Culture of the Kingdom
Today’s Topic: Fellowship: Patriarchal Order
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:14-21; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
Now we already know that the Kingdom of God is a household made up of a Father, God Almighty and His sons. So it is a family but it is not a regular family. It is a spiritual family. Now many people talk about being a child of the King or I’m a King’s kid and all of this but do they really know what it means to be in the Household of God. Do they “understand” how the family of God is ordered in the Earth? In the next couple of messages we will look at the household of God and seek understanding to this mystery in the church. Why is this a mystery? If we look at current church culture then we can clearly see we lack order and when you lack order and culture, then you lack identity and purpose. In our last series, The New Season we talked about the Patriarchal Order and the foundation of the Household of God. Today we will build on that foundation and bring it today and what it should look like.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:15 stated” “For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus have I begotten you through the gospel.” Now Paul was not the biological father of the people at Corinth. That is silly to think that. But he said he is a father in Christ Jesus. So he is the spiritual father who has been given grace (power and authority) to oversee this group of believers and serve as their spiritual father. Now where does this spiritual fatherhood come from? Real quickly, Adam from birth was a son of God. He was made in the image and taught to be in the likeness of His Father, God. When Adam sinned, sin separated the family of God. It separated man from God. To bring it into a simple form. It separated man from Holy Spirit. From that point on God instituted a fleshly order in the Earth to continue to show man the ways of God. This order is called the Patriarchal Order. This lineage of “sons” would be the ones to bring us to Jesus Christ. This order would also and most of all bring reconciliation back so that man can be reconciled to the Father. So when Jesus came, He taught the Kingdom of God. He preached the Kingdom of God but He also came to show the Father. This is why one of His titles in Isaiah 9:6 is the Everlasting Father because it is by He that we have access to the Father. Now this earthly, fleshly, type and shadow lineage is now done away with to bring to reality the spiritual household of God in the Earth just like before in the Garden. Man now has the opportunity to be reconciled back to the Father. Now, so that we do not loose the concept of God household, God institutes the Household of Faith with a touchable concept. That touchable concept is spiritual fathers. These spiritual fathers are God raised and appointed men to oversee the Body of Christ in various areas or even in a city area. These spiritual fathers are to correct, encourage, rebuke and approve the things that are happening within the Household of God. So God gives us earthly men who are “sent” to show us the nature and character of God and disciple us so that we can come into the likeness of God. What this does is starts a growth pattern where mature sons of God are discipling the newborns of Christ to bring them to maturity.
Now without, and let me make this clear, understanding or knowing who God has appointed to be your spiritual father then you WILL NOT mature to be able to handle the affairs of the Kingdom. Now I know that is a bold statement but in the next messages we will see why this is the case. The authority of the Kingdom is based on understanding position and identity. God is not going to give the affairs of the Kingdom to some orphans and undisciplined children. They may be able to mask and hide behind the money and the gimmicks and the marketing schemes to draw people in but God is revealing by His Word the true children of God and those people who have put themselves over people without authority from the Lord Jesus will have the blood of the people on their hands because they have lead the people in err and never taught them or brought them to the understanding of the Kingdom of God and the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
