The King's Nation | Part 1
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a nation is a large group of people of the same race, who share the same language traditions and history, government, but who might not all live in one area. We have been CALLED a spiritual nation.
“But you are God’s chosen treasure — priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience His marvelous light, and now He claims you as His very own. He did this so that you would broadcast His glorious wonders throughout the world.”
WE BELONG TO A SPIRITUAL NATION
There’s about 2.4 billion of us on Earth right now, people that identify as Christians. We’re quite large, and we’re from the same heavenly race. We have the same language; we speak things like faith while being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. We talk about signs, wonders and miracles, and the anointing of God. We celebrate the same traditions. In Kingdomcity we celebrate Christmas, Easter and Miracle Offering. We share the same history – we are saved, said the sinner’s prayer and have had encounters with God. We came from darkness to light. And we follow the same government – Jesus. We follow His law, and His ways. We are His spiritual nation.
WE ARE GOD’S CHOSEN TREASURE
You are valuable. You are priceless. Don’t believe the lie that you are not valuable, that you are trash. It’s not what God has said about you – you are truly God’s chosen treasure. It doesn’t matter what background you are from, doesn’t matter how you got here on Earth, doesn’t matter what your family is like – you are God’s chosen treasure. You were worth it enough for God to come down, from heaven to Earth, to live for 33 years and pay the price on the Cross because He just loves you that much.
Have you let the world define you? Perhaps you’ve heard that you’re a failure, that you’re not good enough. Take a look at this man’s life.
Born in the year 1870, William Seymour was an African man whose parents were slaves. He lived with one eye missing, he was considered disabled. He was also a man whose skin was black.
In the world’s eyes, William Seymour did not have much to contribute, based on his family background and his sight condition. This man did not let anything stop him from getting hungry for God. He went to Bible college and had to listen through a window because of the segregation that happened there. Seymour didn’t get offended, didn’t stop learning and was so willing to humble himself and sit in a hallway to hear the Word of God. He even gets filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit! He goes to California and meets some others and together, they have a prayer meeting on the balcony of a house. The prayer meeting breaks out and they move to a warehouse on Azusa Street. There began the Azusa Street Revival.
Azusa Street Revival in 1906
The world didn’t think that William Seymour had much to give but because of his obedience, despite his background and race, many came to know Christ and the history of this revival is referenced all around the world.
All of us – we are God’s chosen treasure.
WE ARE PRIESTS WHO ARE KINGS
What is a king? A king is someone who has great authority. But we are also priests, priests are those who serve. They serve the house of God and serve people spiritually. The verse, it’s not written to church staff, church workers, pastors. It's written to anyone who is part of the King’s nation. It’s our responsibility to serve, but we serve with royalty – priests who are kings.
John G Lakes had 16 brothers and sisters, but eight of them passed away earlier on in life. He went to eight funerals of his siblings! Imagine that. He grew up seeing death and sickness around him. If someone had a right to be bitter, angry, and annoyed, it would probably would have been him. Later on in life, he married a lady who got really really really sick. He channeled his anger towards building on his prayer life and he rebuked death, sickness in her body. Miraculously, she got healed!
People started flooding Lakes’ home. They brought the sick with them because they had heard of this miracle that had happened to them. If anything, Lakes could have held on to his anger, be mad at God after losing his eight siblings and almost losing his wife. But he served the people. With great authority, he prayer over them and people started getting healed. This healing movement began to grow and he started healing rooms. He went to Africa and his ministry grew there. They can attribute about 1 million people coming to Christ because of him. He was a man who refused to let his upbringing determine his future.
Called to serve with great authority, we are priests who are kings.
WE HAVE BEEN SET APART
It’s not a coincidence you may talk different, look different to your friends and your colleagues. Why do we try so hard to look and sound like everyone else? We have been set apart. You should be different because your priorities are different.
He used to work in the mines in Wales. Those days, kids had to work from 6am to 6pm in the mines. 12 hours with the older men. He would come home after 12 hours of hard labour and he would read the Bible. He taught himself to read and read the Word of God daily because He was hungry for God. He was set apart! There was something different about him. Instead of getting bitter and annoyed at the state of his nation, he prayed for revival. This was Evan Roberts at 13 years of age, and he prayed for 13 years. When he was 26 years old, God turned up and the glory of God transformed him radically.
History tells us that during this time, the Welsh revival happened, and many people got saved. The presence of God was so strong that the people who would take the trains would fall over under the power of God. It wasn’t even a church service! Do we hunger for God like this for our cities? Do we want to see our nations experience the power of God like they did in this revival?
We must remember, we have been set apart.
Part 2 – to be continued.
Head on to https://greenroom.kingdomcity.com/ to watch ‘The King’s Nation’ sermon which is part of ‘The King & I’ sermon series.
*Extracted from ‘The King’s Nation’ sermon by Jemima Varughese
Jemima is married to Mark and leads Kingdomcity Communications Ltd. They have two sons, Zeke and Caleb.