January 26, 2025 – The Bread for the Week – Building Kingdom Culture: A Vision for Kingdom Living and the Apostolic Model
Many years ago, I was shown a vision on my own farm that led me to believe I am either supposed to build something there, or God used the 230-acre layout as part of the premise for what we would need to build for His purpose. I saw many things happening on the land. I saw a farming operation, a central gathering house, pastoral cottages with amenities, a three-story circular building, and 12 rectangular outbuildings connected like wings of a hospital, also three stories tall. I also saw campsites and an RV park. This, in itself, would be a business, but the business the world saw us doing would not truly reflect our purpose. We would be doing the Lord’s work in the time we are set in.
Our mission would be focused on training and equipping, preparing for the Lord’s return, no matter how long it may take. There is work that God wants to do, not only in humanity but in the systems of humanity, to move us toward the millennial reign. There must be places where we can live from heaven to earth, free from the world’s regulations, yet still be a light to the world and serve as an Apostolic sending model. We must form these incubators for Kingdom culture in every facet as it exists in heaven, displaying it here on earth.
Just as with the description of building the Tent of Meeting to Moses, the Tabernacle of David, the Temple of Solomon, and the second temple, you can see how God used Pagan, Jewish, and Christian resources to come together to build and influence humanity. Through outsiders observing the trials and tribulations faced by Christians, who remained faithful to God’s word, these became evangelistic tools for the business world of today.
It is time to establish these non-believers, moving them from the world into the Kingdom, empowering them to conquer and take dominion. The devotion to the commands and statutes of the Lord—the principles that form the vision teams for these Kingdom projects—will determine their success.
God has been bringing together His divine people, places, things, and His word in a convergence that will build Christian culture centers. These centers will operate by Kingdom principles, the power and authority of the cross, and His love. They will vary in nature: some will be triage-oriented to address what is happening in the world, some will be priestly in nature, and others kingly. But there will be cross-pollination among them in the body of Christ, making us unified in Him. I believe this is the church God is building, and perhaps even the bride as it will look on earth.
Every form and function of God’s image, as well as the character of Christ and the cross, has a real and pertinent expression in corporate society, just as it does in individual hearts. The reflections of what is seen in heaven on earth take all forms of creation. There is a unity coming into being that all of creation has been groaning for—where man takes his rightful place, allowing God to govern, legislate, and steward the things of the world as it is in heaven, until the Lord steps foot on earth. We are called to govern for God—or as many prefer, to steward—over the seven mountains. This control is not based in witchcraft, like Jezebel, Leviathan, or Baal worship, but rather is rooted in the image of the Trinity, reflecting Jesus as both fully man and fully God. The outflow of God’s love is His glory, manifesting in the earth.
There is a real and practical way for God to build this through us. But it requires utter submission, sacrifice, pain, suffering, and radical obedience. These may not seem like qualities people would willingly volunteer for, but when you understand the meaning behind them—and the joy of the Lord as our strength—you begin to see the pattern. Looking at the lives of biblical characters and their journeys, you come to realize that there is no better life. The definition of these terms needs to be redefined, and our hearts and minds must be renewed so we can reflect the character of Christ, justifying and moving forward in dominion, as He did on the cross. We can assist in fulfilling the truth that “It is finished.”
