Establishment of the Kingdom
(week 20/03)
Olubi Johnson
We are in the season in which we are going to be witnessing the establishment of the Kingdom of God in our individual lives, local churches and subsequently entire nations.
Someone will say “I’m established in the Kingdom, since I’ve been born-again for 10 years”.
Are you really established in the Kingdom? What is the Kingdom anyway?
The scripture says the Kingdom of God is “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans. 14. 17).
It is true that when we are born-again we are translated into the Kingdom of God (Colossians. 1. 13); however the degree of the dominion of righteousness in our lives is very limited at first. We are to grow in this dominion of righteousness over our lives until we are established in righteousness.
When we are established in righteousness then we are established in the Kingdom.
What does it mean practically to be established in righteousness?
It means to have revelation knowledge of our rightstanding with God and our rightdoing in Christ. It also means to experience rightdoing to such an extent that we no longer continue in sin. This means we hardly sin and even when we do occasionally we almost immediately confess the sin and repent of it and start doing the right thing.
Rightstanding means being able to stand before God without a guilty conscience once you have confessed your sin and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Your rightstanding is not based on your good works but on Jesus’ finished work on the cross.
Rightstanding gives us access to God’s life which, when operating in sufficient measure inside our physical bodies by the power of the Holy Spirit supernaturally, produces rightdoing in our conduct (Romans 8.10-13).
Being established in righteousness can be likened to a person who is a citizen of the UK or US and has established a good credit history, by regularly paying his mortgage and all his bills.
A UK or US citizen, who has no financial assets or credit history because he has never had a steady job or business with a regular source of income, has all the rights of citizenship in the country, or rightstanding, but is not established there. He cannot enjoy the full benefits of living in the UK or US.
In the same way a Christian who does not understand and practice rightstanding and rightdoing is in the Kingdom of God but is not established therein and cannot enjoy all the benefits of the Kingdom.
Now the more established we are in the Kingdom, or the more the Kingdom of God comes in us, giving us more and more dominion over sin, the more we can enforce the will of God to be done on the earth in our lives, families, churches and nations.
Luke 11:2 (KJV): And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Notice that it is as His kingdom comes that His will will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
It is because God’s kingdom is becoming more and more established in the Church that we are seeing His will being done in the earth today. For example the election of President George Bush in the US and the consequent removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq (ancient Babylon, symbolizing the imminent fall of spiritual Babylon in the Church in this season) which will begin the opening up of the Islamic world to the preaching of the gospel. In Nigeria, the election for the 1st. term and re-election for a 2nd. term of President Obasanjo in the face of naturally impossible odds. Both of these men are born-again Christians who didn’t even want to run for President at first, until it became clear to them that God had an assignment for them in this time for these positions. Even they themselves do not fully understand the full import of God’s purpose for their being the President’s of the two most evangelized nations on the earth in this time.
How then is the Kingdom to be established in us?
Isaiah 9:7 (KJV): Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
The kingdom is ordered and established by judgement and justice.
To be established in the Kingdom you need to have God’s judgement and justice in your life.
Judgement and justice here can mean two things: discernment or severe affliction.
God allows difficult situations and circumstances into our lives to establish us in righteousness (Psalms. 119.71).
If you discern what God is doing and obey Him in righteousness you will overcome the situation, with light afflictions (2 Corinthians. 4.17) and become more and more established in righteousness.
If you remain stubborn and willfully ignorant, you will experience severe afflictions that will eventually force you to do the right thing, like Pharaoh ultimately set the children of Israel free after great judgments were meted out to the Egyptians by God.
The choice is yours.
Isaiah 26:7-10(KJV): The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
Exodus 6:6(KJV): Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:
It is vital to see that God’s Kingdom will be established in this hour, so that His will will be done in the Church and the nations. However the degree of its establishment in your individual life and how it is established depends on the choices that you make now.
The choice is yours of how and to what degree you want to have the Kingdom established in your life.
May we make the right choices in Jesus Name.
