"Forceful Men Lay Hold Of It"

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #132r, Re-Written 07OCT09

The Disciples’ Prayer—Part Eighteen: “Forceful Men Lay Hold Of It”

by rev dave c

Mt 6:9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "`Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one' (NIV).

When Paul tells the Corinthians, the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power (1Co 4:20; NIV), he is telling all of us that mere words are neither a manifestation of, nor evidence for, the presence of the Kingdom. Real testimony rests in the demonstration of lives being miraculously changed, and the occurrence of events that can not be explained by anything other than Divine providence and intervention. Just as the tendency in much of Christianity is to downplay the dunamis power of God (Strong's #1411; that is, miraculous power)—for anything other than the initial salvation experience itself, there is a corresponding increase in the emphasis placed upon the exousia power (Strong's #1849; delegated authority) granted to Church organizations. I fear the result is an ever expanding religious structure that is displacing an effective pursuit of the actual Person of God and Godliness on the part of individual Christians. This pursuit is dramatically summarized by Paul in Philippians 3:10-16:

10 I want to know Christ and the power [dunamis] of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on [pursue] to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward [pursue] the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained (NIV).

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul describes the end result of “Church-iantiy” gone to seed that is devoid of the power of the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit, 3:1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--5 having a form of godliness but denying its power [dunamis] Have nothing to do with them (NIV). While the leaven of the Pharisees of all ages is hypocritical legalism, in Matthew 16:6 Christ also warns His disciples against the leaven of the Sadducees—those who deny the miraculous power of God while establishing and maintaining control of the institutions of God.

Earlier in the same book the Apostle gave Timothy the following instructions, I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power (dunamis), of love and of self-discipline (2Ti 1:5-7; NIV). It is imperative for us to note that God gives His disciples a triune spirit of power, spirit of love, and spirit of self-discipline. Chapters 12, 13, and 14 of both Romans and First Corinthians provide a thorough study of the necessity for this balance in the walk of the individual Christian, and in the collective, or corporate, worship of a fellowship of Believers.

While I readily accept the eternal and almighty power of God, for years I have been bothered by a question of meaning for Matthew 11:12, From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it (NIV). In some Bible versions the word used for forceful,is powerful, or even violent. A parallel verse occurs in Luke at 16:16, "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it (NIV). With study, this passage from Luke has finally begun to open the eyes of my understanding regarding an appropriate interpretation for both verses. Since John the Baptist (and Jesus) began to proclaim, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”, the Kingdom has been pressing/forcing its way into this world against all of the opposition that the systems of Man and Satan can place against it. In the same manner, everyone who hears and who wants to accept the Gospel Message of Salvation must forcefully overcome all obstacles thrown into his, or her, way—whether those obstructions are from the world, from the Church, or from within the person’s own mind and heart.

In the first part of Luke Chapter 19, we are told that Zacchaeus, because his desire was so great to see Jesus through the crowd, climbed a tree to overcome the disadvantage of a short physical stature. Having had his passion acknowledged by the Savior, the tax collector then had to overcome the hate of the Jews who surrounded him in order to declare his repentance. Jesus responded to the penitent, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (NIV). Zacchaeus displayed his willingness to forcefully lay hold of the kingdom as it was being forcefully advanced by Jesus Christ. I pray we possess this same passion for the power of the living God in our lives, and within the life of our churches. Amen.