This week, I was visiting with our staff about the most important things that drive our church. What are the hills we will fight for and if need be, die on?
One of the “hills we will die on” is that we have embraced the Biblical truth that when Jesus came to earth 2,000 years ago, he ushered in the Kingdom of God. As people of His Kingdom, the Ecclesia, God’s church has been called, equipped and enabled to continue the ministry of Jesus in our world today by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus came to earth, there was a dramatic inbreaking of the Kingdom of God. Jesus, the King of the Kingdom brought with him God’s rule and reign into the earth. In so doing, He began to drive back the work of Satan and the Kingdom of Darkness. Since the fall of man, Satan had established sickness, poverty, sin and death as the leading principles governing the earth. But when Jesus came, he infused the earth with a brand new era, an epoch wherein God’s will and desires for the people of the earth would experience His love and grace. Salvation became available through Jesus and the work of the cross and the empty tomb. Healing, deliverance, restoration of relationships, forgiveness from sin and other Kingdom of God principles began to take root into the lives of people living upon the earth. The Kingdom of God was expanding.
So today, we as His church embrace the fact that the Kingdom of God has come and yet has not fully come. There is work yet to do in expanding and extending the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is here but not fully here. Therefore, Jesus commissioned His people, the church, to live life with an ongoing awareness of God’s presence within them and the call and enabling power from the Holy Spirit to further extend the Kingdom of God.
The proclamation and demonstration of God’s loving heart toward all people is a work that we are made for and called to. We believe that a Kingdom understanding of scripture is what makes the Bible make sense to us. We as God’s people are to enjoy the benefits of being in the Kingdom but to also work shoulder to shoulder with God in seeing His Kingdom more fully established.
Jesus’ message to the world has become our message to the world. “Repent for the Kingdom of God is here.” God loves you and wants to draw you into relationship with Himself through the gift of salvation which comes by His grace.
Jesus’ ministry to the world has become our ministry to the world. As He touched blind eyes, healed broken bodies, set people free from the oppressive influence of Satan, so we now as Christ’s body have been charged with the same assignment. The most powerful six words that can fall from you lips are, “May I pray for you now?”
We are a Kingdom of God people with an assignment given us by Father God. It is a massive assignment to go into the entire world and make disciples of all people. This is a difficult assignment but one that is doable when we realize that the King of the Kingdom is with us every step of the way.
We are a Kingdom of God people.