ACCESSING THE KINGDOM OF GOD THROUGH THE CHURCH

In the last chapter, we spoke on how to access the Kingdom that belongs to you. It would be a total disaster if you have a kingdom and you don’t know how to get in there and get out at your will. You must be able to get in there because you have the tickets, passports, password and visa; everything is complete. And we read from John 3:3,5, that says, “Except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And in the fifth verse, He says that “Unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. For you to see and enter it, you must be born again. I will tell you how to be born again: “For the Word is near you in your heart and your mouth, the Word of faith that we preach. If you confess with your mouth that ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (See Romans 10:7-11). Going further, we read from the book of John 10:9 where Jesus said, ‘I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. That is, He is the way, the truth and the life. We are to go through Jesus; He is the key, the way to this Kingdom. “For in Him and by faith in Him we find the grace upon which we stand.” (See Romans 5:2). And reading further, from the book of Ephesians 2:18, “In Him we both find access to the Father in one Spirit.” Ephesians 3:12, “In Him and through faith in Him we can all approach God with freedom and confidence.” Going further He says, “Now then let us approach the throne of grace with confidence so we can receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need.” (Hebrews 4:16.) “And this is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, we have received that which we ask from Him.” (1 John 5:14-15). That was the message you received and the message is true. That is the message that shows and accepts you to the Kingdom. You have the Kingdom. You cannot deny that you have a kingdom unless you are not born of God or going through Jesus. You are going through other false myths and sinking grounds, and they will fail you. But if you go through Jesus, it is a guarantee that you are already in the Kingdom. Welcome yourself to the Kingdom. We are in the Kingdom because we have Him. When you have the author of the Kingdom, what is missing? You are in the reality. Going further today, we shall be speaking about ‘Access to the Kingdom through the Church.’ When we say the church, we are not talking about the building. You are wrong if you think the building is the church. The church is never a building; the building is a place of meeting. The church can be in the dining, living room, office, school, classroom, marketplace; the church can be anywhere. That is the church – it can move from place to place – it is not a building. You can’t point and say that that place is our church. Rather the place is a building where the church meets. In God’s progressive prophetic plan of redemption, what is now called the holy temple and church was called the nation. At that time the synagogue was called the nation. Reading from the book of Isaiah 26:2, “Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.” So it was called nation at a time. Progressively in the divine plan, it came to be the temple, the church. “…the nation that keeps faith.” Faith is of the Spirit. So the nation that keeps faith is the nation of the Spirit: the men of the Spirit, the group of people who are spiritual. For the church is a spiritual body of Christ. And the residence of this body is the Kingdom. Though we are in the world, but we are not of the world. You are here, but you are not of the world. If you look beyond, you will discover that when you are not of the world, you believe in the things of the Spirit. You have come to believe they are reality. You have come to believe that they are the eternal and real; more real than the things you see around. “…the nation that keeps faith.” We are products of faith and the just shall live by faith. Reading from the book of Genesis 25:23, the wife of Isaac, Rebekah, went before the Lord and this message came to her prophetically: “There are two nations in your womb, and two peoples born of you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other; and the older will serve the younger.” Those two nations referred to Jacob and Esau. We are seeing it from the spirit; it is not Esau and Jacob but Jacob and Esau. Acts 17:24-27, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and determines time set for them and the exact places that they are to live. God did this so that men may seek Him and perhaps may reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.” This passage tells us that God does not live in temples built by hands; meaning He doesn’t live in physical buildings. For flesh and blood will never inherit the kingdom. (See 1st Corinthians 15:50). You cannot enter the kingdom in your natural self; you can only enter in the spirit. Those who worship God must worship him in Spirit and in truth. (See John 4:23-24). 2nd Corinthians 12:2-4, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know – God knows. And I know that this man – whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows – was caught up to paradise and heard of things that could not be expressed, things that no one is permitted to tell.” We are talking about accessing the Kingdom, and accessing the Kingdom is not a physical or natural thing; it’s something spiritual. You have the testimony of a man in Christ, not outside of Christ, who was caught up into heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body is what we will not say here now. But indeed, this man was taken up into heaven. Heaven is not a physical thing or place. He was caught up into paradise. You must enter your paradise. This man cannot be praying, “Father, let me make heaven. Please let me make heaven. Has he not already made heaven? He was caught up into paradise. Many are waiting till the time they will die to enter heaven; they may never get there. If you want to go to heaven, you must start going there now. If you wait till the time you die, you miss it. You cannot go where you don’t know about. This man in Christ, fourteen years ago, was caught up into paradise, and he saw things that are inexpressible; things you cannot put it in human language; things no one is permitted to say. Those things are spiritual things; things eternal and of life. I know he saw angels, the four living creatures, the twenty-four elders, the holy angels, the archangels, the benevolent spirits, the creatures of light, and the trillions upon trillions of the hosts of heaven. He saw all of them. And he saw the river that is flowing, blazing like fire. He saw all of them. And he saw the throne of God, and the Lamb of God, who took away the sin of the whole world, seated at the right hand of the Father. Let heaven, (the kingdom) be real. Let the reality of it be stronger than your partner, your marital partner, your classroom, your bedroom, your living room, because you are of the Spirit. So your mind is set on the things of the Spirit. As you look into the perfect law of liberty and life, and continue to look, not forgetting what you have seen or heard, you will be blessed in the Kingdom that you belong. God, who made the world and everything in it, does not live in temples built by hands. He is not being served by human hands as though He needed anything. For He is the one who gave every man life and breath and everything else. In your giving, when you give, some say you are not giving to God, but you are. Because it is what you give that will be used to buy or build the church auditorium, buy a church bus, help the needy, etc. Benevolent services will be provided by reason of your giving. For the Bible says that whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:17). Whatever you do in word or in deed, including your tithes and offerings, do all in the name of Jesus, the One that saved you. “All power and authority has been given unto Me. Therefore, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you, all that I have imparted on you. And surely I am with you to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20). How will you go to the whole world? Can any individual sponsor it? Even governments, the whole government of Nigeria, can it afford to sponsor everybody to go through the whole world? There are approximately 7 billion people around the world. Where are the resources? It’s through your giving. ‘He Himself is not served by human hands, as though He needed anything.’ Because He’s the one that gives to every man, life, breath, and everything else. God does not live in temples built by hands. Where then does He live? As beautiful as this place is, built in the name of God, yet He does not live here. Where does He live? The Bible says, in the book of 2 Corinthians 6:16, “For what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temples of God. For God has said, ‘I will live with them and be in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.” Where does God live? God, the creator of the earth, has no business mixing His temple with idols. When you are referring to idols, we are talking about remaining in the sense realm; we are talking about the corruption that is in the world. “For He has given us His very great and precious promises that we should walk in them and become partakers of His divine nature and escape from the corruption that is in the world caused by evil desire.” (2 Peter 1:4). What agreement has the temple of God with idols? When we are in the corruption, we bring the corruption to pollute the temple of God. When you are in the flesh and you want to worship God, who is Spirit, it does not work. When you are in the flesh, you want to worship God who is in the Spirit, you are trying to bring an agreement between the idols and the Spirit, and it doesn’t work that way. “For flesh and blood will never inherit the kingdom, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” (1st Corinthians 15:50). “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24). So there is no agreement between the temple of God and idols.

You cannot be in the flesh and worship God. If you want to worship God, you must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Then there will be no disagreement. We must not bring the corruption into the redemption. The redemption is to destroy the corruption. For in the corruption, you are in union with the adversary, Satan. Luke 20:36, “…and they can no longer die for they are like the angels. They are children of God since they are children of the resurrection.” In heaven, you can no longer die. You are like angels. We are all children of God since we are children of the resurrection. We became born again after Jesus offered Himself to die for us and bought our justification. Romans 4:25, “He was given up to death on our own account and was raised up to life for our justification.” He has declared that you are innocent, righteous, and a child of God. You have been saved, redeemed, and separated from darkness to light, from being a child of Satan to become a child of God. Don’t limit yourself; see the way God is seeing you and live by what He has called you. He made Jesus to be sin so that we may become righteous. He is now saying today that He has made you a Father of many nations. Don’t bring gender into it. Yes, we are all children of God For no male or female in heaven. We are like angels; there is no death. Once you believe, you possess and receive. Unbelief is the problem in the world. The greatest sin in the present world is unbelief. Jesus has dealt with the sin of treasonable felony that occurred in the Garden of Eden that brought death. But for over 2,000 years now, many people have been living in unbelief. Unbelief has robbed many of their privileges, inheritance, rights, and the good that Jesus came to give to them. Unbelief has kept many people in the prison; unbelief has kept many in the hospitals; unbelief is keeping many people on the streets of sin even when Jesus has died to save people from their sins; unbelief has broken so many homes and marriages; unbelief has destroyed so many businesses and careers. It has kept many hopeless, helpless, in weakness and in failure. Unbelief is the secret behind all of this problem. It is behind our sicknesses and our diseases that have refused to receive healing and deliverance. Unbelief is the problem. Even today, what they call Palm Sunday, many who are carrying the cross of Jesus physically, they remain in unbelief. When it comes to the things of faith, they are nowhere to be found because they don’t believe. They cannot possess their possession in Christ Jesus. “He has become our father in the sight of God in whom he believed; God who gives life to the dead and calls those things that be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17) For He is the one that gives life to the dead. We were all dead in our sin and trespasses, but He gave us life. For the Bible says that because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised up us with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly places… (See Ephesians 2:4-6) I am telling you, when we are talking about the Kingdom of God, you are seated in the heavenly places. Are you doubting that? Is unbelief keeping you out of the kingdom? If truly you are seated there, you are inside the vehicle that is called belief. Because you believe, you are seated in the heavenly places through the power and message of the church, the gospel that has come to you. If you so believe in this gospel, you are saved. But be careful of unbelief for it can rob you. It can rob you of so many good things that heaven is offering you. Heaven is offering you so many good things, but if you are not careful and you abide in unbelief, it will destroy every good thing that you may possess. Many have become victims of unbelief; they are in pain, despair, sorrow, weakness, hurt, offense, and unforgiveness. They are really being afflicted by the arrows of unbelief. You cannot remain in unbelief and please God. “For if you must come to God, you must believe that He exists and that He’s the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6). We must believe; believing is accessing; believing is being in the presence; believing is possessing. You are in the Kingdom. When you ask the Father to see the Kingdom, he shows it unto you. For no one can see it unless he is born again. Once you are born again, and you ask the Father, ‘I want to see you.’ Moses asked, ‘Father, I want to see you.’ And He showed Himself unto Moses. In the redemption, you have the right to see your Father. We call Him our Father. How can a child be in the house for years and he cannot see his father when he is not blind? Is that not a problem? A child who cannot see his parents. God is our Father, and when He taught us to pray, He said “Say Our Father who art in heaven.” The people outside call Him God, but we that are His children, we call him our Father. That is the meaning of the name of the church: “God Father and Family Church.” God and his children; the Father and his children (His family). God’s purpose and plan is to have one single family through Jesus Christ. And that family is what we call the Church of God. That family came through Jesus; the Church is born through Jesus. “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Matthew 16:18. And in chapter 18, verse 20, it says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am with them.” That is the church; when two or three are gathered, there I will be in their midst. It’s not about how large the church is in number or population that makes God to be there. For 120 years that Noah was preaching the gospel, how many people were saved? For 120 years Noah kept preaching the gospel; Repent for the flood is about to overcome the world. But how many people were saved at the end of the day? Eight people. Out of the whole world, only eight people were saved. That ark was built for 120 years, and as Noah built, he also preached to them, and they mocked him and made gest of him. And they all perished because of all unbelief. If they had believed, a lot of them would have been saved. Unbelief is the only thing that is against you. Even the sins that you commit at times is not against you, but unbelief is. For the Bible says, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.