Lookahead: …when he reported to the captain for duty, “the cruel captain raised his fist and knocked the young man unconscious to the filthy floor. Sammy lay on the floor for several hours. When he regained consciousness, he began working around the cabin as cheerfully as if nothing happened…not only did Sammy not retaliate but there was a look of peace on his face. As Sammy worked, he sang about Jesus. The captain’s mind was flooded with memories of his mother…”
I believe that Kingdom Occupiers (KOs) enjoy non-stop PEACE. In so doing, I really believe that they also enjoy fearless lives. I think this is due to the fact that their trust in Jesus, and his ability to take care of them and save them out of every situation, is totally maximized.
And in fact I think one of the principal characteristics of the Kingdom of heaven-on-earth is the complete and total absence of fear. The reason for this is that the King is love and perfect love casts out fear, so fear cannot exist.
Over the previous many weeks I have come across two examples of KOs whom I believe were able to enter into a state of continual peace. This was possible because they absolutely depended on Jesus to save them out of every situation and to meet every single need that they had.
One KO died seven years before the turn of the century (19th to 20th). After his conversion to Christianity, there was a time when he endured heavy persecution and faced aggression; but he basically had Paul’s mentality when the latter dealt with a deadly viper who had buried its fangs in his hand—he just shook it off and lived many more days to tell about it. This KO viewed dangerous situations as a no-impact. He was following God’s instructions to a tee, therefore, knew with absolute certainty that He made a way out of no way, smoothed out the way in the meantime, and WAS the Way, the Truth and the Life. The second KO is a present-day Australian millennial, and she entered in His peace during a series of freakish events that almost claimed the life of her newborn daughter.
Our first KO is Samuel Morris. He was born in the 19th century, deep in the forests of Liberia West Africa. His given name was Kaboo and he was the son of the chief of a tribe named Kru. The Kru’s were in a protracted war with another tribe. After being defeated in a major battle, the Kru Chief had to turn his son over to the enemy as collateral (a “pawn”) for an extremely oppressive tribute that the Kru’s were forced to pay month in and month out. The tribute eventually began to dwindle as the tribe’s resources were drained. The less the Kru’s gave, the more the enemy beat Kaboo—with thick, thorny, poisonous vines—forcing him to do hard labor with no time to heal. This went on for months until the Kru’s simply ran out of tribute. The Kru Chief made one last visit to throw himself on his enemy’s mercy. Instead, the enemy chief pronounced a death sentence on Kaboo. They put his neck in a wooden stock and built a cross with two beams which they tied him over, so that they could continue whipping his back relentlessly. In parallel they began digging a hole—the purpose of the hole was for burial; they were going to bury him up to his neck then cover his head in honey and let the driver ants finish him off one bite at a time. On the night that the hole was complete, they were taunting him about imminent burial, when suddenly there was a blazing light and massive lightning strike. Kaboo (and many witnesses) heard a voice telling him, “Run!” At that same time, he received a huge surge of supernatural energy; realizing that his ropes had fallen off, he was able to jump up and run for his life into the jungle where he was supernaturally protected for weeks. Traveling at night, he followed a light that led him far away from the tribal lands and eventually to a Christian mission. As soon as Kaboo heard the gospel, he realized that God had saved him, and was totally sold-out for the rest of his life.
Kaboo eventually was baptized and took the name of Samuel Morris (Sammy). When he had drained every drop of knowledge from the missionaries, he decided to go to their training ground, to learn more. As a teenager devoid of family and possessions, it made sense to him that he should head out on foot for the nearest seaport. Led by God every step of the way, he boarded a cargo ship for New York, offering to work for his fare. The ship was full of Godless heathens—particularly brutal men some of whom wanted to kill him. Samuel Morris held his ground and preached the gospel. By the time they arrived in New York, the entire crew had been transformed with many conversions. 😊 The biggest transformation, however, was the ship’s captain; in the beginning, he routinely heaped profanities on Samuel while shoving, kicking, slapping, hitting him and forcing him to do hard labor. With Samuel’s horrific past, one would think that any slave-related treatment would have been unbearable. But more torturous still—the fear that he had ransomed his life for ship’s passage (and was now an expendable pawn again), would have been paralyzing. Here’s Samuel’s reaction:
“All the crew lived in dread of the captain. It was a motley group picked up from different countries around the world. Sammy was the only black and was resented at once. The men impatiently taught him to work the mast, cursing and cuffing him at every turn. But Sammy was filled with the Holy Ghost. His peace was boundless. He bore each indignity with patience and forgiveness”…when he reported to the captain for duty, “the cruel captain raised his fist and knocked the young man unconscious to the filthy floor. Sammy lay on the floor for several hours. When he regained consciousness, he began working around the cabin as cheerfully as if nothing happened…not only did Sammy not retaliate but there was a look of peace on his face. As Sammy worked, he sang about Jesus. The captain’s mind was flooded with memories of his mother…” (my underline)1
The captain was so convicted about hurting such a good, gentle lad that he repented and was saved. The thing that stands out about this account was Samuel’s utter grace under pressure. He never doubted for a minute that God would protect him—and he never lost the zeal to show the captain and crew the way to salvation—no matter the obstacles. He had an immovable focus—and he had it for life.
The second KO is an Australian wife, and mother of a daughter named Gabriella Oliveri. When Gabriella was born (natural childbirth) in 2015, she was beautiful and appeared to be completely healthy in every way…for 30 minutes or so. But in an instant, things changed. She started having breathing problems, and conditions swiftly deteriorated from there. The doctors took over for the midwife, intubated the baby and sedated her to unconsciousness. Five minutes after intubation, her heart stopped!
Her parent’s spiritual mentor (who pastors a large church in Australia and wrote a book on supernatural freedom which, to me, seems more like one version of a how-to on entering and operating in the Kingdom) had done well by them, equipping them with faith-engendering Words/God’s healing promises. Plus at that moment, they discovered that the midwife/nurse was a Christian as well! So, standing with unflappable faith and trusting God to “partner with them” in the healing, they fervently prayed.
But my personal belief is that, during that prayer, the baby’s mother, in total weakness, fell at the King’s feet—
In a God Channel e-article: “We can all be inspired by the words of Hayley Oliveri who talks about putting fear aside and embracing ‘a bubble of God’s peace.’ ‘Right then was a very weak moment,’ she says, ‘but (then) I saw a vision of Jesus. He walked right up to Gabriella and put His hand on her.’ After that, she knew everything would be all right…”2
After four minutes, the baby was successfully resuscitated. She was still struggling to breathe and was frighteningly gray. At one point, one lung collapsed, and later the other one. A photo taken of the baby showed “tubes everywhere.” For many hours, it was life or death…
In the Vimeo documentary, Hayley’s voice faltered when she remembered all the tubes, but then she went on to say, “From that moment when I saw that vision of Jesus, for me it was OK…it was almost like I was in a bubble of God’s peace…I just knew that God was holding us, holding her.”3 Even the pastor, who had quickly arrived on the scene, was aware that Hayley had this “supernatural peace.” After two days, the baby opened her eyes, fully responsive to her surroundings, and complication-free.
Hayley’s closing words in the video, “In every situation, God wants us to have no fear, because He is perfect LOVE.” And I might add, …Perfect LOVE casts out fear. 1 John 4:18 😊
Now that’s Kingdom Peace at its finest.
++++++++++++
1W. Terry Whalin, Samuel Morris, Missionary to America, (Barbour Publishing Inc.: Urichsville, OH, 1996) pp 97,99-100
2https://godtv.com/miracle-baby-doctors-astonished-as-jesus-intervenes-in-critical-situation/
Cross-Denominational Bible Study 