I studied 15 years under a prolific author, Pastor, educator, musician, Robert B. Thompson who came to know the Lord in the United States Marine Corps during the closing days of WWII. He received his Doctorate in Public School Education and took those educational skills over to his becoming a licensed minister in 2 Pentecostal denominations. Over his multi- decade career, he produced 1200 books and pamphlets dealing with the pursuit of personally interacting with God.   Ultimately, after his death at age 96, he released most copyright restrictions so that the body of Christ could benefit from his years of labor/service in pursuing Messiah Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Spirit and Father God Himself.

As a Gentile believer, he had an undying affection for Israel and the Jewish people. He understood the Bible to be a Divinely inspired Jewish religious/cultural book of middle eastern thought wherein the Kingdom of God includes both the people of Israel and the Gentile nations of believers functioning together as a singular entity called the Kingdom of God. 

You can access his works at WOR.org and click onto the library tab. 

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Acts 1:8 lays out our assignment directly from the Resurrected Jesus who was about to ascend back to His Father. We are to be His Kingdom of God witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth as empowered by the The Holy Spirit. 

A witness is one who describes what one saw, heard, touched, perceived, or experienced to lend credibility to an account, claim, or position.

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In order to ascertain God's perfect will, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds per Romans 12:2. The spiritual battle for our eternal destinies begins with the battle of our thought lives.

 

We are to guard what remains in our minds. We have authority over our thought life.

 

We are to test all things. (1 Thes. 5:21)  We are to test the spirits. (1 John 4:1)

 

We are to take every thought captive to make them obey Christ. (1Cor. 10:3-5)

 

The indispensable weapon is that of spiritual discernment. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit. (1Cor.12:10)

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In order to ascertain God's perfect will, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds per Romans 12:2. The spiritual battle for our eternal destinies begins with the battle of our thought lives.

 

We are to guard what remains in our minds. We have authority over our thought life.

 

We are to test all things. (1 Thes. 5:21)  We are to test the spirits. (1 John 4:1)

 

We are to take every thought captive to make them obey Christ. (1Cor. 10:3-5)

 

The indispensable weapon is that of spiritual discernment. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit. (1Cor.12:10)

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God has a problem on His hands. It is called spiritual rebellion within human beings.

Rebellion is lawlessness. Rebellion is disobedience to God's will. It is as the sin of witchcraft per the last Judge and first Prophet Samuel. (1Sam.15:23) It is the essence of Satan's kingdom.

 

The metric that Jesus used to determine whether one was eligible to enter into the Kingdom or to  have one's name written in the book of life, was whether they did the will of the Father.

 

In Romans 12:2 we are told that in order to determine the good, acceptable and perfect will of God, we must submit to transform ourselves by the renewing of our minds. (See also 2 Cor.10:3-5)

 

The spiritual battle for the souls of mankind takes place in the individual minds of God's children.

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As to our earlier discussed Kingdom of God roles, Jesus requires an additional kingdom role for his servants. It is that of soldiering. He is building an army in preparation for His soon coming Kingdom returning to Earth. (Rev.19: 14-15)  Note that the army that follows Him to battle in Rev. 19 consists of saints, that is to say called out human beings. Our warfare presently is spiritual in nature. (See Epheisians chapter 6 and 2 Cor 10:3-5.) In Jude 14-15 and Revelation 19, the spiritual nature of the battle converges with the material creation. 

The warfare between God's Kingdom and that of the Adversary involves that which is delineated by Moses to the Israelites just before they were to engage in the battle for Canaan in Deut. 30: Life and Good vs. Death and evil. It also involves Light vs. Darkness and Truth vs. Falsehood. (See John 8:32, 44, and 1 Tim. 4:1)

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Paul the Apostle informed his protege Timothy that he was to become a good soldier of Jesus Christ who is able to endure hardship. (2Tim. 2:3) Do we hear preaching today from our pulpits like Paul's message to Timothy?

We discuss putting on the armor of God with all of its components as seen in Ephesians chapter 6.

We also lay out the spiritual warfare strategy of 2 Cor. 10:3-5 describing against whom we as soldiers of Christ contend ( strongholds and arguments against the knowledge of God) by bringing all of our thoughts into captivity to make them obey Christ.

Question: When we are initially saved as Christians, and we invite Messiah Jesus into our lives, and we dedicate our lives to Him, do we include in that pledge our "thought" lives?

Probably not if we are honest with ourselves. 

Thus, the reason that Paul the Apostle instructed Timothy about becoming a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Taking our thoughts captive is a dimension of spiritual warfare about which we as believers are ignorant. 

If we stay ignorant about this dimension of our Judeo-Christian walk, we do so at our peril.

Hosea 4:6.

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Revelation 19: 7-19 refers to the majestic marriage of the Bride of the Lamb to Messiah Jesus. Her garments are clean and white and her fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.

The Parables found in Matthew 22 and 25 refer to the fact that this marriage is an amazing opportunity to enter into eternal life (John 17:3) by joining in spirit and soul and body to Messiah Himself. The problem for the Bridegroom's Divine Father is that the invitees to the wedding ceremony do not appreciate the value and honor of being included on the invitation list. The first group selected were too busy with the cares and busyness of earthly life to realize the scope and significance and honor of being invited to the ceremony. Missed opportunities which do not end well. 

Initial Salvation is a free gift of an opportunity which can be squandered. 

Initial Salvation is more like a scholarship rather than a diploma.

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Revelation chapter 5: 9-10 talks about as we are redeemed to God by the blood of Christ, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, we were made to serve as kings and priests to our God and we will reign on the earth.

Revelation chapter 3:20-22 tells us that as we draw nearer in relationship to Messiah Jesus, we, as overcomers, will be granted to sit with Jesus as King on His throne; just as Christ overcame and sat down with the Father on His throne. 

Seat belts:mandatory.  Was anyone taught these Kingdom principles growing up in the Church?

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One of the Kingdom roles for which we are being trained is to be the Temple of the Lord, the House of God, the dwelling place of the Father, the habitation of the Godhead. 

In Jesus' prayer to His Father on the night before He died in John chapter 17, He refers to both groups of people ("these and those") i.e. Jews and Gentiles being united as one, as He and the Father are one.  "I in you Father, You in Me and them in Us. "

What does "them in Us" sound like, look like, experienced like? As we become one in the Godhead, does that change the realm in which we operate? 

Seat belts mandatory.

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