Ministry Training Written & Compiled by Amy Howard © 2019, Imago Dei Anglican Church KINGDOM Lesson 1 :: Living in the Presence of the Future _____________________________________________________________________________ - Introduction - Course Objectives This eight-week course is designed to provide an introduction to prayer ministry. Participants will explore what it means to live as people of the Kingdom of God, be introduced to the four categories of sickness and their corresponding prayer/sacramental responses, engage in discussion and prayer with group members, and will be equipped to effectively and lovingly offer ministry to those seeking prayer. Participants will be exposed to available resources for further study in healing prayer and prophetic ministry, immersed in the scriptures, and have the opportunity to receive and participate in personal, holistic prayer ministry. Introduction Kingdom is the second installment of a journey of discipleship into deeper intimacy with God. Encounter God Weekend was a catalytic event that put us in proximity to the power of God through testimony, confession, faith, prayer, and the power of the Holy Spirit. We shed false identities and false names and received freedom from sin and strongholds in our minds about ourselves, and about God. Kingdom class is about taking our freedom in Jesus and leading others into that same freedom. Covenant is about a relationship and being, while Kingdom is about responsibility and doing. Covenant and Kingdom are the two themes, or “strands of DNA”, if you will, that runs through all of scripture. Not only has God saved us to be someone, but He has also saved us to do something.1 We’ve been saved from sin and condemnation and saved for deep communion with God (Covenant), and good works (Kingdom)—see Ephesians 2:10. We’ve discovered the heart of the Father and our identity as sons and daughters, but along with a new identity comes a new way of living—a new responsibility. Not only is God our Father, but our Father is also the Great King, and every King has a kingdom, and every kingdom has citizens and a culture. As sons and daughters of the King, therefore, we are now tasked with the responsibility of 1 Mike Breen, Covenant and Kingdom, Introduction. 3 representing the King to our spheres of influence and establishing the culture of heaven. The “Kingdom of God” is the Bible’s way of describing the way life should be: A world without injustice, sin, and evil. It’s the way life is in Heaven, and the way the world will go when Jesus returns establishes his Kingdom forever and restores all things. Christians have been called to bring that Kingdom into the present; we’ve been called to live in the presence of the future, “on Earth as it is in heaven.” The next eight weeks of Kingdom are going to focus on your authority in Jesus as a son or daughter of the King to be a conduit of the future, enforce the justice of God, and live according to the culture of the Kingdom. A. There are 3 essential elements to a complete understanding of kingdom.2 1. The King. Recognizing that the Father is also the majestic ruler of heaven and earth, and he seeks to extend his loving rule through the lives of all people so that everything might flourish. He has the right to rule, and his rule is absolute – not a democracy – and for our good. 2. Authority. As King, God clearly has the authority to act, but remarkably, he expresses his authority through people who choose to carry the responsibility of representing him. 3. Power. As the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, God holds incredible power. He chooses to use this to express his love to people and, more surprisingly, through the people who carry his authority as King – the Church. B. The Kingdom of God: The central teaching of Jesus 1. Jesus taught on the Kingdom more than any other topic. The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are interchangeable names given to the same reality. 2 Breen, Ibid. 4 2. Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom on Earth, and Mark summarized Jesus’ teaching at the beginning of his ministry – Mark 1:14-15, 14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Thus, the heart of Jesus’ ministry was both: a. The proclamation of God’s action - The “good news” or “gospel” is that the Kingdom of God is near in the person of Jesus Christ. The time of God’s favor begins now: The time of justice on earth and the invasion of God’s rule against the rule of Satan and the curse brought about by sin b. The demand for a response from everyone who heard: “Repent and believe the good news.” 3. The Kingdom of God is the “Rule” or “Reign” of God (the “Age to Come” – Mark 10:30), which has invaded the kingdom (rule) of Satan (this present evil age – 2 Cor. 4:4), and is the arena in which deeds, signs and wonders are performed. These deeds are the offensive tactics in displacing the darkness. The emphasis is more on the nature of God’s reign than a geographic region. a. The phrase “Kingdom of God” doesn’t appear in the Old Testament. Scholars agree that the idea of the rule of God is clearly seen in God’s rule over the events of history in general and over the nation of Israel in particular. 4. Jesus brought—and continues to bring—the kingdom, and reveals the kingdom not with fanfare and majestic judgment, but with a tender servant’s heart toward wayward subjects.3 His sacrificial love expressed in his atoning death and resurrection defeats our enemies of sin, death, and the powers of hell. Note: When you hear “atonement”, think “at-one-ment”, or “covenant”. Throughout the history of the church, Christians have come to call this Kingdom-oriented understanding of what Jesus did for us “Christus 3 Breen, Summary at the end. 5 Victor” or “Christ the Victorious.” Christ overcame the powers of death and Hell, for in his death and resurrection he died and rose for and as us, as the new Adam, and so everyone who is “in him” is made a part of a new humanity, at one with God. 5. Though we still experience the effects of sin in this life, we also experience foretastes of the age to come – it’s the tension of the “already but not yet.” 6. The Kingdom is already here, in Jesus, but is not yet fully here. This is evident in the fact that evils like death, war, famine, abuse, and injustice still occur. The Kingdom will not be fully manifested until Jesus returns to the Earth and sets up his world-wide government, at the beginning of the Millennium. 7. George Ladd, a New Testament scholar, summarizes scriptural teaching on the ages with the illustration above, along with these words: “In brief, this age, which extends from creation to the Day of the Lord… is the age of human existence in weakness and mortality, of evil, sin, and death. The age to come will see the realization of all that the reign of God means and will be the age of resurrection into eternal life in the kingdom of God. Everything in the Gospels points to the idea that life in the kingdom of God in the age to come will be life on earth – but life transformed by the kingly rule of God when his people enter into the full measure of the divine blessings (Matt. 19:28).”4 4 George Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974), 48. 6 8. The consummation of natural history is the marriage of Heaven and Earth – they will become one. “With all wisdom and understanding, 9 hemade known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” Ephesians 1:10 9. We live in the tension, or the “overlap” of time between two diametrically opposed ages. The old age is passing away, and though the sting and consequences of disobedience and death have already been overcome and we have the victory, our experience of the curse will not be complete until Jesus returns. At the return of Christ, the reign of death will be completely overthrown, and the government of Jesus will overtake the Earth, utterly abolishing the old systems established by the god of this age (Satan), and his rule. Jesus will then partner with his people to continue the project of the restoration of all things under his gracious rule— and everything will flourish. Until then we live in tension, in the presence of the future; we are between the times of inauguration and consummation, in “overlap.” C. The Reign (Kingship) God has come in Jesus 1. What Jesus meant in saying that the Kingdom of God had come in him was that he had the authority of God to claim or to take back what was rightfully his. The future age (Heaven) had invaded the present age (Earth) in an all-out war, and in Christ was beginning to displace the realm of Satan. 7 a. “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.