The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.  Mark 1:15

 

Jesus said to pray:    Thy kingdom has come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  To give us this day our daily bread and to lead us not into temptation, but to deliver us from evil.  For it is the Lord’s kingdom and His power and His glory…forever.

 

It’s God’s Time!

 

There was a man named Job, who was perfect and upright, who the Lord picked out to be picked on by the Devil.

 

The Devil said the he would make Job curse him to his face, if he allowed him to attack him and his family.  Job was very rich and successful.  He loved his children and prayed constantly for them to be saved and have favor in God’s eyes.  When folks saw Job, they would whisper ‘there goes Job’ a highly respectable man, and honored and admired by many.

 

The Lord had a hedge around him, and no evil or hurt harm and danger could come his way.

 

The Devil told the Lord that the only reason Job served him was because he had a shield of protection around him and his family members.  That if he took that hedge from around him, he would guarantee that Job would curse him to his face.

 

The Lord made an agreement with the Devil.  Okay, you can have him,  just do not bother his soul.  His soul belongs to me.

 

Well, the Devil, first, killed every one of his children all in one day.  He had seven kids.  A messenger would come to Job and tell him that one of his kids was destroyed in a destructive freak accident of God.  Messengers kept coming with bad news.  All of Jobs kids were killed.

 

Job had seven funerals.  He had to go through grief and a great mourning period.  But he still trusted God.

 

He had a whole lot of sheep and cattle.  One day all of his cattle and sheep were destroyed in a hurricane.  Not only that he lost all of his fortune.  He was broke.

 

That wasn’t enough.  He was afflicted from head to toe with boils and sat in ashes to ease the pain and suffering.  His friend came not to console him, but to condemn him saying ‘Job you must have done something wrong!  You are reaping what you have sown.

 

Job just looked at them and didn’t say anything.  He knew that he had done absolutely nothing to deserve what he was getting.

 

There is a song that somebody wrote who was going through.

‘Like a ship that tossed and driven, battered by an anger sea, when the storms of life are raging and the fury falls on me.  I wonder what have I done, to make this race so hard to run, then I say to my soul ‘Don’t worry, the lord will make away somehow.”

 

 

Where is your God NOW!

Job’s wife got tired of his sicknesses, and being destitute.  She told him ‘Job, Where is your God Now? Job, Job, why don’t you curse your God and die.’   That is something for the wife to say.  She wanted him dead, so that she can go on with her life.

 

Job looked at her and said, “Woman, you talk like a foolish woman, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.   In all my appointed days, though he slays me, yet will I trust him. 

 

Some folks serve the Lord as long as he is giving them things and helping them out.  But when he stop being all so good, then one will know if they are serving the Lord because He is God, and no matter what they will not serve another God, or turn their back on him.   The Lord has a way to show the Devil, that His real people are going to serve him, even if it means going into the lion’s den, like Daniel.   Or going into the fire furnace like Shadrack, Meshack and Abindigo.

 

After the Devil saw that Job would not serve another God.  God said it was His time.

 

God blessed Job seven times more than he was blessed previously and restored his joy.  He gave him more kids houses and land.  He was still counted as perfect and upright in God ‘s eyes.  God won!

Jesus came with the gift of eternal life.

 

He said, ‘if you want to be come perfect, ‘sell what you have and give to relieve the poor to store up spiritual treasures in heaven.’  You must be as a little child to enter the kingdom of God.  Not worrying about anything but trusting in your Father in heaven to supply all your needs, and not complaining.

 

You must be born-again, to enter the Kingdom of God.  That born-of the flesh, is flesh and that born of the spirit is spirit.

 

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.  Those who are rich find it hard to enter into the kingdom of God.  To be a disciple one must forsake all houses, land, wife, children and all possessions to inherit eternal life.

 

Not too many people are willing to forsake all.  I am glad that I asked to be perfect in his sight.  I read for myself that he said ‘Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.’  To be like my Father was what I wanted.

 

Jesus prayed, ‘Make them one Father, I in them and thou in me that we be made perfect as one.

 

Jesus in me is the Kingdom of God, within me.  He and I are one.  He stamped out all my afflictions; he stamped out all sin and replaced it with himself in me. 

 

He is in me keeping all evil out of me.  No plagues can destroy my body.  My body is his tabernacle.

 

The kingdoms of this world, has become the kingdoms of my Lord and his Christ.  He reigns in me forever. 

 

My body was the kingdom of the world.  The Devil had His day to afflict me and create all kinds of trouble and disaster for me.

 

But now, I am in the kingdom of God.  Paul said, "The kingdom of God is not meat or drink, but peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Ghost." Romans 14:17 "He gives the Holy Ghost to all who obeys him." Acts 5:32

 

The Holy Ghost is my comforter.  The Holy Ghost soothes all my pains and turns my darkness into day.

 

The Holy Ghost is what was promised to me as a result of wanting to be perfect.  Now the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost living inside of me.  I am perfect in them.

 

I am now a Son-of-God..born- again of the spirit and washed in his blood.  This is my story…praising my Savior all the day Long.