Culture of the Kingdom
Today’s Topic: Restoration of the Hearts of the Fathers and the Sons Part 2
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:14,15
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
The core of a patriarchal order is mature men showing the nature and character of God to those under their rule. This is why Paul can say to the church at Corinth that he was their father in the gospel (1 Corinthians 4:14,15). Paul was not saying that he was their progenitor (father) which means he is the origin of their existence. But what he is saying is that he is the father of their faith. The only person that can say they are your Father (progenitor) is God because we are born directly from the womb of God. I love what the writer of Hebrews says in
Hebrews 2:11:
“For both He (Jesus) that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified (the saints or the church) are all of one: for which cause He (Jesus) is not ashamed to call them brethren”
So we are born again from God and God is our Father because we are born directly from Him. Knowing that, there will never be an earthly relationship that will take precedent over our relationship to God the Father. Now God sends fathers that are mature in their presentation of God the Father.
In our current culture we have a saying “Do as I say, not as I do”. Now we hear that a lot especially from our older generation and this is a not a good saying nor is it a saying that is exemplary of a Kingdom citizen, son of God or Christian. One of the examples of this is when a parent tells their child not to say curse words but then when the parent says it and the child calls them on their own sin we hear these words: “Hush, I can say that but you can’t” So now the child is confused and internalizes the thought that well when I get older I can curse people out. Now the Word of God says in James 3:8-10 that blessing and cursing should not come out of the same mouth. So in the Kingdom your actions have to be the same as your words. Leaders in the church will tell the congregation to not commit adultery but they go and do it. This is the type of stuff, not just that particular situation, that damages the Body of Christ and the maturation of the saints because they see hypocrisy and say that the church people are fake. However God is true in Word and in Deed. When God speaks a word then you can guarantee that the Word spoken will come true and you will see the nature and character of God by Him keeping His Word. For example, remember when the children of Israel were in the wilderness and wanted water and God told Moses to speak to the rock and it shall give forth water for His people. Now if you know the story, Moses did not speak to the rock but hit the rock. However the water still flowed from the rock to the children of Israel. Now Moses disobeyed God by not following His orders, but God still kept His word and gave the people water. God did not give the people water because Moses disobeyed but because of God’s integrity and Holiness He kept His word to provide the needs of the people. Our spiritual fathers that God has given us speaks the Word of the Lord to us but also demonstrates the nature and character of God so that we may be discipled and come into maturity in the Kingdom.
Now in the past message we discussed the fact that a male is more than just a male and a female is more than just a female.; In God’s eyes a male is put in creation to symbolize a eternal reality, Christ (Ephesians 5:21-32). Hence spiritual fathers are earthly representations of a Heavenly reality. A female is put in creation to symbolize the church or the Bride of Christ. God is the Father of our spirits so it really has nothing to do with male or female but it is the spiritual reality being shown in the earth through natural symbols. This is why the appropriate usage of Galatians 3:28 when it speaks of male or female, is referring to the fact that our spirit has no gender. In turn, God created us a certain way to show a certain thing about Him and when we act outside of that divine design then we show confusion and God is not the author of confusion.
If we do not understand (applied knowledge and wisdom) these fundamental principles then we lack a solid foundation to build on and we will always try to bring our worldly culture and impose it on the Kingdom when it actuality the Kingdom culture should be imposed on the worldly culture to change it back to the original culture of the earth which is the Kingdom of God ordered in a patriarchal order of a relationship between the Father and His sons.
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
