Kingdom Alignment | Article by Trevor Baker

We are living in amazing days.  God is pouring out His Spirit on a scale that has not been seen within living memory.  People speak of fresh moves of God, of new wine!  But these new moves serve an ancient purpose, first revealed to Adam.

Adam’s commission

God created man to be fruitful, to increase, have dominion and subdue.  Adam’s commission was to extend, through his life, the rule and reign of God on earth.  When God breathed life into Adam, he became a man of two worlds - a man of the dust and a man of the Spirit. Adam’s first experience of the angelic was the seraphim, who wielded a flaming sword to deny Adam access to the tree of life.  We now have a sword, the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. This is not a sword that prevents us from entering into life, but one which allows us to experience the fullness of the life of God on earth.  We, too, are people of dust and the Spirit - but as God reigns in our hearts and our lives, His Kingdom is extended, His purpose is restored.

The cross

The fundamental basis of this restoration is the cross.  Jesus’ death was an event to which everything looked forward, even from the time of God’s rebuke of satan in Eden.  Since then, we can claim, as Derek Morphew puts it, “We do not know when the end will come but the breakthrough of the end hangs over us as an ever present cloud of glorious promise.”

The Kingdom: visible and audible

When the Kingdom broke in at Jesus’ baptism, there was a visible manifestation - the Spirit descended on Him like a dove - and also an audible voice from heaven proclaimed: “You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased” Luke 3:22. We need to proclaim that Jesus went about preaching and demonstrating the Kingdom. This proclamation raises people’s expectancy that they will see God’s rule and reign break in.

The resurrection

The cross is the fundamental basis of the restoration of God’s Kingdom on earth.  At the cross, God’s wrath was poured out on man’s sin.  God’s judgment, that the wages of sin is death, was executed.  When Jesus rose from the dead, the penalty for sin having been paid, he demonstrated that sin’s power had finally been broken.  It no longer had power over him, or over us. When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we no longer fear the judgment to come because our sin has already been judged.  For us, Calvary was “the day of vengeance of our God” Isaiah 61:2. But for those who are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, the day of God’s vengeance lies ahead.  When Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue, the Scripture that was to be fulfilled “today in your hearing,” Luke 4:21, included the proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favour.  It did not extend to the day of vengeance of our God, because that was to be fulfilled later.

The keys of the Kingdom

The cross as an event is the basis of the restoration of God’s Kingdom.  A similar truth is proclaimed in Revelation, but here the emphasis is on the person, the Lord Jesus, the instigator of man’s activities in the process of restoration.  To the church at Philadelphia, Jesus speaks of Himself as One “who is holy and true, who holds the key of David.” Revelation 3:7. Jesus is here applying to Himself yet another prophecy of Isaiah: “I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no-one can shut, and what he shuts no-one can open” Isaiah 22:22. The key of David, the key of kingship, authority and government, is placed on the shoulder of Jesus, the increase of whose government will never end.  Jesus uses the key of authority to open some doors but to close others.

Paul was prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in Asia and from entering Bithynia, but then he was called to Macedonia, and later to Ephesus, “because a great door for effective work has opened to me,” 1 Corinthians 16:9. Jesus opens the doors to the good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Keys given to Peter

When Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus said “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.”  Peter’s authority was seen when he released God’s word and a demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s power, first into the Jewish church and then, at Cornelius’ house, into the Gentile world.  I believe that when the risen Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations,” Matthew 28: 18 - 19. He was declaring that His disciples are given the keys to the Kingdom.

Under the Lord’s guidance, we are to preach the Kingdom, heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead.  We are also to equip others for the work of ministry, so that God’s Kingdom might be further extended.

Full inheritance

For the past two years, God has been telling me that the church is about to enter into its full inheritance, the unlimited resources of heaven.  When I was boy, my father showed me two things that he promised to pass on to me: a silver Morgan dollar and a silver pocket watch.  About three years ago, when I asked him what had happened to the dollar he told me that he had given it to my step-brother.  I told him that it did not matter and asked him what had happened to the watch.  ‘You will not believe this,’ he said, ‘but I gave that to your step-brother as well.’  I was obviously disappointed, but I now see that God was preparing to teach me about His redemptive purposes.  This began when, in a conference in 2007, Canadian prophetic revivalist Charlie Robinson gave me a Canadian silver dollar and declared “There are redemptive purposes for you.”  Later in the conference, after I had finished speaking on receiving our full inheritance, a man I did not know came up to me and give me an 1878 Morgan silver dollar, saying, “I think that this is the Morgan dollar you should have got.”  I then went on a ministry trip to South Africa and as we were preparing to return, someone gave us a packet containing a present for Sharon and a present for me.  When I opened my packet, I found a lovely silver pocket watch, and a coin dated 1906.  As I looked at the watch I felt that God was saying to me, “I am restoring your full inheritance.  I am restoring a move of the Spirit in your life.”

When the Israelites were preparing to embark on the journey that would lead them to their inheritance, the land promised to them by God, they were given articles of silver together with articles of gold, and clothing.  On that journey, God would manifest His presence, His glory, in the cloud by day and by fire at night.  As we enter into our inheritance, God’s glory will again be revealed.  When we pray, when we speak, He will release His power and the sick will be healed, demons cast out and the dead raised.

Shortly before his death, Smith Wigglesworth prophesied a coming together of the Word and the Spirit which would herald a move of God greater than anything ever seen - and he himself had been used by God to heal many and raise people from the dead! We are sons of God who have been sent. I believe that the time is fast approaching when we, too, will be given the Spirit without limit, John 3:34-35.

More, Lord!

As we rejoice in the current outpouring of the Spirit, in the miracles and in the angelic activity, we are aware of the need to continue seeking God.  This is why we continue to say the prayer associated with the Outpouring that began in Toronto in 1994, “More, Lord!”  We long for more revelation, more angelic appearances, more miracles, more of God’s Kingdom breaking out in and through our lives.

Trevor Baker carries a Spirit of Revival. Through his preaching and prophetic gifting he equips men and women to fulfill their destiny and calling in God, so that through signs and wonders we may gather in the harvest from the nations of the world.
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