Sun AM 12 November 2017 – Riaan Sinden
Rev. 4:1-2; Matt. 11:12; Matt. 6:9-10; Phil. 3:14-16; 1 John 2:15-17; Matt. 6:26; Gen. 3:1-7; Col. 3:1-17; 1 Cor. 2:6-11; John 13:34
One of the major obstacles in our Christian walk is how we view God, and consequently, how we view one another and our circumstances. While going through these things, our view is really limited, but God is calling us to come up higher, to view things from His perspective. After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne (Rev. 4:1-2). This is not a call on the level of the flesh; this is speaking to your spirit. Some might say that people living with a heavenly viewpoint are trying to escape the realities of life, and it is possible to be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good. But then, what is the greater reality? Is it this which we live in every day or is it that place in God where our spirit can connect with His master plan, where one can see the end from the beginning, destiny and eternity? When we look at the history of the Church, it was those who were heavenly minded who did the most good. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force (Matt. 11:12). The people who forcefully grab hold of the kingdom of heaven are the ones advancing it. You cannot do that if you live a worldly existence. Not to say that we should try and escape where we are, but Jesus taught us to pray: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:9-10). There is a heavenly perspective to what we are doing here.
Regrettably, we spend most of our time trying to implement our worldly view on heavenly realities. However, that sort of thinking will fail as frequently as we try it. You cannot view heaven from an earthy perspective. It is therefore crucial that we see and understand everything from a heavenly perspective, especially when it comes to what God is doing, and his Word. We can so easily become entangled and think “Oh no, things are going wrong!” Seen from that point of view, you feel hopeless. When you pray, it is always, “Oh Lord, please help us!” We are not ruling because we are not seeing it from a heavenly perspective, and so we cannot speak accurately into situations. It is only when we approach God’s Word from a heavenly viewpoint that we start seeing a continuous unveiling of the mysteries that are hidden in Christ. That is what our hearts are longing for.
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained (Phil. 3:14-16). Living from a heavenly perspective is something that we need to press into, something that we should desire. We need to grab hold of what God has for us. This response to the upward call is not something that an immature person would do. Mature sons have their minds set on the things from above. It is a mature son that responds to the call to come up higher. This position in Christ allows us to experience more revelation and brings us into an accurate alignment with how God sees things. If we position ourselves accurately when we speak, we speak God’s heart, and when we act, we act God’s heart.
We cannot escape the world we are in – God takes us through different circumstances and trials – but if you do not see things properly, you are going to be so upset with the devil, and waste so much time trying to confront him. God is taking us through different experiences, and in the end, it is for us to grow up to maturity. As we do, we will want to see things the way God does; we will ask Him, “What is it that You are doing?” However, you should be aware that the devil is going to fight this tooth and nail because he wants to keep us trapped in this earthly view. He wants to keep us entangled in the nitty-gritty of life, with things that don’t really matter, making us rely on the systems of this world. He wants to keep you restricted to this worldly viewpoint because this is where his scheming works best. This is where his systems operate. Paul warns us: Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:15-17). This passage describes the love of the world not just as a casual fling, but a complete reliance on the world. It is for this reason that the love of the Father cannot be in you. He may love you, but how you see life is how you experience His love. The greatest fear is that we will go through life and never experience the love of God from His perspective. We know He loves us – we sing about it, we talk about it – but there is a viewpoint in heaven, in Christ, where you experience His love on a whole new level.
The worldly systems are designed to lure your mind away from God, and focus it on the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Once you start relying on the things that you have, and on what you can do, you start to push God to the back. It is difficult to help someone who believes that they know exactly what they are doing because they just think that you are in the way. When you say, “I have a very secure job”, what you are really saying is, “This job is my security”. Once that job becomes your provider and your security, then you are in trouble! What if you lose your job? No more security? No more provision? On the other hand, if God is your security and your provision, then it does not really matter if you lose your job because you still have your trust in God. Yes, you will go through difficult times, but you will be able to view it from a heavenly perspective. You will know that if God cares for the birds of the air, he will certainly take care of you! (Matt. 6:26)
The problem with lusting after things is that it causes you to be focused on what you want to achieve. God is completely out of the picture. Once you start operating from this perspective, you will disregard all common sense. You will not care if you hurt people, or step on them, as long as you get to the place where you want to be. To achieve this, the enemy will appeal to the eyes of the soul, just like he did in the Garden (Gen. 3:1-7). He told Eve that if she ate, her eyes would be opened, but her eyes were open. Her spiritual eyes were open, her physical eyes were open, so which eyes did he want to open? He wanted to open the ‘soulish’ eyes. He knows that once you start viewing things from that perspective, you become entangled in your own desires. He said, “You will be like God,” but they were already like God.
The soul cannot accurately view the realities of heaven; if the soul is not ruled by the spirit, you will have a completely wrong understanding. God is calling us up higher. He wants us to see things from His perspective. He wants us to see things the way He sees it so that we can be accurately positioned. The worldly mindset is the carnal mindset, where you are only interested in what you want, and you experience God for your immediate circumstances. If you are going through a difficult time, you can view God as your bank. Your prayers will always start with “Give me…”. There is nothing wrong with asking God for things, but there is always a higher dimension, where you ask because you want to be in line. Then if you receive, it is always because God wants to do something. You do not just want to have a survival point of view.
Mature sons pursue the things from above because they have put to death the things of the world (Col. 3:1-17). This is the position in which we should live life. If we can allow this word to really penetrate our hearts, we will change the world! This is the right perspective, where we come into alignment with God. However, having a heavenly perspective can only be accomplished in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. The mind of God cannot be accessed by the wisdom of this age; only by the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:6-11). Therefore we cannot access this heavenly perspective without the Spirit. We need to see things from a spiritual vantage point because once our vantage point changes from worldly to heavenly, we see destiny and eternity and we will see ourselves, our brothers and sisters, and everything else, complete in Christ.
How do we see each other? How do we see the people who irritate us and those who always mess up? How do we see the very rich, or the very poor? Can we see God busy fulfilling His plan in their lives? Tolerating people is not the kingdom way; the kingdom perspective is love, kindness and peace. When we see our brothers and sisters in Christ from this perspective, even if they do not see it themselves, then we are in fellowship with the Spirit of God. When we communicate from a place of destiny, we communicate on a level that encourages them to bring down the walls that they have put up. When we see from a heavenly perspective, we see as God sees, and when we speak, we speak God’s heart to our brothers, and our words will reveal the love of God to them. Even when they fail, our love will remain patient and kind.
Our point of view determines how we relate to people. A worldly perspective does not allow us to see people beyond the circumstances that they are in. When you see someone in difficult circumstances, that is how you are going to relate to them. Our judgements are mostly shaped by what a person is experiencing, but our judgements should be shaped by what we see from a heavenly perspective when the love of God is living in our hearts. Remember what Jesus said: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another (John 13:34). That should be our position in Christ so that we can love from a new perspective.
Series: Kingdom of God; Pattern Son
Sun am 9 July 2017 – Kobus Swart
Isa. 9:8 – KJV; (Gen. 32:24-28); (Heb. 2:10); (Matt. 16:15); John 12:23-25; (John 14:6); (Luke 5:14); (John 5:19); Matt. 23:39; (Matt. 21:43); (1 John 4:17); (Gal. 4:4); (Mark 9:7); (Gal. 2:20); (Rom. 6:8); (2 Cor. 5:21); (Gal. 5:16-23)
God spoke into Jacob, but it falls on Israel (Isa. 9:8 – KJV). In Jacob’s God-encounter, when he wrestled with the angel, God changed his name from Jacob to Israel (Gen. 32:24-28). ‘Israel’ means ‘man ruled by God’. But the Word of God had to enter and penetrate Jacob to change his nature. I pray that every time a living Word comes from this pulpit or wherever a living Word is spoken, that it will lead to a God-encounter that will change people.
What God starts He will finish, even in your personal life, but He needs your co-operation. God’s original plan is still His ultimate intention.
God is busy disciplining you into sonship. There is no way that we can understand sonship without taking a closer look at the pattern Son, Jesus! He is the role model. When God deals with us, He is shaping us into the life of His pattern Son. Jesus came to bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10). In this unfolding process of sonship, you will frequently hear the phrase, “I Am.” Moses was a sent one but God was dealing with something in Moses called ‘self-will’. God had to train him and shape him for that commissioning.
Believe it or not, the great ‘I am’ is in us, the hope of glory. That needs revelation insight. You need an encounter with that truth to realise what it is. Christ in us, the hope of glory – what does that mean? People want to know who Jesus really is. Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” (Matt. 16:15-18). He said, “My flesh and blood did not reveal it to you. I do not look like a special man. My flesh and blood did not give it away. My Father in heaven revealed that to you.” And upon this rock, He will build His Church, the rock consisting of people who have that revelation of who Jesus is. The Greeks wanted to see Jesus, but He answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:23-24 – see also the Message Bible). Jesus had to die to multiply Himself many times over, not in an inferior quality, but to multiply Himself. The question is: do they see Him when they see us? There is a quest to see Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal (John 12:25). That is painful. I have to hate my life in this world in order to qualify to be part of that seed that has multiplied itself many times over. If you still love your life and live an egocentric selfish life, you will not be part of the revealing of the Christ in the world. The pattern Son is worth our time and study. If we want to know more about this corporate Christ, of which the pattern Son is the Head, then it makes sense to study His life. Whenever Jesus performed a miracle, He told people to tell no one (Luke 5:14). We are quick to post things on social media to get attention and admiration. Jesus also said, “I do nothing unless I see my Father do it” (John 5:19). That is the pattern Son! He was submitted to His Father. He represented His heavenly Father; He never tried to take glory to Himself.
The ultimate test and example of the pattern Son is found in Gethsemane. Jesus knew what was awaiting Him; He knew the time had come. My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will (Matt. 26:39). This is the most powerful prayer of laying down your self-life, your ego and self-will. This is the prayer of the pattern Son – who are we to try to find a short-cut?
For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! (Matt. 23:39). Who sent you? “I am”. As He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). God is love! In today’s world, love is scarce. ‘I Am’ is in us and is growing into a corporate expression in the earth.
Nowhere in the Old Testament does it talk about the Messiah coming twice. It only talks about one coming of the Messiah. That coming of the Messiah opened up an age, the end times. Jesus was born in the last days, in the consummation of the age, in the final history. In these last days, God sent forth His Son (Gal. 4:4). Jesus ushered in the last days but the last days are still unfolding; we are still in the last days. That is called the Messianic age. When Jesus came out of the waters of baptism God said, “This is My Son; listen to Him” (Mark 9:7). But the Son came to bring many sons to glory and through His death, He multiplied Himself many times over. So what we need to see in this world is the full stature of the corporate Son. The biggest mistake we can make when we say “I Am” is to confuse the “I Am” with egotism. If it is not Christ in us, do not utter those words. You still need to die. We have been crucified with Him but we still need to see the fruit of that (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:8).
If we say that Jesus is the pattern Son – study Him. Everything has to be shaped into the life of His Son. That brings us to what is known as the corporate Son. If we study His life we get a good picture of where we still fall short. Do you think Jesus in his earthly walk ever lost His temper? He knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21). You will find all the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the pattern Son. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please (Gal. 5:16-17). There is always a battle on the inside. Provision has been made in Christ so that you and I can overcome the desires of the flesh, so we can come to the place where we can say, “I do not have two natures; I only have the divine nature in me”. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law (Gal. 5:18-23). It is time for us to look in the mirror of God’s Word and see if we measure up. We talk about the kingdom and about great things but we are not paying attention to these things: the fruit of the Spirit. If we look at the life of Jesus, He walked with the fruit of the Spirit. He is our pattern, our model. So “I Am” is in us – then bear the fruit! Christ’s life showed me how and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central (Gal. 2:20a Message). If you are to answer the question, “Who sent you?” by saying “I Am”, it better not be the ego speaking. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that (Gal. 2:20b-21 Message). Be careful with a shallow use of the term “I Am.” Stand with a man like Paul, “I have been crucified with Him. It is no longer me who lives, but He lives in me.”
Whenever we have to make a choice, no matter how difficult, say in your heart, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”
Series: The Kingdom of God, Sonship
Sunday am 2 July 2017- Kobus Swart
Matt.16: 13-20; (Luke 5:12-14); Eph. 1:5-6; (Isa. 9:6); Prov. 3:1-2, 11-12; Prov. 6:23-24; Prov. 12: 1; Prov. 13: 1-2; Prov. 15:5-6, 32; Prov. 19:18, 27; Prov. 23:12-14; Heb. 12:6; (John 20:21); (John 18:6); John 5:43; (John 17:21); John 14:23; (Col. 1:27); 1 John 4:7-11, 17-21
God’s original plan is still His ultimate intention! I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to get a fresh revelation of the meaning of “SONSHIP”. It has a deeper meaning than we know.
The Church was never to be built on Peter, in fact, the Church was not to be built upon any individual (Matt. 16:13-20). Jesus is building His Church on the rock, which comprises all the chips put together into one, the corporate. And that means upon those who have a personal revelation of who Christ is! And to this man, the corporate, He will give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. Why are we not seeing the effective use of the keys of the kingdom in today’s Church? Why is the spiritual temperature not rising? God will not hand the keys of His Kingdom where there is the absence of this oneness. God was deeply impressed by the unity in the building of the tower of Babel and had to destroy it. But now God is waiting to be impressed by true oneness in His Church to such extent that God will identify with that oneness. Unfortunately many church structures today exist only to make a name for themselves.
Jesus never wanted to become famous. What do we see in the Church for the last 40 years? We see advertising of miracles, just the opposite of what Jesus did (Luke 5:12-14). God is looking for stealth apostolicity, grace carriers that will actually fly “above the radar”, not to make a name for themselves but to see the Church become one on the foundation of Christ. That is going to mean a head-on collision with the Babylonian spirit. God is looking for a SON, a son in the sons, the corporate SON. In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (Eph. 1: 5-6). We have been predestined to sonship. Unfortunately, it has been watered down in this season. Sonship has become locked into (and limited) the father-son relationship, which is also Biblical, but in many networks, it has been emphasised to a place of error. We need to bring correction – the truth in balance. The word ‘son’ in Greek is ‘huios’. When you are born again you are still a child, ‘teknon’ but when you become mature you become a son, ‘huios’. So we are on a road of spiritual growth. You cannot just be born again and wait to go to heaven. God requires of His people to grow. For that to happen we have to get off milk to get solid food. If you continue to eat milk (spiritually), you will not grow to maturity. Jesus said, “I will build my church”, but if you listen carefully, you will also hear the words “Let us”. Throughout the Bible, we are called co-workers, participators with God, not spectators. Paul never used the word ‘discipleship’; he used the term ‘sonship’ which also implies discipleship. Jesus had twelve disciples but Jesus is also referred to as a father (Isa. 9:6). So the disciples also became sons.
The thing most of us do not like is DISCIPLINE. If you want to grow into sonship you can expect discipline. Where there is no discipline there is no spiritual growth. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord. Or loathe His reproof, For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. (Prov. 3:11-12); For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life. To keep you from the evil woman, From the smooth tongue of the adulteress (Prov. 6:23-24); Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, But he who hates reproof is stupid (Prov. 12:1); A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. From the fruit of a man’s mouth, he enjoys good, But the desire of the treacherous is violence. (Prov. 13: 1-2); A fool rejects his father’s discipline, But he who regards reproof is sensible. Great wealth is in the house of the righteous, But trouble is in the income of the wicked. (Prov. 15:5-6); He who neglects discipline despises himself, But he who listens to reproof acquires understanding (Prov. 15:32); Discipline your son while there is hope, And do not desire his death (Prov. 19:18); Cease listening, my son, to discipline, And you will stray from the words of knowledge. (Prov. 19:27); Apply your heart to discipline. And your ears to words of knowledge. Do not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod And rescue his soul from Sheol (Prov. 23:12-14). This is speaking to us in the natural as well as in the spiritual. God has a way of disciplining his sons. For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives (Heb. 12:6). God looks upon us as His sons. The discipline on the one will be different from the discipline on another person. We are all different.
Moses had a calling on his life before he was born. For the first 40 years of his life he was trained in the palace, then he became self-willed, killed an Egyptian and he had to flee into the desert for 40 years. It took 40 years for God to deal with Moses’ self-will, to train him for his ultimate calling! Sometimes we do not understand why we are going through things, but it is because God has predestined us for sonship. We can put the brakes on and take another detour or we can flow with God’s plan and grow spiritually. Jesus will build His Church on those who have a revelation of the great I AM.
God knew all along that Moses had a powerful role to play, a powerful commissioning to lead all Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Moses had to have a God-encounter. When God sent him to deliver His people, Moses asked God, “Who shall I say sent me?” A sent one is an apostle; to be sent is to be apostolic. Moses was called to be apostolic. You represent the one who sent you, not yourself! The one who ultimately commissions and sends is the great “I AM”. Jesus released the substance of I AM when they came to look for Him (John 18:6). Jesus said, “As I was sent, so I am sending you (John 20:21) I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him (John 5:43) That is how gullible the world is. But we like Moses need an encounter with the “I AM”. Jesus is praying for oneness (John 17:21). He is talking about an interpenetration of God and man. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him (John 14:23). Is it possible for you and me as mature sons to be sent ones in today’s world? The I AM, Jesus in us, is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:7-11). By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also (1 John 4:17-21). What should we reflect? How will people know we are disciples of Christ? As we love one another. Take this to heart. The Church needs to demonstrate agape love. This will not happen in a Babylonian system. We need the Body of Christ who loves one another; by this, the world will take note that we are His disciples! We have been predestined to Sonship!
Series: The Kingdom of God, Babylon
Sunday am 25 June 2017 – Kobus Swart
(Heb. 4:1-9, 12); 2 Cor. 5:18; John 1:11-12; Rev. 21:9-11; Rev. 17:1-6, 9, 18; Gen. 9:20-25; Gen. 10:8-10; Gen. 11:1-9; (1 Peter 2:4-5); (John 17:20-21); (Jer. 48:46); (Dan. 2); (Dan. 3:12); Ps. 137:1-9; Rev. 18:1-5, 9-10, 20-24; (2 Cor. 11:14); Rev. 19:7; (Rom. 8:19); (Eph. 4:13); Rev. 21:7; (Matt. 17:5)
In the Garden of Eden, there was no distance between God and man. It was only after the fall that men began to call on the name of the Lord because there was a distance. God’s original plan is still His ultimate intention. Thank God for the cross. The response to the finished works is on our shoulders. Now there is a long journey, and how long depends on us. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, waiting – for us.
I want to show you a second captivity experience – it is called Babylon. It is a bigger trap than what we realise. A large percentage of God’s people are being held captive by it. It is predominantly a religious spirit, a religious system that tries to invade everything that Christians encounter to cause confusion.
The Church is usually pictured as a woman (Rev. 21:9-11). The new Jerusalem is another way of describing the bride of Christ. But before we look deeper, let us look at another kind of woman. She sits on many waters and has global reach. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly ……….. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while ….. The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 17:1-6, 9-10, 18). [Rome is built on seven mountains.]
In Genesis 9 we find the story of Ham who saw his father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke he knew what Ham had done and placed a curse on his son Canaan and his descendants (Gen. 9:20-25), which includes the Canaanites in the land of promise. Cush, one of the sons of Ham became the father of Nimrod. The name ‘Nimrod’ means ‘rebellion’. He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before (actually against) the Lord (Gen. 10:9). The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon (Gen. 10:8-10). He built many cities but Babylon became the biggest city in the ancient world. It was the first time they used bricks instead of stones (Gen. 11:1-3). We are called to be living stones, not bricks (1 Peter 2:4-5). Bricks are formed and shaped by force.
Here you see the systems of man, the motivation and vision to do it ‘for ourselves’. The unity among the people was of such nature that it attracted the attention of God; yet it was not true oneness (Gen. 11:4-9). If unity attracted the attention of God, can we imagine what true oneness will do to attract the attention of God! That is what Jesus prayed for (John 17:20-21). They had unity but on the wrong foundation and with the wrong motive. Then God came down and confused their language.
Many festivals that the western world celebrates today have their origin in Babylon. Christmas and Easter are examples. Where do the Christmas tree and Easter eggs come from? The 25th of December used to be a pagan feast day. Only in the fourth century, the Roman church gave it a name, Christ-mas. It was a feast to the sun god, Saturnalia. Christians finally bought into it and it became a Christian feast. Jesus was not born on the 25th of December but in the Feast of Tabernacles sometime in October. God came and tabernacled with man. If you have a party on the 25th of December, do it with the right focus and the right motive. Distance yourself from everything that came along with it, with the wrong roots.
There is something far more important that we must notice. Jeremiah prophesied, warning Israel of their captivity into Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon at the time. They were taken captive for seventy years, yet God had a plan. One of the most profound revelations of the kingdom of God came through Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2:34, 45). That dream came in Babylon because Daniel refused to eat the food of the king or to go by his rules and regulations. He, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego challenged the king (Dan. 3:12). Eventually, God released them and destroyed Babylon.
We need revelation of what this means: After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities…………. “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.” Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer. And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer; and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth” (Rev. 18:1-5, 9-10, 20-24). They were captives in Babylon and could not sing the songs of Zion (Ps. 137:1-9). God help us to discern the spirit of Babylon because it tries to invade wherever God moves. Satan comes as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). We need discernment because we have to be a free people; we want to sing the songs of Zion.
The bride has made herself ready by the provision that is in Christ (Rev. 19:7). He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son (Rev. 21:7). This is where God’s ultimate purpose is. This is what creation is waiting for, to see the manifestation of the Son of God in the sons (Rom. 8:19). What God is after is the mature, corporate Son of God. This is what ministry is all about (Eph. 4:13). The five-fold ministry is not to build systems with towers; we are not called to have man-made unity structures and organisations and institutions. That is not the way unity comes.
We are on this journey. God’s original plan is still His ultimate intention: The Son in the sons. When Jesus came out of the waters of baptism after thirty years as the son of Joseph, the heavens opened and the Father said, “This is My Son, hear Him” (Matt. 17:5). God the Father cannot wait to open the heavens and show off His Son to the forces of darkness who paraded in the fields of religion. Father cannot wait; creation is in travail. God’s plan is on track. What God started He will complete. We must decide, “Am I part of the final manifestation of the Son in the sons?”
Series: The Garden of Eden; The Kingdom of God; The Overcomers
Sunday 21 May 2017 – Kobus Swart
Gen. 2:8-9; Matt. 13:11, 34 (Ampl); Isa. 61:1-3; Ps. 1:1-3; Ps. 92:12-13; Ps. 96:10-13; Ps. 37:35; Jude 4 & 12; (Matt. 12:33); James 3:12-18; Matt. 7:16-20; (Gen. 25:32-34); (1 Chron. 5:1); Gen. 49:3-4; (Gal. 5:22-23); 2 Cor. 12:9; (1 Cor. 1:27); Rom. 8:5-6; John 3:3-5; John 12:24-Msg; (Gen. 3:4-5, 10-11); (Matt. 6:10); Isa. 66:1; (Matt. 11:28); (Heb. 5:8); (Heb. 2:10); (Luke 23:43); Rom. 5:8-11
We must understand the numbers and the symbols in the Bible otherwise we miss the deeper truth, especially in the book of Revelation.
There were three kinds of trees in the Garden (Gen. 2:8-9): the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and all the other trees. Both the Old and New Testaments are full of pictures and symbols. We have to know how to decode and go beyond, go deeper. Once you understand these pictures and symbols they are far more expressive than a thousand words. However, in order to understand the symbols of Scripture there are two things required:
1) We must understand their oriental customs and characteristics of the Hebrew mind. The original Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language.
2) The other is the spirit of revelation which is the Holy Spirit of truth.
Often times after a parable the disciples would pull Jesus aside and ask Him what He meant. He would explain it to the disciples (Matt. 13:11). It is like looking for the fertile prepared soil that will yield 30, 60 and 100 fold, instead of just throwing the seeds everywhere. It has pleased God to send forth much of His deeper truths like the mysteries of the kingdom, in such a manner that it becomes revealed only to the spirit-anointed mind (Matt. 13:34-Ampl). Often when Jesus stopped His public teachings He closed with: He that has ears to hear let him hear! (Matt. 11:15; Matt. 13:9, 43). May the Lord give us a full understanding of these deeper truths of the kingdom.
Trees usually represent people in the Bible. The trees in Isa. 61:1-3 represent God’s chosen ones at the end of this age. Psalm 1:1-3 and Psalm 9:12-13 speak of God’s elect people, those planted in the house of the Lord. Ps. 96:10-13 is pointing to the day when the Lord shall come forth and deal with all the nations and bring His glorious Kingdom to pass in all the earth. In Psalm 37:35 David talks of the wicked and impious men. See also Jude 4 & 12. You shall know a tree by its fruit (Matt. 12:33). Many people say one thing yet they are another (James 3:12-18). You can say the most beautiful things and even speak what is true but what will be imparted in a subliminal way, is what is in your spirit. What kind of tree are you? What kind of fruit comes out of you? (James 3:17; Matt. 7:16-20).
Two examples are Esau and Reuben. Esau sold his birthright. Reuben lost his inheritance. Both these men were eminent in dignity and power (Gen. 49:3-4). In the eyes of the public, they were strong men of value, but they were ruled by their flesh and they lost their inheritance (Gen. 25:32-34; 1 Chron. 5:1). What does it mean to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It is facing us every day of our lives. The temptation, in a subtle way, is to eat of the wrong tree. Be careful who you associate with. Do not eat fruit from the wrong tree. They drew from the flesh instead of from the spirit. The lack of self-control began in the Garden of Eden. Self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The lack of self- control today is still robbing many of their eternal inheritance in Christ. We are our greatest enemy. Many who are pre-eminent in dignity and pre-eminent in strength are uncontrolled as water and weak in spiritual strength. Look at the contrast, how does God work in terms of these elements? In this world, we are encouraged and motivated to be strong, but God’s power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). God has chosen the weak things of this world to shame the things that are strong (1 Cor. 1:27). It is so opposite to the values of the world that we live in.
There is a gulf between that which is natural and that which is spiritual. There is the gulf between life and death, between the good and the bad. How do I move from where I am to where I want to be? There is no shortcut no matter what people say. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace (Rom. 8:5-6). How important it is for us to get this mindset right? (John 3:3-5). How do we move from this level to the kingdom of God level? You have to be born–again! It means becoming like a child. Children do not have a history of failure; they do not have bad memories. They are so innocent and ready to be taught the positive. Become like a child and you will inherit the kingdom of God. By being born of water and spirit you will enter the kingdom. It is another realm.
How does a seed multiply? It needs to be planted, it needs a specific environment and then in a sense it dies and out of that “death”, it reproduces itself many times over. That is exactly what happened to the pattern Son, Jesus (Jn 12:24,25), the One who paved the way. He died but was raised again. In order to multiply Himself, He had to die. There is no shortcut for us if we cannot identify with that; not only with His death but with His resurrection.
The Garden of Eden, which always has the significance of the kingdom of heaven, has been re-established on earth by the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. When Jesus rose from the dead and sent forth His Spirit into the hearts of men on the day of Pentecost, the Garden of Eden was re-established in the earth and the tree of life was once more planted on earth in the midst of the garden. The life of Christ by the eternal spirit was again made accessible to man by faith. Satan will continue to lure you to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He will offer you shortcuts; he will offer you ‘better’ options. You and I must be very careful what we choose in this life. By His death and resurrection He plucked out the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He uprooted it! So the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was destroyed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but Satan will keep on holding this tree before you. He will tell you like he told Eve, “The moment you eat of this tree you will be like Him” (Gen. 3:4-5). In the daily fellowship, that wonderful state of being in the garden, God comes to the man and woman and suddenly they are hiding. Why did they hide? They discovered that they were naked (Gen. 3:10-11). God asked, “Who told you that you are naked?” Where does sin consciousness come from? The tree of life is the tree available to you and me.
Until humanity wakes up to the truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ it is going to take a long time until we see what life is about. Many people pray for an overnight rapture, “Take us home and give this planet to the devil”, but Jesus prayed “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). This earth belongs to the Lord. God is looking for a house in which to rest (Isaiah 66:1). He found a house in which to rest in Jesus when He came to the earth. Jesus was a man in rest but He could accomplish things (Matt. 11:28-29-Msg). He was not driven by religious fervour. May God give us that breakthrough in being fruitful and being in a place of rest. It all started with Jesus, God found a man in whom He could rest, with whom He could enter into a union, whose whole being was open to the rule of His will and nature and fellowship of His love. Between the ages of twelve and thirty, He learned obedience by the things He suffered (Heb. 5:8). At the age of thirty, His sonship was confirmed from heaven. He was recognised from heaven and Joseph had to step back as the Heavenly Father took over.
The earth by itself cannot produce fruit; neither can the seed by itself produce fruit. The two need each other. The seed needs to be put into the soil and under the right circumstances, it will start to grow. Jesus was the divine Seed that had to be planted in earthly humanity and die before He could produce and multiply Himself many times over. His Sonship on earth was the planting of the Divine Seed of the Father’s life into a human body and nature. The incarnation means God becoming flesh in the man called Jesus. The Son of God becoming the Son of Man, dying on the cross, being resurrected and He became a Son of God again. His ascension was admittance as man into the very glory of God, the perfect oneness with God in glory in the unity of the spirit. All of this was fulfilled in the first-born Son. The work was not complete because Jesus came to bring many sons to glory, not just Himself (Heb. 2:10). This is where we are in this Divine process. If it was not for Jesus who opened the door and paved the way, we would have been stuck outside the Garden of Eden forever, but He opened the gate, He opened the door and He said, “Today you shall be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
In His resurrection and ascension, He was no longer only the Mighty God but He was the Mighty God whose divine life and nature had laid a hold on humanity and raised it up into identification with Himself. The Son of Man became the Son of God. Lord, help us appreciate and see these things and go through the open door. Stop battling with that which has already been conquered. The accuser of the brethren has been cast down. We give too much attention to the voice of Satan; he is a liar, a religious spirit, the accuser of the brethren.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…. much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom. 5:8-11). Too often the preaching of the gospel has stopped before the “much more”. We have to live the resurrection!
It is one thing to be saved by the death of Jesus Christ it is another to be saved by His life. While both expressions are correct to talk about being saved by the death of Christ, there is a greater need to talk about being saved by the life of Christ. If reconciliation and justification by the death of Christ could make men to be conformed to the image of the Son of God then all baby Christians in Babylon’s harlot religious systems would be well on their way to sonship. You know that is not the case. The death of Christ can make one a justified believer but only the indwelling life of God’s Christ can enable us to truly put on the mind of Christ and be transformed in thought, desire, emotion, nature and body into His likeness. It is as if Christianity needs another explosion in a new insight into the finished works of Jesus. It is as if the gospel needs an upgrade; we need to speak these things so that our mindsets can change and the fruit will be seen and tasted in our lives. I pray that we will embrace the resurrection, not just in mind but begin to live the resurrection.
Series: The Kingdom of God; The Garden of Eden
Sunday am 23 April 2017 – Kobus Swart
Gen. 2:8-9; (Luke 23:39-43); (Gen. 5:1-2); Rev. 13:8; Rev. 17:8; Eph. 1:3-6; (1 Cor. 15:28); (Col. 1:15); Rom. 8:18, 28-29; Rev. 2:7; (2 Cor. 12:2); (Luke 9:62); (Matt. 13)
The book of Genesis is probably one of the most important books of the Bible ever written. The book of Genesis is quoted 165 times in the New Testament. Genesis lays a ground work, a foundation for the entire revelation of God’s purposes. It is all there! If we do not see that we run the risk of putting together our own theologies. God is a God of beginnings (plural). Where it says, “In the beginning God created” it actually says, “in beginnings God created”. Genesis gives us vital information of the origin of all things. Genesis means origin, beginning, your genes and everything in the future is rooted in the past. If you do not see that you are going to expose yourself to contrary winds.
The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:8-9). The story of Adam and Eve is the greatest parable ever told in the Bible. What is a parable? It contains the word “para” from which the word “parallel” or “alongside” comes. What is the true meaning of the word “parable”? It is more than a story. It is a story and alongside it is a deep reality and truth that God wants to communicate. Why did Jesus tell so many parables? In Matthew 13 alone there are seven parables of the kingdom. How does each one start? “The kingdom of heaven is like …” (Matt. 13). It is a story and yet it has a truth, made digestible to the average listener. Jesus used the language of His time and culture. A parable communicates a very important truth.
They have not been able to find the piece of land called Eden. So what is it? It is a state of being, an atmosphere. Gene Edward explains that when God decided to create an atmosphere and He took heaven and He took earth and He brought them together and He created Eden. Read deeper! When we understand the Garden of Eden we will understand the nature of God, the nature of man and the nature of the devil. Remember the three voices on Calvary, they represent the voice of man, the voice of the devil and the voice of God (Luke 23:39-43). Do a bit more reading in the first few chapters of Genesis; read, absorb and let the Holy Spirit take you deeper than ever before. It is not by accident that this parable is placed at the beginning of human history because it is the foundation upon which the whole purpose of God is built. By understanding that, we are going to understand what is happening to us. If we read it properly – the two trees in the middle of the garden, how the enemy came and tempted Eve – look in the “mirror” of that parable to realise what is happening to you.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them MAN (singular, and “man” in Hebrew is Adam) in the day when they were created (Gen. 5:1-2). Adam does not refer to the man next to Eve, the male. “Adam” is referring to mankind, to humanity. We are part of humanity. As much as we have been part of the first Adam, when the last Adam came, He opened the door back into Eden, that intimate, special relationship and now we become part of the last Adam. That is what Jesus told the thief on the cross who recognised who Jesus was. Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Begin to associate in your thinking the Garden of Eden, the kingdom, paradise, that special space in which there is a unique relationship between God and man.
Adam’s (mankind’s) experience is our experience. What happened to him happens to us. Where he was, we are. His destiny is our destiny. May the Lord open the eyes of our understanding to see these things. You read about the garden, it is we who are confronted, intended, addressed, accused, expelled, instructed and redeemed. Read the complete story. The story of the fall is a searchingly true picture of the recurring fall of every man under the temptation to be as God, to usurp God’s place as master of his world, for his own selfish ends. How many times has the enemy tried to push us to be ‘god’ in our own world?
The New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is explained in the New Testament. If you read the Old Testament you see the formation of the Church, in the language of parables.
My question is: what was the purpose of the fall? Why did God allow the fall? God deliberately put the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil there, which means they are accessible; we have to choose. God knew what was going to happen. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain (Rom. 13:8; Rev. 17:8). This highlights those who are redeemed in Christ but there is a step we have to take, the born-again experience – our names had been written in the book of life before the foundation of the kosmos. God was not surprized at the fall. He sees the end from the beginning. We have been predestined to the adoption as sons before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-6). Don’t you think the God who said, “Let us make man in Our image” looked further than the fall? He looked to the final climax in His Son. His purposes will come to fruition and nothing will stop it. We can delay it but we cannot stop it. What God starts, He completes. Ultimately He is going to eradicate every vestige of the image of self and of satan. God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). God will infiltrate and fill everything with Himself.
God is full of hope. There is a magnificent future that God has planned for us. In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited—yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God! (Rom. 8:18-JB Philips). A baby is innocent, but that innocence is challenged as the baby grows up. The sooner the baby learns that there is a negative side, and that not everything is innocent and pure, the better. God deliberately put two trees in the garden. God wanted them to be exposed to the negative first and become strong. They had to find out that there is a wrong way of doing things. That is how we grow up; that is how we leave just being fed on milk each Sunday. We need to go onto solid food to make us strong.
God is full of hope because Jesus was the beginning of the creation of God (Col. 1:15). Through Him, for Him and unto Him everything has been created! Only two thousand years ago was He perfected in the sense that He had to be made man to initiate a whole new order of man, the last Adam. Jesus had to become man to rescue Adam, humanity. God reconciled all of humanity with Himself through Christ. All of humanity has provisionally been united, restored, reconciled with God. But humanity has to see it by revelation, experience an encounter with that truth, make a commitment and come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Christ then is the true or the last Adam, the proper Man in whom God’s plan for humanity comes to its realisation for the first time. God’s plan for man to be perfect was first fulfilled in Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. He came to bring many sons to glory, He is going to be the elder brother and many brothers are going to follow and become like He is.
What happened to the garden? Is it still there? Does the Garden of Eden still exist? It is the city of God (Rev. 21 & 22). The garden is the city. In the city even the two realms, heaven and earth, interface exactly. This time we are talking about a new heaven and a new earth, interfacing in the garden called the city of God.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. ‘To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’ (Rev. 2:7). This message is not just to the church at Ephesus, but to the churches (plural). There is Eden! Then Paul was caught up in the spirit to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2). He was caught up to paradise. In the city of God there is only one tree, the tree of life, not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is dealt with! There is a new heaven and a new earth!
Do not be just a lukewarm Christian. God always uses a cutting edge remnant to break open new ground. They are the overcomers. God is shaping and moulding us. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:28-29). We all go through things and God uses those things to turn us into overcomers. Once we put our hands to the plough and look back we are not fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). Withdrawal is destructive.
We are called before the foundation of the world; our names are written in the book. You are going to eat of the tree of life. In Jesus the door is open and access is again given to Eden, the garden of God. Jesus had to go through the garden of Gethsemane to open the door to the Garden of Eden. Gethsemane means “oil press”. Jesus had to go through that to open the door and He says, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”
Series: THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Sunday am 9th April 2017 – Kobus SWart
(Eph. 4:25-32); (Rom. 14:17); Ps. 85:10; (James 3:18); (Matt. 5:6, 9, 20); (Mark 1:15); (Heb. 5:13); (Rom. 8:14, 18-25 – J.B. Phillips); Rom. 6:14-18); (Heb. 10:26); (Isa. 45:19); (Ps. 51:10-11); (Prov. 16:12); (Heb. 1:8); (Ps. 9:7-8); (Ps. 72:1-3); (Matt. 10:7-8); (2 Cor. 11:12-15); (2 Cor. 5:21); (Matt. 6:25:34)
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). The Holy Spirit is sometimes taken for granted. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you (Eph. 4:25-32). If there is unforgiveness in your heart peace cannot settle there. Unforgiveness in your heart will rob you of your peace. These are the basics of living a Christian life.
In the kingdom of God righteousness is of supreme importance. This should be the order. First righteousness followed by peace followed by joy. There can be no peace if righteousness is not established. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other (Ps. 85:10). And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James 3:18). Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Matt. 5:9). What does it mean to be categorised as sons of God? Are we not all sons of God? The word ‘Christian’ in the West has lost its meaning. The true Christian is actually an ‘inChristed one’.
All of this is about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is as enormous and all inspiring as God Himself. We are talking about a realm, a dimension – not a place in outer space. It is inside, within you and around you. It is His realm, from where He governs. Is this tremendous depth and nature of the kingdom perhaps the reason why the Church system of the last two thousand years has virtually left out teachings on the kingdom of God? When it has been referred to or taught it was usually seen as heaven somewhere in outer space! It was usually postponed to sometime in the future. When Jesus came He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Jesus represented that. The kingdom of God is not a future thing and yet it will unfold as the future unfolds and the future is in us, with us and is busy unfolding. The kingdom of God for the next age and beyond is not going to be launched from the same old platform that we have seen for the past two thousand years. There is a transition taking place in the Church worldwide. When Jesus came there was a religious order but Jesus had to establish a different platform because the religious order did not receive Him for who He was. In fact with all the Old Testament prophetic Scriptures, all the Messianic Scriptures they still did not recognise the birth of the son of God. It took astrologers from the East to come because they saw a star. God is establishing a new launching pad from which this declaration is going to be made. It is busy unfolding.
The past two millenniums of church history has been a mixture, immaturity and imperfection, but when the sons of God will be manifested in the earth they will launch and release a new message on a new frequency of Word. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant (Heb. 5:13). If all you listen to is how to be born again, be saved to get to heaven and miss hell, you cannot come to maturity. You need to move from milk to solid food.
There is a plane of existence, a glorious sphere of light known as ‘the liberty of the sons of God’. This phrase keeps coming out of the mouth and heart of the apostle Paul. Paul never used the word ‘disciple’ once. He did not do away with it, he upgraded it and talked about sons and he demonstrated it in his ministry. In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited—yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God! It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail. And it is plain, too, that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension. (The tension is from being in a place of ‘the already but not yet’. There is an ‘already’ in the finished works, and a ‘not yet’ in our appropriation). While we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realised our full sonship in him (Rom. 8:18-25, J. B. Phillips).
All creation shall have the liberty that belongs to the sons of God (Rom. 6:18). There are two sides of this liberty. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:14-18). Grace is not a license to sin; having heard the truth you cannot continue to sin. There is no more sacrifice for sin for those who after having heard the truth, continue sinning (Heb. 10:26).
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matt. 5:6). It requires something from us, a hunger and a thirst. There are too many passive Christians. Even the religious order has a form of righteousness but it is not real (Matt. 5:20). But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matt. 6:33). What is righteousness? First and foremost it is a state of being, it is a nature. Righteousness is right being. When there is right being, there is right living, right attitude, right desire, right motives, right actions; total rightness in all things according to God’s standard and as an expression of God’s nature, because God is always right. He is never wrong (Isa. 45:19). What if I stumble and fall? David was not a faultless man, but he was a sincere man, a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). When he fell into sin, when he missed the mark, His reaction when confronted by the prophet was: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast (right) spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence. And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:10-11). Walk with that attitude in your heart. This is where you have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and not grieve the Holy Spirit. Be an instant repenter. This is the kind of righteousness we should seek after, and hunger for. Once I have righteousness, peace will come and kiss righteousness, once peace settles in my heart, I will have joy in the Holy Spirit.
Righteousness is the first and foremost stone in the foundation of God’s kingdom. For a throne is established on righteousness (Prov. 16:12; Heb. 1:8; Ps. 9:7-8). The throne of God is set in righteousness and He will judge the world in righteousness (Ps. 72:1-3).
There is a warning: If you strive and yearn and hunger for power without righteousness. Proclaim the kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, but freely you have received, and freely give (Matt. 10:7-8). What does it mean when we say the Church in many places has become a business? Many preachers have asked and received an anointing and kingdom power. They have done exploits in God’s name but they neither asked nor sought for the corresponding righteousness of God’s kingdom. The result is they walked in the power of the kingdom but not the righteousness. It manifests in it becoming a business. Money becomes the issue. … even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds (2 Cor. 11:12-15). Satan has ministers that are disguised as ministers of righteousness. God loves His children and He wants us to live in that expression of righteousness in the earth. He wants us to grow up. He wants to make us righteous. He wants to impart His righteousness to us. He made Him who knew no sin, sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him! (2 Cor. 5:21)
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matt. 6:25-34). There is a realm called “the sons of God”, the peace makers. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end (Isa. 9:7). A declaration is going to be made by a company of sons. His kingdom must manifest in the earth. It is not enough to make notes of it and talk about it. We need to manifest it! All of creation is on tip toe, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, who will be peacemakers walking in the government of God. Lord, bring the great manifestation of your sons in the earth!
Series : The Kingdom of God; Sonship
Sunday 2 April 2017 – Kobus Swart
Rom. 14:17; (Heb. 1:3); John 17:20-21; Matt. 5:1-9, 24-48; (Phil. 4:7); Matt. 10:34; (Luke 2:14); Col. 3:15; Isa. 9:7; Hag. 2:9; (Isa. 2:4); Col. 1:20; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; (Luke 17:20-21); Matt. 16:19
The God who is spirit, the God who is love, was manifested in the person of Jesus. He was the exact representation of God (Heb. 1:3). We are seeing Jesus demonstrating an interpenetration of God and man. He became man in order to save man after the fall. God is invisible, but we are to put God on display in the world, like Jesus the pattern Son did. That is why He keeps on praying: I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me (John 17:20-21). He is praying for that kind of oneness – an interpenetration of God and man.
The Sermon on the Mount is more than a sermon. Jesus took a seat on the side of a mountain in the most low-key way with no professionalism, and He gave us the Constitution of the kingdom of heaven. He set forth the laws and the principles by which the holy nation, the Church, the kingdom of God will be governed. The Old Testament people under Moses had a Constitution which was the Law of Moses. When Jesus came and people quoted Moses He said, “But I say unto you…” (Matt. 5:24-48). He brought a whole new Constitution to the earth, the principles of the kingdom of God. These are the principles by which the kingdom of God functions. We have been exposed to an expression of Church in the past and have certain concepts and views, and it often stands between us and what God wants to do at this time. Something has to change in our thinking and the renewal of our mind has to be a constant on-going experience. In this new order – the kingdom of God – all earthly and man-made institutions cease to exist. Our lives are not governed by external rules, regulations, laws, traditions, systems, organizations or hierarchies, but wholly by the guidance of the Holy Spirit and truth. We are first and foremost citizens of heaven, the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not physical, not organizational, it is not political, but always the doing of God’s will. Jesus broke very tradition and violated all accepted standards, procedures, norms, methods and systems. He demonstrated the ways of the kingdom of heaven. Read the New Testament with new eyes. Read the four gospels, read the ways, the style, the life of Jesus and you will find somebody who was not bound by earthly rules and organizational thinking. He flowed in the Spirit. He touched the lives of individuals. Today we have learned so many religious rules and regulations. He came to change the world, transform the world and to rule the world by the power of the Spirit of God. While on earth He seemed to have no program, no method, no system, no organization; no instrument; no structure to accompany His task. It is amazing how we in the Church have been invaded by Babylonian systems and methods and thinking. Yet He is the one we should follow; He is the pattern. (Eby)
Let us look at peace. How many of you love peace? True peace first and foremost starts with you and me having peace with God. We talk about Christ within, but that Christ is also called the Prince of Peace. That means the Prince of Peace dwells within me. There are a few acid tests to determine if the Prince of Peace is within us. It is talking about uncovering something that already is. If we talk about the Christ within, a certain unveiling needs to take place. We need to break through a certain veil to put God on display in this world. The kingdom of God is peace; peace of heart, peace of soul, peace with God, peace between men, peace between nations, peace everywhere, under all conditions and at all times. What does peace look like? You cannot see peace, but you can see its effect on circumstances and people. Peace is spirit, you cannot see it. There is such a thing as soulish peace. That is when you can experience peace in a psychological way; generated out of conditioning or influencing of the mind, will, emotions and desires. That peace comes after a holiday, after going on a hiking trail, or by transcendental meditation; that is peace of the soul. None of these have anything to do with the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is real peace in the Holy Spirit. True peace surpasses all understanding, you cannot comprehend it but the effect is powerful. It will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7).
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Matt. 5:9). The seventh beatitude is about peace. Jesus said, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you (John 14:27). This is like His last will and testament; it is like leaving a legacy. He had no material possessions or wealth to divide amongst the ones He loved, so He gave them one thing, He gave them His peace – the peace of the kingdom of God.
Some may ask, “If He is the Prince of Peace, why did the first coming of Jesus not bring peace on earth?” He did everything but that (Matt. 10:34). He brought peace among men with whom He is well-pleased (Luke 2:14 – Amplified). Jesus had to dismantle what paraded as peace in the religious order of His day. Jesus did not like mixture. There cannot be peace on earth in the sense of no wars, no oppression and no exploitation until there is peace among the men chosen by God. The first fruits of true peace are called the sons of God. Sonship has become a shallow phrase. The first fruits of peace in the earth will be the manifested sons of God who are the sons of peace. God is willing to invest and to equip people who have broken through into what we refer to as sonship. The Holy Spirit will help us to understand that fully. They will become the peacemakers. The word “sons” in Greek is “huios”, referring to maturity. They have grown from “teknon” (a child) into being a fully grown son.
Where there is no peace we get all sorts of emotional and psychological problems, including anger, rage and depression. It is a lack of peace and joy. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body (Col. 3:15). It calls peace an “umpire”; when something goes wrong, the umpire is the one who blows the whistle. Let peace be the umpire in you decision-making and choices in this life. Sometimes there are decisions to make, actions to take, doors that open and opportunities but you do not know which way to go. Make the decision that brings peace to your heart and innermost being. Examine your heart and listen to true peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace (Isa. 9:7). The kingdom of God is an ever expanding kingdom and it brings with it true peace.
The ministry of the sons of God will ultimately bring universal peace. God is looking for sons of peace. We want this house to be a household of peace (Hag. 2:9). We want to see in this house an atmosphere of creativity, of joy, of righteousness and peace, which makes us a kingdom house filled with the Spirit of God. The enemy will do everything possible to sow conflict and discord, to be divisive. We have been called to be a house of peace and to be peacemakers in this world.
Ultimately when God speaks peace to the nations, they will beat their swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks (Isa. 2:4). No more wars! Only peace! My heart is yearning to see the sons of peace become active in the world.
Before becoming agitated where the enemy is sowing seeds that are not of God, become quiet; listen to the spirit of God and say, “I am a peacemaker, a son of God.” Speak peace! It will be the test of your sonship. God in Christ reconciled all of humanity to Himself. The fall brought a breach, a divide between that which belonged together, but Christ provisionally reconciled humanity with Himself. Having made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. 1:20). He made peace while on the cross and is now calling us to be ministries of reconciliation (2Cor. 5:18-19); ambassadors, mature sons who are called to be peacemakers, who will minister reconciliation in the earth, not further divide. The ministry of the Church today is not to be the ministry of condemnation. We cannot keep ministering sin-consciousness, otherwise we are keeping it alive. We are called to be ministries of reconciliation; tell people the truth – the price has been paid! The door is open! Awaken the truth on the inside. Let us find out what there is within and unveil it. Even to the Pharisees Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). Discover it. Break out of that mind-set that keeps you captive in sin-consciousness. Jesus made peace by the blood of His cross. The Holy Spirit will break this open and you will see the mandate, the role that is to be played by the sons of God; peacemakers! Work with God; we are to participate and be co-workers.
What are the keys of the kingdom? When Peter had the revelation of who Jesus was, Jesus said to him, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:19). It has been done, humanity has been reconciled. You and I have the keys of the kingdom! Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.
Series : The Kingdom of God
Sunday 26 March 2017 – Kobus Swart
(Rom. 14:17); (Isa. 9:6-7); (Gen. 1:1, 26) (Gen. 3:1-5; 22-23); (Matt. 22:11-14); (John 14:6); (Gen. 4:26); (John 3:3-5, 13); (Rev. 21:5); (Heb. 2:5-9); (Col. 1:13-14, 27); (John 19:30); (John 14:10); (Eph. 2:4-6); (Col. 2); (Mark 1:15); (John 17:22-23); (Acts 17:28-KJV); (Luke 11:2); (Matt. 5:9)
We are looking at the kingdom of God in a fresh way; fresh angles are opening up. We looked at what real joy is all about as opposed to shallow happiness and how God can use circumstances to dig deep in our heart to establish real joy. The next one we will be looking at is the peace of God, the peace of the kingdom. I am prompted to take a little detour first, almost like an introduction to the peace of the kingdom of God. This is a foundation we need to understand the kingdom.
Isaiah 9:6-7 shows that one of the names of the Son is the “Prince of peace”. God never intended that there be a breach between the heavens and the earth; He created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). When you read, “in the cool (breeze) of the day” God came and walked with Adam and Eve, there was a daily fellowship, a daily interaction between heaven and earth because Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26). In the temptation of Eve, Adam was standing right next to her when the serpent came and spoke to her. She refers to the tree in the middle of the garden, while both the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as well as the tree of life were in the middle of the garden! Can you see how deception crept in?
Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever — therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out (Gen. 3:22-23). The Lord banned them from the atmosphere of fellowship and interaction with God. It could have been eons that Adam and Eve lived in that atmosphere called Eden. They had regular fellowship and interaction. After the Fall came, men began to call upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 4:26). Suddenly there was a distance (breach) between God and man caused by disobedience to the commandment of God. Before that there was daily interaction between man and God. That breach between heaven and earth was caused by the following: man chose the wrong tree. Yes, God said that accessing the knowledge of good and evil would make man “become like Us”, but they accessed it the wrong way. It reminds me of the man in the wedding feast without the right garments (Matt. 22:11-14). How did he manage to come in without the right garment? There are people today accessing the realm of spirit by eating from the wrong “tree”. They are not coming in by eating from the tree of Life! There is only one correct way into the realm of heaven, the realm of spirit, the kingdom of God; Jesus said. “I am the way, the life and the truth” (John 14:6). He is the only way in, but there are people trying to access that realm through other doors…
What did God do to remedy this distance/gap between Himself and man? He sent His own Son! This truth sounds basic but we need a fresh revelation of who Jesus was and is. When He came He was the Word made flesh and in Him there was no breach between Him and heaven. In Jesus heaven and earth were united. (Joh 3:13) And no one has ascended up to Heaven except He who came down from Heaven, the Son of Man who is in Heaven. Jesus was in heaven on earth; you could touch Him but He could switch dimensions any time.
Jesus is also called the first of a new humanity because He came to bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:5-9). There is going to be a company called the “manifested sons of God”. They will be like Him; He will be their older brother. There is another realm called the Kingdom of His Son. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:13-15). All your sins have been forgiven! The sins of the world have already been forgiven. That is called the finished works of Christ. Just before Jesus breathed His last, He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). This transference from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved Son is immediately followed by, …in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
We are seated with him in heavenly places/realms (Eph. 2:4-6). We quote it often but what does it mean? Do we experience it in our daily lives? Are we seated in heavenly realms? Jesus never said that if you are not born again you will not get to heaven. That is not what it says. He plainly says that unless a man is born again by the Spirit of God, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God! (John 3:3-5). Even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive with Christ when He was raised from the dead more than 2000 years ago. You and I were raised with Him.
What is the kingdom? It is a goal, a quest set before us towards which we daily press, the goal of entering into a completely different realm, a different civilisation, a higher order, a different form of government, a realm governed by God. I want to experience that in my daily life, that I am seated in heavenly places in a realm governed by God. Many think the kingdom is a distant realm but the kingdom is right here and right now but in another realm, another dimension. God says the kingdom is within us and in our midst. So the realm of the kingdom of heaven is what it is all about.
When you emphasize the concept of going to heaven to live there forever, the gospel of the kingdom becomes incoherent, you cannot understand it. It will still emphasize the breach between heaven and earth. Christ came and removed the breach and brought heaven and earth together in one. Christ in us, the hope of glory! (Col. 1:27). So we are seated with Him in heavenly places.
We are surrounded by a world, a universe, heavens that the natural eye cannot see. Scientists are trying to probe into the unseen world. There is another realm right here but the key is not to access that by eating from the wrong “tree”. ‘Microcosm’ means the little world. ‘Macrocosm’ refers the large world or the universe – a well ordered whole. When God created man in His own image and His own likeness, man became an epitome of the universe. ‘Epitome’ meaning a condensed representation of something. Man, therefore, is the condensed representation of the entire universe, or man is all the universe in miniature. After the original creation, God began to move to bring the whole, vast creation into fellowship and harmony with Himself. In order to accomplish this God made man in the image of creation but also in the image of Himself. Man is therefore the bridge or the connecting link between God in His spiritual existence and the creation in his visible and material constitution (Eby). God put both Himself and the whole universe into man in miniature – a microcosm of the macrocosm! His purpose is that by and through man all things must be put in subjection to the mind of the Lord. We read in Hebrews that we do not yet see everything put in subjection to man but we do see Jesus (Heb. 2:5-9). Jesus the son of God became the son of man in order to save man. God had to become man to save man. He emptied Himself and took on the form of a bondservant (Phil. 2:7). Jesus as the last Adam condensed all the sad history between the first Adam and the last Adam and squashed it! He is the last Adam. He is also the second man – the first of a new humanity. The provision has been made, the price has been paid. The door has been opened! We are not yet sensing what is in us.
Jesus said, “I am in the Father”, so He is surrounded by an environment called “Father”. He goes on, “and the Father is in Me” (John 14:10). The sovereign God who created all the cosmos is looking for a place to call home and that place is us! He demonstrated that in His son called Jesus Christ. This is the environment called kingdom of God. The kingdom is not something far away, it is not something future (Mark 1:15). Jesus ushered in and opened the door and gave us access to the kingdom of God; that door is open but we must be born again. We have accepted this limited, boxed lifestyle while Jesus made it clear that we are seated with Him in heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6).
The level of oneness we should attain is the level demonstrated by Jesus and the Father being one. Jesus wants us to experience that same oneness (John 17:22-23). Look at the environment we should be in! The biggest evangelistic event of all time is waiting to see this: oneness between God, His Son and us. The world will then believe that Jesus was sent.
What is the environment of the sons of God today? It is God in Christ and we in Him, and that is the environment in which we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28-KJV).
Unless we are going to experience and model the finished works of Christ, things will just go on and on the way they are. Where is the demonstration of the sons for God? The true meaning of the word ‘sonship’ refers to you and me first being sons of the One and Only Living God. That is where sonship starts. (Luke 11:2). Let us demonstrate sonship in the true sense of the word. You must know your Father; His name is the Heavenly Father, the Sovereign God who created the universe, who also recreated us in Christ. We need to break out of our limitations!
TRUE JOY – A SIGN OF THE KINGDOM WITHIN
Sunday am 12 March 2017 – Kobus Swart
Series : The Kingdom of God
Acts 1:8; Dan. 2: 31-38, 42-45; Rev. 11:15; John 18:36; Matt. 16:16-19; Luke 17:20-22; (Matt. 6:9-10); Rom. 14:17; Gal. 5:22; (Phil. 4:4); (John 16:22); James 1:2-3; 1 Pet. 4:12-13-KJV; (Heb. 5:8); 1 Thess. 1:6-KJV
Jesus said, “You shall be My witnesses…”. The word witness also means martyr (Acts 1:8). It means that there will be times when it will be tough to be a witness. I believe some of the most effective preaching is when the preaching itself is part of a testimony. That is where the impartation is at its highest. The main commissioning we have is to proclaim the kingdom of God. In order to proclaim it effectively you have a taste/experience it first, and then it works in you.
We are talking about the unfolding kingdom of God. The gospel of the kingdom will be the gospel of the 21st century; it will be the emphasis that God will bring by His Spirit. The church in general is in a major phase of migration to a new level. When you pray, “Thy kingdom come” into areas of your life; make sure it comes by revelation. There is a key to praying right, and that is to have a relationship with the King of the kingdom, otherwise your motives will drift into selfishness. Do not just declare your wish, your selfish desire. Find out what is the will of God is.
Many books written on the kingdom of God focus on the political and financial world and it mainly tries to interpret Daniel 2:31-45. Our focus is not to look at the political platform and ask, “How should we bring in the kingdom?” Bringing in a Christian political party has failed. That is not the formula. That is not where it starts. Always remember the final picture where God sees everything from the finish: The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever (Rev. 11:15). That is the finish!
Here is the point Jesus made about the kingdom – it is not of this world (John 18:36). Jesus said, “…and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven (Matt. 16: 16-19). Peter got that by revelation. Peter is petros (piece of the rock); the large rock is petra. The Church was never built on Peter as a person. Jesus said, “I will build my Church”. He is busy building His Church even in the chaos. Are we part of it? Do we have a revelation of who Jesus is? Flesh and blood does not reveal it; it comes from the Father. The keys of the kingdom will be given to the Church that is built by Jesus Himself – to the corporate body of Christ, those who have a revelation of who Jesus is. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to write it on the tablets of our hearts.
Where does it start? When the Pharisees questioned Him, in the answer Jesus did not answer them as to when, He explains how (Luke 17: 20-22). The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed. The correct translation is: the kingdom of God is within you. What does it mean that the kingdom of God is within you? The prayer, Our father (a whole combined family praying) who art in heaven, let Your will be done in earth (within us first) and then on earth (Matt. 6:9-10). First in us and then on earth.
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). It starts first on the inside! It not always nice, it can be painful and it can make you uncomfortable especially if you are serious about the kingdom of God. He is going to open you up and He is going to use circumstances to open you up. That is why I am saying the most effective preaching comes in the form of a testimony. We shall be His witnesses, not speaking about, not quoting it, but coming out of the innermost being. What does it mean? The kingdom of God is not in externals. It is not what you eat, what you drink, what you put on, where you go and what you do. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy. Our mind-set has to change because we are looking for the outward, for the spectacular, for the big visible things first but it starts in the invisible, on the inside.
Let us highlight one aspect: Joy! Joy makes up one third of the kingdom of God. Often we confuse happiness with joy. Anything that comes contrary to what you want can rob you of your happiness. True joy is something else, it is much deeper. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Joy remains deep inside in the face of problems and it sustains you. The joy of the kingdom is not dependent on outward appearances or circumstances. Joy is not fed by outward circumstances and events. “Rejoice and again I say rejoice” says the apostle Paul while in prison (Phil. 4:4). When Jesus was facing death on the cross He said, “Your joy, let no man take it from you” (John 16:22).
“This joy of the kingdom is not an easy-going optimism that refuses to face facts. It is not the starry eyed charismatic joy thinks there will be no more trials; no more suffering, no more travail, but only health, prosperity and blessings are the right of every child of God. Kingdom joy is not a pretended mask that hides a sad heart courageous as that might be. Nor it is callous indifference to the suffering around us. It is the real joy which comes from the union with the infinite and the eternal and from the deep knowing that all is in our Father loving hands that come what may that things have not got out of hands that He is working perfectly to bring His highest in every situation and so it will be whether we understand it or not. Only with pure joy of the kingdom can the Scripture be fulfilled that says, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience (James 1:2-3). Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy (1 Pet. 4:12-13-KJV). To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not just to give up sin but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things. Being born again by the spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else. The first thing we must surrender is all our pretence and deceit. We will suffer a sharp painful disillusionment before we surrender…. the awful nature of the pride ….” (Oswald Chambers)
Too many have associated the kingdom of God with power and might and government. Yes, it is about government, but where does it start? I encourage you to submit to God the way you see things, because you may have twisted things in your own favour.
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Series: The Kingdom of God; The Holy Spirit
Sunday 29th May 2016 – Kobus Swart
(Matt. 21:43); John 16:5-16; John 7:38-39;
Rom. 8:11, 19-29 (read also the Message Bible); 1 Cor. 6:14, 19;
(John 11:23-26); 1 Cor. 15:45; Titus 3:5; 1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16;
John 14:23; Gal. 5:25; 2 John 7; Isa. 66:1-2
Speaking in tongues given to you by the Holy Spirit, is not to be discounted, it is still valid. Then there is also the gift of tongues. However there is more than that to the Holy Spirit baptism. We cannot allow patterns of previous seasons (no matter how blessed and anointed they were), to become an empty pattern where we try to force things to happen. Remember the example of Moses who was first told to hit the rock, and subsequently was told to speak to the rock. He hit the rock again because it has worked the previous time and missed the land of promise because of disobedience (Num. 20:8-12). We cannot repeat patters without listening to what God is instructing us now. (more…)
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Series: The Kingdom of God; The Holy Spirit
Sun am 22 May 2016– Kobus Swart
Rom. 14:17-18; Isaiah 32:14-17; (2 Cor. 3:6); (John 4:24);
Acts 2; Gen. 1:2; (Gen. 8:7-12); John 7:38-39; John 20:22-23;
(Ps. 51:11); Rom. 8:2-11; (Col. 2:9); John 1:1, 14; Matt. 12:3-32;
Eph. 4:30-32; 1 Cor. 14:18; 1 Cor. 4:15-20; Matt. 3:1-17;
(Matt. 4:1-11); Acts 10:38; 1 John 3:8; John 3:3-5; (Heb. 5:8);
Ezek. 36:25-27; Eph. 5:26; John 6:63; Joel 2:28; (Acts 19:1-6)
There is no Kingdom without the Holy Spirit. There is no true Christian without the Holy Spirit, and there is no born again or sonship experience without the Holy Spirit. These teachings should lead to a divine encounter and not remain just teachings. (more…)
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Series: The Kingdom of God; Fathers and Sons
Sun am 1 May 2016 – Kobus Swart
Matt. 9:16-17; (John 17:23); Heb. 10:24-25; Ps. 133;
Isa. 65:8; (1 Cor. 12:123); (Ezek. 37:1-6); Heb. 1:1-2;
(John 14:12); Josh. 1:1-7; Prov. 23:10; (Ex. 33:11);
Judg. 2:8-10; Judg. 21:25; 2 Kings 4:29;
(2 Kings 5:20-27) Phil. 2:19-23; Heb. 12:5-10; Joel 2:28
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved (Matt. 9:16-17). Jesus was referring to the old wineskin in His days which was Judaism. Jesus brought new wine and they were not ready to receive it. In our times an old wineskin refers to previous seasons in Church history. God is busy constructing a new wineskin. What will it look like and how will it be constructed? We are surrounded by mind-sets of institutionalism and organizations which have become inflexible that cannot handle new wine. (more…)
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Series: The Kingdom of God; Sonship
Sunday am 24th April 2016 – Kobus Swart
John 5:43; (Matt. 10:7); (Mark 16:15); (Ex. 3:13-14); Matt. 24:14;
(Acts 1:3); Mark 16:20; Acts 19:8, 11; Rom. 8:15, 28-29;
(Gal. 4:6); Gen. 1:26; (Heb. 1:3); Eph. 1:5; Heb. 2:10;
1 Cor. 4:14-20; 2 Tim. 2:1-2; Isaiah 40:3-5; Matt. 3:1-3;
Mal. 4:5-6; Luke 1:17; Matt. 11:14; John 10:41; Eph. 4:11;
(Luke 9:58); (Matt. 24:5); (John 13:35); (2 Tim. 3:10-14);
(1 Cor. 4:6-17); (Phil. 2:16); (2 Thess. 3:7-9)
No single person carries the keys of the Kingdom by himself or herself; the keys will be given to a Church built upon the (corporate) Rock. The kingdom of God is related to the principle of sonship. If we can understand the depth of the meaning of sonship it will change our lives and it will become our main desire. True Christianity is all about sonship.
We know an apostle is one who is sent and many people put a full stop there. But it is a lot more than that. (more…)
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Series: The Kingdom of God, Kingdom Evangelism, Sonship
Sunday am 17th April 2016 – Kobus Swart
John 3:6-7; Col. 1:13; 1 Cor. 4:14-20; Matt. 4:23; (Matt. 13:52);
Matt. 16:16-19; Ps.115:16; (John 19:30); (Matt. 5:13); (1 Kings 17:1);
(Gen. 1:26); Ps. 115:16; Ps. 8:6; (Matt. 6:9-10); (1 Cor. 12:10);
(2 Cor. 5:18); (John 1:11-12); John 14:12-13; (John 5:19);
Gal. 4:19; 1 Pet. 3:18-20; John 20:23
Where the gospel of the kingdom is accurately proclaimed, God has promised to back it up with demonstration. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power (1 Cor. 4:14-20). (more…)
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Series: The Kingdom of God
Sun am 20 March 2016 – Kobus Swart
(Matt. 18:3); Matt. 10:7-8; Col. 1:13 (Amp & Msg); Luke 16:16;
Mark 1:15; John 3:3-5, 13; (Gen. 3:24); (Matt. 16:18); (Matt. 18:17);
(Acts 1:3); (Matt. 6:9-10); (John 3:13); Eph. 2:19; Phil. 3:20-21;
(Rev. 21:1); John 17:15-16; Luke 13:20-21; 2 Cor. 5:20
When we look at the kingdom of God, is the first thing we must remember, is that kingdom has a KING and everything revolves around Him! Everything about the kingdom honours Him, Jesus Christ our Lord. In Him everything was created, through Him, to Him, He was the first-born of all creation.
Secondly, we can also not talk about the kingdom of God without referring to the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). More about this in our next sessions…
We must take another look at what it means to be born again. For many in the wide church of Jesus Christ, the term used is “being saved.” What does it mean? A better term is to be born again. There is something about becoming like a child that connects to the born again experience (John 3:3-5). We have to become like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3). (more…)
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Series: The Kingdom of God
Sunday: 13th March 2016 – Kobus Swart
Matt. 18:1-4; Rom. 14:17; (John 3:1-5); Col. 1:13;
(Mark 1:15); (Rom. 12:1-2); Heb. 11:1, 3, 8-10;
(Hab. 2:14); (Prov. 23:7); Matt. 13:10-11, 19;
(Matt. 6:33); Rev. 21:1-5
God wants us to live with a Kingdom (God’s government or rule) mentality. A good place to start is to remember that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).
The disciples came to Jesus saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matt. 18:1). They still had the old mentality and they saw the kingdom as an earthly kingdom, a structure with people in rank. Jesus surprised them all and called a child to Himself and set him before them saying, Truly I say unto you unless you are converted and become like children you shall not enter the Kingdom of heaven Whoever then humbles himself as this child he is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:1-4). (more…)
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Series: The Kingdom of God
Sun am 24 November 2013 – Kobus Swart
Matt. 5:13-48; (Matt. 7:12); (Luke 5: 29-30); Luke 11:37-38;
Luke 23:8-11; Prov. 18:19; (Matt. 11:6); (Isa. 8:14); Gal. 5:11;
Matt. 15:10-14; 1 Peter 2:4-10
Let’s take a look at the character that should be in every kingdom citizen. We are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This is more than just going to church on a Sunday, more than quoting a verse or two; it is about that which you radiate from within. The world is looking at that rather than what is coming out of our mouth. We have all been in circumstances that tested us and our reactions. How do we react under testing situations?
Let us look at some of the sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. (more…)
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Series: The Kingdom of God; Transitions
Sun am 14 April 2013 – Kobus Swart
Phil. 3:20-21; (1 Cor.15:28); (Isa. 11:6-9); (Num. 14:21); (Eph. 4:11-13);
(John 8:32); (Matt. 6:10); (Rom. 8:19); (Matt. 24:37); (John 3:5); (Isa. 9:7);
(Matt. 18:3); (Matt. 10:8); (1 Cor. 4:20); (Josh. 5:9); (Acts 3:4)
Jesus says “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). There is a requirement, “you shall know the truth and it will set you free”. Is the Word working for you? Or are you just looking for another revelation? This is the big danger we have in this season: God is taking the seals off the Book, new insights are coming all the time, apostolic graces are operating in many countries of the world and the danger is that we just collect principles and concepts that are new. The challenge is for us to allow the Word to transform our lives. We will all be tested on the Word we receive. (more…)
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Series: The Now; The Kingdom of God
Sun am 24 March 2013 – Kobus Swart
Matt. 6:25-34; Luke 21:1-3; Eccl. 3:11, 15; Eph. 1:10; (John 8:58); (Matt. 18:3).
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Isn’t this what modern life is all about? The mindset that is prevalent in the Western world is about making a living; what shall we eat, how shall we dress, where shall we live. Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? (more…)
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Series: Kingdom of God; Renewing of the Mind
Sunday am 28 October 2012 – Kobus Swart
Matt. 13:10-19; Mark 1:15; Luke 17:21; (Luke 10:9); Matthew 6:10; John 16:33; John 18:36; Col. 1:12-13, (John 17:21); Matthew 18:1-4; Matt. 13:19; Ephesians 1:10-11, Col. 1:12-13 (Ampl), 1 Peter 1:3-5,
Numbers 18:20, Psalm 16:5-6; (Acts 14:22); (Mark 4:39); (Rev. 11:15)
Theme: We have to experience the continually unfolding understanding of the kingdom of God: repent and believe the gospel, change the way you think about the kingdom. The kingdom of God has nothing to do with a specific date in the future; it does not come with signs to be observed; it is in you. The kingdom of God has come in and with Jesus two thousand years ago. To experience it we must become like a child. (more…)
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Series: Kingdom of God
Sun am 21 October 2012 – Kobus Swart
1 Cor. 10:1-5, 11; Jude 3-5; (Heb. 10:13); Gen. 17:8; Deut. 32:49; Ex. 3:8; Acts 14:21-22;
Prov. 13:4; Luke 16:16; Josh. 1:2-3; (Rev. 1:5)
Theme: The experiences of the children of Israel crossing the Jordan into the land of Promise, contain valuable keys for the believer who is serious about possessing the kingdom of God. If we are going to possess the kingdom we will experience similar challenges to what the sons of Israel faced as they took possession of the land given to them by God. (more…)
Series: Kingdom of God
Sun am 16th September 2012 – Kobus Swart
(Matt. 1:1); Heb. 12:22-29 (The Message); 2 Sam. 6:3-12; 2 Sam. 7:1-14; John 14:1-2;
John 16:5-15; John 18:36-37; Acts 1:3-8; Rom. 14:17; (Hagg. 2:8)
Studies of the life of David show many kingdom principles as well as keys to earthy spirituality. David with all his humanness was loved of God. Jesus was called, “the son of David” (Matt. 1:1).
All that which is not of His kingdom will be shaken and torched out so that only the unshakeable kingdom remains (Heb. 12:22-29). I would rather not build in a hurry than have something which seems successful only to fall apart when the shaking comes. Only that which is built with gold, silver and precious stones, will stand in the fire of a consuming God. (more…)
Sun am 6 November 2011 – Kobus Swart
Rom. 8:29; (Prov. 29:18); Eph. 1:10; Heb. 2:10-11; Isa. 66:7-9; (Col. 2:9); Rom. 8:19; Ex. 2:23-24; Rev. 13:8; Jude 5; Eph. 3:10; (John 10:16); (Luke 15:17-18, 31)
The sower sows the seed. Some seeds will fall on rocky places, some will hear the word to some extent and some will go home and forget what it was. There are those who absorb the word, hear it and allow it to penetrate the inner person, allow it to divide between soul and spirit, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Where there is no vision (revelation) the people perish (Prov. 29:18), meaning they are naked. Revelation is not a mental collection of new principles and truths. Impartation writes revelation on your heart.
Series: Kingdom of God
Sun am 16 October 2011 – Kobus Swart
Ps. 82:6; Heb. 11:3 (Wymouth); Rom. 10:13; John 3:3, 8, 11-13; 1 Cor. 1:23-24; John 4:24; 1 John 4:17; 1 John 1:5; Eph. 4:10
The Word of God is never stagnant. There is no full stop behind anything that God is and does. Every experience or revelation you and I have in God should continue to expand. Before entering every new level in the Kingdom there seems to be a new birthing experience; you have to crack the shell of the former. You have to peck from the inside, like a little chicken ready to come out of the egg, and suddenly there’s a whole new realm.
Series: Kingdom Of God
Sun am 2nd October 2011 – Kobus Swart
Gen. 1:1-2, 26-28; Gen. 3:14-15; Gen. 4:1-4; Heb. 4:12; Matt. 13:10-11, 24, 38; John 1:1, 14; Luke 4:3-10; Matt. 8:28-31; 1 John 3:10-12; 1 John 2:18-19; 1 John 4:2; Rom. 16:20; 2 John 1:7; Rev. 22:11; John 17:21
It is not difficult to realize that the world around us is in a chaos of sorts. Every responsible believer in the Church of Jesus Christ should ask himself, “What contribution can the Church bring to address this chaos on so many levels?” This earth belongs to the Lord and the fullness thereof. What do we mean when we pray like this: ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven’? God wants to expand His universal reign to include all the earth.
Series: The Kingdom of God
Sun am 11 September 2011 – Kobus Swart
Acts 18:23-28; Acts 19:1-10; Luke 4:43; Rev. 2:1-7; John 1:1, 14; Gen. 1:26;
Acts 1:9-11; Rom. 8:19; Luke 17:20
Apollos, an apostle in the time of Paul, was teaching; he was an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures; but his revelation was incomplete. He was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John, and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, (Apollos) they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Later, he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ (Acts 18:23-28).
Series: Kingdom of God
Sun am 28 August 2011 – Kobus Swart
Matt. 24:14; Matt. 6:9-10; Is. 9:7; Prov. 29:2; Matt. 21:43; 1 Pet. 2:9; Mark 1:15; Isa. 9:7;
Rev. 9:15; Luke 17:20; John 3:3; John 1:11-12; Gal. 4; Matt. 3:1-2; Col. 1:13; Matt. 5:1-10,13; Rom. 10:13
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to every nation and then the end shall come (Matt. 24:14). Let us develop a Kingdom culture. Jesus taught us to pray: ‘Our Father….’ His Father now also becomes our Father; and He is the firstborn. We are praying for God to manifest Himself in His Kingdom with us. Of the increase of His government and of peace, there shall be no end (Isa. 9:7). The Kingdom of God, where it is functioning, brings peace. When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, But when a wicked man rules, people groan (Prov. 29:2). We need to see the Kingdom of God invading every realm of politics, business, professional fields etc – in order to see the chaos of this world arrested and the peace of God established. The Law dealt with the effects of sin; Jesus came to deal with the cause of sin. When you deal with the root cause of sin, there is a transformation of life.
Series: Other Speakers; Kingdom of God
Sun am 21 August 2011 – Justus Swart & Daniel van Eeden
Col. 1:13; John 17:20-23; Matt. 6:1-6; Matt. 7:1-5; Gal. 5:22-23; Matt.12:46-50; (Matt. 5:21-48); John 18:36; Matt. 13:10, 13-16;
Matt. 5:21-22; Eph. 4:15; John 8:31-32; John 7:17; (1 Pet. 2:9);
John 5:3; Eph. 1:18; John 12:24; John 6:63; Rom. 8:13;
Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:9-11
Justus: Presently there seems to be a difference between Kingdom culture and Christian culture. The meaning of culture: ‘the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. The totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions and all other human products of work and thought.’ Culture is something that is in our nature, something that is represented and manifested collectively. It’s represented in a body of people, a group. We don’t have a collective culture that we know as Christianity. Instead of unity rooted in the Word, what we have are denominations built upon the science of interpretation. We have built walls around what we interpret the Bible as saying, while excluding those who believe anything different – thus the rise of denominationalism. It means that our ethnic culture has already pre-determined our perspective on the Bible before we have even opened it.
Series: Kingdom of God
Sun am 14 August 2011 – Kobus Swart
Matt. 6:10; Matt. 13:10-17,24-25; Mark 4:13-15,23-24; Matt. 18:1-6; John 17:15-21;
Luke 22:9-12, 24-30; John 13:2-5,8-10
Jesus taught His followers to pray, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10). We (the Church) are heaven’s colony on earth. Ambassadors of the kingdom live according to the statutes of the government that sent them. They are then also protected by that government.
And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” (‘Them’ meaning thePharisees and Sadducees; the religious order of that day). And He answered and said to them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted… Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see. This is what the religious spirit does to people – you will act like you see, but you’re not seeing. You will act like you hear, but you don’t hear. A religious spirit will say all the right things; but the test is – do you see? Do you hear? (Matt. 13:10-17).
Series: Kingdom of God
Sun am 07 August 2011 – Kobus Swart
2 Cor. 10:3-6; Matt. 15:1-6; Rom. 8:14; Matt. 13; Deut. 4:1, 5-9
We must never allow the teaching of The Kingdom of God to simply become a doctrine in our minds. The moment a Biblical truth has become a doctrine, it attracts the religious spirit and it becomes a stronghold which holds us captive.
The same Word by which God created heaven and earth, and by which the universe is held together, can be invalidated by the traditions of men (Matt. 15:1-6). This should not surprise us, because Satan is a religious spirit parading as an angel of light and his ministries as angels of righteousness. Paul reminds us that these fortresses and opinions in the mind can be broken by the impartation of a living Word spoken by God’s messengers. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete (2 Cor. 10:3-6). Paul was speaking on behalf of the Apostolic Company of his time.
Series: Renewal of the mind; The kingdom of God
Sun am 31 July 2011 – Kobus Swart
Jn 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6; Matt. 6:10; Acts 3:19-21; John 1:1-12, 14; Isa. 55:11; Heb. 2:10; Rev. 19:11-16;
Matt. 15:1-6, 32; Matt. 13:52; Prov. 23:10; Matt. 8:28-34
“When you spend time soaking in the word of God, there comes a point when you’re consumed with the revelation of God – His ways and His promises. When you speak, your words are permeated with the truth of God, because it’s living inside of you. You can no longer find the point where your thoughts stop and the Word of God begins, because all your thinking has been renewed by the Word. That’s what it means to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Series: Kingdom of God
Sun am 5th June 2011 – Kobus Swart
Matt. 6:25-33; Dan. 2:21, 44-45; Heb. 12:25-29; (Heb. 10:31); (Heb. 4:7b); (Rev. 11:15); (Prov. 29:18); (James 5:16)
‘But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you’ (Matt. 6:33). If you want to know what ‘these things’ is referring to, read the rest of the chapter. Sadly, life itself, is about making a living; and that gives birth to all the anxieties and insecurities and ambitions we find in the world. That is why the message of the Kingdom is so important for today because the kingdoms of this world have become (viewed from the finished perspective) the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. 11:15). We do not see that yet, but in God’s eyes it is done; it is complete, it is accomplished. It is when we see things from the unfinished position that we struggle.
Series: The Kingdom of God; Soul & Spirit
Sun am 11 April 2010 – Kobus Swart
Rom. 14:17; Eph. 2:6; Gal. 5:25; Heb. 4:12; (Col. 1:13); (Matt. 5:20); (Matt. 23:25-26); (Rom. 8:14); 2 Peter 1:4-11 – Phillips version
We are accumulating a lot of good information, knowledge and principles. The question is how much of it are we walking in? God weighs the house and that weight is not determined by how much we have heard but by how much has become ours in daily life. We are positionally seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph.2:6). Does this manifest in your daily life when there is pressure, when things are not going well and when you have to make choices? We must move from positional reality to experiential reality.
Sun am 19 July 2009 – Kobus Swart
Eph. 1:17-23; Rom. 11:36; (1 Cor. 15:24); John 12:24; (Heb. 1:3)
What is very closely related to the finished works of Christ is to live a life without a sin consciousness. We do not need to have consciousness of sins anymore because the old outer court rituals fell away when Jesus died on the cross as the once for all Sacrifice. He came and not only forgave, He took away sin. We have somehow allowed the act of redemption to fill the whole spectrum of the gospel to the exclusion of other strands of truth. We made as if God’s ultimate purpose has always been the redemption of human kind. The gospel has become largely centered on the plan of redemption, which made the fall the starting place. The fall is where it all went wrong, so God is totally pre-occupied with restoring what went wrong at the fall. Wrong! The question is;” Did God plan sin in His original purpose for creation?” No, He did not plan sin. But He created Adam and Eve and gave them a choice. It’s that choice where things went wrong.
Sun am 12 July 2009 – Kobus Swart
2 Cor. 6:14-18; Matt. 1:1-17; 1 Pet. 2:9; Ruth 1:14-18; (Isa. 4:1); Ruth 3:1-11; Ruth 4:10;
Josh. 2:1-21; Heb. 11:31; James 2:24-26; (Ps. 51); Matt. 13:36-39; Mal. 4:1-6
Abraham gave Isaac the instruction, “Do not marry any one from the daughters of Canaan.” They went to great trouble to find a woman who was in the right lineage. Also the same thing happened when Isaac instructed Jacob not to marry any of the daughters of Canaan. God was jealous of the Royal Seed line. We previously touched on the problem of mixed marriages, meaning those of the covenant people of God marrying those outside the covenant people – all pointing to God’s heart for purity.
This is how the New Testament approaches this subject: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:14-18).
(more…)
Rev. 18:4; Jude 1:5; Eph. 4:11-13; Deut. 28:7; Ps. 24: 1; Matt. 6:10; Rev. 11:15; Matt. 13:33; John 13:3-5; Ezek. 37:1-10
“I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues’” ( Rev. 18:4). The name ‘Babylon’ means gateway to heaven, but the real meaning and the implication we are dealing with today is: to confuse, to mystify or to deceive. Israel came out of Egypt, out of the land of oppression, but it took God 40 years to deal with the Egypt within them. The slave mentality came with them out of Egypt. “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 1:5).