John 15:18-19 (NKJV): If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 17:12-19 (NKJV): While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NKJV): Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Ephesians 2:14-22 (NKJV): For He Himself [Christ Jesus] is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in putting to death the enmity.
And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Philippians 3:17-21 (NKJV): Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
Colossians 1:9-18 (NKJV): For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence.
Hebrews 11:13-16 (NKJV): These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had the opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
1 Peter 2:9-17 (NKJV): 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 the darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
GOD is SUPREME—the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Creator of heaven and earth, and everything is His—made through Him and for Him through His Son, JESUS CHRIST, our Redeemer and Savior, by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT.
And we are GOD’s people—sons and daughters—created in GOD’s image, according to His likeness, reconciled to GOD through JESUS CHRIST, adopted into GOD’s Royal Family, and sealed until the day of redemption by the HOLY SPIRIT.
So then we are travelers, colonists, and representatives—sojourners, pilgrims and ambassadors for CHRIST on earth—and royal citizens in the KINGDOM of GOD, ruled by GOD, with full rights and privileges through JESUS CHRIST, our BRIDEGROOM, the COMING KING, and we are called, chosen, and commissioned to spread the GOSPEL, the GOOD NEWS, INCREASING GOD’s INFLUENCE, REPOSSESSING GOD’s PROPERTY, ENLARGING GOD’s TERRITORY, and BRINGING the KINGDOM of GOD, the KINGDOM of LIGHT, to earth.
GOD wants us to IMITATE CHRIST—to resemble, reflect, replicate and reproduce Him on earth; that’s why He renews our minds and equips and empowers us through the HOLY SPIRIT, so we can reach our potential, fulfill our purpose, complete our assignments on earth, and finally hear JESUS, the eternal KING and righteous JUDGE, say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
Nothing catches GOD by surprise. He knows the end from the beginning; He’s knows who we are and whose we are; He knows our real identity—not what we’ve made of ourselves but who He created us to be.
GOD knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not harm us, plans to give us hope and a future, and through JESUS CHRIST, GOD has given us the GREAT COMMISSION and the ministry of reconciliation so that others might receive the gift of grace and gift of salvation through JESUS CHRIST, be reconciled to GOD, and become ROYAL CITIZENS and AMBASSADORS for CHRIST as well, for 2 Peter 3:9 declares, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
GOD’s WORD is clear about our salvation, our citizenship, and our destination: JESUS is the PASSPORT. In John 14:6, JESUS says, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him, and in Romans 10:9, the apostle Paul affirms, if you confess with your mouth the LORD JESUS and believe in your heart that GOD has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Our hope, our lives, our purpose, and our future are found in JESUS, the SON of GOD, and where we spend eternity and in whose presence we spend eternity really depends on who we accept as SUPREME RULER or KING in our lives, our thoughts, and our families; who we surrender and commit our hearts, souls, minds, and bodies to; in whom we align ourselves or pledge allegiance to; and in whom we trust or believe in completely—GOD or the adversary.
