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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Heaven, or the Kingdom of God?, #9
And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:9,10—NIV)
God, Christ, the saints, and the holy angels are now in Heaven as far as we know. When the trumpet sounds, the Lord Jesus Christ and His saints and angels will return and establish their Kingdom on the earth. This means God through Christ through the saints will govern the nations of the earth. Then peace and justice shall flow like a mighty river throughout the land.
In that day, those who are Christians in name only will be terrified. The sinners in Zion shall indeed tremble when God roars through His true saints.
The Lord shall return with thousands of His saints to execute judgment on the fornicators in the churches, those who have gone in the way of Cain (the malice and wickedness of the world); of Balaam (the love of money); and of Korah (self-will and rebellion).
How about you? Are you willing to take the time to search the New Testament and find out if the emphasis is on going to Heaven, or if the emphasis is on taking our place on the cross with the Lord Jesus and rising with Him to walk in newness of life? Are you willing to do this, or are you going to continue in the vain traditions of our day?
You will find that Christ and His Apostles stressed our change from sinful behavior to righteous behavior. This transformation is accomplished as each day we nourish the new Divine Life that has been born in us, and with the help of the Spirit of God turn away from the ways of the fleshly lusts and passions.
If we really serve the Lord in this manner, bringing each aspect of our life, all of our decisions, to the Lord Jesus, the Kingdom of God will be formed in us.
But if we hold our ticket and wait to go to Heaven we will discover we missed the plan of salvation, which was to change us from our old sinful nature to the moral image of Jesus Christ.
The mere fact of being in Heaven will not of itself make any change in us. There is no scriptural basis for the concept that being in Heaven will change us from wickedness to righteousness. After all, sin began in Heaven around the Throne of God.
If we desire to rule with the Lord Jesus in His Kingdom, then we must begin right now to learn through Him how to govern our own personality.
The Kingdom is within us, if we have received Christ. Now our task is to follow the Holy Spirit until we are in the Kingdom that is within us, so to speak. This we do by looking constantly to the Lord Jesus so He may make us a new righteous creation in Himself.
How do you feel about this? (from Heaven, or the Kingdom of God?)