Victory Life KY

Ambassadors II

Episode Summary

Make no mistake, comprehending all that Christ has made available for His people demands a life of faith. A new way of living.

Episode Notes

• As we get into part 2, we’ve got to get this issue settled in our thinking if we’re ever going to be successful in our ambassadorship. The things of the Kingdom are spiritual in their reality. 

• Brought into this world through the born again yielding to the Kingdom that’s already functioning in us.

• Remember what Jesus told us, “We’re in this world but not of this world.” Paul adds to this revelation with this statement, He has transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness and into His Kingdom.

• “LET THEM HAVE DOMINION” is one of the fundamental principles of the Kingdom of God into this visible world God gave His creation.

• Make no mistake, comprehending all that Christ has made available for His people demands a life of faith. A new way of living.

• 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We live by faith, not by sight.” NLT, we live by believing, not seeing.”

• But here’s the deal, way too many of God’s people are still governed more by the natural than the spiritual. 

• Truth is, it’s not the powers of the kingdom of darkness that stop us, it’s our refusal to embrace the world we’re born of, embracing a way of living that is beyond humanity. 

• This is why we have to stop reading God’s word as some religious, rule book. Look at it as his instruction manual for the Kingdom.

• Philippians 3:17-20, NLT- Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. 
• For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 
• They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. 
• But we are CITIZENS OF HEAVEN, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Savior.

• Paul helps us see this clearer in 2 Corinthians 5, In Christ we have been given these new lives through Him and now since He’s given us the ministry of reconciliation, He’s calling others through us.

• 2 Corinthians 5:20, NKJV- We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

• Ambassadors- A diplomat of highest rank, sent on behalf of their homeland, representing, and coordinating relations and events of the foreign land they’ve been assigned.

• In this passage in Corinthians, when he tells us we’re new creations, what do you think new creations really means? 

• John 1:12, NIV- “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God”

• Galatians 3:29, MSG- Since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.” 
• Chapter 4, And because we are sons of God, His Spirit lives in us, making us heirs of God thorough Christ.
• Romans 8, We are joint heirs with Christ.

• Remember, CITIZENS OF HEAVEN

• God’s original design was and is for His people to be the light of the world. In other words, we, His body the church are supposed to be the influence in business, education, government, in every aspect of society.

• Isaiah 48:17,NKJV- Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.”

• According to Isaiah, God will lead us in success, but we’ve got to do it His way. The church His body, has been sent to inspire communities, impacting culture, being the driving force in society. 

• Remember, let them have dominion. Jesus restored what man lost. This is why He told us, “All authority was given to Me.” Then He sent His disciples out.

• And as we become successful in following the Lord, the more the Kingdom of Heaven is advanced. Check this out, Isaiah 11:9, “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

• As God’s ambassadors, the church should be the driving force of influence. Now when I use the term church, I’m in no way referring to any one denomination or organization.

• I’m referring to the spiritual reality of the body of Christ in the earth functioning through those He has called. 

• Unfortunately, we have given place to the enemy in these areas of society.

• And because we have allowed the enemy to have too much liberty, he’s turned things around to the point where now society is having to much of an influence in the church. 

• Causing great division in the church, diminishing our influence, and it’s time for that to change. The prophet Ezekiel actually says, “This land that has become desolate, out of control and unrecognizable, is now becoming like the garden of Eden.”

• Jesus never intended for the gospel of the kingdom to be limited to just missing hell and making heaven.

• He’s expecting the Kingdom of Heaven, His government, His ordained system, to be implemented by His governing body, the church in the earth. 

• This is why Jesus makes statements like He did in Matthew 6:33, AMP- “But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.”

• We literally are ambassadors for this kingdom we’ve been born into.

• But when the influence of God is removed from our culture, people are left to their own conclusions.

• Proverbs tells us, where there is no divine revelation from the Almighty, people make their own decisions.

• The thing is, without any revelation on how to live out of a world we can’t see, the faith God has given us will be useless.

• Proverbs 14:12, NKJV- “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

• The challenge for a lot of Christians is that we’re so consumed with this world, (sleeping with Delilah)
• that believing in a way of living that we cannot access through our natural, human senses isn’t something we honestly consider.

• This is why faith is an absolute in God’s Kingdom. Anyone who comes to Him must believe… we have to embrace the reality that this world we represent is spiritual. And our God is supernatural!

• Remember, 2 Corinthians 5:7, We live by believing, not seeing.

• Stop letting this natural world dictate every decision we make. Let’s stop looking at what we’re not, the training and education you may or may not have. The titles and positions, who you may or may not know. And start expecting God to be the God of the Bible.

• The children of Israel repeatedly show us types of the Kingdom life.

• Understand, God doesn’t change. He’s still waiting on His people to go in and possess what He’s already given.

• Numbers 13:1-2,30-32, NLT- “The Lord now said to Moses, “Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes.”

• But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” 
• But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 
• So, they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge.”

• Ten out of the twelve leaders God sent to bring back a report of the promised land, brought back nothing but unbelief.

• This prophetic picture lets us know that just because everybody’s doing it doesn’t make it right.

• The majority was wrong, led only by their senses, governed by unbelief.

• The Kingdom of Heaven is an already established government that cannot change, far superior to this fallen world.

• The question is, how long will we continue putting off possessing what God has given you?

• Ten unbelieving leaders led almost an entire nation away from God’s promises, all because of where their focus was.

• So as ambassadors for Jesus, walking in the Kingdom of God, we are going to have to watch who we associate with.

• This is why Paul told us, don’t kid yourself, evil company corrupts good habits, bad friends will destroy you.

• Remember Isaiah’s words, “The Lord will lead you in the way you should go.”