“To what shall we liken the kingdom of God?”
(Mark 4:30, DRB)
Is there a difference between the concept ‘the kingdom of God’, and the concept ‘the kingdom of the heavens’? In the previous teaching we referred to Ian Clayton who, as mystic, distinguishes between these two concepts by referring to a third concept, ‘the kingdom of the earth’ and his entire theology is built on this: “Kingdom of the earth: You can engage the atmosphere of the realm of God by crossing the boundary line to His realm. Kingdom of God: It lives and exists inside of you. It flows out of you like river and living power to manifest the domain of that which sits inside of you. To understand the source of this kingdom, you have to understand where the river comes from. We’ve been taught that the spirit man exists in our belly. The human body is formed inside the womb – first, the head and backbone and skull and then all the internal organs which is surrounded by a membrane that no blood can get to. Inside a membrane in your head is where the spirit man sits. The spirit man is sitting on this ‘seat.’ … This kingdom that is within me is very important for us to engage. It mandates and transfers me into the kingdom of heaven without any other boundaries. It transitions me into that realm when I begin to engage it. … Speaking in tongues does this … it fills the atmosphere. It contains the atmosphere of the realm around you and can escort you into the realm of the Kingdom of Heaven … Kingdom of Heaven that is on the outside of you. It comes upon you – it’s not because you’re so good or righteous (it’s useless anyway). It produces holiness, not righteousness … There’s a realm on the outside of us that will come down over the top of us … When the Kingdom of God is manifesting around your life, You’ve built a house that can escort you into the kingdom of heaven … We need to engage heaven. If my Father is in heaven, I need to open up a window into heaven … Our experience with God starts up there and not down here.” [This is a transcript, and thus contains grammatical errors; http://www.nowinterpretthis.com/threads/ian-clayton-notes.1182/.]
On his website http://sonofthunder.org/about/about.html the following is noted: “Ian brings to reality the accessibility of the realms of Heaven, enabling the release of the potential within each person as a Son of God. Assisting many to grasp, to be empowered and unlock the potential of the Kingdom of God within them. This in turn releases the ability to be able to see and participate in the activities of the Kingdom of Heaven. His desire is to equip believers with the reality of what it means to ‘be in the spirit’ and in the realms of God, enabling them to actively participate with God and be in His world and building with Him and not just doing things for Him.”
The danger of a wrong or erroneous foundation is clear from this faulty way of thinking. Clayton needs to make this distinction as he desires to be transported from one kingdom to the other through spiritual experiences. He even explains how one goes about this – one step forward, specific prayers, “a step backwards into the atmosphere of the earth”. This carnal understanding and these actions will be tested with Scripture in the next teaching.
- Selah: Pray about this “other gospel” (Gal. 1:6).
- Read: 1-4
- Memorise: 3:1-2
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read Miles Munroe’s book Rediscovering the Kingdom.
