“May Your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10 NLT)
Is it safe to assume that to the extent God’s will is done on earth, to that extent His Kingdom will come? What IS God’s Kingdom? How will we know when it has come?
The Kingdom isn’t an institution or organization, the Kingdom of God is a Person and His Kingdom is a very present reality. King Jesus is over and in charge of His Kingdom and when we yield our life and allegiance to Him, we become a part of His Family, which is a vital part of His Kingdom.
Christ’s Kingdom is spiritual, so, invisible to human eyes. It’s built, developed, guided, and enabled by the Spirit of God, not by us. We’re given the privilege of being a part of what God is doing, but it’s His Kingdom to build, not ours. The people we influence to come to Him are His doing, not ours. It’s His Spirit who works in and through us to carry out His agenda, not ours.
The Church, the visible Body of Christ on earth, is a tool, not the end of what God’s Kingdom is to become. In my mind and heart the culmination or true establishment of God’s Kingdom will be in heaven and or on the new earth to come.
The Kingdom is perfect, we are not. The Kingdom is eternal, and while we are also eternal, our contribution to the development of God’s Kingdom is very temporary. Sometimes we get the mistaken notion that the Kingdom of God is dependent upon our faithfulness, goodness, hard work, ingenuity, guidance, and instruction, when, in fact, ALL those roles must be filled by Jesus, because, in a very real sense, He IS the embodiment of God’s Kingdom.
Francis Schaeffer said it well when he wrote: “We are not building God’s Kingdom, He is building His Kingdom, and we are praying for the privilege of being involved.” But how? How can we be involved in the building of God’s Kingdom? First, by receiving Jesus as Savior. When we yield our life and allegiance to Jesus we join ranks with every other born again believer whose mission on earth is to represent our King willingly, effectively, and fruitfully.
What does that mean? It basically means that when we are born again of the Spirit of God we are no longer our own, we no longer call the shots in our own life, we no longer march to the beat of our own “drum.” The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 reminds us: “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do no belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”
What’s the takeaway? How we care for “the temple of the Holy Spirit” is a reflection of our willingness to be aligned with God’s agenda. Why do you think new soldiers are put through such rigorous physical training? How we eat, exercise, study, pray, worship, serve are all reflections of our attitude about ourselves, thus a reflection of how we believe God sees us.
Our contribution to God’s Kingdom is in direct correlation to our submission to His authority over our lives. When we treat our bodies like they belong to us we short-circuit our usefulness to God in the building of His Kingdom. We are not our own, but God’s instruments to be used at His bidding to build His eternal Kingdom.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 