Kingdom Transformation

At the end we will look at things differently. We will see that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord. That perspective informs us in the here and now to see kingdom transformation opportunities everywhere. The Lord has placed us in communities that have the potential to be transformed. This is a recording that looks at God's incredible plan for transformation of clubs and societies, churches, communities and families. It lays out the roadmap that defines the process as the Lord takes hold of a community of people to enthrone himself and make them his own.

Kingdom Transformation 1 - Defining our Direction
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A second recording looks at how we can partner with the Lord in his plans for the world and the communities that we are a part of.

Kingdom Transformation 2 - Partnering with the Lord
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Kingdom Transformation Opportunities

Here is one of the big ideas of scripture. The kingdom grows by taking over and transforming the kingdom of the world. The kingdom of this world has become . . . the Lord’s and his Christ’s. That is a description of the end of it all. That is Christianity’s ultimate vision statement. And in the statements that follow we find a blow-by-blow description of the process by which this vision was realised.

Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Revelation 11:15-19

The world stands as a crushing and uncompromising system that presses its members to conform or perish. We are called to not conform to it. Instead we are to be transformed. That is the encouragement we find in the opening verses of Romans 8. In this way, individuals are transformed from one kingdom to the other. I believe that this is true of communities as well, subsets of the world as a whole. The Lord wants to redeem each one. Individuals, communities, and eventually the whole system of the world . . . It will all be his!

An old rendering of Daniel pictures the kingdoms of this world being consumed by the Lord’s kingdom:

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Daniel 2:44

We are used to thinking about the two kingdoms being in opposition, but it seems a new way of thinking to see kingdom potential every time we see an incarnation of the world before us. Where do we see the world at work? In nations, provinces with a ruling authority, clubs and societies, organisations, schools, mosques, churches and companies. In any organised group of people, more than likely we will see a system of conformity set up to control the group. Does that mean that any group that is structured is evil somehow? The answer is that we are not looking to condemn and find fault. We are not advocating anarchy or disorganisation. Instead, when we see harsh treatment and the restriction of freedom and self-expression, we can see a target for kingdom transformation. When the world, whatever it looks like, enslaves a group of people, it may be that we can partner with the Lord to see their release.

Faith and the Father

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. We can have hope that is little more than just that, or we can possess hope that is more than hope. Peter says that we have living hope - That is faith making our hopes have substance. We hope that that the Father is on our side, that he cares about the things that we feel are important, that he will hear and answer our prayers. When we have faith, not just trusting and hoping, but living alive to all that we hope for . . . then we are really living beneath the shadow of a benevolent father that loves us and lavished good gifts on us, all to ready to hear and answer.

First Things First

Following on from my last post . . .

Realising that I had a broken spirit, I tried to draw on scripture to understand what I was facing. I thought about how I had heard a sermon on the book of Nehemiah, a type or analogy of the fortification of the soul. Nehemiah, whose name means “comforter”, was a picture of the Holy Spirit in his ministry as he set up the bars and the gates of the soul and secured it from enemy attack. One of the points this preacher made was that at this time the temple was already rebuilt. The spirit was functioning well, and consequently the soul could be established. Well, my spirit wasn’t okay. I needed to go back in time and look at the rebuilding of the temple. To deal with my broken spirit the very short book of Haggai could serve as a guidebook.

My first observation from the book was a reflection on the intended order of our healing. It is not proper to be focussed on living in panelled houses when my house is in a ruin. It is spiritually out of order to fixate on the soul (the city) before our spirits (the temple) are rebuilt and restored. That said, there is a job to be done on the flesh prior to either of these. This is pictured historically in the release to return. Wounds were healed and chains were broken. The flesh makes our heart hard and dirty, and insensible to our spirits. A clean heart precedes a renewed spirit. The restoration of our hearts permeability to the flow of joy that comes via the Holy Spirit in our spirits, comes before the Lord acts on his spirit.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation

And sustain me with a willing spirit.

Psalm 51:10-12

In fact, it seems like the flesh is responsible for a broken spirit within us. In this verse, the sadness reflects a barren heart, a heart hardened so that joy flowing to us from God via our spirits is absent.

. . . when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.

Proverbs 15:13

Salvation comes and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within our spirits. Depending on our individual history and the generational baggage that we carry, the fleshly calcification that blocks the flow of the Holy Spirit’s living water from moving out of our spirits and into our souls can vary markedly. We all are fallen and fleshly, but we don’t all bear the same wounds and the chains that initially bind us vary as well. The coming of the Holy Spirit into our spirits is an incredible event. There is a weight of glory that descends on us. He brings all heaven with him. And if our flesh blocks the release of all of that out into our hearts and souls and lives, then something gives. Our spirits cannot contain all of that without some kind of release valve. When our hearts are hard, our spirits are broken. This would explain why some new Christians experience an almost spontaneous filling of the Spirit and all that entails. Others, like me, seem to be confined to living with less of God’s glory and power in our lives. So we need to deal with the flesh problem before we restore our spirits. The flesh must be crucified, and then our personal temple in which the Lord can dwell can be repaired. Otherwise, our spirits would break all over again.

After the exile, the Jews never again suffered under the lure of idolatry. All of those substitutes, the Baals and the Asherah poles that tempted them away from authentic worship of Jehovah in the Temple, had completely lost their power. The idolatry that caused the exile was cured by it, and the Jews were prepared to restore their Temple and live again with it as the centre of their community.

So the order is important – First the flesh, then the spirit and then the soul. Trying to renovate our souls without addressing the problem of a broken spirit, leads us to hypocrisy. Without sufficient resources we choose the veneer of panelled houses rather than the authenticity of genuine materials. Acknowledging that we are poor in spirit leads to all the blessings of the kingdom of heaven, just as hungering and thirsting after righteousness results in us being filled.

Heaven Slipping Through my Fingers

It came as a shock to me to realise that I had a broken spirit! I had come to the place where I thought that my spirit was fine, and it was the disarray of my soul or the hindrance of my flesh that was the trouble. Surely this was the case. Was not the kingdom of heaven in my midst? Was not my spirit the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit? Months later I found myself confronted with the reality of scripture that plainly taught that, indeed the spirit could be broken. And I just knew that this was the case in my life . . .

Humbled, and feeling unexpectedly needy, I crafted a simple prayer based on the verses that had diagnosed my condition. These words I prayed daily, wondering how such a fundamental problem could be rectified in my life.

Lord, my heart had experienced so much sadness, and my spirit has been broken (Prv 15:13). As for a broken spirit, who can bear it? (Prv 18:14) It dries up the bones. (Prv 17:22) You would have my heart as a resevoir that hosts your Spirit and holy presence – A well of water springing up to eternal life. But I am cracked and broken in spirit and inadequate for that purpose. My filling ebbs away. But you do not despise our brokenness (Ps 51:17). You save those crushed in spirit (Ps 34:18). You can renew a steadfast spirit within me (Ps 51:10). You can sustain me with a willing spirit (Ps 51:12). I cry out to you with a heavy heart and wail with a broken spirit (Is 65:14). And I petition you and declare that it is into your hand that I commit my spirit (Ps 31:5) – to be healed and restored and renewed. Amen.

There was something that horrified me when I thought about my being a broken vessel that leaked the filling from heaven. I often have felt anointed. I have experienced the gentle touch of heaven. But how terrible to think that the Father had so much more for me and it was slipping through my fingers.

Power in the Blood

Think about the Passover. A bucket of blood is held in a father's hand. "Come on! Paint it on! Hurry up and paint it on, around the door and the windows. Don't miss anywhere." Who is speaking? That's right. It's little Kemuel's mother.She got excited about applying the blood, because she was aware of a terrible accuser just out of sight, standing over the life of her son. The blood took away some sort of legal right. The blood applied would negate the consequences of an accusation. It would save her son's life. If left in the bucket and unapplied, what was the use of that blood.

The blood of Christ when applied does something legally in the spiritual realm. It cleanses our history of sin and pain. Imagine being able to rewrite your history, all of those regrets gone, and the guilt and the mistakes. We can! Not physically, but spiritually it is possible. And the new revision is not read by the people around us. It is the one pored over by those dark accusers that wish to destroy us.

I was just on the Internet with my wife. We were trying to book a flight. We hesitated and then searched for it again and it was gone. It was so frustrating. The next best flight was much more expensive. What could we do? Absolutely nothing. It was there but now it is gone. That kind of frustration is what the accuser feels when we apply the blood. The opportunity is lost forever and all their best laid plans are void. The applied blood sends the accuser back to the drawing board.

The Blood of Jesus is precious. Over and over in the Bible we are told that it was the price of our redemption. That was a one-off transaction that brought us to God the Father. It is also a powerful cleansing agent. It cleanses us from our sins, day by day, in the here and now:

but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:7

What does that mean? Is it just that his blood was shed for us back at the cross and God remembers that and cleans our slate? No, two verses later we learn that we confess and then it is applied . . .

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

Putting the two together we might summarise it like this: If we confess our sins, the Father will forgive our sins and cleanse them with the blood of his son. That is not just remembering or looking at some kind of abstract ledger of our sins. He picks up some of the blood of Christ and applies it to our person. Our sins have stained our bodies and souls, and that stain is removed with a wonderful, heavenly detergent – the only agent that can remove such a stain!

That obnoxious “if” there bothers us. If we take action, then we will be cleansed and forgiven. What if we forget to confess one sin? Will that be enough to keep us out of heaven? Actually, it’s not about salvation or our eternal destiny. That is all secure through the work of that same blood when it was used to purchase us. The stain of sin and its eradication is about living well. Chapter 1 and verse 7 calls it walking in the light. We are real about our sin, the blood is applied and everything is great. We can also see it as living in victory:

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Revelation 12:10-12(ESV)

We sin and our accuser comes. He is conquered by the blood of the lamb. He has nothing to accuse us of, if we confess our sins, and they are subsequently washed with the powerful blood of Christ. At the end the blood of Christ will be the means of victory over the accuser. We in part, day by day, live out this victory when we live in the light. We will conquer him by the blood of the lamb. When we do this, we realise in part that awesome statement:

“. . . Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. . .”

Revelation 12:10(ESV)

Essentially, we are talking about the process of continual and vigilant cleansing, so that we can walk in victory. Here the blood is seen as being applied by people rather than the Father:

. . . they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 7:14

Still the question lingers, “What if I am forgetful or lazy and don’t confess something?”

It follows that the accuser has something in our life to work with. If we hide it or deny our sin, the pressure of sin, its consequences, or the guilt associated with it can overcome us. 

If left too long, we may need someone who is living in the light to come alongside and facilitate our healing. The poison must be washed out of the wound. We must bring that moment into the light. Then the blood will be applied and the legal right of accusation silenced. The accuser will be overcome, guilt and fear will fade away and healing can begin.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

James 5:15-17

The blood of Christ is powerful to break our chains and heal our wounds. Living under its cleansing influence is victory. Through it the kingdom of God comes into our life. Through it we live in the power and authority of Christ, who of course needed no such regular remedy for sin. Jesus said:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10

The application of his blood makes the difference between these two lifestyles – defeated and sick with grief and consequences, or living abundantly in victory.

Beyond Jekyll and Hyde's Potions

The mysterious case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde had been closed. When discovery of his shameful fall was certain, he had taken his life. There was enough evidence in the light now for those close to the case to understand completely what had happened. And the doctor’s letter had filled in whatever had been conjecture before. Poole and Utterson were sitting in a drawing room, discussing the case. Utterson, disturbed by all that he had seen and heard over these last days had retreated into hours of reading “dry divinity” in his library. Somewhere between two and three in the morning he had arisen with haste from his favourite chair, caught up with excitement with an idea. Now, some eight hours later, Poole had arrived at his invitation.

“You have been thinking, my friend. It seems exceedingly strange to receive correspondence from you after midnight. You are not known for such behaviour.”

“Yes, I apologise  This strange case has caused my head to ache with a certain sort of anguish. All my life I have been happy to separate the spiritual from the scientific. Jekyll was no saint, though a good man in the beginning. He was a genius though. He saw that the two could abide together.”

“We know where that left him – embroiled in villainy and dread, and ultimately dead.”

“I would be the first to admit that. My point is that he was right. He believed that evil and good dwell within us all. And he proved it with his horrifying experiment.”

“Yes, but where are you going with all this?”

“You see, Poole, I have spent the past week reading every volume in my library on the subject of religious transformation.”

“You were always partial to such works.”

“I agree, but I have never read them other than for pleasure and relaxation.”

“Utterson, surely you are not trying to be practical with such material.”

“Is that not the genius of my friend Jekyll?”

“Yes, but he was a scientist, and you are . . .”

“Like you, a passive commentator on other people’s achievements.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself, Utterson.”

“In any case, I have read and taken notes and things are becoming clear. The difference between Jekyll and Hyde was the difference between soul and flesh, as far as my volumes on divinity are concerned. And I can see that there is a process of weakening one or the other, to manipulate the dominant agent. My guess is that Jekyll’s potions worked directly on the flesh, one inhibiting it and the other strengthening its hold.”

“That makes sense, but I do not yet understand your excitement.”

“We have spent long hours working against this monster Hyde, only to find that he was . . . somehow actually . . . an incarnation of our good friend Jekyll. I have realised that you and I and everyone we see is the same. And this newfound practical divinity has brought to me a burning resolve . . .”

“You sound as if you have got religion, my dear friend.”

“Maybe. However, there is more to be said. You see, Jekyll’s potion to weaken the flesh fell short of the real potential to transform the evil into the good. This may sound strange, but God himself is on our side.”

“Pray tell.”

“In the Bible, Galatians chapter five: The Holy Spirit wars with our flesh. Romans chapter seven shows that our souls and our flesh are in conflict as well. You know – I do what I don’t want to and I don’t do what I do want to do. It seems that this Holy Spirit is on the side of our souls. Both are against the flesh, but the soul is powerless and the Holy Spirit powerful in the battle.”

“Bravo, bravo. Surely this is the most entertaining sermon I have ever heard. Preached my none other than my good friend, Reverand Utterson!”

“Poole, you may not be so far from the truth.”

“Really? Perhaps you go too far.”

“Maybe, you are right. But if our souls are good, I suppose some reflection of their original state before the fall, and if there is a means of defeating the fleshly dominion of mankind to release that good, I for one want to be a part of it.”

“Well said. But do we not stand the risk of being a casualty of the conflict. We know what happened to that good man, Jekyll, when he toyed with such mysteries.”

“I have no interest in his science, but the idea of practical divinity has entranced me. You see I have discovered that in theory, the Holy Spirit speaks for the human soul. He reads our heart and soul and speaks for us. He speaks for us to God, and I quote:

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Romans 8:26-27

And I have concluded that he speaks to us in like fashion. He is the voice of our heart and soul when the flesh otherwise has it completly silenced. It follows that if we listen to the Holy Spirit and follow his lead we are doing what we really want, rather than living out the desires of an imposter, like that monster Hyde.”

“A most brilliant analysis, Utterson. I have heard of a wierd sect that meets over in West End. They practice this business of listening to the Spirit. Rumour has it that they are an undisciplined lot. They come mostly from the lower classes, but they have a number of worthy benefactors. It is quite the anomoly. Perhaps you should take a closer look. It might be quite amusing”

“Two nights ago I did just that.”

“Astounding. Pray tell.”

“Your choice of words, weird sect, might be appropriate. They are indeed strange. Their meetings were nothing like those we have experienced before. I interviewed a member before they began and he helped me know what to expect. He described the presence of the Holy Spirit that can be felt. And I have to say, I felt what he described and experienced some illumination on my life that I thought beyond the realms of knowledge. I really felt like I heard . . . what can only be described as . . . the cry of my heart.”

“Now you really sound as though you have gotten religion.”

“Indeed. I may have gotten into me something a little more powerful than Jekyll’s potions.”