The King & I: Made for Such a Time as This

By Odell Palacio and Md. Nazmul Nadim

In THE KING AND I: BORN FOR A TIME AS THIS, Odell Palacio uses powerful biblical principles to help you break free from the bondage of insecurity and ineffectiveness by helping you discover God's love, thoughts and words concerning your life.You were created for a purpose by a God who loves unconditionally and who equips you to impact the world

• Language: English
• Publisher: DreamYpsi Publishing
• Release date: Jun 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781735248622

Odell Palacio

About the Author Odell Palacio is a husband, father, youth pastor and businessman that studies and teaches principles from the Kingdom of God. In 2013 Palacio founded the creative agency DreamYpsi and P’Lacio’s Foods which is in the process of working with Michigan State University Extension for food processing and distribution of plantain chips. Palacio has been a digital marketing consultant for franchise chains and local companies such as Marcos Pizza, Boost Mobile, Great Lakes Metal Fabrication and others, and has taught courses in digital marketing and analytics at Washtenaw Community College. Most recently, Palacio and DreamYpsi have partnered with YouVersion to provide devotional content for the international YouVersion family. These devotionals have reached over 70,000 readers worldwide and range in topics from entrepreneurship to biblical money principles. For additional resources and information, please visit odellpalacio.com.

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Introduction

From the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize].

—Matthew 11:12 AMP

Do not strive to represent a religion; strive to have a personal relationship with God the Father and to adapt to the culture and system of the Kingdom which God the Son, Jesus, talked about and taught us to teach about.

Man-made world governments have failed the very people their articles promised to protect. Financial systems, legal systems, legislative systems, educational systems, medical and pharmaceutical systems, media, entertainment and even some churches have failed. These systems have been influenced by the god of this world and driven by greed, power and money. Use the current reality that Covid-19 is highlighting as a reference point. For more proof, consider the redlining practices by banks that hinder wealth building opportunities through home ownership for African American and Hispanic Americans versus other races. If that wasn’t already enough, consider the student loan dilemma or prison economics. Man-made systems are for profit only; they contain no inherent justice, equality, equity or righteousness. These man-made systems are deep and interwoven with different rules for compliance with protocol to avoid change; reformation comes one stage at a time. That’s what the Kingdom of God is, remember; it’s yeast:

So when you go to a town or a village, find someone worthy enough to have you as their guest and stay with them until you leave.

—Matthew 10:11 CEV

No one is worthy because we have all sinned and our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). We cannot simply be good people and we are especially unworthy when we have never heard the Word—there’s no plumb line. What does worthy mean? It means weighty, or a person with the resources and capacity to house and feed two people and entertain guests to hear the message. This person had to have an open heart to receive people. They could be very influential or well-known simply because their nature is to be welcoming. This is important because Jesus taught us influencer marketing here. How do things change? God wants you to learn who He is and what he thinks of you so He can make you a weighty vessel for change and impact.

So what is the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom is a real culture where Jesus is King and the laws which govern His Kingdom are founded on equity, mercy, justice and righteousness. Its objective is to infiltrate and expand, like yeast. It has no end and was God’s desire from the beginning of creation.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. —Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV

God always desired to collide Earth with Heaven; that’s why we are taught to pray your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). That means Heaven is structured in a way where God’s glory is always visible. We see God’s glory and manifestations of this prayer when we look at trees, mountains, the sky, the waters, the stars, etc… We rarely see God’s glory when we take inventory of our own lives and the world’s systems because they’ve been built by destructive thought patterns established on greed and pride.

I am an immigrant to America, a Panamanian-born U.S. citizen. We arrived in America when I was two and I became a citizen in 2012. When you become a citizen of a nation, you agree to follow its laws to vote, to pay taxes and to be an upstanding person. You’re part of a ceremony when you become a citizen, then you’re able to get your passport and receive the benefits of traveling abroad as an American, which equates to protection and the backing of the nation when you’re on foreign soil. If ever there’s an issue you can go to the U.S. Embassy. As much as I love America and being an American citizen, I believe what separates the Kingdom of God from America (or any other democratic nation) is that the Kingdom of God is not a democracy; there’s no voting in the Kingdom. Secondly, in America, with every new vote and election there's a different interpretation of the Constitution, based on whether the party is liberal or conservative. Lastly, there is no equality or equity in democratic nations; racism exists and in America that's a systemic issue with more than 400 years of roots, rules and pain.

Not so with the Kingdom. To understand the Kingdom you need to go back to Genesis 1:26-28 to understand the meaning of image and likeness. We were created to look like God outwardly and inwardly. Our personality, thoughts and behavior must reflect the God who created us. Then we have to review Psalms 24:1 (NIV) which says, The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Everything belongs to God and we’re just stewards. God is the owner, which is what the word Lord means. Now, because everything belongs to God He can shift things how and when He pleases, according to His justice and mercy. Until you understand that the Bible is about God’s Kingdom, God’s love, God’s justice, God’s mercy and God’s righteousness, people will use the document to manipulate and oppress you by omitting truths that are written to liberate and empower you.

Have you heard about the Slave Bible? It was originally published in London in 1807 and used to convert slaves. However, the Slave Bible omitted the book of Exodus and sections about liberation and how God wanted foreigners and slaves to be accepted into His Kingdom. It omitted parts about mindset but emphasized slavery to show that God wanted slaves to submit to that type of system. It was a perverse and disgusting use of power and misinformation. The true purpose of the Bible is to teach who you are and whose you are.

It’s difficult to switch from a democratic way of thinking to a Kingdom way of thinking because democracy allows us to reshape our time on Earth according to our desires. For the most part, those desires only favor a few so there’s no equality, which leads to systems being deepened. Similar to the story of Israel in the Bible, people have preferred to elect a king than to accept the King. Even after experiencing God’s power in Egypt and seeing how He sustained them in the desert, people wanted the ability to select their own leaders and use the power of voting to influence their decision making. The act of voting is very powerful and we need to elect candidates filled with the Spirit of God so they can be agents of change. Israel elected Saul to be king so the nation could be like its neighboring nations. However, throughout its history, Israel was reminded that God—the self-sustaining One, the self-sufficient One, He who is, and He who sustains—was all they ever needed. Being distinct is an advantage, not a curse.

The Bible is not a religious text but a compilation of constitutional documents outlining history, laws and precepts. The Bible outlines how the Kingdom was started and the laws and decrees which govern it. The Bible describes the nature of the King, His sacrifice for the world, His commitment to the Word and His people, and His mercy and grace. Similar to a court proceeding, prayers are called petitions, the Holy Spirit is our Counselor, and Satan is the prime adversary, the accuser of God’s people. Through the sin in the Garden of Eden, Man (Adam, humanity) lost the keys to God’s Kingdom. Through Jesus, the keys and full access to the Kingdom have been regained.

Why is this Kingdom so valuable? Six reasons come quickly to mind:

It’s real

It’s disruptive because it challenges human acceptance of what is right and just

It brings good news to the poor

It heals the brokenhearted

It proclaims liberty to the captives

It offers freedom to the prisoners

When Jesus completed His grueling 40-day fast, He said, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. What did Jesus mean? Many people are taught that sin means ‘missing the mark’ but that’s only a surface level definition.  Repentance is much deeper because it calls for the revelation of dependence. To repent means to receive new information about who