Democracy or Kingdom (2 of 4)

Mike Connell

So Jesus said in Matthew 12, He said if I cast out demons by the finger or the spirit of God, know the kingdom has come among you. So deliverance is a man representing the kingdom, carrying not only the authority and right to represent Him and act on His behalf, but also the anointing of the Holy Ghost, the favour of God behind him. Now you've got to see yourself, you're called to be like that in the earth. We're called to carry the nature of Christ, to carry His anointing and authority, and to bring change in the community. Religion teaches all about going to heaven; kingdom's all about staying on earth and making it change. Come on, think it through. Think about it. Think about it, see? So authority, so authority in a democracy, it rests with the people so you vote in who you like. If you don't like them vote them out - but you can't vote God out. Churches can and do. They vote God out. They do.

They just vote out the Holy Spirit. How do they do that? They just resist the Holy Spirit, vote God out. I'd just be scared to be in that church that says we're a church, we represent Jesus Christ and we voted Him out. God was overruled by 12 to two. [Laughter] The Board met. Okay then, so here's [laughs] so let's have a look at government and ruling, how ruling is done, how government is done. Notice in a democracy you're governed by consensus, so if you want to govern in a democracy do you know what you've got to do? You've got to have committees meet and find out what everyone wants, and so consensus is how you govern. Consensus means we get people to agree, so we find out the opinions of the majority. So in a democracy it's the rule of the majority, see? See, so you govern by consensus. In the kingdom He governs by decree, see, not by consensus. See for example if Jesus operated by consensus the Greenies would have caned Him for cursing the tree! [Laughter] The animal rights people would have caned Him for putting demons in the pigs and they all died. [Laughter]

But He didn't ask their opinion, He just did it - because He had authority, because He was the one who created it all. So He didn't wait around for consensus; He governed without consensus. He was here to announce something different; not the consensus of God or the democracy of God, actually the kingdom. So He says to the tree ha die! And it dies. He says to the bread increase! And it increases. That's what happens in the kingdom. It operates differently, see, whereas in a democracy you've got to have a meeting and find out what everyone thinks. We don't agree, majority don't agree, we can't do it so we vote God out see? So in a democracy personal opinions abound, so anything happens everyone's got an opinion. But in the kingdom you don't have opinions. See in the kingdom whatever the king's opinion is is what's you're opinion. Oh that's getting to you. I can see that see, because we're so full of opinions. We are riddled with opinions. Decision's made, we've got our opinion.

Here's a simple thing. If you're not responsible for it don't have an opinion. It's real simple. So someone asks what do you think of that? I don't think anything. Why not? It's not my responsibility. See, having opinions leads to gossip, criticism, every kind of negative thing, because it doesn't come out of the kingdom. See what my opinion is and what does God say about it, well that's my opinion. Oops, see - I can see it radically pushing on the way you think, because our thinking is dominated by [the world, 00.38.06] it's dominated by the democratic mindset so we have opinions. We've got opinions about how to raise kids, got opinions about - everyone's got opinions. What does the word of God say? What does Gods word say? Well that's my opinion. Wherever we can get agreement on that - and one of the guidelines I've found is if I'm not responsible for it don't have an opinion. [If someone says 00.38.24] what do you think about such and such a ministry? I don't think anything. I just found it real easy to say I don't have an opinion on it, because they're not my servant. They're a servant of God. He's the one to have the opinions, ask Him. In due course He'll show what it is.