Winston Davenport - Kingdom of god part 3 - Anointed!

Hi, and thank you for tuning in with me this week. I have been talking about the Kingdom Of God and the Kingdom of Heaven for the past couple of weeks, and will be doing so for the next couple of weeks. This is an awesome, amazing subject, and if you haven't heard my other videos, they should be numbered, and you can go to www.winstondavenport.com to listen to the rest of the videos. And they're also available on YouTube. So, let's get started. First of all, we covered that the Kingdom of God---or as Jesus called it, the Kingdom of Heaven---is already here. We're not waiting for it to come. It is already here. It exists all around us. It is available. It is at hand. But even more importantly, Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within you. That means that if you are a believer, if you've been raised to new life through Jesus Christ like I have, then the Kingdom of God exists in me, and it exists inside of you, too. That is amazing news. To think that Heaven---which is basically the place where the presence of God is---dwells inside of us is a mind-blowing thought. And I don't think that any of us really quite believes it, either. If we did, then I believe we would see some monumental changes in our lives. I believe that the stuff that we have allowed to discourage us and get us down wouldn't be able to touch us, not in the least, because we would know that the presence of God and His Kingdom, His government, His system, His way of doing things lives inside of us. Isn't that crazy? Did you know that the Bible says in the New Testament that the fullness of the Godhead---that means Father, Son, and Holy Spirit---dwells in us bodily? Let me give you a couple moments to let that sink in. The presence of God---the fullness of the Godhead---indwells us bodily. That is amazing news. Is that the gospel we've been preaching to the world? I don't think so. Is that the Gospel we need to start preaching to the world? I think so. So the Kingdom of God is actually going to be overlooked or missed by many of the people who are so ardently looking for it, simply because they're looking in the wrong place, but they're also looking for something different than what is going to come. Just like the Jews missed Jesus when He came, even though they fully believed and had studied and knew the prophecies by heart about the Messiah coming, the Son of God coming to set them free, to liberate them from their captivity---because He didn't come looking like Alexander the Great, like some warrior literally leading them into some physical new land or suppressing their enemies, or whatever, they missed Him. And in fact, most Jews are still waiting for the prophecies of the Old Testament to come true because they don't believe that Jesus was the answer to those prophecies. That is too bad for them. Because Jesus WAS the answer to those prophecies; He was the Messiah; He did set us free. And not only did He give us authority spiritually, He also gave us authority on this earth. So for those of us who accept Him, we have the fullness of the Godhead indwelling us. Do you really think that any government on Earth---do you really think that any manmade system can stand against the awesome government of God that's in us? Now, does that mean that we need to incite rebellion, or that we should be working against other men or mankind or the systems that man has set in place? No. All it simply means is that that stuff is irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the Kingdom that we are living in, that we are residing in, and is residing in us. We answer to a higher government, we answer to higher truths than the truths that the rest of the world sees so clearly around us. That means when the rest of the world is discouraged about something, I don't get discouraged about that thing. I don't allow it, because I'm living in a different realm. I'm living in a higher realm, a higher plane of reality. I'm living in alignment with that awesome, wonderful, spectacular, tubular Kingdom of Heaven that exists right here and right now. It just sucks for those people who are going to miss it because they think that they've got it figured out, and yet they actually DON'T have it figured out. But they've studied, like the Pharisees, they've studied and poured over the Scriptures daily thinking that in those Scriptures they might find life, and yet, as Jesus reprimanded them, "You have not come to Me, the giver of life, the one who wrote the book, the one who inspired the prophecies. You haven't come to Me." And Christians today are still flipping the pages of their Bible like crazy, thinking that by studying the Bible enough, by memorizing enough Scripture verses that they're going to be able to find life. They're still flooding into churches every Sunday, they're going to their homegroups on Wednesday night. They're still doing this, doing that---devotionals, praying, doing doing doing doing doing as many things as they can to try and inherit the Kingdom of God, which is so ironic, since the Kingdom of God is already theirs---it's theirs for the taking---they just don't know it and believe it. That's what God called me to do, was to tell people what's already theirs. God called me to come and speak the truth, especially, primarily to Christians, because God said, "I've called you to set Christians free." And Christians are already free, but because they don't know that they're free, because they haven't been told that they're free, because they haven't come into alignment with the Truth, the belief that they are already free, they're still seeking the freedom that they already have, still waiting for God to do something He has already done, when in reality, the Bible says in the Book of Hebrews that Jesus finished His work. He said IT IS FINISHED! while He was dying on the Cross. He must have been in a whole lot of pain, yet He managed to squeeze out those three words. I think that if I were being crucified on a Cross and I were in that much pain, I wouldn't really be focused on continuing to deliver my message. I'd probably be like AAAGH! AAAGH! AAAGH! But, no. Jesus took the time to utter three amazingly simple and profound words that would set the course of all who would believe in the future in the direction of a realized, fully actualized Kingdom of Heaven all around us. And what Jesus said was, "It is finished!" The work had been done. He ascended to Heaven. He sat down at the right hand of the Father. The book of Hebrews says that the reason He sat down was because He had no more work to do. What? Does this mean that Jesus is not doing anything else? Yes, that is what it means. Jesus is not doing anything. God is not doing anything today. Because they have already accomplished what they set out to do. The ball is in our court, and it's up to us to realize the Kingdom of Heaven that was given to us two thousand years ago, the Kingdom of Heaven that is all around us, the Kingdom of Heaven that is within us right now, and to take that Kingdom and spread it throughout all the corners of the Earth so that all may come to see the goodness of God and the awesomeness of His Kingdom. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 23 and 24 says, "The parts of the body that we regard as less honorable are those that we clothe with the greatest care." I think we all know what Paul was talking about here. The parts of us that we are extra careful to keep clothed are kind of considered the less honorable, and actually offensive. If we were to walk around in public without that stuff covered up, people would be offended. So, it's kind of considered to be the less honorable parts. Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians to say, "God has given extra honor and care to those parts of the body that have less dignity." God has given extra care to those parts of the body that have less dignity. I still don't think he's talking about our physical anatomy, at this point. He is now referring to the Church, the Body of Christ. So, I think we can all look around us and see people who we might not even think they are Christian---maybe they're not even Christian---and yet God is somehow treating them with extra care, giving them extra honor, because they, as the lowest, as the weaker, He is actually planning to raise up to be the face of the Great Awakening. What? Could this be true? It is true. It's the liars, the thieves, the homosexuals, it's the prostitutes, it's the beaten down, the drug addicts---it's those people who seem so dejected---the dregs of society, that we, especially as Christians tend to shove to the back burner. We say, Oh, yeah, we love to have people come into our churches who have sordid pasts, who are sinners or whatever. We love to seem them changed. And we sit back and we applaud them, and we say, "Way to go. You've been sober for 9 months. Way to go! We're so proud of you. But in reality, what we fail to recognize as Christians is that we are actually whitewashed tombs, we're Pharisees who actually see behavior as some mark of a holy person. We actually see someone's behavior as what qualifies us for Kingdom ministry or for Kingdom of God reality in our lives. As though we who don't struggle with addictions somehow are living in the Kingdom more than that person who does struggle with addictions. And it's good that they've been sober for nine months, and so we applaud them and we feel good about ourselves for applauding them, but we actually see ourselves as better than they are. Friends, this is a terrible, terrible way to live. This is not the heart of God. Jesus was called the Friend of Sinners, and the ones who seemed all clean, like they had it all together, Jesus ran from them like the plague. He cursed them, He cussed them out, He was not interested in having anything to do with those people. It was the sinners. It was the poor. It was the beaten down and the broken that Jesus loved and spent His time with. Why did He spend His time with them? Was it because He liked them more? Probably. I actually would prefer to spend time with sinners---I'd rather hang out with an alcoholic, drug addict, *** than most of the whitewashed tomb Christians that we have walking around in this society who are kind of wasting their time and wasting everybody else's time, too. They've had two thousand year span of time to try and run the Church, to try and spread the Kingdom, and they have run the thing into the ground. Let me tell you something. Two thousand years is more than enough time to actualize a revelation of the Kingdom of God that Jesus came and brought to us. Man, two thousand years is more than enough time to spread this Kingdom throughout the whole world. So what have we been doing here? What have Christians been doing for the last two thousand years? I'll tell you what: They forgot the truth, and they've been dicking around with their old-fashioned traditions that make Christ of no effect. They're more interested in the pages of the Bible than they are with the Creator of the Universe, whose fullness indwells us. And I would like to encourage you today, and encourage myself: Let's not be like those people. Oh, wow. Hallelujah! Ha, Ha, Ha! So, okay. Now. I'm going to talk about the Book of Isaiah again real quick, which I talked about last week. There's a prophecy in the book of Isaiah that was quoted by John the Baptist in the book of Luke, in which case he says, "Every valley will be filled up and every mountain will be brought low, and all mankind will see the salvation, the total and complete well-being of God." All mankind will see it. Now, these mountains---these people who feel like they have everything figured out, they have it all together, they would never get caught up in something like addiction or whatever---these people are the mountains that are being brought low, and the dregs of society, you know, the Ted Haggards, who really just "let everybody down"---those are the valleys that are being brought up. Yeah, I just said it. Ted Haggard is going to be one of the leaders of the Great Awakening, of the new revivals going on in the world right now, precisely because he became a valley because of the scandal in his life, made him a valley, and he is being raised up on a level playing field. And he is going to be the one to enter the Kingdom ahead of everybody else. What does that mean? I don't know, but Jesus said something very interesting that I think Christians and Bible teachers have, for the longest time, not really wanted to talk about---because, well, let's face it, it's frankly quite offensive, but in the book of Matthew chapter 21 verse 31 Jesus said, "The tax collectors and the prostitutes will enter the Kingdom of God before you." He was talking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees---the religious leaders of the day. Can you imagine if Jesus were standing in the flesh right here in today's society? And He went to pastors, the religious leaders of the day---priests, pastors, reverends, whatever---and He said, "The tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the Kingdom of God before you!"? We would have scandal. I'm pretty sure that what would happen is Jesus would get crucified again. If Jesus walked the earth today, He would get crucified by the religious leaders, just as He did back then, because the message of the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus came to bring is extremely offensive to those who have tried to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven through their works. Through their Bible studies. Through their devotionals, through their commitment to the church. Starting a home group, whatever it is. But Jesus, in fact, did say that the tax collectors and prostitutes---and you can fill in the blanks there, too; you can say the drug addicts, the drug dealers, the gang lords, the rapists, the thieves, the liars, the cheats, the Enron guys...whatever it is; take your pick---they will be entering the Kingdom of God before you, if you side with a gospel that says that something must be earned. Let me tell you something: Nothing can be earned, you cannot gain salvation through your works; you cannot lose salvation through your works. The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It was a free gift. It wasn't earned. And it is beautiful. It is the Kingdom of Heaven. And if you will just stop striving and stop fighting to try and earn something that you already have, if you'll just lay down finally and just say, "Oh! Okay! I get it! The Kingdom of Heaven is here; the Kingdom of Heaven is within me. The fullness of the Godhead: Father, Son, Holy Spirit lives in me right now. i am living in the Kingdom right now, and that's good news. If you will make that your Gospel, the good news that you preach, you will be spreading this Kingdom throughout all the corners of this earth, and you will see the signs and wonders that Jesus promised would follow the true Gospel. You will see that, if you will adhere to the belief system that Jesus brought. If you will repent---and the Greek word for repent is METANOIA, meaning "change your mind, change your mind." Repentance means to change your mind---it doesn't necessarily mean turn and go the other direction; it doesn't mean cry out for your sins and confess your sins; it doesn't mean beat your chest and beg God for forgiveness; it doesn't even mean ask for forgiveness; in fact, repentance has nothing to do with forgiveness. It literally means, Change Your Mind. If you will change your way of thinking from, "We are waiting, we are standing our ground, occupying until Jesus comes back and the Kingdom of God is revealed to us"---if you will change your mindset to, "Oh my gosh; the Kingdom of God is as here as it's ever going to get and it's up to me to take what's on the inside and manifest it in the world around me," Oh my gosh, friend, you are going to see some things change. You're going to experience some new levels of righteousness, of peace, and of joy in the Holy Spirit, and I am so excited for you to do that. Thank you for tuning in with me this week. It is a blessing to come and talk to you guys, and to have all these people tuning in to these web-sermonettes. I absolutely love the revelation that God is bringing to His Church today, and I am honored that He is using me to do it. Please visit www.winstondavenport.com for more information, more videos, audio teachings, music videos, audio CDs, free mp3s, soaking sessions. Visit www.winstondavenport.com, and we will see you again next week. God bless.