Ron McGatlin (www.openheaven.com; basileia@earthlink.net)

SPIRITUAL KINGDOM TRANSFORMATION

That which is spiritual did not originate from that which is natural. The physical or natural comes from the spiritual kingdom of heaven. God, who is Spirit, spoke all things into being. The substance of God’s desired design emanated from Him and became energy and matter of all created things. I read somewhere recently this statement, "All matter is solidified spirit." I am not sure that is a totally accurate way of saying it, but it does simplify the thinking of the process of God exerting His energy and design to form all creation.

Heb 11:3: By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

John 1:1-3: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

It is important to note that Father God chose to flow all creative spiritual substance through His Son, Christ Jesus, the Word, or the expressed (spoken) image of God. This pattern has never changed and will never change. Father God continues to flow through His Son.

John 1:3: All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Col 1:16: For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

Christ Jesus is the undisputed sovereign Head of His Body of many purified holy sons coming forth to rule and reign with Him in His heavenly kingdom on Planet Earth.

Col 1:18-19: And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell.

Transformation of this fallen world into the redeemed, restored kingdom of God is a spiritual work involving the supernatural restructuring of created order on earth. Spirit created all that is seen, and it is by that same Spirit that our world is being transformed from its fallen natural state into the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Faith is maturing on earth.

Faith involves God’s people and the spiritual realm. Faith brings unseen spiritual substance of the will of God into the natural or physical realm. By faith (hearing and believing God by the Spirit) the will and production of God comes forth into the natural or physical realm. Pure, holy faith causes that which the mature sons of God hope for to come forth into the world, as physical earth is reordered into the will of God.

Heb 11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Ungodly faith is faith used to draw upon the supernatural to gain the desires of the flesh or the works of the enemy. All sorcery, including forms of what some have called "Christian witchcraft," use the universal principle of the power of faith and the reality of the dominion given to mankind. By God’s design, people are free to choose to exercise their choice to serve the kingdom of darkness (self and the devil) or the kingdom of God.

The call of God to be Holy as He is Holy is bringing His ekklesia people out of the unholy works of gaining wealth and power for selfish personal gain of any form. At the time of this writing, most people of this predominantly secular and religious world are yet sitting in the shadow of darkness. The good news is that the light of God has arisen upon His ekklesia people, the glory of the Lord is shining into the darkness and many are coming to the light of the simplicity of Christ Jesus and His glorious kingdom.

Isa 60:1-3: Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.

Mat 4:16: The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned."

Preach the simplicity of Christ Jesus and His kingdom.

Living the kingdom of God lifestyle is the most significant part of preaching the kingdom. The kingdom lifestyle is not the same as the "Christian life" of the passing church age. The Christian lifestyle of the church age was primarily living an acceptable quality of life within certain boundaries of behavior and keeping a set of rituals. The kingdom of God lifestyle emerges from the heart through an intimate relationship with Christ Jesus abiding within by the Holy Spirit. The predominant characteristic of the kingdom lifestyle is a deep real love for God and for our neighbor. There is a special love for the brethren, but the love of God in us reaches even to our enemies who persecute and spitefully use us.
God’’s Love Prevails. Only that which is spoken in love is useful in the kingdom. Whether it is perceived by natural thinking as positive or negative, whether it is building up truth or tearing down false, the love of God prevails and permeates every word and action of the kingdom of God.

Mat 22:37-40: Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Gal 5:14: For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

On occasion when we are in need of and receive a kingdom word of tearing down the false, we may have a tendency caused by past religious beliefs to feel it is a bad unloving word and emotionally want to "shoot the messenger." Real prophets throughout history have not been noted for long lives of harmonious relationships.

Heb 12:6: For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

If anything that I am saying here is difficult to receive and is different from the way you have previously believed, please do not quickly dismiss what is being said. Please take time to pray and ask God to reveal truth to you and search the scriptures about it. God will lead you to the level of truth that you are to have at this time in your life. Thank you for your patience and considering what I believe the Sprit is saying.

The gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached and lived is not complicated in the Spirit. However, it is spiritually discerned and is very difficult to fit into our intellectual understanding. More than a prayer for illumination of our minds is needed to hear and experience the reality of the gospel of the kingdom. We need to be placed by God into the spiritual realm. We may have had the Spirit of God coming upon us to illumine and seal us with the gospel of being born again (initial salvation). However, the experience of being baptized in the Spirit is our being placed into the realm of the Spirit where it is reasonable to hear and speak spirit-to-Spirit with the living God and where we receive far greater gifts and power to serve God: the same power that worked in Christ Jesus and the power that raised Him from the dead. The first experience of the Spirit illuminating the word and bringing us to full repentance begins a process of preparing us to be baptized into the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17).

For many centuries the church for the most part has been defined and led by the Bible and its interpretation primarily by the intellect of men without the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Intellectual discernment of the word led the church into religious ordinances, doctrines, and rituals taught through liturgical sermons from exalted pulpits to sleepy laity lined up in rows. The up side of this is that the word of God has been preserved, and we have learned through exhausting all possible human efforts that the natural man cannot discern the things of God. Thank God He uses as much as He can every effort of man reaching out for Him. He loves and honors His people and understands our lack. He loves His church (His people).

1 Cor 2:11-14: For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Praise God, religious people trained in the intellectual discernment of the Bible are coming into the light of the fulness of the Holy Spirit and are receiving the revelation of the kingdom. Believe me on this, I know this is not an easy process. For some like me it was a death experience followed by a resurrection experience to be completely turned around to facing the kingdom by the Holy Spirit. Those who have been turned to face the kingdom by the discernment of the word in the light of the fullness of the Holy Spirit are greatly blessed and walking forward in the Holy Spirit toward the kingdom of God reality. However, those who are yet resisting the baptism into Holy Spirit fullness may be moving toward the kingdom while looking back toward past understandings.

Walking backward into the kingdom of God

I am sincerely seeking to speak the truth in love in addressing the backward walk of believers awkwardly walking into the kingdom reality without having embraced the full work of the Holy Spirit. Both sincere sympathy and applause is spawned in me by their difficult backward walking journey. The word of God continues to close in around them and external soft pressure of the evidence of the kingdom of God continues to push them slowly toward the kingdom reality. Yet they remain focused away from the kingdom toward the confusion of multitudes of religious hypotheses from the past archives of lesser light and darkness from the minds of ancient men who were sometimes influenced by religious spirits.

Analyzing, dissecting and critically examining God and His word with the natural mind obscures the simplicity of Christ Jesus and His kingdom from heaven on earth in the Holy Spirit. Spiritual things are easily heard and discerned by the fullness of the Spirit of God dwelling in His people.

2 Cor 11:3: But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Acts 14:22: Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

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

Col 1:27: To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Christ and His Kingdom are in us in the Holy Spirit.

Mat 3:11: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.