5 "Kingdom Needed"

Every so often it seems that Jesus has to reintroduce a truth back into the church. Truth really never leaves, it is only temporarily forgotten. Truth seems to follow a pattern: it is forgotten, it is reintroduced, it is then NOT accepted at first and is persecuted and fought against. Then finally after a some time has passed, it is made a part of main stream doctrine AGAIN. This is once again happening with the Gospel of the Kingdom.
A few years back a hand full of preachers began to preach "Kingdom Theology" but were marked as weird fanatics and the teachings rejected. It is now becoming known AGAIN that this doctrine is what was originally taught by Jesus. It was the basis of everything He taught. In fact it was all that He taught.
My wife and I just finished watching a movie entitled "Luther." The movie is the true story portraying the life of Martin Luther and the Reformation of the Church. It is an incredible story. To see what the Catholic Church did in regard to salvation and depriving its people of reading the Word was appalling. One line of the movie shocked me, "Martin, have you ever read the New Testament?" "No Sir I have not." "Few have, but I am sending you to hear the words of Christ Himself so you may understand the true love of the Lord." Keep in mind, Luther was already a priest at this point!
In Martin Luther's time not many priests, let alone lay-people, had ever heard or read the New Testament. They simply relied on their priests and church leaders to interpret scriptures and give them the truths needed for Salvation. This lead to huge abuses in the church. People were made to pay for salvation with money. Ideas of a place called purgatory sprang up that had no biblical basis and the people had no means of finding out the truth of the Gospel for themselves. That is until Martin Luther wrote the truth in his teachings and more importantly, the first translation of the Bible into German so the German people could read it for themselves.
Because of this, the people were able to see a God of Love instead of the mean and angry God, full of wrath whose favor had to be bought. They began to understand salvation by grace and not by works. The Gospel was understood again, at least to some degree.
The Lord seems to be sending us another wave of this type of reformation. This time it is a reformation of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. For many years we have preached a Gospel of salvation from your sins by Faith and unfortunately we have stopped there. Salvation is just the beginning. It is not the end-all. When Jesus walked the Earth he preached "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
Kingdom of Heaven? What is this Kingdom of Heaven? Is it what most people seem to rely on today; a message that Jesus can save you from your sins so that when you die you might go to heaven? Is it a just future hope of salvation and not a present experience of it?
The Kingdom of God is simply the true rule and reign of Jesus on this earth. Unfortunately the idea of His Kingship has been misunderstood. The Apostles understood it and lived a life in pursuit of it. Their attitude was "what does Heaven look like? Well then that is what earth should look like, right here and right now." They proceeded to bring Heaven to earth. They healed the sick, raised the dead, cleansed lepers, cast out devils, and lived a supernatural life passing that life on to others. They believed so much that God had given them the authority to bring Heaven to earth, that they even controlled the weather.
1 John 3:8 says "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil."
The first work of the devil was to separate man from a loving and righteous God. Because of this separation in the Garden of Eden, came sickness, disease, depression, death, etc. Jesus came to bring us back into fellowship with God so that what once ruled over us, could rule again; namely the Kingdom of Heaven.
How can this be true, we can argue, when our experiences don't add up to such a claim? That there is still death and disease on this earth. Yes, experience does tell us that these evils are true, but we should NEVER let experience dictate what is the Truth. Only the Word of God should have that much authority in our lives. Let Jesus, by His words, dictate what Truth is and then it will become a reality. Healing, deliverance, salvation from sin, prosperity, miracles, prophecy, and all types of true supernatural encounters with Jesus and His Kingdom (Heaven) are available for us here and now.
Jesus told us to pray "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven." If you ask me, that is a pretty bold statement to make; that the earth can be like Heaven. But that is what He told us to pray for. He would never tell us to pray for something that is impossible to receive. When we see His Kingdom in our lives, it changes the way we think (repentance).
I ask you to please begin to change the way you think. Allow the Word of God to dictate truth in your life, despite what your experiences scream in your ear. If you do, miracles will follow your everyday life. You will no longer be subject to the death and destruction that creeps around us. You will be able to grab hold of the victory that Jesus has already provided for you. The stories on this site give testimony to these things. They are all true stories of the Kingdom of Heaven coming to our little part of the earth in Woodstock Georgia.
Jesus is KING!