Randy – Wisdom From the Word

Values, What a Concept Part 3

I close this series looking at the challenges of aligning our values and worldview with scripture. The first thing to note is that this is a real battle, spiritual warfare. As I noted in my last post, “The presentation of our body to His service and the considering of ourselves as dead to our former way of life, sin, are both acts of spiritual warfare that establish and enforce His victory in our lives and make us salt and light in our culture.”

To intentionally engage in this transformational process, we need to draw on His grace to swim against the tide of our culture and the spiritual influence of darkness, which is of course a significant part of our current culture. We draw on His grace in two ways. One, way is by asking for the Spirit’s help, the other is intentionally stepping into this battle by seeking to find and engage in the things He has prepared for us to do. Paul said it this way.

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8–10 (NKJV)

The Lord has already prepared things for us to do, our part is to discern and engage in them. While there may specific things each of us need to discern, some things are clearly laid out for all of us. Jesus presented a number of them in the Sermon on the Mount, here is a brief sample.

¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? ⁴⁸ Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:43–48 (NKJV)

If you haven’t thought of these as acts of spiritual warfare and engaging in cultural transformation, they are, and when you engage in them you are modeling the values of the kingdom. This is presenting our members as instruments/weapons of righteousness (Romans 6:12-14, 17-19) and presenting our body as a living sacrifice and aligning our thinking and acting with the values of the kingdom (Romans 12:1-2).

Let’s daily do that.

Values, What a Concept Part 2

When it comes to our worldview and values Paul says we are to renew our minds to align them with kingdom values. This renewal implies change, repentance. Repentance, a change of mind and heart, is part of salvation, yet repentance is not meant to be a one-time act that leads to salvation, it is meant to be a lifestyle that seeks to continually align our thinking and acting with the values of scripture. Our problem in the church is both wrong or poor doctrine, orthodoxy, and wrong practice, orthopraxy. Yet to be found faithful in both we need to develop the ability to swim against the strong currents of our culture. We are daily inundated with billboards, seemingly ‘omnipresent’ social media, regular media and in general a culture heading in the opposite direction of a scriptural worldview. I don’t think that as believers we intentionally choose to be conformed to the world, we simply become immersed in our culture and don’t know how to live out the old expression that we are to ‘be in the world but not of it.’

In Romans 12:2 Paul says very clearly that the solution is to renew our minds. However, I think the primary problem we encounter in trying to renew our minds is earlier in Paul’s exhortation. Let’s look at our passage again.

¹ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1–2 (NKJV)

Paul pairs renewing our minds with presenting our bodies, our whole lives, as a sacrifice. We see this same concept in Romans 6:1-4. This is really a description of Paul’s later summary statement in Romans 12:1-2 about presenting our whole selves as a living sacrifice and transforming our thinking.

¹¹ Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³ And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:11–14 (NKJV)

This pairing of the principles of Romans 6 with Romans 12 becomes more obvious when we find that the word ‘reckon’ in Greek in 6:11 has the same root as ‘reasonable’ in 12:1. Paul is saying in both instances that it is simply the logical thing to do and it is by extension a spiritual act. The word instruments in 6:13 also means ‘weapon.’ The presentation of our body to His service and the considering of ourselves as dead to our former way of life, sin, are both acts of spiritual warfare that establish and enforce His victory in our lives and make us salt and light in our culture.

I encourage you to reflect on these things and in my next post I will delve further into what kingdom values look like.

Values, What a Concept Part 1

Those of you who are older may remember a popular sitcom from decades ago, one where the broader populace was first exposed to the comedy of Robin Williams. The show was called Mork and Mindy and featured Robin Williams as Mork and Pam Dawber as Mindy. Williams played a bumbling alien from another planet here to study earth and humanity. One of the key ongoing plots was Mork not understanding our values and behaviours. In the midst of his attempts to understand, at one point in an episode he uttered a line, “Reality, what a concept!”

This brings me to our subject, ‘Values, What a Concept!’ In our multicultural society we are often exposed to people from other cultures. Not individuals from other planets like Mork, but from places with different values and customs. Which leads to the idea of the source of our values. I don’t know how often most of us reflect on the idea of where our values come from, yet I am confident that most of us are familiar with some version of the following verses.

¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)

As an aside, I have addressed the ‘reasonable service’ versus ‘spiritual worship’ in the past. Suffice to say the first is accurate in terms of the meaning of the words and the second is accurate in terms of the spirit of the words. Thus, consecrating our whole being to Jesus is both reasonable and an act of worship. Yet for our purposes we need to consider why Paul penned these verses. From my perspective the answer is simple, Paul recognized that when people came to Christ their values need to be realigned to come into conformity with the values of the kingdom of God.

What is inherent in Romans 12:1-2 is a values test. I know that may not be your first thought when reading those two verses, yet the test is there. We see it when we recognize that there are two types of values, professed and expressed. That is, there is what we say and what we do. In these verses Paul is calling his readers to align their professed values, what they say, with their expressed values, what they do. Whether or not we recognize there is a values issue in the church there is one. When we recognize it, we are in a position to respond to the issue. The problem is well illustrated in the 2024 worldview survey from Arizona Christian University. Here is a sample statement, “The 2024 national survey shows that 66% of adults consider themselves to be Christians, yet just 4% of all adults – and only 6% of the self-identified Christians – possess a biblical worldview (i.e. Biblical Theism).[1] Canadian statistics are harder to come by but when I have found comparable ones in the past the results are very similar to the US results.

When we reflect on where our values come from, we can think of our family, community, those we associate with in our spare time, the media and the broader culture. We are always either influencing or being influenced by those around us. This survey tells us that our values are not being drawn from scripture or the church. In short, whether by design or default, we have not followed Paul’s injunction and the church has been largely conformed to the world in our day-to-day activities.

My goal here is not to merely highlight the problem, I will come to solutions as we head into one of the seasons that highlights the issue, Christmas. However, if we don’t recognize the need to change we have no impetus to do so, and by default continue to have our values shaped by forces other than scripture and the church.

As we continue this journey, I will present ways to actually live out Romans 12:1-2. For now, I encourage you to reflect on it.

More to come.

[1] https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CRC-Release-AWVI-2-April-23-2024.pdf

The Tree of Life Part 3

Continuing, we will look a little deeper at the soulish versus the spiritual aspects of our lives after our conversion. Many fail to make any distinction between our spirit and soul, viewing them as interchangeable. Scripture doesn’t view them that way. If we have become converted or born again, then we have partaken of the life of Christ, the tree of life. While I firmly believe that the two trees in the garden were literal trees, I also believe the tree of life represents Jesus. We see this in the imagery in Revelation.

⁷ “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Revelation 2:7 (NKJV)

² In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2 (NKJV)

¹⁴ Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14 (NKJV)

Methodius, Bishop of Olympus in the early fourth century saw the tree of life here as representing Christ, as does the present Lexham Bible Dictionary,

TREE OF LIFE (הַחַיִּים עֵץ, hachayyim ets; ξύλον ζωής, xylon zōēs). A tree that represents immortality, divine presence, wisdom, and righteousness as a path of life and an eschatological promise.

If we think this through, Christ is the source of life both now and in eternity. He created all things and He sustains us. The choice we have in this life is whether we learn to daily lean into and draw from Him. This is where spirit and soul take on their importance.

Like many important truths this one is hidden in plain site. It simply requires digging into and understanding scripture. We start with walking by the Spirit, which is of course drawing on Jesus.

¹⁶ I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 (NKJV)

¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:18 (NKJV)

²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:25 (NKJV)

¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Romans 8:14 (NKJV)

When we take these verses seriously, it leads us to learning how to lean into and depend on the Spirit. The scriptures teach that we have both a spirit and soul and that they do not have the same function. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 shows that we have both a spirit and soul and Hebrews 4:12 shows that they have different functions. Even those who have not been born again have a spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11, Proverbs 20:27, James 2:26) though the Lord is not dwelling in it (1 Corinthians 6:17). God has a soul as well (Leviticus 26:11, 30, Jeremiah 6:8, 12:7, Zechariah 11:8) but His essence is spiritual (John 4:24).

Now to functions. With our spirit we can contact the Lord as Isaiah 26:9, Luke 1:46-47 and 1 Corinthians 2:12 teach. Although most translations do not have a difference in tense when referring to the functions of soul and spirit in the Isaiah and Luke passages, the difference is there in Hebrew and Greek. The lack of difference in most translations reflects the theology of the translators, not the teaching of scripture. The difference in Hebrew and Greek is brought out in the KJV, NASB, NKJV, LEB and interlinear translations.

In the Isaiah and Luke passages we see that Isaiah knew that no matter how much he desired God with his soul he was only going to contact Him via his spirit. Similarly, Mary’s soul magnified the Lord only after her spirit had encountered Him and rejoiced in Him. This is not a matter of splitting theological hairs. It is a matter of utmost importance because we in the church so easily follow after the things of the soul believing them to be spiritual. We need to understand what our soul is if we are to not be deceived into believing ourselves to be spiritual when we are merely soulish.

Most of those who recognize the distinction between soul and spirit view the soul as the mind will and emotions. This seems to fit with scripture with the soul as simply our natural ability to think, feel, choose and interact with others. In short, the natural man (literally soulish in Greek, it is the adjective form of the Greek word for soul) of 1 Corinthians 2:14.

If we think we can lean on the abilities of our soul once we are converted we need to read Matthew 26:38, Mark 14:34 and John 12:27. Here we find Christ very aware that His soul desired to draw back from the will of His Father. He had to choose to be led by the Spirit.

Practically, the difference between being led by the soul or the Spirit is that if we are responding out of, and first depending on, our mind, will or emotions, (the natural man) to lead we are open to deception and this is where counterfeit spirituality enters in. Many of the mystics down through the centuries had incredible experiences while leaning on their emotions and intellects but their experiences were contrary to scripture. Similarly, many down through the centuries have trusted in the intellect and ended up persecuting God’s people. Depending on and functioning out of the abilities of the natural man is in fact a major gateway of hell into the church (Matthew 16:18).

We can only follow our mind, will or emotions when they are in agreement with and in submission to our spirit joined to His Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). In practice the relationship between soul and spirit is a bit like that between a parent and child. The child is free to choose within prescribed limits or rules. However, the child needs to be attentive for the voice of the parent and if the parent speaks the child has to choose whether or not to obey. Just so the soul is free to choose within the guidelines of the written word, but when the spirit moves or leads our soul has to choose whether or not to obey. Spiritual believers obey, while the carnal do not, or they do so with mixed motives.

A scriptural example of walking in freedom and then responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit is seen in Acts 16:6-10. Here Paul and the rest of his apostolic team were travelling and fulfilling the call on Paul’s life (Acts 26:16-18). At this point Paul was trying to go where he thought best because he had no clear direction from the Spirit. His soul was free to choose. As He followed his commission the Lord intervened and gave new direction. The result was that a whole new area was opened to the gospel.

I am not suggesting all or any of us will do something this dramatic by paying attention to the leading of His Spirit in our spirit. I am saying that it is how we are called to walk as believers. We know He has called us to prayer, worship, His word, godly relationships and to be salt and light. As we choose to walk this way, we simply need to be sensitive and attentive to His direction in our day to day lives and depend on His leading instead of our natural wisdom.

When we do life this way, we are both walking in the Spirit and continuously partaking of the tree of life!

The Tree of Life Part 2

We continue our exploration. Last week I provided the places in scripture where the tree of life is referenced and noted that qualitatively life is life in the Old Testament (OT). I then concluded by briefly pointing out Paul’s distinction between a soulish and spiritual life. The difference wasn’t in the word life, the distinction is whether the life we have is soulish life or spiritual life.

To clarify, as I noted in Genesis 2:7 Adam became a living being. The Hebrew literally says Adam became a living soul (nephesh in Hebrew). In quoting this in 1 Corinthians 15:45 Paul makes the distinction between Adam being a living soul and Jesus as the last Adam being a lifegiving spirit. In the Greek here, just as in the Hebrew in Genesis, the literal rendering of the word ‘being’ is soul and that is how it is still translated in the most recent version of the New American Standard Bible and the very recent Lexham English Bible.

Now we need to look at how the distinction between soul and spirit relates to the tree of life. The tree of life represents Jesus as our source of life. Adam and Eve, like us, had the opportunity to partake of a natural life and natural understanding, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or to partake of the tree of life, Jesus. We know something happened within them when they ate of the wrong tree. In a similar manner, something happens to us at conversion when we initially partake of Jesus, the tree of life. Paul described it in the following manner. First, he identifies the problem of partaking of the wrong tree in Ephesians. He points out that not only did we sin in our pre-conversion life, sin was in fact our very nature.

³ among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Ephesians 2:3 (NKJV)

Paul then describes what happened when we partook of Jesus.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)

²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)

We were spiritually regenerated when we had our first taste of the tree of life, Jesus. The question before us as believers then becomes twofold. It is a matter of how we continue to partake of Jesus and whether we will continue to partake of Jesus.

To be continued.

The Tree of Life Part 1

In the last couple of months, I have come across people asserting that in Eden, Adam and Eve regularly partook of the tree of life prior to eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One of the proponents is an individual who is very well known in charismatic circles. The view is simply not tenable, before getting into why, I will first look at the tree of life throughout scripture. I will then briefly show what it represents to us now. First the scriptures.

⁸ The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. ⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8–9 (NKJV)

²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” – ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:22–24 (NKJV)

¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who retain her. Proverbs 3:18 (NKJV) NOTE this is a reference to the importance of wisdom

³⁰ The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who wins souls is wise. Proverbs 11:30 (NKJV)

¹² Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 (NKJV)

⁴ A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit. Proverbs 15:4 (NKJV)

¹⁴ Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14 (NKJV)

In the Old Testament (OT) references the word for life in the tree of life is chay in each case but it is also the word used when it says God breathed into Adam the breath of life. Thus, the life in the tree is not qualitatively different than the life Adam had already received at his creation. It is the Hebrew word that refers to life or living things. It is also the word used to refer to all living things in general in Genesis 9:3 and we see it on David’s lips when he wanted to battle Goliath. In 1 Samuel 17:26 David described Yahweh as the ‘living God’ (chay Elohim). We can then see that the choice of what tree to eat from wasn’t about having life/chay as that was something that Adam and Eve already possessed.

In the OT life is life. What was in the tree was in the animals and in people. Yet the tree of life is seen as a source of something more. We see from Adam and Eve being barred access to it that it would have also imparted immortality and left them forever in a sinful state had they partaken of it (Genesis 3:22-24). To truly understand the importance of the tree of life we need to move forward to the New Testament (NT).

Paul makes an important distinction between different types of life in 1 Corinthians.

⁴⁵ And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 1 Corinthians 15:45 (NKJV)

The distinction here is between soulish and spiritual life. To understand this, we need to briefly move back to Genesis 2:7. It is the breath of life (chay) that Yahweh releases into Adam and Adam is then referred to as a living (chay) being (Hebrew nephesh, soul). Paul’s point is that Adam became a soulish being at his creation but we become spiritual beings at the new birth.

This spiritual life is what the tree of life would have conferred to Adam and Eve had they partaken of the tree of life. Something would have been added to their essence that would have brought about an internal change. We can see that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did bring about change, sin and destruction for all of creation. The loss of access to the tree of life after their sin, the spiritual versus the soulish life and the problem of living forever in a fallen state tells us that Adam and Eve only ate from one tree.

More to come.

With Thanksgiving

A note to start. I don’t write my posts in advance. I generally compose them during the week and do my final edits in the morning before I post them. However, I had been working on a post for awhile and set it aside and planned to complete it for this week. However, last Sunday I was reading the following passage and the phrase the Spirit impressed upon my heart was “with thanksgiving.” It never occurred to me at that time that I was writing and this post that I was preparing it for the time of our Canadian Thanksgiving. For me that means this Thanksgiving is significant to the Lord. Now back to scripture.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. ⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4–7 (NKJV)

For me personally not being anxious and praying are easy things to walk out. Where I need to grow is in thanksgiving. Verse 6 basically says that we are to let our needs be known to the Father, but in the process we are to include thanksgiving. The reason for that is what we will now look at.

There are a couple of things to reflect on. The first is that thanksgiving changes us not God. It brings our hearts to a place of rest in Him. In fact, that is Paul’s main point, when we bathe our prayer needs in thanksgiving His peace will guard our hearts and minds. Interestingly Paul says nothing about answers to our prayers, his focus is on the effect that pairing thanksgiving with our prayers makes. Now it is easy to say that but it is helpful to know how it works.

I remember lines from a childhood church song. “Count your many blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise you what God has done.” The whole refrain is below, published by Johnson Oatman Jr. in 1897.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God has done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

This is another part of pairing thanksgiving and prayer, a recounting of our blessings.

Practically here are some simple examples.

Father;

I thank You that You have given me life and breath,
I thank You for access to Your word and freedom to worship You in spirit and truth in this land where I live,
I thank You that You supply all my needs according to Your riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:10),
I thank You that you have placed X and Y in my life.

Obviously, you can generate your own list. I simply know from both scripture and experience that when thanksgiving is part of our prayer life our perspective shifts and hearts come to a place of rest in Him. We are then left confidently expecting Him to do what is best for our lives in our service of Him.

As a closing note, the theme of Philippians is rejoicing and thanksgiving, something Paul practiced and taught. Philippians is one of Paul’s prison letters and I am sure as he wrote from prison in Rome he reflected back on his prison experience in Philippi, where we see that after he and Silas had been beaten and put in stocks they were praying and worshipping in the prison (Acts 16:25). Let’s emulate his heart and as another song says, “Give thanks with a grateful heart.”

Seeds

In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8 Jesus says the harvest from the seeds depends on the condition of the soil. We see that in Jesus own ministry. He spent His earthly ministry sowing seeds and changing lives but the degree of change was commensurate with the commitment to Jesus’ message. What prepared the soil of Israel was John the Baptist’s forerunner ministry warning and exhorting people and calling the nation to repentance and baptism. Though we don’t have much recorded about it in the scripture we know that prayer also paved the way for Jesus’ ministry. One example is Anna.

³⁶ Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; ³⁷ and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. ³⁸ And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Luke 2:36–38 (NKJV)

This pattern of prayer and proclamation is evident in scripture and in every move of the Spirit I have studied in church history. We see it in the history of the Moravians and their 100-year prayer meeting that birthed modern missions. We see it in the life of Evan Roberts and others in the Welsh Revival, we see it in the intense travail of Frank Barlteman and others in the Azusa Street outpouring that birthed the worldwide Pentecostal Movement. I don’t know of a significant movement that arose without it

Now back to scripture regarding sowing. Like Jesus, Paul also addressed the issue of sowing. Below are a couple of examples, the first from 1 Corinthians.

⁵ Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 1 Corinthians 3:5–8 (NKJV)

Paul’s primary point to the Corinthians was that they were not to elevate one leader over another and choose to follow one over another as God is the source of fruitfulness. His other point is that the sowing or planting is our job, God gives the increase or harvest.

We also see Paul addressing sowing and reaping in Galatians.

⁷ Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸ For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Galatians 6:7–8 (NKJV)

Once more we see that the sowing is our responsibility and the fruit comes from the Spirit.

We see this principle of sowing and reaping on a broader scale in another place in scripture. Keep in mind Jesus’ seed sowing in His earthly ministry was His teaching along with the demonstration of the kingdom. Look at The Great Commission.

¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28:18–20 (NKJV)

This is Jesus’ command for us to sow and see a harvest from all nations. An important piece here is we can view this as a command to make disciples from all nations, which is reflected in Matthew 24:14, Jesus’ message about the gospel of the kingdom. We could also look at Matthew 25:31-34 where Jesus refers to sheep and goat nations. In that some see a call for the church to disciple nations. Lastly, we could see The Great Commission as a call to do both. You decide.

I share all of this to lead to a point. I believe when we teach, we can sow seeds of righteousness in the lives of individuals, cultures and nations. I am Canadian and I know seeds of righteousness were sown in the founding of our nation. We were originally known as the Dominion of Canada based on Psalm 72:8, which is inscribed on the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

⁸ He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. Psalm 72:8 (KJV)

We can thus pray that this will be fulfilled and His dominion realized in our nation. This is but one example.

As I post this I have just returned from a vacation in Portugal. While there, as we traveled, I sought to discern what the Spirit wanted me to intercede for. I know that while historically there was a religious mixture in Portugal there were many seeds of the gospel and truth sown in the nation. At the beginning of our trip I was led to pray that apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders and intercessors would be raised up from among the people. Later while traveling through the countryside on more than one occasion He led me to pray that the spiritual seeds sown in this land would sprout and a harvest would come forth.

If we look at the pattern the Spirit led me to in prayer the main focus was on raising up proclaimers and intercessors. The latter part was for these seeds to come to life. I only saw this pattern upon reflection as I was led to write this, not while I was engaged in it. There were other things He led me to do but this example is sufficient.

This now comes back to each of us. In our lives let’s seek to follow Him each day and look for what He is leading us to pray and proclaim so that we see the fruit Jesus desires in our lives, cities and communities.

At Hand

I last wrote about the kingdom of God being within us and our ability as believers to access it via our ‘state of mind.’ That is, how we think about it. Here I will look at a related idea, starting with the following verses.

¹ In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Matthew 3:1–2 (NKJV)

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17 (NKJV)

¹⁴ Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, ¹⁵ and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14–15 (NKJV)

Here we have John the Baptist and Jesus delivering the same message. There are two parts, the need for repentance and ready access. They both require choices to be made on our part. Repentance is a change of mind and heart that produces a change in behaviour and the phrase ‘at hand’ is a single Greek word that refers to something coming near or being close at hand, again, the idea of access.

Their message was that if the hearers changed their thinking and heart attitudes, they could have access to the kingdom. What is important is recognizing what Jesus in particular meant by the kingdom. Which He nicely summed up for us in a portion of what we call The Lord’s prayer.

¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10 (NKJV)

From Jesus perspective the kingdom being at hand was the authority of the kingdom being accessed and demonstrated.

While we can understand what Jesus meant looking back, neither John nor Jesus closest followers really understood what the kingdom being at hand meant.

We know from John’s interactions with Jesus, that like the prophets of old, he was being faithful in delivering the message Yahweh had entrusted to him, even though he didn’t fully understand it. In fact, even after he had publicly endorsed Jesus as “The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) he still struggled. After he was imprisoned, he sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3).

There is no need to be critical of John, after all, he did understand that the kingdom was accessible and whether he knew it or not his prophetic voice was beckoning people to a new era of kingdom authority that Jesus was ushering in. Even after walking in the benefits of this access to the kingdom His closest friends who heard all of His teaching and parables didn’t understand what they were accessing. That is evident based on what they asked Jesus just prior to His ascension.

⁶ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. ⁸ But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:6–8 (NKJV)

What this means is that even though John and Jesus preached that the kingdom was accessible, at hand via repentance, those hearing didn’t understand what they were looking for or seeking to access! I also contend that even today, many of us who have been delivered, “from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son…” (Colossians 1:13) don’t fully grasp what has taken place, I know I don’t. This is what we will briefly look at now.

¹ For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, ² that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:1–3 (NKJV)

This passage is related to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17 for wisdom and revelation. Once we have repented and have been born again, we have access to the kingdom through the King living in us by the Spirit because we have changed domains and dominions (Colossians 1:13). Paul’s prayer for the Colossians, and by extension us, is that we could come to a full assurance and understanding of what it means to have Christ in us and access to Him to extend His kingdom. We have spiritual authority, we have access to the throne of grace, we carry eternity in our hearts. These things, and many others in scripture, are available and I invite you to search them out. Additionally, Paul presents a number of the benefits we have in the rest of Colossians 2, 3 and 4.

Now for a simple example of accessing the kingdom that is at hand. As I write this I am in another country. I am here on vacation but I have been walking around seeking to know His heart and pray. Not that I am interceding every waking moment, but I am seeking to be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading.

After we arrived a prophetic friend sent me an assignment. He had an image/vision of me standing on a barren hill praying and declaring some things over the country. We have been traveling to different places along the coast and in one locale as we were walking through the old town to hike along the coast, I saw a barren hill in the distance that I knew was the correct one. In the afternoon after our hike, I went back, hiked up the hill, and prayed and proclaimed over the area. Here is an important part. I prayed about what to pray before I went up the hill, prayed and spoke as the Spirit led, then hiked back down. I felt nothing other than a sense that I had been obedient and that I had done as the Lord asked. I now leave the results in His hands and continue to pray off and on during the day as we vacation, in this way accessing and extending the kingdom. There have been other examples on this trip but I encourage you to seek His face, extend His kingdom and share the results with others!

A State of Mind

In May of 2023 Rick Joyner had a stroke. He said that while he was in the hospital, ‘giving thanks for all things’ and recovering, the Lord spoke to him and said, “You are not to lead people to a place, but to a state of mind. The kingdom of God is within you.” I have thought about this statement and the implications a good deal since I read it over a year ago. To go deeper we will look at more of the context.

²⁰ Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; ²¹ nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:20–21 (NKJV)

There is another related statement to look at before we drill down a bit on the above verses.

¹⁷ for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 (NKJV)

We can see that there are two important pieces in the Luke verses. Jesus said the kingdom of God “does not come with observation,” that is we don’t see it by looking around. The other point Jesus made was that “the kingdom of God is within you.” Paul said in Romans that the kingdom is “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” In other words, a state of mind.

Now to look at what this means for us. The Pharisees were committed to the scriptures and looking for the Messiah. They were looking for signs or indicators. What they failed to do was open their hearts. A great example is in Luke 5.

¹⁷ Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Luke 5:17 (NKJV)

Jesus was there and His power was present to heal, including the Pharisees and teachers of the law, yet while others were healed, they weren’t. They observed the external signs, the healings and miracles yet even though the kingdom was being manifest right in front of them they failed to see it. They were observing but not seeing! Jesus was trying to lead them to a state of mind and draw them into ‘righteousness, peace and joy.’ He wanted to heal their hard hearts, but because they refused to open their hearts to Him, they never received what Jesus had to offer and they retained their hard hearts.

For us, Jesus the king is present, thus His kingdom is present. So, when our hearts are attuned to His presence, we come to a state of mind where we experience His ‘righteousness, peace and joy’ and can worship in spirit and truth. While we have the opportunity let’s open our hearts to His presence so we can embrace the kingdom afresh!