Keys to the Kingdom

By Codyjean

Jesus said that he would give us the keys to the kingdom of God.

We know that his kingdom is not of this world and not of flesh and blood. It is found in every word that God has spoken and this word is written within our own spirit. I have put together a few attributes of human nature that God consistently said were the works of righteousness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Sep 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499020571

Codyjean

My name is Codyjean I have spent many years within the Christian community and always felt that there was something lacking. So I studied, asked questions and eventually found an answer. This may not be the whole answer but it is a start.

Book preview

Keys to the Kingdom

Codyjean

Copyright © 2014 by Codyjean.

ISBN:          Softcover          978-1-4990-2054-0

                   eBook                978-1-4990-2057-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 09/17/2014

Xlibris LLC

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

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Contents

Lesson One Walk Away From Iniquity

Lesson Two Showing Forgiveness

Lesson Three The Foundation of the Church

Lesson Four Patience

Lesson Five Endurance

Lesson Six Kindness

Lesson Seven Greater is He that is in you

Lesson Eight The Just Shall Live By Faith

Lesson Nine One day in God’s Time = 1000 years in ours

Lesson Ten My Sheep hear my voice

Lesson Eleven The New Commandment

Lesson Twelve Don’t lie

Lesson Thirteen I want my own way!!!!!

Lesson Fourteen Peace

Lesson Fifteen Things: that are never acceptable in the kingdom of God

Discernment The Misunderstood Gift from the Living God to His People

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Jesus said that he would give us the keys to the kingdom of God.

We know that his kingdom is not of this world and not of flesh and blood. It is found in every word that God has spoken and this word is written within our own spirit.

I have put together a few attributes of human nature that God consistently said were the works of righteousness.

We know that as those naming the name of Jesus have been born again not of the spirit of this world but of the spirit of God.

God said that he would become our God and we would become his people even though we were not born of the chosen tribe who were called the sons of man. The biblical reference to the son of man is consistent with all those who were set aside from birth for the call of God. These people, even as children, were amazing and had the most unique character always representing God throughout their lives. I see the accounts of their lives as a guidepost for us.

In the New Testament book of Galatians it tells us that those who follow Jesus have unique qualities. These qualities are named in Galatians 5 and they allow us to recognise those who truly belong to the kingdom of God.

I have challenged myself to have these attributes constantly on display within my life even though sometimes I fall short of this goal.

I hope that this book brings the light of God closer to you as you read it.

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Lesson One

Walk Away From Iniquity

Those who walk after the spirit of God must walk away from iniquity.

This is a cut and dried statement but what is iniquity in real terms.

Iniquity is the sum of the things that displeases God and he calls them unrighteousness.

To see just what God calls righteousness we must look at the history of the walk of the chosen tribe in the Old Testament.

I will give one example: Esau the man who sold his birth right for a bowl of food for nourishment after a day of hunting.

When Esau’s parents grew old and Jacob, his brother, was dwelling in another province because of the violent split between the brothers. He took upon himself to remove his whole household away from his parents’ home to go to another region.

When he did this he not only took all of his possessions with him but he also took his parent’s animals and anything else that he could, leaving them without the ability to feed and clothe themselves and as a result they became destitute. His parents begged him for sustenance to no avail. Esau’s parents then returned to Abrahams dwelling place. This is recorded as an unrighteous act by Esau.

Jacob on the other hand upon receiving the information of the things that had transpired between his brother and his parents sent all that they needed each year to sustain their life. This is recorded by God as a righteous act.

Looking at the course of action that Esau undertook, from my point of view, is undertaken so that I may apply his lesson in my life. I see that if I have an attitude of me first I will be becoming like unto Esau who sold his birth right cheaply just so he could have his needs met right now and who showed no regard for the ones who nurtured him in life and provided everything that he needed to succeed in life.

Scripture tells us to honour our parents so that our days may be long.

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Lesson Two

Showing Forgiveness

The Old Testament has been called a shadow of the fullness of God in the New Testament. In this shadow the people of God could only find acceptance within the kingdom of God by the shedding of blood from a blood sacrifice. If the sacrifice was good then the priest, the only one who could enter into the holy place where God dwelt would come out to the people with joy as their sins, the things that they did against Gods laws for an upright life, were no longer counted against them and they could go their way for another year with joy. The down side of this would be if the sacrifice was not acceptable then the priest would not survive his encounter with the living God.

You might think that that makes God a cruel God exacting life for even the smallest wrong done against him. But I have come to see that God is the perfection of all things and in him there is no darkness, no hate, nothing that would blemish him. From the beginning of creation God has loved man and desired to walk with him and communicate with him. The catch is when Adam and Eve disobeyed his request for them not to eat of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil for in doing so they became blemished. This blemish is the original sin, the sin that we are all born into.

The light, powerful, unblemished and loving God knew that if he walked with Adam and Eve his very presence would take their life from them as his unfailing perfection would consume them unto death. I am trying to explain this so that you will be able to understand God’s dilemma. The creation that he loved would die if it came into contact with him.

So God devised a plan to enable us, mankind, to again be able to enjoy his presence and be able to walk and talk with him as he had originally intended. In the Old Testament this solution was the sacrifice made at the altar of God by the priest. The solution only allowed Israel, the chosen nation, access to God.

So a new and better plan was put into place. This plan to redeem, bring back into the family, the kingdom of God, those who were not the original chosen race and who worshipped other Gods. The plan was executed at Calvary when Jesus the Son of God willingly died in our place enabling us to again, on acceptance of his death in our place for our