"WHO AM I?"预览

Heirs to the Kingdom

JAMES 2:5

The word “kingdom” means a king’s domain. God’s kingdom is His manifested rule and includes everything in heaven and earth yielded to His authority.

The kingdom of God is permeated with the divine personality (His love, joy, peace, wisdom, knowledge, righteousness, power and much more).

The terms “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” are synonymous, describing the same kingdom by referring to the One who rules it (God) or the place from which it is ruled (heaven).

This concept dominated Jesus’s life and message:

• He began His ministry preaching that men should repent, for the kingdom of heaven was at hand (ready to manifest on earth).
• In His first recorded sermon He promised the kingdom of heaven to those who are poor in spirit (who acknowledge their helplessness without God).
• Many of His parables began with the statement, “The kingdom of heaven is like.”
• After He rose from the dead, He spent forty days instructing His disciples concerning the kingdom of God.
• So from the beginning to the end of His earthly ministry, the establishment of this kingdom was Jesus’s all-consuming passion. He even prophesied that the Gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world before this age comes to an end.
• Many misinterpreted His words. They thought the coming of God’s kingdom meant the conquering of the Roman Empire. However, God’s intentions were much different, involving two primary steps:
• First, during the New Covenant era, God purposed that the kingdom would advance invisibly—as those who repent and believe are born again, submitting to the authority of the King.
• Second, God purposed that the kingdom will manifest visibly, mightily, and completely at the return of the Messiah, when He descends from heaven to set up His irresistible rule worldwide.

DECLARE WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST

I declare that I am an heir of the kingdom of God. His divine nature permeates the kingdom and is expressed within me. His love washes away all anger. His joy overwhelms all depression. His peace overpowers all anxieties. When I was born again, I entered this spiritual kingdom. I daily claim its manifestation in my life with the prayer, “Father . . . Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” in Jesus’s name, Amen.