Embracing Theocracy: Spiritual Rebirth in God's Kingdom Journey (We're Seeing Things Shift To A Higher And Stronger Heavenly Frequency)

Discover the transformative journey into the Kingdom of God, where we unravel what it means to embrace a theocracy in a world so accustomed to democracy. Imagine shedding the layers of our earthly cultures to unlock a realm of spiritual growth and rebirth. With stories from a mission trip to Czechoslovakia during a significant historical moment, we explore the ethos of kingdom living and reflect on the guiding role of the Holy Spirit. This episode challenges our understanding of freedom and discipleship, inviting you to become more than just an observer of divine principles.

We dive deep into the essence of love, inspired by biblical narratives that teach us about patience and selflessness. Marvel at how Jesus' acts of healing in Capernaum illuminate a love that celebrates others' victories without envy. We encourage you to live out this divine love, putting others first and finding joy in their successes. As we express gratitude and dedication through prayer, listeners are warmly invited to connect and share their insights, continuing our collective journey in the light and love of God's Kingdom. Blessings abound as we conclude with a heartfelt farewell, urging all to carry this love into their daily lives.

Chapters

• 0:56 Understanding the Kingdom of God
• 20:29 Love Loves Others Receiving Good Things
• 30:52 Demonstrating Love in the Kingdom

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:56

Howdy folks, I want to welcome you to another episode of Life Around the Fire. My name is David Butari and I'll be your host today. We are a podcast that is devoted to spiritual growth, and what we mean by spiritual growth is this growth in our relationship, first and foremost, with God, then in our relationships with one another. What I'd like to do today in this episode is continue on with this topic concerning the kingdom of God, and when we talk about the kingdom of God, for many of us it is something that we're familiar with in regard to hearing about it, but not so much knowing what that means, especially for those of us who live in the Western Hemisphere and I know that many of you that are listening don't live in America or in a Western hemisphere country, and so you don't necessarily encounter the same type of difficulties that we do concerning the kingdom of God, because you are accustomed to a different way of living. And those of us who do live in the Western world, especially those who live in America, we have a very hard time with this notion of a theocracy or a kingship where a king rules, where there's not a vote in the process of electing a leader, you are anointed for the position or you are the king. In the case of God, there is no beginning and no end. He is the eternal king of his kingdom and his kingdom consists of those things that come from him, everything that comes from God. His way of expressing things, his way of expressing things, his way of enjoying life, makes up the kingdom. It's the air, the ethos, it's the environment, it's the culture, the culture of the kingdom, the culture of the kingdom. And we all live in a earthly culture because we were born into a culture or we were raised in a culture, a way of life. We have art that we understand, we have language that we understand, we have traffic laws that we understand. We have language that we understand, we have traffic laws that we obey. There are certain things, norms that make up our culture, and so we're familiar with the ethos of a culture. But as far as a rule and a reign from a king, rule and a reign from a king, only those who have experienced that on an earthly level have a little better understanding concerning kingdom and culture of a kingdom, the kingdom of God, than we in the West do.

Speaker 1: 4:36

For those of us who live in the Western Hemisphere, there's a whole lot of unlearning that needs to take place when we are born again into the kingdom of God, supernaturally, by the power of the Holy Spirit. When that takes place, we are born again as really as babes, again as really as babes, and we are born into a completely new culture, a completely new way, different way of living, and so we need to learn how to function. Now, some things that we have grown up in are applicable, but many literally many are not. In fact, they are the antithesis of what goes on in the kingdom of god, and so our focus has been consistently now for quite some time on the kingdom of god understanding the way in which things happen, way in which things happen, the way in which things function, the culture, the air, the way of life, the precepts, the principles, the understanding of what is and what isn't good All that goes into being a citizen of the kingdom, all that goes into being a citizen of the kingdom, and the more that we mature, the more privileges and responsibilities we find we're able to live with. Now, before we go any further, because we live, because we live in such an incredibly busy world and we have information coming our way all the time, it's oftentimes difficult for us to focus. We might be intelligent and we can hold a lot of information together and do things with it, but sometimes to focus in on one thing, just one thing, can be a real challenge.

Speaker 1: 6:57

I need help. So, fortunately, jesus has provided the helper, and that would be none other than Holy Spirit of God. God, the Spirit, and he helps us focus, because what and who we behold, we become like the. What I want to behold is the kingdom of God. The who I want to behold is Jesus. I want to become a citizen of the kingdom of God, just like Jesus, what he did and what he's doing. I want to be more than just a casual observer or a periodic follower. I want to be a true disciple, one who imitates Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not my man for real, not by my own energy, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. And in order to do that, I need to ask for that help, and we as a people need to ask for that help so that we can collect our. That God can help us collect our thoughts and focus them in on his kingdom and on Jesus. So let's just take a moment and pray and do that very thing. Everything, father. You alone are God and there is no other God beside you. Holy Spirit, I ask that you would come now and shepherd our thoughts, like a shepherd shepherds sheep, and cause them to call down and focus in on your kingdom and on the Lord Jesus Christ and on the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we can become active, mature citizens of the kingdom of God and true disciples of Christ, become like him in all aspects, christ become like him in all aspects. I thank you so much for helping us, and we stand here together, just like Jesus, and we say let's do it, lord, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.

Speaker 1: 9:53

You know, in preparing for this particular podcast episode, I was reflecting on an event that took place back in the early 1990s. For me, I had just come back, or was coming back, from a mission trip into Czechoslovakia. From a mission trip into Czechoslovakia. It was a time when the Iron Curtain had come down and the USSR was being dismantled and places that once were under its dominion, its domination, were now free countries, and Czechoslovakia was one of them. And so we went to Czechoslovakia to participate in this whole process of helping the people experience and function in a country that was no longer under the rule of the Soviet Union. They were a free nation and actually they were quite intimidated by their freedom. They didn't know what to do with it. So there were several of us from the United States, a democratic country, america. We went there to help them navigate through that some of the pitfalls of freedom and some of the blessingsfalls of freedom and some of the blessings of it and the privileges and the responsibilities.

Speaker 1: 11:38

But on the way back, a person who had done a lot of traveling said that there's going to be, for those of us who've never experienced it, a very interesting thing happening when we got into the whole zone, the airspace of the United States. He said you're going to feel a difference, said you're going to feel a difference. Literally, you're going to feel a difference. You've been outside of that culture and coming back into it, you're going to feel the culture. And it was so, absolutely true. And it was so, absolutely true. We came from a very innocent, rather how can I put it? A rather simple country where people really actually trusted each other a lot, they had a lot in common. Back into a country that was the melting pot of the world. And when we came into the airspace, I could feel the anger and the distrust. It was like a heavy blanket came over me and I thought, wow, that's so interesting that there are literally the air. There are differences in the air.

Speaker 1: 13:37

The ethos, the environment, the culture sends off a signal, sends off a vibration. Man, it's true, it sends, we send, we project vibrations, and the kingdom of God projects a vibration, god projects a vibration. The presence of God creates waves, sound waves, light waves. It creates waves, sound waves, light waves, it creates waves. And we literally experience the difference between our culture and the culture of the kingdom of God.

Speaker 1: 14:26

When the kingdom of God is manifested, present, it changes the environment. There is a different vibration, there's a different wave that takes place and we are living in a day, right now in world history, in which the waves of God's kingdom are coming on the world in an ever-increasing way, stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger, stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger. They started out rather mild. Now we're beginning to feel the increase. God's presence is becoming more and more manifest, more and more real and it's going to continue to increase more and more and more and more, because God is setting the record straight the difference between talking about God and God showing himself to be God is the day and the hour that we're living in, and we're going to see an increase so much that it's going to overcome us that there'll be no mistake concerning what is God's kingdom and what isn't, what is light and what is dark.

Speaker 1: 15:41

The gray area is shrinking rapidly, and the governing force in God's kingdom is not his raw power to cause us to obey, because if we disobey we will be punished. If we disobey, we will be punished. Granted, there are consequences to our actions, but the motivating drive and power of God's kingdom is love, and we've been looking into the Gospels Matthew, mark, luke and John in the Bible, into the Gospels Matthew, mark, luke and John in the Bible. The focus of our research has been the portrayal of God's kingdom through the life of Jesus, when he walked on the earth the first time as a man born of a woman, and we saw that the demonstration of God's kingdom, of his presence, of causing the invisible presence of God to become visible, for the invisible kingdom of God to become visible, the primary impetus and emphasis was love with love, and so what we're doing right now is looking at the various qualities of God's love, because love has different shades of meaning to it, and the love that we're talking about now is the agape, the unconditional love, agape being a Greek word meaning unconditional, without strings attached. It's motivated because God is that, that's who he is, it's not so much what he does. Yes, he expresses love, but he is love. It comes from, it's in him, it flows from him, and so we've been looking into the Gospels and we've got three references today, and I'm going to read them out loud right now and then give you a chance to write them down really to look into later more, because we're not going to take an in-depth study of them now, but we're going to highlight the essence of what was spoken. But the reference points, the scriptural address for each of these three characteristics of love that we're talking about today. It's found in Luke, chapter 4, verses 38 through 44, luke, chapter 10, verse 21,. And Matthew, chapter 8, verse 4. Luke 4, 38 through 44, love is patient. God's love is patient. He's not impatient. He's patient. He's not impatient. He's not strumming his fingers waiting for you to get it together. He understands who you are and that this is all a process, and sometimes that process takes time and, furthermore, you can't push the river. The river flows, the love of God flows and we as people, we grow with the flow and each of us has a different flow going on in our life. Like Corrie Ten Boom said, don't wrestle, nestle. Yield over to the flow. Love is patient Luke 10, 21.

Speaker 1: 20:30

Love enjoys seeing others receive good things. Interesting Matthew 8, verse 4,. Love will sometimes remain in the background. It's amazing how in our society there is. It's amazing how in our society there's quite a bit of impatience. Are we there yet? When's this going to happen? I can't believe that the traffic is this bad. Right, you get it. Impatience. There's also this notion of man. It's hard to see somebody else experience something good without getting jealous. Yeah, but love enjoys seeing others receive good things. But often in our culture it's like how did he get it? And I didn't get it? I wish I had it like that man. I wish I was married to her, I wish I was married to him Also. Also, there's a temptation for the things that we do to be recognized so that we can get the accolades, we can get the glory that comes from it. We do something good. It's like you get credit for it and you're like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But inside you say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, Bleed more and more and more and more. But the love of God sometimes loves to remain in the background. Now, the love is patient.

Speaker 1: 22:28

I'm going to read Luke, chapter 4, verse 38 through 44, because it's just. I mean, it's so rich. And Luke writes after leaving the synagogue, jesus went into Simon's house where Simon's mother-in-law was sick with a high fever. The disciples begged Jesus to help her. So Jesus stood up over her and rebuked the fever. Interesting, he didn't give her some Tylenol. He rebuked the fever and she was healed instantly. That's the kingdom of God. By the way, there's no sickness in the kingdom of God. It was manifest right there, the wavelength of God. It was manifest right there. The wavelength of God's presence hit her and she was overcome with the kingdom of God and the sickness had to go. Then she got up and began to serve them At sunset this is the part I really want to get at.

Speaker 1: 23:55

At sunset, the people brought all those who were sick to Jesus to be healed. That was literally in Capernaum. There were quite a few people there, and all the sick people of that area lined up after sunset because it was the Sabbath and it was, according to the Pharisees, unlawful for them to receive healings or do anything of any kind of work on the Sabbath. So at sunset, sabbath was over, so the people were free to come and they brought all those who were sick to Jesus to be healed. Jesus laid his hands on them, one by one, and healed them all of different diseases. Demons also came out of many of them. Knowing that Jesus was the anointed one, the demons shouted you are the Messiah, the son of El Shaddai. But Jesus rebuked them and commanded them to be silent. At daybreak the next morning, the crowds came and searched everywhere for him, but Jesus had already gone to the secluded place. When they finally found him, they held him tightly, begging him to stay with them in Capernaum. But Jesus said don't, you know, there are other places. I must go and offer the hope of God's kingdom. This is what I've been sent to do. Jesus continued to travel and preach in the synagogues throughout the land.

Speaker 1: 25:25

Love is patient okay, love is patient. How was that patient? Love is patient okay, love is patient. How is that patient. Do you know? Do you know how exhausting it is to have people lined up for you to pray for them? And the line is a very, very, very, very, very long line.

Speaker 1: 25:52

It takes patience. Love, it's not just. Oh, man, I got all these people here. Okay, come on. If we're going to do it, do it. Do it, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Okay, here, let me lay a hand on you Slap, slap, slap, slap. Okay, push you a little bit. Are the cameras rolling? Can you get a picture of this? No, jesus attended to each one of the people and some of them had literally demonic oppression in them. The scene was a pretty amazing scene and that scene alone and the time that it took to do all that was exhausting. And yet Jesus said this is why I've come and this is the kingdom. Wow, but it took patience. It looks good on paper to see these things take place, but the reality is it took patience. It looks good on paper to see these things take place, but the reality is it takes patience to function in the power of God's kingdom, because when his power is manifest, people will come and people are people and people do people things. And it takes patience and love is patient. When we run out, love is just beginning. Right, when we run out of patience, love is just beginning. God's love In Luke 10, 21,.

Speaker 1: 27:30

This is a story in which there was a leper that came and he was wanting to be healed. Wanting to be healed, and Jesus healed him. Let's go there, luke 10, 21. Yeah, the leopard come to be healed. But I got ahead of myself a little bit. What Jesus was really rejoicing over was, yes, the fact that the leper had gotten healed, but the fact that the poor had received the kingdom. He was rejoicing not for the things that he had, he was rejoicing over the things that they had. Love enjoys seeing others receive good things. See, sometimes we're like how come, man, when's it going to be my turn? It never happens to me, or it's been a long time. Love, love, god's love. Once again, where we end, that's where love begins, god's love. And in that same scenario, matthew wrote that's where I got ahead of myself a little bit.

Speaker 1: 29:29

Matthew in Matthew 8, gives more detail about the leper, and love will sometimes remain in the background. Right, doesn't take credit. This leper had come to Jesus and he healed the man, but he told the man don't tell anyone that I did this, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that he tells you to and give the glory to God, meaning give it to my father. Jesus didn't need to receive credit, and in our culture oftentimes we are taught to make sure that you get credit for the good things you've done, and oftentimes we love to be seen as the ones who did it so that we get credit for it, because, quite frankly, we're very insecure and it's a temporary fix for our insecurity.

Speaker 1: 30:53

So in the kingdom of God, love is patient. His love is patient. His love enjoys seeing others receive good things and his love will sometimes remain in the background. The person offering it will be content to remain in the background. And let God alone receive glory. Hallelujah, let's pray. God alone received glory. Hallelujah, let's pray. Father, I thank you once again for who you are, for how you're doing things, why you're doing them when you do them. God, I honor you and thank you once again for calling us and choosing us to be part of what's going on. Help us walk in your love, holy Spirit, and demonstrate the kingdom, just like Jesus, and we pray this in his name. Amen, amen, amen. All right, folks, I love you. If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to give us a call, write us, look us up on the web Life Around the Fire, or type in lifearoundthefire at gmailcom. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, god bless you. Adios amigos.