Sun am 29 April 2018 – Riaan Sinden

Mark. 1:14-15 (NASB & AMP);(Matt. 14:1-12); (Luke 17:20); Luke 16:16; Col. 3:9-10; (Prov. 29:18-KJV); 2 Cor. 4:16-18; Acts 2:17 & Joel 2:28; (Col. 1:13); (Eph. 2:6); (1 Pet. 4:17); Acts 14:22

This word was birthed in my heart by an amazing dream. I dreamed I was walking in nature all by myself just enjoying nature. All of a sudden Kobus was beside me. He said to me “Did you see the cloud?” I responded: “Yes I saw the cloud,” and I pointed, “There it is,” because it was far away.  He said, “What you have seen from afar is now here”. All of a sudden, the cloud was in front of me. In my heart, it was not the cloud that I was expecting. It was a dark cloud and the thunder was roaring, it was heavy with rain. Everything around became filled with that presence. Kobus said, “Reach out your hand and touch it”. As I touched it an energy came through my arm and it filled my whole body. The feeling that I got was a feeling of joy and Kobus said: “Now step into it”. I woke up at that point.

In this week of preparing God drew my attention to something. Now after John [the Baptist] was arrested and taken into custody, Jesus went to Galilee, preaching the good news of [the kingdom of] God,  and saying, “The [appointed period of] time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret past sins, live your life in a way that proves repentance; seek God’s purpose for your life] and believe [with a deep, abiding trust] in the good news [regarding salvation]” (Mark 1:14-15 AMP). This just opened something completely new for me. When Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled”, it meant exactly that. The time is fulfilled, it is here. You can touch and you can grab hold of it. He goes on to say you should repent; change the way you used to think. Change the way you used to experience things. The old way of thinking belongs to a different era. When Jesus came He proclaimed the kingdom: “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom has come”. All we have to do is to grab it. When Jesus was talking to the crowd, they knew the prophecies but they expected something different. They expected a natural kingdom to be restored, and that the throne of David would be restored; they expected to be freed from Roman rule. Their expectancy obscured their vision because the kingdom had come. The things that you are praying for are now; the things you are hoping for are now here. Repent! Change the things that you are thinking in your mind because all these could belong to an era that lost its head. There is a new era now, step into it! This kingdom does not come with observation, because it is inside of you! (Luke 17:20). God chose to put His kingdom in a people. Change the way you think. We need to repent! Every time I will ask the Lord for more, I have a preconceived idea of what I want. I have to change my mind and realise that what I am asking for is here! We do not have to die to experience heaven. Heaven is here right now!  The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it(Luke 16:16). That leaves the responsibility on us. We need to press into it. When the kingdom is at hand we need to position ourselves, we need to press into it; not only is the time fulfilled, but the kingdom is at hand and everyone is pressing into it. We must renew our mind. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him (Col. 3:9-10). The responsibility is on us to press in. We need to seek first the kingdom; we must grab hold of this kingdom. What we have been waiting for is here! It is available. We can miss what God is doing because of wrong expectations, an inaccurate mindset and an incorrect vision. My people perish because of a lack of vision (Prov. 29:18-KJV).

When the Israelites were freed from Egypt they were longing for slavery again. The only time when we long back to slavery is when we do not understand freedom. The reality of God’s kingdom has arrived. We have to receive it. We have to activate the kingdom of God that is in us. We have to possess it; we must allow the word of God to transform our thinking and the way we do things. If we do not step into what was made available to us now then we will circulate again. We repeat things time and time again without going anywhere. Jesus said time is fulfilled! Stop wasting time. Do not bring anything back that belongs to an old era. There is a new Head. When we recognise this new era the things that we were waiting for start making sense. We do not question anymore. We experience the finished work. Step into what God has prepared for you. All we need to do is press in, we need to have our mind radically transformed and renewed. When we talk about a change of mind, it may probably be the most difficult thing you do. There is a legacy of the old life that will always want to come back and hold you back. The cost is laying down your life every day and taking up your cross. Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18). Do not judge the season though past experiences; neither good nor bad experiences. Do not miss what God is doing because you are going through difficult times. Do not get bogged down by bad experiences; do not submit to the status quo. This season requires an eternal vision.

The kingdom is at hand! There must be a time in every son of God’s life when we have to claim it for ourselves; the Kingdom has come. This cannot be taught by reasoning, if we do not receive it by revelation we are going to miss out. It comes by revelation, not reasoning. This should be a present tense reality in our lives right now. We need to understand that the kingdom of God is here as much as it is in the future. And it shall be in the last days,’ God says,‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind;And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams (Acts 2:17 & Joel 2:28). Peter stands up saying it was what Joel had prophesied, these are the last days. Time is fulfilled. We cannot wait for another ‘last day’. It started with the outpouring of the Spirit. Do not wait until a future date anymore. If we continue to postpone we will just be rotating in time. We live in the new by a new standard now, we live in this world but we are not of this world. We have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Col. 1:13). We are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).

We adhere to a different set of rules, we are eternal beings. The kingdom is at hand, press into it. Our lives must cry out “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. We do not have to die to experience heaven. It is here now.

The judgement will start in the house of the Lord (1 Pet. 4:17). We are judged according to the Son, Jesus. When God looks at us through Jesus and we are judged to live a life accurately aligned to God. That is judgment. Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts. 14:22). This is not a free for all. Yes, it is here, it is accessible but you will be tested, you will be tried and judged. Are you ready to possess the kingdom? The life we live is in Christ, what He has done was a finished work. His kingdom is at hand, press into it, step into it. The veil has been torn. We do not have to wait anymore, we can just enter.