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    The Covenant: Kingdom of God
    The Covenant: Kingdom of God
    The Covenant: Kingdom of God
    Ebook359 pages18 hours

    The Covenant: Kingdom of God

    By Riaan Engelbrecht

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    About this ebook

    As the children of God we have a covenant in place with God. A covenant is similar to an agreement, or a binding contract. By the Covenant of Grace, we are redeemed and liberated from our sins and former life of carnality. Yet we also have a part to play, even though we may not always think so. Our part is to love God, to obey Him, to follow His Word, to have no other 'gods', to lead holy and pure lives and to fulfil the Great Commission. It is in simplicity also to uphold the Ten Commandments. Jesus gave all His Blood for the Covenant, which ensures our eternal life, provision and protection. How often do we truly stand still and contemplate the Covenant? We often think of Jesus' death and ascension solely in light of redeeming us from sin, yet His Blood was shed to ratify (sign or give formal consent to a treaty, contract, or agreement, therefore making it officially valid) the Covenant. By our spiritual covenant, we are betrothed unto God, and we will one day celebrate the marriage with the feast in heaven. In this series of works, we look at the importance of the Covenant, and the absolute necessity to honour and uphold it. God is not one to be mocked and trifled with. He is holy, mighty and glorious. As His creation, we need to pay attention to Him, to His order, and to truth. May we worship Him and walk in His holiness as Covenant-keeping servants of the Most High. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRiaan Engelbrecht
    Release dateApr 10, 2024
    ISBN9798224986552
    The Covenant: Kingdom of God
    Author

    Riaan Engelbrecht

    Ps Riaan Engelbrecht is the founder of Avishua Ministries, the vice-president of Lighthouse Ministries International and the station manager of Lighthouse Radio. His ministry deals primarily with the prophetic, but he also has a passion to teach the Truth of the Lord Jesus and His Kingdom for only the Truth of the Lord sets us free (John 8:32).  He is also a qualified and seasoned journalist.

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      Book preview

      The Covenant - Riaan Engelbrecht

      The Covenant

      This is a distributed edition from Avishua Ministries.

      The author’s intellectual property rights are protected by international Copyright law. You are licensed to use this digital copy strictly for your personal enjoyment only: it must not be redistributed or offered for sale in any form.

      Scriptures quotes from the New Kings James Bible, Amplified, and the New International Version.

      www.authorriaan.co.za

      Table of Contents

      Taking the Covenant seriously again

      A Covenant reflecting God’s heart

      God of Covenant

      The New Covenant vindicates God’s Name

      Uphold the Covenant, shake the world

      A match made in heaven

      Love God above all 

      Separated unto holiness

      A circumcised heart separated unto God

      Repent, cleanse the House for the Lord comes

      The Covenant of the Kingdom

      Called to be Arks of Covenant

      Building on the true foundation of divinity

      Bow the knee before the true King

      Provoking the Bridegroom in jealousy

      The purity of Covenant, sin and repentance

      Naboth honours the Covenant

      Tear down the false altars and covenants

      Knowing and learning from God

      Taking the Covenant seriously again

      It has been a while now that God has spoken about the importance of the Covenant. Remember, we as the children of God have a covenant in place with God. A covenant is similar to an agreement, or a binding contract. By the Covenant of Grace, we are redeemed and liberated from our sins and former life of carnality. Yet we also have a part to play, even though we may not always think so.

      Our part is to love God, to obey Him, to follow His Word, to have no other ‘gods’, to lead holy and pure lives and to fulfil the Great Commission. It is in simplicity also to uphold the Ten Commandments. We build on the foundation of Jesus (Matthew 7) when we begin to uphold and honour the Covenant. Jesus gave all His Blood for the Covenant, which ensures our eternal life, provision and protection.

      How often do we truly stand still and contemplate the Covenant? We often think of Jesus’ death and ascension solely in light of redeeming us from sin, yet His Blood was shed to ratify (sign or give formal consent to a treaty, contract, or agreement, therefore making it officially valid) the Covenant. There is the consensus that God did it all and it is now finished so we have nothing to do except bask in the glory of our salvation. This is an erroneous mindset. We are called to serve the Lord as faithful stewards.

      Former president of America, John F. Kennedy, once said: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. This same concept applies to our walk with God. For God does His part, yet what we doing for His Kingdom? We live in a time and age where so many are inactive in doing the work of the Lord, just attending church to be blessed and to receive from God. They are constantly asking for God to do something for them. Yet are we prepared to do something for the Kingdom?

      Communion of course speaks of the New Covenant, as it deals with the blood shed by Jesus and His body broken for our redemption. The Apostle Paul alluded in 1 Corinthians how the Covenant is not being taken seriously because of how the people were taking communion. Often a love feast, or fellowship meal, would accompany communion, meaning communion was more of an event than it is in many churches today. 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 indicates that some were gorging themselves at the feast while others were left hungry. Some were even getting drunk. Separation between rich and poor was evident.

      As a result of the unfairness and gluttony surrounding communion, Paul says they were not even eating the Lord’s Supper (verse 20). The people were not treating communion as a sacred ordinance instituted by Jesus. Instead of reminding people of Jesus’ sacrifice, communion became a means of self-gratification, furthering the divisions among the Corinthian Christians. After describing the situation and explaining what communion should be, Paul writes, So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves (1 Corinthians 11:27–29).

      Paul is essentially asking the people to do a heart check before communion. Are their hearts in the right spot? Are they eating the meal to remember Christ’s sacrifice and to engage in community? Are they divided among themselves or unified in Christ? Are they having communion, or are they just selfishly satisfying their appetites?

      What Paul was saying reminds us that it is too precious a thing to treat communion as a meaningless religious ritual. This is because the Covenant is not meaningless. Jesus paid for the Covenant with His blood. He endured suffering so that we may be redeemed and so that we may have a relationship with divinity. It is also important to be up to date with God regarding any unconfessed sins or un-surrendered areas in our lives. In other words, perform a heart check on yourself. It is important to note here that being up to date does not imply perfection. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:31–32 that we are to judge ourselves appropriately and allow the Lord to discipline and sanctify us. We should have the psalmist’s attitude when he prayed, Forgive my hidden faults (Psalm 19:12).

      The question is, do we take the Covenant seriously, as reflected in the way we take communion? Are we working out our faith and living in an active relationship with God, allowing Him to do His sanctifying work in our lives? If so, communion should be a sobering celebration of Christ and His church. If not, we make a mockery of the ordinance.

      Jesus stressed the importance of upholding the sanctity of earthly marriages and spoke against divorce. The Lord was strict on the matter because marriage also involves a covenant, very similar to the spiritual covenant between God as the Bridegroom and the Church as the Bride. If we cannot even honour our earthly covenant, how can we possibly honour the spiritual one?

      Paul wrote in Ephesians 5: 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

      By our spiritual covenant, we are betrothed unto God, and we will one day celebrate the marriage with the feast in heaven. The covenant with God cannot be treated as likely, and if we violate it with our sins and idolatry, it is similar to a spouse being unfaithful in marriage. Violating the covenant is spiritual unfaithfulness. We betray our heavenly Bridegroom. We also anger our Lord.

      In Jeremiah 33 we read, 19 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, 20 Thus says the Lord: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, 21 then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers. 25 Thus says the Lord: ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, 26 then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them.’

      Consider what the Lord said in Jeremiah 33. He has a covenant (an agreement) in place with creation, speaking of daytime and the seasons! God has made all things, and all things created obey God. By the covenant, all things exist for now by God’s order and all things created within that covenant fulfil its function. There is, therefore, an agreement in place: God has made the sun and the moon and daytime and nighttime functions according to God’s order. Oh yes, the entire creation functions properly in agreement. To Job, the Lord said in chapter 41:  1 Can you draw out Leviathan[a] with a hook, or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? 2 Can you put a reed through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3 Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you? 4 Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever? Take note of verse 4. Only God is supreme as the Creator of all. Job 38:22-23 says, Have you entered the treasury of snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? God is in control of all creation, and all creation obeys the covenant God has made with living creatures, even Leviathan.

      Shall we not as living creatures created by Him, therefore, also not consider the importance of obedience and submission unto Him? In this series of works, we look at the importance of the Covenant, and the absolute necessity to honour and uphold it. God is not one to be mocked and trifled with. He is holy, mighty and glorious. As His creation, we need to pay attention to Him, to His order, and to truth. May we worship Him and may we walk in His holiness as Covenant-keeping servants of the Most High. 

      A Covenant reflecting God’s heart

      The Church (the believers who worship in Spirit and Truth) has been called to bring the lost under the Covenant of the Lamb, while the devil is ‘working’ just as hard to destroy, deceive and devour the innocent. The devil wants the world to burn to the ground, but the Holy Spirit was sent so that we can walk in victory and lead others to be victorious.

      We have been empowered, equipped and anointed not for self-gain, self-glorification, self-exaltation or even to achieve success, but to lead a broken world back to the Lord, thus to the Covenant and, therefore, to rebuild and restore the altar. To restore the altar calls for us as believers to first commit again to the Covenant of the Lord, to honour it, to stay true to the Covenant and to walk in the reality of the Covenant. And secondly, to honour the Covenant by fulfilling the Great Commission, which calls for evangelising and making disciples of all nations.

      We as Gentiles by the sacrifice and ascension of Jesus stand under the New Covenant also referred to as the Covenant of Grace for it is by grace that we have been saved by our faith in the Son of God. We have to remember a Covenant is an agreement. This agreement is taken very seriously by the Lord, for His Son had to die a brutal death in order for the Covenant to be sealed and to be brought into effect. By this Covenant, the Lord is our Saviour, Redeemer and Deliverer and Lord, and by this Covenant, we are His sons and daughters who should faithfully love and follow and serve Him with all our hearts and minds.

      This spiritual struggle – if we can call it that since God is Sovereign above all – is over man’s redemption or damnation. And such salvation or damnation is interlocked when a Covenant is made. We can either willingly submit to God or allow Him to make a covenant with us or we can give the devil a foothold and thus legal ground to operate in us. When we give him legal ground, we have a pact or agreement by which the devil can walk through our lives to devour and kill.

      James 4 sums up our walk of victory or walk of shame: 7 So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].

      We are either going to draw closer to God, or we are going to allow the devil to draw closer to us. It is that simple. There is no rocket science involved. Either we make a covenant with God, or we dance with the devil. We cannot serve two masters. To uphold the Covenant, therefore to restore the altar, calls for us to serve only one true Master, and none other. We cannot walk in light and darkness. We cannot serve God and Baal. We cannot serve God and this world. And yet this is what is happening in churches – we are violating the Covenant by serving two masters, and thus the altar is being broken down. We need to restore the altar by ridding our lives of all idolatry and apostasy and seek God as our First Love above all.

      At times we do not understand the importance and the power of the Covenant. We have a Covenant with the Lord, sealed by the Blood of Jesus. In that Covenant is our deliverance, healing and citizenship in heaven. By the Blood, we are free from the bondages of sin, from the strongholds of the mind and of hell, and we are liberated in the Spirit to abide in a true and real relationship with God.

      But just as important as to know what this covenant entails, is also to realise that we should only have one true covenant to a master, and no other covenant. We after all cannot serve two masters, for then we have two covenants. We cannot serve two masters, for this is idolatry.  Matthew 6: 24:  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in).

      Satan has been at ‘work’ to get mankind to a point of serving more than one master, therefore ‘signing’ various covenants. If we have a number of covenants then we walk in idolatry, therefore rebellion, therefore we stand a good chance of undergoing a state of spiritual apostasy. Rebellion after all is like the sin of witchcraft [sorcery]. How can we expect the Lord and the devil to have a share of one person? Again, light and dark cannot co-exist.

      We cannot serve man and God. We cannot serve the kingdoms of the world and the Kingdom of Heaven. If we do, we bow before two altars. If we do so, we burn with God’s fire and profane fire. This cannot be. It is time again that we return to the Covenant by committing our very lives again to the Lord, so that there is a cry in our hearts we will serve no other God and that He is our First Love and He is our Master and Lord!

      There is only the Covenant with one spiritual master that should be in place – and that is with God. The other existing and abiding covenant on earth that has deep spiritual significance is that of the marriage, but marriage deals not with master and servant but it is an agreement of two becoming one. We at times do not realise the power of the Covenant. By that agreement, we walk in victory and we are more than conquerors. Under the Blood of the Lamb, Satan’s power has been disarmed and we walk in the grace not to sin.

      The Lord reminds us that indeed life lies in the Blood. Leviticus 17:14 As for the life of all flesh, the blood of it represents the life of it; therefore I said to the Israelites, You shall partake of the blood of no kind of flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats of it shall be cut off. A Covenant sealed by blood has been made since the ancient of days, with Jesus being the last great High Priest who shed His Blood so that we can be free from the yoke of slavery and darkness.

      If the power of the covenant lies in the blood, then surely the devil will also try to attack the very blood [our life source] so that we are bound and yoked to unholy and deceptive covenants. And so the world has fallen into all kinds of occult rituals, making a covenant with the devil. People are these days literally selling their souls to be rich or famous.

      How we need to pray for the Lord to show us if we have any unholy covenants in place! Yes, we can even have unholy covenants with man. God has called us to make a true and everlasting Covenant only with Him. The only other true covenant in the eyes of God is within marriage. Yet we remain yoked to this world because of unholy covenants, and so we open doors through which we can be influenced, and thus we are no longer under the sole influence of God.

      It should be noted that in political circles treaties and alliances are often seen as a form of a covenant. This will certainly apply to nations or tribes. Israel was often in the Old Testament in trouble for making a treaty or alliance with another country, as they often sought help from Egypt. After all, their true and only Covenant was with God, who was and still is their only true helper, strength, and redeemer. Still today we as believers must always consider that within a personal capacity, we can have no other pact or agreement or alliance with anyone except with God. Yes, we as believers are one because of the Blood of the Lamb and we are united because of our common alliance with God, but our Covenant remains with God. We are not called to make any other covenant or alliance with man. Yet this happens daily as we for example sign church memberships, and so we come into covenant with the presiding pastor who is head of the congregation, and so we bind ourselves to the regulations, traditions, laws and rules and doctrine of that denomination, except of staying true to the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

      In 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah stood on a mountain after wanting to hide in a cave. He had just confronted the false prophets of Baal upon Mount Carmel, but he was weighed down in his soul by those who wanted to take his life. We read, 13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? 14 And he said, I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life."

      Let us understand Elijah was both in distress because his own life was in danger but also because his people had no longer stayed true to the covenant of the Lord as forged on the mountain when God gave Moses the Law. As a prophet, this spiritual condition bothered Elijah deeply, for he was seeing how his people had turned away from the Lord and His commandments. Translations use the word forsaken or violated to describe Israel’s backslidden ways.

      In Jeremiah 31 we read of a prophecy regarding a future dispensation, and this prophecy was the fulfilment of the New Covenant. When one however looks at the purpose of the New Covenant, then sadly one also comes to that realisation, as it dawned upon Elijah, that we as God’s people also continually violate and forsake the covenant of the Lord. After all, how faithfully and with what great fervour in love and compassion do we serve the Lord, and how faithful are we staying to the two greatest commandments?

      To understand how we so often forsake the Covenant, we take heed of the following in the prophecy by Jeremiah in chapter 31: 33 I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.

      If we thus read Jeremiah 31, we comprehend the purpose of the New Covenant was for God’s very nature and character and thoughts and attitudes and motives to rule our hearts and mind. This was the true intent of the sacrifice of Jesus, so that we may be adopted into the Kingdom as sons and daughters and so be granted access into God’s presence. And by that access and by the Holy Spirit, the intent is for God’s presence to increase in our lives so that we may become more like Him and know Him in a true and real relationship. The New Covenant comes down to God wanting to put His heart so to speak in ours, so that our very lives may function and operate in His love and according to His complete and perfect will.

      It says in Colossians 2 (New King James Version): 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. 11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

      Under the Laws of Moses, the covenant between the people and the Lord required males to be physically circumcised. Under the New Covenant, the physical circumcision becomes one of a spiritual nature, where our old ways should be circumcised [cut away] so all that we do and think and feel speaks of love and glory for our Lord. This inner circumcision is what Jeremiah 31 alluded to, for it is a circumcision whereby the Lord says I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.

      How the Lord longs for a people who will push aside their own self-centred ways and the darken nature of the world by moving in His love and light and life, for then truly He is our God and we are His people. When we stay true to the Covenant, then we stay true to His heart of love and we stay true to His truth and ways of holiness. How the Lord longs for a people who will know Him and love Him deeply, so that we may love each other deeply in Spirit. How the Lord longs for a people who will see beyond their own needs to focus on the needs of a broken world, be it spiritual or physical. For has Jesus not Himself said for us to seek first the Kingdom of God?

      By the covenant of grace we should be renewed in mind and have our hearts that were once alienated from Him to become circumcised, which means consecrated in love unto Him. The Lord has called us to walk in His love, life, truth and light. We can only do so when we seek Him above all.

      How do we violate the covenant? By not allowing God’s will to be done in our lives, and not allowing for our hearts to be conformed to His beauty and love. Indeed, we betray the covenant when we persist in our old ways and live according to the selfish desire and intentions of our hearts. God’s love speaks of a love for all, and it speaks of His Kingdom and of the lost and the physical and spiritual needy. The world is spiritually broken and the fires of discontent, hatred and bitterness are consuming the nations. Where then are the sons and daughters of the Lord to sow love in times of chaos and hope in times of distress? We betray the covenant through our state of idolatry and making covenants with others.

      How can we truly know the need of the world when we hold onto our ways of pride and selfishness, instead of allowing God’s love to permeate our souls? We can only move in the Spirit and in love when we have come to that point where our stubborn hearts have been broken and circumcised so that we serve God with all that we have.

      Ezekiel 11: 17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’ 18 And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. 19 Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them,  and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads," says the Lord GOD.

      Ezekiel was also speaking about a future time of a people being reconciled with God, and the prophet speaks of a time where the people will have one heart – a heart of flesh and not of stone - and the Spirit will be in them so that they may follow the Lord’s truths and commandments. Under the New Covenant, this prophecy has also come into fulfilment. By the outpouring of the Spirit, we are filled by the Spirit, and by the sacrifice of Jesus, we can be reconciled unto God. But how the Lord calls for us to put away the detestable things and all its abominations and how the Lord calls for us to walk according to a heart of flesh and not stone. The Lord desires a people who will follow and serve faithfully in love and truth. He wants a people who will serve each other and be like the Good Samaritan who reached out to the helpless.

      Indeed, we should take note that the Lord says He will give them one heart. God wants to give His people one heart, meaning that we allow God’s heart of love, grace, mercy, beauty and life to guide and determine our path and ways. Indeed, when we as His sons and daughters allow our stony hearts to be circumcised, then we allow God’s heart to change our old ways. If we do so, then we stay true to the Covenant and we become one as a people under the New Covenant.

      In order to undergo such a circumcision, it requires a state of brokenness in His people, where our hearts need to break for Him and His Kingdom and for the needy and the lost and the dying. It is a brokenness of love for we have to be humble and come to the end of our old and selfish ways. In this brokenness will be found humility and in submission, we will come to the feet of the Lord. There at the fountain of life, we may drink and be healed. How we need to be healed from our own selfishness, lawlessness, rebellion, idolatry and wickedness. How we need to be healed from our spiritual apathy, from being idle, from being passive in our zealous love for God’s truth and being hard of heart while the world is dying physically and spiritually.

      Only out of such brokenness do we come to the end of ourselves and deny ourselves, and then repentance and a state of turning away from the bareness of this world. God wants to increase in us so that His healing will take hold of us. And then we begin to restore the altar. And we restore when we return to God alone, and when we honour the Covenant of Grace. Ah, praise the Lord! A time has come for the Potter’s touch, and in that touch of brokenness where we abandon ourselves to Him, we shall experience judgement grace – judgement in our sin, yet the grace to come to Him, to seek Him, to know Him and love Him deeply.

      Out of that state of brokenness where we die unto ourselves, we shall live for God. In that circumcision, we shall come to an end in ourselves – being the greatest of idols – for we shall truly see and know the heart of God and there we shall find our way. And as we lay down our lives in brokenness, and as we lay down our ways in submission unto His authority, then His life will truly take hold of us. It is time for us to decrease and for Him to increase so that His will and not ours is done.

      Truly, those who come to brokenness allow themselves to be broken, allowing the Spirit of truth to lead, to mend and to guide. How we need the Spirit of burning and how we need to have a broken longing for a broken world. Let us submit, let us be obedient, let us follow Him, and let us cast away our idols and our earthly treasures.

      God of Covenant

      Who makes the Covenant when it

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