You Are Not of This World... You Are a King and Priest

In episode 292 of the "No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe" podcast, host Greg Ryan delivers a Christ‑centered teaching that weaves together biblical doctrine, spiritual identity, and practical living. He begins by framing the discussion around the three components of human existence—spirit, soul, and body—and asks what it truly means to "walk in the Spirit." Drawing on Ezekiel’s vision of the wheel, he emphasizes that believers must be spirit‑led rather than spirit‑dead. Ryan then pivots to the biblical doctrine that Christians are both kings and priests, citing Revelation 19:16 ("King of Kings, Lord of Lords"), Revelation 1:3‑6, 1 Peter 2:9, and John 17. He explains that Jesus, as the ultimate King, appoints believers to a royal priesthood, granting them authority and a purpose to proclaim God’s praises. The episode underscores the triad of faith, hope, and love (1 Cor 13) as essential virtues, with love as the greatest. Ryan stresses that sin is no longer a barrier for those who have accepted Christ, referencing Galatians 2:20 and the doctrine of being crucified with Christ. He declares that believers are "not of this world"—they inhabit the world but belong to a heavenly realm—using John 17 to illustrate this distinction. The teaching concludes with a prayer of gratitude and an invitation for listeners to continue growing in grace through the Word, promising future episodes that will explore the renewed spirit man.
Welcome to episode 292.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I'm continuing to talk about Ezekiel's wheel. I think we're going to be on this for a minute, and I just want to remind you that we are talking about specifically about the spirit realm, about our soul, and about our flesh. Spirit, soul, and body. We're trying to combine all that and show you how to walk in the Spirit. I've heard multiple times, hey, you need to learn to walk in the Spirit, brother, or you got to just walk in the Spirit. Nothing against when someone says that, but what does that mean? I've got to have some kind of understanding. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. I have got to get some faith on this subject and this topic, and I have just been praying about this. I've been seeking God about this. And I think that this is something that God wants me to teach, and it has to do with how you can walk in the Spirit, that we can be Spirit-led instead of Spirit-dead. You are a saint of God. You are no longer a sinner. The Bible says that all have sinned, but while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He died for you as a sinner, and then when you take what Jesus did for you By faith, and you confess it with your mouth, and you believe it in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead, you shall be saved. That's the scripture. That's the gospel. That is what we are here to just illuminate. We're here to help you grow in grace and truth, and the only way to do that is through the word. That's why I— every episode I bring the word of God straight to you, and I— today is no different. I want to give you an idea of what this means where Jesus said that we are kings and we are priests. And let's go to Revelation. We're going to have a couple of readings in Revelation. In Revelation 19, Jesus himself has on his robe and on his thigh— I want to see what he has written. And this is in Revelation 19:16, and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That is written. Jesus is here to give us abundant life. I think we need to learn how to walk in that abundant life, and instead of getting the crap kicked out of us by Satan— that he's coming only to steal, kill, and destroy— we need to quit learning to walk or fight in the physical realm, and we need to come into the spirit realm. And that's what we're here to do. We're here to get into the Word of God. And the next verse is also in Revelation. I want to read— this is Revelation 1, and this is verse 3 through 6. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keeps those things which are written in it, for the time is near. John, to the 7 churches which are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the 7 spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sin in his own blood and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now that says a lot, and I just want us to concentrate on that King of Kings and that God has made Jesus the ruler over kings of the earth. So God has made him ruler over kings, and he said that he is the King of Kings. I want you to see that you are a king. You have a kingdom. We have to answer to Jesus, who is the King of Kings, and Jesus is our mediator between God and man. Jesus is talking to Father God. He's there at the right hand of the Father right now making intercession. We've got the Holy Spirit that's here and is never going to leave us nor forsake us. We are never by ourselves. So we've got all this stuff going on. We have to learn how to walk in faith. We need to learn how to use faith and hope and love, all of that together. And Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, and these three remain: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. So these three are just going to continue to go until this earth is no more. Faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love. So everything is wrapped around love. Everything we do needs to be in love, but it's impossible to please God without faith. So we need to learn to walk in faith. I believe it was in Romans 12 or 13, maybe 14, I don't know, it was kind of deep into Romans, I believe, where it says, anything that's not of faith is of sin. Anything that's not of faith is sin is a strong statement, and I just want you to understand that all have sinned. We're always going to be sinning until we get to heaven. And that don't mean that we walk around looking for things to sin. That just means that we're going to make mistakes. But the wonderful news, the too good to be true news, is that Jesus died for all sin— past, present, and future sin. God is no longer counting sin against us. Jesus paid the ultimate price. The total price has been paid for all sin. So sin is no longer the issue. The issue is what did you do with God's Son Jesus? If you deny Jesus as Lord and Savior, then I believe you are going to be alive in this earth until your body dies. You are alive, and we talked about this on the previous episode, that anybody that has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior has died. It says in Galatians 2:20, I am crucified with Christ, but it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Jesus is now alive in the believer. I don't understand exactly how that happens, but I do know that you— if you have accepted Jesus Christ, you have died to self. Sin is no longer the issue for you. You have been translated into another world. And we're going to finish up this process. I've got a couple of more scriptures that I want to read, and then we're going to pray. I want you to picture that we are not of this world anymore. Now, we're in this world, and until we go to be with God, we are going to stay in this world. And while we still have life in our bodies, we are in the world, but we're not of this world. And we're going to find that in John 17. I want to look at 1 Peter real quick. This is 1 Peter 2:9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And Jesus has called us— we are a royal priesthood. Royalty means king. Because we're in America, we're born into freedom. So if you've been born in America, you've been born into freedom. You don't know really what it's like to be under the rulership of a king. It's getting closer and closer to that when people start proclaiming stuff in Washington and making us do things that we don't want to do. That's what kings used to do. Kings could make a declaration and then your life or death can depend on how you abide by that rule. So I just want to kind of get us an idea, and we're going to go to John 17 to finish this lesson up. And I just want to introduce this stuff to you because this is just fascinating to me. And in John 17, this is where Jesus prayed for his disciples there at the Last Supper. And then he also, if you continue to read the whole chapter 17, and I want to encourage you, I know that I've given you homework multiple times on this podcast, but John 17, that's the Lord's Prayer for his disciples and for you and I. John 17:9, I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom you've given me, for they are yours. And all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to you, Holy Father. Keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except for the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. And I'm going to stop there. That is a lot, and I know I have superior reading skills. I just want you to hear that he hadn't died yet, he hadn't been crucified, but he was already had his mind made up. He was already out of here. If you can read that, he said, look, I'm no longer in this world. Jesus had started seeing himself back in heaven, and this is a fascinating prayer. We are not of this world. We are in this world as long as our bodies are alive and in this world. We are in the world, but we are not of this world. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we become a new creation, a new creature. We have been translated from— I say from, from Hell Island to Heaven Island. We are now in a totally different world. We have been made new. Our spirit man comes alive. We're going to get in that in the next episode. And I want to pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for everything that you've done in my life. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this listener, and I thank you for this follower, that they would just continue to read your word and to be led by your Holy Spirit. God, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com. Eve.com.
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