In accepting the government of God, to enter it, there is first a need for the preaching of it. The preaching of the government of God is preaching which needs to be clear, and it needs to focus on the message God Himself gives. There are some who are predisposed to believe it. God enables this. God prepares their hearts for being open to believing the message. I was struck by the letters of the apostle Paul we find in the Bible, letters to groups of those who believed the message. I was struck, years ago on first reading the letters, by how spiritual power, we might say supernatural power, was experienced by those who believed the message of God. I contrasted this with the blandness of preaching I had heard, and how it often fell flat, even when there were sympathetic hearers of it. People walked like snail unwillingly to church, sat for an hour punctuated by hymns, listened or pretended to listen to a sermon, walked out of church with not much to show for it but a more sore lower torso than when they had entered the church. The following week it all started and ended the same. Power? What power? Year after year. So different to what Paul wrote about happening to hearers of the gospel in his time who believed. I sought the reality Paul was writing about, and I kept seeking it, unwilling to take nothingness as an answer. The answer I was not quite expecting came when I got upset with myself for my lack of truth and lack of faithfulness in interacting with friends, and felt bad about how I could not change. In this state, hearing the message of God, particularly when away from home, away from anyone who knew me who I would have tried to impress dishonestly, the message sunk in, cutting me to the heart. Christ died for me. God wanted me to be able to change. It was not hopeless. Then came the power of holiness. I came in touch with otherness. Think how a recruit joining the army, doing drills under a drill sergeant, quickly experiences the otherness of the army. It is different. Their slackness, waywardness, rebelliousness, gets strongly rebuked because the behaviour demanded of them is not like that, it is utterly different. It is a kind of otherness, utterly unlike their own standards of behaviour. Well now I experienced that kind of otherness but from the heavenly realm, in a sense of powerful heavenliness, holiness, quite unlike my own standards of behaviour. I felt power in praying honestly and singing hymns with believers honestly. The power was supernatural and holy, and it was marked by how it vanished every time I was dishonest and boastful. That went on for days, breaking the hold dishonest pride had on me. Then after subsequent years filled with much more honest speech, I later received gifts of the Holy Spirit too. Again holy power. Real power. But for the benefit of those hearing by that power. To enter the government of God takes hearing with belief, but also with accompanying power. Heavenly power of otherness, of holiness. It teaches the kind of behaviour demanded by heaven. It is heaven doing the teaching. The Holy Spirit from heaven. Heavenly spirit of holiness, of otherness. It demands behaviour quite unlike our own standards of behaviour. Lying must be replaced by truthful speech, especially when with believers who are to be part of a single body along with the speaker, since now this otherness, marked by the power of this Holy Spirit, combines all receiving it into one body. Hatefulness must not fester from anger, but must be dissipated within, say, a day of it starting. Stealing must stop and hard work replace it for providing needs. Marriage must be with faithfulness, not cheating. God judges believers who stray from this standard. These are some of the big things. Smaller issues need sorting out too, but give it time, and let not the tiniest behavioural problem take too much attention when bigger issues go unaddressed. Big things first, smaller over time. Helping each other with smaller things might be necessary, over time, since it is hard to see your own faults if they are quite minor. The truth sets free, so believing and holding to the message of God is key. But it needs good preaching. Blessed be the decent preacher, given the gift of it by God, and sent out to preach. It all leads to power which is like a seal sealing a letter, stamped with heavenly authority. The Holy Spirit applies it. This seal is then a joining up of those so sealed. This is how the government of God begins. This joining together creates a temple for God. Herein is then truth, truthfulness, truthful Holy Spirit power, for the worship of God, with heaven-led behaviour quite unlike our own standards of behaviour.
