Advance the Kingdom in Violence

Mark 7:24-30
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.g He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”
28“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
30She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Advance the Kingdom in Violence

At first reading this language may sound a little harsh and yet we have to understand that Israel was God’s people, so in the context of God’s spiritual order the Messiah was first promised to them, because they were the children of the promise, even of Abraham, Genesis 18:18 says, ” Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” There was an order to the blessing, first the Jew and then the Gentile.
Jesus, in His earthly ministry, had come to proclaim the kingdom to the house of Israel. When this Syro-Phoenician woman came to Him begging on behalf of her possessed daughter she was really coming in a time that was out of God’s time and order for her to receive of kingdom impartation, thus Jesus spoke what He did about it not being right to take their bread and give it to the Gentiles.
This woman answers with such wisdom and faith that it moves the heart of Jesus to step out of divine order and impart to her the request that she desired. She has insight into the mercy and grace that is in God’s heart. While He does move in divine order and on behalf of His chosen people, He still responds to the faith of the Gentiles. The Roman officer in Matthew 8:5 was another example of God moving out of divine order and time to release to them what wasn’t yet to be released.
What does that speak to us?
It tells us that there is realm of faith that moves God’s heart to release kingdom into the earth that is not yet in season to be released. It is not an ordinary faith, but an extraordinary faith that moves God’s heart. It is interesting to note that both of these examples didn’t come to Jesus asking for themselves, it was their intercession on the behalf of another. What can happen when we begin to take bold and extreme faith and ask God to move through us in a supernatural way on behalf of others? Matthew 11:12 says, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” The forcefulness of the kingdom is the faith that seizes and lays hold of it. It advances in faith and it is faithful forceful men and women that lay hold of the those things that are out of spiritual season to bring them into spiritual season. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, ” So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Let us be those violent men and women of faith that bring forth God’s kingdom and manifest it in the earth by our extreme and violent faith.

Blessings,
#kent

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