The Kingdom of God!

 

Chapter 131

 

 

The angel of the Lord said to Mary, Luke 1:23,

 

"And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His Kingdom there shall be no end."

 

I think we would all agree that when an angel of the Lord says something, it is the truth and we can believe what the angel says! This Kingdom of God we have been talking about is never going to cease to be! This Kingdom of God can liken to the Universe that keeps expanding at the rate of the speed of light. There will never be a time when His Kingdom does not exist on this earth.

 

Someone will say to me, "What about the rapture!" The long-taught theory about the rapture is nothing but a misunderstanding about what the scriptures says! You say, "Well, what about the catching away that Paul talks about in 1 Thess. 4:17",

 

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so, shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

 

This word 'meet' in the Greek language means to greet and welcome someone to your city, like you would an ambassador or a dignitary! We will be caught up to meet the Lord when He descends with His spiritual body because we are a part of that body! However, John saw this happening in Rev. 21:9-11,

 

"And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come here and I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;"

 

John also saw in Rev. 21:2-4,

 

"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

 

This great event, that the Church has been mistakenly called the Rapture or the Second Coming of Jesus, will take place when the fulness of time has come and we who are alive will be caught up to greet them because we are a part of them! And all of us will continue to this earth to reign with the Lord forever.

 

It is not my intent to get into all the misinterpretations of scripture trying to prove there will be a Rapture, a word which does not appear in scripture! What I do want to say to you is that Jesus is coming back after a bride that is prepared for Him and not to rescue Her from the evil of the world. Paul said in Eph. 5:25-27, (NIV)

 

"Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

 

Some in the Church have lost sight of the fact that Jesus is the head of the Church and He cannot be defeated, and neither will His Body, the Church! John said in 1 John 4:4,

 

"You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." 

 

The great apostle Peter said this in 2 Peter 1:19-21,

 

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

 

Knowing this let's go to the prophet that spoke most of the end times that we are living in and look at what he said. Dan. 2:44-45, (NIV)

 

 

"In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom (Jesus) that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands;a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. "The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy."

 

Jesus came and set up the Kingdom of God and Daniel said that this Kingdom will crush all those kingdoms and will endure forever. Notice that he did not say anything about a time when the Lord would take His Kingdom out for a period of time!

 

Again, Daniel wrote in Dan. 7:25-26, (NIV)

 

"Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth: "May you prosper greatly!"I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. "For he is the living God and he endures forever; his Kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end."

 

And in Rev. 5:9-10, (NIV)

 

"And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."

 

Nowhere in these prophecies do they mention a time when the Kingdom will be taken out from the earth! Jesus came to setup this Kingdom and He went about preaching and teaching The Kingdom of God. Matt. 4:23 says,

 

"Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people!"

 

I wrote to you last week about revival breaking out all over the world. I just got this report that crowds of people in Somotillo, Nicaragua are giving their lives to Christ and extraordinary miracles are taking place. Praise the Lord! It's not by might, it's not by power but it's by My Spirit! Says the Lord!