Lookahead: Lie #3: God is not happy that we fall short of perfection. Also, God disciplines/punishes us to make us more holy like Christ. And along the same lines, KO’s (Kingdom Occupiers) must suffer like Paul—or worst case, Jesus. Any believer who is trying to be perfect to please God is in bondage and, therefore, not KO material. Any believer who thinks that God is not happy with them and/or keeps punishing them to teach them some cosmic lesson, again won’t be able to trust Him fully—and won’t be able to occupy the Kingdom. And in fact, a suffering or death wish, is the absolute antithesis of the Kingdom.

For purposes of this post, a Kingdom Wrecker constitutes anything that would keep someone from occupying the Kingdom of Heaven-on-earth. There are various delivery vehicles for these Kingdom Wreckers, so the appellation could be applied to the vehicles as well.

Matthew 23:13 is a good example: (Jesus cut to the chase in saying) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

The Pharisees were lying to their disciples, telling them that they had to be perfect in their observance of the Law to get in. But the actual Kingdom Wrecker was the legalistic lie itself. The unfortunate disciples chose to believe the lie.

When I went through my warp9-run-thru of the Books of John and Acts, as wells as Paul’s Epistles a year ago, I came up with about 50 scriptures that defined these Kingdom Wreckers. I reduced the list down somewhat. Here is what I arrived at:

Side Note 1: I am referencing the scriptures which either cite the wrecking behavior itself, or represent God’s truth which helped me to recognize a Kingdom wrecking lie (e.g., “there is therefore now no condemnation” prompted—”we deserve to be punished.”)

Side Note 2: One could say that Lie #1 is that there is no “Kingdom of Heaven-on-earth,” i.e., that all the biblical references are speaking about Heaven itself. However, I cannot call that a lie, or judge anyone who believes it. There is just as much evidence to prove that position, as there is to prove my position—that we can fully enjoy the benefits of Heaven on this side of glory. I believe that it’s another “we’ll know when we get to Heaven” situation.

Lie #1: Jesus is not real (1 Corinthians 15:12-14, 2 Corinthians 11:10-12)

You can’t have a Kingdom without the King. So if a person doesn’t believe that Jesus has established residence in their heart, Kingdom residence on earth won’t be do-able.

Lie #2: God forgave our sins, but we still needed to be punished for them. I’ve also heard this expressed as, “the sins of our youth catching up with us.” (Romans 6:21-23, Romans 8:1, 2 Corinthians 3:9)

Any believer who thinks that they still deserve to be punished for their sins after they have repented and confessed them, will be living in condemnation and is not KO (Kingdom Occupier) material. Also, if they believe that God would have selective sin erasure, they won’t be able to trust Him fully—and again won’t be able to occupy the Kingdom.

Lie #3: God is not happy that we fall short of perfection. Also, God disciplines/punishes us to make us more holy like Christ. And along the same lines, KO’s must suffer like Paul—or worst case, Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:6-8, 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, Philippians 1:22-26, Philippians 4:11-13, Romans 7:25, Romans 8:15, Romans 8:36)

Any believer who is trying to be perfect to please God is in bondage and, therefore, not KO material. Any believer who thinks that God is not happy with them and/or keeps punishing them to teach them some cosmic lesson, again won’t be able to trust Him fully—and won’t be able to occupy the Kingdom. And in fact, a suffering or death wish, is the absolute antithesis of the Kingdom.

I recently heard a podcast teaching by Valerie Elliot Shepard. She is Elisabeth and Jim Elliot’s daughter (Jim Elliot was killed by members of the savage Auca Indian Tribe in Ecuador in the 50’s. Elisabeth Elliot and 3-year old Valerie (with fellow missionary Rachel Saint) subsequently went into the rain forest to live with the very tribe who had committed the murder. Then, over decades of a successful global ministerial career, Elisabeth Elliot published many books detailing God’s miraculous saving power). Valerie grew up to be no shrinking violet herself. She became a mother—and homeschooler—of eight, as well as a pastor’s wife. In the middle of this journey, she suddenly slammed on the brakes and submitted herself to a counseling program for Recovering Pharisees 😊! She describes herself as being a chronic people pleaser with a set of religious rules/regs that had become her idol, as well as instrument of pain—because she always fell short and considered herself a total failure as a mother. Her thoughts during the counseling: “I wanted my mother’s complete approval…(she) would say, “Val, I only had one (child), so that I can’t really give you good advice with the number you have…you trust in the LORD and ask Him for wisdom…” Eventually Valerie received the revelation that “…God’s grace covered our mistakes…that God is in the (holy) business…and it is His work not ours…it is His covering of righteousness that makes us pleasing…” After this revelation set her free, she was able to pray to God to “give me the wisdom to raise these children.”¹ And I’m sure He happily complied.

Someone who does not believe that our perfection is only found in God will be in bondage, and again, is not Kingdom material.

Lie #4: Close cousin to Lie #3…We are free to sin and grace will handle it. (Romans 3:8, 6:1, 6:15)

Based on one millennial gen. pastor’s recent plan to seek counsel/restoration, after his multiple adulteries were discovered, evidently there are now Christian Counselors who consider this to be a treatable case of pastoral burnout. Counselors and counseling aside, I do not believe that sin has ceased to be sin. And I further believe that God is the only One Who can restore a fallen minister.

Having said that, someone who has a habitual sin of this nature will have to repent and, with God’s help, stop sinning before they can become a KO.

Lie #5: God lumps the sinner and the sin together in one package that He loves unconditionally. (Romans 8:35-39, 1 John 4:8, 16)

If we believe this, we will keep on sinning. And, per Lie #4, sinners aren’t KO material.

Sin is sin, and when God gave us His Word on Mount Sinai, He let a barbaric, bestial people group know exactly what sin was. His definition has not changed, despite the enemy’s baseless claims over the millennia.

Recently I read an on-line article about a movie producer who made a comedy film about this poor, misunderstood ex-porn star turned porn-movie-maker wannabe. The main premise was that the ex-star was a likeable fellow who was victimized by his own ineptitude (sex addict just trying to make a decent living) as the movie tried to address the proposed injustice of the porn industry being forced underground; i.e., with its billion dollar profits why is it not considered part of this country’s economic system/GDP. What’s next? Sensitivity and Political Correctness for the porn industry “players”? There is another male film producer who considers porn to be an art form and has been deliberately and systematically improving the quality of his porn films (with realistic scripts and cinematic improvements) for years. A female short film producer is seeking to give female sex workers legitimacy. She started out with a documentary that was supposed to be anthropological, but I guess it was hard to overlook the porn. So her second venture is intended to address business/power aspects of female sex workers in the “workplace.”

I don’t care how fancied up it is—in my view, porn is still porn—and God detests it. If someone accepts the priceless gift of Jesus, He will forgive the abominable sins that He hates—because He has never stopped loving the sinner.

But sinners don’t become KO’s until they repent and accept the gift.

More Kingdom Wreckers next week…

++++++++++++

¹Podcast available at iche.org.