Don Atkin asserts:The greatest hindrance to kingdom advancement is the unclear message and compromised testimony of what is generally accepted to be the church today. Failure to rightly define the church, her membership, message, and mission, leads to all kinds of confusion.
In Sons of the Kingdom Don provides a couple of insights as to why, in his words, “What is understood to be the church today is relatively powerless and severely flawed.” For one, he suggested that, ever since the 4th-century absorption of Christianity by paganism under the Roman Emperor, Constantine, in the words of Martin Luther, “The Christians had no more of the Spirit of Christ than the other heathens. This was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian Church; because Christians were turned heathens again, and had only a dead form left.”
Don also points out that our very pagan divisiveness (otherwise known as denominalization), contributes to our impotence in this culture:
To subdivide the church in a city or region by denominating on the basis of differing races, cultures, beliefs and/or practices is to perpetuate her powerlessness and inability to pull down the principalities, the rulers of darkness, in that locale. To denominate with such descriptive terms as house church, simple church, organic church, etc., also plays into the hands of the devil. His primary strategy is to keep us divided! (p. 47)
Finally, my ongoing political activism was helpfully tempered by Don’s reminder the likes of which I need to hear periodically:
Our warfare is not with one another. It is not between denominations. We are not at war with the world and its systems. Those who war against systems—even religious systems—are distracted from the real battle. Ours is a spiritual battle that is on a much grander scale than searching under rocks for demons, attempting to revolutionize a nation by political means, or throwing sticks and stones at our brothers. (p. 52-53)
As Marc Dupont of Mountain of Praise Ministries in Dayton, Ohio, says of the book’s author, ‘Don’s life is all about true kingdom fruit as opposed to success in a consumer-oriented church age.’ My friend, Greg Austin, puts it this way in his Foreword to Sons of the Kingdom:
He has been on a journey for decades of two great goals: conformity to Christ and obedience to God, the Father. . . . Don’s life is all about true kingdom fruit as opposed to success in a consumer-oriented church age. . . . Thank you, Don, for being a living testimony of what you have written.
In witness to Greg’s observation, I’ll have to admit that the only “problem” I’ve encountered with Don is his propensity to see if he can serve me more than I have been able to serve him! Perhaps my helping get Don’s book in your hands will slightly compensate for my deficiency.
I, along with so many others worldwide who team with Don and Barbara Atkin, bear witness to Greg’s conclusion in the Forward: “Sons of the Kingdom is both prophetic and practical . . . Trivial and false interpretations of scripture are laid bare in the light of eternal truth and practical reality.” To which Willie Soans, of Mumbai, India’s Community of Hope added after weeping through Atkin’s book in one sitting:
It’s getting late, and it’s getting serious. The Kingdom is at hand! . . . Don writes the way he speaks—easy and always overflowing with overwhelming substance that catches your heart and electrifies your spirit toward heaven. It’s like hearing the Father’s thoughts deep inside you and every thought goes on to challenge your very lifestyle and reason as a son here on earth. . . . this book will shake us to the reality of loving it and living it or letting it go forever.
So, what does Don Atkin himself say of his new book?: “Only 135 pages, this is the most important writing of my life.” I agree. I came away from my third reading Don Atkin’s Sons of the Kingdom with a greater appreciation for the immensity of the implications of our being and becoming of one Spirit with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I guess that backs true sons and daughters of the kingdom with the very power of the universe in all that we do and say that is King-inspired.
For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:18).
To order Sons of the Kingdom by Don Atkin:
Buy from Barnes & Noble for $11.56
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Kindle/eBook Version from Amazon.com for $5.95