Under The Blood

Last week I read several verses to you from the Book of Revelation--Revelation, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6, and Revelation, chapter 5, verses 9 and 10; that because of the blood of Jesus, we have been made kings and priests unto God. I talked to you about what a king should do. A king has absolute rule and authority. And that’s what God expects us as kings to do--is to rule and reign in our world on this earth. And as priests, He’s given us the ministry of reconciliation--that we reconcile people unto God through the Lord Jesus Christ--that that is our ministry, that is our calling, that is our anointing in life.

And I talked to you a little bit about how the blood of Jesus has brought the family of God into what we call "the Church," or "the Body of Christ," and how important it is for us to understand Kingdom thinking and Kingdom principles. Because Kingdom thinking and Kingdom principles are often diametrically opposed to regular church history. Yeah, "Amen," is right. In other words, we become to some people very radical because we become Kingdom-oriented or Kingdom-thinking.

And because of that, people don’t understand what we’re talking about in terms of authority and anointing and power and giftings, and all of the things that we believe. And of course, when we even talk about the whole message of favor or supernatural prosperity in God. But we’ve come to understand that while we are in the world or in a world government, we are not of the world. Yes sir. And that we are a people that are in Christ and, while we live on the earth, we really get our orders from our headquarters. And that is not a state of a city in America or in some nation of the world; it is from the very throne of God itself. And so the Kingdom has come on earth actually through the ratification of the blood of Jesus, and He made us nigh unto God.

But really, when you go back into church history and back into the Old Testament, the Kingdom had its infancy when the political landscape began to change, when the children of God had conquest of Canaan. Because God had set down laws and rules and regulations of the Kingdom. Some people don’t even like to even think of reading a book like Leviticus. Most people have a hard time even pronouncing it. But the Book of Leviticus is a book that describes in detail ceremonies and laws and regulations that the people were to conduct every day of their life.

Because in the Kingdom of God, there has to be order. And everywhere God is, there has to be a ruling authority--God Himself. And He subjugates Himself to no man. He retains absolute sole authority. The only authority that we exercise are is that authority that He has given us and that He has instructed us to keep. And I’m gonna talk to you a little bit about that in just a few minutes. But God has to set down rules and regulations. He set down civil rules; He set down social rules; He set down -- watch this now--eating rules. Whoa, Jesus. He set down -- yes, "Amen." Glory to God. And anybody that’s ever listened to Dr. Jordan Reuben, you know that, as a converted Jew, that he is very strong also on eating rules and regulations that God set down.

Now a lot of people say, "Well, that was Old Testament." "Yup. Yup, you’re right. That was Old Testament." There was a lot of things in the Old Testament that we still do, though. You can’t cut all the Old Testament out. If God established a way of eating that was healthy for the people, then we ought to have the brains to follow it. Ah, but because of some of our cultures and backgrounds, we’re not gonna like the way God established it. Yes, "Amen." I know this is a tough spot. To have someone actually say "Amen" for me, I’m really -- I don’t want to respond right now. You know, because -- "Amen, Amen."

’Cause when we start talking about civil rules and civil regulations that God set down, we don’t like to read Leviticus, because we say, "It’s boring. There’s no power in there." But really, we need to understand how to live; and especially in the day and age that we’re living in in the 21st century, where men and women have taken their own ideologies to a level that is above God’s. No wonder why our world is in such a mess. Amen. Most of us make our own messes--because we choose just not to follow God. I said we choose not to follow God.