The Fractured Kingdom

Introduction

The Kingdom of God is one of those “mysterious” subjects that get mentioned occasionally but not really discussed. There seems to be an assumption that we all know what the Kingdom of God is—that it is somehow self-evident. However, in my teaching classes, when I ask the students what they think that the Kingdom of God is I get some very strange answers, such as, “the church” or “heaven”. I even had one student that said that the Kingdom of God was “the personality of God”.

Why do we not know more about or understand the Kingdom of God? In the New Testament there are about 150 direct references to the Kingdom of God and many more indirect references. Jesus, Himself, spoke of the Kingdom about 100 times, whereas, He mentioned “church” only three times and two of those references were in the same verse. What is wrong with this picture? Throughout the New Testament the Kingdom of God is emphasized more than “church”. Have we emphasized the wrong subject?

Of course, that is not a problem if you consider the Kingdom of God and the Church to be the same thing; but, are they? It appears that the New Testament uses distinctly different terminology when referring to the Kingdom as opposed to the Church. This would not be the case if they were the same thing.

Jesus told Nicodemus that one must be born again to see the Kingdom or to enter the Kingdom.¹ We consider “being born again” as the thing that makes us a Christian and automatically a part of the Church, the Body of Christ; but Jesus said it was a pre-requisite to “seeing” the Kingdom. Paul told the disciples as he returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."² We would never say that it is through many tribulations that we enter the Church.

Why do we understand so little about the Kingdom of God? The answer to that is like a slap in the face—because God has hidden the Kingdom from us! Why would God do that?

Mark 4:11-12 NKJV And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, (12) so that 'SEEING THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND HEARING THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND; LEST THEY SHOULD TURN, AND THEIR SINS BE FORGIVEN THEM.' "

Jesus said that if you are outside of the Kingdom all things are in parables so that you won't know—it stays a mystery. The things of the Kingdom are only given to those who are in the Kingdom. This is an affront to our sense of fairness but the Lord has purposely done it this way. Why? Because the Kingdom can only be understood by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom involves the Lordship of Jesus and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.³ The carnal or natural mind cannot understand or comprehend the Kingdom of God because it is spiritual at the moment and must be discerned spiritually. (It is no less real, just not visible physically until the 1000 year reign of Christ.)

1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV (14) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The Holy Spirit is to teach us all things⁴, We have received the Holy Spirit “that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God”⁵, which includes the things of the Kingdom of God.

Without the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are left as those who are “outside”. The Holy Spirit must open to us the mystery of the Kingdom. This is only done when the Kingdom becomes a priority in our lives. Jesus told us to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”⁶. Until we begin to seek the Kingdom first, before all other things, we will never understand the Kingdom.

Working Definition

Jesus told us in the model prayer to pray “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”⁷ This gives us an immediate working definition of the Kingdom. It is where the will of God is done—completely and totally. This is absolutely the case in Heaven—the will of God is absolutely done. However, this is not the case on earth—the will of God is not done completely. There are two other wills competing for fulfillment on earth—the will of man and the will of the Devil. The Kingdom of God coming on earth eliminates all other wills that are not the will of God.⁸

If the coming of the Kingdom is directly related to the will of God being accomplished, then, our involvement with the Kingdom would relate to obedience to the will of God. Jesus made this very clear.

Matthew 7:21 NKJV "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Disobedience will cause us not to be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.⁹ Just saying “Lord, Lord” is not sufficient—the action of obedience is required.

Another part of our working definition involves the government of God, which is under His established King—Jesus.¹⁰ It is to the King that we are obedient. As we walk in obedience to King Jesus, the government of God comes to our life and we begin to enter the Kingdom of God.¹¹

Our working definition now raises some questions. Why does the Kingdom of God have to come to the earth? Doesn't it already exist is Heaven? How does it come to the earth? Why is this important to the Lord? How does this affect us? What if we are not being obedient? How does this relate to salvation? To begin to answer these questions, we need to look at Kingdom of God from the Eternal perspective of the Throne of God.

The Eternal Kingdom

For the Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven tells us that in Heaven the Kingdom exists and functions as it has always existed and functioned—the Kingdom of God, where the will of God is done, is Eternal. It has always been Eternal and will always be Eternal—the absolutely unshakable Kingdom of the Father.

So the question becomes, “What happened?” How did the earth get broken off of the Kingdom of God? How did the Kingdom become fractured? To answer this we have to go back to before God created man. The Eternal Kingdom would include all beings created by God in the heavens and the earth. The government of God functions with various beings holding governmental authority over their areas of responsibility. However, at some point the Kingdom of God was challenged by the original rebellion against God led by the Devil. We don't have very many details given to us in the Scriptures about this but we do get a few glimpses.

Rebellion began in the heart of Lucifer, a powerful archangel of God who functioned in an important role in the creation and Kingdom of God. Prior to the revelation of unrighteousness in his heart, he had oversight of part of the creation of God and had specific job functions in God's Kingdom.

Ezekiel 28:12-18 NKJV "Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. (13) You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created. (14) "You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. (15) You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. (16) "By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. (17) "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you. (18) "You defiled your sanctuaries By the multitude of your iniquities, By the iniquity of your trading; Therefore I brought fire from your midst; It devoured you, And I turned you to ashes upon the earth In the sight of all who saw you.

Obviously, the words of these scriptures speak of someone greater than the physical King of Tyre. They speak of the power behind the King and the Spiritual forces that empower him. With this we have a glimpse into the fall of Lucifer. Several characteristics are revealed:

1. He had the seal of perfection.

2. He was full of wisdom.

3. He was perfect in beauty.

4. He was located in Eden, the garden of God. [I don't believe that this is the Eden of Genesis, which was Adam's habitat. The Hebrew word of Eden means “pleasure” or “paradise”. This Eden was a mineral garden that was prepared as a covering for Lucifer the day that he was created.]

5. He was placed by God as a covering.

6. He was on the Holy Mountain of God and he walked among the stones of fire [In Revelation, these seem to be in the throne room of God.]

7. He was blameless in his function from the time he was created until he fell.

There is no hint in these scriptures concerning time. Apparently, this was before the creation of our space-time continuum, in other words, in eternity past. Time, itself, as we know it, was created by God when He created our universe. It has no application to the invisible things outside of our universe. [Einstein showed that time is integrally related to our physical universe when he linked time, mass and speed together with his theory of relativity.]

At some point, things changed in the heart and mind of Lucifer:

1. His wisdom was corrupted by his splendor and his heart was lifted up because of his beauty.

2. This caused unrighteousness to be found in him.

3. Violence filled him because of the abundance of his trade. [What is his trade or merchandise? The root of one of the Hebrew words here means “whisperer”. I believe that his “merchandise” had to do with a slander campaign against God. He went up and down among the angels whispering against God.]

4. By his actions, he profaned his sanctuaries.

Let's add to these another set of scriptures that also gives us a glimpse into the fall of Lucifer.

Isaiah 14:12-14 NKJV "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! (13) For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; (14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'

These scriptures list a series of five “I wills” that Lucifer purposed in his heart. I am going to list these in a different order to show an important point.

1. I will make myself like the Most High.

2. I will ascend above the clouds.

3. I will ascend to heaven.

4. I will raise my throne above the stars of God.

5. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.

When listed like this, what is the starting point from which he will ascend? It would appear to me that the starting point would be under the clouds since the first place he would ascend to is “above the heights of the clouds”. The only thing under the clouds would be the earth. This implies to me that prior to his fall, Lucifer had oversight of some portion of God's creation and that the earth was central to the area that he oversaw. Could it be possible that his sanctuary that he defiled was spiritually linked to or a part of the earth? Revelation 2:12-13 it says that the church of Pergamum dwelt in the place of Satan's throne. Could this be a reference to the location of Satan's throne prior to his fall?

We don't have definitive answers to these questions but it seems to me that we can infer that prior to Lucifer's fall he governed some portion of the Kingdom of heaven for God and performed functions associated with the purpose for which he was created. The earth existed prior to his fall and was most likely the base of operations from which Lucifer exercised dominion for God, thus making the earth a part of the domain of the Kingdom of heaven. He defiled his sanctuary by operating a whispering smear campaign against the Lord that seduced a third of God's angels into following him and now these angels are referred to as Satan's angels (Rev. 12:7-9).

Therefore, when the Devil rebelled the Kingdom of heaven was fractured. In American History we have a physical example in the natural of what happened spiritually. The South fractured the United States by seceding from the union of the United States, resulting in a Civil War. The war was fought to restore the union. Similarly, in the Kingdom of heaven, a portion of was “separated” from the Eternal Kingdom. This portion was claimed by Satan as his domain—the kingdom of darkness. The Devil established himself as the “god of this age¹²”, the “prince of the power of the air”¹³, so, we can conclude that the earth is included in the “fractured” portion of the Kingdom.

So, we have a situation wherein the Kingdom of heaven has been compromised and a portion has seceded from the will of God. This is a problem which must be dealt with fully by God in righteousness and justice. It cannot be allowed to continue.

God, being God, could have simply slapped the Devil out of existence. He could even have made it so that the Devil had never existed at all. God could have done that; but, He didn't. Why? Because He is God. A demonstration of power, no matter how provoked, is still only a demonstration of power. God has all power and doesn't need to prove it. He needs to solve the problem with all righteousness and with all justice. And being the efficient God that He is, He incorporated into His solution some of the hidden wisdom of His heart that He had purposed in Himself.

Lesson 2 of the Kingdom of God Series will continue with “The Mystery Covenant”,
which will begin to look at how God intends to restore His Kingdom.

FOOTNOTES