We are on a spiritual journey; we are learning how to discover God in our spirit. When we receive Jesus as Lord of our lives, God comes to live within us, and we become a house of God. Receiving the spirit of God activates our spiritual senses so that we experience first love. We experience what it is to be loved, accepted and affirmed by God. This all comes through a flow of the spirit which the Bible describes as living water, the river of life. As we learn how to take upon the yoke of Jesus he guides and directs us. We are yoked to the Lord in a first love relationship. This yoke is not only imparted it is shared. The impartation of the yoke is the divine nature of God. To put on yoke is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Putting on the new man, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, putting on the armor of God, taking upon us the yoke of Jesus, has to do with the spirit of God being upon us which is another way of saying that the life of God is flowing into our spirit then into our soul. Clothing has to do with the soul. It has to do with the life of God flowing into our emotions, the life of God flowing as a revelations into our mind. The yoke of Jesus is shared, which speaks of fellowship. Our obedience is a participation in the spirit of God, a partaking of the divine nature. To have the yoke of Jesus upon us means we are in fellowship with God, sharing the same life.
When Jesus is on the throne of our lives we can totally trust and rest in him. He becomes our provider, our protector, the one who will guide and direct our lives. How does the kingdom of God become established in us, through us, and around us?
We need to understand the government of God within our own spirit. Everything takes place within our own spirit. Our spirit is a dimensional place, where the kingdom is. And there is a door in our spirit that we open because Jesus is knocking on it, he wants to come in our spirit, or you could say wants to come out of that hidden place within us so that our spiritual senses become aware of him.
As we open that door his presence fills us and then we can engage him in our spirit. We don’t just want to engage God on the inside of us, we want to release his spirit through us, in the words we say, the things we do. We want the presence of the Lord to be reflected through us so it is seen upon our face, upon our countenance. To our innermost being is supposed to flow rivers of living water. That means whatever is on the inside of us needs to flow out through us to engage the world around us and change it.
We need to learn how to engaged a Holy Spirit as the river of life, as living water that refreshes and sustains us. We learn to engage Jesus, by taking his yoke upon us, so that we become joined to him, so he can guide and set the direction for our lives. We engaged the father in the seat of rest.
Come to me all ye who are heavy laden, and this describes everybody that does not know Jesus. Because everybody will be doing things and trying to cope with life in their own strength. If we come to Jesus he will give us rest. We won’t have to try to do any of that stuff anymore on our own but we can trust him.
Our spirit is a mountain. Mountains are places of governmental authority. Our spirit is a place of spiritual authority. There are throne’s which are places where we rule on that mountain. A throne represents the authority to rule and the place of government in our own lives so depending on who’s on the throne there will be different things that happen. If God is on the throne we can be at rest and in a place of authority. If we are on the throne will be seeking to meet our own needs in our own strength and this is where we end up getting into a mess. Because we’ve all tried to meet our own needs in our own strength and it hasn’t worked out too well for us. The seat of rest enables us to live in a place of peace and trust and provision despite the storm that may well be going on around our lives. The storms blow against all of us, we are not immune from the storms of life because were Christians. But in a storm we can live in the eye of it where there is a place of peace and rest no matter what is going on around us. Jesus is our example for this when a big storm arose when he was in a boat with his disciples. Rather than panicking he was asleep because he already stated that they were going to go to the other side. The Holy Spirit is prophetic and revealed to Jesus that he was to minister to the Domani act on the other side. The disciples were panicking because they were not in a place of rest. But Jesus said peace be still and he gives us the authority to say the same thing to do things around our lives. Peace and joy come not from our circumstances, because happiness is dependent upon circumstances but peace and joy comes from a relationship. Righteousness peace and joys is ours and the Holy Spirit who is in us. So we can live with an attitude of gratitude and Thanksgiving as a choice. And be at rest or we can moan and groan and complain and blame everybody else for what is basically our own problem. What is the problem? – Surrender!
We can live giving a sacrifice of praise which is our choice when we are at rest. And we can therefore live treating all the trials and tribulations of life as a reason for joy and use them as an opportunity for growth and transformation. This is our choice when we are at a place of rest.
God is calling us to a place of rest which is also a place of authority. When Jesus is Lord he is on the throne of our lives, but we are also on our throne and his throne in him. We are in Christ, in that place of authority. Ephesians 26 says that he has raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 13 all the blessings, all the spiritual blessings, every blessing which is the empowerment to succeed and prosper in life is in the heavenly realms.. So if we cannot access that, then we are going to struggle. His rule where he is Lord is a place of rest and peace. His government brings us our authority, therefore we can begin to rule and make a difference in life.
Luke 17:21 –behold the kingdom of God – now a kingdom is a place where King rules. So God’s kingdom is where he has authority. And it says the kingdom of God is within us. It is only within us when we invite him into that place by giving him our life. And when he is in us he is in that place of the kingdom which is limited until we let him take full control. So the kingdom is the place where God rules, where Jesus is Lord, is called Lord about 747 times in the New Testament. This is a big principal, about the kingdom. The Lord is his position of government. Jesus is his name and that represents his identity as salvation. Christ is the authority that that name carries. And Lord is the position that that name has in government. When we are talking about Lord we are talking about his governmental position
One Corinthians 6:17 – says, the one who joins himself to the Lord. The one who joins himself to that governmental position of authority is one spirit with him, operating in unity and oneness.
We need to learn how to engage living water, the yoke of Jesus, the seat of rest and this is all about the coming joined to him and becoming one spirit and therefore operating with him in authority.
Lord is his position of governmental authority, and it is our position in him. We are seated in him and he is seated in us. If we think of quantum physics that is not such a strange expression. But if we think of it in a natural way that it may sound strange.
The seat of government is being like an MP. In Britain and MP has a Parliament seat and a constituency over which he is an authority, representing. As members of God’s party we have a place of government and we have a constituency in which we operate. So when he is on our seat we are being trained to rule over our governmental sphere of authority, as part of his kingdom government. But it is a process and a training, doesn’t happen all at once.
Who is on the throne of our lives? If Jesus is on the throne of our life then God is on that seat of government and we are being trained to rule. Even if we don’t know it, we are. Because the situations and circumstances and the trials and troubles of life are our training ground to overcome and to govern. Most of us fail to overcome in government because we don’t realize what the situations are. And we try to reject the situations that God is giving us as opportunities to grow spiritually. So literally our throne is in his throne or another way of looking at it would be that we are on his right hand. And that is where he is.
Acts 2:34 – and the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. So God wants us to be on his right hand. The right hand is always the place of authority
Ephesians 1:20 – when he brought about in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heaven places. So God is raised up Jesus effectively and seated him on his right hand in heavenly places and now he wants us to be in the same place. Verse 21 – far above all rule and authority power dominion every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come and he put all things in subjection under his feet gave him as head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all. If he is the head and we are the body and he is put everything under our feet. Therefore he wants us to take a position of governmental authority to rule and to establish his kingdom. And he wants to fill us with his fullness to enable us to do that.
The definition of the word Lord is one with absolute power absolute authority. What about commitment? Are you committed to God? Are you committed to the church? Are you committed to your vision or whatever it might be? Actually the real question is are you surrendered? Because when you’re committed you are still in control. When you are surrendered you have to relinquish and give up control, and allow him to rule. Because we only have the amount of authority in our life that we give him in our life. So he wants us to establish government from his position of government in us.
Surrender is total submission, but we don’t like that, everything about us and our human sense kicks against submission because built into us there is this principle because of what happened with Adam and Eve of choosing a wrong path, that we can do it without God which is humanism. We can get knowledge without God, and we can do it ourselves. We can look around the world and see where that has got us.
This is why God wants us to surrender to him so that he can begin to change things. No man can serve two masters. Jesus is not a part-time Lord and King. Lordship requires absolute ownership. The question is are we surrendered to Jesus Christ completely and exclusively? Everything in our human nature kicks against that.
We have some of the greatest examples in the Bible of people who kicked against that. Saul for instance who became Paul. He kicked against God’s destiny for him and try to do it in his own way and his own strength, but it didn’t work.
Most of the problems in our lives stem from trying to rule our own life independently of God. It gets us in the problems.
Luke 6:46 – what you call me Lord Lord and do not do what I say. This is Jesus talking. No Lord is a contradiction in terms, it is an oxymoron. You cannot actually say no Lord. If he is Lord you have to say yes. Now saying yes is saying yes to the best things you can possibly say yes to. Because God has our best interest, our destiny, his desire for us is to bless us, to enable us to be his children, to be like him, to have his government in his authority, to be loved, to be affirmed, accepted, all the things that we need in our life he wants to give us but not on our terms., It has to be on his terms which is relationship. And intimacy. The question is are we afraid to surrender to that sort of level of obedience. Do you fear letting go of control of your life. Do you struggle with trust issues, and most of us do. Because we’ve been let down in human circumstances and situations. But God will not let us down, he is absolutely faithful and trustworthy. But we have to give in to that and trust him which is letting go. So being a Christian means obedience and everything.
And Jesus said this talking about discipleship. Following the way of discipleship, Jesus is the way the truth and the life means that we have to follow his way. And everything. Jesus said you can’t be my disciple if you’re not willing to give up everything. So it’s not easy thing. Becoming a Christian is not for the faint hearted. The rewards for surrender are amazing. We can only just see the tip of the iceberg in this dimension to what God is calling us to.. We do not only rule on the earth but also in the heavens.
We need to be surrendered and everything. Our homes, our work, our relationships, our friendships, our families, our recreation and our finances. Which is always a big problem for most people.
We surrender everything but God blesses us and equips us so that we have more than enough, all we need and an abundance for every good deed. His grace, his divine ability provides for us. We are Christians and therefore representatives of the King 24 seven. Can’t just do it on Sundays. It is every day, all day that we are in relationship with him and are representatives of his kingdom.
Romans 8:48 – for if we live we live for the Lord, his kingdom, his governmental authority, we live for the Lord. We live for the expression of his rule on the earth. For Jesus to be Lord of your life means he’s the ruler, the boss, the master of everything.
If we want to outwork our rule, who we really are in our identity to him we need to surrender. He cannot be Lord of apart therefore we need to surrender all. If Jesus is on the throne of our life everything in us is subject to that rule. So Jesus is Lord of all or he is not Lord at all.
We surrender to peace or rest. We surrender to the righteousness and justice of his kingdom. We surrender so that he can exalt us to a higher place of authority in our lives. But there is a process. God is Lord, in control, ruler over the circumstances of our lives only when we surrender by abdicating. He has given us free will and the choice to rule and do things our own way or to surrender and abdicate and do things his way. It is our choice, he is not in a force anybody.
When we look at the results of doing things our own way. It says the end is death. It is always destruction and death doing things our way. Doing things his way there is abundant life and blessing.
We trust him by seeking first his kingdom. And then he promises then he will do everything else. The question is are we willing to trust him to do everything else to add all these things unto us. We tend to keep our hands on things to keep control of it. His purpose in this process is to train us to rain. As we mature to reign with him we become one with him and we become a joint heir of everything that he is. In the kingdom.
This seat of government is like a parliamentary seat, our constituency. Our position of influence in government. 18:37