THE VIOLENT TAKE THE KINGDOM BY FORCE- Mt.11:12

Jesus said, “11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

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

In this message I am going to try to show you what it means for us to wrestle not against flesh and blood. But, to fight against principalities and powers. And how this means believers are the violent Jesus was describing who take the kingdom by force.

Because this is very important for growing to maturity as a believer. Who has become one who “by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Heb.5:14.

In the book of Joshua we find Israel commanded by God to do battle with the nations around them. They were to take this land inhabited by these people. And in the taking they were to destroy all the people there and everything they had.

And while this seems to us to be an extreme way for God to have them deal with these people. There were 2 very important purposes this served. One was because if they allowed them to live among them they would have caused the Israelites to follow after their iniquity. Serving other gods. gods who taught them to corrupt participate in rituals that would corrupt their dna. So that they would no longer be humans made in God’s image.

This is the very thing for which Paul says in Gal.3:19 God gave Israel the law to prevent. So that messiah would be of the same flesh all men have and were made with when Adam was made.

The other reason for this was to serve as an example for us to learn how to deal with the corruption that is in the land we are to take by force. Just as Israel did. A land that is spiritual, and not natural as the land Israel took.

This is how we who are saved are to take the land. Just as the physical land Israel took by force when they destroyed the people in the land God told them would be theirs. The land we are to take is a spiritual land that is in our hearts and minds.

For we are the temple of God. A temple made without hands. A temple that needs cleansing from the pollution of the world’s way of believing and thinking.

This is why when we look at the battle in Rom.7 we will see that it is not a battle between a sin nature and a godly nature as gnostic believers proclaim. But, is a battle between the belief that righteousness came by the keeping of the law that many Israelites had come to believe. And the transforming of our minds by the Holy Spirit so that we will begin to think as God does.

This is why Paul wrote to them that know the law saying in Rom.6:22-7:1, “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?”

To show that righteousness has never been nor ever will be by the works of the law. But, has only ever been attained by the faith of Christ. The same faith Abraham expressed when he believed God and was righteous. A righteousness that we can only have when we trust in Jesus as He trusted the Father.

So the fight Paul was showing these particular Jews that they had to go through was to fix their hearts on Jesus for deliverance from the works righteousness they had come to believe in. To have eternal life by the righteousness that is of the faith of Christ.

So rather than the battle being in the natural with weapons that are carnal as Paul says in Eph.6. It is for them, and for us, a spiritual fight against their works righteousness mindset. Against the flesh, which is to say to reject being under the law.

A battle that will renew their minds by the Holy Spirit as Rom.12:1,2 says. To take the land in battle as Israel did in the Old Testament as God sent them to utterly destroy the inhabitants of the land He had given to them.

So too must we utterly destroy the thoughts that inhabit our hearts and minds that can keep us from taking the land by force that God has given to us for our possession. A land that when it is taken becomes the place of perfect peace because the believer’s mind is stayed on Him.

This is what the scripture means when it says the kingdom of God suffers violence. And the violent take it by force. Just as Israel took the promised land through violence and force. So too does the New Covenant believer through violence take the kingdom by force. This is what it means to have the kingdom of God within you.

This means we utterly destroy the old ways of believing and thinking. And inhabit the land with all that God gives us. We furnish the land with all the pleasant and precious riches given to us by God as Proverbs 24 says.

Saying, “3 Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:

4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

6 For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.”

Our battle is not against flesh and blood. But, against “principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

So as Paul told us in Eph.6 “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

Our example is the battles God fought for Israel to take the land. And with this example we find the way to take the land spiritually now that we are spiritual beings by the new birth that was never available to Israel under the law.

This is why their battles were in the natural. And their blessings were of natural things. And why our battle is in the spiritual. With our blessings being the spiritual things. Things that are given to us as we humble ourselves before the Lord. The grace He gives is a more mature relationship with Him.

This is why Jesus came for them. To deliver them from the natural fight for physical land. To become spiritual beings by a spirit created in them when they trust in Jesus.

Then the violent that once took physical land by force will take the kingdom of God. They will fight against the principalities and powers that would keep them in bondage to sin by the law. Fighting off their old way of thinking that made them trust in righteousness by works. And taking hold of the land that is righteousness by faith.

And for the rest of the nations we fight and destroy our old way of thinking that held us in bondage in the natural. To make the way to the righteousness of faith. By believing in Jesus and destroying the ways we believed before we knew Him. Destroying them completely as Israel did those whose land she was to take to be her own. So that they have no place any longer in our thoughts whatsoever.

This is how we begin to take the land today. By first being born again to be made a spiritual being. This is the first step in this fight because we change our allegiances from the world’s way of thinking and believing, to believing in Jesus and then learning to think as He does.

And as spiritually violent men we take the spiritual kingdom by force. The force that destroys ungodly beliefs and thinking. And replacing it with the thoughts and beliefs that become those whose lives have been willingly given to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

We must not be timid in this fight. But, strong in the Lord to the pulling down of strongholds. Strongholds like the strong delusion of the doctrine of original sin and sin nature. The Gnosticism through which Augustine and his ilk used to first create the Roman Catholic church. And then the evangelical Protestant church.

Because the ecclesia of God are those who have seen through these lies. And have fought the good fight of faith in destroying those lies so that they can not pollute the land God gave us. Land we have continued to take by force since we first trusted in Him.

This is the life of the believer in Jesus. As we learn our salvation and our God destroying any and all things that would exalt themselves above His name. For which Paul wrote in 1Cor.10:3-5 saying, “3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”

To join with us in this fight and have eternal life you must confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in your heart that He has raised from the dead. In Rom.10:9,10 Paul says if you will do this you will be saved.

You will have a spirit created in you by God that joins you to Him for eternity. Do this and you will have eternal life. Do this and you will be made immortal at the resurrection. Do this and you will receive all that Jesus came to provide for us. Do this and you will be a child of God and heir to His kingdom. A kingdom Jesus said the violent take by force.

Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!

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