7 Kingdoms

 ~ Are You Kingdom Literate? ~

Kingdom of Heaven  ~  “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’” (Matthew 3:1-2).

Kingdom of The Son of Man  ~  “But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.  Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end’” (Luke 1:29-33).

Kingdom of God The Father  ~  “But when Jesus was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.  And He said to them, ‘To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that “Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them”’” (Mark 4:10-12). 

Kingdom of The Son of God  ~  “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood,* the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

Kingdom of Righteousness  ~  “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.  You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions” (Psalm 45:6-7).  

Kingdom of Durability  ~  “I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.  For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end” (Daniel 6:26).

Kingdom Everlasting  ~  “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’ (2 Peter 1:10-11).  “I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me.  How great are His signs, and how mighty His wonders!  His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:2-3).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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God Our Rock, 1

 ~ A Great and Perfect Rock ~

Introduction  ~  In Matthew 7:24-27 and Luke 6:47-49 Jesus relates the importance of building your house upon rock rather than sand.  This principle is even more critical when it comes to our spiritual life.  Each post in this series looks at a different Biblical passage which refers to our God as a Rock (not a complete list). 

Scripture  ~ 

“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.  Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass.  For I proclaim the name of the Lord: ascribe greatness to our God.  He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.

“They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a perverse and crooked generation.  Do you thus deal with the Lord, O foolish and unwise people?  Is He not your Father, who bought you?  Has He not made you and established you?

“Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations.  Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you: when the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.  For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.

“He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.  As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him” (Deuteronomy 32:1-12).          

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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Spiritual Gifts, 10

 ~ The Spiritual Gift of Faith ~

Opening Comment  ~  “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (James 1:16-18). 

Source Gifts  ~  The first of the Construction Sector gifts is Love!  Love is the foundation of all our building.  The second is faith which provides the framework for our relationship with Christ and the building together with other believers.  Genuine Biblical faith works through love.  “The righteous will live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38).

Spiritual Gift of Faith  ~  This gift might be defined as the God given insight which allows a person to see through life’s problems to the ultimate resource of knowledge.  A person with this gift is able to completely rely on both God’s ability and God’s willingness to accomplish the needed result. 

Scripture  ~  “Now concerning spiritual gifts …  There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit … to another faith by the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:1-9).

Comments  ~  Faith is the source of power for exercising our various gifts. 

Closing Comments  ~  “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.  Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.  Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.  Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.  Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.  Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:12-16).

“Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7).

“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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