Why I Preach The Kingdom

By Joseph Mattera

My eyes were opened in 1995 when I went from a dispensational belief system to the kingdom message. As a result, the positive results in my life, message, and ministry cannot be overstated!

I will attempt to summarize all of my reasons for preaching the kingdom.

1. The kingdom message connects the whole Bible and all its covenants to the original Cultural Mandate found in Genesis 1:28 (be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over the created order). Without this passage as our starting point, we cannot properly interpret all other subsequent biblical covenants, including the New Covenant, since the Cultural Mandate is the original covenant of creation which shows all of humanity our purpose.

2. The kingdom message connects Jesus in His dual role as both Creator and Redeemer (John 1:3, 11, 14; 3:16). Those who preach that the cross is only for individual redemption miss the truth that the cross of Christ was also for the purpose of reconciling all things in the created order back to God (read Colossians 1:20).

3. The kingdom message brings the church back to the overarching narrative (instead of only focusing on various subplots of scripture) which reveals the ultimate purpose of God for the cross and the church: the gathering together in one all things under the Lordship of Christ (read Ephesians 1:9-11).

4. The kingdom message is a generational message connecting the dots between the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15) and the seed of Abraham who would become the church (Galatians 3:29) who, as children of God, are called to bless all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3), rule as kings in the earth (Genesis 17:5-7), and possess the gates of our enemies (Genesis 22:17). By implication, this means the gospel message is holistic and applicable for our children’s children to engage in politics, public policy, economics, and all the practical affairs of this life that are under kingdom influence and blessing.

5. The kingdom message alone gives Jesus His proper place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords because every king must have a kingdom to qualify as a king! To separate the gospel from the kingdom is an attempt to give good news that only applies to the next life. Hence, it does away with the power of the messianic prophecies that speak of Jesus’ call as ruler over the nations (read Genesis 49:10; Psalm 2:9-11; Psalm 110:1-3; Isaiah 9:6.7; Daniel chapters 2, 4, 7).

6. Preaching the kingdom motivates and releases all the saints in the church to serve as ministers of the Lord in His kingdom. (Only 2-3% of all Christians are called to serve in full-time church ministry.) Every kingdom has need for architects, lawyers, judges, educators, sociologists, politicians, economists, social workers, writers, etc. Understanding this is exciting for every person in church because of their various callings to serve God in the marketplace.

7. Preaching the kingdom releases Holy Spirit-inspired creativity! The first move of the Holy Spirit was not on the Day of Pentecost but when the Spirit hovered over the newly made creation of planet earth (Genesis 1:1-3)! Hence, the Holy Spirit is still excited and hovers over the creativity found in God’s image-bearers as we walk out our vocations in the marketplace!

The greatest composers, musicians, athletes, writers, poets, playwrights, and filmmakers should come out of our churches! The greatest universities (such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, founded when the church preached the kingdom in the 17th and 18th centuries) should be founded by Christians! Hospitals and the greatest charities should be founded by Christians and churches! Future mayors, governors and presidents should come out of the Body of Christ because we are called to possess the gates of our enemies and have kingship and rulership in our spiritual DNA (read Genesis 17:5-7)!

8. The kingdom is what Jesus, John the Baptist and Paul preached and is the primary theme of the New Testament (read Matthew 3:2, 4:17; Mark 1:15; Acts 28:31).

9. The kingdom message causes the church to be holistic in its approach to ministry because, even by its very name, it pressures us to think of how we as believers can collectively steward the created order and manage the earth.

10. The kingdom message, if received and preached again by the majority of true believers, would most definitely result in us redeeming cultures, transforming cities, and bringing biblical reformation to whole nations. This would spare nations from either judgment or extinction for not following the pattern laid out in the Ten Commandments for structuring nations.

Hence, the only hope for the United States and the world is the preaching and application of the kingdom message! As in other words, Haiti doesn’t need another healing crusade. What Haiti needs is an apostle of government to become president who will bring kingdom order and root out corruption!

11. The kingdom message announces Jesus’ inheritance as found in Psalm 2:9-11.

Jesus died to redeem whole nations and people groups. This goes along with our inheritance as saints as found in Ephesians 1:10-11 and is part of the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19, when Jesus commanded believers to disciple all of the nations, not just individual people but whole people groups!

The discipling of nations was very common in early church history. For example, when the heads of Gothic Germanic tribes would convert then all of their people converted as well. Whole nations would be baptized!

12. The kingdom message pressures pastors to become theologians who have a biblical worldview instead of only preaching the same feel-good, therapeutic messages Sunday after Sunday.

13. The kingdom message brings back to the fore true discipleship as it pressures every believer to study the scriptures pertaining to their particular marketplace calling as they learn to think biblically but speak secularly.

14. The kingdom message makes sense to everyone, especially world changers who come into our churches and feel bored when they are told that the highest calling they can have in life is to serve as an usher or minister for two hours every Sunday.

Because we have preached a truncated gospel we have lost the greatest world changers–politicians and statesmen with callings like Churchill and entrepreneurs like Bill Gates–because they come into our churches and only hear messages dealing with life after death. Thus, they leave and go into the world where their gifts are truly appreciated!

The current church mindset only appreciates and ordains Sunday preachers instead of nurturing and commissioning people called into secular culture as ministers and prophets. It is a sad thing but, given the kind of preaching we hear every Sunday, many churches currently have no place for believers called like Joseph (the prophet economist who saved Egypt and Israel in Genesis 37-50), Daniel (who, as a prime minister prophet brought transformation to Babylon and Persia), or Nehemiah (a politician who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem)!

15. The kingdom message allows parents to recognize the marketplace callings upon their children and to disciple them in the scriptures accordingly! Not all of our children are called to be full-time church ministers but all of our children are called to serve as ministers in the kingdom!

16. Those who preach the kingdom message view the entire Old Testament as relevant today to apply both the moral law (Ten Commandments) as the foundation of judicial law, and its extrapolated 613 civic laws that apply the moral law to specific judicial situations for the purpose of structuring society. Thus, the kingdom message causes believers to take seriously the Old Covenant and study it as much as the New Covenant. (The Old Covenant civic laws have been modified because of the revelation of grace in the New Testament.)

17. The kingdom message causes us to reinterpret many salvation passages from an individualistic application to a systemic and corporate application. For example, Luke 4:18 connects Jesus as King announcing that in His new kingdom He will release the oppressed, empower the poor, and release the captive. This concerns systemic justice, not just casting a devil out of an individual. Compare this to Isaiah 61:1-4 to get the true meaning and context. Communities and cities are redeemed and lifted by the kingdom message.

Ten Implications of the Kingdom Message

1. We understand that being born again is not about going to heaven but having our eyes opened so that we finally see the Lordship of Christ over all the earth as King of Kings (read John 3:3-6).

2. We understand John 3:16 as not just God loving individual sinners but sending His Son to redeem the created order. (The word “world” in the Greek is “cosmos” which is the systems of the created order.) Thus, God wants us as His kingdom people to apply the Bible to economics and public policy, not just to prayer and the fruit of the Spirit.

3. The ministry gifts found in Ephesians 4:11 are seen as equipping the saints for the work of the ministry in the marketplace to fill up all things, not just for church ministry (read Ephesians 4:10-12 for the context).

4. We shift from a platonic/dualistic approach to life, in which we erroneously believe that God only values spiritual things, to a holistic approach in which we value the material world as well. (John 1:14: The Word became flesh, thus flesh is not evil.)

5. There is a movement toward incarnation in which we not only “march for Jesus” but we “move in” for Jesus and immerse ourselves in our communities, not just our churches. We should serve our cities with our marketplace callings as ministers of the kingdom, not just serve God on Sundays in church buildings.

6. The church is to nurture apostles of government, law, economics, and education, not just ecclesial elders involved in church government, church by-laws, tithes and offerings, and nurturing Sunday school teachers.

7. We understand and view Jesus as the King of the earth, not just as the Head of the Body of Christ.

8. We understand that the church is not the totality of the kingdom but is the primary agent of the kingdom as salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16).

9. We are to labor not only for revival but societal reformation because revival brings people into the church and reformation places believers in societal leadership.

10. We now understand that the Bible is not really a book about heaven (it says very little about heaven!) but a book about God’s people stewarding the earth.

Both the Old and New Covenants serve as blueprints for local faith communities to branch out and structure societies with a biblical worldview as salt and light.

Although we believe in the separation of church and state because they are two separate spheres of authority in the created order, we do not believe in the separation of God and state because all of life is about religious and moral choices.

There is no such thing as moral neutrality. Either society will be under the rule of an atheistic, humanistic religious order or under a biblical religious order.

 Posted with permission from the author.

A Kingdom Mindset Versus A Church Mindset

Jesus, John the Baptist, and the apostles went about proclaiming the kingdom, not the church (read Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 10:7; Acts 28:30-31). Although the church is in the kingdom, it is not the entire kingdom.

“Kingdom” denotes the rule of God over the whole cosmos, not just a single entity on the earth, like the church. In spite of this, most preaching today has as its goal to get people to make a weekly two-hour commitment to come to a building on Sundays and to give tithes to support that building! This is because a spirit of religion has captivated the church and blinded the minds of church leaders, so that we now have a very limiting church mindset instead of a kingdom perspective. The negative results of this cannot be overstated.

In essence, a kingdom mindset regards Christianity as a biblical world and life view centered on the person of Jesus Christ who is Lord of all creation. This has vast political, economic, and sociological implications! Those with a church mindset view Jesus merely as the King of the church, not the King of all earthly secular kings.

The following are contrasts between these two mindsets:

A kingdom mindset releases all saints as ministers in the marketplace. A church mindset merely trains people to serve in a church building on Sundays.

A kingdom mindset creates wealth to transform a community and nation. A church mindset motivates giving to build our own church programs.

A kingdom mindset is a holistic approach that integrates the gospel with politics, economics, and public policy. A church mindset insulates the gospel from politics and public policy.

A kingdom mindset views the Bible as a blueprint to structure every aspect of society. A church mindset views the Bible merely as a pietistic book that enables us to escape the world, enter heaven, and be spiritual.

With a kingdom mindset churches embrace and love their surrounding unchurched communities. With a church mindset churches only embrace converted individuals within their faith communities.

A kingdom mindset trains people for all of life. A church mindset trains people only for church life.

A kingdom mindset nurtures leaders who are world changers and “cultural creatives” who articulate truth to society. A church mindset nurtures leaders who speak religious language relevant only to church people.

A kingdom mindset speaks of the rule of God over the entire created order. A church mindset speaks of the rule of God through deacons and elders over those in a church congregation.

With a kingdom mindset pastors release their people to their vocational callings in the marketplace. A church mindset controls people by marginalizing their marketplace callings and emphasizing only their Sunday ministries.

A kingdom mindset applies a Spirit-empowered approach to the natural world. A church mindset involves a spirituality that separates from the natural world.

Those with a kingdom mindset are working toward a renaissance of Christendom. Those with a church mindset merely strive for a particular expression (denomination) of Christianity.

Churches with a kingdom mindset equip 100% of the saints to fill up all things in every realm of life (Ephesians 4:10-12). Those with a church mindset have as their primary goal to equip the 2-3% of the congregation called to be full-time church pastors, ministers, and missionaries.

 

No Flesh Shall Glory

Yesterday morning, my dear friend, Buford Dowell, shared with me what the Lord had spoken to his heart.  Buford Dowell is known and loved by thousands of people. He has ministered in 58 countries and has played the Hammond organ for every major healing evangelist of the twentieth century, men such as Jack Coe, A. A. Allen, Oral Roberts and William Branham, to name a few. What he said to me is so amazingly profound that I asked him if I could post it.

God spoke to me this morning. He said, “Son, many men you have seen had great revelations of My word! I opened the heavens to them. They saw My unlimited miracle power! Yet, because of their own pride and carnality, they only put their feet into the real river of God and stood on the banks of false securities of money, denominationalism, friends, habits, etc., and sadly watched the mighty river of God flow by! Now, some are spending their years trying to imitate My past move in their lives and are fanning the coals of a burnt out fire!”

Think about this. William Branham, Jack Coe, A. A. Allen, Oral Roberts, R. W. Shambach, John Osteen, Kathryn Kuhlman, Vic Coburn, Rex Humbard, and others, are all gone. Most of the big-name evangelists that yet remain will soon be gone. God will share His glory with no man! It’s not that they were not men of God, but many of them listened to carnality, false teachers, prophets and consultants and quit following the Holy Spirit and often touched the gold and the glory! They could have shook the nations with the billions they controlled! We also have the denominations, with trillions of dollars of God’s money, only investing in their “systems of profit” and not healing the nations!

God is shaking it all up to His glory! The good news is that the true Church…the remnant is coming out! I hear a sound of a mighty army marching! Many of them came out of denominations and were rejoicing in their freedom, only to turn around and abuse their freedom by duplicating the same methods, message and religious spirits that God delivered them from! I can walk you through most of their lives and show you the steps that shut them down before their time. That’s even what most Fellowships did and yet ministers are starving for fellowship, but “in the Spirit,” not after the same bondage that they came out of!

My Lord, I don’t want that! If I never preach to two people and live on daily bread (I know how to do it). If nobody knows me, but those whom God connects with me by the Spirit, I will be happy to live outside of the religious box and “know Him in the power of His resurrection,” having a manifold revelation of Jesus Christ!

We’ve got to get it right this time!

“…From now on know we no man after the flesh: yes, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now from now on know we him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16, AKJ).

“That no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Cor. 1:29).

“…This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before…” (Phil. 3:13, AKJ, emphasis added).

Seated Together With Him

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:17).

This was written by a man (the apostle Paul) who had been shipwrecked, beaten multiple times, snake-bitten, living in a 4' x 8' cell in the Mamertine prison in Rome and under house arrest the rest of the time, ostracized by his brethren, fleeing for his life, left for dead, and yet he says "our light affliction." But note the result..."it works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." He told the church in Rome, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18).

The revelation of that glory is not "when we all get to heaven." It is NOW! The Weymouth translation says, "For this our light and transitory burden of suffering is achieving for us a preponderating, yes, a vastly preponderating, and eternal (age-enduring) weight of glory."

For the past 200 years, we have preached a futuristic gospel. In other words, we don't get anything until we die and go to heaven. Out of that mentality was birthed the idea that if we just hold on tight, someday "in the sweet bye and bye," Jesus will come and rapture us out of this "nasty-now-and-now." I admit, life is often a scary and bumpy ride, but Jesus said, "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Rev. 3:21, emphasis added). The question then is, "When are we seated with Him? Now or later?"

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3, emphasis added).

"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly places (realms, dimensions) in Christ Jesus..." (Eph. 2:6, emphasis added).

"Jesus Christ...has made us kings (a kingdom) and priests to God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever" (Rev. 1:5-6, empasis added).

To the church at Smyrna, Jesus said, "Be you faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life" (Rev. 2:10). Did it ever occur to us that the death He is talking about there, may not just be physical death, but death to the flesh?

I like Adam Clarke's commentary on this:

“Here is a most remarkable expression: Jesus has conquered, and is set down with the Father upon the Father's throne; he who conquers through Christ sits down with Christ upon his throne: but Christ's throne and the throne of the Father is the same; and it is on this same throne that those who are faithful unto death are finally to sit! How astonishing is this state of exaltation! The dignity and grandeur of it who can conceive?”

Kings seldom go out to battle. They sit in ruling authority and their orders are carried out by others who do the fighting for them (Heb. 1:14). In a kingdom, the king's word is non-negotiable; it is law! When kingdom sons finally realize who they are, they will rest in the "finished work" of Jesus (John 19:30; Rev. 21:6) and instead of being in combat with satan day after day, they will simply enforce Kingdom law in their situations (Ezra 7:26).

“I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19).

Young’s Literal Translation reads like this,

“Verily I say to you, Whatever things ye may bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever things ye may loose on the earth shall be having been loosed in the Heavens” (Matt. 16:19).

When I pray, I do not beg or plead for anything. It has been and always will be the will of God that His "Kingdom come" and His "will be done in earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).

Graphic by Peter Olsen, used with permission (http://www.peterolsenart.com)

 

Kingdom Truths

It has been said that people always criticize that which they do not understand. Milton Hall said, "Your ability to learn depends partly on your ability to relinquish what you’ve held."

Well-meaning people will occasionally caution me to be careful of those who teach the "Kingdom message." A lot of them do not really know what the "kingdom message" is, but after some discussions about it in their consortium of friends and other ministries, their misgivings were exacerbated, so they came to the conclusion that it is in error.

The message of the kingdom is not new. John the Baptist’s message was simple, “Repent…for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). The Weymouth New Testament says, "Repent…for the Kingdom of the Heavens is now close at hand."  Young’s literal translation reads, “Reform, for come nigh hath the reign of the heavens.'’ Immediately following His baptism by John and His temptation in the wilderness, the scripture says, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’" (Matt. 4:17). His commission to the twelve disciples was, “As you go, preach and say, 'The Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.’” (Matt. 10:7)

Many Christian believers do not understand the kingdom, largely due to our Americanization of the Gospel.  Citizens who have never lived under a monarchy or in a kingdom (the king’s domain) have difficulty wrapping their minds around the concept of a kingdom.

The problem is that, as Ern Baxter once said, "For more than 170 years another Gospel has been preached, the Gospel of postponement, which is a bastard Gospel." Most have made the kingdom of God some mystical something or other and basically because they cannot understand it, they have made it a “longing-for” term rather than a present reality. That lack of understanding is further compounded by people’s concept of what the Kingdom of heaven is. I hear many preach or teach about it as a destination, a planet where God and the angels live, or the place where we go when we die.

The kingdom of heaven is easily understood if one understands the etymology of the word “kingdom.” Kingdom is a compound word for the phrase, “king’s domain.” Wherever a king rules and reigns is that king’s domain. The term, “kingdom of heaven” is literally “the kingdom from heaven” or more literally, “the king’s domain from heaven.” It is interesting to note that the thief who was dying on a cross beside Jesus, was cognitive of kingdom language because he said, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” I hear many preach that the thief was asking to go to heaven with Jesus. The truth is that following His death, Jesus did not go to heaven, but rather He went to hell and “preached to the spirits in prison.” He did not ascend to the place called Heaven until forty days following His glorious resurrection from the dead. No one can be sure as to where and when this thief got a revelation of what constituted the kingdom of God, but he knew that Jesus was coming into a kingly domain that he wanted to be a part of.

The Kingdom of God is where God has dominion; it is where He is sovereign

The Kingdom of God includes every realm that is under the complete rule and reign of God. The realms of heaven are under the sovereign rule of God as well as the earth (Psalms 103:19; Psalms 47). The Kingdom is governed by the very nature of God, such as; Love, peace, righteousness, and justice (Rom. 14:17). It is full of creativity, wisdom, joy and life. There is no death, lies, arrogance, deceit, or hatred. The Kingdom is eternal, which means it is ‘now’ as much as it is future (Psalms 145:13).

Bringing Heaven To Earth

The Kingdom of God is invading the earth through the sons of the King. The earth has been given to man to have dominion – it is his domain, given by God, to rule in a way that reflects the greater Kingdom of God (Psalms 115:16). After his resurrection Jesus declared, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18). Jesus had won back authority over the earth from Satan (Rev. 1:18). What was lost in the Garden of Eden had now been recovered by the first-born Son, the first of many who will come after Him (Rom. 8:29). Now the sons of the King are exercising their God given mandate to have dominion over the earth and bring the atmosphere of heaven to earth (Matt. 6:10).

God’s Invasion Strategy

When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of Heaven, He was not talking about a distant destination. The kingdom of heaven (or literally, the kingdom from heaven) is the earthly realm of the universal kingdom of God. It is the colonization of the kingdom of God. Heaven has invaded the believer, who becomes an agent of change on the earth. As a believer you are seated in heavenly places with Christ ; you are in the King’s domain (Eph. 2:6). You carry the Kingdom within you (Luke 17:21). Wherever you go, whomever you speak with, whatever you do, you influence the world around you with the atmosphere of heaven. The Kingdom is infiltrating every sphere, wherever believers are in society. From political leaders to scientist, business people, social workers, entertainers, educators, mothers, dads and children. Every Kingdom-carrying believer is invading the world around them with hope, love, peace, and joy as they destroy the works of the Devil just like Jesus did (1 John 3:8).

The Kingdom is not limited to the Church; the Church is only part of the picture (Matt 13:1-52). The Kingdom is much more expansive and far reaching than our Sunday services or prayer meetings. The Kingdom is advancing wherever you go.

So 'go' into all the world, pulling on the resources of heaven to conform the earth to heaven’s likeness (Mark 16:15). It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32); it's what the world has been waiting for!

"Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven'" (Matt. 6:9-10, ESV, emphasis added).

 

Give It Up

“Honor the LORD with your substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase” (Proverbs 3:9).

The word, “honor” in Hebrew is “kabad” (kaw-bad), which means “to be heavy” i.e., "numerous, rich, honorable; causatively, to make weighty, be rich.”

Honor is not something that can just be accomplished with words. You can say, “I honor you” to someone, but true honor has substance and must be manifested.

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear? said the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, that despise my name. And you say, Wherein have we despised your name?” (Malachi 1:6, AKJ, emphasis added).

We use Malachi 3:10 every Sunday morning to collect the tithe from the people in a church service. However, the book of Malachi was not written to saints; it was written to preachers! “And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you” (Malachi 2:1, emphasis added).

How is it that Abraham and Jacob understood the tithe, even before it was incorporated into the law? When Abraham returned from his battle with the kings in the valley of Siddim, the Scripture says that,

“…Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, …met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace. Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the choicest spoils. And those indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest’s office have commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham. But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater. In this case mortal men receive tithes, but in that case one receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him” (Hebrews 7:1-10, emphasis added).

For countless years, the tithe has been not only misunderstood, but misplaced and often misapplied. Some people will randomly visit churches and decide that while they are there, they will pay their tithe. The problem with that is that there is no spiritual relationship there. The kingdom of God is governed by and through relationships.

The majority of believers think that their tithe goes into their local church, and out of the congregation’s tithes, a pre-determined portion or salary is to be given to the man of God who oversees the flock. The truth is that the Lord’s tithe was intended for the support of the ministry! “God set apart the tribe of Levi…to stand before him in the ministry…” (Duet. 10:8, DRB, emphasis added). The offerings of the people, not the tithes, were supposed to take care of the church property, etc.

People change churches today like they change their wardrobe. They go to one place for a while and then they go to another place for a while, and wherever they go, they tithe to that particular church. How can you reap a harvest if you are scattering your seed?

There is not one scriptural precedent for tithing to a Church or denomination! I reiterate, the Lord’s tithe was intended for the support of the ministry! The Levites were given the tithes of the people, and the Levites were to tithe to the ministering priests!

The bigger tragedy is that thousands of pastors today are tithing back into their own churches! That doesn’t even make any sense. It is like taking the money out of your left pocket and putting it into your right pocket. That is not tithing; that is re-investing.

Remember, the direction of our giving must always be “up.”

“…observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth” (Hebrews 7:4).

“…without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater” (Hebrews 7:7).

The direction of the anointing is “down” (Psalm 133).

It is a misplacement of the Lord’s tithe, for pastors to tithe “down” into their congregation or to a denominational headquarters. Tithes belong to the apostolic headship that God has set in authority over them. Thereby, connection is made to the headship, so the anointing can flow downward, in due order.

The problem is compounded even more so, as statistics show that the majority of preachers do not tithe. For some uncanny reason, they believe that “the buck stops here” and they are “the end of the line.” However according to the Scripture, the blessing upon the tithing of the people in a congregation is totally contingent on the leader’s obedience in “tithing on the tithe.”

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe. And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress. And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation” (Numbers 18:25-31, emphasis added).

Millions of people around the world tithe to their local church on a weekly basis and yet wonder why they are not being blessed. It is because the pastors are not obeying Malachi 3:10. It is only when the pastor “tithes on the tithe,” that the Lord will count the people as having given ALL to Him! Simply put, if the pastor does not properly tithe on the tithes that he has received, the people will not be blessed!

We must understand apostolic authority in the kingdom of God. The high priest of the Old Testament is equivalent to apostleship in the New Testament. The author of Hebrews called Jesus "the Apostle and High Priest of our profession" (Heb. 3:1). Both of these terms denote an overseeing father in ministry. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:19-20).

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man (mature manhood), to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we from now on be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:11-16, emphasis added).

It is shocking to realize just how far removed we are from God’s original intention and purpose. Men have organized religion after corporations. They have substituted presidents for apostles, vice presidents for prophets, field representatives for evangelists, counselors for pastors and professors for teachers. We are two millenniums removed from the birth of the Church and we have still not fulfilled Jesus’ ultimate plan for the Church that He said He would build (Matthew 16:18) and that was for it to build the kingdom of God in the earth (Matthew 10:7)!

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forever” (Psa. 133:1-4, NASB, emphasis added).

Impartation does not come by just hearing many different preachers say wonderful and powerful things in many diverse settings. Certainly we need the benefit of all of the five-faceted ministry for our maturation in the body of Christ. However, Elisha and Elijah demonstrate to us that true impartation of the anointing only comes by faithfully following a man of God (2 Kings 2:1-14) who is a “father” (2 Kings 2:12, emphasis added).

The apostle Paul said, “For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (I Cor. 4:15, emphasis added). Paul was a father in ministry to Timothy and Titus. Timothy was circumcised by Paul for the sake of the ministry. A true son in ministry will submit himself to the spiritual authority of and covenant himself with the man of God. Those with no fathers are bastards.

“But if you be without chastisement (discipline), whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons” (Hebrews 12:8).

Everyone in the kingdom is under authority. First and foremost, we are all under the authority of our King, Jesus. Secondarily, we are under and accountable to apostolic authority. There can be no maturation of ministry without it.

Find an apostolic ministry that you can submit to in the Spirit. When I say, "apostolic," I am not referring to a denomination or a particular belief system, but rather the nomenclature of the five-faceted ministry (Eph. 4:11). Be willing to let that ministry person speak truth and revelation into your life and, when necessary, even bring correction, or cut away (circumcise) your “flesh” so you may be holy, honorable and useable in the ministry. After carefully considering the maturity and longevity of that ministry, then give of your honor up to that ministry. That is how impartation works. The anointing always flows down from headship.

There is a terrible apperture in the household of God. Ministry fathers have not been given proper honor. There are those who say that I am their “father” in ministry. However, don’t call me your “father” unless you are willing to honor me and covenant yourself with me. Remember, honor has substance. It is more than just the mere expression of words or laudatory notice. I have spent a lifetime, raising up “sons” (a non-gender term) in ministry. I have prayed with them, wept with them and taught them powerful and glorious truth from the Word of God. I have even walked with some of them through dark and rocky places in their lives and relationships. Yet, only a very few of them show any honor today, and most, even sporadic at that. Many good men of God are suffering today in a breached order that does not give honor where honor is due.

“I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6, emphasis added).

Kingdom Relationships

“Everything in the kingdom of God is governed by and through relationships” (Apostle Richard Wright, “Not Many Fathers;” Copyright, 1993).

While I was in prayer early one morning in November of 2010, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “I will assimilate you with great men and people of like faith.”

I received the word of the Lord with joyous expectation but at the same time I began to process this locution to my heart.

My wife, Caroline, and I have a rich heritage. We have been blessed to know and rub shoulders with some of the greatest men of God of the twentieth century. Caroline grew up under the ministry of Jack Coe. She attended his church and his school in Dallas, Texas. She saw first-hand, the miracles wrought under the hands of this mighty man of God. Not only that, but she witnessed the ministries of men such as William Branham and others whom God superlatively used in the post-war Healing Revival of the late forties and early fifties.

Caroline and I attended many meetings of God’s miracle man, A. A. Allen. What a powerful man of God he was! We both loved him so much. I recall the last meeting we ever saw him at before his untimely death in 1970. He was preaching at Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium in Ft. Worth, Texas. Caroline and I got there early so we could get a front-row seat. When he came out on the platform before the service, he saw me and walked to the edge of the platform (where I met him) and we spoke together. I introduced my soon-to-be wife to him and asked for his blessing. He came off the platform, laid his hands on us and prayed as only Bro. Allen could pray. It was a great service that night, and on the way home, Caroline said to me, “Brian, we will never see Bro. Allen on this earth again.” I was shocked! “No!” I replied, “You are mistaken.”

A few months later, it happened just as my precious wife had discerned. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news of his sudden passing. I couldn’t believe it! I immediately called Miracle Valley and the office staff there confirmed it. I felt like my world was going to fall apart. I wept long and bitterly. Although I had never got to spend as much time with him as some others had, I knew him enough to know his heart and still remember the kind words he always spoke to me, whether it was in his home or sitting on his platform.

Our trek in ministry has often been like a roller coaster ride. For the past many years, I often felt like I was floundering, looking for that connection that would give asseveration to the call of God upon my life. During those seasons of ministry, at intervals I hooked up with various denominations and aligned myself with them so as to have a sense of correlation to or being a part of something other than my own. In most instances, much to my chagrin, I had to compromise my doctrinal stance which distressed my situation even more so. Like a corporate graphic depicting its progress, there were highs and there were lows.

Caroline and I have been in full-time ministry together (as husband and wife) for over forty-one years! Each of us respectively were involved in ministry before we were married. Together we have traveled the length and breadth of this great nation as well as Canada, preaching revivals and building churches. We have seen phenomenal moves of God, some that touched entire communities for the kingdom of God!

However, during all of the years of traveling, singing and preaching, we always felt somehow “disconnected.” Although, during those years, I was at times ordained with various major denominations, there was no relationship; only the sense of belonging to a religious system that lent some credence to what and who we were.

A few years ago, in desperation, I re-joined a major Pentecostal denomination. As I filled out the application forms for reinstatement, completed the examinations and was interviewed by those in authority, everything inside of me was screaming, “Don’t do it!” but I followed suit in spite of what my heart was telling me. This last-ditch attempt failed miserably and after only a year with the denomination, I finally said, “I’ve had enough,” and defected.

Alone again as a freelancer, I sought the face of God for direction. How the Holy Ghost orchestrated everything was strange and certainly inexplicable at first. In our “wilderness” wandering, Caroline and I felt ourselves drawn to apostolic settings. You see, I was raised in that environment, but in my ministerial journey I had surrendered some of my foundational credo to the theorems of the denominations that I served. Furthermore, although I had some powerful ministry fathers as a boy, my early experiences in apostolicism were not all “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

I remember telling some dear friends of mine at a Bible study that I was conducting, “I’m not sure what’s going on in our lives. All I can tell you is that we are on a journey.” I am pretty sure most of them did not understand what I was talking about, not because they lacked intelligence, but because it was mysterious to us as well.  The Holy Ghost was up to something, but we just had not figured it out yet.

As the past few years ensued, the Holy Ghost drove me back into the Word of God with intense study and prayer. The Lord instructed me to read His Word like I was reading it for the very first time and put aside some crendenda that I had been programmed to accept as truth. What it did to me belief system was of such enormity that for all these years I have kept silent about it. I knew that revealing what I had discovered, could potentially alienate friendships and ministerial relationships.

Even though I have read and studied the Bible since I was a child, with amazing clarity, the Spirit of God began to once again reveal the Book that He had authored and the impartance of it totally transformed my spiritual posture! The illumination of truth brought me back to the verity that God is one and not a trinity of persons (Duet. 6:4; Eph. 4:5; I Tim. 3:16). My eschatology changed from one that ends in defeat to one of glorious and ultimate victory! The book of Revelation became a new book to me. No longer was it a presentation of mystical and futuristric cataclysmic events such as an antichrist who is supposed to rule the world, together with a great tribulation that will plunge this planet into utter chaos and a secret rapture to pluck us out of here before all hell breaks loose.  Alternately, it became the glorious revelation of JESUS CHRIST and His victory over evil. I also discovered that, contrary to what many in old traditional Pentecostal settings have taught, you cannot dress up the flesh and make it holy. Holiness is the nature of God within in your spirit; not legislated legalisms for dress or adornment.

The word of the Lord to me back in November began coming to pass! One of the first persons to call me was a profoundly anointed man of God who has played the Hammond organ for some of the greatest preachers who have ever graced this planet! He has ministered in 58 countries of the world and is considered a friend to hundreds (perhaps, thousands) of preachers. I was thrilled to hear his voice on the phone, and as we conversed, we immediately became friends. Since that day, he has encouraged and edified me over and over again and he has yet to hear me preach (2 Cor. 5:16)! Other renowned men of God began calling me and speaking affirmation into my life. Since then, the Lord has not only been assimilating us with seasoned generals of God, but also associating us with those of like precious faith.

Most people in this postmodern era of Christendom do not understand the importance or the necessity of relationships in the Kingdom. Everyone just sort of “does their own thing” and sees no need for that divine connection or accountability to apostolic headship. “For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:21).

Apostle Richard Wright from Milwaukee, Oregon called me a few days ago. His pleasant spirit and averment was so uplifting. In his book, “Not Many Sons,” he writes, “Before we ever become a man or woman of God, we must first become sons and daughters!” (page 21). He further talks about “Redefining Family” and says “that even though Timothy was an apostle, he still needed a father” (page 27). Paul was willing to be a father to Timothy, and he a son to Paul. “Timothy’s circumcision changed his identity from his natural father to his spiritual father” (page 26).

Jesus redefined “family” when His disciples said, “Behold Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You” (Matt. 12:47, NASB). Jesus “answered the one who was telling Him and said, Who is My mother and who are My brothers? And stretching out His hand towards His disciples, He said, Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother” (Matt. 12: 48-50, NASB).

In Philippians 2, the apostle Paul wrote that Timothy had a “kindred spirit” and “you know of his proven worth haw he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father” (Phil. 2:22). The word “proven” is the Greek word “dokime,” which means “the process or result of trial; proving.” It means “a specimen of tried worth.” Their relationship had gone through trials and tests, but unlike Demas, who forsook Paul (2 Tim. 4:10), Timothy had proven himself faithful.

“Sons do the work of their fathers. They have the minds of their fathers and the same burdens. It is the goal of fathers to raise up their sons to carry on with the vision…to carry on their message when they themselves cannot be present. There was an impartation, not only through the laying on of Paul’s hands (2 Tim. 1:6), but there was an impartation through demonstration as Timothy watched Paul’s life and ministry…as Timothy observed Paul during times of trials, beatings, shipwreck and imprisonment, as well as times of ministry” (Apostle Richard Wright, “Not Many Sons;” page 30; Copyright, 2000).

The older I get, the more I realize just how vital kingdom relationships are. No man is an island. We all need each other. God has given each one of us a ministry that is necessary to the spreading of the kingdom of God in the earth. However, of necessity, we must repair the breaches in relationships (Malachi 4:6), so the will of God is done “in earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

When Deborah, that great judge of Israel, sent for Barak to help her defeat the Canaanitish king, Jabin, who had launched a harsh oppression on the people of God, he replied, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go" (Judges 4:8). Deborah said, “I will surely go with you…”