The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Galatians 5:6 NIV, portion

The Kingdom consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).  It is seen only through the eyes of faith (John 3:3).  There is a way that seems right, but it’s name is really religion. Let us consider two similar looking scenarios.

Suppose a man understands by the Word of God that laying down everything in this life is worth it, and that God is a rewarder of those who diligently pursue Him.  This is a basic truth, and whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  But, there are two ways to approach this, ultimately.

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Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.

Mark 16:14

After the most dramatic day in history, and probably one of the most traumatic to the disciples, the Lord’s passion, the Lord appeared to the twelve.  Yet, the recorded portion of the content of His message on that day was not the substance of most sermons today.  Instead, He rebuked them for unbelief and hardness of heart.

Today, these are two of the things we must not have in our midst.  Unbelief, the belief in the natural over the Spirit, is the “un”-faith that will not see the things of God.  When Jesus ministered on the Earth, this was the thing that stood in the way of His mighty works (Mark 6:5).  Hardness of heart, however, is translated as “stiffness of heart” by the YLT.

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I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Matthew 16:18

It was upon a man with a revelation that Jesus chose to build His church.  It wasn’t loosely put together, or framed on the first day, as He didn’t even talk about his “ekklesia” before this point.  But, something shifted once Peter heard this direct word from God, and Jesus discerned the change in the Spirit, and confirmed Peter in his understanding.

The Kingdom of God can be likened to a treasure hidden in a field, worth selling all for.  The Kingdom can be compared with a pearl of great price.

And in the midst of Christ’s Kingdom, He has chosen his called out, ruling body, His church.  We are His body on the Earth.  As He was in the Earth, so should be the church.

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I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:4

There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12, Proverbs 16:25).  There is that which looks like labor and achievement, but, as a despondent King Solomon observed, it all the result of rivalry, envy, between a man and his neighbor.  It is vanity, meaningless, and a striving after the wind.

Consider the words of the apostle John.  He said that everyone who truly loves is born of God (1 John 4:7).  If love is the restoration God is looking to bring to the human heart (Matthew 22:40), then love is principally the one thing which fallen man cannot do (1 Peter 1:22, Galatians 5:6).  There is no true benevolence, as King Solomon pointed out, there is no real industry.  What appears to be love at the outset is really a misidentified attempting to gratify the flesh.

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In the depths of poverty, in the realms of despair, no matter what it seems, He is there.

By faith alone we stand, against the storms and the dregs, no matter what the devil unleashes, because of Christ alone, I live.

There is a saying that goes like this.  Faith is faith when God has you out on a limb, sawing off that limb, and the tree falls. And the limb, severed, remains aloft, with you on it.  A Faith walk is not described as walking across a gap where you see no bridge, it is walking off a cliff when you don’t see the other side.

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I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty throng.

Psalm 35:18

God’s way for Christians has always been the local church.  And, I don’t mean the house church, primarily.  It is God that has set up pastors and leaders in the body, to equip and teach them, to bring them to maturity in faith (Ephesians 4:11-13).  Even the verse most commonly referred to in the support of the house church indicates both the meeting together in the temple courts as a great assembly as well as house to house, sharing meals (Acts 2:46).

The passage from Ephesians 4 describing ministry roles has two very important aspects.  For some it is a job-description, detailing the calling of some and the role of their ministry.  For others, it could be likened to an street address for being trained.  Those who want to be equipped should find their way around such people that are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, because that is who God has given to do the job.  If you don’t see the job getting done, it could be that you are in the wrong spot!

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I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me;

John 14:30

The safest place to be is locked within the almighty.

He who dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, My God, in Him will I trust.

Psalm 91:1-2

When we have nothing in us of the evil one, no darkness, no vile things, no shadows in any part, the enemy can have nothing over us, and all we must do is to stand.  Jesus demonstrated the light and easy yoke.  Yet, even in its extremes, with the very prince of the whole world set against Him, He did not break under the weight.  Even under the weight of the heaviest oppression, with no one to stand with Him, He endured, and proved Himself to be God, to be perfect, Messiah, and King.

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Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Luke 22:24-30

The Church of God consists of its members (Isaiah 65:85) and it’s head is always Christ.  It is founded and supported by first our Chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20), and then by its foundation and pillars (Galatians 2:9).  It comprises the body and is the Lord’s temple.  It is built to house Him, and we are merely it’s building blocks.

The one with the primary glory is obviously the Cornerstone.  Yet, while the remaining portions of the temple are with varying degrees of glory, recognition, and importance structurally, they are all required.  The temple is begun with it’s corner, and not completed without it’s Capstone (Zechariah 4:7).

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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.

Ephesians 4:17

The mind is of the flesh, and is no more capable of producing the righteousness of God than anything else.  All of the Gospel is supernatural, from it’s birth, to it’s resurrection.  What man could not do, either through the law or otherwise, in his weakened state of the flesh, God has done.  Any notion of Gospel thoughts that does not entirely depend upon the Lord, from inspiration and revelation, to the walking out of it in the streets and the paths of men has no more possibility of producing an Eternal result than would planting a seed from one type of tree with the expectation of producing another.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit (John 3:6).  It is only the anointing that breaks the yoke (Isaiah 10:27).  The end sum of the matter, when we are desiring to see the change in the Earth for the sake of His Kingdom, is if the miracle does not come the way we wanted, it is simply because of our own faith (Mark 11:23).  While God, who is rich in mercy, knows all along when something truly is too much for us, and sends us by another way (Exodus 13:17).  He will often take us a longer way, simply to teach us how to walk by faith, so that once we reach our Jordan, and our promised land, that we are fully prepared in faith and His Spirit to take the land before us.

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Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

John 17:24

In the glory realm, everything becomes easy.  Many people talk about glory, many people use the world loosely, but the glory is something distinct, something specific–it is real.  It is the very atmosphere of heaven.

Things are accelerated in the glory.  What took years before can happen suddenly, because of the glory realm, for it is the timeless, eternal realm of God.  And, the glory is in the church.

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