Expanding His Kingdom
As
expressed in the following passages,
[Jesus] said to them,
“Go into all the world and preach the good news to all
creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not
believe will be condemned. And these
signs will accompany those who believe.
In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;
they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it
will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they
will get well.”
After the Lord Jesus had
spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.
Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked
with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.”
(Mk 16:15-20)
Jesus said,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. Therefore, go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with
you always, to the very end of the age.”
(Mt 28:18-20)
We
perform His commission by proclaiming His Kingdom and Expanding His Kingdom
through many ways, such as through the support of evangelical outreach,
missionary support and outreach, supporting prison ministries, pro-life and
trafficking efforts, Christian arts, seven mountain efforts, benevolence needs,
Bibles to the nation(s), or supporting other physical and spiritual Kingdom
Biblical needs and values.
The
Kingdom of Heaven is here now, and not something that is coming. Jesus said,
“From the days of John
the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing,
and forceful men lay hold of it”
(Matt 11:12,
14-15).
Jesus began
setting up His Kingdom then, and it’s been advancing ever since – it’s within us
(Luke 17:20-21)! His Kingdom is on display whenever
the people of His Kingdom are just being who they are and manifesting the gifts
of Holy Spirit!
As some have said, “Always
share the gospel, and if you must, use words.”
In the working model as I see it, the
Kingdom of God is the whole universe and everything in it, and is ruled by
YAHWEH God Almighty, King of Kings and LORD of Lords, as expressed throughout
the Old Testament and especially in the Psalms:
“The earth is YAHWEH's, and
everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the
seas and established it upon the waters.
Who may ascend the hill of the
Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a
pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior.
Such is the generation of those
who seek him, who seek your face, O God of [the USA]…
Who is this King of glory?
YAHWEH strong and mighty, YAHWEH mighty in battle…
Who is he, this King of glory?
YAHWEH Almighty — he is the King of glory.”
(Ps 24:1-6, 8, 10)
God, the Sovereign YAHWEH:
“…YAHWEH is enthroned as King
forever.” (Ps 29:10b)
How awesome is YAHWEH Most High,
the great King over all the earth!
For God is the King of all the
earth… God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.
…for the kings of the earth
belong to God; he is greatly exalted. (Ps
47:2, 7a-8, 9b)
Here, and in many other Psalms, YAHWEH
Almighty, who created the universe, who created the world and all who live in
it, is the King of Glory ruling over all his creation – the Kingdom of God! And
the Kingdom of Heaven is a sub-set of the Kingdom of God and will be ruled by
YESHUA HAMASHIACH when He returns to the Earth to take possession and begin His
rule and reign over His Kingdom of Heaven. YESHUA currently sits at the right
hand of His Father (Psalm 2), YAHWEH, who rules and reigns from His throne over
the Kingdom of God. YESHUA’s kingdom is a sub-set of YAHWEH’s kingdom, because,
as YESHUA says to His twelve apostles,
“And I confer on you a
kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and
drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.” (Luke
22:29-30)
YESHUA says that His kingdom was
conferred on Him by His Father, YAHWEH, who is ruling over the universe,
including the Earth. It is in Psalm 2 where YAHWEH prophetically confers, or
decrees, a Kingdom for His Son when He says,
“I
have installed my King on Zion, my Holy Hill.” I will proclaim the decree of
YAHWEH:
He said to me, "You are my Son;
today I have become your Father. Ask of me,
and I will make the nations
your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them
with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
(Ps 2:6-9)
This decree establishes that
Christ’s Kingdom is to include all the nations to the ends of the earth, the
whole earthly realm. Before this decree, Christ did not have a kingdom, but of
course, this is still about a thousand before His first coming. Then when He
came, He proceeded to set up and establish His Kingdom during His ministry. And
finally, at the Last Supper, He conferred a kingdom onto each of His twelve
apostles, twelve sub-kingdoms of His earthly Kingdom. And the twelve apostles
were given Israel, as divided by the twelve states, or tribes – that’s some
Prime real estate for the apostles to rule and reign over! But like YESHUA, they
also have to wait until they return with Jesus before they can rule and reign;
Peter must be chomping at bit to come back and start wielding his scepter. Well,
that takes care of the twelve coming kings of tribes of Israel, but what about
the reminder of the nations, states, counties, cities and towns of the world? We
believers are kings and priest for a reason! The Kingdom of Heaven, YESHUA’s
domain, entails the entire realm of the Earth, probably everything up to it’s
heavenly firmament.
When I consider your
heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in
place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for
him?
You made him a little
lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over
the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and
herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the
sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
(Ps 8:3-8)
What the first Adam lost, the second
Adam, the Son of Man, has regained! But we may not see the lions and the lambs
frolicking together until YESHUA returns and reigns in His Millennial Kingdom.
Generally speaking, the Kingdom of
Heaven and the Kingdom of God seem to overlap as they have much in common and in
many contexts the terms are interchangeable.
Additional Kingdom passages:
He welcomed them and spoke to them about
the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
(Luke 9:11)
As you go, preach this
message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received,
freely give.
(Matt 10:7-8)
“From the days of John the Baptist
until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and
forceful men lay hold of it… And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to
come. He who has ears, let him hear.”
(Matt 11:12, 14-15)
When Jesus had called the Twelve
together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to , cure
diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal
the sick. (Luke 9:1-3)
YESHUA said,
"The kingdom of God does not
come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There
it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."
(Luke 17:20-21)
Also, in no way does the United States,
or any other nation, replace Israel in the Abrahamic Covenant just because
Israel did not receive Jesus at His first coming. The Abrahamic Covenant was
given to Abraham unconditionally and passed down to and through Israel
unconditionally as well. But through the Christ, our Lord and Savior, we do
receive the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. Paul explains the details in
Galatians 3:14, where we receive the promises by faith, but that’s shared else
ware.
MORE to
come…
In my
notes from March of 1999, regarding Kingdom Expansion, and which I do not have
the source:
“Disagree, if you are able,
but you’ll be unable to ignore the coming changes.
Postpone for a season, but
the truth awaits your participation.
Kingdom Expansion – The
Organized Church will no longer control or contain the Kingdom Expansion…”
(“The
Kingdom of God is at hand…”)
“Christ
in me the hope of glory”
“The
Kingdom of God reigns wherever I am!”
We
already have our crowns,
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your
crown.”
(Rev 3:11)
“The
Kingdom of Heaven, of Jesus, is near! It’s in me; and it’s in you, or should be
in you as well. If it’s not in you,
and you want it to be, it can be, YOU just have to ask!”
We, the
righteous of Virginia are rising up, and taking Virginia back from the evil
Demonocrats and RINOs… !