Chapter
5
Put on the
1. Man was Created as a King
Man
was created as a king who can rule over all things upon the earth just like God
is the King of all.
Genesis 1:26-28 And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them. (28) And God
blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
For
this reason, God created the Garden of Eden and Adam, then filled the Garden
with trees which were good to eat of and good to the eyes; God was the Farmer
of the Garden of Eden Who sowed these trees (Gen 2:9). And God commanded man to dress and to keep
the Garden (Gen 2:15).
This
was the original blessing that God had given to man. Even though man sinned, was driven out from
the Garden, and was cursed to work hard for things of the earth then destined
to return to the earth, God restored the original blessing through the seed of
the woman.
Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Christ,
the seed of the woman, was prophesied as the One who would come as the King by
Moses and the prophets of Psalms. Jews
also waited for this One who would come as the King (Gen 49:10; Psa 24:7; Isa
9:6;Zec 9:9; Mic 5:2).
The
Lord has recovered the power and authority to rule over the earth which Adam
lost to the devil (Joh 16:11) and restored all powers in heavens and in earth
(Matt 28:18). Believers, thus, regained
all powers which God had given to Adam through Christ.
Luke 22:28-30 Ye are they which have continued with
me in my temptations. (29) And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; (30) That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Therefore the grace we
have received is the grace that makes us kings.
Isaiah 55:1-5
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no
money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price. (2) Wherefore do ye spend money for that which
is not bread? and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which
is good, and let your soul delight
itself in fatness. (3) Incline
your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. (4) Behold, I
have given him for a witness to the
people, a leader and commander to the people.
(5)
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that
thou knowest not, and nations that knew
not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One
of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
David,
the eighth son of Jesse, a simple shepherd boy, received the grace that exalted
him as a king (1 Sam 16:11-13).
We
should stop limiting the purpose of our faith in Jesus to solving personal
problems or going to heaven after death, but should train ourselves to overcome
this world and to become kings of the kingdom of heaven. Apostle Paul urged saints in the
1 Corinthians 4:8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have
reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also
might reign with you.
We
will enter the new heaven and the new earth as kings and will rule with our
Lord forever (2 Tim 2:12; Rev 22:5). The
Bible started stating that men will be kings (Gen 1:26-28), and ended with the
scripture that men will be kings forever (Rev 22:5).
2.
Structure of the
The
kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of love, because God is love. God is perfect Love and perfect Person Who IS
in trinity. One God of love exists in
three personalities: Intellect (God the Father), Will (God the Son), and
Emotion (God the Holy Spirit).
And
angels who bring the love of God unto earth can be classified as angels of
three different individual personalities: angels of intellect, angels of will,
and angels of emotion (Dan 9:21-22; Dan 10:13; Job 33:23-24).
In
other word, there are workers of intellect, will and emotion according to the
personalities of God’s love in the kingdom of heaven. In the same way, God established ministers
who perform ministries of intellect, will and emotion when He builds His
kingdom on earth; they were prophets, kings, and priests and they were anointed
ministers (Isa 61:1; Lev 4:3; 2 Sam 3:39).
Of
course, before the king of
So
the Bible is filled with the stories of kings, prophets, and priests, and Jesus
Christ Who perfected all. The life of
the Christ was a perfection of ministries as the King, Prophet, and Priest Whom
Israel had long awaited (Matt 5:17;, 26:63-64; Heb 9:24). After His ascension, He gave the power of the
Holy Spirit to His disciples, and established His kingdom on earth through them
(1 Pet 2:9; Rev 1:5-6).
We
are not supposed to be the kings, prophets, and priests who rule over others
(kings), but those who establish kingdom of heaven. We must prophecy in obedience to the word of
God, worship according to the word of God, teach in line with the word of God,
and rule in obedience to the word of God.
As we serve each other in obedience to the word of God, we establish the
We
all will enter the new heaven and the new Earth as kings with our own glory and
honor. Therefore, we have to establish
our own territories in the kingdom of heaven, which is the inheritance of the
kingdom of heaven given to each one of us (Rev 21:24-26).
3. The Kingdom of Heaven Now is
‘Inside’ of You
There
exists life in mineral, plants, animals, and man on earth, and the earth exists
with circular motion. All the heavenly
bodies including earth, sun, moon, and stars are in circular (this circular
includes elliptic, hyperbolic and parabolic) motion. If not, their forms perish.
Plant’s
life can be characterized by a vertical motion (movement); roots go down and
branches go up. The more vertical
motion a plant makes, the healthier it is.
If a plant cannot continue a vertical motion anymore it will
perish. Likewise, animal’s life can be
characterized by a forward-backward motion in addition to that of plants.
Life
of an outer-man, who is made of earth, can be characterized as an animal that
makes a vertical motion (height) and a forward-backward motion (movement). On the other hand, an inner-man can be
characterized by an inward motion (from outside to inside), and he grows to be
deeper. When a man is young, he has a
very shallow inner person (consciousness or mind), as he grows old, his inner
realm gets deeper into his ‘inside’ gradually.
They
say the universe was small in the beginning but it expanded at the speed of
light after the explosion (the Big Bang), and it still expands now.
Every
existing thing in this universe, therefore, gets less dense as time advances,
and its existence (form and motion or movement) becomes weaker as well. This is called in the science ‘the 2nd
principle of thermodynamics’ or ‘principle of entropy’. All created things in the universe, thus,
will have lesser motion, lower temperature, and lesser form (decreased degree
of order) as time elapses.
The
same is true for our life. The outer-man
is perishing as one gets older (2 Cor 4:16).
The more an outer man endeavors in one’s life, the bigger the vanity,
confusion and disappointments one may reap.
Solomon enjoyed and established all the riches and glories in his life
by using his power and wisdom, but all he had in the end were vanity and
emptiness (Ecc 1:2).
That
is why God gave us the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit ‘in’ us, so that we may
escape from this vanity of the outer man.
The ‘inner man’ is the holy of holies, a temple or a dwelling place for
the Holy Spirit in our body (1 Cor 6:19).
The
only things happening in the ‘outside’ world are acts of ruling and being ruled
(injustice) among people that display corrupted human-human relationships. It is a continuation of tragedy – forceful
ruling and the plundering of others, or unjust submission to rulers in order to
fulfill their own cowardly desires.
The
ruler will eventually become tired, fear stricken and full of stress due to the
upkeep required to continue to rule over others. The ruled may be full of hurt, and may feel
oppression, depression, and vengeance toward the rulers. This world is nothing more than a vessel full
of hatred, killing, and death. Life in
this world is indeed vain and full of burdens.
Ecclesiastes 1:7-11 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the
rivers come, thither they return again. (8) All things
are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the
ear filled with hearing. (9) The thing
that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is
no new thing under the sun. (10) Is there any
thing whereof it may be said, See, this is
new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. (11) There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things
that are to come with those that shall
come after.
We must tap into the ‘inner temple’, the holy of
holies, where the Spirit of the Lord is present, which was built by the Lord
when the Lord came into us. Within
dwells the glory and presence of the Lord, the Lord’s forgiveness of sins and
comfort, and the word.
Hebrews 4:14-15 Seeing then that we have a great high priest,
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
(15)
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
4. Inner Realm, the Throne to Rule
the Outside World
God, Who wants man to rule over all things on earth,
created man in ‘His image’, after ‘His likeness’: and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the
earth.
Man was created so that man can have dominion over all
things on earth. This means that man was
created as a king. In other world, man
was created to rule over all things on earth and to share the resulting joy and
fullness with each other (Gen 2:18).
It is therefore, an inner man who fellowships with God
and shares love with others people, and an outer man is the channel to rule
over all things on earth (2 Cor 4:16).
Adam lost the function of his inner man that can share
love with God and neighbors when he ate of the tree of knowing good and
evil. He believed he could discern good
and evil through his own discretion. The self-centered desire of ruling others
came to him, and he chose to have dominion over his ‘help-meet’ (companion) who
he should have shared life (love) with.
This was the self-centered pride which came from devil (Gen 3:7; 1 Tim
3:6).
God loves us with His Spirit.
Romans 5:5
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
God too has an inner God, Who loves us with his Spirit,
and an outer God who delivers the love of God to us, his word (Joh 1:1-3).
However, angels do not have inner angels and outer
angels, and they are spiritual servants (robots) who just do as God
commands. Servants do not have an inner
servant or an outer servant; they just have to obey to the orders of their
Master (Heb 1:3-7).
Man’s corruption thus opened man’s conscience toward the
outside world through outer man, and man became bound only to the things of the
earth (outside). Man eats of the ground,
works with the things of the earth, and returns to the earth (Gen
3:17-19). Man lost the power to rule the
earth, and belonged to the earth and became ruled by the devil, who became the
prince of the world (matt 4:1-10; Joh 14:30).
Romans 8:20-23
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by
reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
(21)
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (22) For we know that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain together until now.
(23)
And not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.