In this article we are continuing the series: The Kingdom Experience, we are on part six. We want to look at The Parable of the Leaven. And I want us to read the book of Matthew 13:33. Still on the series, the kingdom experience, helping us to realize that if our lives will change beyond where it is to a different way, you know they normally say the culture of a people is the is the way of the people. And there is a close link between a culture and a kingdom. Every Kingdom has a culture. Usually, for each kingdom there is a culture. So, if there are sixteen kingdoms, we can assume there are sixteen different cultures. And so, there is a way of life that is expected of a man or a woman in a kingdom.
So, what we are looking at, beginning from the part one that we started with, up to this moment, is to look at the different ways that we can live our lives. The perspective that we must have in this kingdom, if we will not feel choked or we will not feel depressed in it. So, in Matthew chapter 13:33, the Bible says: “Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven…” So, if you can understand the mystery of a leaven, then you can understand the dynamism of the kingdom of heaven. If you can know what a leaven does, then you can know what the kingdom does to any man that has it. Do you know if someone is a citizen of the United Kingdom, it will be written on his or her face. Where are we going to find out? Passport! Another way we can find out is if the person starts speaking the King's English, then we will say this one must be from the other side.
So, from the person’s way of life or from his means of identification. If the person keeps quiet, you will not know. If the person does nothing, you will not know, if he does not show you his ID, or his passport, you will not know, yet, the person is a kingdom citizen. So, if I am a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, I keep quiet, I do nothing, I don't show my means of identification, you will not even know that I am a kingdom citizen. So, being a citizen of the kingdom of God of the Kingdom of Heaven, is not written on the forehead. It is expressed, it is revealed by the manner of life that we live, by the manner of our communication. The things we say to our friends and our family, the things we say in the public, the things we say in the private, they reveal the culture of our kingdom. Your identification, it reveals it.
So now if you want to understand the kingdom of heaven, the Bible says if you can understand what the leaven does to those who have it, then you can know what a kingdom can do to a brother, a sister who has the kingdom. Now let's continue. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took …” And I love this point. You know, usually when I meet the verse that says a man, I normally say a woman also. So, I don't have to stress myself right now, the Bible already says a woman took. So, another thing we can also say now is, “is like a living which a man took.” So, whether you are a man or a woman, the Bible says the kingdom of heaven is like a leaven that you take. The kingdom of God is not thrown at you. The Kingdom of Heaven is not thrown at you. You know the Yorubas will say “you were not there and you said they didn't distribute it very well.” Were you there?
The kingdom of God is not the one that they distribute behind you. It is not the one that you don't do anything and it just falls on you like ripe pawpaw. The Bible says “it is like a leaven which a woman took.” The Kingdom does not suddenly land upon you or does not suddenly find itself expressed in your life. There is a deliberate or deliberateness to the matters of the kingdom. You don't suddenly for instance, start speaking in tongues. It does not fall down like ripe pawpaw. You can’t be passing on the road and suddenly, you start speaking in tongues. And you don’t even know Jesus. The Kingdom experience, you don't suddenly starts praying in the Holy Ghost for two hours, suddenly, you know, you just started suddenly. There is nothing in the kingdom that is sudden without you being deliberate about.
Have we not seeing mad people on the streets. And we know how Jesus when he was walking on the streets in Israel was saving them and healing them. How many of those ones that we see in our streets have been healed? Now let's look at it. The Bible says there were many widows but to none; look at that word “none” which means this thing is not something that falls down on everybody. So even though there were many widows whose children died in the days of Jesus, Jesus didn't raise up did the children of all. Experiences in the kingdom is not free for all, open for all, assessable by all, you don't stumble on it.
The Bible says a woman takes it. You know in this context; the Bible says the kingdom of heaven is like a leaven which a woman took. You don't dream work into taking something like the kingdom. They say what did you take? I don't know. I just took something, you must know. If it is the kingdom; you will know it. When your hands have lay hold of eternal life, you will be cleared I have laid hold of something. When you encounter Jesus, not that you've encountered the church, you will know on the so-so-so date, I encountered Jesus. When Jesus encounters you, when Jesus meets with you at any point in time on your walk, on your journey, you will say on so and so date, and at so and so time, I was in a so and so place when Jesus encountered me. And again, I want to emphasize, the kingdom of heaven is like a leaven which a woman took. If she never took it, she will never experience it. If there is water your chair, if you never sat on that chair, you will never feel the wetness. You cannot imagine how wet it shall be. You have to sit on it.
Kingdom experience is about you being deliberates. What is that thing that I desire to see in my life, then you take it. Many of us have dwelt in the land of wishes and you know in the land of assumptions. “I have seen it happen and take place in the life of certain people. It is possible, I know. But I don’t if it is just me and if such can ever happen in my life. I don't even think it can happen. It will never happen if you don't think it can happen. New kingdom experiences must be deliberately received. You cannot put the new wine in the old wine skin, it will burst. Anything you want to see happen in your life; you must be deliberate in demanding for it.
You can’t suddenly start manifesting the dimensions of the Holy Spirit when your life is still at the old side. You can’t suddenly start having discernment of Spirit, it can’t suddenly happen. A man must lay hold of it. When Jesus was talking to the disciples, and they were like, sir, why was it impossible? Why was it difficult for us to do that thing that you just did? And Jesus said this kind of thing does not happen except by prayer and fasting. That prayer and fasting is like something that a woman takes. If you never took the prayer and fasting, then you will never be able to do the miracles and you will tell yourselves; “those things are not real.” They are not real, simply because you have not already taken a step of faith in grabbing it.
Apostle Paul at a point said: Desire earnestly the best gifts. So, there are gifts, there are experiences, there are depths of God, there are heights of God, all these things do not fall down like ripe pawpaw. You don't look at your child that is 14 years old and just suddenly say, oh, yeah, take the key of my car drive it. What have you done? You have killed the child. Do we understand? So, you have a desire to make your child drive at 14, 15 or 16, what do you do? You start by tutoring, training the child. Even without even being in the car, you start by helping the child to appreciate the implication of driving. And you don't take the child that you think is under age to even learn. So, you will take the child through a rigorous process of training. While you are training the child, the child could even think you don't love me. Why are you shouting because it's about life and death by the way.
This morning as we were going to town, just along the SCC road. So, we saw a group of people gathered, before we knew it, when we got there, we realized a car has summersaulted inside the gutter. So maybe somebody was laid on the floor and people were trying to resuscitate the person. So, it's a life and death matter. A father, a mother who wants to impart, who wants a child to start driving, which is an experience by the way, a kingdom experience. Let's call it that, will not suddenly give the keys, will not suddenly give the gifts, “my son, take the car, start driving.” Why? You know it doesn't fall down like ripe pawpaw. So, you school the child. You train the child, you gave the child 10 commandments, “Thou shalt not, thou shall not, thou shall not, then you say Thou shalt, thou shalt.”
When you're done with that, then you take the child to do practical training. Over and over, I still remember the day that I drove a manual car for the first time. You know, that was my official day of learning how to drive. I've been learning all my life looking. But that day, I stood and a teacher stood with me and said “now you've been claiming you can do, you can do.” After all, if you even spoil the car, na your mama get am. But he believed in me that I could do it. I told him I've driven an automatic car behind him. So, he felt I could do some things. But manual, I had never. So, he saw me as a student and he said “okay, this is what you will do first, then do this and that, and that will be all.” So, we drove, I think it took me to a place, a school, then he taught me to practice. And when he felt that I was okay, after going around over and over; then he said “take us back to the house.” And that is it. Now, he was building on a foundation that has been built over the years, and that is why it happened in a day. Take a woman now to teach how to drive like that, you may be there for how many days.
So, you don't just will somebody driving. You don't wait for somebody to give the person a gift of a car without giving them the gift of the knowledge of how to drive. So, Kingdom experience is something that you must take deliberately, nobody will put it on your lap, you will not suddenly be able to have the word of knowledge on your lap, word of wisdom on your lap. Suddenly, the gifts of healings will not suddenly land on your lap. If it happens like that, then you may boast in it. If it happens like that, then you may not even be able to manage it. Suddenly, you're walking on the streets and you can be seeing demons or you can see angels. And whatever the demons are saying and the angels are saying, you hear them.
Before you know it, you will go into mental insanity. Because demons don't sleep. So, as they're passing your house and they're going to another house, you will run out and somebody just passed now, I was the only one saying they are going like this. So, before you know it, your life start becoming abnormal, why? A gift has suddenly landed on you and you don't have the ability to manage it or to use it the way it was intended. You know, they say when the purpose of a thing is not known abuse is inevitable. Lest we abuse the gifts of God, we must understand how the gift must be used. That is why things in the kingdom don't fall on us anyhow, you must take it. The Bible says the kingdom of God suffers violence, and only the violent, they take it.
If there is anything you are learning right now from this article, it is in the fact that you have to take it. If there's anything you want to see, anything that is godly you want to see in your life, in your marriage, in your ministry, then you take it. Lest you also take it with the wrong assumption, let us continue. Something happened again. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”
What was all leavened? The meal! The Bible says three measures of a meal. Three measures of meal a woman took the leaven, hid it in the meal. Is it so that she can forget that the meal was there? No, there's a goal. She hid it there so that the whole meal can become leavened. There was a meal and there was a leaven and then the leaven is applied or kept in the meal. Then the entire meal becomes leavened. Does it happen suddenly? So, you can also tell yourself Kingdom experiences are hardly suddenly. There is a process. If they will give you and I opportunity to determine our things happen in the kingdom, we would have said when Jesus was born, he should start the ministry. But the Bible says “and the child grew.” John the Baptist and the child grew, waxed strong in the spirit. And the child grew, increased in stature.
I can imagine myself now being 12 years. I mean of course, we will still be listening to me. Later you will say there is a child preacher somewhere, let us go and see. By the time you come one or two times and you see child preacher, before you know it, you get tired of coming. So, you've seen the great sites or the great the entertainment of sight. Now, it is no more fascinating and so, you stop coming. So, there is a place of the child growing in stature. There is a place of the child growing in knowledge. There is a place of the child increasing in favour, both with God and man. There is a place of the child being strong in the Spirit. It does not fall down like ripe pawpaw. You don't get born again today and you are strong in the spirit today, it takes time.
Bible says the woman took the leaven, kept it in the meal until the entire meal is leavened. What is it that you have taken in Christ Jesus and you've put into an aspect of your life with the hope that that aspect of your life will become fully Christ or Christ like? Since you got married, and you've been telling yourself my goal is for my marriage to be a Christ-like marriage, to be heaven on earth, since you have been applying the kingdom upon your marriage, as your marriage now become like Christ? You know, in a way, for people like us, that like talking about the Bible. You know, before you know it, you have quoted the Bible. I don't know, maybe there was a time that my wife was like, maybe she was angry with me. She just said, like, she does in summary was like, it looks as if I'm finding solace in the Bible. Don't be doing bad, bad things and using Bible to hide. She didn’t say put the Bible aside, but she would have loved me to just deal with issue. Don't be sourcing excessive and tyrannical power from the Bible.
But prior to that incident, what I noticed is that anytime I wanted her to understand my place, I was always very quick to pick a Scripture. I was always quick to pick a Scripture. And the Scripture became a background for wherever position I was taking and expected her to understand as a Jesus follower that she is. But it got to a point she felt that I was beginning to use the Bible to now manipulate my position. So, but let's look at it. At what point, because the reason why I kept using the Bible, the perfect reason why I kept using the Bible every time is because my goal was to continue to add the kingdom into my marriage. So, every time my marriage needed anything, I wanted to take it from the kingdom and put in it. What is my goal? So that my marriage can become the ideal marriage. Now, there is a book that is coming the Perfect, let's not, let's not release the entire chapter. But let's watch it. So, my goal was that my marriage would be a perfect and ideal marriage. So, how can that happen? Let me keep going to Christ. Let me keep using it as an example.
So anytime I found a Scripture that was very good to get my wife to know who I am in this marriage, I quickly go to Christ, I bring it. But at that point, that particular point, she didn't linger too long in that point. She was like can you just stop this thing, talk to me. Let's do this man to a woman, do you understand? But if your goal is to see Christ in a situation, your goal is that something can reflect the way, the culture of heaven, you must never get tired of applying Christ to it. You will not go about quoting “ifa” said and I quote, it must continue to be this is the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we understand? Do we understand the point? You husband will not suddenly become godly. He could have been a good guy when you got married to him, definitely him your husband. But he will not suddenly become Christ-like hundred percent suddenly, it will take time.
So, what must be done? In that marriage, both you and him must consistently be adding Christ into the marriage, into his life, that is what will be changing him over time. The Bible says a woman takes the leaven and keeps it in a three-measure meal. And before you know it in time, the entire meal becomes leavened. So, imagine that you are putting Christ into your marriage, you're putting Christ into your ministry, you're putting Christ into your business, before you know it, before you die, right in your eyes, your marriage will be Christ-like, your business will be Christ-like; your leadership will be Christ-like, it may not start like that. But since Christ is added to it, since Christ is imputed into it, it will be changing into Christ.
Look at it; but we all with unveiled face beholding as in the mirror, the glory of the Lord. In your marriage, when there is crisis, before you call your grandfather, your grandmother, let's call Christ. What will Christ do in this situation? What is your will in this matter? Christ, what do you tell me to do? My culture is telling me that she must kneel down and she must beg me before I understand that she was sorry. What are you telling me? Because I've been waiting for kneeling down for the last three hours, she has never come. Before this thing enters the cable TV news. If you see the way divorce is taking place across the world now, it is like one day one divorce. My wife is now tired of me sending her messages. Like what's going on, why are you disturbing me with this divorce thing?
Before your case becomes like that, you must never get tired of adding Christ. Don’t say what would a celebrity do in this context? My goal is to become a celebrity. I'm not going to be a nonentity. I'm a celebrity wife, I'm a celebrity husband, what should the celebrity do? That shouldn't be your goal. Don't even ask yourself, I am a man of God, I'm a pastor. What should the pastor do? That's not the question. Because your marriage can still be destroyed by what should the pastor do? You must ask yourself, what should I do as a disciple of Jesus? What is the will of Christ in this matter? Should I be waiting for my rights? Or should I rise up and just close the gap? Should I be angry forever? Or should I say I'm sorry? Or should I say I've accepted the apology?
Let's say you're a businessman. And before you know it, your staff they do something that annoys you, you are fired. Like Donald Trump, you are fired. Everybody that offends you, you fire them the same day. So, people see a man that gets angry and fires people. That's all. But could you bring Christ into the same business? What would Christ do? Didn’t Christ have staff that got into messy behavior? Did he fire them? Did Jesus fire Judas? He fired himself. Peter was also in the same similar error. Jesus said to him when you have returned, strengthen the other staff members. When you have returned, provide leadership for the to the other people. he didn't fire. So, you ask yourself, instead of you to do what the world would have you do, what your emotion would have you do, let me do what Christ will do. There is no aspect of our lives that we cannot apply Christ on. And when we are applying Christ, we are like that woman that is taking a leaven and applying it to three measures of meal.
Three measure means that it can be two measures, it can be one measure, it can be 100 measures. That measure shows that aspect of your life. It shows that area of your life. Can you put Christ inside it and wait, and allow time for that thing to become Christ-like? It takes time. But if you see what the Bible says, Bible says that woman hid it. You don't add something in a place and quickly go back to take it. You must leave it there. It's like you have submitted your marriage on the altar, your business on the altar, your ministry on the altar, you live it there. Allow time. Don't be doubtful, believe, it's a matter of time. If you keep sowing good seeds inside the soil, you are going to reap a good harvest.
So, when the woman keeps the leaven in the measures, she must wait. For those of us that make bread or that make donut or make flowery things and all those things, you must understand that when you mix the dough with yeast, it takes time. There are instances when you have to leave it for hours. By the time you get back to it, whatever you left, that small measure as swollen up, as risen, have become bigger. So, if that little thing that you have been committing Christ upon, that you've been putting Christ on, if that thing remains in that state, it is going to get bigger. That's why the Bible says, who has despised the days of the little beginnings. Although, your beginning in marriage, your beginning in ministry, your beginning in business; may be a small, your latter end will be greatly increase.
But you must keep adding Christ, you must keep putting Christ into it. So that when people come, they will find a whole ministry full of Christ, they will find the whole marriage full of Christ, they will see that all your children they are Christ-like, all your products are Christ-like products. An example came to my mind now. Imagine a man of God, who has probably an online business, and he has a pornography business online, and he's a pastor, and then he's making a lot of money. Church members occasionally give him tight and offerings, so, he gets some money in the church. But his biggest money come from online. You need a girl in your neighborhood to date or to sleep with, you go to the website. And the owner of the website is a pastor. And it's like, you know, just leave business aside. You save money if you want to make money. There are rules to making money. You give people what they want. You give people what they need, they yearning for it. And the same man comes to church on Sunday and preach with power. What is he doing? He doesn't want to add the kingdom to his business. The whole kingdom cannot be full of Christ.
So, no matter how this message is coming to you, when you get back to your various offices, you must add Christ to that office, you must add Christ to that office. A Muslim man builds a petrol station, he will build a mosque inside it. He builds a school; he will build a mosque inside it. No matter what they build, they will almost build a mosque inside it. So, they build it, people will come, their stuff will come, they will use it. So, the whole of their business is leavened with their religion. When they become president, they make the whole country, the whole states, they make it leavened with the religion. So, before they will say anything, they will say the religious way of greeting. They will have forgotten that you are not part of them but they will greet you like that, notwithstanding and they expect you to greet them the same.
I was meditating again. Have you seen anybody in the military or paramilitary that does not say “oga”? Is it an English word? Is it Yoruba word? It started somewhere. Somebody brought it up. Why? The person decided to add his or her culture into the whole measures, into the government, into the Secretariat, into the civil service. So, they bring their culture they add it they keep it they hid it or they hide it inside their work.
So, what has happened? The whole civil service nationwide is leavened. But you, when you bring your way of life, what do you do? You don't hide it in that work, you hide it under your pillow. You hide it in your hearts. And so, nothing is leavened. You spent 20 years in a place, your culture does not affect the place. But Bible says the kingdom, like we were taught earlier on in the mustard seed; is very small, it comes small. And see this kingdom that we're talking about, it doesn't perhaps matter whether it is kingdom of Christ or another kingdom. Kingdom principles are kingdom principles. Of course, there are some that are peculiar to Christ, but some are universal principles. You don't see a king and stroll to the king and say “what’s up?”
There is no kingdom in the world that accept what’s up to their king. I said to also to their king. So, you have to come and gather yourself together, you must remain calm, cool and collected, why; you are standing before a king. Solomon said when you come before the king, let your words be few. So, it's a kingdom culture. So let us also embrace this kingdom culture, don't keep it somewhere away from where you are shinning. Don’t forget, our goal is to arise and shine. If we are going to arise, these are the things that we need to arise. Understanding that you must take responsibility for the things you want to see. Understanding that you must not hide your belief, you must not hide your confidence, your assurances, you must keep it in it. Keep it in your marriage.
Don't look at your wife as if she is a hopeless project. Don't look at your husband like a man that will never amount to anything. That your faith that you have in Jesus, bring it, put it in your wife. I remember sometimes ago when my wife will say she is hoping in God for me. So don't look at her and like she has hope in me. No, she has hope in God for me. So as long as she keeps hoping in God, what happens is that she keeps hoping. So, it doesn't finish? So, the things you enjoy with God, bring it into different aspects of your life. Let those aspects of your life become godly. Into your parenting, bring it there. The way you treat your children, let it reflect Christ.
I pray that God will help us in Jesus’ name.
