THE MANIFESTING FULLNESS OF THE KINGDOM – Ron McGatlin
As I read the book of Acts again, some questions came to my mind. God then began to reveal more truth regarding the long delay of the fullness of the kingdom manifesting in this world.
WHY DID THE KINGDOM NOT FILL THE ENTIRE WORLD IN THE FIRST CENTURY, AND WHY HAS IT NOT RULED THE WORLD OVER THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS? WHAT TODAY STANDS AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF GOD FILLING THE WORLD TO THE GLORY OF GOD?
Before addressing these questions, we need to establish certain facts regarding God and His creation on Earth.
All truth, power, wisdom, and true knowledge are from God. He has created mankind in His image to rule on Planet Earth with Him in love. Love exists only between an instigator and a recipient. A completed or requited love relationship with God leads to becoming one with Him.
Love is a choice made by both parties. Forced love without choice is not love; it is abuse or slavery. God has given mankind the choice to love Him or not.
God’s plan was and is that He would rule the world by love through His sons and daughters. He has done everything possible for mankind to express His love for us. Even the sacrifice of the cross to atone for all sin, and the resurrected life of Christ to empower us to righteous and productive living, bringing forth His love and life to rule in the world by His indwelling Spirit.
(Before you read on, please understand that we have read the following accounts about rejection of Christ and persecution by religious leaders in the first centuries, and thought about how bad they were and how different we are today. The very same spirits that drove them are doing the same things in this day. Some of the methods have changed a bit, but their goal is the same now and is functioning in religion today to prevent the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed in the first century.)
MANKIND HAS LARGELY NOT MADE THE DECISION TO LOVE GOD
Why has mankind not made that decision? There is a powerful anti-God force in the world that tests mankind’s love for God.
But how is it that man largely does not recognize this, and does nothing about it?
That is the big question, and along with what is being done about it, is the big answer that we are seeking.
THE KINGDOM OPPOSITION EXPOSED
While Christ Jesus was alive in this world, He was only tolerated by religion, and never accepted. He had converts from religion and visited religious places, even cleansing the temple on one occasion. However, He was never given a title or position of authority in the religious systems. He was mostly tolerated because they feared the multitudes of citizens who received Him as a prophet from God, and some recognized Him as Lord.
The entire chapter of Matthew 21 speaks of religion’s resistance to Christ Jesus and the gospel of the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed. It also speaks about what God will do and is now doing about it.
The people were moved by Jesus and His message. It was the religious leaders who hated Him and His message.
In Matthew 21:8-10, a great multitude welcomed Jesus entering Jerusalem, saying,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Hosanna in the highest!”
And the whole city of Jerusalem was moved.
In Matthew 21:12-17, Jesus then entered the temple, overturned the tables of the money changers, and drove out the merchandisers. Then the people came to Him, and He began healing the blind and the lame. The religious leaders were indignant when they saw and heard the children crying out, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
In Matthew 21:23, the Chief Priest and the Elders confronted Jesus with questions of His authority to teach, but could not cast Him out of the temple for fear of the multitude of people.
In Matthew 21:28-32, Jesus spoke to the religious leaders a parable of two sons. Father told the first son to go work in His vineyard today, and he said that he would not, but later regretted it and went. The father went to the second son, and he said that he would go, but then did not go. Which one did the will of the father? They replied, “The first.”
“Jesus said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.’”
We are beginning to see how strong the hatred of religion toward the kingdom of God was and is today. The common thread through all this is to stop the kingdom from manifesting in this world.
We will see much more ahead from the book of Acts and forward into today. This is much bigger than we ever imagined. Stay tuned, but first, the clincher on what God will do and is now doing about this, as found in Matthew 21.
THE PARABLE OF GOD’S VINEYARD AND THE VINEDRESSERS
Read Matthew 21:33-46.
God is going to retrieve His vineyard, His kingdom, and remove the religious leaders who stole it and killed His true servants and His son.
43 He spoke to the religious leaders of that day and said, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. 44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
“45 Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.
HOLY SPIRIT EMPOWERMENT OF CHRIST
In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit came upon the people of God, and Peter stood and preached Jesus, and three thousand were saved the first day. They had great favor with the people.
Acts 2:46-47: “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
Peter and John went up to the temple at prayer hour, and healed a man lame from birth who was laid at the gate daily to receive alms. He walked and leaped praising God, and entered the gate with them. People gathered, and Peter preached Christ Jesus to around five thousand, and many of them believed.
As they spoke, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them and took them into custody. The next morning, the rulers, elders, scribes, Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, gathered and set them in their midst.
They asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this? They commanded them not to speak nor teach in the name of Jesus.
Acts 4:21: “So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.”
This pattern of severe hatred for Jesus and the gospel of the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed in His lifetime and through the apostles after Pentecost has continued. We can see the development of the strategy and effectiveness of religion against the kingdom in Chapters 6 and 7 of Acts, and at the same time, the rapid advance of the kingdom that would have continued to fill the world without the severe and cunning opposition of the enemy.
Only the people seeing, hearing, and believing the word and works of truth were, at this point, preventing the religious leaders from killing the disciples.
EVIL LYING STRATEGIES BROUGHT IN
Acts 6:7, “Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.”
Acts 6:8-13: “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen. 10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. 11 Then they secretly induced men to say, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.’ 12 And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. 13 They also set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.’”
Religious leaders from other countries and cultures had come in, stirred up the religious leaders, and deceived the people with lies against Stephen. Hearing these lies, some of the people and all the religious leaders were deceived, and viciously attacked Stephen, dragged him outside, and stoned him to death.
The persecution caused the church to spread as disciples immigrated to other countries. Yet the kingdom was shut out from filling the culture of the nations. The governance and culture of the world have, for the most part, through the ages, remained separated from the kingdom of God.
Without the favor of the masses of people, the move of the kingdom was greatly hindered and largely became an underground operation. Civil or political governmental operations in agreement with false religious leaders have aided their ability to deceive.
However, the church could not be completely eradicated, but remained unable to bring forth the kingdom of God ruling in the cultures of nations due to the fierce persecution.
THE SINISTER CUNNING ADVANCEMENT OF DECEPTION
The cases we have written about here are like the tip of an iceberg. This same work of blaspheme accusation is very prevalent today in some nations, and deception has moved to even more sinister, cunning methods of operation.
Around the third century, the powers of darkness had determined that the only way to eradicate the threat of the kingdom of God from growing into the world was to take over the kingdom movement from the inside and change the minds and hearts of the people.
In the early years of the fourth century, Constantine, the emperor of the vast Roman Empire, converted to Christianity and made it the official religion of the empire. He began establishing the rules of religious worship, etc. He made Sunday an official holy day for people to practice the state religion.
The ways of the fallen world and man’s ways filtered into the church. The rule of religious leaders misled by spirits of darkness has stolen the way of the kingdom of God now on earth. The way of God in Christ to live by the Spirit and walk in the Spirit through an in-love relationship with God and one another was lost among religious traditions.
Jesus did not come to establish a religion. He came to save the world by redeeming mankind and restoring the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Modified teachings have filled the Christian Religion today with misinterpretations that steal the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, from coming forth in our lives and in this world.
CUNNING DECEPTION
The enemies of the kingdom on earth know that they cannot make you and me believe that Jesus is not God and King, and that there is a real kingdom of God. THE ENEMY ONLY HAS TO MAKE US BELIEVE THAT WE CANNOT HAVE THE KINGDOM TODAY, NOW IN THIS LIFE, IN THIS WORLD. He can steal the kingdom forever, one day at a time, with misinterpreted scripture.
The devil, posing as an angel of light, has captured the minds of believers by joining the church systems many years ago, setting many false beliefs as foundational truths of the Christian Religion that now have prevented the advance of the kingdom of God and given the enemy almost free rein in this world.
THE MANIFESTING KINGDOM
From the end of the first century until now, the advancement of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven has been hidden from the world.
In this recent millennium of 2000 AD, the kingdom is now being revealed because there are more people alive on earth who are in love with God and have now been given ears to hear. Manmade religious systems and church traditions cannot transfer into the kingdom age.
The kingdom that Jesus brought and is bringing now in His people is not segmented and has no boundaries or limitations. It is not a one day a week or prayer or worshiping more, nor any other tradition. Neither is it a style of human government. It is all day, every day, and everywhere. God is love and all-consuming.
It does not take over the government; it makes whatever governance exists into pure love and truth to function by the flow of the kingdom of God. This does not come by the design of mankind, but by the love, power, and wisdom of God flowing in and through Christ Jesus in God’s kingdom children on earth.
Let’s talk about it. Send me an email or text with your question or to set up a time to talk by phone.
Ron McGatlin
https://openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net