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Obeying
Higher Authorities
The reason that the Embassy of Heaven does not
seek the United States courts or the State courts at any level is because the
kingdoms of this world have nothing to say, nor can they render any decisions,
regarding the Kingdom of Heaven. It is out of their jurisdiction.
We don't care what decisions the United States
Supreme Court makes or even the municipal courts because they have no bearing on
what we are going to do in the Kingdom of Heaven.
If we seek them out, then we acknowledge that
the several States and the United States are the higher authorities over the
Kingdom of Heaven. This we can never do. No matter how much evil or damage they
do to us, it does not give us license to do evil in return. What we must do is
love those who hate us and do good to those who persecute us. In this way, we
pour coals of fire upon their head. This is hard on our flesh, but by loving our
enemies, we show we are truly representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The specific Scripture that comes to mind is
when messengers were sent to a village, and the people did not receive Jesus.
When James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire
to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" (Luke 9:54).
Jesus' responded, "You do not know what manner
of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but
to save them" (Luke 9:55-56).
When evil is done to us, we don't retaliate,
we suffer. Through our suffering, eventually some people will realize that we
have never used weapons of destruction against the Kingdoms of the world. We
have only stood in obedience to the Kingdom of Heaven through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
In the Kingdom of Heaven, the Golden Rule is
the law by which all other laws depend. First is that you shall love the LORD
your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. And the
second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37, 39)
Our battleground is that the States make laws
out of their own imaginations. They may be good laws, they may be bad laws, but
they are not laws of the Kingdom of Heaven. They are laws of the State. They are
laws of the kingdoms of this world and they are made by people who want to be as
gods, lording over and controlling others.
Most people cite Romans 13 as a basis for
obeying the State authorities. In assuming the State as their higher authority,
they forget that Jesus said you cannot obey two masters (Matthew 6:24). We must
remember that a master is an authority. Jesus was saying, "You cannot obey two
authorities." You cannot obey the State and the Kingdom of Heaven.
The State, as an unbeliever in Our Lord Jesus
Christ, has already made its bed. It never has and never will render decisions,
at any level, that promote the Kingdom of Heaven. And we, as citizens of the
Kingdom of Heaven, must never submit ourselves to authorities who try to lure us
away from the true government of the Kingdom of Heaven and place us under a
false authority.
Audio Program: Introduction
to Higher Authorities
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