The Kingdom of God

Acts 1:4-6 "Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. 6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

The Father promised the Holy Spirit which would guide into all truth.

John 14:16-17 " I will ask the Father, and He will give you another [a]Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you."

John 16:13-15 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you."

The Spirit only hears Kingdom talk! He won't speak on His own initiative, but only what God speaks. We access the Kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit and faith. But first, let's understand the differences between the Kingdom of God and Satan's kingdom.

Chapter 2

How do we seek the Kingdom? Not by looking around corners or under rugs and asking, Kingdom where are you? Understand something about the two Kingdoms. Every human being is born into one kingdom, Satan's kingdom. But through Jesus Christ, we are transferred into the Kingdom of God!!

Colossians 1:13 "For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son"

Let's take a look at the two Kingdoms and see if there are any differences.

Satan's kingdom (Seeing) God's Kingdom (Believing) Darkness Light Fear Faith Worry Peace Taxes Tithe Destruction Prosperity Disease Health Curse Blessing Democracy King authority Born into Born again Work/ Toiling Work/ Faith John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

1John 3:8b "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil."

Looking at the above table, it is obvious that Satan's kingdom is completely opposite of God's Kingdom. Yet, we are all too familiar with Satan's kingdom. That is because Satan's kingdom principles are what the world system is based on. This is what we have all learned our entire lives, the world system. We live in the seeing world, that we should worry about bills, taxes, sickness, oppression and do what we can, day by day, to survive. God wants us in His Kingdom, believing, through faith, that He has much better for us, no illnesses, peace, provision, and blessing.

The only way into God's Kingdom is to be born into it, to be born again. To be born again means to be born from above. To actually be born from Heaven, another place or Kingdom. Since we are born from another Kingdom, we do not belong to Satan's kingdom any longer, but rather we are representatives of God's Kingdom, ambassadors!!

2 Corinthians 5:17-18 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation"