Introduction to the Keys of the Kingdom

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God is Government called Your Daily Bread. Taken from Christ's teaching of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting scripture, but scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly, advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today's focus discussion will be on an introduction to the keys of the kingdom. God created humanity without sin. As such, the three reasons were easy to complete in the lives of Adam and Eve because God provided the protection over earth. God being the supreme authority had all dominion over earth. It was not until Adam and Eve sinned against God that the conditions of God's covenant had to change. And Adam and Eve had to then ask for assistance in achieving dominion over all things earth. It is here where access to the keys of the kingdom is required to fulfill this reason. Understanding the basis for the need for the keys of the kingdom, let us turn our attention to the scriptures and identify what they tell us about the keys. We need to remember that throughout the scriptures, the effect of God on earth was through the interaction of the Holy Spirit and man. God never did anything by himself only. We find our first reference to the keys of the kingdom in Isaiah chapter 22. Isaiah 22, verses 20-23, NKJV. In that day I will call my servant, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David, he shall open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. What was going on at this point in history? At this point in history, the Holy Spirit had not been requested by Jesus to come live inside of man. It was God who directed the Holy Spirit to carry out the tasks of the God the Father through man. We find that the book of Isaiah was focusing on the conditions of Jerusalem and its people, the siege that took place over Jerusalem. We find in chapters 1-7 that Isaiah writes about the wicked conduct of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In chapters 8-14, Isaiah writes about the conditions and process that was use in displacing Shebna, the ruler over Jerusalem after its siege, with the promotion of Eliakim. In chapters 15-25, Isaiah writes about how this condition of Jerusalem applied to the coming of the Messiah and his fulfillment of the law in the amendment to the covenant God made with humanity. Again, it is important to note that accessing the keys of the kingdom is only through the Holy Spirit. Isaiah is the only time in the Old Testament that speaks of the keys of the kingdom. The first mention in the New Testament was Matthew 16, 19, NKJV. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What we find in the above verses in Isaiah chapter 22 is actually the same as what Jesus gave to Peter in Matthew, beginning with chapter 16. In Isaiah's writing, the statements deal with rulership over Jerusalem and the authority God gave to Eliakim in using the Holy Spirit. And in Matthew's writing, the statement made by Jesus was that of control over whatever situation required use of the keys of the kingdom. In either case, what we find is that both were addressing the condition of dominion, the third reason for creating humanity. In Peter's case, Jesus already knew that in time the Holy Spirit would come reside in man, in particular, with Peter was at Pentecost. This statement was a precursor of what was to come and the ability of Christians to access and use the keys of the kingdom upon request through the Holy Spirit. In Eliakim's case, God gave him the rulership authority over Jerusalem. In Peter's case, Jesus gave to all humanity the control authority of dominion. Romans 8 5, NKJV. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. This passage gives us the clue as how our physical and spiritual are intertwined for purposes of accessing the Holy Spirit. It is the understanding that when we think on the things of the Spirit, we are living in spirit, and through this process allow the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead us in living our physical life. We are told that everything in our physical and spiritual life is based upon one single thought. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 2 Corinthians 10 3-6 ESV. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Ephesians 4 22-24 ESV. To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. Colossians 3 1-5 ESV. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Isaiah 55 8 ESV. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. Romans 8 6 ESV. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. In this 28th verse of Genesis 1, God commanded man to be fruitful, multiply, replenish, and subdue the earth. To do so requires man to be able to determine how this was to happen. For God did not give man the specific manner by which to accomplish this, but only to accomplish it. The process of determining how to do these things was through a thought process of man. He had to not only be able to think, but he had to apply certain logic, not only to his thoughts, but to the process itself. While we are only told of this law in the writings, we were not given the details of how the principle of thought worked. The key here is in the words subdue, the process of the specific thought that God commanded man to perform. In this commandment, God was actually telling man to bring under mental or emotional control his thoughts as to how to acquire the knowledge of and mastery over his material environment. What God told man was to go do all these things, but first you have to figure out how to do it. Now here is where science has had a field day of this through time. God said there was a process to this thought thing, and the how was up to man to figure out. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, defined the law of thought as a set of fundamental axiomatic rules, a system of any set of axioms from which some or all axioms can be used in conjunction to logically derive theorems, upon which rational discourse itself is based. The rules have a long tradition in the history of philosophy. They are laws that guide and underline everyone's thinking, thoughts, expressions, discussions, etc. It was the Greek philosopher Aristotle who began to define the sub-laws of thought. Throughout history, from Aristotle to today's scientists and philosophers, we are continuing to define the sub-laws of thought. It is not important to our understanding to review each and every one of these sub-laws of the law of thought. What is important for our understanding is that source gave us the ability to think for ourselves. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. So, at the heart of accessing the keys of the kingdom is from a single thought. The thought that focuses all of physical and spiritual being towards the keys of the kingdom. What happens when we access the keys of the kingdom? We earlier discussed that the one thing we cannot do without God's assistance is in accomplishing the one reason of humanity creation called ruling or dominion. God created humanity a little lesser than his angels, and it is from the fallen angels that we have a constant state of spiritual war. A war to control the mind. He who controls the mind controls the individual. It is here that we have to access the keys of the kingdom in order to first control our individual minds, then achieve control over the dark side of the spiritual world, and in doing so, obtain the rulership or dominion over the earth. Matthew 22 29 NKJV. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 1 Corinthians 4 20, NKJV. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. Proverbs 24 5, NKJV. A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge increases power. 1 Chronicles 29 11, NKJV. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth. Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and you exalt yourself as head over all. 2 Timothy 1 7, NKJV, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Ephesians 3 20, NKJV. That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. So, to understand the keys of the kingdom, we must first understand the Holy Spirit. It is the portal to the keys. John 16, verse 13, NKJV. When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. Acts 1 8 NKJV. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. John fourteen twenty six NKJV. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of an introduction to the keys of the kingdom. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way.