Davar Kingdom Of God

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17). Since it is in the spirit that we reign in life, the authority with which we reign is of a spiritual kind. If so, it is vital that we maintain ourselves awake spiritually so that this authority can work through us. One of the things that cause us to fail in doing this is a sense of guilt. Needless to say, a sense of guilt comes by sinning, and the best way to avoid it is to not sin. But even if we sin, we have Jesus the advocate who died for our sins, was raised from the dead, and is now interceding for us at the right hand of the Father. We believers have become the righteousness of God though Jesus, and it is unbiblical and illegal for us to have a sense of guilt. A typical phenomenon seen in a person with a sense of guilt is withdrawal from the presence of God as

In order to be able to reign in life, we need to maintain ourselves spiritually in a good condition to do so. That means that we need to avoid what hinders us from being able to do so. It is by God’s miracle that we reign in life. Thus, all the principles we have learned on the subject of faith also apply to this. In other words, it is by faith that we reign in life. So anything that hinders us from having faith work hinders us in the same way from reigning in life. Last week, we saw how fear causes doubt, and stops us from reigning in life—a miracle lifestyle which can be illustrated as walking on the water as Peter did. This time, we will see how disobedience—not obeying God with a willing heart—prevents us from　reigning in life. What we need to remember is that it is by the authority given by God that we reign in life. And that authority is, of course, a spiritual one. So, in order for that authority to work for us, we will need to respect the one who gives the authority by obeying him, not only

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (2 Tim 1:7). Fear does not come from God. God has no hear, and he cannot give us what he does not have. If fear does not come from God, from whom does it come? Note that the above scripture calls it “a spirit of timidity”—not simply “timidity.” If it is “a spirit,” it must come from a spiritual being who also has the same type of spirit. Fear is an enemy of faith. Fear goes against God’s word, and brings doubt. With doubt, faith cannot work. It does not mean that faith is lost, but with doubt, the faith you have becomes useless. If faith is useless, God cannot use it to do his miracle. If a miracle is already happening, it stops when doubt comes. Since it is by God’s miracle that we reign in life, when fear comes, doubt begins to dominate our hearts, and we stop reigning in life. The best example to see this is the story of Peter walking on the water. “Lord, if it's you,” Peter replied, "tell

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess (Heb 4:14). Faith is not only something that you profess, but also something that you “hold firmly to.” Indeed, Jesus, as Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords, not only professed so but also held firmly to his own confession of faith before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, the Roman governor. What does this mean? Let us see, for instance, the case of Peter—how he did with regard to this confession of faith and holding firmly to it. He once confessed wonderfully before his fellow disciples and Jesus as follows: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Mat 16:16). And Jesus was so glad and replied to him: Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it (vv. 17-18). But we al

The most essential key to our reigning in life is to use the power of our mouth confession wisely according to the biblical principles. We have already discussed the importance of our tongue along with the following scripture: From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit (Pro 18:20-21). According to Rom 5:17, death no longer reigns over us, but we reign in life over death and our circumstances. If we believe in this, the confessions we make must go along with it. If we still confess defeat, darkness and fear, we are liars, and cannot expect this truth to work for us. I suggest that you pretend to be a cat sometimes, and just listen to what the people around you are confessing with their mouth. You will be surprised to see how negatively they are speaking about their circumstances—financial needs, health problems, broken relationships with others, etc. It se

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom 10:9). This is how a person can be saved—by confessing that Jesus is Lord, and believing that God raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus is so vital to our Christian faith. Without it, our faith is meaningless and futile. So, we Christians are all supposed to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and is still alive today. But are we really believing that? First, we need to realize that among the Christians at Corinth there were those who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Paul says: But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 15:12)? What? Were these people really Christians? I know what you mean. Being a Christian means believing in the resurrection. But if you asked them, “Are you a Christian?”, they would probably say, “Yes, I am

In order to successfully reign over the circumstances where there are all kinds of daily needs and problems, you need to make sure that you are living in the river of God’s spirit of life and light, not in the river of Satan’s spirit of death and darkness. Otherwise, it is impossible to resist the devil, bind his evil spirits, and go against the forces of this dark world. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Col 1:13). God has brought us into the kingdom of the Son. That means, we are under the authority of the Son, and with this authority, we can surely protect ourselves from Satan’s attacks and victoriously reign over the cicumstances. We used to be in the territory of Satan, our enemy, and wherever we fled to, he attacked us and could not get away from him. But now, we are in God’s territory, his kingdom, where Jesus Christ sits as a king with all authority and power in heaven and on earth. … which he exerted in Christ when

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). When it comes to the discussions of how we actually reign in life through Jesus Christ, James 4:7 is the scripture we need to go to. We as believers must resist the devil, and if we do, he will flee from us. This is how we reign in life. 　But most importantly, this scripture tells us to submit ourselves to God first. What does this mean? Try to see that there are two rivers running in the spiritual world: one is Satan’s river where Satan’s spirit is flowing, and the other is God’s river where God’s spirit is flowing. There is nothing in between, and you are either in Satan’s river or in God’s river. The following scripture tells us in which river we used to be floating: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient (Eph 2:1-2).

We come to church to study God’s word: in the sermon, we learn about the authority given to us in Jesus’ name! We sing, praise God, make confessions and shout, “All things are possible!” and “God is good all the time!” We even bind Satan, worries, anxieties and doubts in the name of Jesus. And five minutes after the service, someone, as he goes out of the church building, says to his fellow Christian, “Oh, the economy is so bad. I don’t know if my company will make it or not. I am afraid I might be fired…” or “A bad flu is spreading around the world—strong one—and people are dying. Oh, I’m afraid I might catch it too … ” What this person does not know is that all the wonderful scriptures he heard and learned, and all the good confessions he made in the service are all gone—stolen by the thief, Satan! He lost them all—the promises and the blessings of God. Christians gather together for a special potluck luncheon. After they pray over the food and drink they have brought, they start eating and drinking:

From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled; With the harvest from his lips he is satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, And those who love it will eat its fruit (Pro 18:20-21). Such is a spiritual principle, and it works in the spiritual world. Words you speak with your mouth, whether consciously or unconsciously, dominate your life and change your circumstances in either good or bad ways—life or death. If you want to reign in life, you will definitely need to learn to control and use your mouth for that purpose: get rid of confessions that lead death to reign, and start making confessions as the one who reigns in life through Jesus Christ. Take, for example, the confession of salvation that all born-again Christians make. Those who are born again by accepting Jesus into their hearts say, “We are saved.” This is a very biblical confession in spite of the fact that no Christians on earth have complete salvation in a true sense yet. We, having been

After you learn what it means to reign in life, you will need to learn how you can actually reign in life on earth. Oh, yes, how can we do it? To this question, I probably get answers like: “We need to stand on God’s word,” “We need to walk by faith, not by sight,” or “We must pray more.” Yes, all these answers are correct, and we should do them all: we need to be doers of the Word, not just hearers. But there must be still some kind of secret—truth or principal. First of all, we need to realize that just as there are natural laws in the physical world, there are spiritual laws in the spiritual world. All physical objects and matters move and change according to those laws. In the same way, spiritual matters move and change according to the laws set in the spiritual world. Once something starts moving in the spiritual world, it will soon come to affect the physical world. Since it is by spiritual authority and power given through Jesus Christ that we reign in life, it is essential that we follow thes

Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves (John 14:10-11). Jesus’ expression, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” signifies the kind of unity he had with his father—the Father-Son relationship in the Trinity. The word ‘Trinity’ is not found in the Bible. It is a theological term that has come to be used by Christians to express the total oneness of the divine beings—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Due to the emphasis on monotheistic belief—one true God, the church struggled to explain the existence of three divine persons, which cannot be denied in the New Testament. So, they came up with this word, Trinity—one God in three persons. Well, no matter what terminology is used, it is true that these three divine beings a

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17). Once you come to know what it means to reign in life, at least, in your head, then the next step will be to learn how you actually reign in life. Needless to say, just to know or understand something in your head does not automatically mean that you can do it now. In order to reign in life through Christ, you will need to know and fully believe that Jesus Christ lives in you. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). These are the words by John, which are well known among Christians. When we are asked by someone, “Where is Jesus?”, many of us correctly answer, “He is in me.” But we need to keep in mind that God’s word only works in our life when it is combined w

A key to reigning in life is to stand on the truth that Christ lives in a believer. If you believe Jesus, you are united with Christ, and you can reign in life through him, who is the head over every power and authority. Do not think that Christ will reign for you. No, it is you who must reign though him who lives in you. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17). Note that the subject for the verb “to reign” is “those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness,” not God, or Christ, or even life. You reign because the one who lives in you has already defeated “death” and is now seated at the right hand of the Father with all authority and power given to him in heaven and on earth. So, now, together with Jesus, you are also seated at the right hand of the Father. Do not

In order to learn to reign in life, we need to know first how different life is from death. We are so used to death and its reign over us that we do not even try to go against it, but simply accept it without thinking we can reign over it. The same attitude is usually seen even among Christians. In spite of the teaching in the Bible, we Christians do not try to reign, or do not even think we can. In order to know what life is, we need to know what death is. Death as discussed in the Bible is of a spiritual kind—the kind depicted, for instance, in the first part of the book of Genesis. God said to Adam: You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Gen 2:16-17). About this death, the serpent lied and said, “You will not surely die,” and Eve believed it. Life comes from God, and only from him. The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils

Like light and darkness, death and life are contrary to each other, and cannot coexist. Where death reigns, life is not there. But if we reign in life, death cannot bother us any more. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17). In order to understand this truth, we need to realize, first, that all the struggles we are going through in our life are struggles against death. “Death” in the above scripture doses not merely mean physical death—cessation of our life on earth. No, “death” in the Bible is spiritual, and it includes all kinds of other effects, both mental and physical, that this death brings. Sin is one type of such effects, and sickness is another. The above scripture says, “death reigned through that one man.” If so, how did it reign? The story of Cain and Abel in Gen 4 is a good one to learn

When we think of all the problems and sufferings we are going through in this world, the descriptions of God’s creation of human beings in Gen 1 and 2 sound very unreal. If the Bible is right, why has our world become the world we know today? Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground (Gen 1:26).” We humans were created in God’s image and in his likeness. That means that we are like God. And we are to rule over this world as kings. Wow! But, are we really living as ones like God, and ruling as kings today? 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 (v. 28).” According to this scripture, God’s blessings are always upon us, and all living things a