Sunday, August 31, 2014

IMAGINE THE KINGDOM by Axel Sippach


"Let the little children come to me, for this is a picture of how the Kingdom of God operates!"

This is the Sippach paraphrase version. Have you ever wondered why Jesus gave this particular illustration?

Many have said it is because of their innocence or purity. And those would be correct answers. But what about this explanation?

Could it be because of their imagination? Could it be because little children have such vivid imaginations, they can see the possibilities of anything happening they imagine?

The Apostle Paul said that God will do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask, think, or imagine.

God has given us His Word in order to be able to imagine all the possibilities of the Kingdom of God' and to have a foundation of faith to believe him for all these possibilities to potentially be manifested in our lives. It just takes childlike imagination and faith.

Albert Einstein said imagination was everything - that it was the preview of life's coming attractions.

Scripture has so many "pictures" of the Kingdom, the OT prophets included. It is as if many of them were seated in a theater and God pulled back the curtain to give them future glimpses of what this amazing Kingdom will look like. They may not have fully understood it, but it is being revealed to us New Covenant saints by the Spirit day by day, and from generation to generation.

We must IMAGINE THE KINGDOM - this incredible Kingdom God has prepared for us from before the foundation of the world - from before creation of time itself. It is an eternal invisible Kingdom not confined by the visible time-space continuum we live. It can be imagined. It must be imagined.

We must see beyond our temporal visible perspective a Kingdom that Jesus said has not come with observation. But even though it has not come with observation, it is on the inside of every disciple of Jesus, and will be made visible to the cosmos - to the world through us.

Romans 8 says he whole world is groaning and travailing waiting for the manifestation of the sons of the God - the sons of the Kingdom - the sons of glory. We will make this invisible Kingdom visible to the world. And one of the main ways we do it is by the love we have one to another. That is what Jesus, the King of this Kingdom said - that this is how the world will know the Father had sent Him.

We live in a Kingdom of incredibly powerful potential and possibilities. We must IMAGINE THE KINGDOM like little children. Read the prophets like Isaiah and others and see how God has given them a picture of what it is to look like.

The Kingdom of God - it is here and now - with infinite possibilities. When we pray the Lord's Prayer for the Kingdom to come on earth as in heaven, we are not now awaiting some future Kingdom to show up. No - we are praying for the one Jesus established as a mustard seed to grow into a mighty tree. We are praying for it to grow like yeast in dough.

  Ecclesiastes says He has set eternity in our hearts. We are praying for heaven to manifest on earth.

We are praying for the Kingdom of Heaven that is in us by the Holy Spirit - that Kingdom that Jesus 2000 years ago said was at hand - to expand and advance through us - by the power of the Holy Spirit throughout the earth.

But we must IMAGINE THE KINGDOM first like a little child. Go ahead - IMAGINE!!!

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