Jesus came to this earth, not to start a new religion, He came to establish a Kingdom and it was about this Kingdom that He preached and taught. Unfortunately however, many Christians live religious life for not truly understanding what the Kingdom is.
The first message of John the Baptist was:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”“
Matthew 3:2 NIV
The first message of Jesus was:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:17 NIV
Most of Jesus’ teaching was: The kingdom of God is like ……
The purpose of a kingdom is to extend itself and influence its territory.
God’s plan was and is to extend the kingdom of Heaven to Earth. God’s purpose is to colonise Earth with Heaven.
God wants to influence the earth with the Culture of Heaven.
The kingdom of God is a “country” with a culture and God wants you to adapt to this culture, so that it can become your lifestyle.
Every kingdom and country have their currency, with which their population can acquire whatever it is they need.
The culture of the Kingdom of heaven is Love and its currency is Faith.
When you do business, you have to do it according to the culture of the country you’re in.
So you got faith, you belief, that’s fine, but you have to operate that faith within the culture of the country, which is LOVE.
The Culture of The Kingdom is LOVE
Now I want you to think about yourself: Do you love people? Do you like to relate to people? Do you love being together with your brothers and sisters? Do you strive to be together and serve people?
Faith cannot work where love is not present.
“If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have LOVE, I am nothing.“ 1 Corinthians 13:2 NIV
If I have faith that can perform miracles but don’t have LOVE , I profit nothing.
Paul also said: if I give offerings to the poor, but don’t do it in the culture of LOVE, it profits me nothing.
If I speak in the tongues of angels but don’t have LOVE, I’m just a noisy symbol.
Love is more important than faith.
If you say that you trust God, you have faith in Him but don’t love and care for your brothers and sister, then you’re nothing.
I know that faith is important, faith is the currency of heaven, we all need great faith but The culture of the Kingdom is LOVE.
Let’s see how faith works
”For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.“ Galatians 5:6 NKJV
For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important it’s not rituals of religion.
What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
You can be very religious, and do many good things, like pray, worship, fast, sing, all kinds of great stuff and can still have a dead faith.
Your offerings and tithes can come to mean nothing, because your life and your given is not expressed in LOVE .
Your prayer can be nothing but empty words if there is no love in your life.
The whole operation of the kingdom of God is in the atmosphere of LOVE.
LOVE is the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven in which FAITH functions.
We must live by FAITH but FAITH only work if there is LOVE in the environment.
Faith works through LOVE.
Do you know why there is so many people who not able to LOVE others?
Because they don’t even LOVE themselves!
Jesus said:
“Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Matthew 22:39 NLT
Also the Old Testament said
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself”
Leviticus 19:18
If you don’t LOVE yourself first, your FAITH is invalid, it simply won’t work!
FAITH works through LOVE, if you don’t love yourself, you will not love your neighbour and as a consequence, your faith will not work.
Let me prove what I’m saying:
Self-love is a product of your self-worth.
If you DO NOT think you have ANY worth, then you hate yourself, but if you believe you are special, you’ll have self-love.
So the key to self-love is self-worth, and you can never love beyond yourself.
You can only love people to the level you love yourself.
So, YOU are the most important key to your faith working!
You will never know your true Self-Worth without God.
Because God is the source of your life and value and your worth is based on what you were made of.
Example:
The shoes that you have in your feet, if they happen to be leather shoe, where do they come from? If it’s real leather its from the hide of an animal, probably a cow.
When you go to a shop to buy leather shoes there may be different kinds of leather and they have different prices, different values and different costs depending on quality.
There is real leather but there is also fake leather, the price depends on the source.
If you are going to buy a table, the price will change depending on the kind of wood that it was made of.
If you know where something comes from, you know its true value.
The source determines the worth.
Your self-worth should never be dictated by society, you didn’t come from this earthly society.
Your self-worth is established by knowing where you’re from!
GOD is the source of your Self-Worth!
You didn’t come from earth, you came down from heaven.
The Bible says that God created YOU in HIS Image and His Likeness. So you have God’s material in you.
That means that God is should be the source of your love for yourself.
For God is the source of Love.
That’s why the Bible says: GOD IS LOVE . 1 John 4:16
You can love something and give it more value than it’s worth.
Example
If you want to know how valuable something is, check how much it’s worth.
You can buy a watch for €5 euro or a Rolex for €50,000 and both tell you the time.
So, you can tell how much something is worth by how much you pay for it, right?
God first created you and when He lost you He decided to buy you back!
Christ did not die to give you value. He died for you to prove your value!
That’s why He had to give himself!
“Jesus being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person”
Hebrews 1:3 NKJV
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
Genesis 1:26 NKJV
So can you see how valuable you are, because God Himself paid the highest possible price for your life.
If you have this revelation you can never hate yourself again. You’re valuable, you’re God’s value.
He first created you his own image and then He paid a high price for your life.
That’s what the word “Redemption” means, to own twice. To redeem means to own again.
“GOD IS LOVE” 1 John 4:16
If God is Love and you came out from God then you are God’s substance. You came from the source that is Love Itself.
Illustration: the bottle of water (God) and cup water (you)
When we know the bottle, you discover the cup.
Study the bottle, learn about the bottle. What is in the bottle is what made you up.
The word “SOURCE” in Hebrew is the word “ABA” – and we also translate it as “FATHER”!
When God says: I’m your Father (you’re my son!) He is saying to you : You’re my source , You came out of Me!
How valuable must you be if you came from the Lord Himself! How can you say that you LOVE GOD, but you don’t like yourself and say that your life has no meaning!
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”“
Matthew 22:36-40 NKJV
A expert in the law came and ask : there are 613 laws in the old testament what is the most important? What’s the number one law that everyone should obey?
Jesus answered: LOVE GOD – to love God means to pursue God, to study God, to get to know God’s nature, His character, His qualities.
When we know the “source” then we know who we are.
”And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’“
Matthew 22:39 NKJV
The second is like the first ! In other words: If you love God, if you Know God, then you will love your neighbour and you will love yourself.
Where did you come from? From some village in Angola ? A small, poor town in Brazil? Maybe you come from a culture of drugs, alcoholism, from prison, from a broken family?
Well, I found out that I don’t come from a poor family, I come from the “source”.
Religious people tried to trap Jesus all the time by asking: Where are you from?
They would say: we know your mother, we know your sisters, you are from Nazareth, you were born in Bethlehem.
What would Jesus say?
I came down from my father ! John 6:38
My Father – ABA – the “source”.
Don’t let no one label you because of your country, your colour or economic status.
You have to read your Bible, you need revelation of the scriptures, in order to know the “source” of your life and know who you really are!
You have to know God, to spend time with Him, then you will know who He said that you are!
You can’t know someone if you never spend any time with them.
When you decide to do this, you will discover yourself!
Love your neighbour AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF !
AS YOURSELF – To the Same Degree or measure.
Jesus said: You will love your neighbour only to the same degree as you are able to love yourself.
So, by loving yourself you are taking care of those around you!
How can you love others if you don’t love yourself? You can only love people to the same degree that you love yourself. You can’t truly love God if you still dislike yourself.
People lie all the time. They say I love you! How can they love if they don’t love themselves first?
You are in danger if those around you don’t love themselves.
This is why marriages don’t work. People don’t love themselves, then they go into marriage to trying to find someone who can love them.
This is why you need to know who you really are! Self-love is a result of Identity.
If you don’t discover in God who you are you will be a victim of other people’s opinions.
Self-love is the key to loving everybody else.
I have an advice for the Single Ones, never marry a person who don’t love themselves.
Let’s finish reading 1 John 4
7 ”Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1John 4:7-9
16 ”And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.“
18 ”There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.“
19 ”We love because he first loved us.
20 ”Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
1 John 4:16-21 NIV
Whoever claims to love God but don’t love others, (don’t like being with people) is a liar!
How can you sing and say I love you Lord and have no love for those sitting behind you, or refuse to specific brothers, sisters and neighbours. You’re lying!
God is saying: In my kingdom the culture is love ! And it begins by loving yourself!
You won’t be afraid to love others when you love yourself.
We are all here to expand the Kingdom of God and the culture of the Kingdom is LOVE!
You will only expand the Kingdom if you express the culture of the Kingdom!
You won’t be able to truly love people if you don’t love yourself first.
If you love yourself, it makes it easy for you to love others, because your self-worth doesn’t depend on exterior approval. If you disappoint me and betray me, I’m still a happy man, I can still love you. Why? Because I know what I am worth.
You cannot tell God you love Him and have no love for people, that’s a contradiction, it’s a lie. Loving your brothers and sisters and neighbours is a commandment, it’s a law of the Kingdom!
How can you be in the Kingdom and not follow its laws?
God is LOVE, You came out of God, you need to Receive and Give Love.
We need to repent of this sin and recognise that we come from God. This way we will be able to bring the kingdom of God from heaven to earth.
May God bless and keep you.