Prayer and the Kingdom of God Part 2

How: Repent to See

"Most Christians repent enough to get forgiven, but not enough to see the Kingdom"

Repentance means we change our way of thinking.

This is not just a heavenly mandate to "think happy thoughts", but "the transforming of our minds"

Jesus calls man to repent, and to turn to his focus: the Kingdom of God.

The focus of repentance is to change our way of thinking until the Kingdom of God becomes our focus, fills out consciousness. And the enemy's strategy is to distract us from that through our affections for the world - the visible.

The visible Kingdom (earth) v's the invisible Kingdom (Heaven)

Just park this for moment, I want to pick up something else important:

Co-Laboring with Christ:
1 Cor 3 Paul talks about workers co-laboring to bring the Kingdom here on earth. Co-laboring with Jesus.

I don't know about you, but for most of my life I have had an understanding that the Church (people) is Jesus way to reach people. But I never really had the revelation that we are co-laboring with Christ to bring his Kingdom into effect. That is, I understand Christ worked through me to do His will, but that I was almost a vacant passive vessel being used by God to fulfill his will. But this is not the case at all, rather there is an active co-laboring effort with Jesus to bring into effect "your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven".
To my previous way of thinking was that being passive, I was just a vessel of sorts and that God did not really need me. But now rather God has CALLED me to work WITH HIM to bring his Kingdom into effect. The alternative is that He forces His will and His Kingdom on the earth without invitation or request by the Church. And we know that is not how God works, freedom to chose and free will then go out the window.

So my important part here is to get an understanding of God, Co-Laboring with you and I to bring about His will, His Kingdom.

So we come back to Earth Kingdom (visible) V's Heaven's Kingdom (invisible). As Paul states that the invisible realm is eternal, a higher everlasting kingdom, earth's kingdom is not.
And I love what Bill Johnson says here:
"It was as though Jesus said 'If you don't change the way you perceive things, you'll live your whole life thinking that what you see in the natural is the superior reality. Without changing the way you think you'll never see the world that is right in front of you. It's My World, and it fulfills every dream you've ever had. And I brought it with me'. All that He did in life, He did by drawing from that Superior reality"

So then the question is, how do we have that superior reality? What is the vehicle?
FAITH - the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"

I don't know about you, but my faith for much of my life was based on being forgiven and going to heaven when I die, I appreciate it was a bit more complicated than that, but if I had to summarize my faith muscle, it was in forgiveness. Great.
But faith to bring Heaven's Kingdom (which is inside me / around me - Jesus word's, not mine)onto earth, is a whole other concept.
If Jesus had power over everything, from sickness, to the weather, to the trees to people's hearts and pasts before they spoke to him, to water and food production, to arguments and law, then that reality was His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.
So I am left with no other option, than to exercise my FAITH in his higher reality, His Kingdom to have supremacy over this earth.
Ahhhh, so I now I get it when he says if you have FAITH you can say to that mountain be moved and it will be cast into the sea.

Faith is the currency of Heaven, and if I pray in FAITH, the Kingdom of God and His will on this earth, then the earth will obey me, sickness will obey me, evil will obey me.

So prayer with faith is the vehicle to bring His reality into ours.
So prayer (the calling his Kingdom, His will) with faith (belief of what we hope for and being certain of it, even though we don't see it) is what draws Heaven onto / into earth - my world.

A final remark (Bill Johnson): "if the average Christian life around me falls short of Jesus standard, I must pursue against the grain. That is, for example, if people are not being healed, I will not supply a rationale so that those around me can remain comfortable with the void. Instead I will pursue the healing until into comes or that that individual goes to be with the Lord.
I will not lower the standard of the God's word to my level of experience."
Jesus healed everyone that came to him. To accept any other standard is to bring God's word down to our level of experience, and deny the nature of the One who changes not.
If I beg God to heal someone, I am presuming I have more mercy than Him.
Think about it.

Prayer & the Kingdom of God- Part 1, Introduction

“Our Father, who is in Heaven

Hallowed by your Name:

Your Kingdom come,

Your Will be done,

On this earth,

As it is in Heaven”

I would like to start, by asking, what prayer and petition to God, did Jesus teach us that he didn't intend on fulfilling?

I would also like to ask, what teaching and commandments did Jesus give us, that he didn't intend on fulfilling?

At what point do you and I understand that what we have inside of us, is the power of the Kingdom of God, and more so, that we have not unleashed it “On this earth, As it is in Heaven”.

Think about it and sit for a while.

I don't know about you, but right now I need to repent.

“For the Kingdom of God, is not just a matter of talk, but of Power” (1 Cor 4:20)

“For indeed, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21)

Do you have a grasp of what that means? And the implications of that. For those of you that have never experienced the tangible evidence of God's power, please put to one side the niceties of “well I have experienced God's forgiveness and love and a feeling of peace”. (I appreciate that, and that is genuine and all, but let's park that for a moment)

I believe, God made heaven and earth.

I believe Jesus was God's son and undid everything Satan is trying to destroy or has already

I believe Jesus was a walking demonstration of God's Kingdom and the power and authority that He had over all of the Kingdom of creation – period.

“Now you will do greater works than these....” John 14:12

Earth is an orphaned planet, looking for it's Kingdom. Currently it's a chaotic kingdom, but it's coming back to order under the rightful Kingdom authority – His.

And who is God doing this through – people, a co-labor with Jesus. Boy oh boy there is some profound and amazing teaching and revelation in that bit right there, but it is for another day.

Guys, I don't know about you, but in my prayer life I have “left a lot of money, on the table”, because what I am dealing with is of God's will and His Authority to execute His will, on earth - right here, right now. No praying to a saint, no wishing or guessing, but a prayer with the expressed unleashing of His Kingdom on earth – my earth.

So what is my earth? What is your earth?: family, friends, work, houses, sickness, relationships, money, time, food, anything you can think and experience. The rocks and dirt to the flowers in your garden, to the school you send you kids...

Just another day:

I no longer want to make up religious or weak excuses for a powerlessness because powerlessness is inexcusable. My mandate is simple, unleash God's Kingdom and His will on this earth, on my earth.

Come back next week to explore how and with what.