The Kingdom of God is Within You

By Tony V. Hammack

Abundant Life Today Media
	Podcast: Play in New Window | Download To watch the video, click here.

These notes are best when used in conjunction with the audio or video.

The Rule and Reign of Jesus Christ

Luke 17:20,21
20 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.

What is the Kingdom of God?
The Kingdom of God is expressed where Jesus Christ rules and reigns in the hearts, minds, and actions of His people. It can be further boiled down to: The Kingdom of God is the rule and reign of Jesus Christ in the Earth.

Lordship is the goal of our Christian activity 

Christ’s Lordship
Professions, positive confession, participating in spiritual disciplines and a relational pursuit of Jesus are all appropriate, however, if these pursuits don’t lead to the lordship of Jesus, there will be no kingdom expressions.

Jesus wants to be our Lord in every area of our lives. 

To Love is to Obey to Obey is Lordship 

John 14:23 
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Luke 10:27 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Emotional Surrender 

Christ wants to Rule our hearts and souls, our emotional make up.

Jesus wants to be the perfect ruler of your feelings. He never wants you to feel something he wouldn’t feel. He never wants you to let your emotions and thoughts run wild with worry, anger, lust, anxiety, stress, hatred, or bitterness. Where sin rules our emotions, Christ does not.

Surrender of Strength

Christ wants us to submit our strength or abilities to his Lordship because of our love. What are you good at? Where are your strengths? Christ wants us to Love him with our strength. Exercise our strengths for his glory. Stop and think for a minute, how can you love God with your strengths? Sometimes God will take our strengths and transform them for his purposes.

Surrender of anything to Jesus allows him to use it. When we surrender to his Lordship he can turn a walking stick into a serpent; Take a fearful man and make him a mighty general; take 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and feed 5000 men. If we will surrender and trust the Lord with our lives he will anoint the things he want’s us to do and cause amazing things to happen.

Surrender of our Ways of Thinking

Christ wants us to love him with our minds, surrendering our thoughts to his kingship. Loving Christ with our minds causes us to focus our thoughts on Christ. When this focus is “dialed in” through prayer, Jesus gives us directives and information. When acted upon this will extend the Kingdom of God.

We need to Experience Christ 

Isaiah 29:13
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

A man with an argument is always at the mercy of a man with an experience. Our experiences if they are in agreement with scripture are to be trusted. If they are not in agreement with scripture they are to be considered human / sociological / psychological or demonic.

The Jesus Revolution

The Revolution that Jesus is still the leader of is a peaceful revolution to rule the hearts and minds of people. He’s empowered us with the Holy Spirit and God’s Word to conquer the wills of people everywhere causing people to come into the Kingdom of King Jesus.

People will Bow Now or Bow Later 

Philippians 2:10 
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Some Kingdom Manifestations 

Romans 14:17 
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, Causing us to live rightly and affecting our internal character with peace and joy.

Where the Kingdom of God is manifested the kingdoms of this world come down.

Luke 11:20 
But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

In the New Testament strange behavior, mental illness and physical illness are linked in with demonic activity in the lives of people.

The Devil is the one who causes sickness. Sickness is subject to the kingship of Jesus Christ and must submit to his Lordship.

Mental Illness can be subjugated to the Kingdom of God or put under the control of Jesus Christ.

Any organized group of people who try to accomplish anything, if they are individually surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus the organization, will move in the direction of King Jesus. Where there is sin, greed, etc. in the camp it will move toward selfish agendas and goals. Jesus said, “If you’re not for me you’re against me.” The default setting for humanity is evil.

Jesus wants your whole heart. Any part of you not surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus leaves that part of you vulnerable to the enemy.

1 John 4:4 
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.

Today, is there something that the Holy Spirit is telling you to surrender? Is he calling you to a greater level of love?

Visit with us at Jubilee Family Church this Sunday at 10:15 AM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) and Wednesday evening at 6:30 PM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) If you can't be with us in person please visit via internet video on Jubilee T.V. If you live in Batesville please tune into KBAP 88.1 FM to listen to contemporary worship music.
Jubilee Family Church45 Thunderbird Dr. Batesville, AR 72501
(870) 793-9124
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If God, through his prophets says, "Live!" you will Live!

By Tony V. Hammack

Abundant Life Today Media
	Podcast: Play in New Window | Download To watch the video, click here.

These notes are best when used in conjunction with the audio or video.

No Matter How Bad Things May Look, If God says, “Live”, you will live!

The Nation of Israel had forsaken God and was in exile. God, because of his namesake was planning on bringing Israel back to their covenant land. God instructed his prophet to speak to this exiled people symbolized by a valley of dead dry bones.

Today, in our nation, when we look out over the spiritual landscape things seem to be going the wrong direction. However, if we have the word of the Lord and declare it, I believe our nation will turn around.

Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.

13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

1. Even though obvious circumstances look bad, the Word of God trumps all “realities”.

The obvious answer to God's question in verse 3 is “NO!” but the prophet knows his God and answers based on the fact that “all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

In our lives and in our time, I believe that God's word trumps all realities. Things can look bad, even dead, even very dead, and the Word of God when released will bring the reality that God has ordained for an individual, Church fellowship, or Nation.

In verses 4-6 we see God telling Ezekiel to prophecy breath into the dead, dry bones.

Sometimes God may ask you to do something that is irrational in your own mind. However, if you are sure that you are hearing the Lord you must obey the direction the Lord is leading you. Declaring life into dry bones is not the most rational thing for a person to do but if God says to do it you should obey.

Conversely, if God does not tell you to prophecy to dry bones it would be best not to. Presumption and our own human will is not what this passage is about. It's about a prophet hearing the voice of God and declaring a heavenly reality into the realm of the Earth.

Timing plays a critical role in how God is dealing with individuals and nations. When Israel was under judgment the word of the Lord was “you are going off into captivity”. Now after being in captivity, the word is “you are going to live again”. Prophetic people need to be just that. Not prophesying the will of their own heart. They must find the heart of God.

In Jeremiah 28 we see a prophetic show down of sorts where Jeremiah, the true prophetic man of God, prophecies what modern day people might call “doom and gloom”. Hananiah on the other hand prophecies a return to peace and prosperity.

Jeremiah simply “goes his way” after Hananiah prophecies his lies but hears a word from the Lord and returns saying, something like Hananiah's words would be great if they were from the Lord but because he's prophesied his own thoughts he will die within one year. The prophet is to be judged by the accuracy of his words.

Obedience predicates the manifestation

As Ezekiel prophecies in obedience to the word of the Lord, organization begins to replace chaos. It starts with a rattling sound. Admittedly not very impressive at first but it's the beginning of something very impressive.

After the bones become organized tendons and flesh appear on the bones. The bodies get covered with skin but there is not breath in the bodies.

In Genesis we see a similar process and in Acts Chapter 2 we see some similarities.

When God creates something he often starts with a spoken word.

You and I due to the nature of God in us have power in our words to bring life or bring death. Proverbs 18:21

One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him. The scientist walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need you. We're to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don't you just go on and get lost." God listened very patiently and kindly to the man and after the scientist was done talking, God said, "Very well, how about this, let's say we have a man making contest." To which the scientist replied, "OK, great!" But God added, "Now, we're going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam." The scientist said, "Sure, no problem" and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt. God just looked at him and said, "No, no, no. You go get your own dirt!"

In Ezekiel 37:9-10 Ezekiel is instructed to prophecy to the breath. So in obedience to the word he does it. When the breath comes into the people they stand to their feet like a vast army. An army speaks of organization, rank, file, and purpose.

In verse 11 we get a glimpse into the attitude of the Israelite people. They have a meditation of the heart and it goes something like this. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Gloom, despair and agony on me!

What the Israelites are saying is true but God want's to shift their reality by returning them to their land and giving them hope again. The change can't happen unless someone begins to declare the heavenly reality. Ezekiel is the Man of God who in faith declares the Word of the Lord.

In verse 13 we see God's motive in doing everything he's going to do. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord

We need to see the manifestations of God in our generation if people in our time are to come to know the Lord.

   

Visit with us at Jubilee Family Church this Sunday at 10:15 AM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) and Wednesday evening at 6:30 PM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) If you can't be with us in person please visit via internet video on Jubilee T.V. If you live in Batesville please tune into KBAP 88.1 FM to listen to contemporary worship music.


Jubilee Family Church45 Thunderbird Dr. Batesville, AR 72501 (870) 793-9124
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God's Plan, Our Obedience

By Tony V. Hammack

Abundant Life Today Media
	Podcast: Play in New Window | Download To watch the video, click here.

These notes are best when used in conjunction with the audio or video.

Thesis:
Jesus desires for us to hit critical mass in the spirit so we can correctly duplicate Him in the world.

John 17:6-12
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

Jesus is the perfect representation of God.
Obedience to God’s word demonstrates love and opens up revelation to the follower of Christ. Without revelation knowledge the Church has lost connection with the voice and direction of God. Building will be hindered or things built won’t stand.

v. 6 Jesus revealed God to his disciples. Jesus is able to reveal God to people because He is the prefect representation of God.

Colossians 1:15
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Jesus in the Father and the Father in the Son

John 14:9-11
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 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 works themselves.

John 10:30
I and the Father are one.

We, like the disciples and Jesus, are called to be in the world but not of the world. (John 17:14-16) v. 6 The disciples belonged to God, God gave them to Jesus and they obeyed God’s Word. These three steps caused everything to happen. Leave out any one of the three steps and the disciples are just ordinary people.

God can only be revealed to us if God chooses to reveal Himself to us.

John 6:44a
44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them,

God’s sovereignty / Our Choice

Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

If we obey

John 8:31,32
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 14:15
If you love me, keep my commands.

John 14:23,24
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

The word “now” in v. 7 indicates that because of this, now that. With prolonged obedience comes revelation knowledge.

Ephesians 1:17
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Because God gave the disciples to Jesus and Jesus taught them the Word of God and they obeyed it, Jesus prayed that the disciples would know “that everything God had given Him comes from God.” This is important because of the foundational importance of having revelation knowledge regarding the identity of Jesus Christ.

Everything Hinges on Revelation

Matthew 16:17-19
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 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. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Many in the Church today have traded a pursuit of revelation for a pursuit of theology. Instead of wanting to know God many have decided to learn about God. Theological study has value however it shouldn’t be elevated above knowing God personally.

v. 8 in some ways mirrors v. 6 Jesus got the Word from the Father and delivered it perfectly to the disciples and they accepted it. The disciples knew with certainty that Jesus came from God the Father and they knew that Jesus was sent into the world by God.

v. 9 Jesus specifically mentions that he’s not praying for the World. Why not? He goes on to say that He’s praying for those God had given Him. Evidently God hadn’t given Jesus the world. However, I believe Jesus was believing that the disciples had hit critical mass in the spirit and would also continue to obey and thus perpetuate the ministry into the world.

What’s critical mass?
A size, number, or amount large enough to produce a particular result. What’s critical mass in the spirit? The disciples had enough revelation coupled with obedience to produce a good expression of God’s kingdom through their lives. They were ready to represent Jesus to the world.

I believe Jesus' deliberate strategy was to take over the entire planet with the Gospel. His plan was to have disciples mentoring others in the same way Jesus mentored His disciples. Jesus had His eyes on His disciples and them carrying on His ministry. (John 17:20) Jesus loved the world but realized that His disciples and their disciples etc. would have to be the ones to reach to the uttermost parts of the Earth.

v. 10 Jesus starts talking covenant talk here also between Himself and the Father. In the context of this covenant talk He brings up His disciples. He further mentions that the obedience of the disciples will bring glory to Him. I think of this in a similar way a well behaved or successful child brings honor/glory to the parent of that child.

v. 11 Jesus knows that He’s going to be leaving the world by His sacrificial death, burial and resurrection. He also knows that the disciples have more work to do so He asks God to protect them by the power of his name.

v. 11 (cont.) Jesus prays for the Church to be one. The unity is already given, it’s not achieved. The literal meaning is “that they continually be one”. The unity in the disciples is to resemble the unity between God the Father and Jesus the Son. It’s much more than unity of organization. I believe it’s God’s plan for Church individuals to be in covenant with other church individuals. Committed and deeply loving one another. Not back biting and flippant about their commitments.

The Church Universal
   

Visit with us at Jubilee Family Church this Sunday at 10:15 AM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) and Wednesday evening at 6:30 PM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) If you can't be with us in person please visit via internet video on Jubilee T.V.

If you live in Batesville please tune into KBAP 88.1 FM to listen to contemporary worship music.
 Jubilee Family Church45 Thunderbird Dr. Batesville, AR 72501 (870) 793-9124
View Larger Map