Abiding in Christ: Releasing the Kingdom on Earth
I. FOUNDATIONAL PREMISE OF THE KINGDOM: VOLUNTARY LOVE (RELATIONSHIP)
A. A foundational premise of the Kingdom of God is that God has chosen to release His power and influence on earth in
direct proportion to how much His people consciously live in relationship with Him by actively dialoguing and agreeing with
His heart. This is the primary method that God has chosen to release the Presence and power of the Spirit in us and
through us.
B. God is a Father who longs to share His life with His family. He forever runs His Kingdom by the principle of
voluntary relationship with Him. In Gen. 1, God proved His ability to manifest His power without us. He created human
beings because He determined to rule with us.
C. The Father will not violate our free will by forcing us to live in dialog and agreement with Him. Jesus as the
Bridegroom also shares His inheritance with His people on this same principle.
D. God promises to manifest His presence to those who dialog with Him in prayer (v. 13-14) and agree with Him
in obedience (v. 15, 21).
13 Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name,
I will do it. 15 If you love Me, keep My commandments…21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who
loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. (John 14:13-21)
E. The Father loves everyone in the sense of valuing and caring for them. However, He only loves the lifestyle,
choices and fruit of those who pursue Him with the intention of 100-fold obedience.
F. God withholds blessing that He intends to give us until we interact with Him in relationship. Pressure, pain and
spiritual barrenness are meant to cause us to arise out of our passivity to call on Him in relationship. Jesus described
this as “abiding in Him.”
2 You lust and do not have. You…covet and cannot obtain…Yet you do not have BECAUSE you do not ask….
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (James 4:2, 8)
G. Whatever increases our activate dialog (prayer) and agreement with God’s heart (obedience) results in a
greater release of God’s Presence and power in our lives. This is the essence of wisdom. Whatever decreases this
dialog and agreement diminishes our experience of God’s Presence and power in our lives. This is the essence of
folly. It is worth any price that we must pay to cultivate greater dialog and agreement with God’s heart.
H. Cultivating a responsive heart of extravagant devotion to Jesus takes time and effort. It is something that we must
do deliberately. Love does not automatically grow. Rather it automatically diminishes unless we intentionally cultivate a
responsive heart to God.
I. Satan’s first priority against the Church is to lead us astray from cultivating the ability to be responsive to God with
wholehearted love and extravagant devotion. If Satan leads us astray from the purity of devotion to Jesus then our
service and love for others will eventually fail.
3 I am afraid, lest as the serpent (Satan) deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the
simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3, NAS)
J. Abiding in Christ refers to our dialog and agreement with God’s heart. It results in a greater release of God’s
Presence and power in our lives. This is the simple yet prevailing condition for how God’s Kingdom is manifest into
the earthly realm in this age and in the age-to-come.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you,
unless you abide in Me. 5…He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing...
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:4-7)
K. Fruit refers both to godliness in having a vibrant heart in God (Romans 6:22; 7:4-5; Galatians 5:22;
Ephesians 5:9; Hebrews 12:11; 13:15; James 3:18) and to being a vessel that God releases His presence through
in ministry to others (John 4:36; Romans 1:13; 15:28; Philippians 1:22; Colossians 1:5-6).
L. Abiding in Christ is a concept that is so simple that anyone can understand and do it but it is so simple that few do.
Scripture validates the wisdom of a lifestyle of abiding in Christ.
27 God has chosen the (so called) foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and…the (so called) weak things
of the world to put to shame the… mighty… (1 Corinthians 1:27)
M. Mary chose to be filled with God’s Word. This is the one thing needed that Mary chose (v. 42). We must choose
this, no one can choose it for us. She cultivated a responsive heart to God.
38 Mary…sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached
Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?" 41 Jesus said, "Martha, Martha, you
are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part…"
(Luke 10:38-42)
N. The Word is meant to create a living active dialog in our hearts with God. We pray-read the Word or we
converse with Jesus as we read it. We thank Him for certain truths as we ask Him to reveal them more. We commit
to obey other truths as we ask Him for help to fully obey them.
12 The word of God is living and powerful… (Hebrews 4:12)
O. There are three main components necessary for the Word to abide or live in us. First, we choose to pursue God
with a loving obedience. Second, we regularly feed our heart on the Word. Third, we need the activity of the Spirit to turn
our meditation into living revelation so that it delivers us from sinful desires. We do this best as we fellowship with the
Spirit (by talking to Him). Summary: we obey God, feed on the Word and talk to the Spirit.
P. We remove darkness from a room by turning on the light, not by taking out buckets of darkness.
5 Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (overpower) it. (John 1:5)