By Him, all things were created.  Things that are in Heaven and in the Earth, both visible and invisible.  Whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16).

The Builder Himself came down to the built, the maker to the made, and lived with them in skin.

Through Him, all things were made that have been made, yet it, they, we did not recognize Him.

The most stunning puzzle of all Eternity, God Himself, the only self-existent God, lived a life of a creature, indwelt the flesh, and became man.

The one deserving to be served, served, and humbled Himself to His Father’s will.

Untold angels peered on into this delivery, as messengers came by.  Prophets of old had desired to understand this, and the multitude of the heavens looked on to comprehend.  What was this bold, blazoned, bizarre, and blessed plan of God?

The littlest life in a manger, unable to procure his own bed, was King Eternal was in the flesh–God was man.

The King had come, yet, what began with great announcements was still only a babe.  That which would deliver must first grow, and take its place in the fullness of time.

God had ordained a Way, named His Son, who would come, but His time was not yet.  Like many of our cries, the answer came, but was not in the fullness of form until some time later.  But, He was here, and, sooner or later, He would be made known.

But, the greatest secret began to be unfolded, and the same murderer that was at the beginning, the deceiver himself, knew it too, and sought to stop the Seed.  And, in fulfillment of scriptures, the House to come fled to Egypt, and lived as a sojourner in a foreign land.  As Israel spent 400 years in slavery, so Jesus too must be displaced before He has his inheritance, and out of Egypt, God called His Son.

There is only one reason that Matthew 2:15 could interpret Hosea 11:1 to be the Messiah, because everything Word always was Him.  That which was portrayed in metaphor began to be shown openly, bit by bit, day by day, breath by breath.  When Jesus skinned His knee, what did the Father see?

But, this man grew in wisdom and stature before the Lord.  This man grew up and became mighty in the Spirit.  This man grew up, Son of God, Son of Man.

This, born King of the Jews, did not come as much of a King as the World saw Him.  He was meek, humble, and gentle.  He was precise, honest, sincere, direct, and yet guarded.  He was intelligent, yet innocent.

Little is mentioned directly of His giftedness.  Men have said He knew all things, and men have put Him into a place, which of course He alone deserves, that sets Him and His abilities far out of reach of the common person.  Yet, this, too, is not apparent through the text.

We see Him, healing, delivering, prophesying, revelating, administrating, teaching, preaching, rebuking, correcting, and discipling in all manner of goodness, yet He was somehow, in the whole of this, missed.  Who He was is sometimes not seen.

Man looks on the outward appearances, but God looks at the heart.  We say you can’t judge a book by a cover, but if all we have as men and women is eyes, and with all our seeing we can still only see skin deep, how grossly short-sighted we have then become!  For, as we dwell with a husband or a wife or a child, or sister or brother or friend, and know that their heart is open or closed, whether they are upset or delighted, we all do see a measure of something Beyond that of the natural eyes, perceiving even the emotions of another.

Yet, His eyes seemed to penetrate past this, to everything.  He trusted not His heart to anyone, for He knew what was in the hearts of all men.

This Man, the son of a  carpenter, lived a life of a Rabbi, a teacher, set apart from the rest.

Man only looked on the outward of His flesh. Man saw that He behaved distinctly and man saw that He did things that defied customs.  Customs that men had established and men had propagated–He had no regard for these.

Yet, what He did defied time itself.  It stopped a nation already flocking to a great prophet who had arisen named John and caught the attention of all of Jerusalem for a time.

This God, this Man, with perfect justice, perfect righteousness, though He was seen by the common man, yet was bypassed by the religious order.  They wanted their hands and their cups washed.  They wanted to see Jesus heal only when they thought it was okay.  They wanted His disciples behaving like they thought they should!  But, Jesus simply said, it wasn’t time.  Their time would come, but too much, too soon, would just as soon destroy them as help them.  But, let rather this new anointing wine be put into new wineskin souls, and have them both preserved.

This Man irked the religious order.  He hid His teaching is such simple stories.  He captivated His crowds, yet blinded them at the same time.  He healed their sick and fed their stomachs, yet spoke of something more, pointed to something Eternal, and something lasting, that they could seem to see nor understand.

And, as the leaders judged Him, the reviled Him in their hearts, for His ways were simple.  In His Truth, He uncovered the hearts of the Pharisees, the hearts of the Sadducees, and the hearts of the tax collectors, sinners, and the disciples.  What was hidden was revealed, and those who were blind were given a chance to see.

The Savior of the World, the very Light of creation, spoke these Words:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

John 3:19 KJV

What was it the rulers were looking for?  With what would they have been satisfied?

We consider what they wanted.  They wanted a ruling King to throw off their oppressor, yet the oppressor was within.  They wanted a deliverer who would liberate the innocent, yet the only innocent was Himself.  They wanted a uniter and a peace, but the only peace He brought was called The Sword, and the only unity He spoke of divided men, mother from daughter, father from son, brother against brothter.  For, the first and greatest command has always been, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, mind, and your strength.  And, if you are not One with Him, you are without the camp.

They thought they were right, and yet, when light came, and they were exposed, they could not let go, nor stand and acknowledge the truth, for fear of losing what they had.

Man stood as his own greatest blockage to the life of the Gospel.  Man, in his own fear of loss of position, face, standing, recognition, and this life, held onto their life, and so lost it.  And, lost it all.  Even the very things they tried through protecting to save.

Israel, expecting a great deliverer, got more than what they were expecting.  They did need deliverance, but from their hearts, and not the Romans.

Consider another road.  Consider if they had sought the Lord, and recognized their Messiah.  Perhaps the Romans wouldn’t have been overthrown immediately, but they would have eventually.  The way up is the way down, and as we humble ourselves, He promotes us to the highest place.  It is only in a Israel as a nation that bows its knee to the true Messiah the real freedom can be reckognized among the Jews as a people.  Simply to have their land, to have their nation, and their captial, without their Messiah, is deception at best.  It will always come around, until they acknowledge Him.

But, consider if they had repented.  Would God have been slack concerning His Word?  Would He not have responded with a great national deliverance?  Yet, it was their sins that separated them from God.  It was their depravity that set them at odds with their Creator.  From the beginning, the worm of this deception had been there.  This false seed that the serpent sowed in the garden.  This doubt, this lie, this deception.

They in Paradise had seen greater the difference between good and evil, but they could not see life.  They could see a violation in the external performance of a law as they had it interpreted, but they could not see with the eyes of the heart to see that life was more important that death, and that mercy was greater than sacrifice.

If they had repented, the bonds of oppression would have quickly melted off, as soon as they came up from the waters of baptism.  They would have entered into the domain of this King, come into His Shelter, and seen His Hand.  Who could have stopped them, in the power of true righteousness and the Holy Spirit, from being all that the Father called them Israel to be.

For, this King came with a Kingdom.  And His Kingdom was a specific Kingdom.

It does not extort for unjust gain, it does not flaunt its power simply for display.  It is pure, just, righteous, and holy.  It is true, right, faithful, and sure.  And, nothing would shake it, for it was founded upon a foundation greater than the creation, upon the Rock Himself.

If Jesus cast out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God had come upon those hearing.  Surely, this was the Kingdom hidden from the foundation of the Earth, as Jesus had said.  He was the seed promised to Eve in the garden.

Yet, this Kingdom, was of another place, another way, of a way that does not mix with the things of this Earth, in which nothing of Earth’s life can ever assist in, and no mind of man can even conceive of nor enter into short of being born again (John 3:3-5).

And, it was this Kingdom that was demonstrated, with signs, wonders, and mighty miracles, as surpassing, out-pacing, and over-ruling every other Kingdom, for nothing resisted its power.

No one has ascended into heaven, except the Son of man, who was then in heaven.

John 3:13, adapted

Like the trees in the Garden, though they were earthly trees but were they heavenly trees.  So this Man lived both here and there.  He lived in the atmosphere of Heaven while He walked and talked upon the Earth.

This man lived whole, like perhaps what the first Adam did, fully alive as He was supposed to be.  As we were supposed to be all our lives.  Head in the Heavens, feet on the ground.

With all His talents and abilities, He came with only one message.  He came preaching His Kingdom, and declaring and demonstrating it.  That He was the rock come down from heaven, there was no doubt, and His Kingdom fills the Earth.

His focus was never to teach on the gifts.  He never had a school of prophecy, nor a healing seminar.  When it came time for the disciples to move in authority, He gave it, and they did it, much to their own astonishment!  Yet, this, too, was not His focus.

This was His Kingdom, and He was it’s King.  This, and this alone, was spiritual Israel, as it was a spiritual domain.

His Kingdom was Eternal, and His Kingdom has no end.  His rule is supreme in the Heavens, and His name was to be exalted to the highest.  Not for a thousand years, but for Eternity.

But, this Kingdom rested upon something greater than the King Himself.  It looked to the Father.  It was as a kingdom of children, all with one Abba, to which all looked at as righteous judge.

For this was the basic problem for all of creation.  One man listened to the wrong voice, the woman, and one woman listed to the wrong creature, the serpent.  By one way of reckoning, Jesus’ greatest promotion did not come through His defeat of a demonic prince, for that was already accomplished, condemned as the prince of this world was.  But, in allowing that fiend to touch Him, and allowing that serpent to bruise Him, and that unjustly, He procured for us, not Himself, healing, salvation, deliverance, and freedom.  It wasn’t for Himself.  But, as the greatest intercessor ever, He took the hits that were not His due, stood the test, and took the cost.  And, this caused the Father to raise Him back up, and to exalt Him, Jesus, to the highest, so that He might be the all in all.

He was who He is, Eternally.  And, it was this package, this display, this demonstration that was so invisible to the leaders of His day.  His instructions were His character, and His Way was His Name.  He is the Eternal, the Great I AM, and besides Him, there is no other.  He and His Father were one, and His every act was His.

What we miss when we fail to fully see who Jesus was and why He did it is who God is, and why God does what He does.

You see, Jesus was everything!  He was brilliant.  He was wise.  He was perfect.  He was knowledgeable.  He was prepared.

For all that He does, He does from the beginning, as it were, that which He starts He has always already seen the end, for He was the Lamb already slain from the beginning, and every deliverance ever has always been through His hand.

This One was the builder, the carpenter, the creator.  For through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.  All things were created by Him and for Him.

What part of Him didn’t know about the principalities, powers, thrones, and dominions upon the Earth, and encamped against His beloved city?  What information in His plan did not encompass all the bloodshed upon the land, all the evil spirits which He faced, and all the hostility of men?  What more could have been added to His mission?  While we have profound revelations and insights into these mysteries as they are revealed to us, and we form strategies and hear from Heaven on how to confront the spiritual wickedness against people, cities, and regions, what of any of it did He not fully comprehend already?  And, knowing, chose the one strategy that works every time.  Simply listen, hear, and obey.

And, in the knowledge of it all, He came, first as a baby, then as a man.  Perfect.

What He did, He did because it was perfect.  It was right.

There was no light before Him, and saving that coming from Him, for there was no light in men.  Yet, through Him, light has come to men, and by believing, we live and are light in Him.

But, He chose the road of the low.  He did not come as we think of a King, because no one was righteous.  But, because there was no one, He bared His own arm.  He became an intercessor.  He has become our High Priest.

Yet, as He walked, He was Peace.  He was calm in the storm.  He was life to the dead and He was sight to the blind.  And, in everything He had to obey.  He chose poverty because it was the best way.  He chose the loneliness because it was the only way.  He chose the One Thing, the Only Thing, because it was the Right Thing.

His ways are perfect in the heavens.  A bruised reed and a smoldering wick He has never snuffed out.  To the cries of the poor and needy He was attentive.  Yet, the rich, the learned, the sophisticated, He sent them away hungry.  To the children, bread was given, and to those with no need for a physician, they went away with their disease.

He is perfect.  He is right.  He is everything.  And, He was against every of this life in the surpassing greatness of His own Kingdom.

This was His Kingdom. This was the place of the favor of the Lord!  If someone demands your cloak, give Him your tunic also.  If someone asks from you, give, and it will be given to you.  Because, His life was in the heavens, and not of the Earth.  Because He knew where His help came from.  Because He had a Father.

This man lived in a different realm.  He subsisted from a different currency than that of this Earth.  He existed in the presence of the Almighty, continually.

And, because of this, because He was like God, for He was God, men missed Him.

In the beauty of His Holiness, they missed Him for a revolutionary.  In the mystery of His God-hood, they misplaced Him as an outcast.  In the quietness of His heart, they despised Him, and treasured wealth, position, and honor of men.

For, He was lowly, with no comeliness to attract men to Him.  He was simple, honest, and direct.  He was transparent as the sea of glass itself, and Beyond the farthest reaches of man’s intellect.

For what man could not see, or would not, He was.  And, with such joy, greater than any man who ever lived, He lived a life of joy in rejoicing in righteousness, in hating wickedness.

For with the meek and the humble God dwells, and with the proud, He knows them afar off.  With the broken and the pure, God chooses to dwell.  Why?  Because He’s God, and that’s what God does!  And, that is the heart of His Kingdom.  Love from a pure heart and a clean conscience towards God.  That man might live with God again!

Everything God does is just.  And, everything He does is right.  One day, He will come to judge, and the topic will still be justice.  Yet, in the ripeness of the ages, when all sin has reached its maturity, the saints will shine with a glory, and the end will come at night.

It was His mission to heal, but it was His mission to preach.  It was His calling to deliver, but it was His calling to teach.  And, the focus of His endeavor was not outward, towards the gifts, and the crowds, and the show, but the teaching was parables and riddles, and a call to get back to the heart.

God walked amongst men again, and though they did not recognize Him, He called out their names.

Zacchaeus, He called, and down the tree he came.  Simon, I must stay at your house.  Nathanael, I saw you under the fig tree.

He preached power and signs and demonstration.

And, the statement of this power is this: The Kingdom of God is at Hand.

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Mark 11:23

Nothing would be impossible, and nothing would stand in their way.  Yet, He subjected His faith to the Father, from whom every family derives its name.

Why did the Lord choose those that He did?  Why did He preach and heal and feed?  Why did His robe only heal the one?

Because, somewhere within the mind of the Father, it only ever was faith that was needed.

This is the proclamation of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ reigns supreme.  Having lived life as a man among us, and crucified and raised by the Father.  He was a payment for our transgressions, and by His stripes we were healed.  And, through faith, through the eyes of belief, by trust, we see the one we love.

Faith is not a doctrine nor creed.  But, divine within the heavens, it is a precious seed.  Faith is not a statement, faith IS.  And, what is not, is not faith.  You cannot have faith in a lie.

But, like a branch cut out and thrown upon the waters brought back what was lost, so this Branch cast down by the Father restores our own lost souls.

But, His Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and it’s peace will never pass away.

But, Jesus’ method pleased the Father, and the whole of creation responded.

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:4).

The Father granted that He might have life within Himself, and nothing stopped His flow of life, for even those born blind received their sight, and the mourning received their dead back to themselves again in resurrection.

The fullness of the Gospel was preached, not simply salvation, which is a must, but the Kingdom, in it’s completeness.

Nothing else like this had ever been taught.  Never had there been anything to compare.  This power was to come upon men, and the Spirit of the Holy would indwell a temple of flesh.

It was Beyond the Beyond, and greater than it’s implication.  No flesh would glory there.  For, in the fullness of the Gospel, all self must be left behind.

For Paul wrote of it later, that we would be something new, but Jesus spoke of it in the present, as a thing without compare.

Unless you hate father, your mother, your wife and kids, and even your own life, you could not be His disciple.  Whoever would try to saved his life would lose it, and those who lost it for Him would have it saved.

He said it was like a treasure, being worth far more than gold, that when a man found it, hid it again, and for joy sold all He had, to buy that field.

The life lost, the life gained, the life lived again.

What loss is there for the person who sees the treasure?  What gain is there for those who do not?

This is the nature of His Kingdom.  It is Eternal.  It is transcendant.  It is invisible, for those who are not born again (John 3:3).

And powers and rulers shook when He walked upon the Earth.

I saw satan fall from heaven like lightning, Jesus declared, after the return of the seventy-two (Luke 10:18).  At the preaching of men, loosing infirmity and sickness, casting out demons in His name.

And the darkness was being broken through the power through the hands of men.

This creator, in his humility and meekness, stood in the midst of the storm.

Whatever pressures faced in ministry, whatever torments that presented themselves to His soul as He lived among sinners, whatever they are, these were unmentioned in the Gospels.  Except for this, that my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy ladened, and I will give you rest.  Learn from me, for I am lowly, and humble of heart.

This was the perfection of His simplicity, for in His character was found the easiest yoke of service.  For when the whole weight of the world had come upon Him, and He travailed in His final hours, it was His purity that was honored by Heaven, and strength received let Him pray all the more.  Until it came time to be done.

Despite the cosmic powers, although the demonic pressures, through the fire He was baptized, and stood.

For any man to stand at all, with all the world on His shoulders, and face its prince as perfect deserves the crown.  The one who beat every devil with a bowed head deserves the throne.

This is His way, missed by so many.  This is life, misunderstood, not seen.  This is Eternity bowing in time, forever.

He had the faith.  He had the armies.  One word would have brought twelve legions.  But, He followed, and waited patiently for the Lord.

He did not rule in His own right, but as one underneath.  The surpassing greatness of His own power He did not use, but relied upon the Father to save, the Father to listen, the Father to hear.  Always, only, and ever the Father.

Everything else was dross.  For, what would it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?  What profit would it be to do anything other than His commands, when they are the ones that lead to life.

The road was narrow, and it was hard.  Yet, what He did, He did for all.  What He withstood delivered us from the dark, and gave us life.

He came to seek and save that which was lost.

This was why His way was perfect, for He survived.  This was why His yoke was easy, because He didn’t give in.

Any root, any door, any foothold, and surely, the weight would have broken Him.  Anything else, any other focus, and the dark would have smothered Him.  Even for a moment, even for an instant, to receive even the slightest of any other realm, would have been enough to stop Him.

His anointing was not enough, but perfection, and it was the only way of Life.

It was only the Kingdom that He saw, and it was only there that He lived.

All or nothing, all the way, for those who turn back are not fit to be used.

But, He counted His cost, He paid His price, and it was worth it all.

Most people will stop when it costs health, or position, or name, or title.  But, Jesus knew it took a life.  For what is of the Earth is always temporal, but all that He gives lasts forever.

And this was the door, to believe in Him.  And this door brought one into His life.

Belief enters into spirit, and spirit leads to life.  The realm of His dominion was superior, and nothing of Earth could touch Him.

When the eyes are single, the whole body is full of light, and when the Kingdom is the only thing within us, nothing else can possibly compare.

It cost Him His everything, and for this reason He had come.  This was His purpose.  Would He pray that it be taken away?

As He made His final journey; He knew He had only to keep walking.  When strength gave way, mercy arrived, and another carried what He could not.

Was it sorrow or joy when He was whipped, knowing that every lash would save?  Was it compassion or weakness when the nails went in, knowing the billions along with Him.

Though cries uttered forth, what was the light in His face, for He’d seen His suffering on a mountain.

He came bearing light, and those that held the whole world captive resisted.  It was the stroke they laid that cost them the universe, for they broke an innocent man.

But it was His obedience that brought Him to it.  Where it was the breaking of the command that brought death, it would only be by its keeping that it would ever come.  For all God’s words were perfect–from the very beginning.

The Kingdom is not entered without obedience, for He is the tree of life.  It was not a law of doing, but a new and living way that He displayed.

And, when it came to the last, He endured it all, and overcame the world.

Nothing of life was left unanswered, for it’s greatest purpose was fulfilled.

What does success look like?  For Jesus, it looks like death on a cross.  Mission accomplished, purpose held.  He kept the faith, He finished the course.  To the first place.

What does success look like?  Obeying the Father, for nothing else in all of life matters beyond it, and only that which is Spirit brings life!

He lived the Law through the life of the Spirit, and proved before and behind.  He died a lamb for slaughter, and broke the chains of death.

Because this was His Kingdom, and this was His life, that He clung by that which He said.  That He not lose one whom He had been given, and that He not turn back when it cost Him His life.

What does the Kingdom look like?  Like Forever.  Like Heaven.  As Sure as God is good!

For it is more lasting than the temporal, and the invisible more real than the seen.

What is it that lasts forever?  Just faith, and hope, and love.  And Love is not merely emotion, for It was, for God is, and forever will be.

What is it that connects us to Eternity?  That we abide in His love.

And, what is this love that we speak of?  The kind that keeps going and lasts.

This is what love is, not that which passes, but that which holds on.  For nothing else can possibly deliver, for only love yields not as the grave.

The final act was obedience to the end, though the soul of a man tormented asked for any other possible way.

But, will succumbed to subservience, and everything was gained.

This is the cry of the Gospel, that we would ever come and die.  Whoever will die to this life will live.

Blood flowed down, and the world looked on.  Man and demon jeered.  But, the promise remained, and He remained true, until the very last Word.  For, those who endure to the end will be saved.

Through the pain and the tears, the heart remained open, even when the Father left.

And, the weight of humanity came upon Him, and He died.  For death to life.

He was a seed mature but could not abide alone.  For, perhaps His greatest prophecy remained yet unfulfilled, the baptism of the Holy Ghost on men.

The perfect will of the Father looked on, as Father crushed His Son.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

What is the will of the Father?  That we believe on His Son.  For, the wages of sin is death, but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ His Son.  For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are reconciled freely by His grace through the redemption in Jesus Christ.

The God who created was killed by His own, forsaken.

Yet, as a lamb scarified, His blood brought ransom for many.

This door brought man to life again.  This gate was the only way to the Father.  This narrow way was the only pathway to life.  And, this King, Eternal.

This brought man through death to life again, and restored.

Man lost the glory by his fall, and received back again a ‘hundred fold’.

In the power of the Resurrection, fire came upon the saints, and in one hour, three thousand souls were saved.

The perfection of Heaven had manifested, as Christ raised from the dead.

An empty tomb and a rolled stone stood witness to maybe the greatest miracle of all.  For in an instant life was created, and hell was overthrown.

He stood as King victorious.  Of what?  If only you could tell.  He stood in a victorious Kingdom, soon to possess it all.

What meekness robed in splendor, what greatness clothed with strength!  None can match this honor that we barely know now.

By his righteousness and justice, the prince of the world stood condemned, and all that would come after would call upon His Name.  This is the life Eternal, to know God and Jesus Christ.

This is the power within us, to live His life as ours.  His righteousness as ours, and His blamelessness our robe.  As the serpent upon the pole, all who look to Him will live.

He restored what had been stolen, and repaired the hearts of men.

The Kingdom of Heaven consists in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and those who come after Him must live as He lived.  For in Him is life, and to follow after any other way is not Him.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.

John 1:5