Ignition part 2
"From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). When Jesus arrived on earth He brought something with Him. He is the King of kings, and you can't be a King without a Kingdom. He brought heaven to earth. He made the true and glorious creation of God available to us. And look at where He put it: The Kingdom is at hand. Or, if I can say it this way, the Kingdom is IN our hands! That phrase, "is at hand," is number 1448 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "to make near, that is approach." Jesus opened the door to the Kingdom because He IS the door to the Kingdom! And this is so amazing to me. The root word of G1448 is G1451 which means, "to squeeze or throttle." The throttle is in our hands! And all we have to do is give it a squeeze! Remember yesterday we saw that Jesus ignited the Kingdom--ignited that Holy Ghost wildfire--inside of us. He did the work and put us in a position to enjoy the fruit of His labor. It was a labor of love and the fruit of the Spirit is love! Love, the thing that we have been yearning for since the beginning, is in our hands! The Holy Spirit is our love receptor, and through the Spirit we can receive and release the love of God. The love that IS God. He equipped and empowered us to live His life by giving us His Spirit. By giving us His mind and His heart. He brought us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom! That's where we are. That's a fact, Jack. But, unfortunately, not everybody knows this glorious truth. Not everybody knows who they are (Jesus), where they are (the Promised Land), or why they're here (to be loved and to love with that same love). That's why I wrote The Answer Trilogy. Because if you don't know the answer to those three questions, then you really don't know anything at all and your life will be a constant struggle to find the answers. To find meaning. You'll bang your head against the wall, and all you'll end up with is a headache. Because God doesn't want, or need, or expect us to find these answers out on our own. It's called revelation, and it's one of the main reasons Jesus wrapped Himself in human flesh and dwelt among us. God doesn't expect us to "figure it all out." In fact, according to Job 26:14 (NIV) all we know of God is, "...the outer fringe of his works..." And I realize that's an Old Testament verse and an Old Testament understanding. I realize we have an unction from the Holy Ghost and we know all things. I get that. But at the same time... we don't understand everything we know. Oftentimes we wander around like strangers in the land of promise simply because we don't know what's available to us. That's why Jesus told us to REPENT. He told us to think differently. To let the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us. To use that throttle that's in our hands. Guys, we can't get any closer to God than we are right now. He lives in us. But we CAN get a greater realization of Him. We CAN receive what we've been given and begin to enjoy it. We CAN receive it and release it. Because it's at hand. IN our hands. Jesus already started the ignition. All we have to do is squeeze the throttle!