The two qualifying attributes to seeing and operating in the Kingdom of God are, desperation and truth. You must be desperate, or in other words, your "Kings must die," whatever type of idols they may be. While there are many desperate people, not all see and operate in God's Kingdom. You must also be totally honest with yourself and with God.

Remember, as I wrote in the first few chapters, even though you may see evidences of the kingdom of this world with your natural eyes, the real worldly kingdom is spiritual and invisible to the natural senses. If you depend upon your natural senses you will never see the real kingdoms at all, good or evil.

I believe that most people who have responded to this message have traveled down the path described below.

a. Desperation and truth.


Without these two ingredients there is a likelihood that one will remain self-sufficient and by default continue to operate in the kingdom of this world system. That could have horrible consequences not only for this life but also for eternity.

b. Hope.

I knew a Christian man whose life had fallen apart, including his marriage and his children. He told me, "Larry, I can live without love, I can live without faith, but I cannot live without hope. I have no hope."

An exhilarating sense of hope is offered by the fact that God, through His love, has provided a wonderful way of living an abundant life, freely given, by the fruit bearing process. When people realize that God has a passionate desire to bless them beyond what they can produce, it raises hope and faith to a new level. Often it is such good news that it is difficult to believe!

c. Intimacy with God.

Once that hope is given, then you must continue to seek the Lord and His Kingdom with all of your heart. You must dedicate your entire life to seeking and maintaining a daily, even hourly, real-time relationship with God. I described what I call relationship skills in Chapter 8.

d. Spiritual agriculture.

As you become intimate with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit, He will plant valuable seeds in your heart. The seeds are meant to a) give you a godly character, b) take care of your earthly needs, and, c) provide a significant purpose for your life that glorifies God and give you satisfaction.

e. Building on the Foundation.

However in order to actually realize and see the fruit, you must go through a process that we described in Chapter 11; Silver, gold and precious stones must be added by you to the foundation, or to the seed. Silver is realizing your free redemption and salvation without any works or merit of yours. Gold is godly character, lived out by you by repenting for your sins and allowing the grace of God, Jesus, to live through you. Precious stones represent long and patient waiting, perhaps even afflictions. Often, in order to bear the must abundant fruit, our soul must "die" as described in Chapter 12.

f. Knowing about the secret or mystery of afflictions as I wrote about in the previous chapter.

Now you can rest in the New Testament Sabbath.

We are to rest from the works of our flesh, our sweat, and rest in the fruit bearing process of the Word of God. Resting from the works of our flesh; that is the Sabbath that pleases God. Only fruit bearing glorifies God, not the works of our flesh, or our old unregenerated soul. That is why, in the previous chapter, I emphasized the "death of our soul."

John 15:6 says,

“8 “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”

We can rest because we know that the Word of God is a living seed and will produce abundant fruit.

Hebrews 4:1-12 says,

“1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest,'" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;

5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”

6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,

7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.

9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.

10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Isaiah 58:13, 14 says,

“13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,

14 Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.””

We must stay connected.

Entering the New Testament Sabbath involves continually doing what is needed to stay in God's presence ¹, to hear His Word, and to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Then God pulls us along in "His chariot" through the "abundant life" so that we experience what God has written, and completed, for our lives before the foundation of the earth.

One of the most important things is to continually be vigilant, and to ask God to show you those areas in your realm and in your life that could be destructive "bombs" to cause you to become fruitless. This may seem like a paradox when you are admonished to enter into the "rest of God." However the rest that God is referring to in Hebrews chapter is the rest from the works of our flesh.

Romans 8:13 Amplified Bible says,

"13 For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever."

Once you enter into the fruit bearing process, you are much more dangerous to Satan and his forces. Fruit is the main thing that he fears. Stay vigilant, stay sensitive, be on the watch! Ask God and yourself the "hard" questions, ones for which the answer may not be what you desire to hear.

Proverbs 16:25 says,

“25 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

Why did I name this chapter, "You Choose?"

While there are two kingdoms from which to choose, you will choose by default the kingdom of this world if you do not make a conscious choice. Regrettably, most people, even many Christians do not make a conscious choice, and they find themselves in a lifestyle of works, trying to make it by "the sweat of their brow" as was promised to Adam after he sinned. You have read about the horrible consequences of living according to the kingdom of this world. You have read about the wonderful consequences of living according to the Kingdom of God. You choose!

A devotion from Walk With God by Chris Tiegreen.

Meaningful Hope.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." ECCLESIASTES 1:2

Other men see only a hopeless end, but the Christian rejoices in an endless hope.

Conquerors win countries, politicians win elections, competitors win championships, and corporations win takeovers. Sometimes such victories will have an effect for years, centuries, and occasionally even millennia. More often, their memory fades with the passing of a generation. Either way, they are never permanent. Like sandcastles on the beach, the works of an ingenious and ambitious race are susceptible to the incoming tide. We are created with eternal longings but have fallen into the bondage of time. Nothing we do lasts.

That was the view of an old king who had seen empires flourish and die, and who had come to know the fleeting nature of his own riches. He was right, of course-from a purely human perspective. He was facing the angst common to all who look back on their life's work with any depth of perspective.

But that perspective is limited by the boundaries of human wisdom. It is the conclusion at which we all arrive when we depend on our own reasoning. It is wisdom without revelation-all brain and no Spirit. We who depend on God's revelation in all its fullness know the foundation for hope: An eternal Kingdom is being built, and what we do today can bear eternal results.

Statistics say one of the most common maladies of our generation is hopelessness. There is a pervasive sense among our peers that this visible life is all there is-and that's just not enough for most people.

We have two necessary responses: (1) We must not let the hopelessness of our age infect us. We are to fix our hope on eternity. And, (2) we must share that hope with an anxiety-ridden generation. They are convinced that our hope is groundless. We must convince them that it isn't. That is, we are told, one of the most meaningful, lasting things we can do.