Kingdom 101: Your Relationship or Your Religion
Are you known to be a religious person, or are you known for your relationship with the Lord God? In His Constitution, it refers to man's relationship with God in these terms: servants--which comes under the heading of "representative". Leaders, prophets, ministers, apostles, are considered as representatives of the Lord God. Remember, Christianity was never a term given to us by Jesus Christ nor the apostles. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
In the Kingdom of God, which is the government of heaven, the representatives are known as ambassadors, ministers as well as leaders, representing their home nation or country. In essence, the term Christian was supposed to be a description of the culture of the Kingdom being exhibited through our lives. This is why the first believers were called Christians by the early observers of their lifestyle, their power, their boldness and their Christ-like authority. Without reading and studying the Constitution, right or wrong, most unbelievers have their own opinions about what they think a Christian should be. I truly believe if we aren't careful, we can identify too strongly with their label and fall into the trap of trying to live up to their expectations. This is just one reason you should keep reading and studying God's Constitution while submitting your will to the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, you are just another human trying to be someone that you are not.
In order for you to receive the Governor (Holy Spirit), you must first embrace the King (Jesus the Christ), meaning His Word which is the Father's command (Word). Jesus summarized it this way: Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”
We should stop trying to live up to what the world or the church calls Christians and all of its false assumptions associated with that term. Instead, focus harder on living an effective life as sons and daughters of God, as well as brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ. We aren't members of a church. We ARE the church and citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Keep in mind, all of His actions throughout history were extensions of Himself to us, as He desired to live and dwell in man. His ultimate goal was to restore His original place in mankind. We lost a kingdom, but King Jesus restored us back to the right relationship.
Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
Acts 11:25-26 John 12:44-50 Luke 15:11-24
~~W.R. Luchie
In the Kingdom of God, which is the government of heaven, the representatives are known as ambassadors, ministers as well as leaders, representing their home nation or country. In essence, the term Christian was supposed to be a description of the culture of the Kingdom being exhibited through our lives. This is why the first believers were called Christians by the early observers of their lifestyle, their power, their boldness and their Christ-like authority. Without reading and studying the Constitution, right or wrong, most unbelievers have their own opinions about what they think a Christian should be. I truly believe if we aren't careful, we can identify too strongly with their label and fall into the trap of trying to live up to their expectations. This is just one reason you should keep reading and studying God's Constitution while submitting your will to the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, you are just another human trying to be someone that you are not.
In order for you to receive the Governor (Holy Spirit), you must first embrace the King (Jesus the Christ), meaning His Word which is the Father's command (Word). Jesus summarized it this way: Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”
We should stop trying to live up to what the world or the church calls Christians and all of its false assumptions associated with that term. Instead, focus harder on living an effective life as sons and daughters of God, as well as brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ. We aren't members of a church. We ARE the church and citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Keep in mind, all of His actions throughout history were extensions of Himself to us, as He desired to live and dwell in man. His ultimate goal was to restore His original place in mankind. We lost a kingdom, but King Jesus restored us back to the right relationship.
Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
Acts 11:25-26 John 12:44-50 Luke 15:11-24
~~W.R. Luchie
