WHAT IS GOD’S KINGDOM? 
God’s Kingdom is His effective reign over things and events. It is “wherever” what God wants done is done. “Thy Kingdom come. ”

It is manifest where His goodness and power are manifest.
—But not always manifest.

GOD’S KINGDOM . . .
• It is the range of His effective will.
• In human affairs it is hidden and must be sought. Isa. 45:15, Job. 23:9-10, Isa. 30:20
• The Gospel is that it is available to all. Matt. 4:17

YOUR ‘KINGDOM’…
• Is the range of your effective will. What you “have say” over.
• Every person has a “kingdom.”
• You were created to “have dominion.” Gen. 1:26.
• Under God. Ps. 8:6
• Think now of what you “rule over”

HUMAN KINGDOM RUINED
• By asserting human will over God’s will. 
• The basic temptation: To take our kingdom out of God’s Kingdom and live “on our own.”
• Cain’s problem: He did not get what he wanted. Anger/murder
• Chaos of desires. James 4:1-3

THE HUMAN CONDITION
• Born into a world set against God. Ruled by desire/“lust” (1 John 2:16), frustration, anger, violence. (Gen. 6:5)
• “The works of the flesh.” Gal 5:19-21, and compare 2 Tim. 3:1-5, Rom. 1:28-32
• The human kingdom on its own.

REDEMPTION/RESTORATION
• The “birth from above” re-establishes “the kingdom connection”—subordination of my kingdom to God’s Kingdom.
• Now “partakers of the divine nature”! 2 Peter 1:2-4.
• Learning to “reign in life through One, Jesus Christ.”

HOW MY LIFE BECOMES AN ETERNAL LIFE
• By making all I do a part of what God is doing.
• By accepting God’s action (grace) as a part of all I do.
• By acting on His behalf as His “vicar.”
• Col. 3:17, 1 Cor. 3:12-15.

WHAT IS LIFE?
• Self-initiating
• Self-directing
• Self-sustaining activity
• Different kinds of life—plant, animal, personal
• Spiritual Life is activity from a non-physical source, “from above.”

WHAT IS “SPIRIT”?
• Spirit is non-bodily personal power.
• God is Spirit. John 4:24, 5:26, Ex.3:14, 2 Tim. 6:13 & 15-19
• Spirit is invisible. 
• The two landscapes we live in. 2 Cor. 4:16-19 (Acts 17:28) Rom. 8:4-8

HUMAN BEINGS ARE SPIRITUAL
• Our experiences, not our bodies, make up our life. 
• Experiences are not visible—yet we know them, are aware of them, by our experience.
• They are what we treasure in persons—ourselves and others
• 1 Cor. 2:11, John 14:15-17.

WILL, CHOICE, INTENTION
• Will, the power of choice—the ability to initiate things and events—is the most precious part of spirit, human personality. 
• Will is the basis of “kingdom” and character in the human being.
• Question: my will or God’s will?

THE TWO “LANDSCAPES” AND THE BASIC HUMAN CHOICE
• The “flesh” and the “spirit.”
• The “mind” of the flesh and the “mind” of the spirit. Rom. 8:5-8
• The most basic freedom is where you will put your mind. To think only in terms of the natural powers of the human, or place everything under God.

SOWING TO THE FLESH, SOWING TO THE SPIRIT
• We can choose to invest our lives in the spiritual, the invisible, and the result will be eternal living. (Gal. 6:8; Rom. 8:5f)
• We can choose to invest our lives in the visible, the natural abilities or “flesh,” and the result will be “corruption.”

INVESTMENT IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF GOD . . .
• Provides a “greater weight of glory” to the individual. Rom. 8:18, 2 Cor. 4:17.
• Abolishes death. John 8:51-53, 2 Tim. 1:10.
• Frees from fear of death. Luke 12:4 & 22, Heb. 2:14-15, Acts 20:24, Phil. 1:21

WHO YOU ARE AND WHY YOU ARE HERE:
You are a never ceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe.
    • SPIRITUAL–In substance
    • NEVER CEASING–In duration
    • RULING–creative governance—In destiny

“And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.” (John 17:3)

“And they shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:5)

God’s intention for each of us is that we should grow to the point where He can empower us to do what we want.

Really!

WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE
• The Biblical understanding of salvation and being saved is deliverance.
• We are “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.” Col. 1:13
• Sin is no longer our master because we are under grace. Rom. 6:14

WHAT GRACE IS
• Grace is God acting. Acting in our lives to accomplish what we cannot accomplish on our own.
• Of course, it is unmerited favor. But it is not just for guilt, it is for life.
• 2 Cor. 9:8; Rom. 5:17; Heb. 4:16

GRACE BEYOND SIN
• We were created to live from God’s interaction with us.
• If we had never sinned we would still need grace to live the life God intended.
• Grace is a gift, creativity, that makes our life together full and strong. Eph. 4:29

THE CHEERFUL GIVER
• Why does God love a cheerful giver? 2 Cor. 9:7
    • Because they enter into the abundance of God’s creation.
    • They enter the realm of grace.
    • They trust God as giver.
• First steps in Kingdom living are giving and prayer.

MINISTRY IS GRACE
• Paul’s ministry to Gentiles was a “Grace.” Eph. 3:10
• Grace in life and in ministry conveys power to accomplish more than human deeds. Eph. 3:7, 16, 20; 4:7.
• Grace and attainment. 1 Cor. 15:10
• Power and character. Col. 1:11

GRACE NOT INACTION
• Putting off the “old” person and putting on the “new.” Col. 3:10, Eph. 4:23-24.
• We meet grace in acting with expectation. John 14:15-16.
• Grace is not opposed to action, but is opposed to earning.

“KNOWING CHRIST”
• Knowing or knowledge in scripture and in real life is interactive relationship.
• That is the life of grace—God acting in our life.
• Paul’s turn from “flesh” (Phil. 3:4-7) in order to “know Christ.” vs. 8-10.

GROWING IN ETERNAL LIVING
• To grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus is to increase the extent to which everything in life is presented as a receptacle of the grace and power of God.
• It is to “seek those things that are above.” (Col. 3:1-4) it is to find the Kingdom of God everywhere.

[From John Wesley]
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as you ever can.
—John Wesley

GRACE AND MOMENT TO MOMENT LIVING
• It is by devotion to what is good under the action of God (grace) that we reclaim the creation covenant given by God in Genesis 1:26.
• Thus our lives are “saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10) into eternity. Rev. 22:5

WE ARE THE PROBLEM
• Because God is always near and hears all who call upon Him, the barriers to eternal living are primarily within us. John 4:23-24, Rom. 10:8, Acts 17:26-28
• They inhabit us and inhibit us through the various dimensions of human personality.

(Diagrams are available in the conference handout, and on pages 40 and 38 of Renovation of the Heart.)

UNREDEEMED PAUL
• “I am doing the very thing I hate!” Rom. 7:15
• How that happens. The divided self undermines the will.
• The will not aligned with God cannot govern desire.
• The battle of the flesh and the spirit. Gal. 5:17

THE PROBLEM OF DESIRE
• Desire/lust (επιθυμια) ungoverned by will under God tears life apart, “wars against the soul.” 1 Peter 2:11, 4:2
• Desire is impulse toward an object without regard for what is good.
• Will evaluates alternatives to choose what is good. That is its job.
• Unless it surrenders to desire.

THE WILL ADDICTED TO ITSELF
• The will unsurrendered to God becomes focused upon itself: Having its own way.
• The meaning of the cross and “death to self”
• The self-focused will nearly always becomes enslaved to a sin or sins. Jn 8:34, Rom. 6:6
• Thus unredeemed Paul

THE MIND OF THE FLESH WHICH IS DEATH
• “The mind of the flesh” (Rom. 8:4-5) is motivated by the unsurrendered will. 
• It tries to use the “flesh” (natural human abilities) to have its own kingdom and make it work.
• But desires destroy the project. Within the person and between persons. James 4:1-4

THE FUNDAMENTAL EVILS
• Pride
• Anger
• Contempt
• Self-obsessed lusting
• Manipulation of people. See Matt. 5:21 and following

THE ONLY HOPE
• Surrender the will to God. To say to God I will do what you want, not what I want.
• Surrender is one essential aspect of entering the Kingdom of God through “birth from above.” John 3:5-6
• Also: becoming humble like a little child. Matt. 18:3-4
• “If it die…much fruit.” John 12:24-25

PEACE WITH GOD
• Faith in God brings us to surrender—a state and a process. Rom. 5:1-8
• I see that His way is better than my way. I accept that and accept Christ.
• And now the progression of experience leads us toward a life of effectual, all-permeating love. Rom. 5:5
• Paul redeemed. Gal. 2:20-21

THE PRIMARY FORM OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war in terms of the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh (not from “nature”), but powerful to God for the destruction of strongholds—dissolving ways of thinking and every “higher” thought raised up against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to obedience to Christ.” 2 Cor.10:3-5

WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?
• Because we live at the mercy of our ideas.
• The will can only act in terms of the ideas and feelings we have.
• Sometimes just the feelings. A feeling is an impulse toward/against something.
• But feelings are rooted in and governed by thoughts or ideas.
• We have little or no direct control of our feelings. 
• We have some choice about our ideas or thoughts, and perhaps can gain more.
• We can (especially when assisted by grace) change our feelings by changing our thoughts.
• Thus: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Rom. 12:2

LOVE FOR WHAT IS GOOD
• Deliverance from domination by feelings comes though knowledge of what is good and surrender to the love of God.
• Love seeks what is good. You love someone if you seek what is good for them.
• But you must see/know what is good, and that is primarily God. “God is good!” Nahum 1:7

THE KEY TO LIFE: THE ENTIRE “LAW”
• Love God with every dimension of your personality and your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:29-31
• This alone can pull our life straight, lifting it out of the pride, violence, and “inordinate affections” that characterize the “world.”
• To love God is to be devoted to His life and purposes. Which includes His love of our neighbor.

OUR THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD
• The picture of our deliverance. Titus 3:1-7
• “The kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared…”
• This restructures our thoughts about God: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Love is the ultimate nature of the whole universe!
• By filling our minds with this God, peace and rest possesses our whole being.

THE MATURE LIFE OF LIGHT, OF LOVE, TRUTH AND POWER PERFECT PEACE
• “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.” Isa. 26:3
• “I have set the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.” Ps. 16:8
• “If God is for us, who can be against us.” Rom. 8:31

VICTORY OVER FEELINGS
• See them for what they are.
• Want to not have them, or not have them dominate us.
• Change their underlying thoughts and habits by reasonable means and grace.
• For example: love of money, trust in possessions, pornography, resentment and unforgiveness, racial contempt/hatred.

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Now we are possessed by the Fruit of the Spirit: the overall structure of life—
“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, loyalty, gentleness, self-control.” Gal. 5:22-23. 
We “let our minds dwell upon whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute….and the God of peace will be with us.” Phil. 4:8-9

PAUL’S EMPHASIS ON THE BODY
• “Make it my slave…” 1 Cor. 9:27
• “Submit its members…” Rom. 6:12-13
• “A living sacrifice…” Rom. 12:1
• “The body is for the Lord…and the Lord for the body.” 1 Cor. 6:13
• “Manifesting the life of Jesus…” 2 Cor. 4:11
• “The temple of the Holy Spirit.” 1 Cor. 6:19

WHAT IS YOUR BODY TO YOUR PERSONALITY?
• The repository of your will and character
• The point of your “insertion” into your world 
• Your own little “power pack” to stand for or against God by how it is inclined or “ready to go.”
• The primary focus of your “kingdom rule,” from where you “reign.”
• Thus it is “for the Lord, and the Lord for it.”

HOW WE LIVE FROM OUR BODY
• The body is trained into being ready to do what is to be done. Deliberation not required. Not a bad thing.
• It is ready to respond to temptation by wrong-doing. That is its “natural” state.
• When we follow the “fallen” nature, our actions run ahead of our intentions.
• The case of Peter’s denials.

LIFE AS USUAL
• Our desires and feelings run from our bodies and run our lives.
• The social setting plays upon what our bodies are ready to do. 
• Thus it is very difficult to suspend the habits of body and mind, to direct ourselves to what is good.

PUTTING THE BODY TO “DEATH”
• Mortify “the deeds of the flesh” (Rom 8:13) or “your members on the earth.” Col. 3:5
• Not as acts of righteousness.
• But to liberate the life of Christ in your body.
• This trains your body not to run into evil ahead of your good intentions.

STOPS THE PROCESS . . .
• Such training prevents
    • Thought from turning into temptation, and
    • Temptation from turning into sin.
• Be sure to understand the difference between thought of wrong-doing, temptation to wrong-doing, and wrong-doing.

THE BODY HABITUATED TO GOODNESS
• Making the members of your body “slaves of righteousness.” Rom. 6:13 & 22
• The habits of wrong-doing (without thinking, or thinking too late) are replaced by habits of right-doing.
• Our “mortal bodies” given divine life from the Spirit. Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 4:10
• Disciplines for spiritual life are needed.

BODY NO LONGER USED JUST TO GRATIFY DESIRE
• Not to dominate others by 
    force 
    violence
    seduction
• Not for use as a pleasure factory.
• Not to be protected at all cost.
• But to be cared for for what is good.

TWO SUBORDINATIONS
Improper
    • Body
    • Soul
    • Mind (Thought/Feeling)
    • Spirit
    • God
Proper
    • God
    • Spirit
    • Mind (Thought/Feeling)
    • Soul
    • Body

GOD FLOWING THROUGH . . .
• “Living Water” from the “belly” of the believer. John 7:38
• “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life.” Prov. 15:4.
• Gifting by laying on of hands. Acts 8:18
• Healing by physical contact. Matt. 9:21, Mark 3:10, Acts 5:15

Have we, through a definite act and positioning of ourselves before God, given our body to God, offered it as a living sacrifice?

If we have not done so, it will continue to be a barrier to living the eternal kind of life. It will continue to be a hold-out from God’s Kingdom.

CHARACTER COMES FROM “INSIDE”
• What God gets out of our lives is the person we become. 
• We become the person we do by action. That is how character is formed.
• The actions that form godly character are only possible through grace.
• But they also require intelligent effort.

LOVE: “THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY”
• Suppose I want to become a genuinely loving person, as portrayed in 1 Cor. 13.
• Not to act loving but to be loving.
• Beyond the goodness of the scribes and Pharisees. Matt. 5:20
• Being a person genuinely set for the good of those I affect.

TRAINING, NOT JUST TRYING
• I must train myself to see the things people do to make an impression as unworthy. Even good things. 1 Cor. 13:1-3
• I must come to understand the goodness and power of love: The settled will for good.
• I must put into practice actions that habituate me through grace to act for what is good.

LOVE SUFFERS LONG AND IS KIND, DOES NOT ENVY . . .
• I do not just try to be patient.
• I learn what it is.
• I learn why it is good
• I learn where impatience comes from. 
    • The thwarting of my will
    • Anxiety about what may happen
    • Lack of consideration for others

WHY PATIENCE MAKES PERFECT
• “Let patience have its completed work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 2-4
• Patience makes room to know the faithfulness of God.
• It opens a space in which we can genuinely love and care for others.
• Where we can seek and see what is good.

LOVE IS KIND
• It is hard to be kind when in the grip of impatience. 
• To be kind means to be sympathetic, gentle, forebearing. You must see people in the light of their own problems and interests to be kind.
• When you do that, you will not resent them in envy, but be glad they have what is good. And so forth . . .

LOVE, JOY, PEACE . . .
• Now I can take the same approach to Joy, Peace, and the other elements in the Fruit of the Spirit.
• I must come to understand what each of these elements is: its parts and relations.
• It is in this way that I make progress toward the character of one engaged in eternal living.

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES
• But I will also have to engage in activities that indirectly help me take on love, joy, peace, etc.
• These are spiritual disciplines.
• A discipline is an activity in my power that enables me to do what I cannot do by direct effort.

CHRISTIAN BUT NOT DISCIPLE
• This is an accepted fact today.
• Explains why many Christians are no different in character and power from many non-Christians.
• “Eternal life now” is something learned through a process of training and at the same time is a gift of grace.

THE GREAT COMMISSION
“I have been given say over all things in heaven and in earth. As you go, make disciples of all kinds of people, surround them in Trinitarian reality, and teach them to do all things I have commanded you. And now look: I am with you always, until the job is done.” Matt. 28:18-20

THREE PARTS OF THE GREAT COMMISSION
1. Make disciples, apprentices to Jesus in Kingdom living.
2. Submerge them in the Trinitarian life that flows in the community of disciples of Jesus. Baptism symbolizes this.
3. Teach these disciples to do—showing them how to do —everything Jesus said.

WHO IS THE DISCIPLE?
• One who trusts Jesus Christ for everything, knowing He is indeed the Lord of life, master of everything.
• One who is with Him, learning from Him how to lead their life in the Kingdom of God as He would lead their life if He were they.

SPIRITUAL FORMATION IN CHRIST
• Christian spiritual formation is the process of transforming all essential dimensions of the self toward Christlikeness.
• It presupposes the birth from above and the constant action of the Holy Spirit.
• It also presupposes relentless action by the individual in obedience to the word of God. That is: Discipleship

THE THREE MAIN ASPECTS OF DISCIPLESHIP
• Learning to do as He did and taught. Sermon on the Mount again. I Cor. 13.
• Learning to handle the ordinary events of daily life within the principles and power of God’s rule. (e.g. a business, a committee meeting, etc.)
• Learning to act in God’s power. Acting and Praying.

THE PLACE OF DISCIPLESHIP
• The place of discipleship is wherever I am now, and whatever I am doing now.
• I am learning from Jesus how to do everything I do in the Kingdom of God. (Col 3:17)
• Our work/job is of special importance in discipleship, for that is where we put most of our time and effort. To leave God out of that is to exclude Him from most of our life.

DISCIPLINES ESSENTIAL TO DISCIPLESHIP
• Learning to live in the Kingdom of God requires activities that make us available for the action of the Kingdom in our lives and the transformation of our habits.
• Jesus subjected his apostles to long periods of disciplines as part of their training. 
• Study, scripture memorization, and fasting

WHAT IT TAKES TO LEARN THIS REALITY
    • Vision
    • Intention
    • Means

THE GOOD NEWS: LIFE NOW IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD
• If we would live in the resources of Jesus, we must preach what he preached in the manner he preached it.
• “Repent, for the Kingdom of the Heavens is right here now (“at hand”).” Matt. 4:17
• His three-fold practice: Preach, Manifest, and Teach. Matt. 4:22 & 9:35, Luke 4:43.

JESUS’ GOSPEL
• Leads into whole-life discipleship—learning to live our lives in the Kingdom of God as He would lead our lives if He were we—
• Not just Consumer Christians.
• And into the progressive transformation of human personality from inside out, all the dimensions of the self. 
• Yielding a radiant church, the saints in light. Col. 1:12 & Eph. 5:8-9.

WITNESSES CAUSE PEOPLE TO KNOW
• Witnesses give knowledge on the basis of first hand experience. Matt. 13:52
• What we live testifies to reality and brings knowledge.
• We live in “the invisible landscape” and the effects of that landscape in our lives makes those around us who are open to it turn to that landscape.

“OUTREACH”
• The primary work for assemblies of disciples is the lives (and words) of the disciples.
• Rodney Stark’s Cities of God.
• The “Great Commission” was put into practice, and has been at various points throughout the ages. With great effects.
• Our churches can do that today, and how could they do anything else?

THINGS GREAT TEACHERS MUST TEACH
• The nature of reality
• Who is “well-off”
    • Blessedness
    • The Good Life
• Who is a “really good” person?
• How to become a “really good” person

Jesus answers each of these in a manner far superior to anyone else–Plato, Buddha, Freud. Jesus is the smartest One ever!

CHRIST ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS
• Reality is God and His Kingdom
• Anyone alive in the Kingdom of God is well-off, blessed.
• A really good person is one who is permeated with agape love.
• You become a really good person by trusting Jesus and living as His apprentice.

THE SECULAR SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
• Has no answers to these questions. None.
• But claims to push aside as irrelevant the answers upon which that very system has been built. 
• The vacuum created in human life is filled by an array of dreams and illusions with no basis in reality or reason.
• Human lives have no guidance to what is good and right.

KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
• The Bible and the historic Church presents knowledge of God—accurate representations of God on an appropriate basis of thought and experience.
• Faith, on the Biblical model, is always environed in knowledge.
• The disciple does not profess faith, but lives faith in the context of knowledge.

MAKING DISCIPLES
• You make a disciple of Jesus by ravishing people in the vision and reality of the greatness of Jesus and of life in the Kingdom.
• The Jesus of the birds and the flowers and the care of the Father lives in the real lives of those who rely upon Him and constantly learn from Him.

TEACHERS OF THE NATIONS
• Pastors, spokespeople for Christ, must see themselves and present themselves as teachers of the nations.
• No one else has: 
    The knowledge content, 
    The position in God, 
    The public platform.

For the sake of God and for the sake of the people in this desperate world, dare we do anything less than organize our lives as apprentices of Jesus, and our churches as groups of his students, around knowing by experience and communicating in love the Eternal Life that He has brought to us?