God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Genesis 1:28

This is the first command of the Bible.  God told man to fill the Earth, and rule over it.  Man was created to be a servant, to serve the will of God under His authority, and to have sovereignty over all the Earth.

In the fall, this image got corrupted.  Man’s image became broken, corrupted, and he could only rule with what was in his heart.  What originally was designed to be a ruler ship out of a pure and upright heart has turned, over the centuries has time and again demonstrated man’s corruption.

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Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Exodus 3:1

Moses, a man of forty years old, found pasture in a far away land, on the “back side of the desert”.  He had lived his entire life in the palace.  After murdering a man, he fled to a far away place, and found favor with a man named Jethro, a priest of Midian.  For the next forty years, until he was a man of eighty years old, are scarcely mentioned.  He married Jethro’s daughter, had children.  And, his greatest achievement to show the world up to that point, as a murder, was tending someone else’s sheep.  For forty years.

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By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:2 KJV

When all around us, every where we look, the Kingdom realm is shining, what else need we to stand?  When our eyes are solely fixed, what other can entice?

For the entrance of His word brings light, and in His light, we see light!

The Kingdom is now, and it is here, and it is in me, at hand.  For His power lies within me, for His promise lives within.

His Spirit and His life, His very words He spoke, have sprouted and grown leaves, unto the budding grain.

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Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

2 Peter 1:5-11

We are told by Peter how to be be sure we remain productive, or fruitful, in Christ.  Whereas one aspect of Sermon on the Mount could be loosely termed ‘how to keep from falling in ministry’ (Matthew 7:26-27), this passage could be likewise be termed ‘how to remain productive in the Kingdom’.  Peter goes on to say that by practicing these things, we will never stumble.  This is a great promise!  What great freedom is ours in Christ, to never again stumble after the flesh, but to be pleasing to Lord, body, soul, and Spirit, so long as we live.  What a great gift and availability before us, if we choose to walk after His Spirit.

Jesus said that the good soil produced a harvest, some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred fold.  Faithfulness, the good heart, produces something, where the others, even if the plant grows, produces nothing.  In this way, the true heart after His produces fruit in keeping with His.  As faith without works is dead, so a heart living out of His heart must produce the fruits of repentance, of righteousness, and of the Kingdom. Read more…

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Matthew 5:8

All of my desire is in this one thing, to see His Face (Psalm 27:4).  If we truly have this hope in ourselves, we will purify ourselves (1 John 3:3).

The New Testament is replete with examples that underscore the fact that the God of the Old Testament hasn’t changed His desire for purity and holiness as a lifestyle for those who are of His house.

Hebrews 12:14 says without holiness no one will see Him.  2 Corinthians 7:1 indicates that we should do it out of reverence.  It was because of His reverence that Jesus was heard of His Father when He prayed (Hebrews 5:7).  Ephesians 5:6 indicates strongly, lest we give way to being deceived with empty words, that God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient.  Even Jesus Himself, in Matthew 5:48, commanded us to be perfect, even as the Father is perfect.

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But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8

The demonstration of the Kingdom of Heaven is in power.  With respect to those who have gone before, who have had only their level of revelation from the scriptures, remembering that we, too, only see the portion of the words of Jesus that have been entrusted to us, unless the Kingdom of God is demonstrated with power, we have not fully preached the Gospel (Romans 15:19).

And this power is founded upon a Kingdom, whose throne is righteousness and justice (Psalm 89:14).  It is always in the context of exercising authority, while being under the authority of another (Matthew 8:9).  A servant that is proven unfaithful to the will of the master, who goes around saying, “In the name of my master, whom I serve”, while not serving Him, will have that power taken away, and given to another.

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They only asked us to remember the poor– the very thing I also was eager to do.

Galatians 2:10

Upon Paul’s visit to the first apostles, after seeing the mutual grace given to each other, the apostles only additional commission upon Paul was this, that he remember the poor.  As Paul indicates, he was already being led of the Lord in the same direction, for it was the very thing he desired to do.

The Lord is close to the broken hearted, and His ears hear their cry.  If we are to be of the Kingdom, and listening to the voice of the Father, it will invariable lead us to take care of the poor.  It will lead us to men of the highest, and lowest caliber, for the Lord is the Lord of the whole Earth.

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See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

Colossians 2:8

Our English word Philosophy comes nearly directly from the Greek, “philosophia”.  It is a compound word made up of two Greek words, “Philo”, which is the affectionate love for something, and Sophia, meaning wisdom.  Quite plainly, “philosophy” means “love of wisdom”.  It is a love of thought, rational thinking and the laying out of things, and ordered structural analysis.

While this might sound very noble and the very thing a Christian would want, and in some capacity, it may be, Paul warns directly of being taken captive by it.

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

Ephesians 4:17-19

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When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Acts 2:1-3

When the day of Pentecost came, something new came.  John had prophesied concerning Jesus, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Luke 3:16.  Jesus never did this in His life before the crucifixion, yet alive today, He is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit.

The Kingdom of Heaven poured out His Spirit, and the believers were given power from on high to be witness.This was the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  This was not the same as the receiving as the Spirit.  They had received the Spirit prior, according to John’s Gospel, after His resurrection when He appeared to them.

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Superlative: [O]f the highest kind, quality, or order; surpassing all else or others; supreme; extreme: superlative wisdom.

via Dictionary.com

It is almost a wrong label to call the Kingdom superlative.  It is Beyond that.  John the Baptist was the superlative of human attainment.  A life of solitude, of extreme separateness and consecration to the Lord was his.  Jesus gave the man this testimony, and the comparison to the Kingdom.

Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Matthew 11:11

John was a man, a prophet, of the Old Covenant, under the law and order of Moses.  He signified the demarcation point between Old an New Covenants.  As the Law came through Moses, and Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ, the exchange between the two marked the transition from the age of the Old Testament and the coming of the Messianic Age.

The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

Luke 16:16

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