Possessing The Land: Building The Kingdom Of God
Why did God allow men to build him a temple?
The scripture says he doesn't need a house made with hands, as his presence fills heaven and earth. And he clearly doesn't need a work of art to look at, though love for him has inspired some of the greatest works of art in history.
The temple was a symbol of God's abiding presence with his people. God gave them the temple as a covenant sign, a towering, tangible reminder that he had promised to be among them and that through them he would bless the nations. Read 1 Chronicles 28:6-12.
He gave them the temple to remind them that he was giving them the land. God built the temple to fill the nation with his presence. As I move around Europe and the world today, I believe the word of the Lord to his church is, "It is time to possess the land!" In many areas we have seen the church grow dramatically. We have experienced great joy in the temple, the house of God. Now it is time to build the Kingdom of God.
The word "possess" used in 1 Chron 28 is a strong one. It means to occupy a place by driving out the previous tenants and possessing it in their place; it means displacing and replacing. We are called to drive out ungodly powers, authorities, values and works and replace them with the powers, authorities, values, and works of the Kingdom of God.
This is the call of every Christian believer, whatever our occupation or gifting might be. Now, it is clear from the Bible that the Kingdom of God will not find its full expression on earth until Christ returns. However, we told that we can experience a foretaste of that Kingdom in our own lives through the work of the Spirit, and we are commanded to work for the extension of that Kingdom in the hearts and minds of men and women around us.
What is the Kingdom of God?
First of all, it is wherever God's will is done "as it is in heaven". That's the emphasis of the Lord's prayer. Note: the Kingdom is not just about doing God's will, but about doing it with the right motives.
We are not to obey out of fear, guilt or a sense of duty but out of love, for that is the motivation of heaven.
Secondly, the Kingdom is where the rule of God redeems and transforms everything it touches.
Recently, we ran a major outreach event in one of northern Europe's largest night clubs. One thousand people paid for a ticket, over half of them total pagans. When I preached to this crowd, over thirty people responded by coming to the front and praying for salvation, and others were counselled around beer tables where they stood. The next day as I booked onto my flight, the young woman who took my ticket was grinning from ear to ear. I asked her if I should know her. She said, "I was in front of you last night, I became the Christian!"
The Kingdom of God can be in a nightclub just as readily as in a cathedral. It is wherever people's lives are being transformed by the love and power of Christ.
Thirdly, the Kingdom of God is a place where people with changed hearts change the world around them. Jesus told Pilate, "My Kingdom is not of this world".
Jesus taught that you cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless it first enters you. More is accomplished in this world by one person with a truly changed heart than by all the career social activists and politicians put together. The Kingdom begins within us, but it is much too awesome to remain there. It is always seeking an outlet and a way off affecting our environment.
We have made "witness" a verb, but in the New Testament it is an adjective. It describes the kind of people we are, not to the things we do. Check out Acts 1:8. The Greek word used here ("martus") suggests that we will be a people so filled with supernatural power from a higher dimension, so filled with extraordinary faith, that we will have power even to lay down our lives for the cause of the gospel if that becomes necessary. Even in our death the power of the kingdom would expand and not shrink.
When we became Christians, all the fullness of that Kingdom came to dwell within us. As we line up our decisions and actions with the values of God's word, we allow the explosive power of the Kingdom to surge out of us and change the world we live in.
Finally, the Kingdom of God was Jesus' first priority. He spoke of God's kingdom on earth over one hundred times in the gospels, yet he spoke of the church on only a few occasions. Does that mean that the church is not important? No, the rest of the New Testament is the story of the birth and development of the church. But Jesus wanted our priorities to be right.
The reason we build churches is to build God's kingdom, to fill the earth with God's glory. We are not just to enjoy the temple - we are to possess the land!
Pastor, if you are trying to build a large church simply to have a large church, your goal is to small! We need to build churches which will extend to the Kingdom, the influence of God's truth in the real world. Business person, if you are building a business merely to gain security for your family or your future, your goal is not big enough. We need to build businesses which can release resources to extend God's rule in the hearts of men. Student, if you are studying merely to gain a degree or get a good job, you are living for what to you are trained for rather than what you were born for. We need students who are preparing to occupy positions of influence in the world for the sake of the Kingdom. So the question for us now is this, what kind of people do we need to be to build the Kingdom of God in our world, to possess the land? In Hebrew 11 we read about men and women who possessed the land in God's name, who "subdued kingdoms" and "administered justice" in their world (vs. 33). We are told they did this by "obtaining promises". Another version says they took hold of God's promises for themselves.
Faith - Sparked by A Call, Fuelled by a Promise
Building the Kingdom of God always begins with the operation of faith. Faith is sparked by a call but fueled by a promise. Romans 10:17 tells us that "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. " Notice it does not say "faith comes by hearing the word of God", because many people hear the word of God but never operate faith in his name. It is not the letter of the word which brings faith, but the call of the spirit through the word.
Faith begins with a call. What has God called you for? Roman 8:25 says, "all things work together for the good of those who are called according to his purpose". God has called you according to a purpose. There is nothing whimsical or haphazard about his call.
This is where vision and your own personal goals differ. Vision begins with a revelation from God. Vision shapes you, not to vice-versa. And vision is not always understood when it is first receive. Your goals are not big enough for God to use. God can only work through supernaturally revealed vision, through his call upon your life.
Faith is sparked by a call but fuelled by a promise. God never issues a call without also attaching a promise. He reveals something of what our lives will look like when we obey that call.
For example, Abram was called to leave Ur and promised a great nation; Moses was called to speak to Pharoah and promised miracle power to back him up; Joshua was called to cross the Jordan and promised the victory on the other side.
In each case God gave them an advance picture of what the call would look like when they carried it out. Faith is sparked by a call but fuelled by a promise.
If I the turn of the ignition key in my car I know there is a spark somewhere in that engine which will get the car moving. But I will not get very far without also having fuel in the tank. Many Christians have received a spark of revelation at some time, through prophecy or through the word, but they have never really taken hold of the promise of God which goes with that call. And as a result they are in constant need of "revival" and a renewing of that first experience.
Sometimes, God's promise upon our lives is indicated in our past experience. When David faced Goliath he recognized that the same God who gave him victory over a lion and a bear would also give him victory over this Philistine giant. God's promise for David's future was revealed in God's dealings in his past.
Another way of looking at this is to say that the promise is a picture of how God's favor will look in our situation as we step out in faith and obedience to the vision he develops within us .
As much as ever before we need Christian people who are very conscious of God's call upon their lives and have their eyes firmly fixed on the promise he has made for their future.
We need people who are not satisfied simply to enjoy the temple, the House of God, but to take God's presence into the real world and build the Kingdom.
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