How Believers Bring the Kingdom of God on Earth
The Kingdom of God became available to all true believers (see Part 1) after Jesus’ resurrection. You can live in it now. All born-again believers can enter in that reality when they are born again (John 3:3-6). Then, they can work in power after they receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Experiencing of the Kingdom of God
When you are living in the Kingdom of God , everything you perceive in your existence changes. In addition to the physical dimension, you become aware of the spiritual dimension.
You are a spirit, with a soul and a body. Before you were born-again, your physical senses controlled your body and soul. After you are born-again, your spirit becomes alive and your spiritual senses become active. They can perceive in the spiritual dimension. They can communicate with God. They can have an effect on your thinking, your emotions and your body. You start living in the Kingdom of God.
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17 -18)
In this verse, the focus is not on our external activities but on our inner experience:
- Righteousness – This is not the righteousness earned by your works, but that resulting from your faith in the finished work of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. Only a born-again believer has this experience and a confirmation within himself. It is not the result of what your physical senses perceive. It comes from your spirit.
- Peace –This peace does not mean absence of external conflict. True believers have always experienced opposition and even persecution. They persecuted Jesus and He said that they will persecute His followers (John 15:20). This is an inner peace that Jesus gives you (John 14:27). It is the awareness that because God is your friend, you do not need to be troubled by or afraid of physical circumstances. You can put your trust in Him.
- Joy in the Holy Spirit – The presence and communion of the Holy Spirit produces great joy in the believer. The manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit enables believers to be witnesses of Jesus and of the reality of the Kingdom of God. This makes us feel humble because we know that it is not the manifestation of our power, but His. It also fills us up with joy because we know that we are in His presence (Psalm 16:11) and in union with Him. This joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10) and is far better than any pleasure the world can give us. It is the strongest motivator to seek first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). This is why the number of believers baptized with the Holy Spirit is growing while the number of believers without that experience is declining.
The Lord’s Teaching on Prayer
The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus taught them how to address God and what to ask for with “the Lord’s Prayer.”
In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9-10)
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:13b)
Jesus taught us to worship God and to desire that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven.
In heaven, there is no sin, pain, sickness and death. This is the will of God. However, now on earth we have all these things, and they are not the will of God. Those who blame God for these things being on earth based on the assumption that God is in control, are wrong.
Jesus has demonstrated this truth by His teaching and ministry. He asked us to pray that God’s will be done on earth. If it were already done on earth, we would not need to pray for it.
The Will of God on Earth
The Kingdom of God is where His will is done. Jesus’ ministry showed us the will of the Father. He destroyed the works of the devil (Acts 10:38) by healing the sick, raising the dead and delivering the oppressed.
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. (Acts 10:38)
Then, He commissioned us, His followers, to continue His work by the power of the Holy Spirit. We must gain territory for God’s Kingdom as Jesus did until all the enemies of the Kingdom are defeated.
And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand! Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely (without paying) you have received, freely (without charging for it) give. (Matthew 10:7-8)
And heal the sick in it and say to them, The kingdom of God has come close to you. (Luke 10:9)
This is a spiritual war against the kingdom of darkness (Ephesians 6:12), not a physical kingdom. You can set people free from the bondage of the devil and bring them into the Kingdom of God. You can give them the abundant life that Jesus promised, here on earth.
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)
The abundant life is Kingdom Life.
Expanding the Kingdom of God on Earth by Jesus’ Powerful Name
If you understand what Jesus has accomplished with His death, burial and resurrection, you can stop limiting God through your unbelief (Psalm 78:41). Jesus’ followers must take their place as believers. Their physical senses should no longer control them. The Word of God guides them. The Holy Spirit empowers them.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” (John 14:12-14)
As you act in Jesus’ name, you have His authority and His Power. Because of what He did, the works that He did, you can do also, and even greater works. This gives glory to the Father and to Jesus.
God’s Glory fills the Kingdom of God
Jesus manifested the authority of the Father and glorified the Father on earth by the works He did. Now the Father glorifies Him (John 17:4-6).
Further, when you heal someone in Jesus’ name, because you operate in the same authority He manifested, you give Him glory (John 11:4). When you glorify the Son, you glorify the Father also (John 17:9-10).
For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. (1 Corinthians 4:20)
The manifestation of His power reveals the glory of God. That manifestation reveals the presence of the Holy Spirit in you and the reality of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Jesus Did Not Come to Establish a New Religion but The Kingdom of God
Jesus’ disciples and new believers continue Jesus’ work. They are not followers of a religion. Religions are man-made and indoctrinated by men. Jesus’ followers are God-made and taught by the Holy Spirit. They are the citizens of God’s Kingdom. They are both ambassadors and recruiters of new citizens.
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)
Becoming a citizen of the Kingdom of God is a spiritual event. A supernatural transformation takes place that changes your nature when you swear your allegiance to the Kingdom.
Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. (Colossians 1:12-13)
As part of this Kingdom, your physical reality becomes secondary. Your spiritual reality is what defines your new identity in Christ. You receive Christ’s righteousness and life as He takes away your sins. Then, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit begin a process to transfer your inner life to your soul and your body.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. (1 Corinthians 15:50)
Although this process will continue to the time of the full manifestation of your glorified existence (1 Thessalonians 5:23), you can already live as Jesus did during His life on earth with the power of the Holy Spirit working in you to continue His work until all His enemies are under His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25-27).
The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21).
Questions to Consider
Please share your comments and your answers to the following questions:
- What does it mean and what can you do to consider no one according to the flesh?
- What is the key factor to reveal your new identity in Christ?
- What is the greatest hindrance to overcome the power of the flesh?
- Are you more aware of the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness? Why?
- How do you recognize that you are walking in spirit or in the flesh?
- What triggers you to walk in the flesh?
