Principle #1
God has always existed and never changed
When God intervenes in the affairs of men, He draws their attention, sometimes quietly but occasionally with high drama. On the day when He summoned Moses to a legendary assignment at Pharaoh’s court, the Lord started a brush fire in the middle of the desert. That’s a clever way to start a conversation!
For I am the LORD,
I do not change…
Malachi 3:6 NKJV
During the historic exchange, 80 year-old Moses denied having any useful credentials for liberating three million enslaved people, but the Lord wasn’t taking “No” for an answer. Anticipating the skepticism of his Israelite countrymen, Moses asked God a reasonable question:
… “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:13-14 NKJV
“You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me.”
Isaiah 43:10 NKJV
Coming from a man, this answer would seem silly and meaningless: “I am who I am.” That phrase is a tautology – a logic statement which is universally true and never untrue. A tautology is non-contingent, not subject to contradiction and depends on nothing else to remain true. It is ABSOLUTELY TRUE. But this phrase was not spoken by a man, but by the Creator. In one compact expression God is essentially saying, “I am pre-existent, beyond time and space, beyond the reach of logic and deduction, irreducible and imperishable.”
How profound and provocative! This inspirational reply leads us to Kingdom Principle #1: God has always existed and never changed. In contrast to a world of shifting alliances and self-indulgent values, Jehovah God serves as a perpetual, blessed certainty. His character and identity never alter. He is consistent and fixed in His principles. Now what will you and I do with His bold assertion: “I AM WHO I AM”? If we choose to believe it, if we accept it on faith, we have begun a profound and trusting relationship with our Creator.
In addition to His unchanging character, God’s purposes have never changed. He initiated a verbal management contract with the original governor, Adam, saying to him: “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it.” Genesis 1:28 Since He never repealed the arrangement, it remains in effect. In the judicial system of heaven, we call this statement the Dominion Covenant. It reads:
“For he is the living God and he endures
forever; his kingdom will not be
destroyed, his dominion will never end.”
Daniel 6:26b NIV
To you it has been given to know the
mystery of the Kingdom of God…
Mark 4:11 NKJV
God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Genesis 1:28 KJV
Every Sunday school child knows this original plan was derailed in the Garden by the sin committed by Adam. However, the Bible also documents the Lord’s strategic plan to overcome this foolish act, eventually redeeming mankind and reestablishing God’s divine rule in this world.
…I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.
Isaiah 44:6 NKJV
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16
Principles of the Kingdom is an attempt to discern His plan and discover its applicability to you and I, those living in this age. In the Word, we find significant clues regarding our identity, our destiny in God’s Kingdom, and our relationship with Him as children with their father.
Among its other virtues, the Bible is a manual of the Lord’s comprehensive strategic and operational design for this planet. In a variety of passages He describes eternal life in a distant and majestic Kingdom of Heaven, far beyond our imagination – beyond the language of the soul – beyond time. His original plan, according to the testimony of the Son of God, is to extend that Kingdom government from heaven, into the Earth, through His mature and trusted family members.
I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him.
Ecclesiastes 3:14 NKJV
By His sovereign will He reveals aspects of this glorious Kingdom to us in order that we may glimpse our destiny and join Him in His work. He extends an offer of gender-neutral spiritual sonship to us, then trains His children through a rigorous, spiritual maturation process. He then releases those ‘sons’ to extend His Kingdom within their respective spheres of influence so He can redeem the world. That is His elegant, sophisticated strategic plan, executed over the last 6,000 years.
I will delight myself in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.
Psalm 119:16 NKJV
However, in pursuing a relationship with God, we have a fundamental problem to overcome. He is holy and we are not. The sin of brazen disobedience which Adam committed in the Garden of Eden was so significant that the damage to his descendants has lasted throughout history. We are separated from God the Father by a huge chasm of unholiness which cannot be bridged by good works or religious ritual.
The chasm was spiritually created and must be spiritually closed. Although at birth our bodies and souls are alive and well, our spirits are dead on arrival. My spirit and yours has to be regenerated, born again, if we are ever to regain our intended position with God and participate in His Kingdom government.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
John 10:27 NKJV
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
Jesus Christ, the Son of this Creator God, is the Regenerator — the Redeemer. He died sacrificially on a Roman cross, receiving the full wrath of God for the sins of the world — past, present and future. In doing so, He brings life to our dead spirits, thereby reconnecting us with the Father. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Salvation through Christ alone is a transformative gift. Through Him we receive righteousness, enabling our reconnection with the Father.
We simply have to acknowledge this full and final, spiritually legal payment for our personal transgressions. We then begin a character development process, migrating from born again children of God to mature “sons,” resulting in us receiving increasing levels of delegated, Kingdom authority.
But as many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.
John 1:12 KJV
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3 NKJV
In His legendary Sermon on the Mount, Jesus advises us to “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Matthew 6:33 He calls us to a highly relational life with His Father, a Kingdom existence, beginning right now. Such a life has purpose of immeasurable value and joy without bounds.
The Great “I AM,” the Creator of the Universe, the timeless, loving and unchanging Father of all mankind, is calling you and I into a tender relationship with Him — into a life of destiny, hope and significance within His magnificent Kingdom. Let’s respond to that invitation.
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Matthew 6:10
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