The Kingdom: Not Just Some Far-Off Fantasy Land

To many, the Kingdom is like that weird dream you only half-remember—vague, distant, and wrapped in mystery. It's that mystical "someday" place we think will magically appear once the Messiah shows up with a grand trumpet and a heavenly marching band. We, the Church, are the anxious bride, pacing in our wedding gown, looking out the window, and whispering, “Any day now, right?”

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Historically, the Church has always had one eye on the horizon, hoping that tomorrow might finally be brighter than today. Just like in Noah’s time or during the birth of Christ, people were hoping, watching, and waiting for a Kingdom that would lift them above their troubles instead of crushing them beneath them. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Some believers today are still staring wistfully into the future, like bridesmaids nervously trimming their lamps, trying to be ready.

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Now listen—there’s nothing wrong with a well-trimmed lamp. But let’s be real: a perfectly trimmed lamp that isn’t lit is just fancy desk ornament. What we need are burning lamps. The world needs burning lamps. You need to be a burning lamp.

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See, someone has to be the generation that stops talking about love and actually shows it to a starving world. Why not us? Why not now? It falls to you and me to step boldly into the night with our lamps blazing and announce to the world: “The wedding is on, and everyone’s invited!”

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Yes, both sides of a wedding send out invitations. So... who’s on your guest list? Who are you bringing?

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​​​If the parable of the talents teaches us anything it teaches us that we need to make investments within the world system we find ourselves in. What would these investments look like? They would look like us going out to find vessels, and people, to bring with us to the wedding that no one will want to miss.

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2 Kings 4: 1-7
These few verses I have made a study of for several years. Sitting and meditating on them over and over again. Here are some things I would like to pull out of these verses and link them into our conversation today.

The creditor is coming to take the children of the widow away as his slaves. Lawfully they are his. There is a debt that is owed and needs to be paid. It needs to be paid in full. The prophet approached but did not call on angels to protect the innocent. For
the innocent are not making this request. There is guilt. The creditor has the law on his side. There is a debt that must be paid. No excuses.

 

This widow has lost her source of provision. Her husband, her love, is gone and she is alone with her children without the means to make provision. She now seeks out another source to meet her needs. So she goes to her husband’s boss. The Prophets prophet. Elisha, the head of the prophets has this widow approach him making the statement that her husband is dead, but she is sure to also indicate that he was Elisha’s servant, a fellow prophet. She makes it clear that the day of doom is approaching for her, that the creditor is coming to take her children. These children represent her future hope of survival. They will grow and live to provide for their mother, but not if they are taken as slaves to pay this debt. 

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The creditor is merciless. Cruel and unrelenting. He shall be paid all that is owed.

She owes a debt she cannot pay.

(Jesus paid our debt which he did not owe)

She is asked what she has in her house and the answer is nothing. Now she has taken every opportunity she had to make this debt disappear. Doing everything in her strength to solve her problem. She had sold everything she had at the biggest garage sale her neighborhood had ever seen. One by one the items of her home vanished to the lowest bidder. Neighbors, who had known her whole life long, now take advantage of her desperate state benefitting from her circumstances and buying up what they could. But it is not enough. Still, she comes up short. Too short to gain mercy from anyone. Too much is owed to manage the shortfall.

 

Some historians argue that her husband could have been the dead prophet Obadiah, who fed many prophets while King Ahab hunted down those he could, to kill them off. Nevertheless, here she now stands, indebted and desperate. Elisha asks her what she has to offer to solve this problem. He is seeking a partnership with faith. Something to mix with faith.

 

All she has left is the last keepsake, the precious symbol of her undying love for the man no longer with her. This small vile of anointing oil that was so important to her husband. It was a potent perfume of anointing oil. Some will translate this oil incorrectly as cooking grease.

 

This is so not the correct interpretation.

 

The Hebrew word is Shemen. #8081 שֶׁמֶן shemen

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Fragrant oil, as used by prophets. It has value. Not a fortune and not anything like that would be needed to service this debt. But the value to her was sentimental. The last remnant of a dead love.  Although it is a tiny vile, it has value. The anointing in your life has value. It may be small and you may feel your gifting is insignificant, but it has value. You only need to believe and be obedient to His leading.

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She needs to take action. Faith is an action word. She needs to gather vessels. So she sends her boys out to gather. Vessels. Any vessels. Can I dump out the dirt from that old flower pot? Are you using that old honey jar? The children run to all the neighbors and gather anything - everything they can. Now the same neighbors who took advantage of the poor woman's efforts to raise capital at her garage sales, curiously give away meaningless vessels to the eager children at their door.

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The children faithfully bring in the vessels and not a few. "Mother, will this do?" "Is this one all right?" Each time she smiles and nods as the thrill of anticipation begins to cause the hair on her arms to stand up. She will take anything. Everything. 

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Now these vessels need to be cleaned. Scrubbing and cleansing each pot and vessel to make it ready for the fresh anointing of the Spirit of God to fill them. Rigorously she works to prepare each vessel so that no impurities remain, less the oil she pours in would be spoiled. 

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Now with each reciprocal prepared and laid out around the floor of her home. And with the boys, wide-eyed watching from the doorway. Turning to her boys she tells them, "Close the door". The doubters and hecklers shall not bear witness to what God will do on the inside. No one can see the work of God on the inside of our hearts. We close the door to doubt and unbelief so faith has a home to grow.

 

She takes up the tiny jar of oil. Oil that her husband would have used in his ministry as a prophet. The last vestige of her memory of loss. Now letting go of the heartache and the past she lets her hand tilt the jar as the first drops drip into the first vessel. And then with a little more courage and faith, she commits herself to the path before her. The journey has begun. The drops turn to flow as she tilts the jar more. 

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Something that should have been emptied in an instant somehow continues to flow. How can this stream of oil be coming from this tiny jar in her hand? Her mind cannot understand but her heart is pounding with the excitement of the moment. Her rational mind takes a backseat to the supernatural that has now come rushing into her life. It's impossible - but it's happening. The flow continues and the jar in her hand never seems to lose the subtle weight of the oil that was originally in her hand. It just keeps pouring out as if angels had hooked up a hose invisibly to this tiny jar. 

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The first vessel fills and yet the flow does not stop. Not wishing to adjust her hand and the jar upright for fear of somehow ending this miracle, she keeps the jar tilting and just moves her hand over the next cleaned and waiting vessel. Some oil pours on the side as she moves her arm over the next vessel. Oil spills down the side, but she doesn't care as the flow continues. 

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Tears now flow. Welling up in her eyes as she wipes them away with her free hand. Her moist cheeks blossom as her smile turns to outright laughter and unbridled joy. Her boys stand in the doorway with mouths agape. Vessel after vessel is filling up to the rim and mother is moving amidst the sorted vessels with a little dance in her step. It's been years since they have seen her like this. Singing now. She is singing the song of Deborah. Victory over her enemies. 

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The perfume of God's presence now fills the air of her home as the children help by moving pots away that are filled and relocating empty vessels as the stream of anointing continues unabated. Her clothes have absorbed the fragrance. Her hair. It's everywhere. In the air, they are breathing. One by one until all the vessels are filled and then the flow stops. All the appointed vessels are full, there needs no more to be an outflow. Crashing to the floor she collapses in tears and joy surrounded by her laughing boys and her future. 

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She returns to the man of God, smelling like someone who has been in the presence of the Almighty. Obedience has brought victory, for He desires obedience more than sacrifice. Go and sell is the command. You and your sons live off the proceeds. Her and her sons. Two generations shall be provided for. God does not do half-measures. Here is enough for now. He fills our cup to overflowing, not to be wasteful but that we may share the overflow. 

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It is hard to imagine how far this oil would have traveled and whose beard it may have flowed through as it was poured over the heads of kings yet to come. It is hard to imagine what God can do with the little you have to give him. But He is asking you to trust him and step out in obedience. If you will do that He will do the rest. His part. The anointing comes from Him. He is the one on the other side of the hose and supplies all your needs. He is just asking you to turn the tap just a little bit more to allow the flow - to flow.

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Thanks 

M. Joseph Hutzler, Eschatologist
www.FullBibleTimeline.com​​​​​​​​​​​​​