So Much More: Moving Beyond Kingdom Principles to Kingdom Power (25 page)

Names that were given to children in biblical times were often special and very meaningful, chosen sometimes to reflect something of the character of a person or some other meaning. It is kind of like when we choose nicknames to refer to someone. If we call someone slim, it’s usually because they are skinny. Red means there is something red about the person, their hair color or complexion for instance. God is given many different names in the Bible. There’s not always an English equivalent for the Greek or Hebrew names given for Him, so you might ask, “Which one is His real name?” The answer is, “All of them,” it just depends on what mess you are in. God has a name to meet every need or every situation. While we call Him God as a generic kind of name encompassing all these things, don’t forget all the other names of God. Let me give a few examples:

He is Elohim, which means Creator God. He spoke a word and out of nothing the world was created. You need to know His name Elohim because there are situations in your life where there seems to be no way out and you need a God who can create something out of nothing. When the doctors have no cure, when you have no money to pay your bills, when things are a mess and there seems to be no way out, you need you have a Daddy who is able to create something out of nothing. He can do that because that’s who He is. He is Elohim.

He has another name, El Shaddai, which means the Lord Almighty. He is a Dad with incredible strength. When you are at your weakest point and find yourself exhausted with no strength left to deal with the mess you are in, God says, “You haven’t exhausted all of your resources yet because I am El Shaddai. I am strong when you are weak.”

He has a name El Berith, which means the God who keeps His promises. Even when the circumstances are such that it looks to you like He hasn’t kept His word, He has indeed kept His word. He is a God who keeps His promises.

He is Jehovah Jirah, the God who provides. If you have a need and you don’t know how to meet that need, if you need a job, if you need help out of a financial mess, you need to know who your Dad is. He is Jehovah Jirah, the God who can provide for your every need.

He is also called Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace. When things in your life are chaotic and you are stressed out, He can bring peace and calm to your soul because that’s who He is, Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace.

He is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. The doctors may have a word but they don’t have the last word. Our Dad is the Great Physician and He can heal at any time, because He is Jehovah Rapha.

Those are just some of the many names of God. You might think, “I can never remember all those names,” but just remember this; He is whoever you need Him to be at the moment. When you are sick He is the doctor, when you need money He is the provider, when you need peace He is the peacemaker. You don’t have to know all those Hebrew or Greek names of God you just need to ask your Dad for whatever you need and remember His name is hallowed, holy, and set apart because He has a name for any and every situation you face.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). This verse indicates the kingdom and the will of God are tied together. It means the rule and reign of God that exists in heaven is to be brought to earth. Again, that is our assignment. The rule of God in heaven is to be mirrored on earth. The will of God in heaven is the will of God on earth. Everything that exists in heaven is to be shadowed on earth.

You may wonder, “How much of the kingdom of heaven is to be manifested here on earth? Obviously the kingdom is not here in fullness yet and there are still markings of the enemy’s kingdom—things like sickness and oppression and death.” I can’t really answer that question, but I can tell you that when you study the way Jesus demonstrated the kingdom and the way the apostles and the early church demonstrated the kingdom, it quickly becomes obvious that much more is possible than most of us have ever experienced if we just learn to pray and bring heaven to earth.

The mandate is clear. If it exists in heaven, it is God’s will for us to bring it here. Conversely, if it does not exist in heaven, our mandate is to bind it here. Jesus told us, “Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (Matt. 18:18,
NAS
). Notice the phrase “shall have been.” The implication is we can only bind or loose here what has already been bound or loosed in heaven. Once again heaven is our model.
²

There are two kingdoms at war on the earth, the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. Jesus said when you pray, remember to acknowledge that your Dad is the King of kings and that we are to declare and live in the power of His kingdom. In His kingdom, the hungry get fed, and the demonized get delivered, the sick get healed, and the poor get cared for. Because we love our Dad and are citizens of His kingdom, we want to see His kingdom show up on the earth, so we constantly pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

“Give us today our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). This is praying not for spiritual but for physical needs. Is anyone hungry in heaven? Some might think prayer is all about spiritual things and they don’t want to bother Dad with physical needs, but Jesus said to pray for our daily bread. We should ask for the abundant supply of heaven’s resources to invade our resources. If you need a car, ask for a car. If you need a job, ask for a job. I know some people take this gospel of prosperity to an extreme and use it to fulfill greeds and not needs. But the excesses of some shouldn’t keep us from claiming the promises of God for provision. Paul wrote, “My God will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19,
NAS
). In the kingdom I am not limited to my own resources; I have all of His riches at my disposal.

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12). Is there any unforgiveness in heaven? Are there any grudges or bitterness in heaven? No! So again, we are called to reflect this kingdom of heaven on earth by being the most forgiving people on the planet. We all sin and we are all sinned against. When we sin we should confess our sin to God and remember we are forgiven completely because Jesus’ death paid for all of our sins. When we are sinned against, we need to forgive and cancel the debt because Jesus paid our debt to God, which was far greater than the debt of sin anyone has against us. He opened a way for us to be forgiven from a mountain of sin debt we could never pay. Because of that we are called to reflect that grace to others by forgiving those who have sinned against us.

The Greek word for
forgive
means to “let it go.” When we forgive someone for the wrong they do against us, we are not ignoring, accepting, excusing, overlooking, diminishing, or denying that we have been sinned against. We are not saying, “It’s okay. Nobody’s perfect. I understand.” We aren’t saying any of those things. What we are saying is, “I live in a different kingdom. I refuse to become embittered and vengeful. I will let it go because God did that for me.”

“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt. 6:13). There is no temptation or sin in heaven, so we should pray that God’s kingdom would invade our lives and protect us from the attacks of the enemy. The word
temptation
literally means “attack.” Lead us not into attack. As we have already seen, spiritual warfare is real. Satan and demons are real. The kingdom of this world is filled with temptation and evil. While we can and should pray for forgiveness when we sin, we should also pray offensively in advance, before temptation comes, for protection from the evil one.

The New American Standard Bible includes a closing to this prayer which, once again, addresses the kingdom: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (v. 13,
NAS
). The reason we can pray for all these kingdom realities, for His will to be done on earth as in heaven, for provision of our daily bread, for forgiveness and relational healing, for protection from enemy attack, is because He is the ruler of the kingdom. The kingdom belongs to Him. The power belongs to Him. All glory all goes to Him. Jesus said this how we should pray in the kingdom.

Chapter 13
WHO IS ON THE THRONE?

O
NE OF THE
critical aspects to living in the power and authority of the kingdom is completely surrendering ourselves to the King. If we are saved but not living a life of intimacy with the King, if we are not fully surrendered to His rule and reign, if we are still sitting on the throne of our own heart, we will not experience the power and authority necessary to advance the kingdom, “for the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Cor. 4:20). If we are going to do more than simply talk about the kingdom, if we are going to move beyond kingdom principles to living in kingdom power, it will only come from heart fully surrendered to the King that desires an ongoing intimate relationship with Him. Even Jesus said, “I can do nothing by Myself. I can only do what I see My Father doing” (John 5:19). If Jesus could do nothing on His own but could only operate in power and authority under the direction of His Father, then we too must be fully surrendered to His agenda, His rule and reign, and His voice if we want to walk in the power and authority of the kingdom.

T
HE
N
ATURAL
M
AN

So the question we need to ask ourselves is who is really on the throne of our lives? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (
NKJV
).

When we consider who is on the throne in our lives, there are three options. The first is the person who lives in Satan’s kingdom under his dominion. Paul referred to that as the natural man. Understand that this is a generic use of the word
man
. He is not talking about only men. He is talking about people in general. If we were to diagram what the life of this natural man looks like, it would look something like this.

We would start with a circle and this circle represents the life of this person. In this circle there is throne. That makes sense because in every kingdom, in every life, there has to be a king. So who is sitting on the throne of the natural man’s life?

“Self” is sitting on the throne of this person’s life. The natural man or woman is king of their own kingdom, calling the shots in their own life.

Now let’s add another element to this picture. We will add a cross representing Jesus.

When you look at the diagram, where is Jesus in the life of the natural man? This is a person who has never received Jesus into their life as Savior or Lord, so He is not even inside the circle of their life. He is on the outside looking in. So the natural man is a person who finds “self” in the center of their life. They are sitting on the throne, calling the shots as king of their own kingdom, and they have not allowed Jesus into their life at all. There is no pretense of a relationship with Him.