Kingdom, Millennium, and the Reign of the Saints

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by shag

List different ways that we, as kings, can exercise this Spiritual authority.

Besides the “go preach and heal”...and concerning those, when/where/how are we to even do that, in our current environment...in example: I meet w a upc church 2-3x a week, the pastor does the preaching and most of the “hands on”. I teach my family at home some. So please list ways we are to “live out” the authority as kings in our daily lives. I’m sure there’s ways, I’d just like to see a list of those ways...

A few points to keep in mind:

1. Our "authority" is found in Christ, meaning our authority is actually His authority operating in and through us.

2. Christ's authority is extended to the church, His body, and therefore our authority is a corporate authority. That is, the focus is not so much our individual authority as priests and kings, but the CHURCH's co-authority as the manifestation and representative of Christ's authority.

3. Since the authority is a corporate authority, it operates through what each member supplies. That is to say, the church's authority requires the individual Christian doing is part. Just as the Levitical priesthood required the cooperation and joint efforts of the entire tribe of Levi, both the various families of the Levites, and the priests, and the direct heirs of Aaron. Responsibility was distributed across all these people, each had certain duties. Not everyone had the same job, but everyone contributed to doing the job of priestly ministry in Israel.

4. The authority of Christ is, at the present time, that of a priest after the order of Melchizedek, which combines the priestly and the royal functions in one. Christ is High Priest, and also King (Son of David). The church's authority therefore is of the same order - a royal priesthood in which the kingly and the priestly functions are combined. The individual believer therefore shares in that dual authority of priest and king.

You asked specifically about the authority as kings, so in this post I will focus on that aspect. But keep in mind the priestly side is just as important. So let's learn about what kingship, Biblically speaking, involves.

The book of Proverbs is an excellent starting place, as it is a book of wisdom written by a king for his son. So it is an excellent source of information for kings and "kings in waiting", that is, for anyone with royal authority.

Pro 14:35 The king's favour is toward a wise servant: but his wrath is against him that causeth shame.

We are to extend favour towards the wise, and to extend displeasure towards those who cause shame. This applies in a personal sense, in that as Christians we are to approve what is excellent, and disapprove what is foolish, sinful, disgraceful, etc. It also applies in a corporate sense, as the church as a whole is to do likewise. So when Christians fail to do this, such as when we try to be nicer than Jesus and not "offend" (upset) sinners, blasphemers, and those who actively oppose righteousness and who actively support ungodliness, foolishness, and unrighteousness, they fail to act as kings, they fail to exercise kingly authority. Once you begin to understand that, as a believer, you share in the royal authority of Christ, then you will begin to act like it. This will cause an effect on those around you. We can see this in the book of Acts when the apostles would rebuke the wicked, false apostles/teachers, and even government officials (keeping in mind that this does not mean that one can speak contemptuously of those in authority, for we must render honour to whom honour is due).

Pro_16:10 A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.

As kings we are to speak the "divine sentence". We are to speak righteously, and declare the righteous judgments of God. This of course means we are certainly to have an opinion (this idea that Christians should not dare to offend people by holding opinions is nonsense). The judgments we declare are to be righteous, we are not to transgress in our judgments. This requires our judgments to be informed by the Word of God, and to be in conformity with the Word of God. We are to let our voice be heard, and not hide in a closet or in the four walls of the meeting house, but we are to SPEAK. And our speech is to be nothing less than the declaration of the Word of God, on any subject, in any situation, to any audience.

Pro_16:15 In the light of the king's countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.

When we are conformed to the Word and wisdom of God, and manifest His life through us, then the favour we bestow on others brings life and refreshment. We can literally bring the Holy Ghost into people's lives, when they encounter us they should be encountering the power and grace of God. Our interactions with others bring life, real genuine spiritual life, into their situations. We must act accordingly so that we understand that one of our jobs as kings is to be a blessing to the people around us and with whom we providentially come into contact. People need to see and know that their encounters with the followers of Jesus Christ results in a blessing.

Pro_19:12 The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.

Here we see the favour of kings (as mentioned above), but this time contrasted with their anger or displeasure. People are afraid of the roaring of a lion, it scares them to realise there is a hungry or angry lion on the loose. The reason? Because there are negative consequences to falling into the paws of an upset lion. In the same way, people are afraid of angering a king, because there are consequences that happen when a king gets upset. In our case, the same is essentially true. Corporately, when the church opposes ungodliness and unrighteousness, there should be consequences. Our influence and effect on society should be such that people are afraid to promote brazen sin and wantonness, because the church opposes such insanity. The fact that society currently has no fear of God, and the church's opinions have no really significant impact on the decisions made by both policy makers and the masses, is a clear indication the church is not exercising its royal authority. We aren't acting like kings, we are acting like serfs at the mercy of conquering overlords. We need to change that.

Pro_20:8 A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes.

One of the duties of a king is to "sit in the throne of judgment". So, we should be sitting in the throne of judgment, that is our destiny. Once in that position, where we are in fact judging, as kings we must put the fear of God into evildoers. That is, we must exercise righteous judgment that has no respect of persons, and our judgments must be such that evil is condemned and punished and righteousness is rewarded and exalted, in accordance with the will of God as revealed in His Word. Paul pointed out that we shall, in fact, judge the world (1 Corinthians 6:2). That being the case, "judgment begins at the house of God", so that as Paul taught in 1 Cor ch 5 and 6 we must first begin exercising that judgment within the assembly. We cannot expect to impact the world for righteousness if we can't impact the church for righteousness!

Pro 20:26 A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.

This one is fascinating. A wise king (not just any king, but a WISE king), wages war against the wicked successfully, and "brings the wheel over them". This literally depicts a king driving his chariot over the bodies of the routed enemies. As kings, we must wage war, but we must be wise, so that we may be successful. The warfare we wage is not carnal, and therefore the "wheel of the chariot" that we will wisely drive over the enemies is not a physical chariot wheel. The word "wheel" as used in this proverb is with only a few exceptions, used almost exclusively of either the wheels under the bases of the lavers in the Temple, or of the wheels that Ezekiel saw in his visions of the Divine Presence.

1 Kings chapter 7 contains a description of the Temple's ten lavers or washing basins, that stood on a wheeled base. The wheels were designed to look like chariot wheels. We scatter the enemies through the preaching of the Gospel and the clear proclamation of God's word, casting down imaginations and bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We bring the wheel over them when we bring the cleansing of the Gospel upon them, when they submit to baptism, when their lives are cleaned up by conformity to the word through the teaching ministry of the church.

Ezekiel contains several descriptions of the Divine Presence as being born by a chariot-like structure of "living creatures" replete with "wheels within wheels, full of eyes" and so forth. We bring the wheel over the scattered enemies when we bring the Divine Presence of God, the Holy Ghost, into the lives of those "scattered" or defeated by the preaching of the Word of God, when they submit to the power of Christ. Out of this defeat they rise in newness of life.

These things are part of the responsibility of the church, exercising its corporate authority as the Body of the Messiah in this world. But, each of us must appropriate these same realities into our faith and into our lives, and act on them (because faith without works is dead!), and thereby we individually help to extend Christ's authority to those around us.