Righteous Reign part 4
What it all comes down to is identity. If you don't know who you are--or what you're capable of--then you'll spend your whole life trying to be someone your not. Trying to get something you think you con't have. But if you DO know who you are--God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased--then you don't have to try to be anybody, or get anything. You can live an abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting Jesus live His own life in and through and as you! Rather than trying to get something--that, again, you already have--you can simply enjoy the gift you've already been given. And the most real way to enjoy the gift is to share the gift! To receive it and release it. To receive it BY releasing it! And that's what it means to reign in righteousness and rule in judgment. Serving others. Loving others. I don't know why we have this idea of authority meaning we're up here and everybody else is down there. True authority doesn't come from putting people down, but from helping them up! True authority isn't about being served, it's about serving others. That's what Jesus demonstrated when He got down on His knees and washed His disciples' feet. He showed what it's really all about. See, Adam was a son who thought he was a servant--or, really, a slave. His identity was all screwed up. He thought he needed to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. He thought he had to DO in order to BE. But Jesus was the BELOVED Son because He let Himself be loved. He knew exactly who He was. He was a Son with the HEART of a servant. He didn't serve because He HAD to, He served because He wanted to. Because He loved (loves) us. My best understanding of the term, "righteousness" is simply, "right standing." Which to me means we know who we are, we know where we are, and we know why we're here. That's why I wrote the Answer Trilogy. Because it's vital that we understand these three things: We are Jesus, we are in the Promised Land, and we were here to be loved and to love one another. Our right standing with God doesn't come from what we do. It comes from who we are. And that's really pretty amazing because what we do flows from who we are. Or, really, who we BELIEVE we are. If we don't believe we're loved, we'll spend all our lives looking for love in all the wrong places. But if we know and believe the love of Christ, then we can go straight to the source, fill ourselves with the fulness of God (that we are already full of) and share what we have. We can reign in righteousness. I'm in right standing with God... and so are you. We can rule in judgment. Not judging things... but executing the judgment that was handed down from the Father to the Son! As kings and priests we are equipped and empowered to reign on this earth. We have been given everything we need in order to help the ever expanding Kingdom of heaven expand! We are lighthouses, and wherever we go the light shines and the darkness flees!