The Kingdom Related to Past and Present - Part 4

'From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John' [Matthew 11:13-13 NIV].

Christ emphasized the forceful advance of the kingdom of heaven. New power was unleashed which John the Baptist did not detect because it was not primarily outward. Nor did John share experimentally in this new dynamic energy among men. All within God's kingdom had a new dimension of inward, spiritual power.

When John asked, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?" Jesus answered by pointing to the external signs which Old Testament man could comprehend. "Go and report to John what you hear and see: the 'blind receive sight' and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the 'poor have the gospel preached to them' [Matthew 11:5, quote from Isaiah 35:5-6 and 61:1].

In the kingdom of God there comes a new level of perception to the people of God, a new privacy to God's working and a new infusion of supernatural power. These distinctions mark the kingdom of God as dramatically different when compared with the law and the prophets. They have a common fountainhead in the great New Testament gift, the 'pouring out' of the Holy Spirit.

The Old Testament saints were led to expect a giving of the Spirit in the New Covenant. Consider for example, the prophecy of Ezekiel, 'A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you...I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.' [Ezekiel 36:26-27]

The Holy Spirit was active among men under the prophets and the law, but after Pentecost the Spirit was granted to the saints in increased measure. Ezekiel prophesied that after the return from captivity the blessings of God on the 'whole house of Israel' would include the pouring out of the Spirit.

‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel...And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God [Ezekiel 39:25, 29].

The New Testament acknowledges the fulfillment of this prophecy and defines 'the whole house of Israel' to include the Gentile believers.

'And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.' [Acts 10:45]

The Helper...

The Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples about the coming of the Spirit after His departure as to their advantage.

'I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; the Spirit of truth...' [John 14:16]

'The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.' [John 14:26]

'When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me.' [John 15:26]

'I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes He will guide you into all the truth...' [John 16:12-13]

A new level of perception is a fruit of the plentitude of the Spirit. Because the Spirit of inspiration filled the apostles, there is given to us the fullest inscripturation of truth. With this new objective content to which our faith looks, there comes also a new power of illumination to all believers through the indwelling Spirit. 'For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.' [I Corinthians 2:9-16]

A new inwardness of religion is a fruit of the effusion of the Spirit. Spiritual mindedness, the orientation toward heart issues and priority of interest in the spiritual realm, arises from the new measure in which the Spirit dwells in our hearts. It was the 'pouring out' of the Spirit which brought saints to a new inward maturity of soul, releasing them from 'the elements of the world' appropriate only to childhood. Christ's gift of the Spirit lifted His people to adult status as compared with Old Testament spiritual childhood. [Galatians 4:3-7]

Surely a new infusion of supernatural power and a new strength for worship is directly linked to the mighty Spirit. He is eminently 'the spirit of grace and of supplication' [Zechariah 12:10]. Power, by which the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, comes only to those who walk after the Spirit [Romans 8:4]. Every area of New Covenant service to God begins with being filled with the Spirit. [Ephesians 5:18]

Some Jews in the wilderness preferred their Egyptian existence to the new level of blessing into which God had brought them. They would return to bondage rather than live in freedom. In an age when the kingdom has come with power and grace in the Spirit, those who would reassert the external and political over the inward and spiritual are not unlike the unbelieving Jews in this respect. Let’s move forward under the full assurance of faith, fixing our eyes on Christ who has shown Himself faithful to fulfill the promises.

[Credits to Walter Chantry's God's Righteous Kingdom]