We have a tremendous advantage. We were recreated in Jesus Christ as He took up residence in our spirit. In order to take advantage of this we need to understand how to realign our lives with Him, where He is headed, how He sees things and how His Kingdom runs. That just makes sense. Why would we not want to line up with THE most effective Kingdom ever!
This is what Jesus is talking about in the rest of His discourse, and He moves next into identity issues. If we don’t understand who we are and how large and how far reaching that is we tend to downplay our role and excuse ourselves from the “game at hand”. What He says next is a perspective shifter and a bit of a shock to realise just how important we really are in His plan.
From verse 10 to 13, He talks about trouble coming our way and how to deal with it. Rather than running from it or trying to hide, He talks about rejoicing in it so the largeness of who we are as the releasers of the Kingdom of Heaven can take place. Our role is to bring a shift to all aspects of life here in the Kingdom of Heaven, but it can’t happen if we see ourselves as small. Most aspects of life here on this planet convince us that we are small and limited, but that is not how our Father sees us. He created us to be THE salt and light that people all around us can see, taste and be lit up by.
You are Salt and Light
Matthew 5:13-16 Salt is a substance that makes food taste good. It is also a disinfecting and cleansing agent. Too much salt will make land barren and unable to support life. There is nothing of this in Jesus parable where He talks only about the useful qualities of salt. Salt must hold its saltiness to be useful. When salt reacts with something else it takes on other qualities, no longer tastes good and is thrown out. That’s what happens to us when we mix the qualities of self back in to our identity.
He is saying that the qualities of His Life coming through us will always taste good, and if we disconnect and start tasting like self to others they will push us away. That makes sense in a world where people are hungry for something that tastes like Him because they have had enough of self tasting existence. He doesn’t say much more about salt, but has quite a lot to say about light.
John 1:4, 5. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overpower it. The light of life is the light shed by the Life that is God’s Life inside us. This Life is continuous and ongoing because the most important part of living with Him is His Life in us. This Life is planted in our spirit with the very first revelation of Jesus and salvation. Alignment with His Life deals with our darkness because His Life is Light both in and through us.
The statements of His nature in Matthew chapters 5, 6 etc. are guidelines to know how to head towards and align ourselves with His life. When we know that we start seeking out ways of thought and behaviour that are in harmony with Him and which easily allow His Life to prevail and shine. But they are not and never should be laws of behaviour. His love in us empowers us to want to be like Him.
We live by the grace and mercy of God not by fear. We live naturally out of higher laws of Spirit and Life, written on our hearts by revelation and maintained by internal focus on him - the commands of Jesus. What He continues to describe is the principles that our Kingdom, His Kingdom works by.
You are the light of the world.
The most important thing to remember is to develop a personal one to one relationship with God that revelation can flow from. Part of this is deliberately spending time allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us up. The more we open up to Him, the more we will know Him. The sap must flow from the vine into the branches, to produce the fruit of revelation, so take care of your connection to the vine.
Luke 11:9-13. And I say to you, Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives. And he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks it shall be opened.
For what father of you, if the son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake for a fish?
Or if he shall ask for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
Our Father is eager for us to come to Him for daily bread which is revelation food from him directly.
Matthew 6:11. Give us this day our daily bread;
Revelation is light and LIFE to us. The Holy Spirit will not hold back, it is we who hold back. Shake off the fear and pray strongly for more revelation. We sing about being a people of power and the key to this is to give Him the permission and time every day to allow Him to empower us.
Psalm 37:4. Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Revelation is life and understanding to the one who receives it directly.
John 6:63 It is the Spirit that makes alive, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life. He gives part of Himself to you in the revelation. When you share or preach from your revelation treasure, you preach light, and as you live by how you know Him you shine light into others. John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. This now true of You. Your identity has changed forever because He lives in your spirit. The best thing you can do is activate your spirit –soul connection and shine. This is how big you are in His sight.
Matthew 5:14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Now that we see how big we really are, Jesus goes on to keys of alignment that hold our spirit to soul connection in place. Wells working all the time.
Jesus fulfilled the Law
Matthew 5:17-20. Here Jesus says that He did not come to destroy the law but fulfil it. What does that mean? It means that Israel is not let off the Law of Moses and we are not let off our civil laws either. He fulfilled it, meaning He was completely righteous by that standard and blameless when He was crucified for us. In so many ways we slip so He fixed that for us because He in His Love desires to walk with us, so He paid the price Himself.
Now our slip ups (or sins) are a matter between Him and us. We only have to repent and point to His death to be free again. John 3:14. We slip up because we lose our internal connection and act out of self instead of His Life wells inside us. He fulfilled the law and died for us so we would have a fast track back into His Life flow because He knows that His Life is the only holding power that works for us. Wells back working all the time
Anger
Matthew 5:21-26 To be able to shine with the light of His own righteousness we need to know how to avoid being shut down. Jesus talks here about how anger can stop us receiving and flowing. Every time we are hurt we get angry. Do you have unresolved or lurking anger buried? We need to see that it stops us satisfying our thirst, forgive, and let Him deal with that anger that has been buried. At this stage of God’s dealing with us we cannot afford pride and that’s just what He is saying in verses 23-26 and also in Matthew 5:9 - Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. A spirit of anger or a spirit of wrath can interfere with us here so get rid of it.
Lust
Matthew 5:27-30 What Jesus says here is about heart control. Our man heart will break the soul-spirit connection quickly if we let it. The answer is to find ways to stay in our spirit heart connection, seeing what is at stake. Our purpose is to shine His light, maintaining our large presence on this planet. Find ways to deal with lust as it crops up. The key to it is in how we react to a lust temptation. Devils will try to hook you with a thought injection. Respond by considering the person’s highest good. Pray for them. Call blessing and fulfilment of relationship with God to them. Get rid of any spirit of lust that you have agreed with. Keep your wells working all the time.
Divorce
Divorce is a messy and complex subject better dealt with in private discipling. Avoid divorce if you can.
Oaths
Matthew 5:33-37 Your spoken word is powerful when you are flowing with His Life. Your simple, considered, yes or no is enough and it is binding in His Kingdom.
Retaliation
Matthew 5:38-42 The heart of man is interested in gain and will fight to keep his rights or possessions. The Kingdom spirit heart is aware of a much bigger picture and resources greater than those of man. Give to beggars and lend to receive interest when you are asked to.
Love your enemies
Matthew 5:43-48 Allowing your wells of love to flow towards your enemy as well as your friend, allows us to consider their highest good. Loving them does not mean trusting them, it means choosing to act for their best interests just like you would for a friend.
Giving
Matthew 6:1-4 Give quietly avoiding attention, knowing that Dad sees everything.
Prayer
Matthew 6:5-15 This is a useful prayer structure. You can pray it as it is but it is better used as a guide. See Effective prayer article.
Fasting
Matthew 6:16-18 Our fasting is a private matter between us and God.
Treasure
Matthew 6:19-24 What is your heart invested in? Which Kingdom?
Anxiety
Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus says quite a lot here, reassuring us that we do not need to worry about stuff, instead keep looking to our Father, doing what He asks and the rest works out from there. Plan based on what you know today, not worrying about what might shift around or go wrong tomorrow. Anxiety caused by an interfering spirit is quite common.
Judging
Matthew 7:1-6 How we assess and hold others to account is a matter of generosity of spirit. Those operating in a large place will avoid stress and will not do things out of fear, or need for approval.
Our Dad is generous
Matthew 7:7-14 This follows on from Judgement. Jesus is describing our Father’s generous nature and encouraging us to ask, to seek after Him and to knock on doors that seem to be closed and preventing us from living in His goodness. Our Dad is better to us than any earthly father can be.
So seeing that we can treat others as we would like to be treated, which prevents us shutting down our spirit flow, keeping our wells open.
False prophets
Matthew 7:15-23 Be a fruit inspector. Look into the lives of those who prophesy and see if there is good fruit.
Look for a good relationship with God. Does this person really show that they know the Father and act accordingly or are their ways full of self bringing the attention on themselves as they move with miracles?
Foundations
Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus identifies all that He has said here as being the foundation of the house of your life.
Keep your wells flowing