HEALING STREAMS LIVE HEALING SERVICE WITH PASTOR CHRIS | DAY 2 (PART 1)

Hallelujah! Glory to God.

Yesterday, I started discussing with you the Kingdom of God and what the Bible says about it. We began with Mark 1:14, and I'd like us to read it again:

"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God."

Notice that Jesus came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. That immediately raises an important question: What is the Kingdom of God? What does that expression really mean?

It is a familiar phrase. Many people have heard it countless times, yet most have never truly understood its meaning. Because the words themselves seem simple, many assume they already know what they mean. But when it comes to the things of God, assumptions are never enough.

Unless you understand God's Word from God's own perspective, you miss its true meaning. Many times, what you think is not what God thinks. What He means is not necessarily what you imagine He means. Therefore, if you are going to understand the Word of God correctly, you must see it from His point of view.

The only way anyone can know what God means is through His Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to know the things of God. All a person can have without Him are assumptions, opinions, and human interpretations.

Remember when Jesus asked His disciples, "Whom do men say that I am?" They answered, "Some say You are John the Baptist come back to life because John the Baptist had been killed. Some say You are Elijah. Others say You are Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

Then Jesus asked them another question: "But whom do you say that I am?"

For a moment, they were silent.

Then Simon Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Jesus' response is one of the most remarkable statements in Scripture. He said, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven."

In other words, Peter did not arrive at that conclusion through human intelligence or natural reasoning. It was revealed to him by God Himself.

Because the expression "Son of God" does not mean what many people naturally assume it means. Human thinking interprets it according to earthly relationships. When we say someone is the son of a man, we understand that he was born through his father and mother.

But that is not what the Bible means when it calls Jesus the Son of God.

According to the Scriptures, the Son of God is God manifested in human flesh. It is God coming to mankind as a Man. It is God revealing Himself in human form as man's Saviour, the Messiah, the Anointed One, God's chosen vessel of salvation.

That is why Peter confessed, "Thou art the Christ."

Christ is the manifestation of God.

Jesus therefore said to Peter, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee." No human mind could have discovered that truth by itself. It required revelation from the Father.

This teaches us an important lesson.

Many times, what we think is different from what God is saying. The Lord Himself declares, "My ways are not your ways, neither are your thoughts My thoughts."

If you are going to think God's thoughts, you must have God's Spirit.

That is why we began examining the meaning of the Kingdom of God from God's own point of view.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

The Kingdom of God is that realm of life governed by divine principles.

Notice that it is a realm of life. It is not merely a geographical location or a religious institution. It is a life governed by principles that originate from God Himself.

These principles are divine because they are not produced by men. They do not belong to this world. They proceed from God.

• Divine righteousness.

• Divine faith.

• Divine hope.

• Divine love.

These are the principles that regulate life in the Kingdom of God.

According to the Scriptures, the three foundational principles are faith, hope, and love. But we are not speaking about human faith, human hope, or human love. We are speaking about God's faith, God's hope, and God's love.

Human beings also exercise faith.

If you travelled here by aeroplane, think about what happened before you boarded the flight. Did you ask to inspect the pilot's licence? Did you request to see documents proving he was qualified to fly the aircraft? None of you did.

You simply boarded the aeroplane.

Did you ask to verify the flight path before take-off? Did you stand at the window trying to make sure the aircraft was heading in the right direction?

No.

You trusted the system. You trusted what you had been told.

That is human faith.

Even before sitting on a chair, most people never stop to inspect whether it will support their weight. They simply sit down. Yet sometimes people have sat on chairs that collapsed beneath them.

Every day, human beings demonstrate faith.

Hope is also demonstrated every day.

Many of you went to school hoping to complete your education and use that knowledge to build a better future. Every night you go to bed expecting to wake up tomorrow. You tell someone, "I'll see you tomorrow," or "We'll meet next week."

• You make plans months and even years in advance.

• You rent houses.

• You sign contracts.

• You organise future events.

All these actions are expressions of hope.

Human beings live by hope.

Even those who go to hospitals do so because they have hope in the medical system. Yet history has shown that even trusted systems can fail. There have been doctors who deliberately harmed patients, and still people continue to trust.

That is human hope.

Human faith can fail.

Human hope can fail.

Human love can also fail.

People stand before witnesses on their wedding day and declare their love for one another, yet later one may destroy the other. Children have even risen against their own parents.

Because human love, at its very best, is centred on self. It seeks its own interests first.

The world's philosophy even teaches people to "pay yourself first."

But God's thinking is different.

God says if you owe someone, pay your debt.

The Bible says, "The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again."

Do you see the difference?

God's principles are entirely different from the principles of this world.

That is why, when Jesus came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, He was introducing mankind to an entirely different realm of life—a realm governed by God's own principles.

A realm governed by divine faith.

A realm governed by divine hope.

A realm governed by divine love.

These are not human virtues improved by religion.

They are divine realities that originate from God Himself.

We have established that the Kingdom of God is governed by divine principles—divine faith, divine hope, and divine love. The next question is: How do these divine principles come to us?

This is important because the Bible does not merely tell us that these principles exist; it also reveals how they become active realities in our lives.

DIVINE FAITH COMES BY HEARING GOD'S WORD

The Bible tells us in Romans 10:17:

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

This is referring to God's kind of faith—divine faith.

How do we receive it?

It comes through hearing the Word of God.

When the Word of God enters your heart, God's own faith is imparted to you. This is different from human faith. Human faith depends on experience, knowledge, or confidence in people and systems. But divine faith is born from God's Word.

Even when human knowledge reaches its limit and human faith fails, God's faith remains effective because it originates from Him.

Notice the wording carefully.

The Scripture says, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

Even the ability to hear comes through God's Word. The Word of God is so powerful that it can open deaf ears. What an extraordinary truth.

DIVINE HOPE COMES FROM GOD'S PROMISE

What about hope?

The answer is found in Titus 1:1–2:

"Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began."

Divine hope is founded upon God's promises.

Whenever God makes a promise, you have every reason to expect its fulfilment because He cannot lie.

Paul speaks of the hope of eternal life, a promise God made before the world began. Since God Himself made the promise, believers could confidently expect its fulfilment.

But there is something else we must understand.

There is a difference between something God has promised for the future and something He has already fulfilled.

The very next verse declares:

"But hath in due times manifested His Word through preaching..."

What was once a promise has now been fulfilled.

God promised eternal life before the world began, but He fulfilled that promise through Jesus Christ.

That means eternal life is no longer merely a future expectation.

It is a present-day reality.

That is why 1 John 5:11 says:

"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."

Notice the language of Scripture.

• It does not say God will give us eternal life.

• It does not say He shall give us eternal life.

It says He has given us eternal life.

The promise has already been fulfilled.

Verse 12 continues:

"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."

This is no longer something we continue hoping to receive in the future.

It has already been provided in Jesus Christ. Faith now receives what hope once anticipated.

That is the beauty of God's Word.

There are still promises whose fulfilment lies ahead.

For example, the Lord Jesus promised that He would come again for those who believe in Him.

That remains our blessed hope.

We look forward with joyful expectation to the day when the trumpet of God shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord.

What a glorious hope that is.

DIVINE LOVE IS POURED INTO OUR HEARTS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

How then do we receive divine love?

The answer is found in Romans 5:5:

"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

The New International Version expresses it beautifully:

"God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us."

Divine love comes from God.

It is not produced by human effort, personal discipline, or emotional affection.

It is imparted by the Holy Spirit Himself. The Holy Spirit pours God's love into our hearts.

Until that happens, a person possesses only human love—and human love, at its very best, remains limited by self-interest.

That is why people become angry when they feel their love is not returned. Human love seeks itself.

God's love is different.

The Scriptures declare:

"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

• He did not wait until we loved Him.

• He did not wait until we became righteous.

He loved us while we were still sinners.

• That is divine love.

• It is unconditional.

• It is sacrificial.

• It is God's own nature expressed toward mankind.

THE POWER OF DIVINE PRINCIPLES

When you possess God's kind of faith, nothing becomes impossible.

Jesus said that if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can accomplish extraordinary things.

Divine faith changes everything.

Divine hope fills your future with certainty because it rests upon God's unfailing promises.

Divine love transforms the very way you live because it is God's own love at work within you.

These are the principles that govern the Kingdom of God.

• They are not theories.

• They are living realities imparted by God Himself.