Understanding the Nature of the Kingdom “Now”: Removing the Guesswork from Life

By Derek Thomas

Understanding the Nature of the Kingdom (NOW) takes a transformative journey through the Sower's Parable. In this life-changing book, the reader will discover how to remove the guesswork from life and any meaningful enterprise to experience genuine success today. This composition represents the simple realities of God's Kingdom that are currently available to Believers. The reader benefits from this book because it reveals life-changing truths hidden within the parables of Jesus. This work also helps the reader prepare their heart to change their lives and their world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664172395

Derek Thomas

Derek B. Thomas is a pastor, teacher, author, and dynamic seminar speaker. He has helped to transform the lives and relationships of thousands of people. Over the past eighteen years, his focus has been teaching, empowering, and becoming.

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Copyright © 2021 by Derek Thomas.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

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Rev. date: 04/28/2021

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Preface

First Things First

Introduction

Ignorance Is a Silent Killer

Chapter One

In the House

God Is Building a Home

Inside Information

Chapter Two

He Left the House

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

The Woman from Canaan

The True Purpose

Do You Need a Ride?

Be Like Christ

Chapter Three

God Wants to Use You

The Elderly Contractor

Stop Making Excuses

Chapter Four

Change Blindness

Hearing Something Different

He Spoke in Parables

What Is a Parable?

What Will You Do Now?

Can You Decide?

Chapter Five

Hearers of the Word

Here Am I

Chapter Six

The Law of Genesis

The Power of the Seed

Like a Seed

The Power Eight

Chapter Seven

There Is an Orchard in the Seed

Small Beginnings

The Parable of the Sower

What Is the Heart?

Explanation of the Parable

Chapter Eight

The Wayside Heart

Stony Heart

Thorny Heart

Good Soil

The Nature of the Kingdom

PREFACE

G.K. Chesterton was a fantastic writer and philosopher who once said, It’s not that they can’t see the solution. They can’t see the problem. I find that astonishing because those who cannot discern problems will never question if something is genuinely wrong. It is paramount to discover how to connect real issues in our world to the correct answers that solve them. Asking the right questions can do just that.

The difference between getting the right and wrong answers is as simple as asking the right questions. Questions have the power to open the doors of timely solutions that were previously closed. Well-placed questions can advance conversations, generate fresh ideas, and challenge old ones. As I contemplated the Kingdom of God, a spark of revolution ignited within me.

This composition represents the simple realities of the nature of the Kingdom of God on earth today. Within these pages, you will discover how to remove the guesswork from life and any meaningful endeavor. If you understand the Kingdom principles at play in the world today, you will be able to change the world and your life. The answers needed for a better life lie on the pages you are about to read.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

In his book Kingdom Principles, Dr. Myles Monroe wrote, God established His priority at the beginning of creation and made it clear by his declaration to humanity. Jesus Christ came to earth and reestablished God’s number-one priority. God’s original plan was to establish his Kingdom and for his children to dominate the world on his behalf.

The Kingdom of God is God’s government and governing influence over his territory that produces a specific culture and moral standard for its citizens. As king, he established the Kingdom in the beginning, placed humankind on the earth to function like him, and bring him glory, but Adam sinned against God and lost it all.

When Adam sinned, all of humanity sinned within him because he was the seed of humankind. He was the source for all of us who would come after him. When he distorted his purpose, the knowledge of our purpose was also distorted. For this reason, we are in a constant search for significance and meaning.

It is the cause of our miseducation in this world. It is why we attend college for years to settle on a major that is void of purpose. It is why we work on a job that we hate for twenty years, only to retire unfulfilled. The distortion of meaning is the root cause of our self-abuse and the abuse of those close to us. Papa Myles used to say, Where purpose is unknown, abuse is inevitable.

When the first man, Adam, lost his connection to God, so did we. He chose to live in a world on his own, blindly groping and frantically struggling to find his ways through life. Although God was with him, he no longer dwelled inside of him. Therefore, Adam lost the knowledge of the Kingdom of God. His disconnection is the source of our ignorance, discontent in life, and confusion about God and ourselves.

Ignorance of the Kingdom of God is why we do not understand God’s plans today. It is why we attempt to give him religion when he wants a relationship with us. It is why we make worship an event and not obedience. When Adam chose to sin, he fell away from the Kingdom of God. He no longer knew the nature of God’s Kingdom, and thus, lost the nuts and bolts of God’s plan for his life on the earth.

Rather than God being Adam’s most potent influence, other things began to move, inspire, and direct his life. When Adam sinned against God, he began to live backward. God created us to live from our inner being outward, but Adam started a civil war between his spirit and soul and body. Have you ever wondered why we pray and immediately get sleepy? Because of Adam’s sin, life became a daily struggle.

How does one overcome life’s struggle, disconnection to God, miseducation, ignorance of the Kingdom, and the grave misunderstanding of purpose? How do we break the pattern that Adam’s fall created? How do we get back into alignment with God? How do we rediscover all that Adam lost? Papa Myles taught that to learn what Adam lost; we must discover what Jesus brought back to earth with him.

INTRODUCTION

The raucous crowd cheered the aging challenger, Ali Bomaye, Ali Bomaye, which meant, Ali, kill him. It was the Rumble in the Jungle, and like other times in his career, Muhammad Ali was doubted, and the overwhelming odds were against him. George Foreman was a Goliath of a man who counted Ali’s early knockout to cement his legacy as world champion. His punishing punches demolished his previous opponents.

Even the great Joe Frazier crumbled to the ground like an old condemned building, but Ali had a different idea—the rope-a-dope. In their fight, Ali decided to lean his lower back against the ropes as much as possible, taboo in most boxing circles. He tucked his chin into his chest, rested the fingers of his oversized boxing gloves on his forehead, and pulled his elbows tightly against his rib cage to absorb Foreman’s early barrage of punches.

Ali was determined to use his unorthodox tactic to outlast Foreman. By the later rounds of the fight, Foreman was exhausted from throwing powerless punches at Ali’s protective arms that he could no longer defend himself against Ali, who was still resting on the ropes. Foreman was outmaneuvered the entire fight