Kingdom Heroism

Please listen to the podcast at anchor.fm/kingdomhero.

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Episode 31: What Does It Mean to Be a Kingdom Hero?

First of all, let’s define exactly what a Kingdom Hero is. This is “someone who personifies the love and grace of God, shining His light for others, and who puts other people’s needs ahead of his/her own, ready and willing to lend a helping hand at any opportunity.” Now, while that is the simplified definition, the concept goes quite a bit deeper than that. But we’ll get into all that later.

The term “Kingdom Heroes” originated with a GC episode by that name. As previously mentioned, the GC web-series ran for 7 seasons, and it was where Great Commission Ministries began in 2011. That particular episode was about how we should always be ready for opportunities to witness, minister to, or otherwise reach out to those in need. The term has become a recurring theme, and a central tenet of GCM’s online ministry.

As stated in the GC video, you are an instrument of God’s mercy and grace. Are you living like it everyday? When He presents you with an opportunity to show His awesomeness to others, you should JUMP ON THAT! Be more than the sum of your parts. Be a Kingdom Hero. How? Well, I’m glad you asked.

A Kingdom Hero follows in the footsteps of the greatest superhero to ever walk the earth…Jesus. He showed us the way. He was the example. Now you may say that you can’t perform miracles and do the things that Christ did, but the Bible tells us different. It records the words of Jesus himself, saying to His disciples (that’s us) that the Spirit would come and bring power. We often forget our true potential as Christians is in that power He gives us. Power to do even greater things than Jesus did is available to us. We can do more. We can BE MORE than just the sum of our parts. Remember the scripture, “I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens me.”

A Kingdom Hero taps into that power I just mentioned. And yes, we can do amazing things, but we often get opportunities to do seemingly small things that end up affecting the kingdom in monumental ways. God presents us with chances every day to positively affect the world on His behalf. Are we jumping at those opportunities? Are we tapping into the power He gave us? How can we do that? How can we be more?

God’s Word tells us…

They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

Whoa! Sounds kinda superhero-like, huh? And the key is to wait upon the Lord. Well, what does THAT mean? Part of “waiting on” has to do with serving, like when a server at a restaurant waits on you. But it also means being patient and letting God speak to you or lead you. How does He lead us? If we open our eyes and hearts, we will see that He gives us those opportunities I mentioned earlier to minister to those around us. We too often turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to opportunities right in front of us. The challenge is to be sensitive to His Will and recognizing those people and things that He puts in our path every day.

So our source of strength and power is the Spirit. And God’s Word is our helpful handbook that we need to study each day to keep our senses sharp. What then, do you suppose, is our kryptonite? What’s the thing that renders us powerless and easy prey for the enemy? Sin? Well, yeah, that’ll do it. But more specifically, what keeps us from being all we can be is usually more a sin of OMISSION rather than a sin of COMMISSION. It’s a certain state of mind known as complacency…

The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.

Matthew 13:22

If we are so caught up in our own lives that we can’t seem to find time for doing the work of God, we fall into the enemy’s trap of unfruitfulness. If our master is our bank account or anything other than serving Jesus, we become unfruitful. If we allow satan to convince us that someone else will do God’s work so we don’t have to, then we become complacent and no good to the kingdom.

I have often noted that sin – ANY SIN – can and will separate us from God. Talk about kryptonite! Being separated from our source makes us powerless, unfruitful, AND useless to the kingdom. Just like Superman needs the rays from a yellow sun to shine on him and replenish his super-strength, we need the glory of the Son of God to shine on us and renew our strength. Then we can be mighty and do His great work.

Yes my fellow Christians, we are called to be excellent. We are meant for greater things than just idly strolling through life. We are “more than conquerors through Christ,” so let’s act like it. If you see a chance to make a difference, don’t settle for being a bystander. No, be MORE. Step up, make a difference, and – YEAH – be a Kingdom Hero!

In the Headlines

Turning now to some recent headlines… The mainstream media has been running for what seems like forever now with this idea that President Trump is racist – of course without any actual proof of that, they just SAY it over and over and unfortunately there are many who believe it. They’ve been going on and on saying that Trump has never denounced or condemned white supremacy, when in fact he has on multiple occasions, but they refuse to report it because it doesn’t fit their narrative that he is this awful racist orange man.

In a recent White House press briefing, the president’s spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany was repeatedly pummeled – almost ad nauseum – with this same type of claim from the leftist media. Let’s hear cut 1 from this briefing – listen to this, and when you do, you can even hear the arrogance and sort of pompous superiority in the voice of this so-called journalist who I will not name.

cut 1

So arrogant. He says – I’m gonna play this again, but – he asks this question in such a condescending way, saying “give me a definitive answer without ambiguity or deflection.” And this is because that is the narrative CNN – and others – have run with. They want you to believe that the president has never point blank, bluntly, and definitively stated that he indeed is against white supremacy – when in fact, he has done a very large number of times, and yet they continue with this farce that he’s a bigot and a hater. Now, make no mistake, they KNOW that this isn’t true. They KNOW that they are “reporting” lies. And they have to word their questions in this way to continue fleecing their viewers with contrived falsehoods. Go to cut 2, and this is his question again followed by Kayleigh’s brilliant response.

cut 2

So she very plainly recounts several instances where President Trump has in fact condemned white supremacy. And as she was being interrupted there near the end of that cut, you heard her say that he has actually condemned white supremacy more than any other president in modern history. BAM! Right? I mean that should end it right there, shouldn’t it? For any rational and sane and fair-minded person, yes, that should have been as clear as anyone could want it. But no, not the mainstream media. The same reporter chimes in again with the same – slightly reworded, but same – demand again for a clear and definitive response. Play cut 3.

cut 3

Wow, seriously? “Just to clear it up?” Are you deaf, man!? I mean, what more do you want? She enumerated where Trump had repeatedly done exactly what they’re saying he hasn’t done, and when she finishes saying, you know, he has condemned it here and here and on this occasion and that occasion, this guy has the audacity to act as if his demand is still not being met. We’ll hear it again as we pick up with cut 4.

cut 4

I’m just astonished. The nerve of this guy, to somehow imply that all the past quotes she read mean nothing, and to continue to beat this obviously dead horse of an issue – it’s shameful, it’s certainly unprofessional and unbefitting for this type of behavior to take place in a White House press briefing. It’s just unbelievable. But it didn’t end there.

You heard at the end of that cut Kayleigh rightly stated that the president’s record on this matter is unmistakable, but the very next reporter countered that fact with another attempt to keep this narrative alive. Roll cut 5, and notice how she continually interrupts Kayleigh with the claim that the president’s record on racially motivated violence is rather mixed. Roll it.

cut 5

I like how Kayleigh lays down the law at the end there. But you may notice that every single act that this administration takes to effect positive change and to combat racially motivated crimes, the first thing the left does is simply NOT ACKNOWLEDGE it. When it’s brought up, hey the president actually did this or he’s actually enacted measurements to curb that – some of the strongest measurements ever in the history of America – and then they will barely acknowledge it by downplaying it. And the unmitigated gall, the superior attitude of these people – I don’t see how Kayleigh McEnany can tolerate it – it truly takes a special kind of person to deal with these arrogant, pompous, snot-nosed children in the press corps on a daily basis. It’s just unreal!

What Really Matters

On this show, I talk a lot about fighting the lies out there with the truth. We are spoon-fed misinformation every single day of our lives, and we have to keep ourselves grounded in reality – grounded in the truth – in order to effectively combat and repudiate all the garbage and nonsense we encounter. But while doing this, we are going to run into opposition – and we’re definitely going to cross the threshold between the nonpolitical and the very political. As I have said before, our morale compass can’t take a vacation just because an issue is or has become political in nature. Truth is still truth. Lies are the weapons of choice for satan and all those who oppose God and His righteousness. So our weapon of choice must be the truth.

You might say, “But you’re being one-sided and acting like a right-wing religious nut.” That’s fine. Say what you want. You may disagree with me, and that’s perfectly alright with me. But my views come from my understanding of the Word of God. My sense of morality stems from that. If I see evil happening on the left, I’m gonna keep calling it out. I will do the same when I see it on the right, and I have plenty of issues with some so-called Republicans who are so caught up with the establishment in DC that they don’t have any regard for their constituents. But understand that my right-leaning opinions and conservatism isn’t beholding to a political party UNLESS that party lines up with scripture. The Word of God is the final authority for me.

The fact is that, no matter what you call yourself – Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, Independent – the thing that truly matters the most is what’s in your heart. If you have worldly/humanistic views ingrained in your heart, then THAT will be your guide in life. If you have God’s Word written on your heart, then THAT should be your guide. The latter is the one I choose, and for good reason. My carnal/fleshly nature has always steered me wrong, but God never has.

And this is what it all comes down to – taking on the nature of God and clothing ourselves in His righteousness. The Bible says that our own righteousness is as filthy rags, but the righteousness of God is perfect. When we clothe ourselves in His truth, we can easily spot the enemy’s lies. Wherever those lies come from, we ought to beat them back with the truth. This shouldn’t be a difficult concept to grasp. But we do need to learn to separate the sin from the sinner.

It’s not enough to simply point out where people are lying and combat those lies with the truth. We should also earnestly pray for the souls of those who are helping to propagate false claims. Yes, even those childishly arrogant reporters who I was so critical of earlier should be in our prayers. Though I may be critical of their behavior – or misbehavior – I still ought to go to God on their behalf and pray that they be saved and redeemed from the bad choices they’ve made.

The same is true of those who profess to be Christians and stand on the left. Whatever their reasons are for having an understanding or holding a point of view different from mine – if they claim to be Christian, they should pray for me to come to a correct understanding with God. We don’t need to create divisions among ourselves just because of differing views. But we do need – on the right or left or middle – we DO need to earnestly seek out the view that’s most important…God’s view. Our alignment with Him is what really matters.

At the end of the day, we ought to be just as concerned for the eternal well-being of those that we disagree with as we are about that of our closest friends and people who agree lockstep with us. We have to defeat the idea that disagreeing with someone means hating them. Love for our fellow man must be unconditional, reaching across all boundaries. And as Christians, the perfect love of God should permeate every facet of our lives. So much that, even when we disagree, our actions should be motivated by the loving desire to correct rather than to shame or humiliate. And such is the attitude of a Kingdom Hero.

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Please listen to the podcast at anchor.fm/kingdomhero.