Kingdom Love Life by Ron McGatlin

Kingdom Love Life

By Ron McGatlin

As the kingdom of God from heaven continues to invade Planet Earth in the hearts and lives of God's kingdom people, a greater depth of spiritual life with God is occurring. One of the most significant aspects of deeper spiritual life is our love relationship with God. God's maturing sons in the kingdom age are experiencing an intimate love relationship with God that few if any experienced in the passing religious church age.

One of the great mysteries of life is why such an awesome God would love each of us personally? How can such a great big God even know that I exist, much less be concerned for me and love me enough to die for me?
 
Job 7:17: What is man, that You should exalt him, That You should set Your heart on him.
 
Psa 8:4: What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?
 
Rom 5:8: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
 The kingdom love relationship is a deep love communion with God. It is greater and much more consuming than just knowing that He loved us and gave Himself for us at the cross. Knowing that God loves us and spared not His only Son to save us certainly gives us a great understanding and appreciation of the love God has for us. However, being in a personal intimate love relationship with God consumes our entire life and lifts us into a whole new intensity of spiritual life.

Considering why He made us and why He saved us begins to direct us toward the greatest fulfillment of all life. Our greatest significance in life is to fulfill God's design and desire for us. God's primary purpose for our lives is to become one with Him in a love relationship. Jesus said the greatest of all commandments is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind (Mat 22:37-40). God made man in His own image to intimately relate to Himself (Gen 1:27).
 
We exist for the primary purpose being in love with God. We are His desire.
 
Just as there is emptiness in man when separated from God, there is something missing in God when we turn away from Him and will not come to Him. There is a lack in the purposes of God when we are apart from our Husband, Jesus, who loves His Bride passionately and deeply.

This longing of God for us, and the spiritual longing in man for intimacy with God is very similar to the longing one feels in the natural realm when separated from a dearly loved one. The joy, that one feels who is in love with God, when coming into His presence and intimately relating to Him, is very similar to the joy one feels in the natural when one is reunited with and embraces a dearly loved one; there is total joy and peace with a strong sense of fulfillment.

Spiritual oneness with God is His plan for His Bride, and is the ultimate fulfillment in life.

Probably one of the closest things in the natural realm to being in love with God is romantic love for our husband or wife. Yet often this natural love can fade or be abused, and can be very disappointing at some point, and may never be fully satisfying. However, God will never disappoint His Bride. His love is forever fresh and complete. We can fully trust our lives to the love of God. God, unlike man is always faithful and will always have an adequate supply of whatever we need to become all that God desires for us to be and all that we need in order to experience fullness in life.
 
Giving our lives to God and living in intimate oneness with Him assures the most productive and prosperous life possible. We will be prosperous in the total sense of all areas of life. God will supply encouragement, comfort, discipline, strength, guidance, and anything else needed to fulfill His purpose for our lives.
 
There is nothing in life that is as valuable as intimately relating to God.
Yet, many people busy themselves with many other things that are of much less value. In any modern city, people are rushing about and are often stressed in an attempt to get somewhere and do something. The pressure of busy fast paced life can take a heavy toll on the body, soul, and spirit (Luke 10:40-42).

It is possible to remain so busy about so many things that we no longer notice the longing and emptiness of our hearts for the God who loves us and gave Himself for us. Have you ever stopped to consider how God must feel as His heart longs for His Bride to come and be with Him, and yet she continues day after day rushing about busy about many things but missing the most valuable thing of all?
 
In the kingdom age God's people are reevaluating our motives for living the very busy lifestyles we have lived. Some are changing the costly high standards of elevated natural societal life which, we may have had, that has cost too great a price. We spent our lives to get things that did not give us what we really wanted or needed. We left our first love, and sold ourselves to buy bread that does not satisfy.

In the kingdom age God is calling out for His people to STOP spending their lives for that which does not satisfy.

Isa 55:1-3: "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you; The sure mercies of David.

Come to the waters of the Spirit of God pouring refreshing love into our souls bringing real life in love with the One who loves us unconditionally. Truly the fountains of life flow within us, springs of living water from heavens deepest river of God's love.

 I John 7:38:  "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

Not only are we to be in love with God as bride and wife of our Lord Jesus. But, we also love God and are loved by Him as our Father.

 Jesus is the Father to His children. He said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Jesus is the Everlasting Father (Isa 9:6).

Our natural God-given love relationships are to be reflections of our Spiritual love relationship with God. Our unconditional and passionate love for our wife or husband is a natural replica of our spiritual love as the bride/wife of Jesus. The natural God-given love of a father and child is another replica of our spiritual love relationship with God.

As it is in the natural so it is in the spiritual.

A godly earthly father knows the depth and undying continual love he has for His sons and daughters. He would give his life in an instant to save the life of his child. He knows the deep desire to provide for and protect his children. He sincerely delights in being with his children. While they are small he loves to play and frolic with them, to roughhouse with the boys, and sip make believe tea with the girls. He loves to help guide the bike when the training wheels are first removed, all the while encouraging and affirming his children. Children in his home feel very safe and know their strong father is there to take care of them. They know the rules and boundaries that he lays down are for their protection and feel very safe within them. They have an awesome respect and love for their father. And though they may not fully realize it at the time, they will come to appreciate his strong discipline that results from their disobedience and brings correction to their lives.
 
But what the children may not know is the great feeling of loss their father feels when he is apart from his children. They do not know the great heartache in their father when they pull away from him or rebel against him and his ways. Many natural fathers have gone to an early grave with a broken heart caused by rebellious sons or daughters, who someway really never knew how deeply their father loved them, never knew how much he wanted to walk with them through life. They had always thought about how much they needed their farther, and never even considered that he needed them, longed for their love and presence in his life, needed to hold them and give them his love and affection and receive theirs unto himself.

Kingdom Replica

As it is in the natural so it is in the spiritual. Our Heavenly Father is perfect in His love for us and will always be consistent in caring for us. He will always provide the direction, correction, training, and strength for our lives if we will come to Him. But what He really desires is to hold his sons and daughters on His big lap and love them. He delights in the joy of being with His children, and if your religious mind can handle it, He loves to play with His children. As His children grow up He will stand beside them with His big arm around them, face the whole world and say, This is by beloved son; in whom I am well pleased, listen to him.
 
It does not really matter if we had a godly natural childhood or not. Jesus came to fix all that is lacking. His blood, His grace, His mercy, His love is sufficient to completely renew and put into place anything that is lacking in our lives. We are adopted sons and daughters through Jesus and are joint heirs with Him. His heritage is our heritage, and we can now come boldly into the presence of our heavenly Father and experience all that was lacking and live a full and abundant life with Him.
 
Only after we really know the love of our Father and are in love with our Husband, can we carry out the second greatest commandment, which is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

His Love in Us for One Another

Mat 22:37-39:  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
The internal spiritual love from our spiritual Father and Husband is reflected out from us into the world toward our siblings (brothers and sisters in the Lord), and our neighbors (those nearby). By love, we have Gods heart for them. By His love, we see Jesus in our brothers and sisters, and love Jesus in them as we love them with deeds of kindness, acceptance, support, mercy, affirmation, thankfulness, and even correction when needed. By love, we share His heart for the lost who wonder about as sheep without a shepherd. By His love, we feel His concern for the sheep that have gone astray. By His love, we can see the plight of the lost and seek to do all we can to bring them to Jesus. By love, we have compassion and sincerely care for those who persecute us and spitefully use us.

The outworking of the love of God in us fulfills all the laws of God. Obedience to the ways of God is a natural product of our love for Him. Power and strength to live righteously flows in and through us as the love of God brings the grace of God into our lives and gives us the power to do the things we could not do in our own strength. God works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure (Phil 2:13).  His desires are fulfilled in us by His power and we become profitable sons in His great kingdom family (Heb 2:10).  Then the ways of God from heaven become our ways of life on earth and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Mat 6:10).
 His ways are the most prosperous ways of life. We will be better sons or daughters, and do a better job of whatever we are given to do. Because we do it better we will reap more and will enjoy more of His abundant life (2 Cor 9:6) (Gal 6:7-10).  His love in us will cause us to be better parents, better teachers, better doctors, better businessmen, better government servants, better ministers, and better workmen of every sort. Living His way will cause less loss and waste from foolish activities and mistakes.

Is there anything as important as being intimately in love with God in our lives?

Keep on pursuing Love. Love never fails
and His kingdom never ends.
Ron McGatlin

www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

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Freedom To Rule and Reign Now by Ron McGatlin

Freedom to Rule and Reign Now

By Ron McGaltin

The kingdom age is upon us. Spiritual eyes and ears are opening to see and hear the coming of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God is at hand and the New Jerusalem, Bride of Christ lifestyle is coming down in the hearts of maturing sons of God. The religious church emphasis age is passing away, and the kingdom of God reality is coming forth. Cataclysmic changes are before us, and the glory of God is appearing in the company of saints growing together in spiritual kingdom reality. Christ Jesus is among and within the sons of the kingdom by the Holy Spirit of God.

The Gospel of John, Chapter 1, teaches us that Jesus was the Word and became flesh and dwelt among us. That same Jesus was crucified, resurrected from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and returned to the earth at Pentecost in the Holy Spirit, not just to dwell among us but to actually dwell within believers. To abide in the Word we must abide in Christ; we must abide in the Spirit of the resurrected Christ. Only as we walk in the Spirit can we be delivered from walking in the carnal mind of the flesh (Gal 5:16). Only as we abide in Him and He within us by His Spirit can we know the truth and bring forth His ways of life in all aspects of life in the world.

We can rule and reign with Him now in this life as we yield to His Spirit and renew our minds from our carnal and religious church-age ways to His righteousness and kingdom-age ways (2 Tim 2:12) (Rev 5:10). His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isa 55:8-9). He must live in us and produce His thoughts, His way of thinking and doing. We shall live by the faith of the Son of God, or we shall die by our carnal minds (Gal 2:20) (Rom

8:13).

Joy vs. Carnal Pleasure

John 15:7-10: If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you abide in my love you will keep My commandments, just as I abide in My Father's love and keep His commandments. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

Joy is an inner excitement of peace that endures. Joy is peace excited. Peace is joy at rest.

Carnal pleasure never brings lasting joy.

Certainly carnal pleasure is fun for a short season, but it will soon be gone leaving emptiness until the next participation in an activity of fleshly pleasure. This is true for the nations of the world, just as it is true for individuals. The world, without the joy of the Lord strives to obtain the ingredients for carnal pleasures.

One of the greatest natural carnal pleasures is to be greater than others, to be number one, to be better than other people. People involve themselves in conflicts that range from simple parlor games, to great sports activities, business ventures, and full-out wars in an attempt to be greater and to have more than others.

Individuals strive against individuals, families against families, tribes against tribes, and nations against nations, all in an effort to be number one and to take the things that others have for their own carnal pleasure. The more riches one can obtain and the more luxury one can purchase, the more carnal pleasure one can have. I once saw a slogan on a shirt that read, �He who dies with the most toys, wins.� I later saw another one that read, �He who dies with the most toys, still dies.�

The second greatest carnal pleasure is probably sexual stimulation and activity. The world has moved steadily toward immorality and sexual perversions in its search for satisfaction from carnal pleasure. Just as common, if not more so, is the practice of overeating for carnal pleasure. Recreational immorality and recreational eating are common forms of seeking carnal pleasure to replace the joy of the Lord that is lost from not abiding in Jesus.

One of the most severe forms of seeking carnal pleasure is the abuse of drugs and alcohol. For a short season one can alter the body chemistry with drugs and alcohol in such a way as to deceive the brain into a peaceful and pleasurable kind of feeling. But just like all other carnal pleasures, it does not last. More and more is required to get the same feeling as the addiction grows into a life-controlling bondage.

In the kingdom age men and women are learning that abiding in Jesus, in His Word, and in His love causes His joy to remain in them and their joy to be full, and it dissolves the lust for carnal pleasures. The joy of the Lord is our strength to overcome the bondages of addictions to carnal pleasures and to walk in true freedom.

The intense drive for carnal pleasure is destroyed by Christ in us. (Col 1:27)

When we truly abide in Him and He abides in us, ruling over others, being number one, having more things, sexual immorality and perversion, recreational overeating and all other carnal pleasures pale in the light of the inner joy of the Lord.

Personal freedom of the individual eventually leads to national freedom.

Spiritual freedom leads to moral freedom and then to financial freedom.

Political freedom will eventually result from the masses continuing in personal freedom.

Only by abiding in the ways of God through Christ Jesus can freedom come forth in the world.

Someone has said that freedom is never granted by the oppressor. There will indeed be a great cost in obtaining freedom in our world. Throughout natural history many have died in an attempt to gain and maintain a pseudo freedom or independence. Even many of those fighting for a pseudo freedom were not free themselves, but they were servants to one form of carnal pleasure or another or some form of humanistic or religious philosophy of government. Subsequently, many who have won the wars for freedom have then imposed their own brand of bondage upon others.

The cost of freedom began with the death of Christ Jesus on the cross and the martyrdom of the first century apostles. No man can number the multitudes of godly men and women who have been slain and shall be slain as the war for freedom on the earth roars toward a climax and end. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual for the pulling down of strongholds.

2 Cor 10:3-6: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

The war is won or lost in the mind and hearts of men.

The true oppressor is not white over black, or republican against democrat, or Gentile against Jew, or Protestant against Catholic, nor any other human or natural thing. The true oppressor is the spiritual enemy of God and man. The devil uses all of these differences to inflame prejudice, fear, and strife in an attempt to rob the world of freedom. The enemy desires to control and to become number one, equal to God (Isa 14:12-14).

The good news is that Jesus has completely defeated the devil and now lives in believers to destroy all the work of the enemy (Col 2:15) (1 John 3:8b) (Luke 10:19a).

The bad news is that people of the world have been deceived and entrapped into seeking carnal pleasure, instead of delighting in the Lord and experiencing the Joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord will overcome the enemy�s ability to corrupt the individuals life, and thereby take away all of his ability to steal freedom from the world.

Neh 8:10b: Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

The devil has only the power given to him by the people of the world. God has given dominion to man and has defeated the enemy.

God has not rescinded His position of giving dominion on the earth to man (Gen 1:26-28). Man lives or dies by the decisions that he makes. God will not intervene without man�s agreement. The plan and work of God on earth is not completed without man�s participation.

God had to become a man, the man Jesus, to carry out redemption and the plan of God on earth. Only man had the God-given authority to dominion in the earth, and it was necessary that redemption come through a man. Jesus was that man and now can live in man by the Spirit of Christ and carry out the will of God on earth. Only with the agreement and participation of men will it be done, and only by the indwelling presence and power of the resurrected Christ can it be done.

Man, by his collective majority decision to turn from the ways of God and from abiding in Christ to seeking carnal pleasures, has given power to the devil. The beautiful but cunning serpent of Genesis Chapter Three, who tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, has become the ferocious fiery red dragon of Revelation Chapter Twelve, by the power given unto him by the people of the world.

Can Christ, in His people, reclaim the world?

Is it possible that man now has the potential of Christ within to completely bind the enemy�s power and bring forth the plan and will of God on earth, that the destruction of evil is now within the potential of Christ in man?

Is it possible that the Word of God is true and that good can overcome evil? Could it be that the Spirit of Christ bringing forth His love in His people throughout the world can bring forth righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit and overcome the evil of the world?

If we look at the problem, the multitudes of evil men who are bent on destruction, and the great deceptive philosophy of seeking carnal pleasure that rules men around the world, certainly it does not seem possible to the natural mind that evil can be defeated and the kingdom of God can and is coming forth into our world. Looking at the giants in the land is exactly what the enemy wants us to do (Num 13:32-14-1).

The victory waits only for men to have faith and believe the Word of God. Faith comes where there is righteousness, peace, and the joy of the Lord. Faith in God cannot be strong in carnal pleasure seekers. The prayers and faith of righteous men will unleash the power of God, and the great apocalyptic cataclysmic events of the book of Revelation can greatly alter the entire scheme of things in the world. The great outpourings of the Spirit of God upon His mature sons can bring forth renewal, and people can repent of seeking carnal pleasures and turn to God by the millions.

Yes, it may be a bloody fiery road to the freedom of the World, but God can protect and deliver His children. The kingdoms of the world will become the kingdoms of our God (Rev 11:15). We will rule and reign in the earth with Him (2 Tim 2:12). We will overcome the evil one by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. There is nothing too hard for the Lord (Gen 18:14).

Rev 12:11: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Keep on pursuing Love. Love never fails
and His kingdom never ends.
Ron McGatlin

www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net