As we begin 2018, I hope it will be with great expectations, anticipating all the remarkable ways that God will use us for His glory and how we will continue to experience His love and presents in our relationship with Him.
As we expect and anticipate experiencing God this way in our own lives, this is how we should be praying as Jesus taught us for our family and others who belong to the family of God, “…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10. One simple way to do this is when we pray for another Christian, we ask God that the person would experience the fullness of His kingdom in their relationship with Him and their lives would be an expression of the fullness of His kingdom to others.
Praying for how we desire for others to experience God in their lives will only be as extensive as how we experience God in ours. Experiencing God in our lives and being an expression of this reality is through living in the kingdom of God. This is what Hayford’s Bible handbook says about this.
Kingdom within You (Luke 17:20-21, Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” NIV). Fundamental to New Testament truth is that the kingdom of God is the spiritual reality and dynamic available to each person who receives Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. To receive Him—the King—is to receive His kingly rule, not only in your life and over your affairs, but through your life and by your service and love. “The kingdom of God is within you,” Jesus said.
This will never be possible if we operate independently of God’s power and grace. The possibility of reinstatement to rulership is brought about only through the forgiveness of sins and full redemption in Christ through the Cross.
However, full salvation brings restored relationship to God and a full potential for His kingdom’s ruling “within us” as we walk with Him. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to cause the anointing of His messiahship to be transmitted to us (Is. 61:1-3; Luke 4:18; John 1:16; 1 John 2:20, 27; 4:17). So it is only on these terms that a human being can say, “The kingdom of God is within me.”
As we read in the previous statement, the kingdom of God becomes a reality in a person’s life “who receives Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord”. This happens when we repent of our sins. “From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Matthew 4:17 NLT. One of the many blessings of the reality of the kingdom of God in our lives is experiencing God. An important question I must always ask myself when I feel that I am not experiencing God in my life as I know I should is, do I have sin in my life that is hindering my communion and relationship with Him? “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8 NIV.
In the well-known teachings of Jesus called the sermon of the Mount, Matthew chapters 5-7 we find many essential characteristics of how the kingdom of God in a Christian’s life should be experienced and expressed.
- Humility – Matthew 5:3 NIV, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
- Willingness to suffer persecution – Matthew 5:10 NIV, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
- Earnest attention to live out God’s commandments – Matthew 5:19 NIV, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
- Refusal to substitute false piety for genuinely right behavior – Matthew 5:20 NLT, “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”
- A life of prayer – Matthew 6:9-10 NIV, “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
- Prioritizing spiritual over material values – Matthew 6:28-33 NIV, 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
- Acknowledging Christ’s lordship by obeying the revealed will of God – Matthew 7:21-22, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
- Childlikeness – Matthew 18:1-4
- Forgiveness – Matthew 18:18-35
- Integrity and Morality – 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Hayford’s Bible handbook
As we seek to learn how to continually live in the fullness of God’s kingdom, we will increasingly experience the reality of an intimate and personal relationship with God, not only for our own benefit but also for the advantage of those around us. As a result, we will begin to live daily with “great expectations, anticipating all the remarkable ways that God will use us for His glory and how we will continue to experience His love and presents in our relationship with Him.”
Pastor John
