417. Celebrating God's Grace, The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

As we celebrate the life of Christ, we can be assured that the Kingdom of Heaven is real. Jesus made this Kingdom known, as He proclaimed, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Where in your life do you need the assurance of the Kingdom of Heaven?

 

****

 

Welcome to Celebrating God’s Grace, A Women World Leader’s Podcast, I’m your host Robin Kirby-Gatto.

Thank you for joining us today as we celebrate God’s grace, in our lives, in our ministry, and around the world.

I pray you have an amazing weekend, celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Today’s message is titled: The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

Jesus’ ministry began with the message “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) It wasn’t happenstance that most of His parables and teachings were on the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus wanted God’s sons and daughters to know their true home, and to be confident of God’s plan for their lives on earth. In Matthew 11:10-13 Jesus emphasizes the power of this kingdom.

10 “This is the one of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, who shall make ready Your way before You. 11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize—a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion]. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied up until John.” (Matthew 11:10-13 AMPC)

Jesus distinguishes that something shifted with John the Baptist’s appearance. It was since the days of John that the Kingdom of Heaven endured violent assault. Why is that? John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord, proclaiming the message, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” in Matthew 3:2.

To better understand this, I love to look at a scripture in the Old Testament.

“The Israelites shall pitch their tents by their companies, every man by his own camp and every man by his own [tribal] standard.” (Numbers 1:52 AMPC)

Israel had twelve tribes, whom Moses led through the wilderness. God gave him specific instructions that when the twelve tribes pitched up their tent, they were to place it by the tribal standard. A standard is a banner or flag. This can be compared to the Olympics where every athlete stands by their nation’s flag.

The root Hebrew word from which standard comes is dâgal pronounced daw-gal' and means “to flaunt, i.e. raise a flag, to be conspicuous, to set up with banners.” [i] I absolutely love the Paleo Hebrew script, which is the writing system found in the Canaanite language, otherwise known as the Old Hebrew. These letters of the Old Hebrew are symbols, that when put together create a word picture, and give such depths of appreciation to what is written in the Old Testament.

The three Hebrew letters that compose standard, are Dalet, Gimel, and Lamed. Dalet is the ancient symbol of a door and means to enter and pathway. Gimel is the ancient symbol of a camel and in the positive means to lift up. Finally, Lamed is the ancient symbol of a cattle goad, which looks like a shepherd’s staff with a prick in the curvature, and means tongue, control, and authority. Therefore, the word picture in the Old Hebrew for standard, is THE DOOR IS LIFTED UP INTO WHICH YOU ENTER AND BRINGS AUTHORITY.

Just wow! Listen to that word picture again. The Door is lifted up, into which you enter, and brings authority. Is this not a beautiful picture of Christ on the Cross! In John 12:32 Jesus said that if He is lifted up, He will draw all men to Himself. Jesus also says in John 10:9 that He is the Door, and if anyone should enter, they would be saved and go in and out and find pasture.

John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Son of God, baptizing Him in the Jordan River to fulfill all righteousness, and saw the Holy Spirit come upon Christ like a dove. John’s whole life was set aside to look for Jesus and prepare others for His coming with the message of repentance. Repent means to turn from your ways, having a change in heart and mind.

John saw something others couldn’t see.

Because I’m a visual person, I learn best when I can see and picture something. As I read Numbers 1:52 about the tribes pitching a tent by their tribal standard, I couldn’t help but think of John as “the standard.” Jesus said about John that the greatest born among women is John, but even the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John.

The Lord showed me that John was the STANDARD, as Jesus proclaimed the greatest born among women. John proclaimed in a conspicuous manner about Christ Jesus being the Son of God! He was merely a conspicuous flag sounding the message of Christ’s coming.

What blessed me even more is that I saw Jesus Christ as the Tent pitched by the standard, THE DOOR TO HEAVEN, where all could enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and find pasture. The pasture represents a place for the soul to rest. This is grace.

One of the things I love about Matthew 11:12, and the Kingdom of Heaven suffering violence, is the gift of grace we’ve been given to perceive heaven. You don’t need special glasses to recognize the Kingdom of Heaven. God has fearfully and wonderfully made you, that on a special receptor in your body, the G Protein-Coupled Receptor, He placed the ability within your body to see, hear, taste and smell. What’s even more phenomenal is that these senses inside of the body, from the neck down, regulate your organs. You apprehend this as “feelings,” where you feel God’s presence.

As we receive salvation in Christ Jesus, we have a special rest for our soul, which is known in Hebrews 4 as the Seventh Day Rest. God’s rest produces confidence and assurance in your soul to boldly run to the throne of grace to obtain mercy for your need. This is the Kingdom of Heaven. God’s grace giving us mercy, for us to know He is near.

The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and it is the violent that take it by force. This visual of the Greek word for violence will cause you to see this verse in a new light. The Greek word for violence is biázō pronounced bee-ad'-zo and means, “to force, TO CROWD ONESELF, to be seized, press, and suffer violence.” [ii] What I love about this particular Greek word is the root word from which it comes, which is bíos pronounced bee'-os meaning, “life, present state of existence, livelihood, good and living.” [iii] This is the Greek word from which we get the English word bio. When someone gives their bio, they’re saying all the things about themselves that prove THEY EXIST! They identify who their family is, and what accomplishments they’ve made in life.

Therefore, as we look at Matthew 11:12, where the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent seize it by force, what we see is that THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN CROWDS US! IT BRINGS US LIFE! Whose life? The Life of Christ, that He lived in His body! The very life we celebrate today that has given us grace, to walk in God’s peace, no matter the circumstance!

Close your eyes and imagine with me. You’re walking barefoot on a gravel trail leading you through an orchard of trees with all kinds of fruit. The aroma and freshness of the sweet ripeness of the fruit draws you into the middle of the orchard. You’re now still, feeling green grass under your feet, with a hint of dew. You inhale, taking in the moment. Suddenly, you feel a brush on your face, then on your arms and hands. You open your eyes and find every fruit tree in the orchard now surrounding you, crowding your space. This is what the Greek word for violence means, HEAVEN IS CROWDING YOU!

This is the thing. When we’re not in the rest of God, leaning entirely on Him, we get distracted to heaven’s presence. Luke 17:20-21 tells us that heaven is planted in our hearts. The Word of Truth, Who is Jesus, brings the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven as we live on this earth. And as great as John was, because of Grace, he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is GREATER THAN JOHN. This is the power given to you and I. We can enter through the Door into a Kingdom that Lifts us up into an authority we’ve never known, no matter what!

Bad days, crises, and catastrophic events don’t affect the Kingdom you and I are from. It exists and is real. This kingdom allows us to find peace in each moment of our day.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve gone through two major crises in my family. At times I thought I would lose it and was overwhelmed. But this is the beauty, I put my eyes on Christ Jesus and the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, and I found peace and rest for my soul.

Amid these crises, I had my sixth month mammogram from a finding in September, which showed calcifications had returned inside of one of my breasts. I had an operation two and a half years ago for a breast lumpectomy, where a biopsy of calcifications at that time set my doctor on high alert and put me in the high percentile for breast cancer. Thank goodness they did the lumpectomy and after tests, found the cells were benign. Because of this I must go to a special clinic yearly, doing two visits a year, for a mammogram and ultrasound. However, when they find something, they then move you to two mammograms and ultrasounds a year.

I was dealing with the two crises at the time of this mammogram and thought, “God, please bring me a God report.” The prior week’s notification, reminding me of my appointment, immediately sent dread into my heart. My skin was super thin, so to speak, from the other crises. However, I took a deep breath and put my eyes on Christ and instead heard the Lord speak to my heart, “Robin, refuse to be afraid,” and OH MY I was lifted into grace. I had a boldness of faith, and I said to myself, “NO MATTER WHAT I REFUSE TO BE AFRAID!”

Then came the day of the mammogram. They took me into the room to get my robe on and do my first round of pics. The radiologist technician then returned me to my room and told me to stay in my robe, in case the doctor wanted more. I sat there waiting about 10 minutes, and she walked back in and said, “She wants me to get more pictures.” My knees got jittery. I was doing the special mammography in the room in which I had a biopsy years before. I responded as she prepped me, “is this bad news?” She looked at me and assured me it was common.

I went through the process telling myself to breathe. I sat back in the room, and she told me to keep my robe on, in case they wanted more pictures. I waited for what had to be another 20 minutes. Thoughts went through my mind that they might see something more with the calcifications, and I wanted to burst into tears.

Then suddenly, a thought entered my mind, “what if they cannot find anything.” Heaven crowded me. I was standing in the orchard feeling the fruit trees press up against me. I then said, “NO MATTER WHAT I WILL NOT BE AFRAID!” I was in green pastures. I found rest for my soul.

The nurse came in and told me to change, and that the doctor would meet with me. I got up to change, when she immediately came back and said, “don’t change yet, the doctor wants to do an ultrasound.”  I took a few deep breaths. She brought me into the ultrasound room, where I waited for a while, wondering what she would say. Then after 20 or so minutes the doctor walked in and patted me on the arm and said, “When you come here it is always something.” I looked at her puzzled. She then said, “We cannot find the spots anymore, their gone. I don’t know what happened.”

OH, MY GOODNESS LADIES! I WANTED TO CRY FOR JOY! HEAVEN INVADED MY SPACE, I RECEIVED GRACE, BEING PAINTED IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S MERCY!

The release date of this podcast is falling on the Jewish calendar of the 16th of Nisan, which is the day we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. Passover begins the evening of the 14th of Nisan on the Jewish Calendar, which was this past Wednesday. What an amazing time to consider the grace of our God, which has been given through Christ Jesus.

Where is it you need the power of the Kingdom of Heaven? Just breathe, stand still, and smell the fruits of a Kingdom that is near you, crowding you!

 

[i] Strong J. (1890) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Abingdon Press. Strong’s Concordance Hebrew Word # 1713 “banner”

[ii] Strong J. (1890) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Abingdon Press. Strong’s Concordance Greek word # 971 “violence”

[iii] Strong J. (1890) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Abingdon Press. Strong’s Concordance Greek word # 979 “life”

As we celebrate the life of Christ, we can be assured that the Kingdom of Heaven is real. Jesus made this Kingdom known, as He proclaimed, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Where in your life do you need the assurance of the Kingdom of Heaven?

 

****

 

Welcome to Celebrating God’s Grace, A Women World Leader’s Podcast, I’m your host Robin Kirby-Gatto.

Thank you for joining us today as we celebrate God’s grace, in our lives, in our ministry, and around the world.

I pray you have an amazing weekend, celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Today’s message is titled: The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

Jesus’ ministry began with the message “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) It wasn’t happenstance that most of His parables and teachings were on the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus wanted God’s sons and daughters to know their true home, and to be confident of God’s plan for their lives on earth. In Matthew 11:10-13 Jesus emphasizes the power of this kingdom.

10 “This is the one of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, who shall make ready Your way before You. 11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize—a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion]. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied up until John.” (Matthew 11:10-13 AMPC)

Jesus distinguishes that something shifted with John the Baptist’s appearance. It was since the days of John that the Kingdom of Heaven endured violent assault. Why is that? John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord, proclaiming the message, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” in Matthew 3:2.

To better understand this, I love to look at a scripture in the Old Testament.

“The Israelites shall pitch their tents by their companies, every man by his own camp and every man by his own [tribal] standard.” (Numbers 1:52 AMPC)

Israel had twelve tribes, whom Moses led through the wilderness. God gave him specific instructions that when the twelve tribes pitched up their tent, they were to place it by the tribal standard. A standard is a banner or flag. This can be compared to the Olympics where every athlete stands by their nation’s flag.

The root Hebrew word from which standard comes is dâgal pronounced daw-gal' and means “to flaunt, i.e. raise a flag, to be conspicuous, to set up with banners.” [i] I absolutely love the Paleo Hebrew script, which is the writing system found in the Canaanite language, otherwise known as the Old Hebrew. These letters of the Old Hebrew are symbols, that when put together create a word picture, and give such depths of appreciation to what is written in the Old Testament.

The three Hebrew letters that compose standard, are Dalet, Gimel, and Lamed. Dalet is the ancient symbol of a door and means to enter and pathway. Gimel is the ancient symbol of a camel and in the positive means to lift up. Finally, Lamed is the ancient symbol of a cattle goad, which looks like a shepherd’s staff with a prick in the curvature, and means tongue, control, and authority. Therefore, the word picture in the Old Hebrew for standard, is THE DOOR IS LIFTED UP INTO WHICH YOU ENTER AND BRINGS AUTHORITY.

Just wow! Listen to that word picture again. The Door is lifted up, into which you enter, and brings authority. Is this not a beautiful picture of Christ on the Cross! In John 12:32 Jesus said that if He is lifted up, He will draw all men to Himself. Jesus also says in John 10:9 that He is the Door, and if anyone should enter, they would be saved and go in and out and find pasture.

John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Son of God, baptizing Him in the Jordan River to fulfill all righteousness, and saw the Holy Spirit come upon Christ like a dove. John’s whole life was set aside to look for Jesus and prepare others for His coming with the message of repentance. Repent means to turn from your ways, having a change in heart and mind.

John saw something others couldn’t see.

Because I’m a visual person, I learn best when I can see and picture something. As I read Numbers 1:52 about the tribes pitching a tent by their tribal standard, I couldn’t help but think of John as “the standard.” Jesus said about John that the greatest born among women is John, but even the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John.

The Lord showed me that John was the STANDARD, as Jesus proclaimed the greatest born among women. John proclaimed in a conspicuous manner about Christ Jesus being the Son of God! He was merely a conspicuous flag sounding the message of Christ’s coming.

What blessed me even more is that I saw Jesus Christ as the Tent pitched by the standard, THE DOOR TO HEAVEN, where all could enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and find pasture. The pasture represents a place for the soul to rest. This is grace.

One of the things I love about Matthew 11:12, and the Kingdom of Heaven suffering violence, is the gift of grace we’ve been given to perceive heaven. You don’t need special glasses to recognize the Kingdom of Heaven. God has fearfully and wonderfully made you, that on a special receptor in your body, the G Protein-Coupled Receptor, He placed the ability within your body to see, hear, taste and smell. What’s even more phenomenal is that these senses inside of the body, from the neck down, regulate your organs. You apprehend this as “feelings,” where you feel God’s presence.

As we receive salvation in Christ Jesus, we have a special rest for our soul, which is known in Hebrews 4 as the Seventh Day Rest. God’s rest produces confidence and assurance in your soul to boldly run to the throne of grace to obtain mercy for your need. This is the Kingdom of Heaven. God’s grace giving us mercy, for us to know He is near.

The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and it is the violent that take it by force. This visual of the Greek word for violence will cause you to see this verse in a new light. The Greek word for violence is biázō pronounced bee-ad'-zo and means, “to force, TO CROWD ONESELF, to be seized, press, and suffer violence.” [ii] What I love about this particular Greek word is the root word from which it comes, which is bíos pronounced bee'-os meaning, “life, present state of existence, livelihood, good and living.” [iii] This is the Greek word from which we get the English word bio. When someone gives their bio, they’re saying all the things about themselves that prove THEY EXIST! They identify who their family is, and what accomplishments they’ve made in life.

Therefore, as we look at Matthew 11:12, where the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent seize it by force, what we see is that THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN CROWDS US! IT BRINGS US LIFE! Whose life? The Life of Christ, that He lived in His body! The very life we celebrate today that has given us grace, to walk in God’s peace, no matter the circumstance!

Close your eyes and imagine with me. You’re walking barefoot on a gravel trail leading you through an orchard of trees with all kinds of fruit. The aroma and freshness of the sweet ripeness of the fruit draws you into the middle of the orchard. You’re now still, feeling green grass under your feet, with a hint of dew. You inhale, taking in the moment. Suddenly, you feel a brush on your face, then on your arms and hands. You open your eyes and find every fruit tree in the orchard now surrounding you, crowding your space. This is what the Greek word for violence means, HEAVEN IS CROWDING YOU!

This is the thing. When we’re not in the rest of God, leaning entirely on Him, we get distracted to heaven’s presence. Luke 17:20-21 tells us that heaven is planted in our hearts. The Word of Truth, Who is Jesus, brings the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven as we live on this earth. And as great as John was, because of Grace, he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is GREATER THAN JOHN. This is the power given to you and I. We can enter through the Door into a Kingdom that Lifts us up into an authority we’ve never known, no matter what!

Bad days, crises, and catastrophic events don’t affect the Kingdom you and I are from. It exists and is real. This kingdom allows us to find peace in each moment of our day.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve gone through two major crises in my family. At times I thought I would lose it and was overwhelmed. But this is the beauty, I put my eyes on Christ Jesus and the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, and I found peace and rest for my soul.

Amid these crises, I had my sixth month mammogram from a finding in September, which showed calcifications had returned inside of one of my breasts. I had an operation two and a half years ago for a breast lumpectomy, where a biopsy of calcifications at that time set my doctor on high alert and put me in the high percentile for breast cancer. Thank goodness they did the lumpectomy and after tests, found the cells were benign. Because of this I must go to a special clinic yearly, doing two visits a year, for a mammogram and ultrasound. However, when they find something, they then move you to two mammograms and ultrasounds a year.

I was dealing with the two crises at the time of this mammogram and thought, “God, please bring me a God report.” The prior week’s notification, reminding me of my appointment, immediately sent dread into my heart. My skin was super thin, so to speak, from the other crises. However, I took a deep breath and put my eyes on Christ and instead heard the Lord speak to my heart, “Robin, refuse to be afraid,” and OH MY I was lifted into grace. I had a boldness of faith, and I said to myself, “NO MATTER WHAT I REFUSE TO BE AFRAID!”

Then came the day of the mammogram. They took me into the room to get my robe on and do my first round of pics. The radiologist technician then returned me to my room and told me to stay in my robe, in case the doctor wanted more. I sat there waiting about 10 minutes, and she walked back in and said, “She wants me to get more pictures.” My knees got jittery. I was doing the special mammography in the room in which I had a biopsy years before. I responded as she prepped me, “is this bad news?” She looked at me and assured me it was common.

I went through the process telling myself to breathe. I sat back in the room, and she told me to keep my robe on, in case they wanted more pictures. I waited for what had to be another 20 minutes. Thoughts went through my mind that they might see something more with the calcifications, and I wanted to burst into tears.

Then suddenly, a thought entered my mind, “what if they cannot find anything.” Heaven crowded me. I was standing in the orchard feeling the fruit trees press up against me. I then said, “NO MATTER WHAT I WILL NOT BE AFRAID!” I was in green pastures. I found rest for my soul.

The nurse came in and told me to change, and that the doctor would meet with me. I got up to change, when she immediately came back and said, “don’t change yet, the doctor wants to do an ultrasound.”  I took a few deep breaths. She brought me into the ultrasound room, where I waited for a while, wondering what she would say. Then after 20 or so minutes the doctor walked in and patted me on the arm and said, “When you come here it is always something.” I looked at her puzzled. She then said, “We cannot find the spots anymore, their gone. I don’t know what happened.”

OH, MY GOODNESS LADIES! I WANTED TO CRY FOR JOY! HEAVEN INVADED MY SPACE, I RECEIVED GRACE, BEING PAINTED IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S MERCY!

The release date of this podcast is falling on the Jewish calendar of the 16th of Nisan, which is the day we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. Passover begins the evening of the 14th of Nisan on the Jewish Calendar, which was this past Wednesday. What an amazing time to consider the grace of our God, which has been given through Christ Jesus.

Where is it you need the power of the Kingdom of Heaven? Just breathe, stand still, and smell the fruits of a Kingdom that is near you, crowding you!

 

[i] Strong J. (1890) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Abingdon Press. Strong’s Concordance Hebrew Word # 1713 “banner”

[ii] Strong J. (1890) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Abingdon Press. Strong’s Concordance Greek word # 971 “violence”

[iii] Strong J. (1890) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Abingdon Press. Strong’s Concordance Greek word # 979 “life”