Understanding The Nature of The Kingdom | Dr. Myles Munroe

Thank you for joining us for another power-packed message from Dr. Myles Munroe, provided by Monroe Global Incorporated and Monroe Global Comm. We transform followers into leaders and leaders into agents of change. We hope that this message is a blessing to you as you advance your life and discover your purpose.

Now, let's go into the message. Right, this topic in your notes this morning: Understanding the Nature of the Kingdom. Understanding the Nature of the Kingdom. I want to get right into this because we don't have a lot of time, but I want to cover as much material as possible. You can take a look at the screens to take notes from, but I want to speak on this subject: The Kingdom Spirit of Leadership. Understanding the Nature of the Kingdom.

We've been dealing with this issue of the kingdom for the last few months now, and the more I study this, the more I understand how much I don't know. This past week, war broke out again in Croatia and in the Balkan states, where they're still fighting as a result of tribal wars. And these tribal wars between ethnic groups that have been seemingly at a peace settlement some months ago, they're still fighting again. Of course, in the northern Pakistan, there were some bombings that took place again this week. In Israel, a car bomb went off, and a few were killed. And of course, the danger of living is becoming more and more frequent. It seems to be no stability in the world today. I think you all who have been listening to the news know that the, the highest prosperity progressive movement in the United States that took place in the last 12 years fell apart last week. The stock market has fallen so low that people have lost millions of dollars overnight in the United States. Right now, they say that some of those who were millionaires on Monday, they woke up on Tuesday and they were broke because their money's in the technology stocks, which fell apart this past week. The world is so unpredictable. You can be rich today, poor tomorrow.

I just left Seattle, Washington, where the largest airplane manufacturer, Boeing, which creates and makes the largest airplanes in the world, just decided to shut down their largest plant in Seattle, and they're moving everything out. The governor of Seattle announced this week, and I had the chance to meet the mayor a few days, a couple of days ago, talking to the mayor of Seattle, and they are all frustrated and confered because thousands of jobs are expected to be lost just overnight. People have lost hope in the systems. They, they are afraid of what might happen to them tomorrow. There's no way that you can live in a world that we live in without some trust in a God who's bigger than the world. Would you say the Bahamas itself, it's really prosperity based on a mistake made by a man 45 years ago? His name is Cuba. It's Castro. Castro is an old man now. He made an announcement two weeks ago that he's opening up Cuba to more investment. The United States Congress have just passed a new bill where Americans can now do more trade with Cuba. Money is moving in. Some of the hotel chains of our world are now establishing hotels in Cuba. Cuba is about 15 minutes from our southernmost island and has beautiful beaches just like ours. How stable is our economy? What's going to happen if that place opens up tomorrow morning and becomes the tourist mecca? What about our stability economically? The world is so unstable. Therefore, if you don't put your trust in God and you put your trust in horses and chariots, they're going to fail you.

What I want to talk about today is a kingdom that cannot be shaken. One that is not built on the US stock exchange or the Bahamas tourist industry, is not built on the instability of the governments of the Baltic States and those in the Middle East of so much unsecure insecurity. We're talking about a kingdom that is stable in the midst of all of that. It's a matter of fact, that is why God did not send us a religion, because religion cannot keep you in chaos. The problem in Kosovo today is a religious problem between the Christians and the Muslims. In the northern part of Pakistan, and also the northern part of Nigeria, the fighting there is a religious fight between Muslims and Christians. So God did not send us a religion. He didn't send us an economy to build our faith on. He sent us a kingdom to become a part of. And this kingdom is in existence now. And I want to speak briefly about the nature of this kingdom and the attitude that Christ wants us to have as we become citizens of this kingdom.

I give some notes here, like you just take notes of them, if you will. And that is, the very goal of God sending Jesus Christ was very simple, and that was to reintroduce the kingdom of God on earth and to do it through mankind. Jesus came to restore the righteousness and the holiness of mankind back to the earth. And thirdly, he came to restore the Holy Spirit back to man. Fourthly, he came to retrain mankind to think like God. And fifth, he came to restore the kingdom rulership of God on earth through mankind. And finally, he came to return the kingdom of heaven to God's earthly kings. There are some scriptures that I have noted next to these statements. You may want to take those scriptures and write them down, read them for yourself, because every statement that I make must be scripturally sound, biblically correct, theologically grounded, and it must be verifiable by the Word of God.

The kingdom, then, is the issue on the mind of God, not a religion. If you notice the words that are used in this list of the goals of Jesus, the goals he came to achieve, are all including the words that have a prefix. Do you see those words? He came to reintroduce. He came to restore the righteousness of holiness of mankind. He came to restore the Holy Spirit. He came to restore the kingdom rulership of God on earth. He came to return the kingdom of heaven to God's earthly kings. Each one of these statements is a sermon in itself, because each one has to be explained in detail for us to be reconditioned and properly rethought. But just suffice it, let me just mention a few thoughts about each one. You can write these statements, comments down.

He came to reintroduce the kingdom of God to man on earth. In Matthew 4:17, the statement reads, "And from that time Jesus began to preach, 'The kingdom of heaven has arrived or is at hand or has returned.'" His message is, "The kingdom of heaven has arrived." His first word is, "Therefore, repent or change your thinking."

Then he came to restore righteousness and holiness of mankind. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21, it says, "If any man is in Jesus Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed before, because everything has become new. And it says, 'We are the righteousness of God in who, in Christ Jesus.'" Write the word "righteousness" down, please. Very important word. Righteousness doesn't mean to wear long gowns and robes and crosses and wear turbans and look religious. But the word righteous means to be realigned properly with authority. Righteous means to be right positioned, to be properly positioned with authority so that you can receive from that authority. As a righteousness means, so Jesus came to put us back in the right relationship or position with the authority of God's kingdom so we can obtain and enjoy the privileges of God's rulership in our lives.

He came to restore that holiness. Is the other component of his work, and that is the word for purity, but it means pure in motive. So holiness means that there is no schizophrenia in your life. What you say and what you do are the same. That's what holiness means. Holiness is another word that we can use for integrity. We are integrated. To be holy means that you appeal, there's no ulterior motive in your life. What you see is exactly what you are. That's holiness. Holiness means to be pure from the inside out, the outside in. What you say is what you live. What you live is what you are. What you are is what you say. It's holy. That's what holiness is. Christ came to give us back again a holy heart so he can be pure people like our Father in heaven.

He came to then restore the Holy Spirit. Luke 11:13 says, "It is my Father's pleasure to give you the Holy Spirit." As a matter of fact, that statement is made in regards to a question about the kingdom. They asked him about the kingdom, and he said, "The kingdom of God is for you." He says, "He says, 'Which of you having children, if they ask you for a stone for actually for bread rather, would you give them a stone? Or they ask you for an egg, will you give them a serpent?' He says, 'Of course not. You won't do that.'" He says, "Then even so my Father, if you ask him for the Holy Spirit, he would give you the Holy Spirit." Because the Holy Spirit is the key to the kingdom. He is the access to the kingdom of God. Matter of fact, he is the manifestation of the kingdom of God. So he came to restore the Holy Spirit.

The greatest act of Jesus was not Calvary. Many people center our faith on Calvary. Calvary is a means to an end. Calvary is the mechanism that God used to cleanse you and I to make us holy temples, because sin was our problem. On there's no eradication of sin without blood. Everybody say blood. The Word of God, no vinegar, says, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin." So in order for us to get rid of sin, we need blood. So the Calvary act was to provide the atoning work, the blood work, so God could forgive our sins, not ignore them, but forgive them. God does not ignore sin. God deals with it. And the way you deal with sin is you have to cleanse it. To cleanse it, you've got to pay the price that sin demands. Sin demands two things: it demands blood and death. And Christ provided both. When he did that, he made us holy again, pure again, so we can receive the Holy Spirit. Everybody say receive. Receive means to have. To receive means to have again. And so we used to have him, we lost him. He came, redeemed us, now we can receive the Holy Spirit again. And the Bible says that the kingdom of God is love, joy, and peace. We're in the Holy Spirit. So if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you don't have the kingdom of God. Any religion without the Holy Ghost is not a kingdom religion, if I can use the term religion respectively. And so we need to understand then that is his major goal was to get that spirit back in us. So the resurrection was not enough. Calvary was not enough. It's getting that Holy Spirit back in us that was the key. And that's why the first thing he did when he rose from the dead was he called a meeting with his followers, his disciples, and he walked through the wall and he said, "Be of good cheer. It is done. It's finished. I am going now to my Father, unto your Father, to my God, unto your God." And then the Bible says he went to them, and he went to each one personally, and he breathed on them and he said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." That was his greatest act. Well, that makes sense. The Bible says he breathed on them. Everybody say breathe on them. Say it loud. He breathed on them. What though? Holy Spirit. He says, "Receive it." It was the same act that he did in the book of Genesis chapter 2 verse 7, when he carved the body of man from the dust, and then he breathed into man the breath of life, and man lost that breath, the Holy Spirit, when he sinned. And now he is the Creator doing it one more time. He's putting back what man used to have, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our connection with heaven. He is our link between the seen and the unseen. He is our mediator between the earthly realm and the invisible realm. He is therefore the contact with the kingdom. That was a contact with the kingdom. Everybody say kingdom contact. The Holy Spirit is our kingdom contact. Without him, there's no contact with the kingdom of God. And that is why the first person you receive when you are born again is the Holy Spirit. That's why Jesus said, "Except man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Because the Spirit is the kingdom of God in manifested form.

He also came to retrain mankind to think like God. John 16 verse 30 is a powerful statement. Jesus said, "When the Holy Spirit comes, he will teach you all things." Now, the teacher, not to preach. The Holy Spirit is not a preacher. He's a teacher. To teach means, write this down: to teach means to instruct for change. To teach means to instruct for change. When you are a teaching a classroom, you're not preaching, you're not trying to announce things to the students. What you want to do is to transfer your information to them so it can become their information, so that the same change it brings to you can bring to them. So the Holy Spirit's job is to take everything that he knows and to give it to you. That's why Christ says, "He will not speak of himself, but he will only teach you what he heard from me."

To retrain is an important work. Why do we need retraining? Because if you've been a slave for 400 years, like the Israelites were, it's tough to think like a king again. But we as humans, based on biblical chronology, we've been slaves for over 6,000 years. This is the 7,000 year we are in now. Could you imagine being in darkness for 6,000 years, and suddenly you're in light? Imagine being oppressed for 6,000 years, and suddenly you're free, and now you've got to think freedom. It's tough. You can be in slavery so long that slavery becomes a lifestyle. That's why I'm afraid to say this, anyhow. That's why, thank you Lord, should I say this now? This tape may get me in trouble, but I'll say it. That's why Jesus doesn't set us free. Jesus delivers us, but somebody else comes after him. He says to work on our mind. Who's that? The Holy Spirit. That's why Moses couldn't set the Israelites free. God has sent another person who wasn't born in Egypt, Joshua, to work on their minds. It's tough to change the mind of a person who've been oppressed for 6,000 years. And that's why the Holy Spirit's job is to retrain us to think like our original self. Everybody say renew. Say it loud. Write that word down, please. It's found in the book of Romans chapter 12. It's a good place to pick it up. Romans chapter 12 verse 2 says, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye one transformed by what? The renewing of your mind." Now, let's go back to read it again. It says, "Be not conformed." The word conformed means to actually be shaped by. In other words, Paul is saying, you and I, born in sin, conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity, shapen in iniquity, that means the world formed us. Satan formed our thinking. His mentality, his concepts are what runs our lives. That's why you can be born again and still think evil, because we are not, we will not mentally changed when we are spiritually regenerated. He says, "Be ye transformed by what? The renewing of the mind." So you are conformed to this world. Who was he writing to? Christian people, believers, but they would still not conform to God's kingdom. They were still conformed to the world. Supposes please, be no longer conformed or think like or mentally controlled by this world, but be changed or transformed. How? By the renewing of. Everybody get the word renew down? You sure? I want you to write it again, but take away the prefix. Separate them. There's "re" and there's what? "New." Now, the prefix "re" means what? It doesn't mean to go forward. It means to go on backward. "Re" is a prefix which means to go back to the original state. Write that down. "Re" means go back to the original state. Whenever you see that word starting with "re," it means to go back to the original state. So God says, "I don't want you to have a new mind. That's your problem. I want you to go back and get the old original mind." And when you get that, he says, "You'll be transformed." Hallelujah. God wants us to be changed back into something, not to something. He wants us to be restored back to the mentality before the fall, so that we can have the mind of the original Adam, who was dominating the whole world, in charge of the world. He was in charge of the animals. When he called them, that's what they were, by the way. When you name something, you own it. Write that down. The Hebrew concept of naming is to control. So when you name something, you actually own it. You control it. That's why God taught Adam the name all the animals. Why? You are in charge of them. When you name them, you take charge. Have you noticed that most of the people in our country, if you own big business, name them after themselves? Hmm. It's a hint. Solomon's, Kelly's. There's only one guy who looked like me who did it. Butler. When you name something, you master it. Adam was a controller. He was a dominator. And that's the mentality God wants us to be restored to. The word dominion means to govern, to rule, to control, to lead, to manage, to have authority over. That means Adam was a dominator, a controller. He was a ruler. He was a king. And that's what Christ came to restore. He came to restore, to retrain us to think like that. Do you know that you can be a prince but think like a slave? The Bible states very clear in Galatians chapter 3 and chapter 4, the problem of mental transformation. And Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, he says that the son is just like a slave, and therefore he needs a tutor. What's a tutor for? To teach that royal kid how to think like a royal king. That is that the art of the Holy Ghost. His work is to make you stop being afraid of God, and to make you, in the end, call God Abba. He says the Holy Spirit's job is complete when you call God Abba. What is Abba? It's the word for father. What is Abba? Source. So what is Abba? Equal. Okay, you'll get it someday. See, you will continue to be a Christian until God becomes your Abba. Then you become a citizen. What's an Abba source? As long as you call God God, you're still not there. You've got to get to the point where you finally say, "One day in your kitchen, on your bedroom, while you're shaving in the bathroom, all that hits you. You know something? I am my Father's. I own it." It ain't there yet. See, when that happens, you'll now be afraid of the economy. When that happens, you're not concerned about governments falling apart because you're not hooked up to them. Your source is Jehovah himself. And that word source doesn't only mean supply, it means consistency. That means you got the same stuff that your source has. He says the Holy Spirit's job is to get you to the point where you began to think like that.

I'm sure you know Prince William. I understand he's supposed to be taking a break this month from school, and they are sending him on a, a month-long tour to Africa. I was reading that in the papers when I was in England a couple of weeks ago, and I was reading this article, and it's very interesting. When he was a little boy, they say, a little boy, as soon as Princess Di had him, they had a list of people already lined up to tutor him. They taught him how to speak, taught him how to walk. See, because princes don't walk just like anybody. They teach him how to walk, how to put his steps, how to hold his hand in his pocket properly. If you notice during the funeral, he and his brother have the same positions. There's a way they're supposed to stand. There's a way that royalty is supposed to look. And their people didn't, they're not supposed to look at certain people. They're trained by tutors. They were not allowed to think like normal kids. Oh boy, normal, it's a terrible word. There are certain places they cannot go. They cannot be seen. Don't you get it? There are certain clubs that royalty can be seen in. There are certain people they can be seen hanging out with, like prostitutes and drug addicts. I mean, imagine Prince William being caught in the company of prostitutes. Boy, that would be a big disgrace. Newspapers everywhere would have it. And I'll come the Saints, they're shacking up with prostitutes. In other words, when you get the mentality of a royalty, there's a certain way you look and walk and dress and keep company. There are certain words they cannot use. The tutors have to teach them everything. Their fingernails, the B tutor, you must keep their fingernails certain ways, manicured. There are certain people to keep their hair. I mean, it's a weird thing to be a royalty. Your whole life is already laid out for you. And so it is with you in the kingdom of God. We must be and retrain to think like God, because we are sons of God. And if we are sons, and we are joint heirs, what do you think William is to that throne? He's the next king. If Queen Elizabeth lives long enough, Prince Charles doesn't make it, William gets it. He's king. So they're not waiting until the throne is empty. Come on, talk to me. God don't want you to regularly get to heaven to start acting like heaven. He wants you to get this thing now. That's why the kingdom came to earth. My mentality is a result of a lot of training, or should I say retraining, by that book you got in your hand, through the Holy Spirit that lives inside of me. I had to be retrained. I was born the same place you were born, and maybe worse than some of you. And I was taught and trained to think a certain way by my conditions. But I thank God for parents who gave me a book and said, "Look, this book will get you out of here." And then we had to be taught to actually not believe what our eyes saw. We were taught to believe what the book said. So when we saw poverty, the book says, "You are more than blessed." When we saw oppression, the book says, "You are more than a conqueror." So we got to be retrained in our mentality. His kingdom life is different.

So with him, it's going on this talk. They say his father's not going. It's gonna spend a whole month in Africa on a safari, they said. But he'd be having his aide with him everywhere he goes. You've got an aide too. And the purpose for the aide is to make sure you act the way you were trained. When you're alone, come on, talk to me, somebody. Some of you, when Monday comes, we don't know you no more. It's as if the aide left. The aide is still there, and he tells you, "Don't do that. You can't sit that way. You can't go with that person. You can't drink that. Oh no, you don't talk to smoke that. You can't do that no more." See, the aide is there to make sure you act right. As long as God is your God, then you are afraid of him. But if he also becomes your Father, your Abba, then there's love. There's representation. That's why Christ says, "He that has seen the Son has seen the Father." He came to restore the rulership of that kingdom on earth through us. God really doesn't want to come to earth. He set it up for us to do that for him. You and I were therefore given birth to represent God's rulership on earth. And that last part, to return the kingdom of heaven to God's earthly kings. Say, "Boy." Say, "Kings." Repeat after me: "I am a king." Say it loud. Louder. Now, I know some of you women are saying, "You're queens." That's not true. Hallelujah. God created man, and man is a spirit, and spirits have no gender. So you are a ruler. Your body manifests your rulership, but you, every one of us here, was born to be a ruler on this earth, representing God, from whom we came. We have the same spirit out of God.

Let me tell you, important, the kingdom is. Look at what David preached about it. I want you to take a look at these verses very, very seriously, because some of you think that the kingdom of God was preached by Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. No, the kingdom of God began in Genesis. Let's read what David says about it. David preached the kingdom of God. He says, "The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all." As Psalm 103 verse 19 and 20. Look at Psalm 145 verse 13. He says, "Your kingdom, O Lord, is what? An everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations." The David talking. David had a consciousness of the kingdom of God, not of a religious order, not a religious church, not of an organization of religious people. He had a concept that was right. He says, "Your kingdom of God is established forever, and it rules over all the earth." Thank God for David. What about Daniel? Did Daniel have a revelation? Daniel says, "Some, please turn your Bibles if you will to Daniel chapter 7." Daniel chapter 2 is a good place to start first. I mean, go to 7. Chapter 2 of Daniel. Everybody turn here, please. Because sometimes we think that Jesus is the only one that preached the kingdom, but remember that Jesus is the source of the kingdom. Here's what Daniel says in chapter 2. Underline this in your Bible, please. Verse 44: "In the time of those kings..." And Daniel, of course, had an awesome revelation about the kingdom of God. You'll remember that Daniel was a permanent secretary in the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon. Is a powerful young man, and Daniel had a dream and a vision, and so did the king, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had a vision of this great statue that had all the different empires of the world in it, and it ended with a, with a clay and iron feet, which is what we have today, called Europe, the European Union, which is iron and clay mixed together. They're just held together, but they can't quite unify. Daniel saw this way back there. He saw Europe. And Daniel saw coming out of heaven, the king saw this actually, Daniel explained it. The king says, "And I saw a great stone come out of heaven out of nowhere, a big stone, and it hit the statue and smashed it, and it fell. I ran it was made to dust. Then this rock began to grow." Daniel began to interpret the rock. He said, "That rock is the kingdom of God coming out of heaven and hitting the kingdoms of Earth, turning them into powder, dust, and it begins to grow." Have you ever thought rocks don't grow? But the king says, "I saw the rock growing." Christ says, "Upon this rock I will start my church, and the gates of Hell will not be able to work, stop it." Notice the kingdom has no gates. Hell has the gates. Gates were used in those days to protect yourself from the outside enemy. So hell is the one who got gates. They're the ones who are afraid of us. We seem to be afraid of the world. The world is afraid of us. We're supposed to be growing, not shrinking. We're supposed to be advancing, taking over our community, over our territory, over authority, over all of the earth. We're supposed to be expanding like the growing rock, but we seem to be the ones hiding from the world, hoping we leave. Daniel says, "I saw a rock coming out of heaven, and he said, 'Nebuchadnezzar, that rock is the kingdom of God, and nothing can stop its advance.'" Let's read what Daniel says about the kingdom. Verse 44: "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people." Everybody say amen. Well, I like that. "It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever." Take never mind. I'm a part of that government. Come on, say it again. You know, I got a fax instructing me to return to the United Nations as soon as possible because they have my credentials ready, and I'm so busy I can't go to pick it up. So I got to go to New York to pick up my credentials as a United Nations affiliate, and I'm too busy working for the kingdom of God to go pick their kingdom stuff up. So I'll go and get it in a few weeks. And I was thinking, isn't it amazing? I'm a part of a king that ain't gonna be around, 'cause I'm a part of a kingdom that's gonna be forever. Oh, that's alright. You don't need to clap. So, so what you are is here. You are. You work in a country, you work for a government, you work within an economy, you work for a job. All of that is unpredictable. You can lose your job in the morning. But thank God, you are not dependent on that kingdom that's going to fail. Daniel says, "They will all end, but this kingdom shall last forever." Tell your neighbor, "I'm secure." You're not good at feet. When I wake up in the morning, I tell you, when you wake up tomorrow morning, you should walk outside, open your car, drive to work, sit in your job, and say, "No matter what happens, I'm okay, because my kingdom, my government cannot be moved." Say amen, somebody. Amen. There are elections in every country this year, including ours, pending. And none, matter who gets in power, who don't get in power, guess what? My king doesn't need to be folded in. He's still stable. That's why it's important not to be a religious person. Daniel says his kingdom and lasts forever.

Look at Daniel chapter 7. 2007. Powerful stuff here. I was reading this again this morning and meditating on this, and Daniel really had a revelation of the kingdom. Daniel says in verse 9, "As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat." Can I get feast for a second? Mmm. Who doesn't sound so good? No, that word is like honey, cool, no sweet to the taste. Read that again. "As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat." Guess who that is? Can you, can you imagine? There are thousands of thrones. One of them is mine. Daniel is talking about the kingdom of God. He says, "I saw thousands of thrones, but then someone walked in who was the throne of all the thrones, the king of all the kings." And he's called what? The Ancient of Days. Why? 'Cause he ain't got no beginning, no end. Everybody say that's my king. Say it again. Feel it. Shake your head and say it. What's his name? What's his name? What's his name? Jesus. Daniel says, "I saw the Ancient of Days. He took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow. The hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels for all the place a river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him." Lord have mercy. Attended means they were doing stuff. Just this servant in this, I don't know what they were doing. They were just serving him. They were all waiting to need something to drink, need somebody, need to fix it, cross, they were fixing him, fixing, fixing, fixing, me, thousands. Read it now. Were fixing him. Let me tell you something, friends. When you see him, you think you're gonna be excited. You're gonna faint. He's gonna be so awesome. And you see him, you're gonna fall out. Boom. Come back to boom. Fall out again. How if you hope you can spend half of your life, you never just out. Imagine seeing that. Daniel says, "Thousands were attending him." That's my Lord. "The court was seated, and the books were opened." Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words of the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain. Everybody say, "He gonna get his." Say it again. "The beast going get his." Don't worry about your adversary. He's gonna get his. "He was slain, as its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time." Now, when was this written? Written before Calvary. Can I get deep? Daniel saw the battle between darkness and light, and he said, "I saw the beast destroyed." And the beasts, plural, was stripped. Satan was destroyed on Calvary. His power was taken. But the Bible says the beasts, his cohorts, were allowed to remain. That's why he's still around today. But the strongman cannot take over a man's house unless he first what? Binds the strongman. So Christ has done what he has come into the world, he died on the cross, and he has bound the strongman, but he's allowed him to be around now. My question is, you may ask these questions yourself: Why did God allow them? Verse 12: "To live for a period of time?" Because the kids need training. Help me, Lord. I'm not making any sense. The reason why slewfoot, that's Lucifer, and his demonic powers have not been completely banished, it is because you need training. The Bible says what is tough to eat because it's so simple. The Bible says when you enter into trials and temptations and and tests, he says, "Welcome them as friends, for they have come to work, strengthen your faith and refine it into pure gold." In other words, God fired Lucifer from being a worshiper, rehired him to be a trainer to make his kids look good. So the devil is not really your enemy. He's the best training system you could have. Oh, help me, Lord. He can never beat you. So the scriptures are very clear. The scriptures say, "If you are tempted, do not think it's strange, for there is no temptation that has taken any man that is not common to all men. For God will not allow you to be tempted beyond that which you are able to overcome, and he himself will make a way of escape." In other words, the reason why they were allowed to live is so that they can make you royal, rulership over the kingdom of the earth. I was telling someone this morning in my office that you never grow in good times. Write that down to yourself. In good times, you ain't growing. That's why every successful person has a story. I made a statement this week when I was in Cleveland, Tennessee, rather, to a number of pastors, telling them, God doesn't, I'm afraid to talk sometimes because people that tell me I'm off because they know where I'm at. God doesn't give you anything you qualified for. What do you think about that? God doesn't give free gifts. God is not Santa Claus. Even Santa Claus don't give you things. You got to qualify for them. Come on, sing Santa Claus song. What does it say? If you're being good, even Santa Claus got more sense than that. That's why the Bible is filled with words like, "If, when, if you will obey me, then I will bless you." He said, "If you will obey me." There's something you gotta do. God has left Satan and all of his cohorts without power, but they are here because he wants them to help you become powerful, to retreat you. Read the next statement in my vision at night. I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, who was speaking. Daniel, what was the name Christ gave himself? He's not amazing. A thousand years before Daniel saw him as Son of Man, Christ says, "I am the Son of Man." Read what it says about him coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power, and all peoples, nations, and men of every language worshipped him. Who's that? Jesus. So you got the Father on the throne, Ancient of Days. You got Jesus, the Son of Man, coming out from the throne and into the throne, and now he's given what? Authority. And he's given sovereign rule over all the nations of the world. But the good part is the next sentence: "His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingdom is the one that will never be destroyed." What's it all about? It's about a kingdom. It's not about a religion. He came to give us a kingdom.

Now, if you will, please read with me verse 13. "I, Daniel, was troubled in my spirit." Verse 15: "And the vision that passed through my mind disturbed me. I approached one of those standing there and asked him the true meaning, was the meaning of all this?" So he told me, and he gave me the interpretation of these things. He says, "The four beasts, bears, beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth. But the Saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever." And yes, forever and ever. Are you reading what I'm reading? Read it again. He says, "Hey, the four beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth, but the Saints of the Most High will receive what? The kingdom." Not a kingdom, but the kingdom. Verse 18: "And they will possess it." They will do what with it? Possess it. This is amazing. He says, "The one who is in the midst of the throne shall receive sovereignty and kingdom, then he shall give the kingdom to the Saints, and the Saints shall were possess it." This is prophecy before it happens. He's talking about the coming of the Son of Man, and what he's gonna give to his Saints. He's gonna give us not religion, he's gonna give us what? Rulership. A kingdom. And we were what? Possess it. We have been sent to this planet to possess the kingdom of God, and it is for how long? Forever. You know, you know Dennis, read verse 27 and 28, which I thought was very, very graphic. It says, "Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the Saints." I'm ready to go home now. Did you read what I just read? Are you sure? You and I have been taught that we're gonna be handed over to Jesus. He says, "No, I didn't lose it." Let me ask you a question. Did man fall from heaven? Did man fall from heaven? Satan. First Amendment. Where did you fall from? You fell from dominion. If God gave you what you didn't lose, then he has not restored you. He has to give you what you lost, then that's restoration. Korabik, Ishita, Mahasabha. Daniel says, this is Daniel, we're talking here now. We're not talking about Jesus. Yes, we can get to that next week. But Daniel is saying, "Look, I saw the whole thing, and when I saw it, I saw the Son of Man coming, and he was given sovereignty, authority over what? The kingdoms of the earth." Listen to me, friends. This is not heavenly talking about you. Remember the words of Jesus. Oh, if you could just know what I know. Jesus meant that a cross gave him the ghost, spirit left his body, was put in a tomb. Christ went directly to Hades, went into Gehenna, went into Sheol, not opened the doors of hell, walked in and said, "Lucifer, I come for the keys." Picked up the keys of death and the grave, slammed the door, boxed. "I'll be back for you later." Walks out. Then he comes back to the grave, gets back in his body, and the third day he has the keys, and he walks out. And then he says, "What authority?" See, reiterate. Daniel says, "He was given authority over heaven and earth, and under the earth." And then he says, "What? He handed it over to the Saints." Don't you get it? This is not about keeping church and singing songs. This is about going out on Monday morning saying, "My Father's property is my property. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. The real estate belongs to my Daddy." When they fry you, tell them, "I'm going to work in another part of my Daddy's vineyard." His kingdom shall last how long? Forever. If you're not born again today, you better get born again now, because you are a product but King Lingo work. He's gonna fail you. Don't get fired. You're gonna have depression. You're gonna have sickness and disease. You're gonna lose without the kingdom of God. But if you become a product of the kingdom of God, when they fail, you win. When they lose, you succeed. Why? Because your kingdom will reign forever. Give them a praise offering. Amen. Can we just finish this and sweet? The last part is sweet. I got 10 minutes, they tell me. All right. Look at this. Write this down, please. It says, "Then the sovereign power and rate of the kingdom gone under the holder was handed over to the Saints. The people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey Him." Say amen. All rulers will worship and obey Him. All rulers will worship and obey Him. What are you? A ruler. All rulers will worship and obey Him. Now, let me give you a revelation that I never thought of in my life. Only the Holy Ghost would give you this revelation. Philippians chapter 2, you all know it. He says, "Let the same mind that was in Christ be within you." Same attitude. They, even though he was God, didn't think it a big deal to be God, because you can't be proud of what you are, anyhow, because that's what you are. You never think of it as a big deal. Say, you're only a big deal when you, when you're trying to be something you're not. That's why y'all gotta wear Nike and and and Saint Laurent to be important no more, because now you are King's kid. Whether you be a plastic or terylene, come on, myself. Straight kept me. Get before I go here. See, if it's Abba is your Father, then you can live in Baytown and be happy. You know that in permanent address, plus you made the house a castle, anyhow. You don't need a good car to ride a chariot. You make the thing a chariot, the Toyota or a bike. You the royalty. You give it a royalty. The same chapter, Philippians chapter 2, says, "He became as man and took on the form of a servant and became obedient even unto death, the death of the cross." Watch this. So that God gave him a name. Same name, Jesus. That at the name of Jesus, watch this, every knee, if you got a knee, whether you're a horse or a man, a roach or a dog, come on, somebody. Every knee shall bow in heaven and then earth and under the earth. That means to forget knees. How many knees on bow every day? Now, here's the revelation. Daniel says, "When I saw him, he gave the kingdom to the Saints." And he says, "All rulers bow." Now, you are a ruler. So even though you are a king, he's the king of kings. So you got to bow to the king. Even though you are a king. Now, if you ain't saying, you still don't bow because you're still a ruler. That's the revelation. See, an unsaved person is still a ruler. They're made in God's image, created to rule, but they don't know it yet. So even those in hell got to bow, because their rulers. They aren't fulfilled rulers, frustrated rulers, depressed rulers, but they're rulers, anyhow. I mean, a fallen angel who has the power. So you better bow now and reign, then just bow and be depressed forever. Can I hear an amen? Take never. I'm already bowed, and it feels good. See, when you bow to the King of Kings, and he gives you your kingship, he is the end of the matter. Look at the last statement. Daniel says, "And when, when I saw that, he says, 'That was the end of the matter.'" Underline that. "This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept it to myself." You know, I would do the same thing if I saw that, because all my life I've been taught that I'm nothing but a no-good roach, saved by grace, barely scraping my way into the kingdom, trying to make it to heaven on a door string, hope you make it in, praise. You know, and then all of a sudden, Daniel showed us that we were given the whole thing. We were in charge. And he, even though he was the king, he let us be in charge. Daniel says, "I became faint because I saw the end of the whole matter." He said, "This whole thing is about you ruling in the kingdom of God." Close your Bibles. Let's pray.

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