THE KINGDOM OF GOD

THE KINGDOM OF GOD
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

I’ve heard of, and read about, the KINGDOM OF GOD for the seventy years I have had the Holy Ghost. I even did an exhaustive study once about the difference between the KINGDOM OF GOD and the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. I spent days looking up every scripture containing the phrases. (There is no difference, by the way)

But, with all my studying, I still was unable to figure out the dynamics of the Kingdom. I did “know” that it would be a THEOCRACY instead of a DEMOCRACY or a MONARCHY as we know it, and that the prospective inhabitants would undergo a rigid scrutiny before they would be granted entry. I did “know” that nothing hurtful or destructive would be allowed to enter through its gates. I was also “aware” that it would be set up by Jesus Himself, and that it would endure for a thousand years.

Some things were a bit of a mystery to me, however. I wondered how Jesus would accomplish the feat in an instant when He returns to earth at the time of the “rapture”, and why the Kingdom would be necessary if the Saints were all gone, and only the Christ Rejecters were left on the earth.

But my reckoning was that if everyone else believed it that way, it MUST be correct, so I didn’t think it worth my time to ask too many questions, though I knew I didn’t have the answers myself.

Would we (for I was sure I would be granted entrance) have a City Council, a Mayor, a Chief of Police, etc., and if so, what were the chances that I would be chosen to fill an office?

An in-depth study has produced some startling facts for us to consider. BUT PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THEY PERTAIN TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD and NOT TO SALVATION.

They are two different subjects—separate and distinct from one another.

SALVATION IS FREE

KINGDOM STATURE IS VERY COSTLY.

I use the term KINGDOM STATURE deliberately, for I am seeing the Kingdom in an entirely different light than in the former years. I am now ready to state flatly that the Kingdom of God that Jesus taught about is a NURTURED CONDITION OF OUR HEART IN ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORD AND SPIRIT OF GOD.

IT IS THE STRAIT GATE AND THE NARROW WAY THAT COMPARATIVELY FEW SOULS FIND. The price of Character Refinement seems so unreasonable to many of us. We can not comprehend the need for such a stringent heart condition and life style.

And, indeed, those requirements are NOT laid on folks who aspire ONLY to the Salvation of their souls.

Mar 9:47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:

Luk 12:31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Luk 11:20 But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.


Luk 13:18 Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?
Luk 13:19 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
Luk 13:20 And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
Luk 13:21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Luk 13:27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.
Luk 13:28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.
Luk 13:29 And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
Luk 13:30 And, behold, there are last (least important—CEV) which shall be first, and there are first (most important—CEV) which shall be last.

Luk 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

Luk 9:27 But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.
WHAT DID THEY SEE? Jesus had taken three of them to the top of a mountain, where He was transfigured before them. They experienced His Glory. They were “scared to death”, so to speak. The humanity of Peter expressed a desire to always be in the presence of the Glory, but he had too much “baggage” in his soul yet for that to be realized.

Most of us, and I include myself, also still have far too much of our “baggage” with us while we crave the Glory of God in our souls.

We have failed to understand the need of Character Refinement, and hence have either failed or refused to submit ourselves to the searing heat required to separate ourselves from “ourselves”.

We are NOT dealing with rules and regulations which our fellow Christians would lay on us. We are dealing with the Holy Spirit of God. HE IS THE REFINER OF SILVER AND THE PURIFIER OF GOLD---not our neighbor.