In Matthew 11:12 Jesus said. "From the time of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."  This very statement that Jesus made sounds like a war is going on.  If He said this; I think we need to take heed and find out what He was talking about. John the Baptist was a fore runner who was preparing the way for Jesus to come on the seen.  He made the people aware that they were breaking the commandments of God and they needed to repent and change their ways. 

We have an account in John 1: 29-34 where John met Jesus one day at the river Jordan as he was baptizing people who were feeling remorseful and regretted their breaking of God's laws and suddenly Jesus came on the scene.  When he saw Him he said. "There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is He who I was talking about who is a man who would come after me and who would have priority and rank over me, because; He existed before I did.  I did not know Him but it was because; He had to be physically manifested to Israel.  Now I came baptizing in water however, I saw the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and it landed on Him and it did not depart.  Now He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, that one is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."

We have here the first manifestation of Jesus Christ coming on the scene and revealing himself to mankind; which now gave them the opportunity to accept Him as their Savior and also make Him the Lord over their lives.  This is what empowered them to fight the good fight of faith through the workings of the Holy Ghost; who lives in all those who have been born again and who now have the will power to obey the leading of God.  This is a permanent placement, and no power in hell can ever up root us.  If we are going to become violent in our commitment in our kingdom fight; there must be a deep rooted conviction as to our deep rooted permanency in God's kingdom. 

No demon in hell can take us out of God's hand. Therefore, this back sliding and going to hell after being born again is a doctrine of devils and where it is being believed; it is keeping the body of Christ inept and powerless to stand in the gap for God and walk in their righteous state. This causes a born again believer to be double minded and, they can not receive anything from the Lord because; they are not experiencing the true fellow feelings of love that He has for them as His children.  This is indeed a serious condition and what will cause these people who believe this to apostatize from their commitment to Christ.

In this account; John had a spiritual revelation that Jesus was the Son of God when he said "This is He who came before me and has rank over me."  To be a born again child of God; you must know who Jesus is and that He is the Son of God however, it must be with a spiritual revelation through the Holy Ghost.  The devil knows that Jesus is the Son of God however; he is not going to live for eternity in God's kingdom.   Many people if you ask them who Jesus is will tell you that; Jesus is the Son of God however; that does not mean that they have had the miracle of salvation and have had a born again experience. I hope that you are beginning to see the violence coming against the kingdom of God because of this misconception perpetrated by the devil. 

There are those that think that because; they know who Jesus is they are God's children.  This is so far from the truth that it is extremely dangerous and extremely deceiving.  Scripture tells us in the book of Romans 8:9 that, unless the Holy Ghost is actually living in you; you do not belong to God as His children.   We even have some in the body of Christ teaching that; there is another way to get to heaven with out going through Jesus love act of dying on the cross for our sin.

Our born again experience is the basic foundation of what Christianity represents and no other doctrine can be tolerated.  If we who are called of the Lord as God's children and are going to be the salt and light to this generation, we need to be uncompromising and fearless in proclaiming the truth even if it cost us our lives.  Only the Holy Ghost can give us this determination and boldness as we allow His power to operate in us as we go about our arenas of life.

Now we have another encounter that the Apostles Peter had with Jesus when He said he had a revelation of who Jesus is as stated in Matt. 16:13-19.   "Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do men say that I am."  They said, some say your John the Baptist, some say you are Elias and others say your Jerimias or one of the other Prophets.  Jesus said to them; who do you say that I am.  Simon Peter answered.  "You are Christ the Son of the living God. Jesus then said. "Blessed (meaning Saintly) are you Simon Barjona because flesh and blood (human understanding) has not revealed this unto you but; it was revealed to you from My Father who is in heaven.  And I say unto you; your name is Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not be stronger and win over my kingdom."

The word for Simon in the Greek and Hebrew is shama: meaning one who hears something.  It was what Peter heard and accepted from a heavenly revelation given to him from God the Father that caused his name to be changed to Peter meaning a rock.  Now here again we have the kingdom of God suffering violents because, the gospel is not built on the man Peter which some denominations are teaching.  The kingdom of God is built on the revelation that Peter had and all the continuing revelation we are to receive which causes us to grow up in Christ. I am not trying to be unkind here but, a whole denomination has been built as Peter being the first pope and people are being told that he is infallible when speaking doctrines and his own personal interpretation of scripture.  We have over forty million Catholics on this planet who know who Jesus is and sometimes I wonder how many are truly born again and have the Holy Ghost living in them.

I can speak on this because of my twenty three years of being brought up as a reverent Catholic as my whole family was Catholic and my aunt was a nun and my cousin was a priest. I had a great hunger in me to be a good Catholic and serve God under their guidance.  However, it wasn't until some one approached me and told me that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and if I asked Him to come into my life and reveal Himself to me, He would forgive my sin and I would have a personal witness from with in that; He was alive and wanted to be my friend and have a very real living relationship with me.  

If Jesus would have never been raised from the dead, there would be no should thing as Christianity on this planet.  Being a faithful church attendee has no relevance if you are not born again. Over the next six years my mother and father and my three brothers and many of my aunts and uncles became born again Christians because of my witness and the change in my life because; I had become a new creation in Christ because of my born again experience. 11Cor. 5:17 tells us that, "we become a new creation in Christ when; we have this born again experience."

If we are going to have a true pure worship with God; it must be by His Spirit which is the only spirit that can give us a pure truth revelation of His thoughts and now the intensions of his heart.

John 4:1-4 states. "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone into the world.  You will be able to recognize God's Spirit because; its confession is that; Jesus Christ lived in the flesh.  Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God and this spirit is the spirit of anti-christ.  We need to remember that the spirit of anti-christ is already in the world." (Deceiving many)

Paul the Apostle in Eph. 4:21 tells us that, "All truth is embodied and personified in Jesus Christ." Our initial experience of recognizing the spiritual world of the kingdom of God was when we became born again by the sperm of God our Father and we became His children.  Now that we have all of God's characteristics in us with God's genes; we must understand and be taught that; our continuation in maturity can only come by our dependency and surrendering to the leading of the Holy Ghost as He instructs us of how to fight the good fight of faith.  The scripture tells us that this is a sanctification process by the working of the Holy Ghost with in us.

If we are going to fight this good fight of faith; it must be by Jesus own faith alone working with in us which allows His faith working in us to do the same miracles and action He did when He lived on the earth. The majority of the body of Christ has been taught that there are certain things or acts that they have to do to stay in good standing in the sight of God. This type of teaching is legalism in its purest form and keeps them building their lives on Old Testament doctrines that prevents and holds back Jesus new life with in them in His endeavor to set them free to enjoy His love and favor. 

There has to be a total awareness and surrendering in us to cast all of our cares on Jesus because; He is the mediator between God the Father and ourselves.  He is the one that sits at the right hand of God pleading on our behalf by pointing out to God the Father who are His children and who are not. For most Christians; they can not comprehend that they can stop doing good works and come to believe that God is not expecting His children to work at keeping them selves saved and secure in His holding power.  If there are any works to be done by us; it must be by the leading of the Holy Ghost and not in any thing we set out to do by our own planning.  That is the reason we have all these different denominations in the world today because, man has added or subtracted from the word of God to fit their own agendas of life. (This is indeed a sad state of affairs because it puts up walls between people.)  This was never God's intension.

A born again believer who does not know how to rest from their labors and put themselves in the flowing Spirit of God's righteousness; will have no strength to become violent and fight the good fight of faith.  I feel like I am talking to some one directly at this moment.  Scripture tells us that the battle is not ours but the Lords. Our initial encounter with God by our born again experience allows us to learn how to live and walk in a sanctified state as we participate in the  spiritual and physical world of God's Kingdom. Our awareness of our sanctified state in Christ is what empowers us to become violent in our endeavor to participate in not letting the gates of hell prevail against the born again church.

I must make another violent comment. What the world considers as Christianity as being denominational or belonging to different churches is so far from the truth that; it is a shameful disgust in the sight of God.  Please do not misunderstand me on this statement.  Jesus came to seek and save all those who were lost and oppressed by the devil.  But the Holy Ghost grieves over the bondages that His children are living in because; they have no clue as the power they have with in them.  I have no problem with the millions of people sitting in the pews of America.  It is those who are teaching and preaching a gospel of sin consciences to the people under their care; that is causing God's children to be; under fed righteous interpretation of God's word and making them become slaves to a gospel of making God into their own image.

Our danger is in the many leaders that are in our midst professing to know God and are only novices ignorant of the true interpretation of scripture and being led away by their own pride and importance.  I know that this statement is not popular however; I am not trying to be popular but violent in proclaiming the gospel as the Holy Ghost gives it to me. The truth will set us free if we meditate on it and ask God to confirm or deny what I am saying here.

God wants us to live in a settled state of peace and I have learned that when my peace is disrupted; there are spirits at work in my arena of influence that is trying to steal, kill and destroy God's kingdom in some way. All born again believers must be taught how to recognize these anti-christ spirits at work in their arenas of life which can also deceive even God's elected ones called by Him.  God's kids have all been equipped to know the devils devices and if they can't recognize them; they become like sheep being lead to be slaughtered.

In the New Testament; Jesus had disciples who walked in an inner circle with Him. They were Peter, James and John and because of this; they had a greater revelation of who Jesus was.  With all of God's children who are walking the earth, only a few walk in this inner circle.  The majority are walking in an outer circle trying to find out how to walk in the inner circle.  And there are those that walk in the farthest outer circle and do not have a clue how the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil operate.  This should not be so and grieves the Holy Ghost. The whole body of Christ needs to become awake from their spiritual slumber and become violent people in the Holy Ghost in their quest for reigning as a king and priest in God's Kingdom.

A violent person shows emotional intensity and feelings with passion in their seeking after God. Where ever they go; they talk about the Lord to win people to Christ and give a word of wisdom to those who are fainting under the burdens of life. A violent person is seized upon by the Holy Ghost to do the same deeds that Jesus did when He walked the earth.  You tell me what you think about all day and I'll tell you how much violence you have working in your life as you are experiencing your sanctified state that lives with in you.  It is only under this influence that will make a person violent in the Holy Ghost. Any other passion not grounded in Holy Ghost promptings is man building in the fleshly passion of his own personal agendas.  In part two we will define our sanctified state in Christ Jesus. Continued in part two.