TEACHING

Don Atkin

THE KINGDOM IS CONSUMMATED BY AFFIRMATION

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God. - John 6:68-69

The early adherents to the kingdom of God were known as followers of the Way. Kingdom authenticity was, and is, affirmed by actions that demonstrate the lordship of Jesus Christ. Words of affirmation are important. Actions which affirm are essential.

Progressing from believing to coming to know is a process that requires following in faith. Peter, speaking for the twelve, affirmed that they had followed because they believed that Jesus is Lord. And, they had come to know that He indeed is who He says He is through the process of following Him in faith. Both their confession and their actions of following Him affirmed His lordship.

He who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. - John 10:2-5

Using the analogy of shepherd and sheep, Jesus explains the nature of kingdom authority. Unlike cowboys who drive cattle, shepherds lead sheep. Unlike gentiles who lord it over people, God’s leaders serve people. This is illustrated by the action of washing feet.

All authentic kingdom relationships are fashioned around these principles. No coercion. No pressure. No bondage. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty! The leader affirms his love by serving the follower. The follower affirms his belief in and commitment to the leader by following. And, they both come to know that theirs is a God-ordained, kingdom relationship.

The centurian had the right focus. He said, I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me (See Matthew 8:5-13). He focused upon being under authority, not being in authority. Being in authority is the by-product of being under authority. That’s the way it works in the kingdom. Voluntary submission to authority affirms leadership.

Jesus affirmed the centurian: Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. The centurian’s belief that Jesus was a man under authority (I also am a man under authority . . .), and therefore had authority to heal his servant from afar, was further affirmed when his servant was healed that very moment. Thus, he came to know by experience what he had believed in his heart.

Love is the root of coming to know!

The greatest need of the human heart is to be affirmed in love. The fruit of coming to know affirms the maturing work of love. We love, because He first loved us (I John 4:19). We cannot love beyond the love we received from Him. We become capable of loving others as we come to know His love for us. His love is affirmed in us as we follow Him. We affirm our love for Him by our obedience to Him:

If anyone loves Me, He will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. - John 14:23

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. - John 15:10

Jesus, under the authority of our Father, keeps His commandments and abides in His love. We, under Jesus’ authority, keep His word, and Father and Son come and make Their abode with us. The result is a life that is full of joy.

These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. - John 15:11

Fullness of joy is a fruit of walking in the Spirit, full of His love for Him and His creation. Thus, we are enabled to obediently affirm our love for others in the laying down of our lives.

This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. - John 15:12-13

Maturing believers are expected to live in the posture of dying to self daily in favor of preferring not only our friends and constituents, but our enemies as well! We are commanded,

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. - Matthew 5: 44-48

Our sonship is manifested through the ability to love those who have set themselves up as our enemies, who persecute us. The greatest contrast between the darkness of the world and the light of the kingdom is seen right here. God sets the stage for His sons to shine by causing us to live in the same environment with our enemies.

Many times it is another Christian who takes offense and opposes us. I’m convinced (by my own experience) that Paul’s thorns in the flesh were people.

For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and familiar friend; we who had sweet fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng. - Psalm 55:12-14

To rightly respond to such incidents and circumstances requires a level of confidence in God that stabilizes and affirms us as sons. If God is for us, who is against us?

We cannot - absolutely cannot - pull this off in our flesh! Only as we walk in the Spirit and manifest the fruit of the Spirit will we find the ability to love. Such fruit is proof of spiritual maturity, and is ours as we go on to perfection. Such proof affirms our true identity in Christ, as we live out of our hearts (not out of our emotional feelings). Mature followers do not impulsively react, but rather act as the Spirit gives direction.

The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. - Romans 5:5

Truly, the kingdom of God has come near when we turn the other cheek, go the second mile, bless those who curse us (and do not curse them). There is no profit for me apart from love. Even faith works by love.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. - I Corinthians 13:4-8a

Oh, to hear the wonderful affirmation: This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased!

Affirmation is a powerful tool in discipling others!

The hallmarks of my forty years of ministry have been love and availability. Availability is one way to affirm love. An atmosphere of love and availability establishes trust and opens hearts. The power of life and death are in the tongue. I choose to speak words of life. I want to speak what I hear from God, so that my words are spirit and life. Words of spirit and life affirm the authenticity of the life that is in the recipient.

There is something that is worthwhile in every person. We need to look for and affirm those things, thus overcoming evil with good. We can begin with affirmations of love and value, even when administering correction. We should also end with affirmations of love and value. I call it "a sandwich." We begin with a slice of affirmation, add the meat of correction, and top it off with another slice of affirmation.

Our role in discipling others is to find what God has already planted within them - newness of life, spiritual gifts, callings and placement - and draw all of that out of them in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, the Master Potter. It is not our role to convict them of sin; that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Ask for eyes to see what God has already planted in your disciples. Ask for wisdom to know which issues that God is now dealing with, and focus upon cooperating with Him. Ask for grace to overlook what God is obviously overlooking in the present time. These are marks of mature, fathering leadership.

You can’t pull this off on your own. The Spirit of the Father and His Son are in you - the hope of glory - for this work as well as all that we do to facilitate the coming of His kingdom within us and among us.

Affirmation builds local congregations and the church in the city!

A local expression of the body of Christ is the sum of its many parts being built together into a spiritual house, a dwelling place for God. Christ, who is our Head, affirms His position as we gather together unto Him. Here is how it works:

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. - I Corinthians 12:18

One and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. - I Corinthians 12:11

We are to discover and affirm one another in love. We are to discover and affirm our various roles and gifts within the local fellowship. Each of us is to be satisfied and content with our present role, while at the same time earnestly desiring the greater gifts, remembering a still more excellent way - love.

Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts. Growth and expansion (both personal and corporate) must take place in the context of love and mutual affirmation. It is right to grow and mature, but not at the expense of others. There is no competition or jealousy where love is pursued as the priority.

The same principles hold true in the pursuit of the kingdom coming to our cities, regions and nations. We must hold to these principles of love and affirmation as God begins to unite us through His glory upon us. Ruling elders in each city will discover and affirm the unique gifts and qualities within one another. Bonded in the love that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we will sit in the gates of the city with our Husband, Jesus Christ.

I long to see the end of the doctrinal and denominational infighting and the battles between liberals and conservatives. Flesh will never overcome flesh. Evil cannot overcome evil.

God has provided a more excellent way through Jesus Christ. This more excellent way is available to us through the Holy Spirit.

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. - II Corinthians 5:14-18

Reconciliation comes as we affirm the new things that have come in our fellow believers. We are to affirm that all died when He died, and if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. He has gifts that need to be discovered and affirmed. He has a place in the body which is determined by the Holy Spirit. And, I can affirm my love for him as the love of Christ controls me.

Such affirmation is the evidence of the kingdom within me, and encourages others in their pursuit of His kingdom and righteousness.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. - I John 4:7-8