Lookahead:  When one’s thoughts are filled with heavenly versus worldly realities, the LOVE and PEACE can’t help but be there in abundance.  That realization prompted me to assess my thought life, which is probably the biggest peace-buster for me.  I decided to do a little experiment and write down my worldly thoughts…for one hour.  I subsequently found myself generating the list during my worship time the next morning….Here are some of the more preposterous thoughts for your reading pleasure….

Now that we have more or less covered the prerequisites for becoming a KO (Kingdom Occupier),  it’s time to cover KO behavior, i.e., how does someone who is living solidly in the Kingdom behave? As we had mentioned in previous posts, the Apostle Paul makes an excellent template—the perfect example of how someone who is firmly entrenched in the Kingdom acts. 

(Note: we could also say that the other apostles, Stephen, Philip the Evangelist, family, personal witnesses of Jesus’ ministry and resurrection, etc. might represent good examples.  But in Paul’s case, we have detailed supporting documentation, in the form of the epistles. The Acts’ account of Stephen’s martyrdom is riveting in that heaven and earth appeared to intersect, just prior to Stephen’s departure.  So we have an example of a KO who was experiencing such a heavenly existence on earth, that heaven was actually in his sights when he “crossed over.”  I also believe that there were a lot of “Stephens” during that era, who were walking around loving a lovable God—awestruck not fear-struck, craving a manifestation, and praying for it during their one-on-one time.  This was partially due to the fact that Jesus was unbelievably real to them.  If they hadn’t seen Him personally, they personally knew someone who had.  The memories were fresh, and the miracles were still happening constantly.  The majority of these new believers embraced the supernatural, and had an expectation that they would see supernatural manifestations…probably each time they left the house in the morning.  What a way to live!!)

I have provided a link below to a separate web page which represents Paul’s take on what these KO’s were experiencing.  I didn’t embed it in this post here, because…it’s overwhelming.  The title of the web page is “Read It And Weep” (as I almost felt like weeping, myself ☹ ).  My reaction when I read these First Century Believer characteristics is very revealing, I believe.  Here’s how I felt:  (1) Boy, I sure have missed the mark, i.e., I am a failure, (2) I’m missing out on so much, (3) People who need me to be there for them are missing out because I’m missing out, (4) My grandmother always used to say, “Comparisons are odious;”  I’m so odious with my constant comparing, (5) I’m never going to “get there,” (6) This is all my fault—I should be renewing my mind by continually casting down imaginations, ETC. 

To sum it up, I felt condemned.  (1) through (6) may or may not represent a valid method of assessing my condition as a KO Candidate.  But bottom line, I’m smart enough to know that someone who feels condemned all the time is not living in the Kingdom—self-assessment aside. Rather than a statusing exercise, an important first step in becoming a KO might be to figure out why I feel so condemned.  But that’s for a later post, after considerable re/soul/search.  In the meantime, if you decide to brave the Kingdom Challenge and take the “Read it and Weep” link, there are a couple of caveats that might ease the pain. 

Caveat #1 – One thing that will definitely have an impact on “the bar height” is that I used the Passion Translation.  At times, the behavior is described as being significantly more intense than, for example, King James.  (But I think “intense” is good.  That’s the place that I want to get to.)  Anyway, what follows is an example:  1 Timothy 4:13; TPT:  they “devour the word of God;” KJV:  they “give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.”

Caveat #2:  in many of these scriptural references, Paul is enjoining the believers to espouse this behavior.  But my theory is that Paul wouldn’t ask them to do something that he, as a KO, was not already doing himself.  So I’m still treating his instructions as a good representation of ideal Kingdom behavior.  If we drop these ideal behaviors, the number of rows in the table would radically decrease—and would not be as daunting. 

After getting past the sticker shock, I found that there were essentially four Summary-Level KO Characteristics that seemed to stand out.   

•  Jesus is continually working perfection in the KO’s through His Holy Spirit
• They are empowered by/overflowing with God’s LOVE
• They are guided by God’s PEACE
• They tap into the heavenly realm continually (Note the use of present tense:  Colossians 3:2 They are feasting on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and filling their thoughts with heavenly realities)

When one’s thoughts are filled with heavenly versus worldly realities, the LOVE and PEACE can’t help but be there in abundance.  That realization prompted me to assess my thought life, which is probably the biggest peace-buster for me.  I decided to do a little experiment and write down my worldly thoughts…for one hour.  I subsequently found myself generating the list during my worship time the next morning….Here are some of the more preposterous thoughts for your reading pleasure….

• Is that a tiny dust bunny on my Roman shade—looks like mildew from here!  That would be a bear having to take it down for a deep clean.
• Am I a real worshipper, or do I have a “spirit of entertainment?”
• There goes the neighbor’s weed whacker!  Is that going to interfere with my worship?
• I’m feeling head-achy.  I sure hate OTC meds!  Could it be the first signs of COVID?
• Can I sing or play without making a mistake? And now that I’m in a new decade of life, can I still hit all the notes with my voice?
• Is God going to be offended because I’m not really focusing on worship?
• Are we going to have a tornado this year in this county?
• Is this sudden internal pain due to repetitive motion injury….or cancer….or nothing?
• I wonder if my uncle is saved?

As you can imagine, the Worship was anything but special. ☹  So another question would be, why do I predominantly have a natural versus supernatural reality.  

Once again, comparisons are odious.  But here’s what I would consider to be my worship endgame (from Imagine Heaven NDE book that I’ve been reading concurrently with this study):  “Crystal always assumed her experience of Heaven would be different.  She had imagined herself asking God a barrage of questions—like why (she had had such a painful childhood).  Or how He could allow brutality against children or starvation or cruelty against the weak.  Crystal says, I wanted to know why He didn’t love me.  Or why He lets bad things happen.  And yet as I stood in front of Him and I faced Him and I fell to my knees, and I raised my hands, the question I called out to Him was, “Why didn’t I do more for You?”  Because, in an instant, He revealed His true self to me which is love.  I had never truly worshipped God ever in my entire life.  But I fell in front of Him and I worshipped Him.  And as I lay there in worship in awe of this Creator, I remember saying, “I could worship You for eternity.”¹

Now that’s KO behavior!! 😊

To be continued….

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¹John Burke, Imagine Heaven (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), 178