Aligning With The Kingdom Series

Jesus alludes to this when he talks about this in John 5:24 where he says “Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.” There is a lot of stuff here. If you pay attention, you see that this passage is very similar to what Paul wrote in Colossians except Paul wrote the “dominion of darkness” and Jesus says “the world of the dead”. Paul wrote “the kingdom of the Son” and yet Jesus writes “the world of the living”. Jesus would use the phrase insiders and outsiders. We may not like that idea but that is what he uses. As a side note, when we are talking about the world of the dead, we are not talking about the ghosts and goblins. In the world of the dead he is talking about dead souls. Souls that for all intents and purposes are dead because they are dead to God. They have never experienced that new life in Christ. We see that everywhere. We are surrounded by the world of the dead. We see it on TV. We see it in schools and colleges. We see it in the workplace. We see it in the political arena. We see it in the business world. We see a bunch of dead souls. Dead because they have no hope in Christ. They disconnected from that life source. They have no connection so they have no hope of salvation. For all intents and purposes, they are considered the walking dead. People that have no life at all with God. The walking dead. In contrast to the world of the living. God’s ever expanding and unfolding kingdom where all is good, where all are welcome, where all are safe. You are always safe as long as you remain in God’s kingdom. He uses the term insiders and outsiders. Some people probably feel at times like an outsider. Maybe you just feel like you are never connected to those around you. You feel isolated. You feel alone. The good news is if you are in the kingdom of God, you are never alone. You are an insider. You are an insider. You have to remember that. Now and for all of eternity you are an insider.

As I mentioned earlier, we have to be sensitive to the fact that we have this gravitational pull that always wants us to pull back into the dominion of darkness and into the world of the dead. We have to constantly trust ourselves in every situation that Jesus knows what he is doing. We can trust that we can listen to his voice and respond appropriately. Another passage that deals with this comes out of John 6:40. This is Jesus speaking, “This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life.” Trust is like belief. It is like faith. Remember what I mentioned last week? Belief is not something that is just an intellectual thing. Like if I read all these books or memorize all these passages. If I get enough information, I am believing. No. Belief is an action word. It is believing into the depths of your soul and then responding to that belief. You cannot really respond unless you trust this person. That he is going to do what is best for you. So we have this idea of trust and response and aligning ourselves up with the will of God. When we do that what happens is we not only gain access to that kingdom of the Son. We gain access to all sorts of stuff including our spiritual nourishment. Another passage deals with the idea of alignment. Jesus says “I am the bread of life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more.” He is saying everything you need. Not material. Spiritual. What you need spiritually is there and it is there in abundance, but you have to go after it. You have to want it. You have to desire that spiritual food.