ESTABLISHING THE KINGDOM WITHIN

Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself,

saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and

horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.

                                                                                                              1KING 1:5

The Kingdom of God arrived on earth since the day Jesus step on Planet earth and all the moves of God on earth since the time of John is to establish God’s kingdom in the hearts of men through the preaching of his word and the ministration of the spirit but the battle continue till today with the flesh seeking to forestall the establishment of the kingdom of God.

We must recall that the kingdom of God as stated in Romans 14:17 is evident by the following;

• Righteousness exceeding the righteousness of the Pharisees
• Peace that surpasses understanding
• Joy unspeakable full of glory

From the time a man is saved, the battle begins between the two kingdoms (light and darkness). This war is reflected in the struggle between the flesh and the spirit and the utmost purpose of God is for us to have total victory over the flesh. The flesh must die and the spirit must live. Our growing up in the spirit is foreshadowed in the ascension of King Solomon (spirit) to the throne and end of Adonijah (flesh).  

What brought Adonijah, a goodly man down and eventually ended his life? Was it not self confidence or confidence in self outside God, Self exaltation, self scheming, self-advertisement, self-glorification, selfish wisdom, self boasting, selfish  positive confession rooted in self and little regard for God who has the final say. It is not by human right but by election which is revealed through faith in him. His boasting “I will be king” is tantamount to the claim of the flesh (self) who seeks to rule and lust vehemently against the spirit. This is the foundation of the babylonish success whose end shall be as Adonijah, whose selfish ambition  restlessly emerged  out of our religious overcoat  seeking to take over the King’s “beloved” in its self pursuit saying  “Give me Abishag, the Shunammite for a wife” The Pentecostal movement, powerful as it is, has revealed a lot of leaven.  We have seen over the years this “self” manifesting in various forms such as self-boasting, showmanship, self-praise, empire building, personality worship, just like Adonijah who employed fifty chariots proclaiming himself to be what he was not.

The challenge for us therefore, is to press beyond this fleshly realm of mixture to become a man after God’s heart; a heart that was found in David and even in Solomon until his women corrupted his heart.

Indeed, the Lord searches the reins and the hearts of men and manifest to everyman according to the condition of their hearts.  The heavily anointed JOAB did unbelievable exploits but was destroyed by his vengeful spirit and his envious heart (all rooted in self). He was pushed by self to the point of murder and abuse of power. We will certainly not be approved by our anointing and exploits but by the perfectness of our hearts. Remember, the eye of the Lord move to and fro to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards Him. Hence, we must desire and seek the true knowledge of Christ that will bring true deliverance from the corruption in our soul. This is because the Lord will eliminate from his kingdom all self in the form of unforgiveness, strife and envy, just as Solomon eliminated the likes of Joab from the kingdom.

These things as we are told happened to them for an example, that we may know that flesh and all its elements as represented by Shimei (lawlessness, resentment, cursing), Abiathar (insensitivity, indulgence, evil communication), Joab (vengeance and envy) are forbidden from the kingdom. The death of these fleshy elements opens up a kingdom realm of peace, prosperity, glory, communion and wonders to Solomon and to Israel describing the endless treasures available for us in Christ Jesus as we gain victory over the flesh through the spirit.

THE BARREN SHALL BEAR SEVEN

The barren will bear seven:

The story of Elikanah  in the holy bible represent an allegory of the new creation man in his journey towards perfection. At most point in our journey, we are confronted with grace for fruitfulness in certain areas of our life re and restriction or some form of unfruitfulness in other areas. It is important to know that the God allowed the areas of restriction for several reasons as it is written “The Lord had shut up her womb”, the ultimate purpose of which it is to actualize the original mandate of fruitfulness abundantly in every area of our calling establishing the testimony of Hannah, the barren has borne seven.

Deliverance from ordinary life

The yoke of barrenness in any particular area usually evident heaven’s desire to compelled us to move higher towards higher purposes of God. This truth is seen throughout the scriptures from the life of Sarah to Hannah. It is a great tragedy where we failed to respond positively and rightly to the higher purposes as the consequence and result is the ‘Micah experience’ of limitation and alienation from divine purpose. Micah in her case allowed her “Scent” of pride to remain in her and could migrate into the new dimension with David in terms of divine transformation and fruitfulness

The call to higher level of personal consecration:

Again, as  we seek God more as of a necessity driven by glaring need in us, God now having our attention is able to communicate to us his deepest priority which is his desire for genuine  an true  fellowship  and the need for a personal consecration to him in specific area as platform for a life of ones with him. This is the ascension to the hill of intimacy with God and there, decisions are taken which align us with his purpose. Hannah made a vow of consecration to God concerning the child and her claim on him and by this provoke God’s commitment to channel grace and power for the fulfillment of his discovered interest and purpose.. Heat her

“And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of

hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine

handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine

handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child,

then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life,

and there shall no razor come upon his head”.        I Samuel 1:11

As we can see, the required level of personal consecration which she successfully climbed is different from the yearly, yearly shilo meeting that she and Peninah were previously operating in.

God’s need and Man’s need.

When God’s need align with Man’s need and a miracle is born. God needed a new vessel for faithful priestly office who will do his will as he had consigned the inept and corrupt priesthood of Hophni and Phinehas to dungeon of history. The truth should speak to vessels of God in different areas of life who are laboring under the yoke of what appears to be “little result, much labour” as the unfruitfulness will soon birth abundant life of fruitfulness if we ascend the personal consecration where we share the father’s burden with him. As Hannah’s barrenness yielded a result of many children so shall the virgin church propagate itself and bear multiple children in the image of the father.

And I will raise me up a faithful priest,

[that] shall do according to [that] which [is] in mine heart

and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he

shall walk before mine anointed for ever.                         I Samuel 2:35

The call to prayer  testimony and experiential knowledge of God.

Inability to get a desired result as in fruitlessness or little fruitfulness is catalyst by which men climb the ladder of prayer to see the face of him who dwell behind the veil  You may recall Jacob’s experience of the revelation of the God of Abraham at Bethel where he rested his head on the stone of frustration looking up to heaven. The heaves will open unto me who climb on the altar of the intimidating challenges and pour their soul to God. Hannah’s heartfelt prayer brought the light of God into her soul and the result is a life transformed, a deep knowledge of God, clear understanding, wonderful testimony and divine counsel with accurate prophetic declaration cutting across ages.

And Hannah answered

and said, No, my lord, I [am] a woman of a sorrowful spirit:

I have drunken neither wine nor strong drink, but have

poured out my soul before the LORD. I Samuel 1;15

The danger

The danger and the trigger in all this is the “Peninah Factor”. It is dangerous because it is in this place we are “provoked sore” and the battle between the carnal mind and the spiritual mind of Christ become intense and our choice will then determine where the victory tilts. We must win this battle and our testimony of Hannah will become ours. The barren will bear seven representing the fullness of God and ultimate fruitfulness in his purpose.

BREAKING THE INERTIA OF STAGNACY

ARISING AND MOVING FORWARD

The Christian experience is designed to be a journey, an adventure into divinity, a pursuit of godliness, a press into perfection from the elementary and human dimension. The Christian life is far from been a series of attendance of endless meeting that brings no re-configuration of our content, character and lifestyle. It is a call to an exciting world of daily growth, transformation and maturity.

To press into maturity as instructed by the inspired words of Hebrew 6:1, we are advised to leave the elementary principles and press into perfection. This is call to get dissatisfied with our spiritual status which portrays glaring limitations. This is not a call to abandon truths which stand for ever but to grow in the level of understanding and become mature and grown up in our perception of things. It is a call to leave the realm of mixture into the pure realm of God where we see things from the eye view of God having been anointed with eye salve of the spirit which allows a clear 360% degree perception.

Leaving a comfort zone of understanding does not come easy to man as it confronts the pride of the natural man and the foolish presumption of the religious mind that  wallows in the “we know all” deception  contrary to the truth of the scriptures that we only know in “PARTS” and that we  have not pass “ this way before”. The reality that assists lovers of truth and sincere men is that we are as free as the degree of truth that we know. The bondages  evident in our lives reminds us that we are yet to apprehend enough revealed truth necessary to become the liberated sons of God which we are called to be experientially and not just legally.

Isaac Newton’s first law of motion is as true in the physical as it is true in the spiritual, everybody continues in a state of rest or uniform motion unless it is displaced by an opposing forces. The forces of truth of God’s word is what is needed to break the evil inertia of negative  religious, social and cultural yokes  that holds man captive. Many times, friends and colleagues were found to have applied extra application of words of encouragement or rebuke to wake us up or align us in a direction of truth we ordinarily would not want to go until our eyes popped open.

A man pre-occupied with the present leaving no room to think of the future is trapped and this represent the condition of the most present day earth dwellers and believers whose thoughts are limited to “what shall we eat and drink” or like David, the number and the size of our churches or the people that we rule over.

God’s ultimate plan is to express himself fully in the tabernacle call “MAN” and to achieve this, he has instituted a seven day program of transformation described by the seven feast and the seven days of creation. Each day releases a daily deposit of divine substance, the daily bread represents the truth that takes man higher in the process of   becoming like him until “we all come to the measure of the stature of Christ”.

It behooves of us therefore to hunger for our daily bread or word of revelation from God whereby we may continually receive, digest and progress in our journey towards maturity.

It is in from this place we receive strength and energy to arise and move forward, it is from this place of revelation we become empowered with the light and direction, creativity and courage to adjust, leave what should be left behind and move in the right direction. Failure in the place of dieting and feeding on daily bread brings paralysis and hinder us from moving forward. It will take personal individual effort to desire the sincere milk and meat of the world and not just a collective bandwagon operation of religious programs and nothing is too important to deny us of this GREAT opportunity and privilege of a daily communion at the Lord’s table where his truth is exchanged for our foolishness. 

Breaking the hold of habits, routines and thought pattern will be realized by a resolve on our part to appropriate the sufficient grace of God available in the proceeding word of God to escape the inertia of our present circumstances and situation. We must remember that man shall leave not by physical bread alone but by the fresh and daily manna from the very presence of God.

Servants of God who therefore bring words from God’s heart must desire to receive fresh and hot words to men and men must not be satisfied until they have lay hold individually of their daily allocation through meditation as we know that it is in the place of meditation that the   juice of revelation is assimilated.

The practical application of the truths of God in our daily lives will bring some pain to us but consistency and readiness to move forward is what we need to sustain ourselves through the pain and ascend to higher realms of rest.

Moving from the Pentecostal dimension into the greater feast of God requires humility. Those who will lead the move will be sincere and willing to make painful adjustment. Move forward for beyond you lies new realms of liberty, new heights of glory and victory, new depths of love, joy, peace and power and in the word of Achilles, the Great Greek warrior as he charged his soldiers to confront Troy, I will say beyond you lies (immortality) life everlasting, Press on in this path of life looking not to the left or right.

Scripture references::Hebrew 6:1,   2 Peter 1:19, Proverb 4:11,   Psalm 16:11

A CALL TO UNITY

There is a trumpet sounding in the heavens for all who has ears. There is a call to come up hither; there is a mandate of heaven coming upon those who desire to experience the fullness of God. It is a call to align with the spirit of truth, a call to align with the will of God, and consequently with his body, our brethren. 

This place of unity and concord is Zion. This realm of harmony and oneness with God and his body is Zion. This is a dimension described by Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:13   as “ The unity of Faith” . This is the place of maturity we are called to dwell.  This is the atmosphere we are called to operate in. This is Zion position.

David in Psalm 133:1 having seen the glory afar off called us to BEHOLD and experience this position of UNITY  with our brethren  . He described it as  “ The Excellence, Perfection and the Ultimate of Beauty  and it is my prayer that we will all access this dimension of unspeakable glory and Joy. It is a lifestyle better than all other dwelling places of Jacob ( i.e individualism, )

Let us now briefly consider the beauties of Zion.

Ø Goodness and Pleasantness- Operating in the unity of Faith and in the bond of peace is a pleasure of God that we must satisfy and this in turn brings satisfaction, Joy, manifestation of the goodness of God and his pleasantness among his people. Goodness and mercies will abound ceaselessly in the lives of those who dwell in this region. This is our destination as member of the body of Christ. We are to locate our position and function in harmony in the spirit of Christ with the brethren without any inferiority or superiority complex realizing that we are members of one another and that the body grows by that which every joint supply.

Ø The transforming anointing of grace and power. Babylon is characterized by selfish agenda and purposes which in turn breeds strife, irreconcilable misunderstanding and differences, confusion and every evil work. This spirit which is infiltrating and penetrating the lives of believers in an attempt to suffocate them out of God’s presence must be overthrown out of our lives so that we may enjoy the transforming power of his presence.  Those who desire to see lives changed into the nature of God must attract his presence and glory by keeping our hearts in committed love and unity in spite of  doctrinal differences, personal needs, class or weaknesses of other believers  and as we embrace the spirit of love and unity, the weakest will become strong  because, the transforming anointing of God permeates everywhere traveling from the head to the skirt

Ø The blessing- Like the dew of Hermon coming ceaselessly upon mount Zion, Constant refreshing abounds where there is harmony. The road to abundant blessing, victorious Christian living and ever-increasing access to the resources of heaven reserved in Christ for us is to remain “ Connected “ to life that flows in the corporate body of Christ through Continuous forgiveness of those who offend us , letting go of past hurts  thereby ridding our lives of subtle and hidden bitterness which is destructive .There is a corporate warfare to which we are all involved  (  Ephesians 6;12  says  “ We wrestle…against  “   ) and we become invincible and victorious in this war as we allow the interflow of grace, power, gifts and love among us. Indeed, we are as strong as the strongest link which is Christ Jesus when we are operating in true unity.

Ø Life evermore- The abundant life that will swallow death in victory flows through  the corporate body of Christ and until we come to that place where we operate as a “Perfect Man” where honor is given to the weak parts and our joints are oiled by love, respect, humility, acceptance of our brethren and  intercessory prayer, certain victories will continue to elude us and certain blessings will continue to be beyond our reach. The days of one man show is going and the day of “ The corporate Christ has come. The days of the rod of Shamgar as a one-man instrument of national deliverance is given way to the days of Joshua where the priests bears the ark in corporate formation to access the miracle of crossing the Jordan river and also to bring  down the Jericho principalities. Brethren, we must endeavor to keep the unity of faith in the bond of peace

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. Psalm 133:1-3

We must march forward to Zion. There, we enjoy true fellowship and the blessing of God becomes mandatory on his people evermore. Hereunder is an excerpt from one of the bible commentaries (Treasury of David) on the true spirit of unity:

1. Despises not the little ones, i.e.  The mean, poor, and less gifted.

 a) Recognizes that God is the Father, and Christ is the Redeemer of all believers alike.

b) Acknowledges oneness of faith as the true basis of fellowship; not wealth, social position or talent.

c) Believes that the least member is essential to the completeness of Christ's body.

d) Realizes that everything which renders one in any way superior to another is the gift of God.

2. Distributes of its abundance to the needy: Ac 4:32-37.

a) The wealthy to the poor: 1Jo 3:17.

b) The learned to the ignorant.

c) The joyful to the sorrowing.

d) The steadfast to the erring: Jas 5:19.

3. Displays its value more by loving generosity, than by a conspicuous appearance before the world. As Hermon was more valuable to Zion for its dew than for its adornment of the landscape.

a) A generous activity exhibits and requires more real grace than showy architecture or ornate worship does.

b) Through it, godliness flourishes more than by a vaunted respectability. Zion was fertilized by the dew, not by the grandeur of Hermon.

c) By it the heart of Christ is touched and his reward secured