the violent

Some Scriptures in the King James version of the Bible can be very hard to understand. There are two reasons for this. The Bible wasn't written to Americans and the Elizabethan language uses words that we don't understand. For example, the word meat means able and the word conversation means lifestyle. This does not excuse us from understanding what God is saying, we have the material to study out the words and find the truth.

Mathew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

Now if you take the Strong's Concordance and look up all of these words you can write a paraphrase and come to understand what Jesus is saying. Paraphrase:

From the days of all the prophets until the coming of John. The place where God makes His abode has seen men trying to crowd and press their way in. And the energetic will seize, pull, and catch up to it.

The Old Testament prophets convinced the Jews that God has a Kingdom that men would be invited into. They were trying to force their way in but under the law they were not worthy to enter in. God is telling them that the violent or energetic will not give up, they will find a way in. So, how does a man get into the place where God dwells? He believes Jesus died for his sins and God raised Him from the dead. Then God translates him into His Kingdom. According to Jesus the violent are the people who are determined to possess the promises of God. I wonder how many people have totally misunderstood the Bible because they misinterpreted what God was saying.

Acts 14:21-22 And they preached in the cities, confirming(strengthening) the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God.

Why is it so difficult to get into the Kingdom and remain there as a citizen? The devil has a difficult time overcoming people who are in the Kingdom. People who are committed to the Kingdom can endure many trials and persecutions. The devil hates people in the Kingdom because to him they are in God's house and he is not welcome there. The Kingdom of God is a system established on God's Word so it will work anywhere. The devil always tries to get us to lay down God's system and use his system of defeat. We must be the violent Jesus was talking about, we mist energetically use God's Word to keep the devil out of our lives.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

We have been redeemed from the evil one but that does not mean you can ignore the devil and he won't bother you! People who are redeemed have the authority to keep the devil out of their lives. The devil can offer us his thoughts but he cannot read our minds, so we must tell him what he must do. We don't need to exercise any violence over the devil, the Name of Jesus is all we need. Endeavoring to remain in the Kingdom is an act of Bible violence. If you want to know how to act in the Kingdom, study the life of Christ. He calmly put the devil out and He walked in the blessing every day of the world.