The True Kingdom of God

Chapter 3


The Bible is a Spiritual Book


Too many people fail to find the Kingdom of God because they try to understand the Bible with a natural mind. All they can see is a natural history of a natural Israel given Divine Principles to use in their natural lives awaiting a futuristic, natural kingdom. Paul said that, "The man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are SPIRITUALLY discerned," and "we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing SPIRITUAL truths in SPIRITUAL words." (I Corinthians 2:13)

Consider the following pages about Bible topics being spiritual.

Spiritual

Romans 1:11 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong-

Romans 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual: but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

Romans 12:11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.

Romans 15:27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.

1 Corinthians 1:7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.

1Corinthians 2:13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

1Corinthians 2:15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment.

1Corinthians 3:1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ.

1Corinthians 9:11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?

1 Corinthians 10:3 They all ate the same spiritual food.

1 Corinthians 10:4 And drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.

1Corinthians 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.

1 Corinthians 14:12 So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.

1Corinthians 15:44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

1Corinthians 15:46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Ephesians 5:19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Colossians 1:9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Shadow

Colossians 2:17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come: the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Hebrews 8:5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."

Hebrews 10:1 “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming- not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.”

Stands for

Matthew. 13:38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,

Luke 8:14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.

Luke 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Galatians 4:25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

Revelations 19:8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)

Figure

Hebrews 9:9 Which [was] a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

Hebrews 11:19 Accounting that God [was] able to raise [him] up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

1Peter 3:21 The like figure whereunto [even] baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Copy

Hebrews 8:5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."

Hebrews 9:24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one: he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.

Pattern

Acts 7:44 "Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.

Romans 5:14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Phillipians 3:17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.

Hebrews 8:5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."

Represent

Galatians 4:24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.

The Jews could not understand anything outside of their nation of Israel, its capital of Jerusalem and their Law of Moses being in the plan of God. Neither could the woman at the well in John 4. "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father NEITHER on this mountain NOR IN JERUSALEM"

God's Kingdom now has a spiritual Jerusalem, a spiritual Israel, spiritual worship and a spiritual priesthood!

Consider the following pages of scripture that reveal the Bible points to a SPIRITUAL:

JERUSALEM

Galatians 4:25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the PRESENT city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

Galatians 4:26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly.

Revelations 3:12 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.

Revelations 21:21 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

ISRAEL

Romans 9:31 But Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.

Romans 10:19 Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, "I will make you envious by those who are not a nation: I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding."

Hebrews 8:8 But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”

Hebrews 8:10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Romans 11:7 What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened.

Ephesians 2:12 Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

Ephesians 3:6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household

****Romans 9:6-8 "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children...it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring". ****

Romans 9:25-26 "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people: and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one and it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,'they will be called 'sons of the living God.'

SEED

Galatians 3:16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds", meaning many people, but "and to your seed", meaning one person, who is Christ.

Galatians 3:19 What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.

Galatians 3:29 If you belong to Christ, then YOU ARE ABRAHAM'S SEED, and heirs according to the promise.

Hebrews 11:18 Even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."

1Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

TEMPLE

John 2:19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?"

John 2:21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

1 Corinthians 3:16 Don't you know that YOU ARE GOD'S TEMPLE and that God's Spirit lives in you?

1 Corinthians 3:17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.

2 Corinthians 6:16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Ephesians 2:21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. (The Lord's Temple isn't in Palestine.)

Revelations 3:12 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God.

Revelations 21:22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

FIELD

1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are God's fellow-workers; you are God's field. God's building.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

NATION

Acts 10:35 But accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.

Romans 10:19 Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, "I will make you envious by those who are not a nation: I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding."

1 Peter 2:9 But YOU ARE a chosen people, a royal priesthood, A HOLY NATION, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

PRIESTHOOD

1Peter 2:5 You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (The Kingdom of Priests is in the Church.)

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Royal=line of David, Priesthood=line of Levi (made like our High Priest)

Revelations1:6 Has made US to be a kingdom and priests

Revelations 5:10 You have made them to be A KINGDOM AND PRIESTS

STONES

Romans 9:32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling-stone".

2 Cor 3:3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him.

1 Peter 2:5 You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices

1 Peter 2:6 For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion. a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

1 Peter 2:8 And, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message-which is also what they were destined for.

Revelations 21:19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.

HOUSE

Luke 1:33 And he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end.

Luke 1:69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.

Luke 2:4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

John 2:16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"

John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."

John 14:2 In mv Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

Acts 7:46 Who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling-place for the God of Jacob...

Acts 7:49 “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me?“ says the Lord. “Or where will my resting place be?“

2 Corinthians 5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

Hebrews 3:2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house.

Hebrews 3:3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.

Hebrews 3:5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future.

Hebrews 3:6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And WE ARE HIS HOUSE if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

Hebrews 8:10 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.”

Hebrews 10:21 And since we have a great priest over the house of God.

1 Peter 2:5 You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.