MESSAGE OF THE MONTH NOVEMBER 22
HOW THE KINGDOM COMES
The United Kingdom has a new king – Charles III. He waited a long time for his kingdom to come – 74 years in fact!
I once read about a discussion between those who had input into his preparation for kingship when he was young - and the QUESTION WAS: “HOW do you make a good king?” Very significantly they came to the conclusion that the way to make a good king was to help him become a GOOD MAN! We can draw our own conclusions about how successful that was.
But we are waiting for another king to arrive – the King of heaven! Who is the PERFECT MAN. He came the first time after a very long wait and we are waiting for him to come again.
When King Jesus appeared that’s when the Kingdom of heaven came to earth.
In the New Testament we see a tension between the Kingdom of God - PRESENT (Luke 11:20, 17:20-21) and the Kingdom of God - FUTURE (Luke 19:11, 21:31, 22:16). Jesus taught us to pray “Your Kingdom come.” We are to pray for God’s kingdom happening in the NOW and at the same time, we look forward to His kingdom coming in the future - when the King comes again.
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When I was at Bible college many years ago one of our lecturers came in the classroom to teach one morning and announced that he was not going to teach the scheduled lecture that day but instead he wanted to talk to us about the Kingdom of Heaven and he proceeded to take us through the Lord’s prayer. It was one of the most memorable teachings I have ever heard and since then I have studied this further and I would like to share some of my conclusions with you. To begin with What is the Kingdom of God/Heaven?
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The Kingdom of Heaven is the rule and reign of God.
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The Kingdom is all about the KING. And this king is an absolute King who rules by absolute love - there are only six countries in the world today that have an absolute monarch ruling their people’s everyday lives (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Swaziland) and they do not rule by love!
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Those of us who are in the United Kingdom today have King Charles who reigns but he does not rule. The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy where the government rules and makes the laws. The King does not do that - he cannot tell us what to do. He reigns but he does not rule.
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In the Kingdom of God – our King – God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, REIGNS AND RULES – He reigns in heaven, over all eternity, over all creation, over all the earth and He rules in heaven.
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But here’s the shocking thing - in a sense God does not rule the earth right now. He delegated that to Adam and Adam gave it to Satan by obeying him rather than God. That’s why Jesus came to BRING THE KINGDOM of God back to earth and that’s WHY WE HAVE TO PRAY “YOUR KINGDOM COME”
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The QUESTION IS: “HOW does the Kingdom come?”
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In the Kingdom prayer that Jesus gave us we see 9 ways that the kingdom of God comes through us – and through our prayers – on earth today – until finally the King returns to the earth and rules and reigns forever.
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1. The kingdom comes through people who know God as:
“OUR FATHER” – who belong to His heavenly FAMILY
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John’s gospel says: “He came to his own and his own did not receive him but as many as received him to them He gave the right to become children of God.” Jesus’ whole ministry was all about relating mankind to God – everywhere He went He spoke about His heavenly Father and He wants us to know God as OUR father.
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So with that one word – OUR - we are praying as God’s children - as His Royal, Eternal Family! This prayer is not an individualistic prayer it’s a corporate prayer – it’s a family prayer – we are not alone – we belong to Him – to each other – we are family - we are to be aware of that as we pray: "OUR"…
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When we pray, we are coming to our FATHER. This was a revolutionary concept for the Jews – they never addressed God as Father. This term Father is only mentioned 9 times in the Old Testament – where God is referred to as the Father of the nation of Israel, whereas there are 165 references in the gospels where Jesus speaks about God as: Father – “OUR Father” – “Your heavenly Father.”
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Furthermore, the word is: ABBA which even little children would use when addressing their father – it’s an intimate word – it’s the way that people talk in a family.
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Everything that Jesus teaches us to pray about, comes out of that – that God is OUR FATHER – we are coming to Him in that intimate way as His children – loved and accepted by Him – as princes and princesses of His heavenly family - FOREVER.
“OUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN” – every time we pray our focus is towards heaven – that’s our destiny – that’s where we belong – that’s where we are going to – we are connecting with all the resources of heaven.
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When we pray – we are connecting with all the power and glory of our heavenly Father – it’s a powerful amazing thing we are doing every time we pray to our heavenly Father! We can’t manipulate Him but we are His children – we have His attention – and He has our welfare at heart and He knows what’s best for us and He wants new people to be added to the Family constantly.
2. The Kingdom comes through people who honour & worship HIS NAME:
“HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME”
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His NAME represents ALL that He is. Mention someone’s name and you immediately think of all that that person is.
His kingdom comes through those who truly worship Him – There are a number of words in Hebrew associated with worship and 3 of them: Barak and Shachah and Kara mean to bow down – worship is not singing the latest popular song – it’s about bowing our lives before Him.
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In the British royal family, there is a protocol: Less important members of the family bow to more important members – but however important the members of the royal family are – they ALL bow to the King when they come into his presence – and even more so in this heavenly family we gladly bow to our God and King. Real prayer and real worship will always involve bowing our lives - to God - giving God the glory – it’s remembering how great and awesome our heavenly Father is.
3. The Kingdom comes through people who let God rule their lives:
“YOUR KINGDOM COME”
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The Kingdom comes where the KING rules. As God rules our lives, we carry the effect of that wherever we go. Paul talks in 2 Cor 2:15 about us being the fragrance of Christ in every place “among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”
I once went to visit some members of the church I was leading and they had a friend visiting them at that time too. Soon after I arrived, I noticed this amazingly lovely smell and asked where it was coming from. The visitor said: “Me” and he went on to explain how he worked in a perfume factory and had come straight from there to visit his friends. By being in that environment he carried that fragrance wherever he went. The more we are in the presence of the King the greater the fragrance of Christ that we will carry!
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4. The Kingdom comes through people who do God’s will:
“YOUR WILL BE DONE”
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Jesus reveals another secret of how the kingdom comes – the kingdom of heaven comes when people DO GOD’S WILL.
GOD’S KINGDOM COMES – WHERE GOD’S WILL IS DONE!
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“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will is always done in heaven – but it is not AUTOMATICALLY done on earth – that’s why this world is in the mess it is – but where people want to do His will – and do it - that’s where the kingdom of heaven is happening. The Kingdom comes whenever and wherever the King’s will is done.
So people who are doing God’s will – and only these people, can pray effectively for God’s kingdom to come and that is really the subject of all our prayers when you analyse it.
We want people to be saved – (to come into God’s Kingdom), and we want to win victories over the devil – (that’s God’s kingdom coming).
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From the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus preached: “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 4.17) – and his healing miracles were a sign of that. People being healed is a sign of God’s kingdom happening. The same with people being delivered from demons – Jesus said “If I by the finger of God cast out demons then know that the Kingdom of God is here.” (Luke 11:20).
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Ministry is all about bringing God’s rule and reign into people’s lives, into situations – through preaching and demonstrating His love and through prayer.
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That’s what Jesus is showing us here – in order for the rule and reign of God to happen we have to apply God’s will to any given situation in prayer. All our prayers should be in some way to do with God’s rule coming into this world - where God’s will is not automatically done.
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Where God’s will is being done that’s where the Kingdom of heaven is happening.
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5. The Kingdom comes through people who are dependent on God:
“GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD”
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Within all this praying for the Kingdom to come – on His part, God does not forget our human needs
He is our Father. He cares about the smallest details of our lives. That’s the kind of King we belong to. He provides our needs. Our King is our constant daily source of supply.
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We are to consciously look to God as our Provider – Jesus is teaching us to live dependent on God – just like HE did when he was on earth. The one person you would think would not need to pray, spent whole nights in prayer.
He only said what the Father gave him to say and He only did what the Father wanted him to do. This came out of prayer. That is the secret of Kingdom ministry. We will never achieve anything in the Kingdom if we do it in our own strength.
6. The Kingdom comes through people who pray:
“FORGIVE US”
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In order to be effective Kingdom people – effective servants of the Most High God, we need to live clear of sin – repenting quickly of the smallest things we have done wrong. We are people who are FORGIVEN.
Forgiveness is like a door - God opens it to us but we must keep it open to others. If we close the door of forgiveness on others - we have closed the door to being forgiven ourselves…
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7. The Kingdom comes through people who forgive:
“AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST US”
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Kingdom people we should be the most forgiving people in the world – we have been forgiven so much ourselves. In order for our prayers to be effective we must make sure all the lines of forgiveness are open within ourselves.
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Forgiveness is a real key in ministering to people. Very often when people have got deep-rooted problems in their lives – there is unforgiveness there towards someone – may be a number of people but in order to be set free they have to forgive.
Jesus said I give to you the Keys of the Kingdom what do keys do? - They unlock doors – specific doors. When we are ministering to people, we need the right keys to unlock doors in their lives in order for them to be set free – FORGIVNESS is a very important key that unlocks many doors - so bear that in mind when you are listening to or counselling someone in the future.
8. The Kingdom comes through people who resist the devil:
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“LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION”
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There are two forces that are against the Kingdom of God – two things at work to prevent the rule and reign of God from happening in any given situation – one is the flesh (within ourselves) and the other is the devil at work all around us.
Temptation is a big subject but for now, let me say - if we fall into temptation we are not doing God’s will and at that point, we are not letting the King rule and the Kingdom is not happening. The devil loves to try to stop us from being effective and so he will attack us in the weak points of our flesh but Jesus teaches us to pray against being pulled into that.
We have to face our temptations and say no to our flesh. The spirit is willing the flesh is weak. You are a spirit who has a soul and a body - and they are the flesh. The real you – the spirit has to face the temptations that come to your soul/body and deny the flesh – the spirit has to say to your soul/body 'no you can’t have that!' That’s the way not to be led into temptation.
So the devil has two ways of trying to STOP the Kingdom of Heaven from happening: through temptation and also through evil schemes so…
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9. The Kingdom comes through people who pray:
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“DELIVER US FROM EVIL”
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The Kingdom comes where God’s people OVERCOME EVIL in all its forms.
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The devil is the opposition to the Kingdom of God – Adam was supposed to be the King of the world under God but he gave his authority to Satan. This world has been under the devil’s rule ever since. Jesus the King arrived on planet earth to get it back and the first thing He said in his ministry was “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Ever since then the Kingdom of heaven has been spreading and there are two Kingdoms at work in this world –
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The Kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light.
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The members of the kingdom of light need to be constantly delivered from evil and to pray for others to be delivered from evil too. That’s how the kingdom comes - while the devil is still trying to stop the kingdom of heaven from happening.
So as Kingdom people we need to constantly withstand temptation and resist the devil and we do that through prayer – and as we do that the kingdom of God is coming more and more.
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That’s the exciting project we are involved in – as sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, as servants of the Most High God, and as ministers of the gospel – it’s all about the Kingdom of God. The rule and reign of God coming into this world of sin and darkness.
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Let’s pray: “Your Kingdom come – IN me” and as we pray that, it will come THROUGH us! And soon:
“The kingdoms of this world
shall become the kingdom of our God and of His Anointed One
and He shall reign
forever and ever!”
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"For Yours is the Kingdom
and the power and
the glory
Forever and ever
Amen!"
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