The Kingdom is not just one promise. Although that is how we often preach it. We often preach the Gospel of Salvation, or of Healing, or the Gospel of Deliverance. But what is a quantum leap above them all is the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is not only a promise of salvation when we die, or of healing when we’re sick, or of deliverance when we’re harassed, or of provision when we’re in a fix, or intimate fellowship with God when we’re lonely — it is all of these things and so much more because if we enter the Kingdom we can enjoy living within a spiritual government through which ALL of God’s Promises are available to us.

But to fully enter the Kingdom we have to use certain Keys. These keys are spoken about in several scriptures (Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7) and are the means by which we become able to enter the Kingdom, whether we understand that is what we are doing or not. Some people follow the Bible with a pure heart and enter the Kingdom seemingly unknowingly, but really they’ve applied the most powerful Keys to the Kingdom without calling it as such.

Most of us, however, won’t end up in the Kingdom this way and we’ll get stuck in the rut of a powerless religion instead because the normal model is that we have to exert some kind of “force” or “diligence” to leave the World and enter into the Kingdom.

Matt 11:12: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force ...” — That is, we use the Keys sincerely and are seeking the Kingdom consciously in midst of opposition through internal sinful desires and external hostile circumstances — people don’t follow the Lord accidently or passively and get His treasures. So the most common effective path into the riches of the Kingdom is one of concerted diligence or “force.”

The Key of Repentance

To be more specific let’s look at John the Baptist. He preached, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is Near.” This is one of the most universal keys — if we repent of living by man’s ways of sin and self will, and turn to seek and follow God wholeheartedly, we will actually enter the Kingdom. This is why the Ninevites who merely repented of sin by Jonah’s preaching were saved.

When Jesus came he began by preaching the exact same message as John, getting people to repent and turn to God because that was how they would be able to enter the Kingdom. Mark 1:14-15 “¹⁴Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, ¹⁵and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’ ”

When Jesus began to really minister in miracles he was showing people what life was like if you lived in the fullness of the Kingdom He was preaching. He lived within the Kingdom himself and was letting other people share in His own inheritance healing them, delivering them, and restoring their souls. Evil cannot enter the Kingdom, and so if we practice evil we can’t inherit, or receive the possession of the Kingdom, but if we would forsake our evil ways, turn the other way (repent), then we are enabled to enter into the reality Jesus has been showing us.

So Repentance is a Key that brings our hearts into a place where we can be more than just intellectual believers in a certain doctrine or even singular promise — it enables us to enter God’s Kingdom, and even to do it while still here on the earth.

It is HIS will to give us the Keys to the Kingdom

Then He gave me this word:

“It’s time to stop indulging in the sins of the forefathers, but instead to reprove them. Unity of generations is brought about by repentance of sin and sacrificing walking in the ways and sins of the flesh. Generational unity — knitting generations together — is a blessing of the Lord’s Spirit, ministered upon the earth through Elijah’s blessing. Didn’t I say that I came to put father against son, and son against father? But judge and test what this means. Does it not refer to the dividing of light and darkness? How can two walk together unless they agree? Do you understand what I am showing you, my children? Generational unity only comes about through the Spirit of Unity, which is the Spirit of Grace, and Love — through your repentance out of the works of the flesh you are translated into my glorious light. You cannot mend the generations with your own social initiatives; although I see your heart — I see you understand the need, but even this understanding is birthed out of My Spirit. Won’t you let go all of the way, and give into My Spirit so that my power can both illuminate and knit your souls together as My Kingdom among you is meant to manifest. How little you know about My Kingdom but it is for the Nations as well as the Sons. It is for the nations THROUGH the sons. How little you know my heart is to bless the nations, not curse them. What can stay my hand if I decide to destroy [the nations]? Do you think the enemy of your souls can stay my hand in any measure? It would be foolish to think that because it is simply untrue.

“My people, oh my people! Come sup with me and I will tell you all the Keys of the Kingdom. Not just a few ... all of them! For they are given to you; they are within your inheritance. How can you walk in the power and authority of My Kingdom if you can’t find the keys? It is my pleasure to give you My Kingdom; it is MY WILL for you to partake of My Kingdom…. Why then would you think it is not my will to give you these keys? Think about the illogical confusion in the mind of the religious ones who preach the Kingdom but preach that the keys have been lost, hidden, and are no longer yours. Does that make any sense? If I have done so much to prove my love to you, why do you think I would act like an unloving authoritative man? Is that the picture you have of me as my Son hung on the Cross? Do you understand the Gospel at all?? Come back to the simple picture of my son willingly being obedient to my plan, hanging on a tree to be a curse for you, to reunite you with me. You’ve been lost so long you’ve forgotten your rightful place as an heir of God. Don’t despise the True Riches of the Kingdom that I’ve made abundantly available to you, my heirs. Don’t confuse them with carnal, earthly riches either, as many do to their embarrassment. Come, I say, come let us reason together, for I will show you the way.”

We were forgiven, so we need to forgive

I also hear God saying that He wants us to know that He is slow to wrath and judgment BECAUSE He is great in kindness, patience and concern for our eternal salvation. All of us have earned the 'Second Death Penalty' for ourselves but through God’s patience we were given time to repent ... and we did! This same concern for our souls is the reason why He is being so patient with others who are now sinning — many of them sinning against us. He is saying that He wants us to take this lesson to heart. When we condemn others in sin (which we must never do) we are insulting the patience and forgiveness God extends to us, and we sow the seeds of our own destruction. It shows we’ve forgotten His Grace, and think we are saved because of our own newfound goodness. This shows that we need to understand the Key of Job.

The Key of Job

He said He would show me the Key of Job, which is a lesson that speaks to all mankind — but especially to the church — those who have confidence in their moral goodness.

1. Job was a “good person” but this led him into the sin of being self-righteous. His confidence in his own morality compared to other people’s relative sinfulness blinded him to man’s inherent unrighteousness compared to God. Several times he justified himself saying he was not a sinner because he did not lust, steal or lie, but was kind, generous with money and wisdom and fair dealing. Yet he actually accused God of being unjust, unkind and cruel and did not see this as being sinful! Job simply did not understand sin from God’s perspective.

2. But it was Job who said, “Yet I know my redeemer lives.” (19:25) Despite not understanding God’s ways, Job had sincere faith.

3. And Job’s friends were not bad guys. They were also sincere, but they understood so little about God’s ways that they thought God only allows comfortable blessings to come to His children. They also did not understand the problem of ‘carnal authority.’ What I mean is that they thought the Kingdom of Men, operates the same way as the Kingdom of God. They didn’t know to trust God in such dire circumstances — but neither did Job really, and most believers don’t even today! This Key is therefore only learned by the tried and proven — the mature who as James says have had their faith tested enough to produce patience and sincere repentance. We can’t fault Job’s friends — they were merely misinformed, and they really meant well but had no more idea of what was going on than Job did. So it was really a case of the blind leading the blind.

But their immaturity left them open to bringing accusations instead of comfort which also confused the discussion greatly. A spirit of accusation frequently manifests against people going through God’s trials ... it manifested against Jesus, especially when he was led to the cross, which everyone saw as a failure — clear proof of his sinfulness and that he must have missed God! In many ways overcoming this spirit of accusation in love is a part of the trial — God’s instructions to Job in the end was for him to pray to bless these very men who falsely accused him, even as Jesus did on the cross!

4. When God first appears on the scene He begins to prove to Job that he has no idea what is going on at all. Job humbles himself — but he still didn’t understand what was wrong.

5. God then asks Job plainly, “Would you discredit MY justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?” (40:8) Job is confronted with the evidence of his accusation against God, and sees that despite being “relatively good” by human standards, he doesn’t even understand God’s real justice — how could he therefore ever live up to it in his own strength? It is at this point that Job knows he really is a sinner.

6. When Job sees this, he asks God to be his teacher, “I’ll ask and you teach me.” This is where he understands, and we are proven as well, that all mankind, no matter how “good” are in need of undeserved help, God’s Grace, His forgiveness.

7. God would have destroyed Job had His Grace not extended to him. Such Grace would only be available because of God’s Love for us. This is a proof of the great depth of God’s Love in that He has provided this Grace to extend to us no matter how “relatively” good or bad we are. We have access to His Grace, so we must be beneficiaries of His Love as well.

God’s trials are confusing and we need to stand in faith in such times in the knowledge that He is indeed Good. Also we see that we ALL need grace, and “good” people are more blind to this need. But God’s love is real, and He has provided forgiveness for us, making up for all of our our shortcomings. That in a nutshell is the Key of Job.

Other Keys

There are many other Kingdom Keys — Humility, Forgiveness, Generosity, Patience, Holiness, Worship, Fasting, and others — but the greatest are the universal keys, the skeleton keys that open up the whole mystery of God’s Kingdom to us, like the Key of Love, the Key of Faith — and as Jay Maddox writes about in his word (also in this issue), The Key of Total Abandonment.

Edward Johnson This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it