To whom God would make known what is the riches
of the glory of this mystery among you, among
you Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Exactly. He's the king and he gets
to live inside of us. So the kingdom of God is
within you. Right. And that's a mystery. God
promises in Joel 2 .28 to pour out His Spirit
on all humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring,
where we contend for that promised outpouring,
we equip for that outpouring, so that we may
engage in that very outpouring. I'm Philip Buss.
And I'm Sharon Buss. Welcome to the podcast today.
On my devotion time, my quiet time this morning,
this is the thought that kind of rolled into
my head that I want to share with you is, what
is the kingdom of God to you? Thank you so much
for joining us today. We're just absolutely delighted
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you can write us an email at feedback at globaloutpouring
.org. Well, in my morning devotion time, I was
just reading in Matthew about the kingdom of
God. You know, that's what kind of was kind of
ruling in me, the kingdom of God and the Lord's
prayer. You know, that's found in Matthew chapter
6. Well, in verse 7 it says, When ye pray, use
not vain repetition as the heathen do, and he's
referring to scribes and Pharisees, for they
think that they shall be heard further much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your
Father knows what things ye have need of before
ye ask him. And after this manner wherefore pray
ye, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
or holy be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will
be done in earth as it is in heaven. We're not
going to read the rest of it. I want to concentrate
on this. But how many churches all over the world
will start with the Lord's Prayer, will do the
doxology. Or have it someplace in the service.
Or have it somewhere in the service. But how
many know what it really means? It has become
a vain repetition for a lot of people. Yeah,
it really is. Because it's empty if you don't
think about it. It's empty if it doesn't have
meaning to you. So I was kind of contemplating
on that. And, you know, when I read that and,
you know, thy kingdom come, you know, there's
a lot of verses. And I used to have in the, I
had in the back of my Bible, I took it out of
the Strong's Concordance and I copied it. on
a copier of kingdom. And you'd be amazed how
many scriptures are there relating to the kingdom
of God. I mean, it's got many avenues, facets,
like a diamond. It can go a lot of different
directions. But what does it mean personally
to the, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. So what is his will,
thy will, I mean, Jesus' will. Or the Father.
The Father's will be done that we can know what
it is and not do what we want to do. Because
most times we really want to do what we want
to do. Yeah. Because that's our fleshly part
of us, the flesh flash stuff we deal with. And
I remember someone saying it's just like 90 %
of your thinking is kind of what controls what's
going on. And you need to get where 90 % of the
Holy Spirit is listening to him. And then you
got to, of course, that 90 % can help you outweigh
that other 10%. Yes. But getting there. So I
want to look in the book of Luke in chapter 17
out of the Passion Translation. This is kind
of gives a very good understanding of this, that
the kingdom, it comes not by observation. So
let's look at Luke chapter 17. And it's verses
20 and 21. We were looking at the scripture in
Matthew, so this is in Luke and this is in the
TPT. Jesus was once asked by the Jewish religious
leaders, when will God's kingdom realm come?
Jesus responded, God's kingdom realm does not
come simply by obeying principles or by waiting
for signs. The kingdom is not discovered in one
place. Or another one, for God's kingdom realm
is already expanding within some of you. Later,
Jesus addressed this again with his apostles
saying, the time is coming when a great passion
will be awakened within you to see me again.
Yes, you will long to see the beginning of the
days of the Son of Man, but you won't be able
to find me. You will hear reports from some who
will say, look, he has returned. He is over here
or he's over there. Don't believe it or run after
them, for their claims will be false. Wow. The
day of the Son of Man will burst forth with the
brightness of a lightning strike that shines
from one end of the sky to the other, illuminating
the earth. Wow. That's quite a description. Yeah,
it really is quite amazing. Because there are
so many interpretations of Scripture out there
right now. And there's some big ones. There's
some good ones, too. It's really good. Kind of
what we learned through our history. I mean,
we've been serving the Lord, me, 44 years here.
And first, you know, Jesus was coming in 1988.
That was a big one. You know, 88 reasons Jesus
will come in 88. And I looked at a lot of them
and they really look legit. You know, wow, this
could happen. You know, and then in 1970s late,
the prophetic word going around that Jesus is
coming. And I thought, I want to live a little.
And I backslid for some years. And I didn't know
about actually 77 was a prophetic word going
around because I was backslidden. And I might
have, maybe I wouldn't have backslid so bad.
But it's like the kingdom is within you. And
so in our daily walk with the Lord, in our time
of our devotion, we're building the kingdom.
Because the kingdom of God, it's just all around
you. And like it says in the Passion, I like
it, kingdom realm. And even our convention, you
know, Pastor Tony or Bishop Tony, Apostle Tony
was talking about realms, different realms, things
that operate in levels. They operate in realms.
And it's like we're taken from glory to glory
or we're taken from realm to realm. Maybe that's
another way. to look at it. It doesn't quite
say it, but that's kind of the concept that can
be on a personal note. We go from greater glory
to greater glory, from one realm to another realm.
So we look at everything going around. We look
at the war going on right now with Israel and
Iran, and that pops a lot of scriptures up all
over. You know, everybody's got their idea. This
is it, you know. This is it. This is Ezekiel.
This is Jeremiah. This is Psalm 83. And it really
is in part, but it's not quite the end of the
picture yet. There's things that still have to
happen. There has to be a harvest first. We know,
and we've talked about this before, like the
presence of God coming down, that John Hinkle
vision where the Holy Spirit came down and stood
next to each person, and immediately they knew
when their walk of God was. Things are going
to happen before it's the end. But we're seeing
preparations of things. Right. We know the Scripture
talks the Antichrist who is going to walk and
everybody's going to turn to him. Yeah, but that's
after the one who restrains is no longer there.
Yeah. Personally, I think that's the church.
The intercessors are restraining that Antichrist
kingdom from coming. And I looked that up in
the Strongs about the kingdom of God. You know,
that it comes not by observation. Yeah. You know,
what we observe, what we see. And it says that
in such a manner, it can be watched with your
eyes, you know. So it's kind of, we're looking
with our eyeballs, you know, to see everything
that's happening. We're watching, you know, and
now we can really watch because we've got. instant
news from around the world. True. I mean, we
can watch China Uncensored, you know, and you
get a great picture of what's going on in China
and what's happening with Taiwan. Sure. You know,
and it's just, I mean, all these different ones
that are specified. Different things. And where
does this fit in the kingdom of God? Right. How
does this fit? So we're analyzing. We're putting
all these things we're hearing on our own personal
think tank. And we're trying to decipher how
this is going to work. Or we listen to somebody
else's think tank to see what they are saying.
Lots of opinions. But that doesn't mean you're
going to see it with your eyes. Right. And that's
our problem. to look with our physical eyes.
And we tend to analyze with our worldly brains
or, you know, maybe we've got enough scripture
in there to analyze, but you have to have the
Holy Spirit. You have to have the Holy Spirit.
And when it comes to eschatology, I have an opinion.
For what it's worth. We want to hear your opinion.
You're going to anyway, right? So in John 14,
Jesus is speaking to his disciples. You know,
this is their last supper together. This is their
last time to really fellowship together. And
in verse 27, it says, Peace I leave with you.
My peace I leave with you. He's leaving, right?
They don't understand that he's leaving, but
he's trying to get it through to them that he's
leaving. My peace I give to you, not as the world
gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid. You've heard
me say to you, I'm going away and coming back
to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because
I said I'm going to the Father, for my Father
is greater than I. Here's verse 29. This is the
key piece that gives me my position on eschatology.
So eschatology, in case you don't know, is the
study of the end times. Like, what's going to
happen next? And there are lots of opinions out
there about what is going to happen and in what
sequence. And, you know, it's sort of like the...
Scribes and Pharisees didn't recognize Jesus
when he came because he didn't fit their eschatology.
True. Okay. So Jesus said, and now I have told
you before it comes that when it does come to
pass, you may believe. In other words, let it
come to pass before you interpret it. Don't interpret
what you think is going to happen. Don't speculate
about what you think is going to happen. Is this
that? Is that this? Is this that? It was. on
the day of Pentecost, that Peter said, this is
that that was spoken of by the prophet Joel.
Yeah. Okay. And then he quotes the prophet Joel.
So when you get to the point in the scheme of
things that it lines up with scripture, that's
when you say, this is that. Right now, there's
a lot of people saying, well, this might be that.
And it might be. There are some of the things
that do have to take place first. And the closer
we walk with the Holy Spirit and the more, like
Jesus said, if you loved me, you would rejoice.
Yeah. When we love him, we can rejoice over the
fulfillment of things. Yeah. Because when it
boils right down to it, this idea of being a
kingdom, having a kingdom, having the kingdom
in you, having the kingdom operate in you, there's
a kingdom because there's a king. If there wasn't
a kingdom, there wouldn't be a king. So we know
that our Father is the king of the universe,
that Jesus is his embodiment on the earth, and
he's the king. Jesus is the soon -coming, returning
king. Yeah, so who's the king of your kingdom?
Exactly. What kingdom are you? Yeah, what's the
kingdom to you? Who is the king to you? Are you
the king of your own kingdom? A lot of people,
a lot of us, you know, we kind of think that
we can be in control. Yeah, because a lot of
this, it's a mystery. Right. And in Colossians,
you know, chapter 1, and this is out of the King
James. This is Paul. Wherefore, I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God, which is
given to me for you to fulfill the word of God.
even the mystery which has been hid from ages
and from generations, but now is made manifest
or known to the saints. Now you're talking 2
,000 years ago now. Right. To whom God would
make known what is the riches of the glory of
this mystery among you, among you Gentiles, which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Exactly.
He's the king and he gets to live inside of us.
So the kingdom of God is within you. Right. And
that's a mystery. Kingdom is a mystery because
we're trying to figure out, you know, we don't
know from once we're like the wind. We don't
know where it's coming from or where it's going.
Right. And that's the way it is a lot of time.
You know, even listening with the Holy Spirit.
It doesn't give us the full picture all the time.
Right. Because we might take a wrong turn. Exactly.
Trying to. He can't trust us with all the details.
Yeah, it's like going through the mountains or
something. You know, you can go through Nebraska.
You can go through Illinois, Indiana, and all
the flat roads. Okay, so now you want to go to
Kalampong or you want to go to Darjeeling. Yeah,
yeah. And you got these hairpins. I mean, continual.
Hairpins all the time. Hairpin turns. Hairpin
turns that are just neck jerkers, you know. Yeah.
You know, and if you have problems with motion,
it's not fun, you know, because the road just
curves and they're just carved out of the side
of the mountain, you know. So, you know, God's
path isn't always a straight line as we would
like it. Yeah. Because that makes it predictable.
Right. You can see down the highway a long way,
you see what's coming. But when you're going
around curves and that, you don't know really
what's quite ahead. And like the expression we
use, you know, I remember reading when you're
taking your driver's ed class, you don't overdrive
your headlights. I mean, you don't go faster
than what you can stop from what your headlights
will look at. Right. And so that's a good spiritual
lesson too. Don't overdrive your headlights.
You know, if you can't see what's coming around
that corner, it'll go so fast where you're going
to miss something. Yeah. You're going to miss
a sign or a roadmap or something like that. Right.
You know, that reminds me of years ago, I was
canoeing on a river, and there was one thing
that I learned about around every turn, you can
just be guaranteed that there's going to be another
turn. You know, that's about all you can see
ahead is you can see to the next turn, and when
you get to the next turn, you're going to find
there's another turn out there. Maybe you'll
find some rapids. Yeah, that might be. But it's
the same thing on these mountain roads. You go
around a curve, and sure enough, there's another
curve. That's kind of where we live, too. Yeah.
Wow, wow. So we read in Colossians, it was in
127, that Christ in you is the hope of glory.
Absolutely. And so I want to turn to Ephesians.
This is chapter one. You know, everybody's favorite
book. I love it. And especially if you follow
Kenneth Hagin, too. I mean, this is the scriptures
in here. He left his Bible open to the pulpit,
on the pulpit, Ephesians 1. And he would frequently,
during the day, go to the pulpit and just read
the first chapter of Ephesians, you know, about
the mystery of his will. Yeah, I think verse
17, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, give unto you the spirit of wisdom,
revelation, and the knowledge of him. Amen. That
was one of his favorite verses, and I really
like that. But I want to look in verse 4. We'll
do verse 3. Blessed is the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. According
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. Beautiful. I mean, he chose us
before we knew ourselves. Yeah. When you think
about that, you think you really know yourself?
You really don't. We've forgotten a lot, I think.
We forgot a lot. Yeah. Wow. So he's chosen us
before the foundation of the world that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love.
That's what our destiny is. And so we have to
walk it out through the curves and the rapids
and everything else we've got to go through.
And having predestined us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. Yes. You know,
his will is a mystery, but it's for good pleasure.
That's right. And for thy pleasure, what's that
song we used to sing? And for thy pleasure we
are created. Thou art worthy, O Lord. And sometimes
we don't feel like we're walking in good pleasure.
We go through our trials. Trials are not good
pleasure, but we can't see the end of the story.
Why did God let this happen? What's he trying
to work out in us? You need to read my book,
Rich Wounds. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, I think
so. Very much so, yeah. So to the praise of the
glory of his grace, he's made us accepted in
the beloved. Hallelujah. And we just got to read
verse 7 too. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace, wherein he has abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having
made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed
in himself. So we want to make Jesus smile. Yes.
We really want to make him smile. And doesn't
it make you smile when someone smiles at you?
Yeah. And I try to do that. I do too. And people
notice that. They'll smile back usually unless
they're having a rough day. And sometimes they
need that smile. But it's the same thing when
we are looking at the Lord, if we just smile
at him. Yeah. You know, that thankful heart makes
him respond. So we go on in verse 10, that in
the dispensation of the fullness of times, he
might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him. I mean, let's talk about the kingdom
of God coming together. It's kind of like we
had a prayer time for our devotions on Tuesday
morning. And Jean Little was bringing the word
forth and just finished everything and the phone
rings and it's Clarice Fluitt. Yeah. You know,
was coming with the word of the Lord, you know,
for Jean. And she says, you know, I'm in my pee
patch over here. You're in your pee patch over
there. Yeah. You know, and sometimes when this
big kingdom of God, we just might feel like we're
just like little nothing. You know, but God has
a plan whether your ministry is out there. Or
if you have a hidden ministry like Timothy Bentz.
Right. Or God will take you places where you
couldn't go with a big ministry. Yeah. You couldn't
go with a big name because you got the holy paparazzi
following you, you know. Unholy maybe. Unholy
paparazzi. Yeah, you got that too, you know.
But if you stay hidden. But so he's gathering
all things together. And in verse 11, and in
who or in him we have obtained an inheritance.
being predestined, what he wants us to do, according
to the purpose of him who works everything after
the counsel of his own will. Beautiful. Jesus'
own will for us. And that's what the kingdom
is to us personally. So what is the kingdom of
God to you? What is he? Working out in your,
you might be a loose cannon out there. Hopefully
not. You know, you need to, you know, it's always
good to have somebody over you that you can bounce
things off. Someone in the Lord that has a lot
of wisdom. Yes. Which may not be your brother
or sister -in -law or something. It might be,
you know, an apostle or a bishop that is really,
you know, has revelation in that. And that's
somebody you really like to be attached to. You
know, people that are close to God that you need
to surround yourself with. So that we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ. Amen. So, you know, we're supposed
to be a praise on the earth. Right. To his glory.
To his glory. And that's an everyday thing. Yeah.
To the praise. There was a song, I remember Ramona
Dix of the Olive Branch wrote. Years ago, and
I love it, to the praise of his glory, I am created.
Yes. Yeah, and I thought, and that's where this
was taken from. I thought, oh, and I just love
that song. You know, but even when we don't feel
like praising sometimes, you know, but it's a
command. And that's how we stay on top of it.
Yeah, you overcome. It's an overcoming thing
that we have to walk in all the time. Yes. And
it really helps you. When you don't feel like
praising and you do it out of obedience, you
just start because he said praise. And he says,
in everything give thanks, for this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. So when
we do it because we know that it's the right
thing to do, even if we don't feel like it, but
if you start it. You don't have to feel like
it to start it. You just start and the feeling
comes as you start because when you begin to
praise, when you begin to give thanks and you
put your eyes on Jesus, then the things of earth
grow strangely dim. All of the clouds begin to
go away, the dark things that are giving you
ideas that are not. productive, those begin to
flee because you're putting yourself into the
light of his glory and worshiping him in his
glory. He's the king, remember? He's the king.
It's about the kingdom. So as we worship, it
sets us free. Yeah, it's like that song. The
tag of it is, even when I don't see it, you're
working. Right. Even when I don't feel it, you're
working. You never stop working. Right. You never
stop working. Way maker. Yeah. You know, great.
Hallelujah. So sometimes you have to get it in
the song to remember, yeah, that's true. We see
with our natural eyeballs unless you have the
real gift of discernment to see what's happening
around you. Yeah. Somebody just recently, please
forgive me, I don't remember who it was, but
I think it was somebody at the convention or
maybe somebody I heard after that said something
about the angels are singing to you to try and
get you to pick up that song. And then you sing
it. Sometimes I get songs in my head. It doesn't
occur to me, or it didn't until I heard that,
that I need to just sing it out. Sing it out.
Because I've got songs going in my head all the
time. But I don't always think to sing them out.
So the angels are standing by, waiting for us
to give the word, releasing the word, giving
voice to the word. Psalm 103 .20 says, Bless
the Lord, you his angels, who excel in strength,
who do his word, heeding the voice of his word.
The angels are standing around waiting for us
to give voice to his word so that they can go
to work and do what his word says. So as we listen,
they're trying to help us. As we listen to the
Holy Spirit, as we tune into that spirit realm
where the angels have come to work with us, And
if there's an angel singing to you and you think
it's just a song in your head, go ahead and sing
it out or go ahead and speak out the word that
you're hearing in your spirit. And your voice,
your voice activates them. The kingdom of God
is a voice -activated kingdom. So that's another
one of those mysteries that's a part of this,
but that's how he designed it. Yeah. So this
is just a great thing you could do for your own
study. What is the kingdom of God for you? You
can go and look up the word kingdom and see how
that applies to you. I think that could really
help you get some direction in a lot of ways.
Because you talk about kingdom of God, the kingdom
of heaven, and they're really the same. Right.
So because the kingdom of God is operating in
you, if you've welcomed the king to live inside
of you. It will be a mystery revealed to you.
Absolutely. It'll be mystery after mystery, day
by day, all the time. He's ready to give you
downloads if you just tune in. So Holy Spirit,
we ask you to tune us into your spirit. We need
more input from you. So Lord, we lay aside the
distractions that are trying to keep us from
hearing your voice, trying to keep us from accomplishing
what you put us on this planet to accomplish.
Lord, we submit to you. We humble ourselves before
you and we recognize that we need you. We need
your spirit. We need your word operating in us.
Thank you for giving us that grace to overcome
as we seek your kingdom, as we seek you as the
king. Lord, we just want to have that relationship
growing moment by moment from glory to glory
in you and you in us. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
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Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm
Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming,
loving presence.