The Reign of Hope
by Michelle Harding
Church of The King, Easton, MD
RISEmovement
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. The earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters. Then God
said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God
separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the
darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one
day." (Genesis 1:1-5 NASB)
Before Christ, in many ways You and I were formless and
void-without purpose, empty filled darkness, chaos often the rule of our lives
until Holy Spirit came and moved over us, brooded over us, and Light downed in
our spirit.
2 Cor. 4:6 clearly points to this:
"For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of
darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
We were flooded with light and we were transferred out of
the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light. And yes He called us good
and separated us from the darkness.
Father God, Jesus as the Word and Spirit all involved at the
moment of creation were each also involved at the moment of our new birth, the
new creation!
And just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit each brought all
that was created together, brought form and order to the creation, provided
everything the crown of his creation (meaning man)would need, He is doing the
same in us as we are being formed into the image of the Son, the first born of
the new creation.
In the story of
creation, we see that on the sixth day He brings forth the crown of His
creation man, the one who was to bear His image and likeness in the earth. The
trinity is also involved and necessary in the forming of the New Creation, The
New Race of man. Now we have been born of the Father through Jesus, the New
Adam is the first born of many sons.
You see, God did the work, and on the sixth day brought
forth humanity that He blessed and instructed to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue and rule. And on the 7th He
rested. Man was created and entered the rest of God. God did the work and he
made us to be bring forth His rule and reign on the earth. Man was made God's
governing agent in the earth as Psalm 115:16 teaches us:
"The heavens are the heavens of the LORD, But the earth
He has given to the sons of men."
But the fall brought corruption to the created order, Adam
abdicated His authority and commits high treason and turns it over to the
enemy.
God promises that one will come to crush his head, the head
speaks of rule and headship, there is a promise that the enemies power and
headship in the earth will be crushed.
And in the fullness of time, the Son of God, the Messiah
comes, born of a woman. He lives as a man, is tempted as a man, The New Adam is
walking the earth. Hope is here!
And just as God brought the work of creation and completed
the work and rested. Jesus also does the work of salvation. He does what no man
could do, and overcomes every battle that the first Adam failed.
In the garden, Eve was tempted by lust of the flesh, lust of
the eye and pride of life:
She saw the fruit, desired the fruit and wisdom...
The enemy came to Jesus and when you look at the temptation
in the wilderness in Matthew 4:1-11 The enemy comes to tempt Jesus with lust of
the eye, lust of the flesh and pride of life. But the New Adam, Jesus passes
the test.
It is also important we understand that these were tests of
identity, when the serpent said to Eve in Genesis 3:5:
“For God knows that
when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil.”
She was already like God, she was made in His image and in
His likeness. In the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, the enemy comes
after His identity, " If you are the Son of God"...But Jesus knew His
identity and didn't fall for any of it.The failure of mankind came in a garden
in Eden but the victory of mankind was secured by Christ as He overcame in the
garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus then facing the cross and death, begins His work of
establishing the New Covenant and takes, upon Himself everything that we
deserve, He takes, our punishment, our scourging, He takes the accusations, the
torture, the mocking, He suffers in every way, in mind, in body, in soul and
spirit and goes to the cross and dies in our place. For 3 days He lies in a
tomb ( no matter where and what we believe about these 3days) we know He
emerges victorious over sin, hell, death, carrying the keys stolen by the
enemy.
He becomes the first born from the dead, the head of a new
creation, a race of men that had never been seen in all creation!
After His resurrection, for forty days He reveals the word
of God through the law and the prophets, and then He ascends to the right hand
of the Father and takes His seat, seated means He has completed His work, and
then 10 days later the King releases His Kingdom anointing, the Holy Spirit and
Humanity is never again the same.
And now just as man in the beginning of creation entered the
rest of God, entered the fullness of His completed work, we in Christ enter
into His finished work, we are the beneficiaries of all His labor and victory
and we as joint heirs, enter His rest and move from the place of His
enthronement and authority.
This is important for us to understand The Hope of Isaiah
61!
In Luke 4:18-20 Jesus goes to the synagogue and reads from
the Prophet Isaiah corresponding to the
first few verses of Isa 61 in our Bibles:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and
recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant
and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He
began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Our Hope is in Christ and the Hope of the World is Christ in
you! (Read that again!)
So often we read Isa 61 and stop after verse three, The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me...Much of our Christian life has stopped short at
verse three. We have sought the anointing, we have gone after liberation and
freedom, we have proclaimed the truths of the gospel, but we have this hope and
have received the divine kingdom anointing because we are now bringing forth
hope to cities, nations, people groups. We through the hope of the gospel, are
rebuilding all the kingdom of darkness has left in desolation and brokenness.
And bringing heaven to earth.
It is through Messiah's Kingdom and His chosen Ones, His
Royal Nation and Holy Priesthood that we will see the promised hope of Isaiah
61: 4-11 fulfilled:
"They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the
places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated
for generations.
Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work
your fields and vineyards.
And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be
named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in
their riches you will boast.
Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and
instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and
everlasting joy will be yours.
“For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and
wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting
covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations and their
offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a
people the Lord has blessed.”
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of
his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a
bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes
seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring
up before all nations."
What we read here is a result of the establishment of His
Kingdom and all that He has deposited in us, the vessels of His of His glory!
Through Him has begun the resurrection of the dead, not just
dead people, but everything that death has ruled over , everything that through
our continued abdication has given death reign in, such as marriages, families,
nations, schools, poverty and race relations. We must release the hope that we
carry, knowing that Jesus has overcome every failure of man. Even when the law
was given, we see 3,000 die because of their failure (Deut. 32:28) But when the
New Covenant is released on the Day of Pentecost, 3,000 receive the ministry of
life. We are in the business of reversing the curse.
And now we who carry the ministry of life are to release
that life, see resurrection come to all that the spirit of death continues to
hold under its unauthorized power and restore Hope to humanity.
He is the source of our new life, our new being, as new
creations under the New Adam, we are now administrators of His Kingdom,
enforcing the sovereign reign of our King. And as we function under the
revelation of the New Adam, we partner with the trinity to now see the earth
gardenized and the nations of the world become the nations of our God! In this
lies the fulfillment of the great commission.
We must set our hearts on the hope of the Gospel, the
authentic gospel, the gospel that turned the world upside down, a gospel
preached with reckless abandon, with an eye not to escape this world, but to
redeem it, to make it fruitful, filling it with the Kingdom of God, to multiply
the sons of God, to subdue the works of the enemy , and see the rule and
administration of the Kingdom of God reigning in every realm of life.
It is what was always meant to be, but now failure is behind
us, Christ has succeeded; His Kingdom is within us, heaven is to come to earth
and our King is to have His enemies made His footstool.
