Posted: 03/26/2013 at 12:55pm
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True Grace in the Kingdom of God
By Ron McGatlin
The life of God in Christ is blossoming forth into the hearts and lives of a fresh army of believers who have been made alive by the Spirit of Christ in the Holy Spirit.
Grace gifts and manifestations of the love and power of God are beginning to come forth again. The joy of the Lord is beginning to lift the hearts of God’s people.
Father, send forth a fresh wind of Your Spirit to revive the weary and awaken the sleeping. Let Your holy fire cleanse and refresh Your people once again. Let Your presence be known in the gatherings of those hungering and thirsting for that which only You can provide.
Father God, we pray in Jesus’ name, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for Christ Jesus to be seated firmly upon the throne of our hearts (our souls and spirits) where we once sat and ruled our own lives in our foolish independence apart from God. Amen.
Abundant Grace
The grace of God flows from the throne of God through Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit. It is the life of Christ in the Spirit of God abiding and fully functioning on earth through willing volunteers - those who have laid down their lives that Christ may fully live in them.
A major purpose of God in man on earth is to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, the kingdom of God as it is in heaven. The full redemption of man from his fallen state and restored to be sons of God is for the purpose of fully establishing God’s rule and reign, His kingdom on earth. Unredeemed fallen man could never bring forth the kingdom of heaven; rather he can only bring forth the kingdom of darkness.
The full redemption of man is a major part of the work of the grace empowerment of God. However, it is NOT the only or the final part of the work of God on earth. God has a purpose for saved mankind. The clear biblical focus of the work of Christ Jesus on earth is the kingdom of God fully restored on earth. All things must be put under His feet. All things are to be gathered in Christ. This is not the work of man, but it is the grace work of Christ Jesus in and through man (redeemed sons of God).
Pure Unadulterated Grace
Two of the greatest errors, or more accurately, lies of the enemy that both greatly work against the kingdom of God on earth are (1) the religious belief and focus that the redemptive work of Christ Jesus is ALL about man and (2) the secular belief and focus that man can govern his life and the world without God.
Improper focus leaves the door open for out-of-balance presumptuous anti-kingdom beliefs. Some popular current “extreme grace” doctrines formed from the focus on man’s redemption and not upon the biblical foundation of Christ Jesus and the framework of the kingdom of God will inevitably lead to costly disorder in our lives and the world. These sometimes called “hyper grace” teachings are partial truths but can become frightful error without the framework of the gospel of the kingdom.
A major problem with these imbalanced teachings is that they focus on the true work of Christ removing the penalty of our sins and ignore the major kingdom reality of Christ Jesus REMOVING OUR SINNING. Jesus did not come to take away the view of sins on earth. HE CAME TO TAKE AWAY SIN ON EARTH. Jesus came releasing the grace of God to DISSOLVE SIN not to just remove the penalty of sin (1 John 3:4-10).
The power of God’s grace in Christ Jesus abiding in us where we once lived will always be doing what Jesus does, and that is living a holy life separated unto God our Father. Christ Jesus living in our bodies DOES NOT SIN (1John:3:9). He always does only what He hears and sees the Father doing (John 5:19).
When the Father looks our direction He sees either us, or He sees Christ Jesus, one or the other depending on who lives in us. Either we are crucified with Christ and now the life we live is Christ, or we are not crucified with Christ and the life we now live is our own (Galatians 2:20). If it is us that are living and not Him, WE CANNOT BE A PART OF ESTABLISHING THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH. Men living in sin cannot even enter the ruling city of the kingdom of God on earth. Nothing enters New Jerusalem, the ruling city of God on earth that defiles it (Rev 21:27).
If when God looks our direction He sees no sin, but only the righteousness of Christ Jesus, it is because there is no sin there. The righteousness of Christ is there, because He is the one living there. Christ Jesus in us by the Holy Spirit takes away our sinning. To believe that we can walk in sin and be seen as the righteousness of God while sinning is an absurd devilish lie that sounds really good.
Yes, it is all the grace of God and NOT the work of man. The way that we can know that we are fully living in the grace of God is that we do not sin (1John 3:21:24). By the grace empowerment we then truly are the sons of God who can bring forth the real redemption of the world. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God.
The Cross and the Resurrection
We must distinguish between the works that Christ Jesus accomplished at the cross and the works of Christ Jesus being accomplished in His resurrection life. The work of the cross is finished. The work of His resurrected life in His people is being done now (Romans 5:10). We were reconciled at the cross and are being saved (healed, delivered, set free) by His life in us, if in fact we have received His life in us.
At the cross Christ Jesus paid the price of redemption for all mankind.
At His resurrection and ascension, He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor 15:45).
He then returned as He promised in the Holy Spirit to indwell all who will receive Him to live His life in us and deliver us from sinning and darkness into the kingdom of His marvelous light (John 14: 17-21). Christ Jesus in us is the righteousness of God - God’s righteousness now in this life. Thus we in reality become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It is all by His grace, His life, and His righteousness in us.
All this to provide a Body and a Bride in which Christ Jesus is the Head and the Husband bringing forth the kingdom of God and His righteousness in this world.
God’s Original Covenant with Man
Christ Jesus did all that he did without violating God’s covenant with man to have dominion on earth. He did not and will not violate the choice and free will that by God’s word is given to man through the love and grace of God. MAN’S PART IS ONE OF CHOICE, and God has fully given man the opportunity and ability to choose.
Whosoever will may come to God through Christ Jesus and freely receive the fullness of the grace gift of God, which is the life of Christ Jesus abiding within by the Holy Spirit to fully restore us to where we were before sin ever entered the world in Adam.
Those who will not come to God through Christ Jesus will not experience the grace gift of Christ Jesus abiding within by the Holy Spirit. Instead the love and grace of God will cause them to have an empty, unfulfilled life experience to drive them toward a place of TURNING to Him with their whole hearts to lay down their lives to become true sons of God, in whom Christ Jesus lives where they once lived.
Whom Jesus sets free is free indeed. Free from the past life and alive in the new life to live by the Spirit and walk in the Spirit.
End Time Strong Delusions
In this season now upon us there are many false teachers and false prophets speaking such cunning partial-truth lies and perversions that, as Jesus said, even the elect would be deceived if it were possible (Mat 24:24). Any doctrine that is not on the foundation of Christ Jesus and the life he modeled for us, or is not aligned with the framework of the gospel of the kingdom that He preached and demonstrated is probably leading off the narrow way of Christ Jesus. False or twisted teaching will not lead to life but leads to death.
Impurities in the life are a strong factor in a person’s openness to receive false teachings that make provision for their fleshly impurities to be acceptable. Even much of the traditional teachings of the past and current church systems are infected with mixtures of false or perverted doctrines.
For valuable kingdom of God teaching from the pure revelation of the written word of God by the Holy Spirit that can change your life, I heartily recommend the “Kingdom Growth Guides” available for Free Download in PDF format on the archive.openheaven.com website.
Much Love and Blessings,
Ron McGatlin archive.openheaven.com basileia@earthlink.net
Edited by Ron McGatlin on 03/26/2013 at 2:47pm
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