So Much More: Moving Beyond Kingdom Principles to Kingdom Power (27 page)

I would call this the Spirit-directed life. A person living a Spirit-directed life is a person that God can use to do supernatural things. In fact, a little earlier in this same chapter Paul wrote,

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

—1 C
ORINTHIANS
2:9–12,
NKJV

I have heard these verses used time and again by pastors to talk about heaven. It has been taught that heaven is the place that eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has there entered into the heart of man the things God has prepared for those who love Him. That is the context in which I have typically heard this verse quoted. While it is undoubtedly true that in heaven God has things in store for us that we have never seen or heard or can even comprehend, if you look at the context in which this is written, it is not talking about something to happen in the future. It is talking about the work of God that He wants to do through us by the power of His Spirit within the person who lives a Spirit-directed life today. This is about kingdom living. When you are born again by the Spirit of God and self is removed from the throne and Christ is given control of your life, God has miraculous things that you cannot see or imagine—incredible kingdom power and authority accompanied by signs, wonders, and miracles—for you to participate in today. Talk about having a purpose for living!

So the second type of person is the spiritual man, the person who is living a life that is totally committed to Christ, experiencing life in the kingdom.

T
HE
C
ARNAL
M
AN

The third type of person is what I would call the carnal man.

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

—1 C
ORINTHIANS
3:1–4,
NKJV

Paul wrote, “I would love to speak to you as spiritual people. I would love for you to be living a Spirit-directed life of kingdom power and authority.” But there were people in the church in Corinth of whom he said that is not the case. They were still living off of milk, they were carnal or fleshly.

It is easy to mistake this person for the natural man. However, the carnal man is someone who has allowed Christ into their life and has been born again. Paul even refers to them as carnal Christians. They may have been saved for a while, but they are still babes in Christ. They are in Christ but He is not in control of their life. If we were to diagram this person’s relationship with Christ, it might look something like this.

Again we see a circle representing their life. In this carnal Christian’s life, there is also a throne and “self” is sitting on the throne. They have been born again; so unlike the natural man, Christ is on the inside of this person’s life and not the outside. Now let’s consider where Christ is in the carnal man’s life. He is there but He has been shoved aside and is not on the throne. They have been born again but they are still living as a spiritual baby sitting on the throne of their own life and calling the shots in their own life. The carnal Christian is not living in the power of the Holy Spirit. They are not doing what they see the Father doing, they are not intimately connected in relationship to hear His voice and advance His kingdom. They are saved but living as carnal and not spiritual.

Again, the interests and relationship are there in the life of the carnal man, as they are in every one of our lives, but they are out of order. There is chaos because the carnal man is still calling the shots in their own life and not allowing the Spirit to influence their decisions and actions. They are directed by “self” because “self” is still on the throne.

Unlike the natural person, this carnal person does have Christ on the inside, and they may occasionally put Him on the throne and experience some benefits of His presence in their life; but for the most part their decisions are made pretty much made like the natural man being filtered through the lens of self.

The carnal Christian is living in the kingdom of God. They have been born again but they are not living a Spirit-directed life. In fact, we might say they are living a Spirit-neglected life.

Kingdom power and authority comes out of kingdom relationship. Kingdom power flows from not just being saved but living a Spirit-filled, Spirit-directed life. We have seen how when Jesus began His ministry He went to the Jordan River to be baptized by John and He was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to preach the message of the kingdom and to do the ministry of the kingdom—to heal diseases, to take authority over demons, to advance the kingdom of light in the midst of the kingdom of darkness. We have seen that when Jesus sent out the Twelve and the seventy-two they were empowered by the same Holy Spirit to go out and preach the message of the kingdom and to do the ministry of the kingdom. Following His resurrection and before His ascension, Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for power from on high and they would become His witnesses. The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, and by the power of the Holy Spirit they preached the message of the kingdom and they did the ministry that demonstrated the power of the kingdom. How did they do it? They did it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Here is the point. If we want to live in power and authority and advance the kingdom; if we want to live a life of signs, wonders and miracles; it all comes by living a Spirit-directed life. If you are a believer but you are a carnal believer and self is still on the throne of your life, you might be wondering why you aren’t experiencing the power and authority of the kingdom, why you aren’t experiencing much joy, why it seems the enemy is wreaking havoc in your life, and you think this kingdom stuff isn’t making sense at all. The reason it doesn’t make sense is that even though you have the Spirit, you aren’t walking by the Spirit. You are living a carnal Christian life. Self is still on the throne, and there will never be any kingdom power apart from an intimate kingdom relationship with the Holy Spirit where He is placed on the throne of your life and allowed to rule and reign.

If you are living a Spirit-neglected life, if you are saved and have been born again into the kingdom but you aren’t experiencing the benefits and power of living in the kingdom, you will constantly be frustrated with the gospel of the kingdom. So ask yourself, who is on the throne of your life?

Chapter 14
NOW AND NOT YET

T
HERE IS THIS
tension that exists when we talk about this ministry of the kingdom that cannot be ignored. While we see evidences of the kingdom of God invading earth now—as the sick are healed, demons are cast out, and even the dead are raised—we also see many evidences that the kingdom of the god of this age is still at work in this world. So the tension is this, if Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy and put an end to His rule and reign, and if He has given us both the power and authority to continue this work in the world, then why do we still see evidence of Satan’s kingdom? If Jesus came to reestablish God’s kingdom on earth and to give mankind back the dominion we lost in the garden and to erase Satan’s power and authority of sickness, pain, and death, then why are we still experiencing those things?

It goes back to what we said at the beginning. There is an aspect of this kingdom that is both now and not yet. Our assignment is to bring heaven to earth today, to live under the rule and reign of God today, to take authority over the works of the enemy today; but until the day King Jesus returns to rule and reign on this earth, we continue to live in the presence of the future. However, on that day we will be living in the reality of the future as the kingdom of God is fully restored on this earth and Satan’s kingdom is put to an end.

While there is a right now aspect of the kingdom that Jesus not only talked about but demonstrated, and while He has delegated to us both the power and authority to continue to do the works of the kingdom, Jesus also spoke of the kingdom coming in its fullness as a future reality. He said things like, “I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:29). He is speaking of the kingdom as a future reality, or the kingdom that is not yet.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

—2 P
ETER
1:10–11

Peter is clearly speaking of the fullness of the kingdom to come that we have not yet experienced.

In Matthew 25 Jesus spoke of the Judgment Day when He said, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world’” (Matt. 25:34). Obviously, this passage is speaking of the kingdom in terms of the future.

Yes, the kingdom is here now. We can live under the rule and reign of God now, but it is not here in its fullness. Don’t make the mistake of leaning to either extreme. Don’t take the extreme that this is the kingdom fully and this is as good as it gets. It will be so much better when King Jesus sits on the throne and reigns and the kingdoms of this earth become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Messiah (Rev. 11:15). But also don’t take the extreme that we can only wait to live in the kingdom some day and that we just have to suffer through living in Satan’s kingdom today because the kingdom of God is only a future reality. That is also not true. We can live in the kingdom today. We are called to advance the kingdom today. We are to fulfill the assignment to destroy the works of the devil today. We are to call heaven to earth today. But there is this sense in which the kingdom is both now and not yet.