Kingdom Living

As our church in Sandusky, Ohio has been led by the call of God to be a house of prayer, I have been led to an amazing personal journey of my own. I always assumed that every church was a “house of prayer” just by its own nature of being a church. Now I have a different outlook on exactly what this phrase means and this is what I wish to share.

As I began to truly seek God more and wait upon Him, I was drawn very closely to the teaching Jesus gave his disciples in the matter of prayer. Jesus taught his disciples to pray by stating, “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 ‘Your kingdom come.

Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread. 12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.’]” (Matt. 6:9-13). There was one section of this prayer in particular that I couldn’t just pass by and that was where Jesus stated, “your kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10). God’s kingdom is of great power and is from above. So if I am to pray for His kingdom to come, then I had to come to the understanding that I was to be praying down with this power. I say this because we are instructed to pray for the Father’s will to be done on earth the same as His will is done in heaven. We are to pray for the realities of heaven to intersect and overtake the realities of earth. For example, there is no sickness in heaven. Therefore, we shall pray in power over the sickness on earth so that heavenly realities overpower.

Not only was I to pray down power from heaven, but I had to understand that phrase of Jesus’ instructional prayer of “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (emphasis mine). How am I to know what God’s will is if I don’t ask Him and then wait for an answer? The reality came upon me of wondering what His Kingdom looked like or what His Will looked like that I was supposed to pray down? I started really looking intently at Jesus’ life on earth at how He lived and not just taught, and it came to my attention that He was living this kingdom as a lifestyle – a Kingdom life. So my questions turned more to what does a Kingdom Life look like? I had many more questions than answers, which isn’t a bad place to start!

Why Live a Kingdom Life?

Before the Kingdom Life can be fully described, we first need to ask ourselves why we ought to seek a Kingdom lifestyle? Why should we focus heavily on Jesus’ instructional prayer of praying down His Kingdom? Why should we seek and pray for His will to be done on earth? Jesus also taught his disciples (us through them) that if we loved Him we would obey what He commands (John 14:15, 14:23, 15:10). All these teachings of love and obedience are tucked into the continual reminder that the Counselor will come to us and give us words that we are to speak (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit will speak to us God’s will that we are to pray and speak into existence.

Not only are we simply to be obedient, but we are to be one with Christ as Jesus prayed, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone [meaning the disciples], but for those also who believe in Me through their word [us]” (John 17:20). As you continue to read in chapter seventeen you will get to where Jesus prays, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one” (John 17:22). We are to be one with God, the Holy Spirit, and with Jesus. If we are one with Jesus, then we are to continue to do the work He was sent here to do. John later states in his first letter that, “the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Because we are to be one with God, we should, therefore, participate in Jesus’ plan to destroy Satan’s work. We should live a Kingdom Life because God wants those who love him to do his will. And it is his will that Satan’s work be conquered. Therefore, living the Kingdom Life is about defeating the enemy!

Jesus described the battle lines clearly in Matthew 16:18 when he told Peter the “gates of Hades” will not overcome his church. A gate is a transition point. It is attached to a wall and either keeps things in or keeps things out. Imagine this gate of Hades as being a large iron gate connected to some extremely tall and long wall. On one side there is intense heat, enticing worldly pleasures, and a bit of smoke. On the other side of the gate is a world of beauty, peace and joy. This wall and gate can move and here we see the world of beauty pressing against the gate. It is here where we see the church taking back enemy ground. We are called, as members of Jesus’ church, to participate in battle at the very gates of hell, where souls can be lost or saved. This is what Kingdom living is all about.