And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto you, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them. I Samuel 8:6, 7.
The plan God had in the Old Testament was for Israel to be His Kingdom, but now Israel is asking to have a king just like the other nations and people round about them.
This grieves Samuel, because until this time Israel had been a theocracy under the rule of God.
That is why in the period of judges, many of them were prophets of God, why the prophets and prophetesses (such as Deborah) appeared on the scene; it was more a revelation of God’s purpose.
Consequently, the misfortunes that came were directly because Israel would turn away from the Lord, and the Lord would raise up the Philistines to fight against them.
They were under the rule of God and this was the divine intention from the beginning.
I don’t think Abraham had any idea of what God intended to do with his descendants; he had been promised that through his seed all the nations would be blessed, but he didn’t really realize that God was building a Kingdom.
In Exodus 19:5, 6 we see some of God’s original plan for the children of Israel. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
After Israel rejected the Lord as King this idea doesn’t reappear until Revelation 1:6, where it very emphatically talks about the Kingdom and how the Lord Jesus Christ is bringing forth those who are kings and priests unto God.
In fact, you cannot really understand what happened in the trial of Jesus Christ unless you understand that nothing really took place until Israel rejected Jesus Christ as their King.
They therefore cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then therefore he delivered him unto them to be crucified. John 19:15.
God planned to have a people who were to be His Kingdom.
All of the prophets saw the Kingdom.
Daniel saw a great image, a stone cut out of a mountain without hands, and it smote the feet of that great image (the toes were of iron and of clay) and it ground the whole image into powder. Then the stone expanded until it filled all the earth, and the interpretation came that this was the Kingdom of God that was going to fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:34–35).
We must look into the Word, not for personal experiences or blessings for ourselves, but to see what God is trying to bring forth upon this planet.
When we understand what He is trying to bring forth then we will know what it means to seek first the Kingdom of God, and all of the other things will be added unto us (Matthew 6:33).
Until the Kingdom of God has priority in our thinking, and we understand it and are submissive to it, we will never really make it in a walk with God.
At the beginning, even before the gospel of the Kingdom was defined to us, we received the revelation that is the foundation of everything God is bringing forth: the Lordship of Jesus Christ and our absolute submission to Him.
This is what the Kingdom of God really means. “Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever” (Matthew 6:13); this is the way we must pray. This is what God intended for Israel but Israel backed away.
Why did Jesus come to the Jews first? It was so that they could receive the opportunity to accept or reject the Kingdom.
Mathew 3:2 tells how John the Baptist came preaching the Kingdom of Heaven, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The message was not “Repent, because your Messiah is coming; there’s going to be some great miracles and healings.” Very clearly the revelation and the message was: “The Kingdom is right at hand!”
In Matthew 4:17, Jesus began to preach and teach and He taught that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. In Matthew 10:7, He sent out the twelve, two by two, to preach that the Kingdom of Heaven had come. When He sent out the seventy, two by two, the message they preached was the Kingdom of God (Luke 10:9). In Acts 28:23, 30 and 31, Paul was preaching the Kingdom of God.
The terms Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom of God are related to each other. They are not speaking of two distinct things.
A Bible student is straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel if he tells you that there is a difference. There is no difference! When the Word speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven, it is talking about its manifestation—forces which are working at the same time and coexisting with it.
The Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom of God are used interchangeably; one gospel will say Kingdom of Heaven and another will say Kingdom of God when referring to the same account or the same parable.
The gospel of Matthew beautifully teaches about the Kingdom. The thirteenth chapter teaches us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like various things. In the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters you wonder: “When is the Kingdom going to come? How are we going to see all the signs of these things come to pass?”
“Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins—then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto the sheep and goat nations, and the judgment of them.”
When you understand that, you must ask yourself another question: “What is the Kingdom of God and why are we striving for it? Why are we reaching for it?” There is something in our hearts and we can’t get away from it, we quote it so often: And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14.
You may say, “Well, missionaries have been preaching the gospel all these years.” Sure, but not the gospel of the Kingdom!
Almost invariably it has been a denominational thing which is not the Kingdom of God—it is a man-made division. Oftentimes it is a kingdom, but not the Kingdom of God; it’s a human kingdom, a human organization, a human denomination!
The Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be furthered while denominationalism or sectarianism is the expression. It won’t work.
It would be like going into Soviet Russia and preaching about the United States, or coming from Russia and preaching about Russia in the United States. It’s like trying to mix water and oil. It can’t be done. It just won’t work! The Kingdom of God has to be preached where men are willing to see no other Lord over them but the Lord Jesus Christ.
Submission and authority, the Lordship of Christ, all these wonderful things have been thrust into our lives. They are not intended just to create an order and a submission, they are happening because this is what God has been trying to bring forth for centuries and we are the vanguard of the Kingdom that is coming. The earth is about to see the Lord set up the Kingdom; we are about to find the invasion of the Kingdom of God on every realm!
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a woman who took three measures of meal and hid some leaven in it until it all was leavened (Matthew 13:33). Evil is not going to overcome good; the Kingdom of God is going to prevail over everything—over everything! The minute we see and understand it, we know that God will bless anyone who pursues the thing that He wants.
I learned a lesson a long time ago: it is not what I want, not my goal or my objective, but if I want God the Father to love me and to bless me, I must find out what He loves and wants. What is the special object of His affection? What are the objectives He has in mind? When I know this, I set my heart after the heart of God and He will bless me. I seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then I have the promise that all these other things will be added to me (Matthew 6:33). There isn’t any limitation. The fullness that we want, the dominion over the material realm and the finances can’t come to people who are not really dedicated to the Kingdom of God. It has to be the Kingdom of God first. It can’t be human ambition or anything else. We must set ourselves to do the will of the Lord.
The Word says that the Father’s great love is His Son. “This is My beloved Son, hear Him” (Mark 9:7). What can I do if I want to please the Father? I must listen to everything Jesus says, everything He wants, and then do it. I worship Him and I adore Him because that is what the Father will support. The objective is for the Father to bring forth His Kingdom. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10b.
Open your heart and start praying the Lord’s prayer; pray it because it is what the Father wants and what you must want. If you were composing the Lord’s prayer you surely wouldn’t have worded it the way Jesus did. You wouldn’t have ever thought of the things He thought of. You would never have started out, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The first thing you would have said would be, “Gimme, gimme, gimme, Lord.” But it doesn’t work that way, you don’t start with, “Give to me and then I’ll do something for You, Lord.” You start with, “Lord, Thine is the Kingdom. O Lord, let Your Kingdom come, let Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven!” Then you can turn around and say, “Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses.” You can call for any kind of a blessing when you’re in tune with the divine objectives—the divine goal. Stop trying to use God, and let God use you! Let the Kingdom come forth within your own heart. Your submission to the Lord Jesus Christ first—then these other things will be added unto you!
How pointedly Jesus said, “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the Kingdom of Heaven is preached and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16). Every man presseth into it.
It’s very easy to follow the gospel preached in the average church. Babylon has such low standards that many times all a person has to do is go up and shake the preacher’s hand, sign a church card or a pledge, and he’s in. He’s in and it’s not questioned or contested.
You can go to a church and just be a member, but to be a functioning member of the body of Christ, It has to be a revelation of the Spirit that God has set you in a body.
You recognize it in your spirit and you recognize your responsibility to be submissive to the elders over you and the elders recognize their responsibllity for you too, to care for you.
You don’t join the Church, you’re set in it. It’s more of a Kingdom operation: you press into the Kingdom and you find yourself related to it; you find yourself a part of it! God does it and you can’t argue with it.
There is a big difference between a kingdom church and any other kind of church. The preaching isn’t the same as it is in other churches; we do everything differently. “What’s the difference?”
Well, this is an expression of the Kingdom.
“Isn’t it the Church?” Surely, it’s the Church. But not all the churches are the Kingdom, because they are not all seeking first the Kingdom.
The requirement to be a nominal Christian is just to believe, just to accept, but the requirements of the Kingdom are absolute. There is so much real discipleship and dedication to the Lord involved in it.
God wants His Kingdom; this is the objective of God. He is going to bring forth His Kingdom. All of our prayer, all of our desire is set upon the Kingdom. Then we will have all the money and everything else that we need.
We will have the dedication and the open doors, because nothing can prevail against the Kingdom of God. The only thing that can cause us to be defeated is if in some way we’re not in line with the Kingdom of God and we set about to build our own kingdom. Then we would be defeated. God isn’t interested in anything prevailing but His Kingdom.
But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Daniel 7:18.
The Old Testament doesn’t talk too much about the Church, but it does talk a great deal about the Kingdom.
In the Old Testament the Kingdom that God wanted with Israel was being rejected, and the prophets were speaking of how the Lord was still not going to discard His plan and His purpose for a Kingdom. It’s true that the Church is swallowed up in that Kingdom.
Until the ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Verse 22. Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the Kingdom.
You’ve heard a great deal about judgment and the return of judgment, but what are you judging?
“Well, I’m judging this thing I’m going through, I’m judging my boss, I’m judging this and that.”
Judgment is given so that you can possess the Kingdom!
If you want to pray a real prayer and get somewhere in it, find the things that are coming against the Kingdom of God and prophesy against them and bring them down!
The authority is for the saints to possess the Kingdom. It is not a negative thing to get you out of some trouble or harassment or something that is oppressing you.
The judgment is coming so that you will press in and bring things into order and into submission to God. “Judge it, God, send these principalities and powers into the abyss!”
It’s the time prophesied in which Satan will be bound for a thousand years, and the Kingdom will flourish. We’re entering into the prelude of it.
We’re like a beachhead reaching in, and everything that is exalting itself against the Lord Jesus Christ—against His Lordship, against the apostolic company in bringing about a greater realization of that Lordship over the Body—must be judged!
Judge the things that are coming against the people, not for their sakes but for the sake of the Kingdom. If we see a brother in trouble, we’re going to bless him, not just because he’s in trouble but because he is one of the children of the Kingdom and the Lord has a real plan and purpose for his life; God wants to use him.
We want to seek after the Kingdom. Pray for me not because I’m in a battle, but because I’m preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. Pray for the apostolic company, pray for the brethren. Be filled with zeal; we have to have it in our worship and in our singing! We are not here to sing the same songs that people have sung for centuries; this is more like a rally cry for warriors, and there is something violent entering into the hearts of men! The gospel is being preached and men are pressing into it.
The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence (what suffers violence? Oh yes, that’s the Kingdom again) and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12. Some people can’t understand this violence. Of course they can’t, they don’t belong to the Kingdom. The Kingdom has a violence in it; it has worship and an absolute submission to its laws and the principles.
During the Church age, churches tended to either go toward grace or to go toward the law—legalism. We’re in a conjunction of ages—we’re still in the Church age, but the Kingdom age has overlapped and we’re in it too. Right now we have to face the fact that everything is changing, even our music and our ways of worship. The people who are still trying to cling to the old Church age are going to find it very difficult to survive. Why? Because the worship and everything else is geared for men who are violently pressed through opposition that is greater against the hearts of God’s people than at any time in the history of the world. Never has there been such a battle. We must love each other and help each other.
There are certain laws that govern the kingdom of God. A principle is a law. Gravity is a law, and yet we refer to it as a scientific principle. But it is a law.
It’s like the atheist who was arguing with a Christian about how stupid God was to make a huge oak tree and put a little acorn on it and then make a little thin vine wandering around with a great big watermelon on it.
The Christian waited until the atheist was asleep under a big oak tree and he climbed up that tree with a watermelon and dropped it on him. That illustrated several laws—divine principles—that God has a wisdom behind everything that He does!
With these principles in mind, we could wonder if we are no longer under grace, if we’re going back under law.
Yes, we are going under laws, for when the Kingdom comes, our Lord will rule with a rod of iron. We have never seen such laws and such principles as we shall see then!
The New Testament Church, with all its wonderful grace and lack of legalism, is a tighter ship than we have ever sailed in before.
It is more difficult—there is order to it. Never have we found a church like this, where the people were submissive to the elders and to the deacons and were brought in line. We have never known order like this.
We are under Kingdom rules, Kingdom principles. “Then it isn’t grace anymore.” Oh, all the more it’s grace, because none of it works except by the grace of God!
We have never seen such grace as we are going to see. But it’s a different kind of principle.
It isn’t the legalism of self-righteousness and pharisaism—it’s the laws of God; the laws of the Kingdom and our submission to them; our acceptance of our submission to them.
We’re not rebellious against them, but we submit to them and in the grace of God we walk in it. It’s beautiful.
That is why we have studied prayer so much—we are not looking for God to arbitrarily decide to answer prayer; we are finding the divine principles that work! We need a fresh submission to the Lord. He is going to be Lord. He is going to be the King—the King shall reign in Zion!
Let’s write songs about it; let’s write songs about the King, about the Lord. Let’s write songs about our submission, let’s bow before Him. The whole theme of the hymns and psalms we sing must be about how wonderful He is. He alone is worthy, let us praise Him. We need more songs to magnify the Lord, more songs to praise Him and adore Him, more songs of submission to Him and recognition of His greatness. Lord bless us with this message on the Kingdom of God!