[17]

 

Chapter 17          A glimpse into God’s Kingdom of Love.

They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run,
and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
                           Isaiah 40:31

 

 

This drawing represents the world we live in. Anyone who is still in this world can have his or her choice of the where he wants to live in the drawing. The “catch” is – if you choose to be in one place, you cannot be in the others.

The lowest level is Satan’s kingdom of sin, hate, misery, deceit, despair, and death.

Just above all that is the kingdom of law, which God gave to mankind as a barrier against the devil. It is not a joyful kingdom.  The people who choose to live there aren’t much better off when they leave it (by death) than they were when they entered it (by birth). God never wanted anyone to stay in that kingdom – and He sent Jesus to get us out!

The sailboat in the picture represents house fellowships (the church). The disciples of Jesus man the boat.   They have two main objectives.  The first is to catch fish. Jesus said in Matthew 4:19, ”I will make you fishers of men.”  By teaching and proclaiming the Word of God they draw the fish into the boat. Here they are transformed into eagles that can fly into the Kingdom of Love.  The second is to pick up those eagles that have been wounded and help them heal so they can soar as God intended. 

The top level is where God wants all His people to live, “on earth as they will in Heaven.” This is God’s eternal Kingdom of Love – and the drawing shows some examples of the countless love-relationships God has reserved for all who choose to enter into it. The “catch” is – the only relationships you will have in Heaven will be those you chose to receive it here on earth.

We enter each relationship the same way we enter the Kingdom itself – by the blood of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the Law because He perfectly obeyed the Law. He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8b). And when Jesus died on the Cross of Calvary, He opened the door for everyone in the world to enter in to the fulness of the eternal relationship that He had with His Father before this period we call “time” began.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”  We can see that Jesus did not destroy the law – because everyone who fails to enter God’s Kingdom of Love is still under the law. All the Jews who will not let Jesus set them free of the Law of Moses are still under the Law. But so is every Christian who clings to the trappings and traditions of his or her denomination, instead of joyfully grabbing hold of the freedom and fulfillment that can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

A lot of Christians are like that. They just want to “become believers.” (James 2:19b says, “The demons also believe, and tremble.”) They figure, “As long as I get to Heaven, everything will be fine; and as long as I obey the Law, I’ll get to Heaven.” What a low level of Christianity that is! And what a measly reward it will bring. When you die under the Law, you are judged by the Law. Hebrews 9:27 tells us, It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. That’s why the above drawing shows man’s kingdom of law dead-ending at Judgment Day!

But God’s Kingdom of Love has no judgment ... because everyone who is in this Kingdom is also in the family of God. It has no boundaries ... because God cannot be limited by our minds or our imaginations, let alone by our drawings. And it has no end ... because God’s Kingdom and power and glory are for ever and ever. Amen!

The Bible has a name for people who soar above the law: eagles. That’s why the Kingdom-of-Love relationships in our drawing are pictured as eagles perches, where no other creature under Heaven can reach. Thousands of years ago, Isaiah prophesied that a Kingdom such as this would come to this earth: 

They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

When you mount up as an eagle in God’s Kingdom of Love, you can have as many love-relationships as you like – just as you can have as many worldly loves as you like. Every time you enter a new  relationship, you receive all the blessings that God built into that relationship. Every time you let a relationship pass you by, you lose out on Spiritual blessings that God wanted you to have and enjoy. And the more love-relationships you have, the higher you go into the power and glory of God. This is so because God is one! Deuteronomy 6:4 says to all of God’s people, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord! Just as we cannot separate God the Father from God the Son or from God the Holy Spirit, so we cannot separate the power and the glory and the love and all the other attributes of our God.