In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. – John 1:1-2
 
The logos, the expression of the mind of God, has been with God from before the beginning, and in fact is God. The thought of God can no more be separated from God than our own thought can be separated from ourselves. No one better explains this than Bishop Fulton Sheen in his book, “Life of Christ.” Read what he has written:

Whatever there is in the world, is made according to the thought of God, for all things postulate thought. Every bird, every flower, every tree was made according to an idea existing in the Divine Mind… Prior to his earthly existence, Jesus Christ is eternally God, the Wisdom, the Thought of the Father.. In His earthly existence, He is that Thought or Word of God speaking to men. (Sheen, Life of Christ, Image Books, p25).
 
Throughout the history of God dealing with man he has revealed his will. On Mount Sinai he revealed his will through the law he gave to Moses. His will for man was in opposition to the will of man. Man’s will was all about how he could be fulfilled. God’s will was to bring man to ultimate fullness through being restored in right relationship to him.

This conflict of wills continued for centuries. Then God sent forth his word in the flesh of Jesus. “The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). All that Jesus said and did was a direct expression of the will of God. He came to earth to reveal the will of the Father.

The purpose of Christ was not to bring upon man the bondage of buckling to the law, but it was to change the will of man to reflect the will of God. In that way he would change the world.

Jesus, in the flesh was the word of God manifest. Holy Spirit in the heart of man is the word of God reiterated. Reconciled, renewed and restored man is the word of God manifest in the earth. 
 
Prayer: Father, in my natural stat my will is to fulfill the desires of my flesh; grant me the grace of having your will in my heart. Amen.
 
Message: Jesus, in the flesh was the word of God manifest. Holy Spirit in the heart of man is the word of God reiterated. Reconciled, renewed and restored man is the word of God manifest in the earth.
 
Affirmation: As I submit to Holy Spirit, God's word in me, I am becoming the word of God manifest in the earth.
 
Reflection: This is a powerful concept. If in fact Jesus the Christ is the Logos, the manifest word or thought, of God, and that same Christ, or Logos, dwells in us, then does it follow that as we live the Christ life we are to be the manifest word of God on earth today? Give some thought to this.

A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.. Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar… Salmon, the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab… Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth… David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife… and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. – Matthew 1:1-16
 
Five women are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus. Four of them, according to the law, were disqualified from being a part of the chosen race, but the fifth, his mother, conceived a child in a supernatural manner. It was the child conceived in her that sanctified all the failures of the past.
There is no greater message to those whose lifestyle declares, “I am unworthy” than the message of the four women who were mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus. Let’s look at them:

• The first is Tamar, who posed as a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law, Judah, in order to bear a child.
• The second is Rahab, the one called “harlot” in the book of Joshua. She is the one who hid the spies in Jericho.
• The third is Ruth, king David’s grandmother. She was the Moabite daughter-in-law of Naomi.
• The fourth is Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She is the one whose husband David had killed to cover his sin with her.

All four of these women, under Jewish law, would not have been qualified to be mentioned as in the lineage of Christ, but they were mentioned. What does that tell us about the nature of God and the purpose of Jesus, the Son of God?
Even before the fall of man God had a plan to restore him. No one has fallen so far, or sinned so grievously that the love of God and the blood of Christ cannot reach them.  A passage in Romans tells it more plainly than any other: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
 
Prayer:  Thank you for grace. I was fallen, but in my fallen state I reached out and you reached down to me. Thank you. In Jesus name, amen.
 
Message: No one has fallen so far, or sinned so grievously that the love of God and the blood of Christ cannot reach them. Romans5:8, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
 
Affirmation: The love of God reaches through all of my sin to grant me the opportunity to be reconciled to God, renewed, restored.
 
Reflection: Today gives some thought to the idea that God has shown himself to be the giver of second chances then think about how that applies to you.

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected but they have rejected me as their king.” – 1 Samuel 8:6--7
 
God’s best was given man in the Garden. It was a time that trust, faith and love ruled. Then the will of man raised its head and declared, “I can be like a god.” God’s original plan was thwarted by the will of man.

In the process of time God began to call prophets and priests to lead his people, and that worked for a while, but again, the will of man was in rebellion against God.

It is ironic that man rejects God’s best for a cheap imitation then blames God for the outcome. So, when Samuel was old the people said, “Give us a king. We want to be like the other peoples of the world.” God finally said, “Alright, you want a king to lead you instead of following me alone, you can have a king.”

God then told Samuel to warn them what would happen when they had a king like the other nations. Samuel told them that a king would take their sons to war and would take their harvests for himself. He will tax your increase and you will be in poverty when he lives in luxury.

Again, the plan of God was rejected and supplanted by the rule of man, but God was not finished. He had yet another plan to put in force. Every kingdom up to the time of Christ depended upon the rule of man, but God’s plan was to reinstitute theocratic rule. God’s plan was to again be the king man would look to.

This new kingdom he had in mind was not to be kept in boundaries drawn up by men. The throne room of this kingdom was not to be in palaces made by the hands of man. This new kingdom that God was to offer man was to be established in the hearts of all those who would believe upon the Prince of Peace who would become Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

The kingdom of God is a kingdom of the heart and spirit.
 
Prayer: Lord, grant me the grace to always be sensitive to your guidance and not to seek my own way. In Jesus name, amen.
 
Message: This new kingdom that God was to offer man was to be established in the hearts of all those who would believe upon the Prince of Peace who would become Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
 
Affirmation: The kingdom of God is a kingdom of the heart and Spirit. I submit to Christ and the authority of His kingdom.
 
Reflection: The reason Israel felt they needed a king was that they did not have faith in God and they did not trust him, his word, or his prophets, to lead them. It was their lack of faith in God which ultimately led them into poverty while their kings lived in luxury. Was the trade worth it?

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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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