Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Jesus said, '...the kingdom of God is come unto you.'

Imagine living in a time when you are under the yoke of an unyielding tyrant of a ruler. I know we feel this way at times in our own government when we are forced, yes, forced to pay taxes, forced to get healthcare, forced to follow the rules of the government. But our being forced is NOTHING like living under the terror of a government that thinks nothing about crucifying you for minor offenses, and to show the strength of their power. Living under that sort of tyranny has to be awful in a way none of us in the United States can comprehend.

You live under oppression like that and you long for freedom from oppression. That longing becomes a hope like no other. That longing for freedom, to live without fear, becomes something strived for and something to  give your children, and they- their children.

The Jewish people had prophets from God and those prophets foretold of a Messiah, a coming King, a Savior who would bring them freedom to live without fear.  These people had this wonderful hope and were looking for the arrival of this Messiah.

When the Messiah came, the Jewish leaders didn't recognize Him because they had imagined Him so much different.  This was done by God for a reason, to let only those who desired God's truth to really comprehend, while all the pretenders would remain blind to the truth.

Those pretenders didn't realize their own blindness, they only saw others being what they believed was deceived and felt a need to set them straight.

A possessed man brought to Jesus-

Mat 12:22  Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.
Mat 12:23  And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?
Mat 12:24  But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
Mat 12:25  And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
Mat 12:26  And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
Mat 12:27  And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.
Mat 12:28  But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

*******

We can comprehend how some businesses, governments, kingdoms fall- history has shown time and again that often these are taken down from the inside, not the outside. People who are trusted betray that trust and that betrayal destroys everything.  When you have two opposing factions, either one of those factions can be can be destroyed by the other. It's a well known practice to bribe someone on the inside to help in the destruction. 

For the Pharisees to say that Jesus was working miracles by the power of the devil, healing where all the devil did was destroy was a huge matter. They were claiming that  Jesus who went about doing ONLY good, was doing it by the power of the devil.  Jesus was casting out the devil by using the devil to do the casting out.  And not only that, the Pharisees themselves having their own cast out devils were supposedly doing it by God.  They said Jesus was doing it by the devil, but their people by God, their lies were ludicrous.

Jesus called them on it. 

Casting yourself out is impossible.

Even when we loath ourselves we are still stuck with ourselves, aren't we?

Satan cannot cast out Satan.

Sure, Satan can take away any illness if he gives that illness in the first place, if it suits his plans. And sure there are plenty who belong to Satan who seemingly heal others and cast out demons, they're liars and they know they are liars. The truth of them can be found out easily enough when you take them to the word of God and compare their lives to the truth. If they are NOT following God's truth, all of God's truth, then Satan can use them if they reject the truth and willingly remain blind, tugging those blinders tightly over their eyes, their hearts. By their fruit you will know them, and the fruit is what they produce in their lives- THEIR LIVES- not only the deeds they do. There are plenty of evil men and women who are seemingly honest, loving, caring, good and their deeds only seem to prove this and yet behind closed doors they harbor great evil. Their hearts are dark and loveless yet no one can see it, God knows it, God knows the hearts. And while we are to recognize them by their fruits, all we see is good, their fruit appears good to us but it's spoiled. 

With this sort of deception out there, people are fooled.

Christ's entire life was on display. He was surrounded by His Apostles and many disciples all the time, hiding nothing. He took no bribes, no payment, no one could go to him and buy a miracle. Jesus lived His life in poverty. He had no home, no job for the three years of His ministry. Jesus wandered from place to place and lived a life without any frills at all. No Pharisee could point at Him and say, "Look, He lives like a king, He uses dark powers, He's a sorcerer." They couldn't do that because all He was, was completely self evident.  When they did lie and get Him condemned it was all lies, even the Romans saw through the lies and yet to keep peace they went along with the lies.

Jesus said…

Mat 12:28  But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

The kingdom of God- the way to God's kingdom was there!  Jesus used the power of God to fight against Satan's control over the possessed, over those afflicted by the evils of the Devil.  Jesus preached LOVE and all things pertaining to LOVE. The truth of God was all that came from Christ's lips. No lies, never a single lie came from Him. There was no coveting, no thirst for power at all.

The kingdom of God was there! The door was opened! The freedom land in sight! The WAY was illuminated! Jesus was preaching the Kingdom of Heaven and the eyes of the people were opening, hope was rising up within them. The kingdom of heaven was truly at hand! And ever since Jesus came to make the way available it has ever been available to us, never taken away, a door opened and not shut.

We are going to continue to study on the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, by the grace of our LORD.

We are going to keep praying for insight, for the spiritual sight we need to see only HIS truth and not be deceived by Satan's many lies and deceptions. 

Please, Lord, bless us! Love us! Help us to love You! Please let us learn as much as we can, as much as we need to of Your coming KINGDOM!

All by YOUR GRACE!

No comments: