8 Knowing God's Heart

This is a study about the desire of God’s Heart.

"For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. ... And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again." - Zechariah 2:8, 12 KJV

From this and other passages of scripture, it isn’t hard to see where God’s heart is. When we learn about the Kingdom, we are learning God’s heart…

In this post, we will be looking at some distinctions that make a difference in our understanding of the Kingdom of God. 

Distinctions that make a difference:

The state of Minnesota is known among the United States for its long and cold winters. There was a man and his wife living on the border between the state of Wisconsin and the state of Minnesota. One spring after a particularly long and cold winter, a surveyor came by to determine the borders of their property.

After his survey, he approached the couple and said that he had good news and bad news. The good news was that they had more land than what they thought. The bad news was that most of it was actually in Wisconsin instead of Minnesota.

The husband shouted to his wife, "Lena, Lena I haf great noose, Nooo more Minniesoda vinters!"

So there some distinctions that really don't make any difference, but these do:

Distinction One: Jesus is recognized as king in the church, but Jesus is never called the king of the church…

We have already considered this important distinction and it is fairly straightforward:

The church is not the kingdom. The church is heir to the kingdom and is promised to rule with Christ. However, the earthly kingdom is promised to Israel alone. 

Distinction Two: There is a difference between owning and possessing.

When one is promised an inheritance, receiving it is often conditioned on a certain set of conditions. These may include reaching a certain age, completing a college degree or perhaps completing some service commitment.

For Israel they were required to receive the King of God's choosing.

"Thou shalt in any wise set [him] king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: [one] from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which [is] not thy brother." - Deuteronomy 17:15 KJV

When Jesus Christ was born, His title was announced by angels to the shepherds and His star guided the wise men to travel from Babylon and bring worship offerings to the King of which the prophets had spoken.

In His life, He proved His Messianic power over sickness and death; His teaching was with the authority of a King and He declared Himself to be King of Israel. But He was accused of having a demon; In the words of their prophet Isaiah, He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 

Israel authorities hid their faces from Him and had Him tried and executed by Roman authorities. The title over him on the cross was: "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews"

As a result they have not come into possession of the inheritance promised to them.

This of course begs the question; When and how is God going to give Judah his portion in the holy land and choose Jerusalem again? 

We see from this panorama view that God's promised restoration of His Kingdom to earth begins in Genesis 3:15 with a promise and that promise is fulfilled in Revelation 20. 

In Genesis 3:15, God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. That is, as we will be seeing, Satan came to Eve in the guise of a serpent to deceive her. By means of this deceit, the kingdom dominion intended for mankind was forfeited to Satan. 

God promises that the seed of the serpent (the future antichrist) will one day be destroyed by the seed of the woman (God's Christ). That is, the kingdom will be won back to mankind and all of creation will be restored to God. God has chosen that by means of one special nation, that promised seed should come. This is why Jerusalem and Israel is called the apple of God's eye.

If that is so, why is Israel so oppressed? Why does Israel not inherit her kingdom?Theologically, Israel owns the unconditional promises granted by God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel)…Namely, land seed and blessing. 

The sad truth is that Israel does not presently enjoy her Kingdom blessings because they refuse to recognize that Jesus Christ is Messiah. They would claim that Jesus was an imposter because He failed to bring peace to Israel.

Yet it is the failure of the nation of Israel to recognize Jesus Christ bonafides that were spelled out by their prophets. As a result the Kingdom is not cancelled, but it is postponed. 

Distinction Three: Spiritual and Carnal:

In a similar fashion, even for those of us who are saved and have confessed that Jesus is Lord, it is possible that we have not allowed Him rule over lives and as a consequence, the blessings that He intends for us are put off until  we give Him His rightful place in our affections.

This is not a question of salvation, it is a question of enjoying the blessings that God intends for us.

Our failure is not a lack of effort or desire for God. It is a failure to make Him our top priority or, as the Lord Jesus pointed out to the first century Ephesian church, we have left our first love. When the desire of our heart is the desire His heart, we are directed by His Spirit. Until then, we possess the indwelling Spirit of God but He does not possess us.

God is not looking for our perfections, He is looking for our affections. 

This knowledge is essential to understanding the distinction between the sovereign rule of God over our lives and our willing submission to His rule in our lives.

In other words, we are creatures of a sovereign creator but we must willingly choose to submit to His rule through faith in His anointed King. As sinners we come into ownership of the unconditional promise of salvation when we place our faith in Christ. 

However, if He remains only a distant prince and not the reigning King in our lives then we will, like recalcitrant Israel, have our spirits oppressed. 

This is the distinction between a spiritual Christian and a Carnal Christian: There are Christians who teach that there is no such thing as carnal Christians. If you are not a spiritual Christian then you are not a Christian at all. However the definition of what it means to be spiritual is left somewhat ambiguous.1 Cor 3:1,3 shows us otherwise.

There are Christians who teach that “If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all”.

Others teach that you must speak in tongues to prove that you are a Christian.

This goes to the heart of what is required to be saved...We must not confuse the requirement of salvation (faith alone in Christ alone) with the responses to salvation (Progressive obedience to the Word of God).

Next post we will look at one more important distinction between the Universal Kingdom and the Theocratic Kingdom.

smc