The kingdom of God has a flawless order,
an organization in the heavens,
set in place by God Himself.

The kingdom of heaven is a literal government:
unseen but operative, unknown but discernible.

Our Father has set up positions
of favor and titles of responsibility,
arranged by the perfection
of His unhampered knowledge
and His sovereign selection.

Titles of the religious world perhaps mean nothing and
might mean wicked ambition, exaltation by man.

Titles in the world - even religious names -
do not always equal titles in the heavens.
Titles of glitz and positions of prominence
in the world's frenzy of competition may not
represent true kingdom authority.

God's true servant eschews the titles of humanity's aspiration.
The real kingdom of God bears little or no relation to
grandiose superstars.
Who are you in the heavens?
That is the urgent question the discerning will answer.
And that, by impress of the spirit,
not by grand designations.

Masterful Bishop? Grand Apostle? August Potentate?
Maybe. Maybe NOT.

A title - to be legitimate - must be lived up to
before it is full of the greatness of its name.

Moses renounced his imposing title as son of Pharaoh,
powerful heir of Egypt's throne.
He gave up the name God had set up to save him,
for the sake of a higher name, known only in heaven.
He preferred the anonymity of a shepherd with God
than masterdom on the worldly side of power -
without God.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God
than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,
considering the reproach of Christ greater riches
than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.
Heb. 11:24, 25 NAS

David was named king out of obscurity and solitude.
His own family considered him
unworthy of the prophet's consideration.
He, a rejected shepherd boy,
had no title of worth to anyone but God.
Unrecognized on earth, he was secretly observed
and privately prepared by God for a title unimaginable.

And though anointed, named, exalted,
David never referred to himself as king
during the long years of shameful exile.
He was merely . . . David . . . taking
no advantage of a title bestowed by
the very intervention and choice of heaven.
No peoples chose David.
The Eternal King did.
A few recognized him.
Others named him king but
he did not use the legitimate title of God's naming,
nor wield it for power's sake.
And this is precisely why he was chosen:
he was a man who would not turn his anointing
into intimidation to impress and rule common people.

He put himself as one of them and
waited for God alone to publicly establish
what had been set in the heavens.
For David, the 'name king'
did not yet constitute 'being king.'
That rare self-effacement was
noted by Almighty with pleasure.

People are obsessed with titles and labels,
either to wear them or bow before them.

The Pharisees harassed John the Baptist to find his "title."
Are you Elijah? No.
Are you the prophet? No.
Are you the Christ? No.

"I am a voice crying in the wilderness."
Ambition doesn't think much of being just-a-voice,
much less one that cries out like a raver and
camps in some barren desert.
John named himself by no term except
the strange label of his function for God
rather than his identity in himself.
His work . . . not his authority.
His responsibility, not his might.
These were his names.
Such is not worldly status and not the glut of ambition.

John was free to be named by his responsibility
because he was in complete possession of
his identity before God, so he needed no title
to prove his existence or his significance to man.

Yet Jesus Himself labeled John as "Elijah" and also . . .
as the greatest prophet to that time.
God names.
Let God give the true name,
let God reveal His government.

Humanity will not be a nothing and
count only to some unseen host!
No, we humans lust to be seen . . .
recognized . . . exalted.
By others. Above others.

We will demand the rights and perks of the public title
but slide out of the responsibility it implies.

When God anoints and appoints, He does so for purpose,
for His agenda.
The reward of that burden is in God
and not in man.
The one who sees a title as servanthood,
rather than a chance to dictate, is
ever promoted within kingdom government -
not to higher privilege - but to
the trust of greater responsibility.

There are those who steal a title
not assigned from the Real Throne.
Saul, as a shy man, was named king.
First king of Israel!
In the beginning he was overwhelmed by such a name,
but he began to own the crown for its personal advantage
instead of himself being owned by its heavenly meaning.

He presumed to name himself by the title of priest
as if king were not enough prestige before the people
whose love he valued above God's.
Saul is remembered, not for his title,
but for his expulsion from kingdom position.
He is the supreme picture of God's dealings
with a man who lusts for a title of power and
not for kingdom approval;
who misuses his kingdom position for worldly gain
and by that, loses the very kingdom he would usurp.

Even though his earthly position remained for some 13 years, the nation he ruled came to know that he no longer had God's presence. The title he so selfishly abused was all he had left. That label of king was empty of divine grace and therefore full of insanity simply because he wore the crown as . . .
his own, his right, his privilege and his due!
 
The only one who can recognize the secret positions of the kingdom
is one who has left the world's acclaim
and whose values have been transferred to the kingdom.
Only one who lives inside kingdom boundaries
has eyes to see the positions set in that realm.
Few have kingdom recognition.
Those with worldly roots fall for grand positions,
assigned to men by men,
and they bow to those whom God has not promoted.

An anointed one passes by - quiet, ordinary, unnoticed.
He is a David. She is an Anna. He is a fisherman.
Known in the heavens, marked for God alone,
they are seldom given the same notice here,
that is assigned them in the kingdom of heaven.
But the annals of God record them,
their fame is forever and
their reward unimaginable.

Leaders with titles, query of titles by fear of being bettered. What is your name?
Who are you?
From where does your authority come?

Jesus gave His names to them,
"I am the Son of Man. I am the Son of God."
God Himself told them,
"This is my Beloved Son."
But they named Him by their own titles:
blasphemer, friend of sinners,
rebel, drunkard . . . even demon-possessed!

Forever trying to label Jesus,
refusing and ignoring the name He gave himself,
the world fussed and guessed - who was He?
The religious were obsessed to know
lest He take over their position and title!

Mankind labels, God ignores.
Sets His own titles
by sovereign choice.

The world-entrenched religious,
by the foolishness that ambition effects,
cannot see spiritual reality
nor hear when told.

The spiritual man tries all things
(he examines, investigates, inquires into,
questions and discerns all things),
yet is himself to be put on trial and judged
by no one (he can read the meaning of everything,
but no one can properly discern or appraise
or get an insight into him).
Reading I Cor. 2:12-16 Amplified Bible

Copyright © 2003 Martha Kilpatrick