Part 3 : Are You Building The Kingdom of God

Or are you thinking about it? If so go on and read this. 

Are you a servant? Are you a citizen? Are you a soldier? Are you a builder building the Kingdom of your Father?

Whoever you are, you are precious in the eyes of the Father. The Father who desires that all of mankind be reconciled to Him and awakens from their deep slumber into recognizing that He has crafted them in His likeness and image. Like Father, like son we say. Like Father, like son we must be.

In this unique building trade there are three main requirements. Ask these questions of yourself and ponder over them. Chew them and ruminate. And endeavour to answer them honestly. If you can answer a yes to all three then a master builder you shall be.

1.   Do you have the desire to Evangelize? Ask yourself, search within, do you desire to share the good news that you have come to enjoy and the good news that liberated you with those suffering around you? Do you know with every fibre of your being that God the creator is your real Father? Are you able to say Yes to your Father and my Father, that His will may be done in your life and through you? 

The main addendum to the desire to Evangelize is the ability to say a YES with all your strength, body, soul, and mind to Almighty God. A YES to submit to His WILL at all times and to permit His WILL to be done through you in His measure.

If you can say Yes to this give yourself one point.

2.   Do you have the willingness to Encourage and Support fellow builders in Evangelisation? A builder never builds alone. He always works in fellowship. There are always others involved. And these others are like the different cogs in a wheel. Each needs to work and support the other. Each builder needs to serve the other. Each needs to respect and love the other.

You need to have it in you to encourage and support those around you. You need to pray for them, be a sounding board for them, use your gifts and talents in encouraging them and use discernment in guiding them. In a nutshell you need to be a brother to fellow Kingdom builders.

If you can say Yes to this then give yourself another point.

3.   Do you understand the need to grow in Holiness and Humility?

Growing in Holiness and Humility is the most physically painful process. Why do I say that? Because I know that. Understanding and realising this need is the first step. Recognising this need is the quintessential step in spiritual growth. For we need to rise from being servants to being rightful heirs to the Kingdom of God. When we step out as kingdom builders the forces of the world will rise against you and within you. This can only be conquered by personal holiness and humility.

Holiness is not your passport to the bosom of your Father, the blood of Jesus was. Your father enfolds you in His bosom out of love. The only currency in His Kingdom is love. He wants you to love Him just as He loves you, He desires that you desire to walk with Him just as He walked with Adam.

Holiness is to be like Jesus. Holiness is to shed our grimy past and stand washed and clean in the precious blood of the lamb. Holiness is to recognize the fangs of sin and develop strategies to avoid and overcome it. Holiness is to seek the grace of God to overcome sin and to live in purity. On a more practical level Holiness is to turn the other way when sin comes knocking through flesh, mind and sight. 

Holiness is to dress honourably, and speak honourably. To act honourably and to think honourably. When confronted with sin never forget that the Holy Spirit within you is comforter and paraclete. He speaks on your behalf  if in need. Remember that and ask his help.

Grow in humility we all must. Pride goes before a fall we say. It’s much truer for those that walk in the Kingdom of God. The only thing worthy of pride is that you are the son of God the most high. Humility is the knowledge that the graces and personality that you exude, the awe and glory that is accorded to you is just one step away from destruction. Nothing that you have or nothing that is accorded to you is something that has more life than that of a flutter of a butterfly’s wings. Even your spiritual gifts! Recognising this and learning to grow in humility is essential in the life of a builder.

If you understand the need to grow in Holiness and Humility give yourself another point.

Now finally how many yes’s are there?

Three? – Then go ahead and prepare for your work.

Two? One? None? – The time has not yet come. Grow more in knowing your God and Father. Read and ruminate on the Gospel of John and seek the help of the Holy spirit to grow more like Christ. One day the love within you will know no bounds and will begin to overflow. 

Remember always that you have been carved out of God. Your place in him is secure. Secured by the precious blood of the lamb. But in return, love like you have never loved before.

By Dr.Jacqueline Michael

Part 2 : Answering the questions, Why did Jesus come and Who Are You?

Why I Believe What I Believe 

My Father and your Father, My God and your God.

Yes these were the words of Jesus to Magdalene Mary soon after he rose from the dead.

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Why? Why? Why did Jesus come? Have you ever asked yourselves that? The last time I asked a bunch of primary school children they told me that Jesus came to save us, Jesus came for our sins and that Jesus came for our salvation.

You and I will agree with all those answers. But do you know why Jesus came?

Whom do you think knows the heart of a Father the most? The one who loves him the most. It seems pretty obvious. Its either the spouse or his children. But when we consider the spouse we all know that once a woman becomes a mother she automatically changes her deepest affections to her offspring. SO who then loves the father the most. Yes—his child, his son or his daughter.

So it is with God. Jesus the son of God came from the very heart of God. But why did he come? I just said that he came from the heart of God. What was he doing there? There he felt every throb and every sigh and every heave of the fathers heart. There he witnessed the pain of The father when it was wounded. There he learnt the lessons of love He was to teach. There he knew that the father would never be happy unless His offspring were reconciled with Him – His offspring crafted in His own image and likeness. There Jesus knew, in every sense, the heart, desire and will of the Father. There He decided to come down to earth, in the image and likeness of His Fathers precious creation, as the first born among many(ref Romans 8:29).

When Jesus walked the earth he was constantly astounded at the hardness of heart that he witnessed. He knew that man, created in His Fathers image and likeness, never knew their father. He knew they were lost. And he knew that he had to restore them to the heart of His Father.

On earth Jesus came upon a young man who was but merely a boy. Young John began to follow Jesus. He loved His Lord and master so deeply. Scripture says that he reclined at His bosom at the last supper whilst Jesus gave the longest sermon recorded in scripture - the discourse at which he talked at length about His Father. John knew the throb of His masters heart. He saw within those eyes and within each heartbeat the love that Jesus had for his father. And so, many years later, when He put pen to paper, he recounted the deepest of passions of His Lord and master. He drew out the soul of the Christ and wrote the most powerful gospel ever. The Gospel that shines light into the very being of the Christ. The gospel that teaches us why Jesus came. And the gospel that teaches us who we are.

John the Apostle says in John 1: 12-13 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

Isn’t this then the greatest good news of all time and for all mankind? Isnt this then the good news that we should be shouting out from the rooftops and teaching our children?

How  can we afford to live as mere servile human beings when the greatest gospel of all time proclaims our true parentage?

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters reading this, if you have received and believed in Jesus the son of God and the son of Man, then you HAVE been given the power –The power to become children of God who are born not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, BUT of God!

Now then if you have been given this power that means there is something you need to do with this power to truly become this child of God the Father. All those whom God foreknew and called, he called to be part of the family of Christ—siblings to His son. Let us read the verses in Romans 8 that explains this more fully.

Romans 8: 28-30 ‘We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family(or among many brothers). And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.’

God the Father  foreknew and predestined us to be conformed to the image of Jesus—as he is so shall we be in this world (ref 1John 4:17). This is our call. To be reconciled to God the Father and to answer his call. Jesus clearly teaches us two things. The first one is the first commandment. Love your Lord and God with all your heart, all your strength, all your mind and soul. The second is that Jesus calls upon the father and teaches us to call upon the father as ‘Our father’.  It is a joint call—to call upon God the Father together with Jesus our brother.

The cry of God still rings out to this day — hear me my children, and come to me. Know that I am your Lord and Father. True God and true Father and of me you have been made, in my likeness and image, crafted to fit perfectly within my heart. 

Why then do we not hear this cry?  Why have we stopped our journey at the foot of the cross? Isn't heaven our inheritance and earth our abode? Why then aren't we crying out for the will of our Father to be done  here on earth as it is in heaven? Why then aren't we standing in the gap and fulfilling his will on earth?

Arise my dear brothers and sisters. Arise as sons and daughters of the most high God. Grow as children of the Father, Knowing Him and loving HIM above ALL else. Arise from sinful penury to heavenly riches, washed and made clean by the lamb. 
AND STAND IN THE GAP.

May His will be done.

by Dr. Jacqueline Michael