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Posts Tagged ‘Nationality’

Are You in the Kingdom of God?

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on June 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Hebrews 11:8-10

Have you ever thought about why God said to Abraham to get out of his country, from his kindred, and from his father’s house?  And also, why is He telling us the same thing?  The reason is that if you do not get out, you will not get in.  Let me say it again: If you do not get out, you will not get in!  God is calling men and women and children into His kingdom and He said, “I offer you a holy priesthood.  I offer you royalty.”  However, you must come out if you are to come into what God is giving. 

Now, this is no joke!  This is not some preaching that we are putting over you.  This is reality!  The other things you are dealing with they are not reality!  They are for a time.  They will pass away!  Your color will pass away.  Your nationality will pass away.  All these things that you have in you that you believe are real—they are unreal!

“I offer you a royal priesthood, a holy nationality!” God said.  God is recruiting people unto the heavenly Kingdom, but unless you get out of the kingdom under which you are ruled, you will never get into the Kingdom of God.

The question is, “When I get saved and I get baptized in the Holy Spirit, am I not in the kingdom of God?”  We teach and we preach on this subject, but most of the brethren with which we fellowship do not believe this one point that I am bringing to you now.  You are born again; there is no doubt about it.  Jesus shed His Blood for you.  He came, you opened yourself to Him, He baptized you with the Holy Spirit, and your spirit is completely taken by God.  Now you have a spirit that is not yours.  You cannot control your spirit for your spirit is taken by God.  So then, your spirit will always be coming against the wrong things that you do.  But are you in the Kingdom of God?  The Kingdom of God is in you, but are you in the Kingdom of God?  What is the meaning of this question?  The only way we can find if we are in the Kingdom of God is if we understand what being in the Kingdom of God means.

Let us let us take it from the natural.  We are in the kingdom of the United States of America.  We have to obey the laws.  Every one of you who came here by motor vehicle had to have a license.  You have to pay for your license by the year.  Your license has your photograph, your identity, and it is all done by the government under this kingdom where you are.  Now, you can drive without a license, but it is called a crime.  They will arrest you for driving without a license.  You say, “I didn’t do anything!  I only drove without a license,” but you are in this kingdom and so you must obey the laws and the rules of this kingdom or else your actions are illegal and criminal.  That means that you are under the headship of the government of the United States, and whether you like him or not, the President of the United States is the head of the government of the United States.  You do not have to like him, but what he says is going to affect you. 

Now, let us go to the spiritual.  To be in the Kingdom of God you have to be under the headship of Jesus Christ.  That is, you have to be obeying the laws of Jesus.  You have to be a citizen in good standing and not a criminal, because, as in our previous example, a criminal is still in the kingdom of the United States, but he is either in prison or he is working against the law and the law is working against him and sooner or later he is going to get hit and taken.  Do you understand? 

So, in order to be in the Kingdom of Christ Jesus, you must be under the headship of Christ Jesus.  Now, are there Christians who are not under the headship of Jesus Christ?  Yes!  There are people who are born again and saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ, but they are not under the headship of Jesus Christ.  They are against the very Kingdom that has redeemed them and purchased them.

We are saying then that to be in the Kingdom of Jesus you have to come out of the kingdom of the enemy. 

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 1998, pg. 7-9)

Thought for today: Let us come under the headship of Jesus Christ by the simple fact of obedience to His leading so that we may be found in the Kingdom of God.

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Relinquishing Your National Identity

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on June 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Genesis 12:1-5

I am going to read something for you that God said to Abraham, but it is something that is being said to you.  It applies in a way differently to you than it did to Abraham, but it is the same word and it has the same meaning.  We are going to look for what God meant when He said these things to Abraham.  This is what we call “exegesis.”  Always look for the exegesis: God said so and so, but what did He mean? 

Let us go to the Genesis 12:1, “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.”

The Lord said this to Abraham and we want to know what the meaning of this is.  Why did He put this in the Bible?  Why should I be interested in what God said to Abraham?  Do you follow what I mean?

This is your Bible.  God put it in the Bible.  Men fought to take it out.  Men wanted to destroy the Bible.  Men killed and did their best to destroy it and it could not be destroyed.  They took some of the scrolls and burned them!  Yet, the people who burned them are past and gone and the scrolls remain.  Hallelujah!  They never did get it. 

So, I am asking you, does this word about Abraham mean something to you, or to us?  Why did God put it in the Word?  Why did God fight so hard that this word could come to us?  God is saying to you here in this verse that you must relinquish your national identity.

That is hard.  That is very, very hard.  If you are born a black man, you like being a black man.  Some people do not know that.  Some of you, brethren, do not know that the people who are black like to be black.  If you could give them the choice to be white, they would not want it, because there is a certain feeling that you have inside, that you are something special. 

When my brothers and I grew up, we felt that we were made out of iron.  We were strong.  We were fighters.  We were on top of the world.  I know the people in Africa feel that way too.  But then I found out afterwards that everybody feels that way!  You on one side, you are feeling your feeling, and you do not know what the other person is feeling on his side.  I know that the Germans feel that way, and the Russians feel that way.  Everybody feels that way and nobody is finding out what the other person feels. 

So, there will be wars until Jesus comes, because war is in the heart of man and it is the spirit of the antichrist.  I want you to take this—do not take it with a grain of salt.  Take it and believe it: it is the spirit of the antichrist that makes men want to reign and rule over one another.  Anywhere you find men who want to rule and reign and be the boss and be tops, it is the spirit of the antichrist.  That is, unless it is where you want to be tops in Christ—then you are bottom.

Those who want to be tops in Christ—they are the least.  They go around washing everybody’s feet and letting people walk on them.  Oh, you do not like that, but that is the way you are tops in Christ.  “Recompense to no man evil for evil…but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:17,21).  That is being tops in Christ.  God worked it out that the spirit of the antichrist is the one that likes to rule and reign over others and the Spirit of Christ is the one that wants to rule and reign with Christ. 

Genesis says, “Get thee out of thy country (thy national identity)…!”  Do not be an American anymore!  Do not be a Kenyan anymore.  Do not be a Jamaican anymore.  Do not be a Polish anymore.  Do not be German anymore.  Just belong to the new nation, the royal priesthood, the peculiar people.  My God!  Isn’t this what God is asking us to do?  He approached Abraham with this, and He said, “Get out Abraham!  Get out of here and stay out of here!”  Abraham knew it was God who spoke to him.

Now, I am not saying that it is easy.  It is difficult not to be black, when you are black.  God sent me to His people.  He did not send me to a color.  I have to recognize God’s people regardless of their color.  There is something else that we need to recognize and that is that you really do not have any color!  Your color is a deception!  It is an outward facade that you are wearing to deceive everybody that you are black or white when really you are supposed to be a spirit.  A spirit does not have any color!  Do you understand?  You are not what you seem to be.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 1998, pg. 2-3,6-7)

Thought for today: Have you relinquished your national identity yet or are you still holding on to the roots of your inheritance?  Bring this matter before the Lord and have Him speak to you so that at the end of the day you are counted among those who have overcome.

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