If you have decided to follow Jesus Christ and have turned away from your old life of sin, then you are now born again and live in his kingdom of light, love and supernatural favor and power. God’s infinite love and infinite power through the Holy Spirit now resides within your spirit. The spiritual realm is superior and above and beyond the physical realm just like Quantum Mechanics is above and beyond the physical realm. The physical realm is like virtual reality and the spiritual realm IS reality.
When Jesus died and resurrected from the grave he utterly defeated Satan and all of his authority on the earth. On the cross, Jesus forgave you and canceled the power of sin and Satan’s kingdom over you. Jesus then went back into heaven to sit on his throne at the right hand of his Father. He then raised you up in a spiritual sense and seated you alongside himself in heaven far above the devil and every name or power on earth. The spiritual realm is now your new reality. The physical/flesh is secondary and follows after the spiritual realm.
It is awesome to live in Jesus’ kingdom with all of God’s supernatural love, blessings and provision. However, those of us who are trying to follow him can feel pulled back into Satan’s kingdom of darkness, fear, inferiority, insecurity, worry, discouragement, and anxiety, etc. It is very important to be able to determine when Satan is trying to pull us back into his kingdom.
Let’s Create a Vision of the Path Ahead of You as You Follow Christ
Two Kingdoms
Keep it fixed in your mind every day and every moment that you are dealing with two kingdoms. Even though you have been translated into the kingdom of light and love, the kingdom of darkness is always there ready and waiting to try and pull you back in. Satan is not happy that you chose to repent from sin and follow Christ. He wants you back!
The Kingdom of Love and Light
In your heart, do you want to be loved perfectly and accepted for who you are? Welcome to the Kingdom of unconditional love and acceptance and blessings beyond imagination! God the Father does not see your sins any more. The blood that Jesus shed on the cross paid the price for your sins. Jesus blood now covers all of your sins. Otherwise, our perfect heavenly Father could not even look at you never mind accept you. Now, because of Jesus, God the Father has now adopted you into his family and you are now seated with Jesus at his right hand as he rules over the nations. God is not angry with you. In fact, he is delighted with you. His Spirit is at work within you if you seek him out and invite him in and allow him to transform you. We can be transformed daily from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. This is called the sanctification process.
You are now God’s agent working in the world to transform it into his kingdom and to bring as many people to Christ and into his kingdom of love and light as possible.
When you know you are loved perfectly and accepted completely by an infinitely powerful and loving God, why would you need or want anything else? Since God gave his only begotten Son to save you, why would he withhold anything else? Why would you need man’s approval? Why would you crave physical comforts? Why would you have any need at all? Why would we ever sin?
The Kingdom of Darkness and Inferiority
Satan’s kingdom feels natural and comfortable to our old physical nature in the flesh. Our emotions, desires, and passions were controlled by this kingdom. We felt worried and anxious about finances and bills and worried about what people thought of us and worried about safety and worried about our health. We craved comfort in relationships, money, and things. We felt hurt and angry when people offended, rejected, or disrespected us. We were never 100% sure that we were loved. We felt unforgiveness and bitterness and wanted to retaliate. We were afraid of rejection, afraid of the dark, afraid of failure, afraid of success, afraid of people or circumstances, etc. We were discouraged when things didn’t go the way we hoped or when we had losses or theft. We were insecure and never sure if we were good enough or perfectly accepted. We had addictions to food, love, pleasure, alcohol, drugs, sex, etc.
Even though we have been set free from our old sinful self, our minds need to be renewed and transformed daily from our old habits and ways of thinking into the Lord’s kingdom of light and love.
One Rule: Love
How do we get out of the kingdom of darkness, fear, and inferiority and all of our bad habits and get transformed into the new kingdom of love and light? There is one rule, the golden rule:
Love your neighbor as yourself. – Leviticus 19:18.
God is also our neighbor and he first loved us. Jesus broke the golden rule out into two priorities:
1) Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
2) Love your neighbor as yourself.
One Action: Love
1) We love the Lord by spending lots of time each day praising, thanking, and loving him and studying the Bible and putting what we learn into practice.
2) We love our neighbors by carrying others burdens. Find out what peoples’ needs are and lend a helping hand.
That’s it. It’s so simple to be a Christian yet so few seem to do it. The reason people don’t do it is because it is the opposite and counter-intuitive to our old habits and the kingdom of darkness. But the interesting and awesome thing is, when you spend a lot of time loving and praising the Lord, you become filled with his love, peace, and glory and that love comes bursting out of you like rivers of living water to love and bless everyone else around you in the world. The love, peace, and glory of the Lord is under your control. It is the Lord coming near to you because you came near to him. The scripture says, in James 4:8, Come near to God and he will come near to you…”
