Foundations of the Kingdom

When I was about 20 a very anointed prophet in our small church said God was going to teach me different ideas, ideas that would all seem like separate concepts, like building blocks, but one day God would tell me One Big Idea that would tie them all together into One Big Picture.

Ten years or so later when I was training people to hear God’s voice in two-way conversation he began teaching me many separate, smaller ideas on topics like  leadership (servanthood, not like being a secular boss), grace (power not forgiveness), how to lead other people into hearing God speak during prayer (not just talking out to him, and not even prophesying, but hearing God speak into their own hearts), diversity in the Body, etc. These were all powerful revelations in themselves, but then the Big Idea came from a conversation I had with Jesus about the meaning of Isaiah 61. That changed my life. It changed how I understand Christianity, ministry, my purpose, my calling. That one conversation literally tied everything he had taught me over many years together into one Big Picture. It literally blew my mind.

This big picture is what I now call the Foundations of the Kingdom. There are several related ideas, or keys, that begin with knowing the difference between what we call the Gospel of Salvation and what Jesus ministered calling it the Gospel of the Kingdom. This can be understood quite simply by distinguishing the ministry of John the Baptizer (the one who made ‘the way of the Lord’ within people’s heart straight by preaching repentance and water baptism) and Jesus (Yeshua) the Messiah (who fulfilled the vision of John at Pentecost by giving a second baptism, one of Spirit and Fire). This was also foreshadowed by the ministries of Moses (the law giver who prepared the people and led up up to the edge of the Jordan but not across it and into the full possession of the promises) and Joshua (also spelled Yeshua who led the people in to possess the promised land once they crossed that second baptism). John’s ministry was to prepare the hearts of the people, preaching repentance, and thus making those who listen and get baptized in water “poor in spirit” meaning repentant of their sins. Then Isaiah 61 makes more sense since this is the ministry Jesus was given when he was sent to “preach the good news to the poor” … meaning those who had their hearts prepared by John and repented already …. but Jesus’ message was a transformation he caused within them, not merely a doctrine they were told to accept. This transformation beings with Jesus healing the broken hearted, releasing the captives, giving sight to the blind … and it causes people to become  transformed into what he calls Oak Trees of Righteousness, displaying God’s splendor, to be used by God as the restorer of ruined cities, to be called priests and ministers and in fact all who see them will acknowledge they are the ‘seed’ that God has blessed! I said, wow! This is the model of your ministry, and he said No, this is the model of your new life! 

The next keys regard how we are to advance the knowledge of this great sacred secret, how Paul said we are to ‘administer the gospel’ and it starts with Paul’s own advice in 2 Corinthians, NOT to come with eloquent words but instead in a demonstration of the Spirit and power of God. Next, among the wise, yes we share wisdom, but not the wisdom of this age–no, the secret hidden wisdom that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has the idea entered into the hearts of man … but God has revealed it to us! And THIS is what we speak about. Basically we must teach divine revelation. These two keys explain how we minister like Jesus to advance the good news explained in Isaiah 61. The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but POWER: In a way, Isaiah 61 is WHY, 2 Corinthians is HOW.

Then we must grapple with the idea of leadership, which Jesus showed me an organizational pyramid and said in the world the leaders stand on TOP telling people things like NO! You can’t have a raise, you can’t come up here. You can’t get what you want. It is, Jesus said, the Spirit of No! “In my Kingdom,” he said, “leadership is not like this,” and he flipped the pyramid upside down and said, “I carry everyone and hold everyone up! And I say things like, ‘Yes you can achieve your dream. Yes, you can achieve your calling! In fact, let me help you and together yes, you will succeed. Yes!!’ The spirit of leadership in my Kingdom is the Spirit of Yes!” This is the fifth key and is easily recognized in a church whether they are acting in the world’s spirit of No, or in the Kingdom’s spirit of Yes. This lesson is in the Gospels so many times, over nine times I think, in one place it’s twice in the same chapter. You can be great, sure, but to do it you must be humble and the servant of all. Many read and agree with this but it seems they do not think this important or really is a part of the gospel an instead run their churches like selfish business men all for their glory, money and fame.

Like this are the ideas of the diversity of gifts within the Body, the diversity of roles within the church: I Corinthians 12, Romans 2, Ephesians 4. The role of ‘pastors’ in our churches is the only real role that has survived yet was not even important enough for Paul to mention to either the Romans or the Corinthians! He mentions it in Ephesians, but its only one of five, and not in the top three! In fact the diverse graces of God are released into the community for the common good, through a wide range of people with a wide range of gifts and talents and callings. The Body becomes mature as each does its part. When we prohibit the wide variety of graces of God from flowing into the Body and only allow ‘pastors’ to minister, and only allow them to ‘teach,’ we are stifling the flow of nourishing graces to the Body and it remains weak, carnal and immature. The true kind of nurturing ministry, equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry, empowering many people to serve in many various ways is only attempted by leaders who are themselves servants at heart. They may train you to be a better prophet than them! A better healer. A better preacher. GOOD! That’s what a father really wants for his children, for them to outshine him! To go higher, to be better than he ever was. A hireling wants to keep people in bondage to serve him, pay him money, elevate him on a pedestal as the sole ‘man of God’ lest the new people threaten hi position, authority and income … but this is not the heart of Jesus, not the heart of a good shepherd and not the heart of love. These three keys therefore are intertwined: servant leadership, diversity in the Body, equipping the saints.

Next we talk about empowerment. First is Grace (meaning charis, or ‘power,’ not ‘forgiveness’ or ‘mercy’ as it is commonly confused with). Second is Communion (koinonia / fellowship; not a ceremony of bread and wine to commemorate Jesus’ death, but the interactive fellowship with his Spirit living with us to talk to us openly, transform us into his children, and to teach us all things. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit alone is enough to break all bondages of man and demons; this alone can launch a person from carnal orphan into a child of God, how important this is as a habit, practice and experience cannot be overstated and is what we minister as much as possible. People need to move beyond doctrines into the experience of God he said. They must move beyond understanding, beyond knowledge. What? What is beyond knowledge I asked. Easy, Jesus said, beyond knowledge … is experience. Communion / koinonia / fellowship with the Holy Spirit is the practice of experiencing interactive intimacy with the living, loving God). Third is the Mind of Christ, which I never heard any human ever explain correctly. It is not the gift of prophecy, it is not even fellowship with the Spirit in your inner man … it is a union of our thoughts and his and we see what the father is doing in a kind of x-ray vision, we solve hard problems with divine inspiration and knowhow but beyond word of knowledge, and in fact we do not prophesy, we do not need to … for there is no longer any distance for him to talk across to give a message to us, as we think his thoughts within us, our minds have  become united. And like so many times Jesus ‘knew their thoughts’ or knew what would happen next, he was not prophesying, he was not told what would happen or told what they were thinking, but he was united with the mind of the Spirit with a kind of limited omniscience — not yet the mind of the Father in the eternal heavens, but only the mind of the Son on task in his localized mission. No one can teach the LORD, but WE HAVE the Mind of Christ. When it begins to function and flow its a new level of intimacy and power. Amazing! And this is serious meat but the Lord asked me to include this in this teaching, I hope it is not too hard to chew!

So this brings us to the last key in this teaching. He said if I would wait, he would give me one more key. I hoped it would not take more than a few weeks. Six months later I still wanted to know. Five years went by and I was already deployed on mission, knee-deep in battling witches, suffering the betrayals of Christians and struggling to eat and feed the children he had given me. Finally about 10 years later, after all these struggles and dealing with so many wicked people who just did not know what they were doing and failed to understand that I was sent here to help and bless them, he simply said … the final key … is to Love the Unlovable.

This collection of teachings is what I call the Foundations of the Kingdom, because any one of these being out of order can potentially SHUT the Kingdom. The Heavenly City has 12 different foundations, and in a similar way, how we enter and enjoy the Benefits of Kingdom of God is not based on only one thought, one prayer, or one behavior, but there are MANY THINGs that all interact, that are all interconnected, and all have to function right in order for people to be able to enter the fullness of God’s provision that he calls his Kingdom.

Seminars, Books, Bible School

This is the great revelation God has given me to help cure the Body that is sick, not with a disease but with man’s ways. I have a book written but no publisher and have posted this revelation in some detail on the website https://kingdom-foundations.com … This is the core of what we will be practicing and teaching in the Bible School, especially in what God said would be the second tier of training. This Bible School he said is the key to revival and this is also what we often minister in seminars and teachings.

Many people already understand many of these truths but still often do not understand how important they are, or how to act on them, how to put them into practice in their churches, or how they are related to some of these other ideas. Nothing revealed here should be so foreign, after all these are common scriptures. But until Jesus explained them to me, I also had no idea they meant so much.

And I’m not trying to drum up a book to sell, or push a doctrine, or become famous. I pray, I hear and I am trying my best to present his wisdom and understanding so it can bear fruit and strengthen the Body so it can come to the full stature of maturity. I was typing my first draft many years ago and he asked me, “What do you have there?” I said, “It’s your message.” “Yes,” he said, “it is my message and I will make sure it goes out to the people.” That was maybe 13 years ago and I’m still waiting to share it. I am patient but also eager to help cure the church, sick with man’s ways and see a harvest of the Kingdom for which the Father anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit in order for him to be able to preach such good news to the poor, the poor in spirit, the meek, who will inherit the earth.