Limitless: Living Life From a Kingdom Perspective

By Marlon Williamson

The journey to fully comprehend and experience the Kingdom of God is a life-long journey, worthy of close and careful study. The intent of this writing is to study and to discover the many attributes and principles of the Kingdom of God. A life of intensive study involves not only reading about a subject, but delving into the logic and the reasoning that drive the work and being willing to consider things that you have never considered before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483508986

Book preview

Alma

INTRODUCTION

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33

The Kingdom of God: no other subject found in the scriptures is given a level of attention and focus equal to this one. In fact, no other subject comes close. Yet the modern church’s focus on the Kingdom is sketchy at best. Consider the words we most often hear threaded through our sermons on any given Sunday. Words like faith, salvation, hell and the cross sift through the Sunday morning air like light through a stained glass window. We rage and warn against the schemes of the devil with fervency, and we culminate with the hope of being born again, as if salvation were the happy ending to this beautiful story, rather than the hopeful beginning it actually is. Amidst all the singing, the preaching, the teaching and the shaking of hands, how likely are we to give even a cursory look toward what exists as the central theme of the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation: the establishment and advancement of the Kingdom of God?

But seek ye first the Kingdom of God…

Jesus commands us to seek His Kingdom first, foremost, overshadowed, outranked and overruled by nothing. The evidence to support this command is significant. Consider the number of times we see the following terms, either in singular or plural form, used throughout the scriptures:

King and Kingdom...............................................................................2,793 times

Reign........................................................................................................363 times

Rule and ruler..........................................................................................247 times

Earth........................................................................................................987 times.

Faith.........................................................................................................247 times

Salvation..................................................................................................158 times

Hell............................................................................................................55 times

Devil..........................................................................................................57 times

Cross.........................................................................................................28 times.

Born-Again..................................................................................................3 times

Heaven.....................................................................................................739 times

It bears noting that, of the 739 times the word heaven is mentioned, 32 of those are given in the context of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let’s take a moment and place these terms in order based on their quantitative value in the scriptures; overwhelmingly, king and Kingdom outnumber all other terms and concepts listed, followed by earth, heaven, reign, rule, ruler, faith, salvation, devil, hell, cross, and, finally born again. If we were bold enough to infer that the number of times a word or concept is repeated bears witness to its holistic value, we would prioritize these subjects accordingly. The moment we start to wonder whether the numbers really matter, we are reminded that it was Jesus, Himself, who instructed us to seek the Kingdom first. What matters is the order, priority, frequency and depth with which we seek the Kingdom of God.

I don’t say any of this to negate any portion of the scriptures. On the contrary, I know the value of careful study of the scriptures in their entirety; clearly, the King and His Kingdom have preeminence in the scripture. They should have the same emphasis in our thinking, teaching, preaching, and worship, and, as such, they must be at the core of our study.

Kingdomology

Whenever the suffix, -ology, is attached to a word, it simply means the science or study of the root word to which it is attached. Common examples include astrology (the study of the influence of stars on people), biology (the study of life), and psychology (the study of the mind). Further examples permeate the medical fields established in our culture – terms like cardiology, dermatology and radiology. All of these fields require intense study in order to fully grasp an understanding of the work embodied within them. These kinds of work are so complex that to study them requires an uncommon level of commitment to the content and the processes involved.

Anyone can know a little bit about the heart and how it works; however, when a man has a heart attack, he needs to see a cardiologist. In times of such need, he will spare no expense to have audience with the best in the field. Why? The answer is that expertise matters; knowledge, practice and study all matter. Once he is stabilized, he will most likely look up some information on the internet, and he may even read a book or two about heart health; however, the first and most important thing he will do is to seek a specialist, a cardiologist, who knows and practices this work with great depth and expertise. It is impossible for a single text to encompass all the information regarding cardiology. The time the cardiologist has spent studying and practicing his work is invaluable to the man in need, and so, his life’s work and worth contribute to the quality and worth of another life, as well as all the lives touched by that life.

The journey to fully comprehend and experience the Kingdom of God is a life-long journey, worthy of close and careful study and marked by the call to thread the concepts and the precepts of that study through the practice of our everyday lives so that we might bring the hope of life to others. It is a journey into the Kingdom, itself, which is an adventure of a lifetime. Ironic though it may seem, we are the chosen ones. The King, Himself, calls upon us, to step up and be the heroes of this hour, of this time, in this Kingdom – the Kingdom of God.

If we are to be effective in that calling, it is paramount that we have a working knowledge and understanding of the conceptual framework of this Kingdom, as well as how it operates. The intent of this writing is to study and to discover the many attributes and principles of the Kingdom of God. The suffix, -ology, comes from the Greek word, logos, which has a dual meaning, word and logic or reason. A life of intensive study involves not only reading about a subject, but delving into the logic and the reasoning that drive the work and being willing to consider things that you have never considered before.

Kingdomology requires a commitment to truth. It requires us to delve into a deep study of the logos of God, into His Word and the reasoning and logic that live within the Word. This commitment also requires that we examine our own ideas, in the light of the truth, as it is revealed. Most of us operate within belief systems that were handed down to us. Often, we don’t spend time questioning or trying those beliefs; in short, we simply accept them as being so. The danger of this notion is that we can easily dismiss or fail to recognize the truth if a misconception is in the way. There is a poem written by a friend of mine that illustrates this point clearly:

Fences

Martha Templeton

I grew up building fences-

Tying truths together

One rule at a time,

Knotting them with teaching,

Trying them with thought.

Some served me well,

Kept danger out

And helped me know

The paths I shouldn’t cross.

And some, I’ve just begun to see,

Are standing in my way.

Like this one here-

The one I built around

My notions about God.

I happened on it yesterday,

Glanced through a hole.

In a knotted plank

And caught a glimpse of Him

The likes of which

I’d never seen before.

And as the scent

Of sweet, fresh oil

Came wafting through the slats,

I closed my doubting eyes,

Heard His voice take flight

Let it swarm around my Head,

Let it loosen up the many

Knotted notions I’d been

Tightening so long.

And now I sit here,

Thinking how I’m gonna have to

Tear this old fence down

And let Him show me

Who He really is.

Unfenced, unbound

And Limitless.

When we make the audacious and courageous commitment to do exactly what Jesus suggested, to seek the Kingdom of God first, before our pre-conceived ideas, before the teachings of our fathers, before our many knotted notions about what the truth is, we can expect a paradigm shift. We can expect that our own, personal glimpses of God will reveal things no one else could ever have prepared us to see. A personal search for a personal God always reveals something different than we ever thought we would find when we began the search. Whether you are beginning that commitment for the first time, or whether you are a seasoned Kingdomologist expect revelation. God always has something to reveal when we are curious and passionate enough to seek Him first. A revelation is what happened and continues to happen with me on my journey to discover the Kingdom of God. As you journey through this text, I pray that revelation knowledge and truth will be opened to you.

CHAPTER ONE

PURSUING THE KINGDOM

As we make this commitment to pursue the Kingdom, we must look for more than a shallow, surface meaning of the subject. We are searching for the logos or logic of the Kingdom. In Mark 4:3-20, Jesus told the parable of the sower:

Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

After finishing the parable, the disciples asked the meaning of the parable. Jesus answered, Know ye not this parable? How then will ye know all parables? It is as if Jesus is saying, If you do not understand this, you will not understand anything I say. Jesus then expounded the meaning of the parable to them. He said in verse 14,

The sower soweth the word (logos).

Every parable that Jesus ever spoke was in essence sowing the logos of God. Whenever He spoke, his intention was to communicate the logos, or the logic, of God. Jesus was the greatest communicator, of the Gospel, who ever lived. He spoke in a language that the common man understood, and yet the Scribes and Pharisees were dumbfounded by His wisdom.

The logos of God is not simply the spoken word. It is much deeper than that. Jesus never rambled or spoke idle words. Whenever He spoke, He was intentionally revealing the logic or the way God thought. The words He spoke were spirit and life. This is why nearly every parable Jesus spoke began with the phrase, "The Kingdom of God is like…"

Often, in order to understand a concept that is outside our realm of understanding, we need to connect it with our own prior knowledge of the concept. To anchor a concept, in an understanding we already have, helps us as we grapple with those things our minds can’t quite wrap themselves around just yet. Jesus found this necessary when trying to teach about the nature and logic of God. Understanding God’s identity, as a being, is powerfully important; therefore, not only does this understanding help us to seek Him, it also helps us to see why we should.

There was a man who lived not far from where I grew up who made his living with woodwork. He crafted beautiful, hand-made clocks, tables and other objects by combining both beauty and practicality in his craftsmanship. In his spare time, he loved to go camping, and he had a certain ritual that always intrigued anyone who happened to join him around the campfire in the evenings. He took with him a whittling knife and a small block of wood, and, on every camping trip, he sat around the fire at night and whittled the wood away until, by the end of the trip, he had a souvenir – a hand-carved animal of some sort.

He found it relaxing and rewarding, and it always got him a lot of attention from those who frequently visited campgrounds in those days. Children, in particular, were always captivated by his ability to chip away at the block of wood until the desired shape emerged. The man loved hearing the people around the fire trying to guess which type of animal the final piece of work would resemble. Invariably, as they sat, circled around the dancing flames of the welcoming fire, someone would ask him, more out of wonder than true curiosity, How do you do that? This man was always ready with his answer whenever the question arose, You take a piece of wood like this one here in one hand, and you take a whittling knife like this one in the other, and you cut away anything that don’t look like a dog… (or a bear or a duck or whatever shape happened to be taking form in his hand).

His answer always got a laugh, but there was an element of profundity in it. I’ve known many men who sat around campfires or under shade trees in back yards and whittled to pass the time. Most of them, however, were just whittling. There was no intention or vision behind it. The more they whittled, the less they held in their hands. Though, he may not have seen himself as such, this man was an artist, and he was doing much more than whittling around the fire. He may have had the same kind of wood and the same kind of knife as anyone else, but he also employed two other very powerful tools: creativity and intent.

CREATIVITY WITHOUT INTENT IS CHAOS.

INTENTION WITHOUT CREATIVITY IS BARREN.

What does this have to do with the Kingdom? Everything. Creativity and intention are powerful forces together. Creativity without intent is chaos. Intention without creativity is barren. When combined together, these two forces create an environment in which incredible things can occur. When God created the earth and its inhabitants, He did so with clear intention. He wasn’t just playing around with dust one day when suddenly it surprised Him by taking the form of a man. God created man intentionally, and He breathed the breath of life into his body for a purpose. If we fail to see His purpose in creating man, we run the risk of never fully understanding our own purpose in this life and never receiving the benefits He intended us to receive from the beginning.

It’s amazing, actually, when you think about it. As Christians, we whole-heartedly embrace the belief that creation did not happen by chance. It stands to reason, then, since our God is a logical being, that creation did not happen without intent. Yet, how many of us hold steadfastly to those beliefs without ever studying or even considering the intent of the Designer, Himself? Instead of pondering His intent, we are more likely to invest our time and energy considering our own intentions while trying to get God’s attention. We want a God who will see and understand what we want and will then, kindly align Himself with our intentions, and often we fail to even realize that we are focused on the wrong thing. Rather than trying to make God into our image, we need to give our attention to His intention.

What was on God’s mind when He decided to create man? Would it surprise you if I told you that God made His intent and his thinking about this beautiful creation known from