The Kingdom of God!

 

Chapter 142

 

 

The Body of Christ has forgotten how to fight! We have allowed the enemy to talk us into fighting with just our shoes of peace, our belt of truth, and our breastplate of righteousness. We have taken off our helmet of salvation and with our carnal mind we have beaten the enemy overhead with religion. All of this is because we don't want to use the sword of the Spirit!

 

It takes the written word and the prophetic together in order to defeat our enemies! It takes the word and the prophetic together in order to be the Sword of the Spirit! Heb. 4:12 says, (NIV)

 

"For the word of God is alive and active (powerful). Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints, and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

 

The written word and the prophetic is sharper than any two-edge sword. If you only take the written word of God, you will be using a one edge sword. For example, Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:4-5, (NIV)

 

"On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: 'Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

 

Remember, most of His disciples were with Him and heard His teachings over and over again and could remember most of what He had taught them, however, Jesus did not want them to go out and teach all nations without the teacher being with them, the Holy Spirit!

 

Jesus said in John 14:15-17, (NIV)

 

'If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever,the Spirit of truth.'

 

And in verse 26,

 

"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."

 

The great Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 12:28, (NIV)

 

"And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues."

 

He also said in 1 Cor. 4:18-20, (NIV)

 

"Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power."

 

So many of our churches are all talk and have no power! We have majored in getting people saved and teaching about hell and Satan and have denied the power of the Holy Spirit! We have failed to step out in faith and expect the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come forth from within us! You may say, "Well, I don't believe those gifts are for us today!"

 

It is recorded in Mark 6:4, (NIV)

 

A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home."

Even Jesus was not accepted in His home town and in His own family for who He really was. Why? Because they knew Jesus and his brothers and sisters and who was He to tell them all of these crazy things? This is what religion will do for you! If you are not willing to lay down your previous beliefs and accept truth when it is presented to you, it's because your carnal mind has been blinded to the truth because you think that you have all of the truth!

 

The religious people of Jesus day were no different than us. It was very hard for them to change from what they had been taught all their life and accept the freedom that Jesus was teaching them!

 

My dad loved the Lord very much and was very faithful and attended every service at his church and preached and taught when he had the opportunity. When I would talk to him about faith and the deeper things of God, he would listen, but it was hard for him to change from what he had been taught all his life.

 

However, as he grew older when he was sick, he would tell mom to call me, and I would go down to his house and pray for him because he knew that I believed in the power of God and that it was available to us today. He once admitted to me that he just didn't have the faith that I did.

 

Why was this so? Because of the religious carnal teaching of unbelief that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were not for us today! Was dad saved? Of course, he was but he was imprisoned by carnal teaching.

 

So many of our churches are in the same boat that dad was in. They have been taught unbelief in the movement of the Holy Spirit among us today and taught that it was only for a brief time that this happen in order to establish the Church. The stumbling block for them was the gift of speaking in tongues so they threw out the rest of the gifts along with not speaking in tongues! The carnal mind does not understand speaking in tongues and rejects it.

 

The good news is that there is a move of the Holy Spirit in all these Churches and God is not in any way through with them.