The underground rumble of the greatest awakening ever is beginning to surface. At the same time the great shaking of the things of this world that God has not built has begun. A great purging and cleansing of the world has begun at the house of God. (1 Peter 4:17).
Without spiritual understanding from God regarding the times, the devastation and crumbling of much of the world’s religious and secular systems of governance appears to be really bad news.
Yet for those with spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear, there is really good news.
The word translated gospel in the Bible means “good news.” The gospel of the kingdom of God that Jesus and His disciples taught, preached, and demonstrated is really good news. (Matt 9:25). The gospel of the kingdom begins with the good news of salvation but continues with the good news of Christ’s resurrection and return at Pentecost in the Holy Spirit to empower His people with His pure love and power to restore the world to the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:4-8) (Matt 24:14).
Spirit God is one. The one Spirit God is manifested as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From the one Spirit God, all that exists whether seen or unseen was created and continues to exist. (Col 1:16) (Rev 4:11). All creation, both that which has breath in it and that which does not, emanates from the living eternal Spirit God Almighty. God spoke the earth and the heavens and all that is in them and on them into existence. (Gen 2:4).
Spirit God that spoke the earth and the heavens into existence is speaking to and through His people today. Father God in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit abides now on earth within His fully redeemed sons and daughters. (John 14) (John 17:20-22).
We are only just beginning to recognize the potential of God in His people who are crucified with Christ, in whom the resurrection life of love and power of Christ lives by the same Spirit God that spoke the worlds into existence. Paul spoke of this when he wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.
Paul also wrote about Christ in His people as the great mystery of the ages, “The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY.” Colossians 1:26-27.
US IN CHRIST AND CHRIST IN US
Coming to Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord connects us like a branch to the vine. Christ Jesus is the vine, and we are to become the fully connected branches which become the same substance as the vine. Christ flows His life into us, and we become the part of the vine that bears the fruit of Christ on earth. Through this connection we are seated with Christ at the throne of God in heaven. While at the same time on earth, Christ’s life of love, power, and wisdom flows into us bringing forth the fruit of Christ on earth changing this world to “as it is in heaven.” So it is that God again reigns on earth through His fully connected or mature sons and daughters. (John 15:1-7) (Eph 2:6) (Matt 5:10).
The nurturing flow of the life of God in Christ by the Holy Spirit is the substance that works in us to do the same works that Christ Jesus did when He was in His incarnate body on earth and even the greater works that He promised. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:12-14.
The promise to do the works that He did and greater works is to those who believe in Him. Believing in Him is faith that comes easily when we intimately know Him within us by the Holy Spirit.
The Father is glorified by the works Jesus does through us, because it is the Spirit of Christ the Son of God in us by the Holy Spirit doing the asking and then doing the works. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13.
God does whatever we ask in the NAME OF JESUS. Asking in the name of Jesus means literally Christ Jesus in us asking the Father through us. Jesus will only ask for what He sees the Father doing or hears the Father saying in every situation. Thus the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven.
We become one with Christ, one spirit and bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.” 1 Corinthians 6:17, Ephesians 6:30.
Truly we become visible or manifest sons or offspring of God in Christ, the last Adam. Thus we are no longer of the first Adam who sinned but of the last Adam who saves and redeems the world and all that is on it or in it. It is God’s desire that we become one of the many sons God in bringing to glory establishing the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. (Rom 8:19) (Heb 2:10).
Therefore, the kingdom of God is much more than being saved to go to heaven when we die; it also involves Christ actively reproducing His resurrected life in His people on earth by the Spirit of God. The gospel of God has never been only about us and our needs. It is about a total reforming of this world to its original state as it was in the Garden of Eden before sin entered and death by sin. The gospel of the kingdom is about returning the world and us to the Garden of Eden on earth as it is in heaven. The governance and rule of God in Christ in us by the Holy Spirit is the glory of God from heaven manifested into the natural world. It is to be the end of the great tension between evil darkness and the pure holy light of God ruling in the world by the overcoming of all darkness of evil by His marvelous light.
Spiritual death is separation from God.
Death has been and is being defeated. In Christ we become one with Him. We are Spirit beings living in an earthly body. As spirit beings in Christ Jesus, we will never die but are assured of everlasting life with God without separation now in this life and in the life to come. There is no more death in Christ, and Christ in us produces everlasting life in us now and forever.
Eternal life begins in us the day the resurrected life of Christ Jesus, the finished work of the cross, is received within our hearts and lives crucifying our old man in Christ and filling our hearts and lives with the brilliant light and life of God in Christ by the same Holy Spirit of God who raised Christ from the dead. ”But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11.
This is the day the Lord Has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Thank you Jesus!
Ron McGatlin
www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net