And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Matthew 24:14

The Gospel of the Kingdom is not complicated, nor have been any of His commands.  They are simple and plain to all who have understanding.  Too simple, perhaps for some, and yet, in all of our modern culture, they are perhaps the most overlooked texts in our church society.

Consider.  Everything is taught on, and yet we still seem to lack the gripping power when we speak as Jesus did, and the people were amazed at his teaching, teaching as one with authority.  We lack the heart and character that he had, often settling for a production and an entourage, rather than a heavenly following.  And, we lack the demonstration of the miraculous

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Jesus said His Kingdom was not of this world (realm) (John 18:36).  It is a spiritual kingdom, and as such, must never be confused with an Earthly one.  To lose this distinction, even when speaking of a Millennial reign, is an error of great dimension.

The Kingdom is not constituted in books of laws, governmental seating, and minted coinage, and the like.  Yet, on the other end, it is not without potency in the physical dimension.  Consider Jesus’ life and ministry.  He said, to paraphrase, “If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Luke 11:20).  The same is true with healing.  Therefore, it was the entrance of the Kingdom which brought about the deliverance in the first place!  Somehow, the invisible, spiritual, and “ethereal” had directly, manifestly affected the natural order.

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Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

Mark 1:14-15

From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus came preaching the Gospel of God, that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

This was His message, that the good news, the long awaited Kingdom from heaven was now within arm’s reach, and that it was to be believed in.  The command for every call to the Kingdom has always been ‘Repent and believe!”.

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In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

John 3:3

It takes faith to see!  Faith is not the definition of being born again, but is a requirement for it, therefore, faith is a prerequisite for seeing.

Consider miracles.  Jesus said that there will be many who had done many great miracles but were not know by the Lord (Matthew 7:22).  The apostles, even Judas the traitor, were casting out devils in His name, yet not all had come to the consistent walk of faith. If the word “faith” in your vocabulary only means miracles, then something is grossly missing in your understanding of the Kingdom.

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But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Matthew 5:22

In Luke 11:20, Jesus said that if He was driving out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom had come upon those listening.  While all the other miracles of the Old Testament had been done previously by other prophets, deliverance was unique to the New Covenant, and, by this verse, a distinguishing feature of the Kingdom being present.  Despite a small faction in so call “liberal” theologians that attempt to say different, demons, or evil spirits, are presented as the primary cause for many ailments and behaviors.  The basic difference between a Pharisee and Sadducee was that the Pharisee believed in the resurrection from the dead and evil spirits, while the others did not.  Obviously Jesus believed in evil spirits, because He cast them out of people!

So, the understanding of the role of deliverance in the New Covenant is quite understood.  So much as healing is the children’s bread, and Jesus said this in reference to casting out a demon (Matthew 15:26), this is just as necessary in the Kingdom as healing and salvation is (the Greek word for “salvation” generally indicates all three).  But, where does this leave the place of inner healing in the New Testament?  This was a stumbling block for a while for myself, until it suddenly occurred to me, as deliverance and the miraculous is the apparent half of the gospel, the inner work of the heart is its covered, veiled, or hidden work.  The other “half”.

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Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:9-10 (portion)

His Kingdom is an Eternal Kingdom.  As He is never changing, neither is His Kingdom.  Jesus’ prayer for His disciples was that it would be on the Earth here even as it is there, in the Heavens.

When we pray for His Kingdom, we are not praying for a kingdom some day to show upon the Earth and rule physically in the world, although that may be a portion of its manifestation some day.  But, as the Holy Ghost is invisible, and He is like the wind which is here but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes, so is the Kingdom by His power.

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When we look at the Gospel, we see good news.

Despite the cost, despite the hardships, despite the pain.  Despite anything.

When we look at the life of absolute surrender, the life of absolute submission, and absolute loss of this life, it is only a most extraordinary gospel that can still be good news in the wake of this.

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In particular, Daniel 2:31-45.

The Dream

Daniel 2:31-35

You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

This was the substance of the dream of the king.  Some of the major points of what the king saw are:

• A large statue.  Enormous, Dazzling, Awesome
• Head of pure gold
• Chest and arms of silver
• Belly and thighs of bronze
• Legs of iron, feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay

The entire statue exists at the time of Nebuchadnezzar seeing it.  It has four parts, and they all comprise the same statue.

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[A]s He is, so also are we in this world.

1 John 4:17 (portion)

The Kingdom is like yeast that fills a whole lump.  The Kingdom is like a seed, which grows to an entire tree.

No where in scripture is the Kingdom ever depicted as incomplete, nor as coming in multiple installments or dispensations.  In fact, from the parables of Jesus, the entirety of the Kingdom is completely contained in its inception, just as with a seed, or with a bit of yeast.

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The Kingdom of Heaven is the eternal reign and realm of God.  It is not God, yet is inseparable from Him and His attributes.  It is the perfect picture of government, as we understand such, in that it is perfectly just and righteous, perfectly merciful, humble, and powerful.  Indeed all true human government derives itself from it.

We must not confuse the Kingdom with the church.  The church is related to the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is related to the church, but we must not look at the outward expression of what we know as “church” and equate it with the Kingdom.

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