Building Kingdom Community

Building Kingdom community means building connections. Not connections to build your business, further your career, or ministry. It is focusing on what God wants for the community. God’s view is the big picture that sees into the future and knows the various steps to get to His plan. Like a Master Chess player, God is ten steps ahead to bring checkmate to the enemy’s plans.

There are different levels of community like the twelve tribes. The national of Israel had a community, but each tribe had its own favor and diversity. Even Jesus, with the twelve apostles had three apostles in an inner circle of friendship. This is the reason we have so many different groups. People join to belong with like-minded people. Some people connect through sports. Others join cancer survivor groups. Each section of society meets different needs.

How did Jesus build community?

Jesus went to a wedding and provided wine. He ate with a tax collector, who was a thief. He attended the synagogue services. He visited the sick at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus invested in twelve disciples and then seventy-two disciples. Jesus didn’t hide behind his religious mask and calling but touched everyday events and people with a servant’s heart. Jesus led by being a servant. Jesus is a Master Weaver, who can reach into men’s hearts and touch their needs. He met people’s needs by praying for the sick, providing food, giving to the poor and saying no to the many to keep God first.

Paul learned to be all things to all people so he could reach people where they lived. An ambassador’s job is to know the customs and cultures. Then understand how to walk out the countries’ laws and customs. We are all called to be God’s ambassadors in which every sphere of influence God has placed us.

Kingdom Building Through a Servant Attitude.

Think about this. Jesus was a carpenter. You would think the Son of God would have built exquisite furniture or would have been known for one-of-a-kind workmanship. But he wasn’t a famous carpenter. As a carpenter, he builds what the people needed.  Jesus learned to hear God on how to best serve the needs of the people. Just because he could do something doesn’t mean he should. This is one of the reasons he could walk away from crowds crying out for his touch. Then other times he would feed the tired and hungry people.

Because Jesus put God first, he could see through peoples’ desires and know God’s desires. Jesus would provide opportunities for people to join God’s Kingdom instead of the religious structures build by man. That is why he could eat with religious leaders and allow a repented sinner to wash his feet with her hair.

When Jesus met people’s needs, by God’s leading, it created change in those people. They became disciples not just followers. These converts had a heart change that created a love for others and a desire to serve. It opened up the hidden gifts in people and gave them permission to be who God created them to be. The Kingdom of God launches people into their purpose by revealing their identity as God’s kid!

When Jesus came and touched people it opened a world filled with possibilities because God love for them. Community can be defined as a group of people who have common interest. The Kingdom of God became real and created disciples. They received Jesus’ message that God had not forsaken them, and He had a way out of the cycles of sin and destruction. It was a message that changed their world view and opened them to heaven’s possibilities. This Jesus was worth following and dying for God’s Kingdom. They were no longer living life floating down stream but fighting for a heavenly goal. A goal that set people free to be who God was creating them to be.

History Repeats When Human Nature Rules!

I got saved in 1965 at a Methodist retreat camp out at Lake Pymatuning. A whole group of us met Jesus. It was in 1975 that I got filled with the Spirit of God. A southern Baptist friend told me that I wasn’t saved because I was sprinkled with baptism water instead of being dunked. So, I went and got dunked in a Southern Baptist church in Biloxi Mississippi. I remember saying to God, “If I am going to get dunked, I want all you got for me.” I ended up being filled with the Holy Ghost and had all the gifts of the Spirit. I started a Bible study. I had two Christan’s, an atheist, a witch, and a Jew. The Jewish lady had a vision of Jesus walking on water and got saved. I would have all kinds of words of knowledge and wisdom, but I had no mentor, so I didn’t understand what had happened to me until I got out of the United States Air Force.

I was involved with the Word of Faith Movement, who rose up from the Tent Revival Movement in the 1940s and 1950s. Billy Grahm, Oral Roberts, and A. A. Allen were a few from that revival. The Word of Faith movement along with the 700 Club and the PTL TV show was happening as the Jesus Revolution in California was happening.

This was a time of finding our place in the Body of Christ. Gifts were exalted over character. People took tests to find their purpose. The teaching gift was exalted and teachers like Joyce Meyers and Kenneth Copeland filled our TV stations. Then the five-fold ministry was placed as being over everyone. This created jockeying for a place on the five-fold called. The prophet movement rose up and would tear off arms for hangnails. All the birthing pains of discovering God spoke to each of us and had a destiny for all was in full bloom. Pride entered these movements and leaders fell into disarray.

Now if you think this isn’t normal growing pains in God’s Kingdom in the earth then you need to read about Jesus’ apostles.

Luke 22: 24 – 27 TPT “The disciples bickered over which one of them would be considered the greatest in the kingdom. Jesus interrupted their argument, saying, “The kings and men of authority in this world rule oppressively over their subjects, claiming that they do it for the good of the people. They are obsessed with how others see them.  But this is not your calling. You will lead by a different model. The greatest one among you will live as one called to serve others without honor.  The greatest honor and authority is reserved for the one who has a servant heart. The leaders who are served are the most important in your eyes, but in the kingdom, it is the servants who lead. Am I not here with you as one who serves?”

A Different Model.

If you want to be great in God’s Kingdom, are you will to be a servant? Are you willing to die to your reputation and be misunderstood? People claim to be apostles, and some are called to that ministry. But when you read the scriptures about a true apostle, then you might want to rethink claiming that position.

1 Corinthians 4:9-13 “For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.”

True apostles, many times, are misunderstood and have their reputation tarnished, motives questioned. Their dreams are not building a huge following and influencing others to follow their vision. They are like Moses, who stood-in-the-gap for the people when God wanted to destroy Israel and create a new nation. They will leave crowds to meet the one others rejected. They go against religious protocol to touch the untouchable. They will plant Kingdom seeds in the darkness places like the demon possessed man in the graveyard. They don’t fight over who is the greatest in God’s Kingdom or over titles. They see God’s gifts and potential in people even when these gifts are covered over with the world’s scars like Matthew the tax collector. They see heart motives and are not fooled by a person’s wealth like the rich young man who relied on his good deeds.

A Reset has Begun to Servanthood and Being God’s Kid!

This is not a season to jockey for position and influence to build our own kingdom. This is a season of knowing we are God’s kids! As God’s kids, we have a place no one else can take. Ephesians 1:3-6 in the Passion Translation states it this way.

“Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts! And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence. For it was always in his perfect plan to adopt us as his delightful children, through our union with Jesus, the Anointed One, so that his tremendous love that cascades over us would glorify his grace —for the same love he has for the Beloved, Jesus, he has for us. And this unfolding plan brings him great pleasure!”

If the greatest in the Kingdom of God is a servant, why do we fight to be known? I remember wrestling with God about my call. I had gone to a church in North Carolina to find my place in the Body of Christ. After a few months, I realized I didn’t fit in with their definition of my gifting. I came back to Pennsylvania and on the drive home I said to God, “I don’t care what my title is I just want to serve You.” It was like a weight lifted and my life changed. I started walking out the call and inheritance God had for me. I realized that even if no one saw the things God had me do, that God was my Accountant. God knew and would make sure I was well taken care of. This freed me up to serve God in many different ways. It didn’t matter if I was emptying the trash or speaking, I was still fulfilling my call. Knowing you are God’s kid brings a freedom that releases you from fighting others for recognition. Your identity is not in what you do but who you belong to. Now that is freedom!

Prayer

Father God,

Thank you, Jesus, for dying for “my living for myself” instead of fulfilling God’s destiny. Teach me how to be a servant that builds Father God’s Kingdom. Holy Spirit, please remove the veils of insecurities that have kept me stumbling over self-defeating lies. Remove the deceptions that I have swallowed that I am insignificant and allows God’s love to penetrate the wounded areas in my life. I say, “I am God’s kid and I will fulfill God’s destiny that He has for me.” I ask for Father God’s grace to empower me to allows His will to be done in my life and in the lives of those you have given me to influence.

Scriptures

Genesis 49:28, Matthew 17:1; John 2:1-12, Luke 4:16, John 5:1-9, Luke 10:1-4, 1 Corinthians 9:22, 2 Corinthians 5:20, Samuel 13:14 & Acts 13:22, Luke 7:36-50, Exodus 32:9-14, Mark 5:1-20, Matthew 19:16-22, Matthew 20:24-28 (came to serve)

References

The Passion Translation® is a registered trademark of Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Copyright © 2020 Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc.