The King's Nation | Part 2
WE ARE GOD’S DEVOTED ONES
KATHRYN KUHLMAN
Kathryn was an incredible woman of God who operated in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. She was a very charismatic preacher and people would flood to watch her preach in stadiums. Miracle healings would happen. But when she was starting out in her ministry, she met a man whom she was mesmerised by; she married him.
Unfortunately, she found out he had a wife and kids in another state in America. Things happened within the marriage and she was removed from preaching. She would sit in church and cry, not because she wasn’t on stage but she felt that her devotion to God had taken a U-turn. She was in agony! In the end, she got a divorce. During that era, divorce was a taboo and people would cancel on her, she lost invitations to preach. She even experienced being told to get off the stage when the pastor found out she was divorced. Despite the hateful experiences she had, she picked herself up and kept going for it!
She continued to hunger after God and spent her life being devoted to Him. History tells us that He used her in a mighty way. So many people received Christ and healing because of her. In stadiums all over the world today, revival meetings still follow the format of what she used to do. The impact she left has had a ripple effect that we still talk about today!
Everything we do should come from a devotion to God. Like Kathryn’s life, we know that the enemy will throw anything at you to distract you and to turn your attention and devotion away from God. Is your passion for God diluted? What or who has your devotion in your life?
WE ARE GOD’S VERY OWN SPECIAL PEOPLE
God claims us as His very own! God is the Lord over all, He decides the future! When people are owned by God, they do crazy things. We’ve seen pastors with great paying jobs give up everything they know to serve people and the church. They see themselves as being owned by God, they do what God has called them to as God claims them as their own.
In the New King James Version, this is what it says:
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
CHARLES FINNEY
Charles Finney was a lawyer. He brought an amazing revival to New York during his lifetime. The whole city at that time gets turned upside down. It affected the media, the politics, the shopping, the businesses, everything! Even divorce rates, murder rates decreased – everything was impacted by this revival. Did you know Charles Finney was the first pastor to do salvation altar calls where you raise your hands to come to the front?
Charles Finney had the revelation from God that God loved us and that we are His special, chosen people that by just accepting Jesus immediately, we can come into God’s family. It wasn’t a popular opinion! Many wrote about him in different commentaries that no one could have instant conversion, in fact, it would take a long time to be drafted into God’s family. But Charles believed otherwise. You go from living in darkness to light because you are God’s special people. What an incredible breakthrough this had for churches as millions of people now have come to know Christ and are now part of His family.
HE’S CALLED US OUT OF DARKNESS
God’s calling you out of darkness. There may be areas in our lives, in our minds that we know we are listening and agreeing to things that are dark. Perhaps it is negativity, or self-hatred, or criticism. You may hear this voice criticizing you that you have mistaken as your own voice. Perhaps it is condemnation or guilt or shame, or a constant reminder of all that things you’ve done that you regret. God’s calling you out of that.
WE’RE CALLED TO BROADCAST HIS GLORIOUS WONDERS
When darkness is removed from you, God can fill you with joy. I’ve prayed for so many people who once they experience God’s marvellous light, their countenance and personalities change! They feel great joy and it shows on their faces. Not only that, when you have the joy of the Lord, it suddenly is easy to read your Bible and easy to pray. It becomes easy to experience the love of God. But when we know this and experience it, we can go now to broadcast His glorious wonders. Sharing the love of God to others and to the rest of the world.
Thank You Jesus that the battle of condemnation, shame, guilt has been won by You. Every form of darkness that has been settled on to Your people, has been cancelled by You. We command every form of darkness to leave our souls, leave our minds, leave our will. Every form of anxiety, fear, sickness, obsessive thoughts, tormenting thoughts, condemnation, shame, guilt, oppression has to go in the name of Jesus. You are calling us out of darkness, into Your marvelous light and we claim it over our lives, in Jesus’ name! Amen!
If you’ve missed Part 1, you can find it HERE!
Head on to https://greenroom.kingdomcity.com/ to watch ‘The King’s Nation’ sermon which is a 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.