Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people… Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.   – Matthew 4:23-25
 
Jesus did not come to comfort the religious, but to bring hope to those who realized their need. While religious leaders followed him hoping to catch him in some error the common people followed him hoping to be touched by his anointing.

It is interesting that his first persecution was in Nazareth. Luke records Jesus sitting in the synagogue and reading to the leaders from Isaiah about the ministry he had been anointed to fulfill.

When he explained that he already knew he would not be accepted in Nazareth because “no prophet is accepted in his hometown” (Luke 4:24), these fine religious folks became angry and tried to throw him from a cliff, but he escaped them.

Religious people rejected him because he did not fit the picture they had developed of the Messiah. The common people, however, saw his works and made their decision based upon what they saw him do. It was kingdom anointing that attracted people to him.

The primary purpose of the kingdom is not to fulfill religious expectations  but to answer the needs of the people. Religious leaders are not much different today. If the work of the Holy Spirit does not fit their preconceived ideas, then they reject it. And because they are more committed to their tradition than to the move of God they miss what God is doing in the now.

God is looking for people who will hear his call and be willing to go beyond the walls of religious expectation to affect this generation with kingdom anointing. He is looking for people who are willing to risk rejection by religious folks in order to accomplish his will. Are you one of those people?
 
Prayer: Lord, help me to not let my religious tradition keep me from kingdom anointing for this generation. In Jesus name. Amen.
 
Message:  The primary purpose of the kingdom is not to fulfill religious expectations but to answer the needs of the people. God is looking for people who will hear his call and be willing to go beyond the walls of religious expectation to affect this generation with kingdom anointing.
 
Affirmation:  I am committed to sharing kingdom hope with others who are in need of hope.
 
Reflection:  Why do you think the religious people of Nazareth wanted to kill Jesus when he told them, "No prophet is accepted in his hometown?" This devotion calls people to be willing to "go beyond the walls of religious expectation." What do you think that means?

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As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  – Matthew 3:16-17
 
Even Jesus, the Christ of Redemption, had a moment in time when his anointing became manifest. For him it was at his baptism. The anointing was not the baptism itself but it was the approval that heaven gave him. The Spirit of God, which is the anointing, came upon him like a dove and set upon him.

It is true that Jesus was born as God-man. He was fully man and fully God. Yet, there was a point where the anointing to accomplish his purpose was made manifest. His baptism and anointing is the point at which his public ministry began.

I am mentioning this because there is a time when we are to make our faith public and there is a distinct point in time when we are anointed to fulfill our role in the kingdom of God. Of his own baptism Jesus said to John when he was arguing with him about being baptized, “It is proper for me to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”

Baptism is not only a good thing to do; it is a very important thing to do. When we perform the righteous act of baptism we are declaring to the world that we are now a new creation and citizens of the kingdom of God. We are now ready to be anointed for service.

Just as Jesus was anointed for his work in the kingdom, so we will have a moment in time where God manifests his Spirit in us with a call to service. That event will probably not involve a dove setting on our shoulder, or any other physical manifestation, but there will be something happen inside of us, in the place where the Spirit of God dwells, that gives us the assurance that this is the call of God.
 
Prayer: Lord, grant me the grace to submit to the work of the Holy Spirit and to allow the Holy Spirit to use me in service. In Jesus name. Amen.
 
Message:  Just as Jesus was anointed for his work in the kingdom, so we will have a moment in time where God manifests his Spirit in us with a call to service.
 
Affirmation:  I am ready to be used of God because I have been confirmed in the faith and he has called me to serve.
 
Reflection:  There are many points of consecration in our faith walk and each one of them brings with it a new commitment to the kingdom of God. What has God put in your heart to do in service to his kingdom? Not all are called to public ministry but all are called to serve.

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After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions… His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this?... “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
– Matthew 2:41-51
 
Even as a child Jesus knew he was the Christ. He knew his mission and he was committed to it. At 12 years of age he began his ministry by addressing the leaders of the temple. He asked questions of them and displayed a wisdom that amazed them. He was indeed an anomaly, but in fact he was the Christ of God who had come to bring the opportunity of peace to mankind.

What was the message he was teaching? We have no record of what he was saying, but if the rest of his ministry is any indication it isn’t hard to figure it out. He was teaching them that the kingdom they were expecting was present and would soon be manifest.

However, even though they were expecting a king to come and a kingdom to be established, they did not realize the nature of that kingdom. Neither did they realize the manner in which the kingdom would be established.

The world had never known a king who built his kingdom upon love. Every world conqueror has built their kingdom by force, and not one of those empires has lasted. Jesus came teaching, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God,” and this kingdom of the heart cannot be stopped.

This was a new message. The mindset of man was to conquer through force, but Christ taught us to humble our enemies by serving them in love. The result is that today, 2000 years after his kingdom was begun in the hearts of his followers, there are 100’s of millions of people who would gladly lay down their life for this Jesus who is called the Christ, the Prince of Peace.
 
Prayer: Lord, grant me the grace to love as you loved and to serve those who would persecute you for your namesake. Amen.
 
Message:  This was a new message. The mindset of man was to conquer through force, but Christ taught us to humble our enemies by serving them in love.
 
Affirmation:  When the love of God is demonstrated, even to those who would be our enemies, then the grace of God is extended to all who will come.
 
Reflection:  What was the message Jesus was teaching the educated religious leaders when he was just 12 years old? Could he have been telling them that they will never win the hearts of the people forcing them to live a law that they themselves could not keep? How did the message Christ presented differ from the message of the Pharisees and other the priests?
 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” – Genesis 1:26
 
In all the creation of God it is only the earth that has life as we know it. God has appointed man to be caretaker of the earth and the life that is on it. That is an aspect of the kingdom of God that we do not speak enough about. God has given man the responsibility of protecting and caring for the earth, its resources and the life that is in it.

The entire creation of God is an expression of his love and grace. We look at it all and are awed by the magnificence of His handiwork. Yet, when we look at the earth around us and the life that it sustains, we too often think of them in terms of how they can serve us.

The environmentalists and the animal activists have a point. God created the earth to be self sustaining and all of the rest of creation cooperates with him. It is only man that arbitrarily kills off life for his own pleasure and destroys the eco-system for his own consumption.

God created man with the potential to be in unity with his own mind and to be a reflection of his own glory. It was God’s choice to create man in his own image. Man was created with a free will and he was influenced by his spirit person – the part of him that was in the image of God. Man had no “soul” knowledge, that is, he had no experience outside of the God influence.

God’s desire was to have an object of love – and you can’t truly love, in the agape sense, an inanimate creature, or a mind-slave who has no will of their own; so God created man with free will. It was the choice of man to pursue life on his own terms.

As man experienced life on his terms his “soul” nature was awakened and his soul became the dominate influence in his life. The soul is that part of our nature which drives us to satisfying the desires of our physical nature. It is often called our fleshly, or sin nature.

The kingdom God intended in creation is recreated in the hearts of those who trust Christ. We can choose Christ or not – it’s up to us.
 
Prayer:  Lord, grant me repentance to being resistant to your plan and give me the grace to surrender to you. In Jesus name. Amen.
 
Message:  God created man with the potential to be in unity with his own mind and to be a reflection of his own glory. It was God’s choice to create man in his own image. God’s desire was to have an object of love – and you can’t truly love in the agape sense an inanimate creature, or a mind-slave who has no will of their own; so God created man with free will. It was the choice of man to pursue life on his own terms.
 
Affirmation:  God gave me the freedom to choose and I have chosen to follow him.
 
Reflection:  How does the free will of man play into the story of the fall? Why do you think that man, given the choice, will usually choose to gratify his own desires rather than being committed to a higher purpose?

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