Members Exclusive February 2025
Members Exclusive
The Demand of the Kingdom
by Bruce Billington
Introduction
600 years before the coming of the Messiah, Daniel prophesied,
“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. (Daniel 2:44).
Jesus, at the beginning of His ministry on earth announced “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God in His first coming, and as Daniel prophesied, everything set up against this Kingdom will be crushed and destroyed. History has proven that again and again.
God decreed through Daniel, that anything that calls itself a kingdom on this earth, since the time of Christ, immediately signs its death warrant because the Kingdom of God will not share or tolerate any opposition to itself. This is not futuristic; it happens without exception in this present age and even includes our own activities.
A New or Greater Way
The whole design of the universe and everything in it, including us, can only function properly and find its true destiny in Christ and the pursuit of His Kingdom. Why? Because He is the image of the invisible God, and all things came into being through and for Him.
We all must embrace the fact that we are designed to be working with Jesus in bringing His Kingdom to life here on earth. Anything that doesn’t line up with that will not be blessed long-term - in fact, it will ultimately be torn down.
Hebrews 12
Hebrews 12 starts off telling us to run the race without growing weary by keeping our eyes on Jesus and to accept that along the way, God will discipline us and that we are to stay in unity with one another. It then turns to the Kingdom and compares it with the presence of God in the Old Testament, where no one could come near, and if an animal touched it, it would die, only to tell us that we have come to something far greater, something so different, something so much more majestic - yet we are urged to come running to it without fear.
It says,
We have come to a mountain that CAN be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them (Verse 18-19).
Hebrews 12:22-24 – “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”
We can come boldly to this mountain today because we come in the name of Jesus, clothed in His righteousness. If we want our part in this mountain, God said He will have to shake everything from us that can be shaken.
Hebrews 12:26-29 – “And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” 27 This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.”
If we are building anything that is not what God has called us to do, build, or toil over, He will come and pull it down - regardless of how good it looks to us or those around us.
The Excitement of the Message
In presenting the Kingdom, Jesus made the most radical proposal ever made to humanity – He proposed that we could and should replace the present world order, with God’s order – the Kingdom of God, and if we sign up to do that, He will equip us with the power and resources that we will need to do it.
What we are called to enter and demonstrate, is a whole new way of life that is unique - because it is sourced from the life of the age to come, and nothing that comes from this world can compare with it.
The Crunch Point
But we do not escape this refining. The Kingdom upsets our current life to bring it up to another level. So, if we build anything on foundations that are not part of the Kingdom, then ultimately, the Holy Spirit is going to come along and pull them down - just like He did with the Tower of Babel.
Why? Because He doesn’t just want “good” or even “better” - He demands something that, in worldly terms, is new and unique and reflects who He is.
Moses Example
After a long debate with God, including God doing some amazing miracles, Moses reluctantly accepts that he has been chosen to go back to Egypt and confront Pharaoh with Aaron’s help. He is God’s chosen man.
But look what happens on the way!
Exodus 4:24-25 – “24 Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 So He (God, that is) let him alone. At that time, she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood” — because of the circumcision.”
After coercing Moses to take up the role and finally getting him to do it, God tries to kill him. Why?
Answer
Because Moses didn’t follow God’s way, he didn’t circumcise his son at the appropriate time. He wasn’t going about God’s business, God’s way, so God was going to take him out. If we build anything in life that is not according to the pattern God has given us, God Himself will come and destroy it. This reveals the utmost importance of seeking God first before doing anything, as Jesus informed the Jewish leaders.
Matthew 21:43-44 – “43 Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. 44 And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”
If we embrace this Kingdom, it will break all our worldly ways from us, but if we don’t, it will scatter our works like dust.
Point: Not all our trials are for learning something new. A lot of them are so that we unlearn something. The Kingdom brings dry bones into life; it brings religion into reality, and it empowers that reality to lay hold of the Kingdom by force.
(Matthew 11:12).
Why by force? Because much of what God intended us to have is being held illegally by the enemy, and we have to fight to take it back - obviously by being empowered by the Spirit and the Word of God.
Defining the Kingdom
Hebrews 6 talks about bringing heaven onto earth, or the life of the age to come, into the here and now.
We must understand that Jesus Christ rules and reigns over every area of life NOW!! The victory has already been won for us - we just have to lay hold of it – Psalms 145:13 says, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.”
Listen to Jesus,
Luke 17:20-21 – “Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; 21 - nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
It is about who God is, and what He has already demonstrated. It is what every born-again, spirit-filled believer has living inside of them. It is the essence of the Christian faith.
We Are Not of this World
Jesus stated in John 17 that we are not of the world, but we are in it. Herein lies a problem. We think the world is our place of reality. Actually, it isn’t. Our place of reality is the heavenly realm (Colossians 3:1), and this is where we draw all that we need for this life.
We are left in this world for whatever time we are given, to be or to produce a demonstration of the Kingdom of God. We are empowered to be unique and different and to demonstrate something the world cannot produce in the workplace. It takes the Holy Spirit to enable us to do that. This is what people are meant to be able to see when we show up in whatever sphere God has called us to operate in.
Peter explains it.
2 Peter 1:3-4 – “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
We have to grasp the fact that we have been made partakers of the divine nature - which means everything we do should have a divine element to it - we can be a reflection of the heavenly realm in all that we do because that is our true home and where we draw our inspiration and empowerment from.
Finish
If you want to live a truly fulfilled life - that is - the life that Christ, put us on earth to live - the best advice the Scripture gives is in Matthew 6:33 where Jesus says, “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Let’s reach out and lay hold of this great lifetime journey and demonstrate it every day of our lives.
God bless you.
Bruce Billington