Living with the Shout of King Among Us!

Numbers 23:21, “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them.

The book of Numbers introduces us to Balaam, a very strange Old Testament prophet for hire. He is under contract by King Balak to curse the people of Israel and frustrate the plans their God had for them. After his first attempt to curse them was unsuccessful, he was given a different vantage point and gave it another try only to declare that they were blessed, invincible and would be victorious because the shout of a king was among them. What he said in essence was that although they didn’t have a visible King ruling from a visible throne, the King of all Kings was in their midst – the shout of a King was among them. Many of the Old Testament scriptures proclaim the kingship of God and His presence with His people by connecting it with a shout. Psalm 47.1-2, “Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the LORD Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth.”

Psalm 47:5 connects the shout of the King to the prophecy of the ascension of Jesus – “God has gone up with a shout, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet”.
Isaiah 12:6, “Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!”

What does this mean for us as Christians today? It means that the shout of a king, i.e., the awareness of the manifest presence of our Risen, Ascended, and Reigning King Jesus is the birthright privilege of all God’s redeemed people. The shout of the King is the promised and assured presence of the Lord Jesus Christ among us in discernible and tangible ways. In the words of Pastor Derek Prime, “The shout of a king among us is a shout of joy, or triumph, success and encouragement rolled into one. The King we have in view is our Risen and Ascended Lord Jesus. This shout is a particular outcome and benefit of His Ascension and His continuing presence with His people. The shout of a king should characterize the Church, even as it did God’s people in the Old Testament period when they were in a right relationship with Him.”

This “NOW” presence of Jesus is made possible because the King of Glory came down in humiliation to be crucified and buried. He then rose from the grave in demonstration that His mission had been successful. Then forty days later He ascended to heaven to experience exaltation and coronation by His Father as King of Kings and Lord of Lords! The reward of His victory was the award of the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on the people of God so that our King is more present now than He was then in 30 AD; more powerful now than He was then, more productive now in ministry than He was then; more pervasively ruling the world now than He was then! For us as a new covenant people, we have more than just something to shout about – we have SOMEONE to shout about – it’s the Shout of the King among us! Mat 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.”

This is a teaching about the home going of Jesus that theologians refer to as the ascension of Christ. One finds a vast amount of material on the First and Second advents of Jesus, on the cross and resurrection, but very little material on the ascension and current enthronement and rule of Jesus. Let’s explore this oft ignored subject and discover some of the “NOW” dimensions of it.

The Ascension of Jesus was the Actual Culmination of His Earthly Ministry and the Official Coronation for His Successful Mission –(read Acts 2:33-36)

The Scriptures reveal that the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ back into the Throne Room of Heaven marked the conclusion of His successfully finished earthly mission and the initiation of His ongoing, successful, but unfinished heavenly ministry. When Jesus ascended, He led His disciples out to Bethany on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. From there He ascended back to heaven because what he had prayed in His High Priestly prayer of John 17 was now coming to pass: John 17:4-5, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

After arriving at the summit of Mount Olivet and giving a few parting words to His disciples, suddenly and without fanfare, the strongest law in the universe—the universal law of gravitation—was relaxed or suspended or broken to permit the Son of God to go up and back to His heavenly home. This powerful law of gravitation could hold on to trillions of stars and keep them in their proper places, but it could not hold on to the Bright and Morning Star and keep Him from His rightful place at the right hand of the Father! This law of gravitation could keep the sun in place, but it could not keep the Son of Righteousness from arising with healing in His wings!

The ascension of Jesus means that Father God has reversed the false verdict passed on Jesus by an earthly, kangaroo-type court decision. An earthly court had judged Him guilty of blasphemy against God and worthy of death, but this God — the Judge of the Supreme Court of the Universe – Jesus’ Father — had reversed their decision by raising Him from the dead and receiving Him back into His presence in glory. By so doing, God the Father declared by action what He had already declared in word: “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!”

Peter, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:23, arraigns his fellow countrymen for Jesus’ death: “…being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, had been taken by lawless hands, crucified, and put to death.” Many of the Jews had cried out, “We’ll have no king but Caesar!” The Roman soldiers dressed Him as a mock king and made cruel and violent jokes about His kingship. Laughing hilariously, they bowed their knees in jest. Governor Pilate placed a plaque over His cross in a form of mockery, reading Jesus King of the Jews.

Yet as always, God has the final word and He would reward the Son for His successful mission by a universe-big King-enthroning coronation service. 

Another king, the sweet singer of Israel, David, was given the prophetic revelation of this reversal ceremony and glory-filled, emotion-packed reunion of what it was like when Messiah Jesus arrived in God’s court after He had finished His earthly mission. David gives us several snapshots. In Psalm 24:9-10, he pictures Jesus’ ascension and homecoming into Heaven as one being celebrated by two great choirs chanting antiphonally to each other as Jesus and His entourage approached the gates of glory—“Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. “
In Psalm 47:5, he declares the “God has gone up with a shout, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet”.
In Psalm 68:17-18, “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands; The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place. You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the LORD God might dwell there. “

John tells us in Revelation 5:11-12 what the angels and the spirits of just men made perfect shouted when Jesus re-entered the throne room of glory: “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing! “

Yet higher and more honoring than this thundering chorus of praise, the risen Messiah heard the words of His Father say, “You are my Son in whom I’ve always been well pleased and now it’s my pleasure to sit You at my right hand where there is forever fullness of joy! So the “LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

Sitting at Father’s right hand is a figure of speech that means because Father was so pleased for all that His Son had done that He placed Him in the place of highest honor, greatest pleasure, and mightiest power and authority. (Read Ephesians 1:20-23)

Many Bible teachers infer that Jesus went back to heaven disappointed and in weakness and defeat because He had been rejected as King by the Jews and had to postpone His kingdom. He is viewed as an exile in heaven, driven off by the hatred of men, and rules only in heaven and over His people. To console themselves they say, “But just you wait! One day He will come back and get the real, literal, material throne that He has wanted and has waited for centuries to get!”

NO! Ten thousand times NO! Our Redeemer never intended that men crown Him as King. No man can make Him Lord or King. Father has already done that, so all you and I can do is either confess Him as Lord by faith and be saved, or wait until He comes and confess Him out of fear and force as Lord and be dammed forever. For the truth of scripture is that “Father has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-10).

A careful reading of the New Testament reveals clearly that the ascension, exaltation and the enthronement of Jesus was essential and significant in the teaching of the apostles and the early church. It was a constant source of comfort and motivation for them as well because they knew that it meant that the Shout of King was among them! There was an overwhelming sense of victory in the early church because Christ’s resurrection and ascension resulted in His being among them in a way just as real and powerful as He was when He was in their midst in a physical body. This victory orientation was maintained in spite of the fact that many of them had already died horrible deaths and many others were about to die, suffer persecution, and lose everything for Jesus’ sake. Near Nero’s Circus Maximus, or Coliseum, in Rome there is a monument that recounts the vision and determination of the martyrs in the statement: “Christ is conquering, Christ is reigning, Christ rules over all.” This expresses so well the reality of living with the shout of the King among them.

The Ascension of Jesus was the Legal Subjugation of His Enemies and the Continual Elimination of Them by Conversion or Judgment

Colossians 2:15, declares that “when He (Jesus) had spoiled, disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them.”

Ephesians 4:8, declares that when, “… he ascended upon high and led captivity captive.” Before Jesus lead captivity captive from Sheol, the unseen state of the dead, in the spirit realm, He called the Devil to attention and then stripped him of all his authority. He must have said something like this to the Devil, “You have bruised my heel, now I have crushed your head. You have been that old serpent, but I am as the serpent lifted up in the wilderness for man’s healing. You have been an adversary to my people, but I’m now their Advocate. You have been the Accuser of the brethren, but you are now cast down and I am their Wonderful Counselor. I strip you of the title of “prince of this world” for I am the Prince of Life, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!  My people shall—by their having the shout of a King among them in the God of peace—go on bruising Satan under their feet.”

The ascension and exaltation of Jesus assures us the world is not being run by a bunch of rebellious madmen and that history is not meaningless.
The ascension and exaltation of King Jesus assures us that the problem of evil and suffering has been definitively fixed and is being progressively solved by the conversion of Jesus’ enemies via the gospel or their removal via His present, active and continuous judgment.
The age-old question is, “If there is really a God, why doesn’t He do something about the problem of evil and suffering? Why, if I were God I would just stomp it all out immediately!” Question? Do you have any evil in you? If so, where would you be when the stomping took place?
In the incarnation, humiliation, death, resurrection, ascension and enthronement of Jesus, God is slowly, surely, steadily and successfully solving the problem of evil and suffering!

The Ascension of Jesus was the Installation of the Priest/King in the Administration of His Heavenly Session

The word session means to be seated. The legal courts of America open with, “Hear ye, hear ye, court is now in session, honorable John Doe presiding.” This means that the court is open for business. Likewise, Jesus, being seated in the place of Supreme authority, isn’t idly waiting for things to go from bad to worse so that He can return to earth and take the reigns of power from all earthly rulers, but declares, “I am in business!” He is in the business of appearing in the presence of God on our behalf; of interceding on our behalf; of running the affairs of the world for the benefit of His Church, and bestowing gifts and ministries upon His people. He appears in our nature, answers all accusations, and acquires continuous and confident access to the throne of God’s grace. Entering in to Heaven wearing our nature, means that He has opened sure communications with the throne of grace – ready access – whether it’s 911 or 1–800! His being where He is and doing what He is doing assures us of our acceptance before God and that none of those the Father gave Him will fail to make it home!

The shout of a King among us should cause the shouts of confidence in the gospel to never end from the people of God! Jesus predicted His ascension at His trial. “Jesus said to him, ‘You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven”’ (Mt 26:64). This good confession Jesus made referred to two passages, Psalm 110:1b and Daniel 7:13-14. Daniel’s vision prophetically speaks of the ascension and the Great Commission (Mt 28:18, “all authority has been given me in heaven and on earth”). Christ brings together Ps 110:1 b (“right hand”) and Dan 7:13 (“Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven”), and shows that in His ascension these are fulfilled and He has been “given dominion, glory and a kingdom”. At the ascension, Christ commissions his ambassadors to “make disciples of all the nations,” since He has been given “all authority … in heaven and on earth” (Mt 28:18-20).

Concerning Daniel 7, John Calvin wrote, “This ought properly to be understood of the commencement of the reign of Christ…and ought not to be connected with its final close as many interpreters force and strain the passage”
The allusion to Psalm 110:1 (“Sit at my right hand”) is referred over 20 times elsewhere in the New Testament as a present reality. I Corinthians 15:25, “For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet”-according to the above analysis, is a present, progressive reality.
The position of our Lord Jesus as Head over all things is grammatically written as a past event in I Corinthians 15:27 with an ongoing progressive element, several other New Testament passages state this plainly.
1 Peter 3:22, “who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him. “
Ephesians 1:20-22, Christ was raised from the dead, and was “seated [with] Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion…. He put all things in subjection under His feet… “

This should greatly encourage and embolden us. Puritan John Owen preached, “Though our persons fall, our cause shall be as truly, certainly, and infallibly victorious, as that Christ sits at the right hand of God. This gospel shall be victorious. This greatly comforts and refreshes me”

When I mediate upon that truth that Christ was given the highest, most powerful position in this universe at His ascension, and that He is progressively putting His enemies under His feet in the same way that He became victor over death, my heart declares, “The shout of a King is among us!”

We are not awaiting a future time or place when Christ receives a position of supremacy – He has it NOW! Thus, during the present age Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, putting His enemies under His feet, through His properly authorized, Spirit-baptized, great-Commission-going, disciple-making, signs-and-wonders-following-them type people!

ing Jesus has entered into His heavenly session – open for business. What is the nature of His business?

1. King Jesus is running the affairs of the world for the benefit of His church, and is bestowing gifts and ministries upon His people.

Eugene Peterson’s “The Message” paraphrases Ephesians 1:19-21: “and not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world (peripheral = “located away from a center or central portion’); the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”

Pastor, author, educator, and theologian, Douglas Wilson, tells of a recent visit to St. Andrews in Scotland. He said some fifty yards or so from the market area of St. Andrews they visited the ruins of a castle, in front of which was a marker in the road where the Protestant martyr, George Whishart, was executed. Wishart was a powerful preacher whose life and ministry captured the heart of the young John Knox. After seeing this they walked into the market area where a gray-haired man was doing some open air preaching in the presence of the many people there. But for all they cared, he could have been a parking meter. He was being treated as someone who was completely irrelevant, and thoroughly ignored, even though he was preaching the ancient truth of the gospel.

Pastor Wilson realized that he was only a stones throw from where Whishart was executed for preaching the same gospel. He began to wonder what difference fifty yards makes. Or four centuries. Or perhaps neither.

His conclusion was that the difference was that the early Protestant preachers assumed the center in there preaching and they were consequently a genuine threat to the establishment. Modern Christians and preachers, whether on the street, or safely ensconced in their worship centers, do no such thing. Even when modern believers oppose the wickedness at the center, they still don’t question their right to the center. We modern Christians tend to agree with the wicked about one thing at least – the fact that the wicked belong at the center, and that those who oppose them should always harangue them from the periphery.
  
After the death of Wishart, as John Knox threw himself into the work of the Reformation, he never considered starting a new ministry in a little chapel on the outskirts of town where his little church could gather in safety and pray for soon evacuation by the main army of Heaven, lead by King Jesus himself.
 
No sir, he assumed the center. He settled in his mind that he was going to preach in St. Andrews. The bishop there said if he tried he would be greeted with a twelve-gun salute, the most part of which would light upon his nose. But Knox came to St. Andrews anyway, and preached there, from the center.

For at least one hundred and fifty years the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the most part, has assumed the tail and not the head, the peripheral and not the central. We have been off-center for so long that the only hope we see for the future is for the church to get off the planet.

For the best part of the 20th century the church has been a victim of the “Great Reign Robbery!” We have been taught that Jesus tried to set himself up at the center as King of the Jews, but they rejected him, so he had to postpone Plan A and go back into Heaven where he sits on a throne reigning in Heaven, but not over the world because Satan reigns over it. This postponement necessitated putting Plan B into force. This view posits the New Testament Church as a parenthesis, a peripheral, an off-centered part of God’s plan, implemented when Plan A, the supposed offer of the kingdom by Jesus was rejected by the Jews of His day. This off-centered outlook causes an unbelievable spiritual inferiority complex. It causes its victims, i.e. most Christians, to expect to lose in history. It convinces them that they are the reserve army, kept here to hold the fort until the main army from heaven, lead by King Jesus, comes and rescues them from the hordes of hell that have surrounded them and cut them off from the center, and contained them in stained glass forts called worship centers, where they meet, eat and retreat. While they’re meeting they are taught by the prophesy experts that the sooner the church as a whole becomes apostate and lets the world get even more corrupt, the sooner God will bring Plan A back on line. Plan A is the belief that a handful of Jewish evangelists, without the aid of the Holy Spirit’s gifts and empowering presence, will accomplish in 3 1/2 years of the “great tribulation” period, what the New Testament Church couldn’t accomplish in 2,000 years.
   
In light of the above premise, we begin to see how the belief that the Church is going to end up in an apathetic, apostate, peripheral condition, with only a few faithful ones to be snatched away when Jesus returns, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If one believes that we are living in the “Laodicean” period of church history, and that it is predestined to end in apostasy and abject failure as a whole, then we begin to receive according to that level of our faith and achieve on the same paltry and pathetic level. 

Listen closely, if you see the Church as the tail and not the head; if you see Her as a fragmented, rag-tag band of losers, so pale, anemic and demoralized that She has to be evacuated before the battle is finished; if you see Her as having no glory and might, no triumph or splendor attached to the Her, because those attributes are all reserved to be lavished later upon national Israel; if you see Her this way instead of as a powerful, love-filled, life-abounding, militant, triumphant army marching from victory unto victory – then you have become infected with a complicated virus called “Last Day Madness.”  The symptoms of this virus cause one to run a high “rapture fever” that leads to what Pastor Yerby calls, “acute, anticipatory, accelerational, abstruse, answerless, religious rigormortis.”The acronym for this is AAAARR! “ARRRR you saying that all the things I’ve been taught about the any moment rapture of the church in order for God to get His main plan with the Jews back on line is wrong?” “AAAARR you telling me that the most popular preachers and all the best selling books are wrong?” YESSS I am!

A vision of the future that doesn’t see Christ the Lord reigning now and the Church co-reigning with him; a vision of the future that doesn’t see the Redeemed People of Faith, the Church, as the center of God’s plan will produce a people who spend more time looking for the Anti-Christ to be manifested than praying for the power of Christ to be manifested. After all we’ve been taught by supposed prophecy experts that, “the sooner the church gets revival-high, the quicker we go to the rooms in the sky. And the quicker the world corrupts the sooner we will erupt; the quicker the sinner is captured by the anti-Christ, the sooner the saint is raptured to the actual Christ; the sooner the sinner fries, the quicker the saint flies.” Dennis Peacock said, “We’re the only team I’ve ever played on that preaches a victorious Christ and roots for the opposition (the anti-Christ) to win so that we can get off the field!”

Failure to understand the presence, power, provisions, and ongoing, unfolding plan of King Jesus in the NOW affects everything we do. It affects the way we raise our children, the education we get, the type buildings we build, the way we invest our monies, how we do evangelism, i.e. rescuing a few from off a sinking ship or discipling men to become generational instead of terminal in their thinking, etc.

2. He is appearing in the presence of God on our behalf and interceding on our behalf.

We desperately need His intercession. We are like the man who prayed, “Dear Lord. .. So far today, I’m doing all right, I have not gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or self-indulgent. I have not whined, griped, cursed, or eaten any chocolate. I have not charged my credit card. But Lord I will be getting out of bed in a minute, and I think that I’ll really need your help then”.

The shout of a king among us means that orphan-spirited children can now know the presence, power, privileges and responsibilities of Sonship!

The late missionary to India, E. Stanley Jones, was a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi. After Gandhi’s assassination, the radio constantly broadcast programs that eulogized the father of that great land. Jones noted that a well-known Hindu poet, spoke on the radio to all the nation on Sunday, three days after the assassination crying, “O Bapu, O Little Father, come back. We are orphaned without you. We are lost without you. Come back and lead us.” Jones said he could sympathize with her plea, representing the cry of a stricken nation. But as he sat there he thought, “O God, I am so grateful that I do not have to cry that cry for the leader of my soul. ‘O Jesus, come back. Come back. We are orphaned and stricken without you.”  Dr. Jones knew that the shout of a king was among us!

We have the most powerful King/Priest in the universe looking after our interest in the interest of His Father’s business. To look after the interest of another is the meaning of the word “intercede”. Our High King/Priest Jesus looks after our best interest by appearing before the Father in our nature. The shout of a King among us declares that Jesus loves us and wears our names on His heart and has engraved us upon the palms of His hands and is touched with all the feelings of our infirmities. (Read Heb 4:14-16)

Christ has entered upon His kingdom (Col. 1.13). He has disarmed principalities and powers, making a public spectacle of them and triumphing over them (Col 2.15). We are seated with Christ in heavenly places and sealed in this new covenant in Christ’s blood. (Eph 2:6) We are kings and priests with Christ already (Rev 1.6). As He conquered, so also are we to go forth, conquering in His name. He reigns now (Acts 2.29-36) above all creation (Eph 1.20-22), with all power in heaven and on earth (Matt 18.18-20). His enemies will become His footstool (1 Cor 15.25), and the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. Jesus summons us to be conformed to His image, as prophet, priest, and king.

The late Senator Hubert Humphrey once said, “You must remember that in politics, how you stand depends on where you sit.” His reference was to the political party seating arrangement in the Senate. This is the essence of the Christian life-how I stand-and walk depends on where I sit; and I am seated with Christ in the heavenlies!

Our position, “seated with Christ” is the place of our Spiritual Address. As believers, we have two addresses, geographical and theological. Seated with Christ is the place of Spiritual Abundance. We’ve been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the Heavenlies. Seated with Christ is the place of Spiritual Authority (Eph 2:6). Christ sat down and we sit with Him. We reign with Him as more than conquerors in life. Everything over our heads is under His feet!

We are seated, sealed, and singing a new song. The New Covenant has come and this is the Third Day, the Day of the Lord, and the Day of the visitation of the Holy Spirit. Let us ascribe worth, affirm the gospel, applaud the redemption of sinners, acknowledge our position as kings and priests unto God, and announce that we have, are, and will reign on the earth in dominion in Christ.

Rom 8:34, “ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Heb 7:25, “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Heb 8:1, “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,…”
Heb 10:12-14, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

The blessings of Christ’s Ascension are ours now, today. In Him, we have a total acceptance before God that is unquestioned; a perfect righteousness that is untarnishable; a resurrection life that is unending; a lawful and lasting peace that is undisturable; a loving relationship that is unbreakable; a permanent title that is undisputable; and a fabulous inheritance that is unfading! Because the King is among us in the person of the Holy Spirit, we shout to the King for bringing so much of the world to come into the NOW of daily living!

The Ascension of Jesus was the Formal Termination of the Old Covenant and the Initial Inauguration of the New Covenant

Heb 8:6, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. “
The old covenant or Old Testament was not abrogated or left unfulfilled. Instead, it was guarded and guided by the Holy Spirit continuously from one generation to another until it served its purpose. It was then laid down (not thrown away or postponed) as the foundation upon which the New Covenant or New Testament would be established. The New Testament is the covenant under which all persons saved by grace through faith in Christ now live with no preference or reference being given to race or place of national origin. The covenant under which God’s people live now and forever more is that of grace, not law; the blood of the Lamb, not animal sacrifices; the eternal priesthood of Melchisedec, not the earthly order of Levi; the temple of believers, which is the spiritual habitation of God, not a stone building made with hands.

The shout of a King among us means that we’re the people of a New Age, a New Heaven and New Earth, a New Israel, a New Kingdom, a New Jerusalem, a New Sanctuary, and of a New Inheritance!
The shout of a King among us means that if our uplook to King Jesus is right then our outlook for ministry will be bright. Our obedience will be active and our outreach will be progressive, our prayers will be effective, our joy will be contagious, and our hope will be motivating when we live conscious of the shout of the King among us!

When we refer to the ascension of Christ, we should use the expression “initial inauguration” because Jesus is still carrying on His work of fulfilling the New Covenant. In fact, what Luke is saying in Acts 1:1 is that what Jesus did on the earth in His compassionate, loving, powerful healing works, and what He said on the earth in His truthful, authoritative, convicting, comforting words, or teaching, was only the beginning of His doing and His teaching. (Acts 1:1-2a, “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2until the day in which He was taken up,) Although Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father, He is not finished with His works and with his teaching, but continues to do them by the ministry of the Other Jesus without a body, the Holy Spirit, through the people of God. Jesus is not only alive, He is present — still doing powerful works and teaching powerful truths.

A. The Shout of the King Among Us means that the Physical Absence of His Throne doesn’t mean lack of presence – but omni-presence!

The Ascension of Jesus resulted in His being given numerous gifts to give to us. Gifts such as stated in Eph 4:11 — gifted men -apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. He also gives personal gifts to His redeemed people – grace to beautify, love to edify, truth to sanctify, power to qualify, hope to purify, joy to gratify, peace to satisfy, and grace to glorify His blessed name! His resurrection and ascension also give the gifts of peace to our hearts – peace from the turmoil of fear, the tyranny of doubt and from the terror of loneliness. He gives proof to our minds, purpose for our lives and power for service!

As great as the above gifts are, there is one even greater! The Ascension of Jesus resulted in His being given the gift of all gifts to give His people – the gift of the Holy Spirit!

Jesus said in John 16:7, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. “
Acts 2:16-18, “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy:” Acts 2:33 “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.”

Octavius Winslow was right when he said, “This, and this only, is the blessing which the Church of God so greatly needs – even the baptism of the Holy Spirit. She needs to be confirmed in the fact that Jesus is alive and upon His throne, invested with all power, and filled with all blessing. Oh, let her but place her hand of faith simply, solely, firmly, on the glorious announcement – Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, with all grace and love in His heart, with all authority in His hand, and all power at His disposal, with all blessings in His gift, waiting to open the door of heaven and pour out on her such a blessing as there shall not be room to receive it – prepared so deeply to baptize her with the Holy Spirit as shall cause her converts to greatly increase, and her ministries of Christian benevolence to mightily prosper.

The baptism of the Holy Sirit will heal her divisions, build up her broken walls, and conduct her to certain victory over all her enemies.
I say but plant her faith upon the union of these two grand truths – The Exalted Redeemer and the Descending Spirit – and a day far brighter than Pentecost shall dawn – a day on which not 3,000 only, but a nation shall turn to the Lord, and all flesh shall see His glory!”

B. The Shout of the King among Us means that the Physical Absence of His Throne doesn’t mean Lack of Presence – but Omni-presence!
Jesus said to His fearful disciples in John 14:18, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
In 14:23, “Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
John 16:7, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”

Jesus said that it was to our advantage that He went back into Heaven and sent One back just like Him, minus a body, to dwell in us and with us.
If the people of faith can ever recover this sense of having the King among us at all times, we will once more begin to expect great things of God and attempt great things for Him. We will expect to see the gospel save sinners as we herald forth the “whole gospel” as kingdom agents proclaiming the presence of the King as being among us NOW! We will experience an atmosphere created in our gatherings that expects and sees signs and wonders, deliverances and power encounters that produce either revival or riots!

In the Lord Jesus Christ we NOW have a life that can never be forfeited; we have a righteousness that can never be tarnished; an acceptance that can never be questioned; a standing that can never be disputed; a justification that can never be reversed; an inheritance from which we can never be disinherited; a wealth that can never be depleted; a resource that can never be diminished; a possession that can never be measured; a power that can never by rendered impotent or inadequate to accomplish our assignment.

In the Lord Jesus Christ we NOW have a peace that can never be destroyed; a joy that can never be suppressed; a love that can never be abated; a strength that can never be vitiated; a power that can never be exhausted; a salvation that can never be annulled; a forgiveness that can never be rescinded; a deliverance that can never be thwarted; an assurance that can never be disappointed; an access that can never be discontinued.

In the Lord Jesus Christ we NOW have an Intercessor who can never be disqualified; a revelation that can never be destroyed; a Victor who can never be vanquished; a resurrection that can never be hindered; a hope that can never be disappointed; a glory that can never be dimmed! Great God in Heaven! Shout for the King is Among Us!

Could it be that the reason the world’s indifferent attitude toward the gospel is due to the fact that we, the people of faith, have lost the shout of the King among us? Could the world’s indifference and the typical Christian’s spiritual impotence be because we have bought into the erroneous teachings that the physical absence of Jesus means that the actual presence of a reigning, miracle-working, soul-saving, demon-busting, hope-filling, and joy-producing King is no longer among us and all that we can do is hold on until He comes back and does everything for us that He commanded us to do in His name and power?

Have you lost the shout of the King? Why do you so seldom rejoice in Jesus? Why are you so susceptible to temptation, so feeble in ministry, so faint in the face of opposition, so despairing in the prospects of the future? Is the problem that you have never received the Holy Spirit since you’ve believed? Have you forgotten that your Lord is alive and seated upon the throne, exalted to go on giving the Holy Spirit to those who go on asking Him? If you’ll ask expecting to receive, He will pour down upon you such blessings as to confirm your faith, resolve your doubts. He will eliminate your fears, arm you and strengthen you for the fight. He will give you a clear view of your acceptance in the Beloved, assure you that your name is written down among the living in the New Jerusalem, and bring you to a fuller awareness that the SHOUT OF A KING IS AMONG US!

Pastor Derek Prime reminds us, “The Church may sadly forget that her richest benefit is her King’s presence. The clue to the Church’s growth and victories is not in her communicating skills or ability to learn techniques for numerical advancement from the world. Her secret of development and progress is in the assured presence of her Lord, as she rejoices in His Headship and submits to Him with joyful obedience. The church at Corinth had cause to learn this lesson. In spite of all the Corinthian Christians’ pretensions about their possession of spiritual gifts and life, they needed to be reminded that what mattered most in their church life was that ‘God is truly among you’ (1 Corinthians 14:25).”

Our prayer is, “King of Glory, open the eyes of our heart that we may understand and know that when we are doing what you assigned us to do — “making disciples of all people groups on the earth” – we can know beyond a shadow of doubt from experience that You are really with us even unto the end of the age (Matthew 28:17-20). Envision and empower us to operate like the first century church did “with the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.”  Grant that we may see, sense, savor, and show forth Your presence, Lord Jesus, so that multitudes who are still outside the Household of Faith will know that the “hand of the Lord is with us and a great number believes and turns to the Lord (Acts 11:21).” Amen!