THY KINGDOM COME (11)

“Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”(John 18:36 NKJV)

Understanding the nature of Christ’s present kingdom is important in understanding how it operates and how we can really participate in it now. Every kingdom has it’s unique rules and protocols. It may amount to a serious offence to bring the cultures of one kingdom and apply it in a different kingdom.  God’s kingdom is a two-natured kingdom. One is spiritual the other is physical.  The kingdom of God at present is basically spiritual. The rules that prevail in it are not physical but spiritual. This explains why our Lord decreed that none would participate in that kingdom unless the person is born again. Nicodemus had come to our Lord at night toasting Him as one would an earthly king. “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NLT). To be born again is to be born of the Spirit. We were all born by our different mothers and that makes us human beings. To become spiritual beings, we have to be born by the Holy Spirit. Our Lord explained, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6 NKJV). Through the new birth, people who were merely flesh and blood receive spiritual lives and become partakers of the divine nature of God (2 Peter 1:4). Being thus born, we become empowered to see and participate in the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God, being a spiritual reality, requires spiritual people to engage it. “⁹That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”  ¹⁰But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. ¹¹No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. ¹²And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:9-12 NLT). God’s children have the capacity to understand and appreciate spiritual realities by virtue of our new birth experience. The Holy Spirit reveals to us those things that Christ has purchased for us through His sacrifice on the cross. We are now equipped with spiritual eyes to see what our physical eyes cannot see and with spiritual ear to hear what our physical ears cannot hear. We have the mind of Christ to understand what our ordinary human mind cannot understand. “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV). Notice that we compare spiritual things with spiritual and not spiritual things with physical. We now value the spiritual more than the physical and desire the eternal more than the mundane.

As God’s spiritual children, we have the capacity to see the invisible and hear the inaudible.  Paul therefore affirms, “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NKJV).  This is explains why we arrive at different conclusion on important issues than those of the people of the world.  This is why we turn the other cheek when we are slapped and go the extra mile with one who demands we go one with him. This is why we love our enemies and pray for those who hate us.  This is why our Lord did not call His holy Angels to fight for Him when His enemies arrested Him and condemned Him to death.  This is why the weapons of our warfare are not carnal yet mighty in pulling down the strongholds.  Great indeed is the mystery of godliness!

My dear people of God, let us hold fast on Jesus and never allow the allurements of this world to mislead us. We have another world in view and our Saviour has gone to prepare us a place there.  Let us give Him the best of everything we can muster here. It is only in that way that we can secure them. Shall we then pray with one voice –Thy Kingdom Come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heave oh God!