The Kingdom of God!

Chapter 12

 

I have been talking to you about getting a Restraining Order in the Court of Grace.

 

In the courts of the USA a Restraining Order is an order issued by a court to protect a person, business, company, establishment of entity, and the general public, in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault!

 

A restraining order by the court is usually temporary and usually has a time limit stated on it and also what will happen if the court order is violated.

 

As with any court order, it must be enforced. If a judge, in our legal system, has given us a court restraining order, it must be enforced. If it is violated, we can call the police and they will enforce it and the person violating the restraining order will be held in contempt of court.

 

What then is a divine restraining order?

 

A divine Restraining Order is an order issued by the Courts of Heaven to protect a person of destiny, a business, a nation, or Kingdom's citizens in a situation involving clear and present danger to the preordained purposes of God.

 

A divine Restraining Order is sometimes given to us by our Father in order to give us time to get our act together. You must realize that God knows our future and how we will react to the leading of His Holy Spirit. I praise and give thanks to our Father for the times that He protected me when I was not allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me! If you will look at the many times the Lord protected you when you were not being obedient to Him, it should cause you to praise and thank Him!

 

As I have shared with you before, Jesus was under a divine Restraining Order. Lk. 12:49-50, (NIV)

 

"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!"

 

Jesus, while here on earth, was not allowed to use His authority as the Son of God to do what He wanted to do. He was restrained to doing only what He saw His Father doing. He said in John 5:19,

 

"Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

 

Satan tried his best to get Jesus to use His authority on earth and thus obey him like the first Adam did in the beginning. If Jesus would have obeyed him, like Adam did, he would have defeated God's purpose for Jesus. If Jesus had touched His God given powers while living on the Earth, he would have forfeited the right to be our Savior. Adam, a human being, lost creation because he violated a Restraining Order that God had given him! Jesus, the last Adam, had to live totally as a human being to win it back.

 

This was perhaps the hardest temptation that Jesus faced. He understood the authority that He had with His Father and yet, He refused to do His own will. He told Peter in Matt. 26:53,

 

"Do you not think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?"

 

It wasn't until Jesus was resurrected that He told his disciples in Matt. 28:18,

 

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."

 

How was Jesus, as a man, able to live sinlessly? Because He was filled with the Holy Spirit and He allowed the Spirit to guide Him in all that He did. He did not do one miracle until He was filled with the Holy Spirit! Matt. 3:16-17 says,

 

"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

 

Paul said in Phil. 2:5-8,

 

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But, made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, (His will) even the death of the cross. 

 

How, then, are these Restraining Orders enforced? Psalm 103:20 says,

 

"Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word."

 

The word 'angel' here means to dispatch as a deputy. These are the angels that carry out the verdicts that come from the courts of Heaven. We see this demonstrated in Daniel 10:12-13,

 

"Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."

 

Daniel's prayer was heard by God but also heard by the devil and his forces. It took a high-ranking angel to stop the devil from delaying the vision God had sent to him. When we pray concerning the advancing of the Kingdom of God, we are entering into a conflict. We are moving the powers of heaven for God's Kingdom will to be done on earth, but we are also engaging the forces of darkness that are resisting that will from being done. This is the power of our words that are directed toward the Lord. This is why Paul exhorts us to put on the whole armor of God. Eph. 6:10-18, (NIV)

 

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

 

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

 

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.

 

When we go before the Court of Grace, we need to come boldly to the throne because it is our Father who is the judge and our brother, Jesus, who is our advocate. However, we have been given some instructions on how to do this. God told Isaiah in Isaiah 43:26,

 

"Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: you declare, that you may be justified."

 

When we come before the Court of Grace, we need to remind the Lord of what He has promised us. We need to have the scriptures that promise us that we can have what we are going to ask the Lord for. John said in 1 John 5:14-15,

 

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. "

 

When you go before the Court of Grace, approach the Lord with what He has said is His will and quote it to Him. Jesus told us what the will of God is and if we will believe what He told us; it will happen for us!

 

For example,

 

John 14:1-14,

"And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it."

1 Peter 2:24,

 

"He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed."

 

Mark 11:24-26,

 

"What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have something against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses."

 

So many Christians go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to do something for them and then negate their request by saying, "Thy will be done!" This is no argument in the Court of Grace! You must get into the law books and see what His will is before you come before Him! Jesus came and revealed the will of the Lord! If you are asking something that you don't have a specific scripture to bring before the Lord, you can ask Jesus to intercede for you and at the last statement you have after contending with God, is to say, ""Nevertheless, thy will be done! This is a statement of submission to the wisdom of God. Look and see what Jesus had to say about what you want to ask the Lord for and then, by faith, present it to the Lord. John said in 1 John 5:14-15,

 

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him."

 

Our Father wants us to bring what He has said in the past to Him. You know why? Because He will never go back on His word! An example of someone contending with the Lord is Abraham.

In Genesis 18:22-26 is an account where Abraham stood before the Lord and contended with Him.

 

"The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing"to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do, right?"

The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?" "If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."

 

Once again, he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?" He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it." Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?" He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."

Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."

 

Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."

 

Abraham could stand before the Lord because of his faith in the Lord, righteousness was imputed to him. Rom. 4

 

In Isaiah 1:18, the Lord said,

 

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

 

There is no higher honor in the Court of Grace, we can give to God, than to present to Him our faith in His word! This is why it so important for us to know the word of the Lord. Paul said in Romans 12:2,

 

"Be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

 

Something that really caught my attention when I was around 36 years old and was at a convention of Pastors. The speaker said, "You can have a personal relation with Jesus!" I was told all my life that God was somewhere way up yonder sitting on a throne and Jesus was sitting at His right hand. Paul said that the mystery of the Gospel is Christ in you the hope of glory! Col. 1:27,

 

"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:"

 

I was told that the baptism of the Holy Spirit ended with the death of the last apostle. And to even think of the Holy Spirit living within us would get you into trouble. This is changing in most churches but they will still oppose speaking in tongues even though, the Great Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 14:18,

 

"I thank my God; I speak with tongues more than you all:"

 

If speaking in tongues is of the devil, why would Paul make such a statement? One of the reasons for all the opposition to speaking in tongues, beside the fact that Satan doesnt want you to speak in tongues, is because we have not been taught the difference between the spirit and the soul. Paul said in Heb. 4:12,

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

We are spirit and when we die, we will return to be with the Lord. We have a soul, which is our mind, our will and our emotions, and we live in a body of flesh. Jesus told the woman at the well, in John 4:23,

 

"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him."

 

When you pray in tongues, your spirit is communing directly to the Lord without interference from all the thoughts that flows through your mind. This draws you closer to the Lord and it edifies, or strengthens, your spirit.

 

If you desire to be baptized in His Spirit, just ask the Lord for this and then receive it by faith!