people enter The Kingdom before His death?
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by faith and obedience, like Noah, Abraham, Moses, the prophets. They believed and obeyed.
even Job believed in the resurrection of the dead.
nada -
They all preached the the Kiingdom. None etered according to Jesus. Until his ministry began after His baptism. There is no greater phrophet then John but the least in the Kingdom is greater than he.
No one etered until He came and preached. The law and the prophet were until John. Since that time the good news of the Kingdom has been preached, and people are forcing their way into it. (Luke 16:16)
We enter the Kingdom through Jesus' obedience alone.
Faith justifies, works of obedience acomplished nothing.
Job believed that His redeemer lives! He had faith in his redeemer. This is what he wanted to inscribe on a stone or write in a book to be remembered.
This is not to say they could not of entered the Kingdom. It is to say that only through the Son would they entered.
God never got a chance to make the children of Israel a nation of kings and priests, they would not beleive. They wanted their own works to justify them. That is why they received the Law.
Adam was born into the Kingdom and gave it up. -
What we need to ask ourselves is what exactly is it we receive by "grace". Is it salvation itself, or is it what enables us to partake in God's salvation.
Consider what we are told about Abraham, his faith was counted unto him as "righteousness". The author of Hebrews says that his faith was based in his obedience to God in refusing to withhold his son Isaac. It is a picture of God's refusal to withhold His son from us.
Consider the words of Jesus to the centurion. He had found no greater faith in Israel. How did the centurion demonstrate his faith? By recognizing and submitting to Jesus' authority. He understood the concept of obedience to those who hold authority, in the same way as Abraham. So then, while faith is all that is required of us, faith has it's roots in the recognition of God's authority, that is - obedience.
What does Paul say on the subject. He tells us that it is not our righteousness but the righteousness of Christ that has come upon us. It is righteousness that is granted to us by God's grace. And it is this righteousness that enables us to partake of God's salvation, for only the righteous shall be saved.
So faith is rooted in the recognition of God's authority which is the foundation of obedience. Faith is credited to us as righteousness, because of the grace of God, as it was to Abraham and the other heroes of the faith mentioned in Hebrews 11. That righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who existed from the very beginning. And it is because of this righteousness, not because of any thing we ourselves might have accomplished, that enables us to partake of the salvation of God.
This is the essence of citizenship in the Kingdom of God. It has always existed since the beginning of time. After the fall it was overshadowed by the kingdom of darkness, but it continued none the less. Jesus' message to the people confirms this, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Not coming, not almost here, not will arrive after my death and resurrection, but "at hand". Here right now, close enough to touch it. It was always there, Jesus came so that we might see it more readily.
Who then among us can say who is in the Kingdom and who is not. None except the Father. The only one whose place in the Kingdom we can judge is our own. And I dare say, even some us us may be in for a surprise. -
the Kingdom is upon us now. I am feeling it more and more each day; I know that sounds like a cliche but I mean it literally and emphatically. I can sense it. I have been practicing deferring my thoughts to the Holy Spirit the last two weeks, and the thoughts that come to me are all based on the reality of the Kingdom as here, and NOW. No more future tense talk.
Welcome to the Kingdom of God on earth! -
from Kingdom of God blog!
kingdomofgod.wpbloghost.net/index.php/2007/10/04/656/
The Kingdom of God from Paul
Posted by admin on October 4th, 2007
What Paul Means by “Kingdom of God”
This is the only place in the book of Romans where Paul uses the word “kingdom.” But he uses it elsewhere and we can know what he means by “kingdom of God.” Four clarifications:
1) First, he means the reign of God, not the realm of God. We tend to think of a kingdom as a place. But for Jesus and for Paul it almost never has that meaning. Rather it means the reign or the rule of God. You can see that here: Where the Holy Spirit is bringing about righteousness and peace and joy, the kingdom (that is, the reign of God) is being manifested.
2) The kingdom of God refers to his saving reign, not to his total providence over all things. In one sense God reigns over all. So you could call everything “God’s kingdom.” But that is clearly not the way Paul uses the term. The kingdom of God is God’s redemptive reign. His saving reign. When Jesus said to pray, “Hallowed by your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6: 9-10), he meant that the coming of the kingdom would be the extent of God’s rule where his name is hallowed and his will is done the way angels do it—obediently and joyfully. So the kingdom of God is God’s reign, not realm; and it is his saving, redeeming reign bringing about the hallowing of his name and the joyful doing of his will.
3) The kingdom of God is fulfilled partially in the present and will be consummated at the end of the age when Christ comes a second time. Paul speaks of unbelievers not inheriting the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9), and so treats the kingdom as yet future. But then he also says to believers that “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,” and so treats the kingdom as already present.
4) The kingdom of God and the kingdom of Christ are the same. He says in Ephesians 5:5, “Everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous . . . has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” There is one kingdom, and it is the kingdom of Christ and of God. So to serve the kingdom of God is to serve Christ, and to serve Christ is to serve the kingdom of God. So Paul is saying in verse 16, Don’t use your good—your good faith and your good liberty and your good food—to hurt anyone. Don’t put that much weight on eating and drinking. It’s not that crucial. Why? He answers in verse 17: Because “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The saving, redeeming, sanctifying rule of God—the kingdom of God—has broken into this world in Jesus Christ, the Messiah—the King—and the evidence of his rule in your lives is not eating and drinking. You may think that your liberty to eat all things is what God’s kingdom produces. But that’s not quite right. What the kingdom produces is something deeper and larger that governs how you use your liberty to eat all things.
Every Blessing
Richard
Original post by Richard Bentall
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