Kingdom (part 2)

Since February 10^th 1973, my second birth date, I have had favorite scriptures. The first verse I memorized was Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. In my way of thinking, “Seek first the kingdom,” sounded like the highest priority command. I would meditate on those words for days at a time. No matter where I turned, I couldn’t find anyone teaching this verse. Other than, “you shouldn’t worry about things, God cares even for the birds.”

Finally in the early 90’s, I got my hands on the

Spirit Filled Life Bible

, which includes many notes from editor, Jack Hayford, concerning the Kingdom. And then the Bahamian pastor, Myles Monroe came up on my radar with his great teachings on “purpose.” These were the only ones I could find back then teaching on the Kingdom – I’m sure there were others.

Most ministers have focused on spreading the Christian religion rather than the message of the Kingdom of God. This has left a hunger concerning the message and higher priority of our Lord’s, Gospel of the Kingdom.

Today many in the Ekklesia are teaching “real” spiritual warfare, who know that it is actually Kingdom business.

Effect of the Fall– Gen 3:16-24

My paraphrase– God told Eve: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and you shall have pain in child-birth. Then to Adam He said, “Cursed is the ground because of you; You shall toil to eat of it all the days of your life. It’s thorns and thistles for you. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground. And the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

God sent them out of the garden to be farmers. And He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every which way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

So, through disobedience to the basic law of his rule, man “falls,” and suffers the loss of his “dominion” (vv. 22-23). Everything of his delegated realm (earth) comes under a curse as his relationship with God, the source of his power to rule, is severed (vv. 17-18). Man lost the “life” power essential to ruling in God’s Kingdom (vv. 19-22). Beyond the tragedy of man’s loss, two other facts unfold:

• First, through his disobedience to God and submission to the Serpent’s deception, man’s rule has been confiscated by the Serpent. [Rev 12:9 verifies that the spirit using the snake’s body was Satan himself.] Satan, becomes administrator of this now cursed realm. In verse 15, the Serpent’s “seed” and “head,” indicates a continual line (seed) of evil offspring extending Satan’s rule (the head).


• However, a second fact offers hope. In the midst of this tragedy, God promises the recovery of man’s lost authority (v. 15) The seed of the woman will eventually crush the head of the snake. Specifically, Jesus at the Cross, and in a wider sense, the human race eventually triumphing over the Evil One. (Rom.16:20) God’s plan of redemption begins when He clothed man with the first sacrifice (v. 21).¹

After the Flood– Gen 8:20-9:17

My paraphrase– Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

“And the fear of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air. “Every moving thing shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even the green herbs. “But don’t eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. “And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly and multiply.”

Then God said to Noah and his sons, “Behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants, and with every living creature that goes out of the ark, every beast of the earth.”

“I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and all flesh on the earth.”

After the flood, a new order is established. Noah’s faith, which brought about his deliverance, is now evident in his worship to God after he left the ark (Gen 8:20-22). Then God establishes His covenant (first mentioned Gen 6:18) with Noah (Gen 9:8-17) after restating His purpose to make man to be fruitful and multiply, as at the beginning. However, other factors are not the same as at the beginning:

• This covenant was to guarantee the stability and order of the God’s Kingdom on earth. People also needed to learn that human law was necessary for the stability of life, and that wickedness should not go unchecked like before the flood. (This is why America’s government with its checks and balances has been successful.)


• The flood did not reverse the loss of man’s original dominion. He is still fallen, though thankfully able to receive God’s mercy.


• And, the animals will fear mankind from this time on (Gen 9:2), which was not a characteristic of their relationship before this. Isaiah 11:6-9 tells us the original fearless order will be recovered in the final restoration of God’s Kingdom on Earth during the millennium (Rev 20:1-4).

Even with these deficiencies, a clean slate for seeking God’s Kingdom first was made available to man, and again God reaffirms man’s responsibility for managing earth with an accountability to Him (9:1-7).

The Flood did not neutralize the influence of the Serpent, nor has it changed man’s capacity for rebellion against God’s rule. However, new hope begins with the promise of eventual recovery of what was lost in Adam’s rebellion.

Conclusion:

So, man lost his kingdom. When man fell from grace, he lost a kingdom, not a religion. The hunger of the human heart is for his kingdom. We must realize the Bible is not primarily about a religion or rituals, it is about the establishment of a kingdom rulership on earth from the heavenly realm. The Bible is about a divine project of governing earth from Heaven through mankind. A royal family mandated to colonize earth from Heaven.

Our Lord Jesus’ ministry was to declare the Kingdom of God. If you are spiritually poor, only the Kingdom will fulfill your hunger. When the Kingdom becomes our priority, its blessings become our reality.²

Religion is what man does until he finds the Kingdom. Religion’s focus is on heaven; the Kingdom focuses on earth. Religion prepares man to leave earth; the Kingdom empowers man to dominate earth. This may be why Jesus addressed the religious leaders of His day the way He did (i.e., Mt 23:13,15; Mt 15:1-3,6b; Mt 5:20; Mt 21:31b).

Religion must be one of the greatest obstacles to the Kingdom. Christianity is a very well known religion. It is well established, well studied, well recorded, and well distributed; but little is known about the Kingdom.³

God bless you my friend,

— Dwight Hammond

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¹ The Spirit-Filled Life Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 10.

² Monroe, Myles. Understanding Your Place in God’s Kingdom. (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishing), 17-20,24.

³ Ibid., Monroe, 20,21.