Are you a Threat?-part 3

~Sharing a bit more from Steve Stewart's wisdom, on Releasing the Kingdom~and the revelation God has given me.

If you are a 'Releaser,' which is more than a ,"Carrier,"(of the Kingdom of God) then you are a threat to our enemy-the devil.

You see, once we learn to release the Kingdom of Heaven -the devil sees you as a threat (or one who is threatening to his purposes) to his kingdom of darkness. Which means he will try to stop you, trip you, or whatever he can manage to keep you from expanding God's Kingdom here on earth. Take a hard look at your life, is it smooth sailing all the time, no opposition, nary a problem, little involvement with others, ...you might want to take a deeper glance at what you are doing in Kingdom business.

*Of course your life can be total chaos, but not because you are doing Kingdom business, but just because somehow you have become complicated. (Unfocused lives are complicated lives...something I learned prior to Steve sharing last weekend.) Of course a 'complicated' life could just mean that you are walking around in distraction...more on that in a minute.

We want to be a threat to our enemy, we want to be locked on to expanding God's Kingdom. We don't need to fear satan (he has already been defeated by Jesus)-though we do need to have our armor on and be ready for spiritual warfare. (Ephesians. 6:10-20) There is a spiritual battle and if we are in it, then we better be sure to have on the full armor. We need to know we have Kingdom Authority-in order to release His Kingdom, we need to be living in faith that we are adopted daughters/sons of God.

Remember our enemy is clearly defined in the word with his purpose (John 10:10)

The devil and his cohorts (the demons) come at us using 3 weapons.

1. fear

2. discouragement

3. distraction

But we have that full armor and His authority- so we know how to extinguish those flaming arrows satan shoots at us- and if you don't I suggest you get your bible out and study Ephesians chapter 6.

We have to get beyond the 'fear,' that the devil tries to keep us under- we have to step out and become Kingdom Risk Takers (Hey, we could start a club! ;-)

The forcefulness that needs to happen can only occur if we, the citizens of Heaven-become willing to take risk. Matthew 11: 12 talks about violence, do you recall that verse?

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

I love what David Guzik says in his commentary on this verse:

The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force: Jesus’ reference to violence refers to both the intensity of spiritual warfare surrounding the ministry of Jesus and His herald, and also to the intensity required to persevere in following God and "taking" the kingdom into our hearts.

The kingdom will never be received passively. It is always founded on God’s work on our behalf, but God’s work will always produce a response in us.

Are you getting excited? The Kingdom is released when we take risks- give what you got, the Kingdom multiplies as we release it, not in our strength but in God's.

Go in strength child of God!