Biblical View of God’s Kingdom

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

I think this is the kingdom to which Christ referred to when he was teaching his disciples to pray: your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Mt 6:10). How is this different from what Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven being near (Mt 4:17)? The Holy Spirit accomplishes many things that God the Father wishes to be done as well as him pointing to Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father. Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds us of who Jesus is and what he has said (Jn 14:26), he is the one who convicts people of their sin (Jn 16:8), he indwells each believer to help them reflect the character of Jesus Christ (1Co 6:19), he allows believers to produce, encompass, and utilize spiritual fruit that helps them to grow and become more like Christ (Ga 5:22-23), he imparts spiritual gifts to believers so they can be effective in their service to Christ (1Co 12:4-11), he intercedes for believers in prayer when they don’t even know what to pray or how to pray for certain issues (Ro 8:26), and he gives believers assurance of their salvation so they can remain effective without having doubt (Ro 8:16). While all these things are true currently, I think they will even intensify as we get closer to the end of the Church Age.

Some have labeled this time the Kingdom Age. Scripture refers to a time when the knowledge of the glory of God will come over the earth like the waters cover the sea (Hk 2:14). This began when the Holy Spirit was given on the first Shavuot (Pentecost) after Christ’s ascension (Ac 2:16) but will intensify across the earth as the prophets Isaiah and Joel said (Is 44:3; Jl 2:28-32). Many state the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2 fulfilled these prophecies, but this was just the beginning (see A New Outpouring of the Holy Spirit). Even the prophet Daniel (Da 7:27) and Jesus himself (Mt 24:14) stated there would be a time when the righteous would have enough power to preach the gospel to all the corners of the earth and this would be before the end of the world.

I’m sure that the apostles thought the event they experienced by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would soon lead to these events predicted by these Old Testament prophets. Yet, the church got sidetracked before this could happen. The church became hierarchical with power influencing those at the top of this hierarchy. As the adage goes: power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely. Church history is replete with the punishment and sentences of death to those who were merely trying to get God’s word out to the common people in their own language. Satan’s influence of corruption and disunity crept in before the total outpouring of the Holy Spirit could occur. As stated in a previous post, today there are at least 45,000 different Christian denominations with most of them not able to get along with each other. Yet this disunity does not thwart God’s plan, however. The Holy Spirit is a unifier—not a spirit of disunity. God has a plan to achieve and fulfill what he told many of his Old Testament prophets.

Daniel talks about a time when Satan will try and move up the timeline for him to have control over the earth before his allotted time (Da 7:25). It seems we are likely living in those days. But God also states that Satan will fail in this attempt, and God will still achieve the outpouring of His Spirit onto the Earth with his believers leading the charge (Da 7:27; Mt 24:14). We can expect a great harvest of souls who will turn to the Lord during this time. We currently see revivals breaking out in unexpected places. We can expect this to occur more and more. It’s exciting to think such prophecy will occur within our lifetime. God cannot be mocked (Ga 6:7), so what he has prophesied will definitely come true. Are you ready for a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Great things are in store, so let’s get ourselves ready and prepared to be part of something wonderful.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens