GENERAL SUBJECT

LIVING IN THE REALITY OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Message Seven
Spiritual Warfare to Bring In the Kingdom of God and Living in the Kingdom of the Son of God's Love

Scripture Reading: Rev. 11:15; 12:10; 4:11; Matt. 6:10; 7:21; 12:26, 28; Col. 1:12-13

I.　The purpose of spiritual warfare is to bring in the kingdom of God—Matt. 6:10:

A.　Spiritual warfare is necessary because Satan's will is set against God's will— Eph. 5:17.

B.　Spiritual warfare has its source in the conflict between the divine will and the satanic will—Matt. 6:10; 7:21; Isa. 14:12-14:

1.　Lucifer's pride in his high position and beauty gave rise to an evil intention, which became the satanic will—Ezek. 28:12-19; Isa. 14:12-15.

2.　Before the archangel of God rose up to contradict the divine will, there was no war in the universe; the rebellion of Lucifer was the beginning of all the fighting that is now taking place among nations, in society, in the family, and within individuals—cf. Rev. 12:3-11; Gal. 5:17.

C.　God wants His creature man to deal with His fallen creation Satan; for this, the human will must stand with the divine will—Gen. 1:26; Matt. 26:39; 12:30; 7:21.

D.　As the church, our fighting is to subdue the satanic will and defeat God's enemy— Eph. 6:11-13.

E.　Spiritual warfare is the warfare between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan—Matt. 12:26, 28:

1.　The kingdom of God is versus the kingdom of Satan—vv. 26, 28:

a.　God's kingdom is eternal, both in time and in space; Satan's kingdom is not eternal.

b.　God's kingdom is legal, whereas Satan's kingdom is not legal, for it was established by rebellion against God.

2.　The kingdom of God will not come automatically; in order for the kingdom of God to come, there is the need of spiritual fighting—vv. 22-29.

3.　The responsibility of the church is to continue the victorious work that Christ has carried out against Satan—Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8b; Col. 2:15; Psa. 149:5-9.

4.　The kingdom of God is the exercise of the divine will and the overthrowing of the power of Satan by the power of God—Matt. 6:10.

5.　Whenever the devil has been cast out and wherever the work of the enemy has been displaced by God's power, the kingdom of God is there—12:28.

F.　"Your people will offer themselves willingly . In the day of Your warfare, . In the splendor of their consecration"—Psa. 110:3a:

1.　In a spiritual sense, we are now in the day of Christ's warfare, and for Him we need to be a voluntary offering, a freewill offering—Lev. 22:18; Deut. 12:6.

2.　In order to engage in spiritual warfare to defeat God's enemy and bring in the kingdom of God, we need an absolute and thorough consecration to the Lord; in the eyes of God, such a consecration is a matter of splendor—Psa. 110:3a.

II.　The Father has "delivered us out of the authority of darkness" and has "transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love"—Col. 1:12-13:

A.　The authority of darkness denotes the authority of Satan; God is light, and Satan is darkness:

1.　Satan's authority of darkness is the authority of evil in the heavenlies, in the air—Eph. 6:12.

2.　The authority of evil, of rebellion, in the heavenlies is the kingdom of Satan, the authority of darkness—Matt. 12:26.

3.　To be delivered out of the authority of darkness is to be delivered from the devil, who has the might of death—Heb. 2:14; John 17:15.

4.　We have been delivered from the devil, Satan, by the death of Christ and by the life of Christ in resurrection—Col. 2:15; John 5:24.

B.　The Father has "transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love"—Col. 1:13:

1.　The kingdom of the Son of God's love is the authority of Christ—Rev. 11:15; 12:10.

2.　The Son of God is the embodiment and expression of the divine life; there-fore, the kingdom is of the Son as a realm of life—1 John 5:11-12:

a.　To be transferred into the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love is to be transferred into the Son, who is life to us—Col. 3:4.

b.　The Son as resurrection is now the life-giving Spirit, and He rules us in His resurrection life with His love—1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 6:3-4; 1 Cor. 15:45b.

c.　When we live by the Son as our life in resurrection, we are living in His kingdom, enjoying Him in the Father's love—John 6:57.

3.　The fact that we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God's love indicates that this realm of life is in love, not in fear—Col. 1:13:

a.　The kingdom in which we find ourselves today is a realm full of life, light, and love—1 John 1:1-2, 5, 7; 4:8, 16.

b.　The Son as the object of the divine love becomes to us the embodiment of the divine life in the divine love with the authority of resurrection; this is the kingdom of the Son of God's love—Col. 1:13.

c.　The Father has transferred us into a realm where we are ruled in love with life:

1)　Here, under the heavenly ruling and restriction, we have genuine freedom in love, with life, and under light—Matt. 7:13-14.

2)　Here in this kingdom we enjoy Christ and have the church life—Col. 1:12; 4:15-16.

C.　The kingdom of the Son of God's love is a crucial aspect of God's will—1:9; 4:12:

1.　God is a God of purpose, having a will of His own pleasure, and He created all things for His will so that He might accomplish and fulfill His purpose—Rev. 4:11; Eph. 3:9-11.

2.　The Father's eternal will is to build up the church upon Christ the Son as the rock—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16.

3.　The will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness, His expression—Rom. 12:2-5; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11, 22-23.

4.　The kingdom is absolutely a matter of God's will and completely fulfills His will; in fact, the kingdom is God's will—Matt. 6:10.

5.　As the kingdom people, those who are living in the kingdom of the Son of God's love, we are here on earth to do the Father's will—7:21; 12:50.

D.　In the kingdom of the Son of God's love, there is only one person—the all-inclusive Christ—and one way—the cross—Col. 2:9, 14-15:

1.　The one person, Christ, is the center, the focal point, of the universe—1:15-17.

2.　God's intention is not to give us many items; He intends to give us one person, the all-inclusive Christ—2:10.

3.　The cross is the center of God's government—vv. 14-15:

a.　By the cross God has dealt with all the negative things in the universe.

b.　God governs everything by the cross and deals with everything by the cross.

E.　In the kingdom of the Son of God's love, Christ has the first place, the preeminence, in all things—1:18:

1.　Both in the old creation and in the new creation, in the universe and in the church, Christ is the first and occupies the first place of preeminence.

2.　If we see the vision of the preeminence of Christ, our Christian life and our church life will be revolutionized, for we will realize that in all things Christ must be first:

a.　To give the Lord the first place in all things is to love Him with the first love, the best love—Rev. 2:4.

b.　In order to give Christ the preeminence, we must be willing to be adjusted, to be broken, and to be made nothing so that He can have a way in us, through us, and among us for the building up of His organic Body.

3.　In the kingdom of the Son of God's love, we experience and enjoy Christ in His all-inclusiveness—Col. 1:12, 27; 2:9, 16-17; 3:1, 4, 11:

a.　Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily—2:9.

b.　Christ is our allotted portion, our good land—the divine inheritance for our enjoyment—1:12.

c.　Christ is the reality of every positive thing in the universe—2:16-17.

d.　Christ is the One sitting at the right hand of God—3:1.

e.　Christ dwells in us as our hope of glory—1:27.

f.　Christ is our life—3:4.

g.　Christ is the constituent of the one new man—vv. 10-11.