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"You Bring the Kingdom In" Mark 4:35-41; 6:45-56

by Clancy Nixon

July 30, 2006

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.holyspiritanglicna.org

When heaven invades earth, the extraordinary becomes normal. I experienced

one day in Uganda this month when heaven invaded earth July 14th a day I will never

forget. It was a perfect day. On Bastille Day, the walls came down, and the captives were

set free. We were asked to minister in Kibiito Parish at a Healing and Deliverance

Service and at the Anglican schools on the campus there. The girls were recuperating that

day, and the boys were installing solar. So three Americans, they called us muzungu

meaning white men all got to preach that day. Yes, to them, Amir is a muzungu! I

preached in the church, Amir preached to the teenagers, and Syd preached to the children.

Canon Edward accompanied us. He is a ball of joy and energy who organizes

charismatic renewal meetings all over the Diocese of Rewenzori. I hope one day to bring

him here on mission. The service lasted over four hours, and no one was conscious of

time. Lots of singing, drumming, and dancing before the Lord; testimonies, tea, and

more. Edward translated my sermon, and then we prayed for healing and deliverance.

That day in Kibiito, we saw hundreds who reported being set free from

destructive anger; three reported healing from kidney disorders; over ten people with

impaired sight reported that they saw better after we prayed; and one woman in a green

dress who was violently tormented and considered mad was brought in bound with ropes

on the floor to keep her from hurting herself or others. Amir asked me, "What's with the

ropes?" Indeed. I spoke to her brother, who said she was not in her right mind. At first,

I wasn't sure that they were in their right mind - they expected me to do something about

it! Then I remembered, this is a healing and deliverance service, so I took a deep breath.

I sensed the Lord tell me to take authority over an unclean spirit. I commanded the spirit

of madness to leave her, and she immediately came to her senses. Edward translated.

She confessed unforgiveness to her family, received Christ as her Savior and Lord for the

first time, and was set free from violent madness! Her bonds were untied and she stood

up for the first time that day and praised the Lord with the rest of us! Hundreds received

supernatural healing that day. Over at the secondary school, where Amir was preaching

at the same time, over 700 teenagers made initial commitments to Christ. I mention

numbers because each one is precious to Jesus! God's favor was with us that day, and I

did not want to leave. I wanted to stay on that mountaintop! When Heaven comes to

earth, like it did that day, we will see healing; we will see salvation; we will see

deliverance; we will see miracles. God uses you and me to bring the Kingdom in.

Many people had simple faith that day in God's power, and God used that faith to

heal and deliver. It can happen here. I believe that it's possible to have a cancer-free

zone! You might say, that's impossible! So what, God overcomes impossibilities every

day. That's his specialty. Henry Blackaby said that no one ever left his church unless

they died or moved out of town. Now that's a miracle I'd like to see here. When Jesus

walked this planet, he healed almost everyone he saw, except in Nazareth, his hometown.

Jesus healed and walked on water with divine power not because he was the God-man,

second member of the Trinity - which he was Jesus laid aside the attributes of divinity

when he became man. Paul says he emptied himself of his divinity. Jesus said he could

do nothing on his own John 5:19. I believe that Jesus did miracles not by his power, but

by the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that is available to you and me. The

Holy Spirit is available to you and me without measure all measurements are no our

end, not his. In Luke 11:13, Jesus said, "how much more will your Father in Heaven give

the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."

You may not want to ask God for that much Holy Spirit power, because you don't

want the responsibility of having to risk failure by exercising it. Some of your Christian

friends might think you have gone off the deep end of credulity. Yes, you might look

foolish to your neighbor, asking them if you can pray for their healing. You will look

foolish in the eyes of some Christians while doing Kingdom things because there are still

Christ-followers who think the Holy Spirit no longer comes in power to heal and deliver.

Let me ask you this: Who are you trying to please? When the Lord returns, he's looking

for what? - Faith. He's looking for people who are willing to believe God, to fear him,

not to fear man. He's looking for people who believe the whole book, not just parts of it.

No matter what our calling in life is, and those will be different for each of us lawyer,

housewife, missionary - our commission is all the same. We are to defeat the works of the

devil by bringing the Kingdom in. Jesus commissions you and me the same way he did

the twelve, the seventy, and the five hundred: Preach the gospel; make disciples; heal the

sick; cleanse the lepers, and set the captives free. Imbedded in the commission is the

capacity to fulfill it. It must be so, or Jesus would not have given it. Amen?

What an awesome destiny Jesus has given us. Do you believe Paul when he says

in 2 Timothy 2:12 that we will reign with Jesus? Do you want to rule over ten cities like

the man with the five talents? If you can accept it, you and I are being groomed and

trained for Kingdom rule. We rule, not by lording it over others, but by serving others, by

helping them come into their destiny. We rule by growing in our faith and learning what

God wants us to learn from His word and his deeds. We know, most of you know well,

about learning from His Word; we know far less about learning from His deeds. When

God shows up in power, we need to learn from those miracles so we are equipped to deal

with the next storm.

Look at Mark 4, page 994 of your blue pew Bibles. Like the disciples, when we

are in a storm, we often think that it is our job to ask God to save us. It can feel like God

is asleep or absent from us in our hour of need. We know our God neither slumbers nor

sleeps, like the ba'als do. Verse 38, Jesus is asleep on a cushion in the boat while the

storm rages. What are fishermen doing with a cushion? It's not a fluffy pillow - it's a bag

of ballast. Jesus is asleep here because he is also a man who needs sleep, and it's the

middle of the night. He has come to bring the Kingdom of Heaven in and to show us how

to do the same. There are no storms in heaven, so he is not worried about this little storm

in Galilee. We can think that it is our job to pray, and God's job to do stuff. I pray, you

come. That is not a bad start, but it's not all that God wants us to learn. Look at Mark

4:39. They wake Jesus up, he answers their prayer, calms the storm, and then he rebukes

them, saying "such little faith you have!" Instead of bringing the Kingdom in through the

spiritual gifts and authority they have already received, instead of rebuking the storm

themselves, the disciples asked Jesus to do it, so he rebukes them for little faith. Many of

us are not walking in the authority Jesus has given us. He told us to storm the gates of

Hell. He told us to cast out demons. While we can't do that ourselves, God in us can do

that. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is in you. Do you believe that? We are just not as

weak as we think! In First Corinthians 3, Paul rebukes the church at Corinth because they

are acting like mere men. Friends, you are not mere men! When the Spirit of God took

up residence in you, you were disqualified for living the normal human life. You might

say, "I'm only human." If you are born again, no, you're not only human! You are a

new creation, a temple of the Holy Spirit, an ambassador of Christ, and an eternal heir of

all the promises of God, which are all yes in Christ Jesus. Amen?

Bill Johnson says that if we immediately cry out to God in a storm, we are

abdicating our own role in a miracle. (The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, p.

102) He says that God never allows a storm without first providing the tools to bring

about a miraculous result. God has designed your circumstances as a perfect pedagogy

just for you. God allows storms into your life so you can know the place of victory over

them. Jesus went through the worst storm of all on the cross. God did not protect him

from that storm, but let his only son die for you and me. I think the devil thought he had

won a great victory on Good Friday, but by Saturday, Jesus had stormed the gates of Hell

and whupped the Devil good. God wants you to know the same place of victory that

Jesus did, and without storms, you won't know victory. Remember, he is grooming you

to rule with him. Some of you are not experiencing victory over the devil because you

are praying to God to send the demons away. Don't pray to God to bind the Devil you

do it. You bring the kingdom in. Jesus said to Peter, whatever you bind on earth will be

bound in Heaven. He did not say, whatever you pray to be bound will be bound. Johnson

says we should think of it from the perspective of a job. How long would you keep your

job if you kept asking your boss to do what he is paying you to do? Repeat after me:

"You bring the Kingdom in." Turn to your neighbor and tell them the same thing: "You

bring the Kingdom in." Friends, this is not self-reliance! It's a deeper place of relying on

God, and believing that God wants to use even you to bring the Kingdom in. Trusting

God brings confidence that He can use you. That's faith.

Between the two stories of Jesus walking on the lake is the story of the

multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Read the story again in Mark 6:30 and following,

p. 997 of your blue Bibles. I believe that Jesus did not create a huge pile of food, and

then give it to the disciples to distribute. The food was multiplied at the hands of the

disciples. Jesus had said, "You give them something to eat." (v.37) I think he meant it!

He did not say, "I'll do it for you." The disciples must have seen that. But later that

same day, the disciples did not seem to have understood how God used them, that they

were agents to bring the Kingdom in. That night, they rowed and rowed on the lake but

were not making headway. Jesus comes near on the waves in order to pass them by, and

the disciples are fearful. The waves stopped, and the disciples were amazed. Mark 6:52

says, "They had not understood about the loaves, because their hearts were hardened."

You see, they had not learned the lesson from the first time Jesus came to them on the

lake and rebuked them for little faith; nor had they learned the lesson the second time

with the multiplication of the loaves. They should have learned that they had the tools

already to get through their storm. They were to bring the Kingdom in!

Notice in Mark 6:46 that Jesus had gone off to pray by himself on the

mountaintop before the storm. It's not that we are not to pray to God for help; we are to

pray every day, pray without ceasing. Ideally, we are to pray and study the Word before

the storm hits, so that we are prepared to deal with it with more than simply crying out,

"Help, Lord!"

I'd like to ask you to respond today by bringing the Kingdom in for each other by

praying for each other. I'm not trying to create an artificial storm for you! This is an

opportunity for us to see what God will do through you for someone else. It's not about

your worthiness. In just a moment, find someone who you did not arrive with this

morning pair off, men with men, women with women. Take turns, and ask that person

how they would like to see the Kingdom come in their life right now - what miracle they

need in their life. As you pray, hold hands as a symbol of your unity. It can be a very

short prayer! As I have prayed, I'm sensing that God wants to heal headaches today; he

wants to heal fear; he wants to heal neck pain; he wants to heal unforgiveness. Pray for

them, take the authority that Jesus has given you, and then we will celebrate what God

has done.

First let me pray for you: Give us faith, Father God;...

Go ahead and find a partner now.

Has anyone received a healing or deliverance that they would like to share now?