PRINCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he will not defile himself with

The portion of the king’s meet

Nor with the wine which he drank ( Daniel 1;6)

Every Kingdom is known by specific set of values and principles that forms the basis of the constitution and the lifestyle of the people of that community. The Babylonian Empire representing the world system have values and principles which is symbolized by the “meat” and “ wine” refer to in the book of Daniel,. Just as the” meat” and the “wine”  drives the body and soul of men,  values and principles drives a nation or a kingdom.

Sons of God are to overcome the temptation to operate by the worldly principles of Babylon. They will be schooled and disciplined in the principles and values of the kingdom of God. In God's kingdom, wealth, material things, titles and silver or gold are regarded as corruptible mundane and are therefore considered worthless by eternal standard. Just as Daniel refused to be defiled with the portion of the kings meat and his wine. Children of God must arise to reject the subtle and corrupt principles of living which are being taught by the teachers of Babylon. We must endeavor to vomit even the values that we have subconsciously absorbed into our hearts as we interact with the truth of God’s word.

Jesus clearly mentioned in his messages in the gospels that the worth of a man is not in what he has and this is an eternal position of the King of the Kingdom of heaven which should be taken seriously.

Operating or imbibing values of the world [babylonish]  system is therefore to be considered as adulterous and this represent the hallmark of the harlot church (God’s people that are out of the way)  as it is written in the book of revelation  17:2   “….. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth  were made drunk with  the wine of her fornication”

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls,  having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness……” Rev17:4

The cup in the hands of this harlot should be an issue of concern to us as it  represents the ministry of abominable and filthy values obtained through her friendliness (fornication) with the world). To overcome this cup, the sons of God who will be overcomers  must be disciplined in the principles and values of the kingdom of God and be discernible to contrary principles as evil communication corrupts good manners and friendliness with the world is enmity with God. Let no man be carried away with the impressive Gold (riches, wealth, grace   given by God) , precious stones (morals), pearls( religious duties)  or even the purple (sense of importance ,glory and royal beauty) with which this harlot woman is decked. This is because the scarlet robe representing sin has pushed the woman off tangent from her true nature and path to become a worshiper of things instead of a worshiper of God

Let us now begin to compare the values of these two opposing kingdoms and study the beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

True Pearls	Reward	Meaning	Opposite
Poor in spirit	They will possess the kingdom of heaven	Dissatisfied with the condition of one’s soul, having a strong sense of need for more of God	Arrogant & Know it all spirit characterized by poor reading/listening habits, not taking notes. Which may be caused by success in some areas of your life. Critical and judgemental spirit
Meek	Inherit the earth	Teachable, readiness to listen, learn and take correction	Incorrigible and stubborn/unteachable heart necessitated by your restlessness, ignorance, being competitive and or pride.
Sober and mournful heart	Comforted with answers	Having a burden before God  for the state of others or the gap between experience and promise	Greedy, covetous, desperate, bored, vain, care free & pleasure loving, sometimes necessitated by not wanting to be responsible, love of pleasures and selfishness.
Purity of heart	See and experienced God	Having the mind of Christ, having a forgiven, loving heart	Corrupt mind & imagination. Filthy & wicked heart. Sometimes necessitated by hurts, lust and ignorance.
Merciful heart	Obtain Mercy	Showing understanding, forgiving, compassionate, considerate, sensitive and selflessness.	Unforgiving, mean resentful, bitter & Cruel heart, sometimes necessitated by repeated offences, painful experiences of the past.
Hunger & Thirsty for Righteousness-	They shall be filled with all of God.	Strong love and desire  for truth, justice, sense of fairness.	Forgetfulness, poor concentration, poor assimilation, talkativeness. No heart cry except for things. Sometimes necessitated by worldly enticements, deceitfulness of riches.

The characteristics  described above are the attitudes we are called to manifest. This is the wavelength we are called to function in and it  is to the extent that we function in this dimension that we are in the kingdom. The level of the operations of these principles in our life  is also a measure of how much of God we have.

Overcoming All Things 2

At the center of man’s drive is his desire for things. This propensity started from the time of the fall when the spirit of man fell and was shut in into the realm of  things. Man lost consciousness of the invisible realm of God and is now submerged in the realm his physical senses. He is dominated and ruled from the outside and led by the lust  or desire for things that are good in his sight, things that satisfies his ego and his feelings .

 

The emerging overcomers must therefore gain victory over the things in the world which the First Adam and his wife were not able to overcome. Here the lamentation of Eve and Adam.

Genesis 3:6

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh)

And that it was pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eye)

And a  tree to be desired to make one wise (pride of life)

She took of the fruit and did eat and also gave

to her husband with her and he did eat

 

Apostle John therefore warn us of this mystery of iniquity and admonished us not to love the things that are in the world (the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life) and the love of the things in the world makes it impossible for us to love the Father. It is therefore a fact that all the beguiling activity of the devil revolve round the desire for things propelled by the lust that enter through the eyes or the lust that enters into the soul through the fleshly desires or even the ego.

 

All the activity of the traducer (devil) is therefore  centered around keeping men preoccupied with ‘ Things” which are corruptible and subject to destruction by moth  or theft by men.

Herein lies the distinction between the “gentiles nature and preoccupation” and the preoccupation of the seekers of God’s kingdom” who are pressing forward to overcome all things and inherit all things.

Here the admonition of our Lord in the book of Matthew 5;32

 

For after all these THINGS do the gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these THINGS

But ye seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness

and all these THINGS  shall be added  unto you

 

Our call is therefore to grow up in faith beyond the  distraction of things, even beyond the need centered existence, beyond the need dominated messages and even beyond the elementary faith for things into the “Faith of God”   rising above the  faith of “the birds of the  air” and the faith of “the lilies of the value’  who have no worries about things to wear or things to eat or any physical need whatsoever but rejoices in the Fatherhood of God who has an arrangement in place to take care of his creations.

We must overcome and rise above this need centered dimension.

 

Ademola  Akinyemi

OVERCOMING THE CORRUPTION OF POLITICS

A people will emerge on the surface of the earth and in the mist of the church who will overcome all things.

This over comers will be armed with the finishing faith and will by this overcome the world including all that is in it-the lust of the flesh, the pride of life and the lust of the eyes.  By this they will be qualified to inherit all things including fullness of live and immortality with which the nations will be governed.

Part of the things which we  must  overcome  is the spirit of politics with its varying degree of corruption. The influence of this spirit brings hatred, bitterness, even strife and war as we have seen in history.  Conflicts of ideology led to the emergence of Adolf Hitler and the world war 11. The spirit of politics in the world is rooted in the desire of man to protect self-interest  and must be tamed by the love of God which is just and considerate.

Various nations govern the spirit of politics by  laws which if respected often stabilizes the polity although this does not deal with the matters of the heart. Best friends, families and business partners have separated because of politics and his tendency to corrupt with bitterness.

Several years ago, one of our politician in Northern Nigeria came up with the a principle of practicing politics without bitterness, a principle rooted in a godly desire to overcome the corruption of politics and the desperation for power. Good as this is, it has its limit if we do not allow the truth and the spirit of Christ to give us the capacity for actualization.

Jesus said in First  Corinthians thirteen that we weigh nothing under God if we operate outside the heart of love and it does not matter how sacrificial we are. This is to say that we must not go outside the boundaries of love notwithstanding our persuasion . The spirit of politicking often brings with it rudeness, cursing , riots and  murder and those who seek life must be poised to overcome these things .

The spirit of politics traps men and overcome them in a web which imprisoned the souls of men with an iron like grip and its subtlety serpentine in nature but its destruction is massive. For pilgrims seeking God, it is very distractive and divisive hence it remains an enemy to overcome.

The disciple of Jesus in his days were not left out in the confrontation with this spirit as the Roman government in their iron like political dominance ruled  over Israel and the nations.

Hear their quest for liberty as they queried the master after his resurrection before his ascension to glory.

Acts 1:

Will you at this time overthrow the Roman empire and allow us to be free and in government.

Read  the answer of Jesus.

                                                                                      

·         Do not let this worry you. God has time and seasons for everything. Just seek the Holy Ghost and his power which the father has promised you, to bring you into true liberty and victory.

The counsel of God to us this time around is similar.  We are to seek intimacy with the Holy Spirit.  We are to seek the  power and the  government of God over our life  and our God will bring us into true life and put down all dominion of evil. The kingdom of God (which is the government of God) starts within us like a leaven and  fill us with the love of God, spreading  to our homes and families and nations.