A Glimpse Of The Kingdom of God

A Glimpse Of The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God is Jesus’ key message when He was on earth. In fact, His first preaching in Matthew 4:17 was ‘Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’ Now, every good and perfect gift comes from above and out of the word of truth from his mouth, He made us when He said ‘Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness’  that we should become a kind of first fruits of His creatures (Genesis 1:26, James 1:17-18). In Genesis Chapter One, seven times that God highlighted that all His creations are good. Meaning, it is perfect and beautiful. One of these creations is the Man. Now, God created man as rulers or kings over all creation and of this world (Genesis 1:26), and this same ruler ship is what we surrendered to Satan when the first Adam sinned against God (Genesis 3). This is the very reason why God hates sin.

            Now, God’s original plan is to make a big family of Kings (to which He would become the King of Kings) out of His image and likeness, but because of sin, this plan was distorted and marred. As we know, in God’s Kingdom, He is the ultimate authority and He made it clear when he commanded Adam to do not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17), but to much of God’s disappointment, Eve did so eat (out of ignorance) and urges her husband to eat also and committed the gravest sin to God. This caused them so much – not only losing God’s favor (including all the abundance of life in it) but also they are being put away far off the Garden of Eden, where God’s presence is. Without the presence of God, there is also the absence of the breathe of Life of God in us (Genesis 2:7), and without life, that means death to us. Sounds familiar? Well, this only proves the point of Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.” This kind of punishment being rendered to man only proves another point, ignorance of the law exempts no one, and that is not only true in the physical, but also in the spiritual heavenly kingdom as well. Eve’s ignorance that caused her and Adam to fall short from God’s glory does not exempts her from the guilt of sin nor of the consequence that sin brought to their lives.

            On the other hand, God still give Adam, in His grace, a chance when He asked “where are you?”(Genesis 3:9)  This follows with another two questions (Genesis 3:3:11). That chance and the other two chances is what God gave to man to confess his sins, right at the very moment, showing us the glimpse of the New Covenant which is soon to be unveiled, wherein God will be merciful upon all our iniquities (Hebrews 8:12). But they did let it slipped when instead of repenting, they justify their selves instead and resulted to blaming game (Genesis 3:12-13). This kind of action only adds wood to the fire of their sins and flare up the anger of God on the process, that’s why the serpent and the ground was cursed and they were driven out. You see, our sin that shames us and causes us to fear (Genesis 3:11) is what also separates us from God and put a dividing wall of hostility against God and us. This is the very reason why during the time of Israel, only the Most High Priest can enter the Holy of Holies or the Most High Place in the Tabernacle where he can meet God once a year and offer atonement for his and the people’s  sins.

            After the fall of man, God will never call it quits, for He is already silently working on the background for the implementation of His plans. Within these plans, we see that He is always using one man who is willing to be a fitted vessel, and willing to fully surrender a life to do His will. This started with Noah, then to His covenant with Abraham, promising him to be bless to Father a nation, which is Israel.

            Now, after Israel’s Exodus from 400 years of captivity in Egypt, God gave them the Law of Moses written in two tablets of stones. This is in order for them to have a glimpse of the Kingdom of God and how a kingdom life works. However, instead of becoming the Kingdom of God on earth in its sense, because of sin and series of falling away by God’s chosen people (from the time of Joshua, to the time of judges), it became the Kingdom of Israel instead. Much later on, due to Solomon’s falling away from God, the once united kingdom became divided into two – the Kingdom of Israel (Composing of the 10 tribes) and the Kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem (composing of two tribes – Benjamin and Judah).

            In all Israel’s history and Chronicles of the Kings, King David of Jesse, father of Solomon, is the only one who earned a title of being ‘a man after God’s own heart.’ His Kingdom has two aspects: (1) the physical kingdom, which will soon last after their captivity in Babylon, and (2) the eternal kingdom, wherein out of David’s lineage will come the soon awaited Messiah – Jesus Christ. It is shown by Matthew in Matthew chapter one, in the genealogy of Jesus. This very same Jesus is God Himself and the Word who became flesh (John 1:1, 14). He came down from heaven to earth in order to save us from our sins and restore us back to a true and genuine relationship to the Father (Matthew 1:21, 1 John 3:5). The life of Jesus is a life of obedience to the Father up to His death to the Cross, wherefore, God also had highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name (Philippians 2: 5-10). This is the centrality of the Gospel, Jesus died for our sins, was buried, then rose again the third day, to which we put our hope and faith today, that one day, we will rose and live together with Him on His kingdom (1 Corinthians 10:1-20). This brings us back to where we started and the reason why Jesus’ preaching centers on the Kingdom of God.

            Now, even though God’s promise is the Kingdom of God, it will only come to people who is poor in Spirit and who hungered in God’s presence (Matthew 5:3). Also, as this world is already ruled by Satan, it is expected that if we desire to follow God, we also desire righteousness that is in Him, and because of that righteousness, we will be persecuted (Matthew 5:6, 10). Because of this very same reason, what must be the focus of our life’s desire, and what must we ask God on our prayers then? Well, we must ask God for His kingdom to come into our lives (meaning to have His word became true to our lives – the word who became flesh in us) and that His will might be fulfilled in us (Matthew 6:9-13).

            You see, the message of the Kingdom pertains to God being the King, and as a king, He needs subjects. As part of God’s Kingdom, we are expected to be subjected in God’s will and decree.  The Kingdom message is also the very same message that Jesus is sharing to the world during His earthly lifetime because we all need to enter God’s kingdom as an assurance of our salvation. As Born Again, we need to be a citizen of the Kingdom (John 3).

            Now, in spite of Satan’s interruptions, nothing would ever thwart the plan of God, and the Kingdom of God was forcefully advanced (Acts of the Apostles). However, Satan will not call it a bail and he will try to destroy the life of God in us through His lies (1 John 5:19, John 10:10).

            Now, our goal to overcome is to become like Christ (Romans 8:29, Philippians 3:13), for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4-5)

            Romans 8:29 also made it clear that God already predestined us, and our destiny is to be like Christ, and we are expected to learn and live as He is.

            In the last days, Satan’s ultimate plan is to put everything of his power into one man (the antichrist) and he will put his seal to many (666). This is an exact clone of God’s seal to His sons – the Holy Spirit.

            Now, Christ will not return, not until the Beast would be revealed, and the Word of God is telling us to direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting of Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:5).