Lookahead: Well, I think that when we are talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, we can throw out all worldly frames of reference. To realize our full potential in the Kingdom, we have to surrender more and more of our authority and control to God. Plus forget about promotion. Demotion is actually the end game in the Kingdom. And in my view, the compensation and benefits are in the form of increased apocalupsis (lifting layers to achieve greater awareness and revelation of God).
We have previously studied what the prerequisites for Kingdom entry are, for someone who “wants in.” But what is the actual process for getting “hired?” And, while we’re at it, what is the process for getting “promoted?”
In one of my earlier posts in this series, I wrote about the Kingdom Occupier (KO) pre-reqs:
So, do we have to go through a training or refinement process in which the Holy Spirit prepares us and makes us fit for the Kingdom of Heaven? I do not believe so. I think that the only prerequisite is that we are a Child of God–i.e., we don’t have to go through an extended period of sanctification. Also, if we are trying to do the sanctification ourselves, we will never get there. And if some minister has put us on a program of self-sanctification, neither of us will get there…This lines up with the Amplified Bible translation of Matthew 5:3 “Blessed…are the poor in spirit [those devoid of spiritual arrogance, those who regard themselves as insignificant], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
So once we’ve met the pre-reqs, how are we brought in, and how do we realize our full Kingdom potential? For example, in the business world, when a huge contract is won, Human Resources assumes the responsibility for bringing new people in—and finding suitable positions for them. HR might be looking for Senior, Junior, Deputy Program Managers and the Finance Admins/Planners who support them. An Undergrad Business Degree with some experience and good recs might be the pre-req that gets them in the door. But a candidate’s skillset will need to be matched with the appropriate position (e.g., planning/budgeting expertise, formal technical/toolset training, past internal and subcontractor leadership, etc.). Then once the personnel have demonstrated that they can successfully perform in their current positions, they will be given more authority/control, larger programs, and greater monetary compensation so that they can realize their full potential.
Well, I think that when we are talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, we can throw out all worldly frames of reference. To realize our full potential in the Kingdom, we have to surrender more and more of our authority and control to God. Plus forget about promotion. Demotion is actually the end game in the Kingdom.
Luke 7:28 For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
The more of a servant a KO is, the greater the compensation/benefits package. And in my view, the compensation and benefits are in the form of increased apocalupsis (lifting layers to achieve greater awareness and revelation of God).
So if someone is strongly desiring a vocational call or a ministerial office or a spiritual gift(s) or a global ministry, it goes to the heart. With the wrong motives—they have not met the pre-reqs to enter the Kingdom in the first place. With right motives—as they are serving God to the best of their God-given ability—they will learn about His desires and, particularly about His timing, in the Kingdom of Heaven. God programmed their software, and will be able to use it the way He wants, once they are fully surrendered.
If we chronicle Paul’s KO behavior, we see no account of him praying that God would promote him. But his epistles are full of prayers (yearnings) for the Christian brethren and for the unitiated Jews—for I believe that Paul’s prayer life was one that was utterly yielded to the Holy Spirit.
And yesterday I heard Peter Jackson’s testimony. He was a piano player from Birmingham in the U.K. In 1933, at the age of two, he was hospitalized with measles—and, tragically, the ordeal left him blind. In those days, parents institutionalized children with this disability. So Peter was shuttled around from one Institution for the Blind to another. Not only was the quality of life extremely poor (Peter suffered from malnutrition at one point and was hospitalized due to sickness/poor health), but the teaching methodology was abominable, and the students were hopelessly underchallenged. Nevertheless, along the way, Peter fell in love with music and playing the piano, and would not be denied. Eventually, he became a talented pianist, something that his teachers and caretakers were probably never able to fathom. (The schools’ mission was to teach the students braille and, some simple common-laborer jobs like upholstery repair, in the hopes that they could eke out a marginal existence and not be a total drain on society ☹.) Peter rebelled against all this in his teens—primarily through his musical expression, which went from classical (in concert-type venues) to contemporary, i.e., boogie woogie/jazz (in night club-type venues). When he was beautifully saved as a music college student, he fell totally and completely in love with Jesus and, I believe, became a KO. His words: “…God has given me spiritual sight because there’s a great spiritual world out there beyond the physical and it’s what’s called, scientifically, the parallel reality. It’s there and just because we can’t see it physically doesn’t mean it isn’t there…and so God gave me this wonderful spiritual sight…(so) that I knew…just how it was possible for me to be physically blind, but spiritually sighted…Physical sight’s only good for a physical world. You need spiritual sight for the real world, for the ultimate reality.”
Anyway, after his conversion Peter told the LORD that he would “lay down his Isaac” and quit playing jazz—to free him up to direct choirs and play four-part hymns in churches. But it turned out that God didn’t want Peter to give up the contemporary—in fact Peter’s rare ability to excellently and eclectically play different genres of music became his global calling card. However, Peter was first used by God in his hometown of Birmingham. (Back then, Birmingham may have been a little like Nazareth in John 1:46; when Peter was recounting audiences’ reaction to the fact that his life had a bad start, he quipped, (~)“Some people equated the bad start with coming from Birmingham.” 😊)1
Nevertheless, here’s a case in which a person gave God his talent, and God gave it back to him, only super-sized—so that he could not only help the people in the city of his bad start; but so that he could perform around the world as a full-time minister in the Movement for World Evangelism. God helped Peter realize his full potential because he surrendered.
So how do we get into this place of destiny in the Kingdom?
Well…from time to time, yet another itsy-bitsy spider will wind up helplessly trapped in one of my bathtubs. It appears that they can’t climb the tub walls, due to the smoothness and curvature of the surface. But they will spend hours trying—climbing up a fraction of an inch only to slide back down. I Googled tiny tub spiders, of course, and the focus of the posts was on how to totally eradicate them…and their parents…and any new eggs of theirs…off the face of the planet. The methods included everything from foaming bath cleaner, to insecticides, to NH3/ammonia, to de-hydrating detergent, to bringing in a bigger, hungry spider, to gamma rays 😊. One person who called themselves an incurable romantic said in their thread comment, “I’d probably toss a towel over the edge of the tub.” Well, looks like there’s two of us incurable romantics. But as I reached down with the towel, I of course, thought of God reaching His mighty hand down to rescue us from the mirey clay (definitely not deigning to presume that my spider rescue would register anywhere on the Heavenly Mercy Meter 😊)…and I remembered this verse:
He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. Psalm 18:16
Nevertheless, it has occurred to me that this is how we are brought in to the Kingdom of Heaven-on-earth. God reaches down and pulls us up and in. All we have to do is stand there waiting for Him…looking up…with our arms held up in surrender. 😊
One other question – what role does faith play in all this? You can find out by reading next week’s post!
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Cross-Denominational Bible Study 