which kingdom are you in?

Don Williams - "Many evangelists stress accepting Jesus for forgiveness of sins, assurance of salvation and eternal life, and then leave it at that. But even more fundamental is the exchange of sovereignties. We either live in Satan's counterfeit kingdom of darkness or we live in the kingdom of God."

Jesus is our Savior but He is also our Lord. This revelation of His Lordship, i.e., His being our King in this new Kingdom, didn't come from within ourselves, it is, to quote Williams, "His self-revaliation, authored by the Father and given by the Spirit." (Mt 16.16, 1 Co 12.3)

This of course means that we cannot have any other ruler in our lives. All other idols must be destroyed (1 Kings 18.21). Jesus requires our full attention. To worship Him is to give Him our all. Our new life begins in worship and will ultimately be consummated in worship.

And giving our allegiance to a new lord is not just it. We are also regenerated, that is, we are now no longer slaves to sins but rather slaves to righteousness. We are given the ability, desire, etc. to now serve our new King. That is, we are "born again". We are a new creation. Our spirits are now made alive and where we were once unplugged from God, we are now connected and empowered through His Spirit living within us.

As Gordan Fee rightly states, to become a Christian is to become a "Spirit person." It is based on this truth we then begin our process of sanctification. We bear fruit of the Spirit (Ga 5.22-23) and exercise the gifts of the Spirit (1 Co 12.7-11). Williams reminds us of the teaching of John Wimber on the latter.

... when we move into ministry, we are like plumbers without a wrench. But at the moment we move to serve to serve, God gifts us with the right tools to be effective. When we take the risk of faith, His Spirit gives us exactly what we need.

Surrender is now our lifestyle and as we do this, less of us and more of Him is seen.

I really like the following analogy that I once saw at a conference. Imagine a person standing alone on stage. This person is "Christian". Then imagine another person is "Satan". Christian standing alone is very open to attack by Satan. Then imagine that in front of Christian appears another person representing some aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, let's say Love. Satan can still step around Love to get to Christian. Add another aspect of the fruit, Joy, yet still Christian is exposed.

However, ultimately, when Christian is surrounded by all aspects of the fruit, Satan has no access. More importantly, when Christian is fully surrounded by the fruit, it is no longer Christian that is seen, but rather Christ alone by the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit.

Technorati Tags: Kingdom of God