Talking to God: What's this Kingdom Business?

Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Matthew 6:10

Do you have any friends who always talk about the same thing, all the time? I had one friend who was always talking about girls. Another friend only talked about music. If you get me started talking about running, I’m sorry, but I will talk all day. 

Jesus had one subject he talked about all the time. In the first three Gospels, He was always talking about the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist came, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people (Matthew 4:23).

It was the center of Jesus’ ministry. The Kingdom of God. It was so central in his ministry, that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to ask for God’s Kingdom to come, his will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

So what does this really mean?

God’s kingdom is first and foremost the sovereign rule or reign of God. It is secondly the sphere of blessing where that reign is experienced. So there is the rule, and there is the place where the king rules. For a king to rule, there must be something or somewhere to rule. Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (pp. 1269–1270). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

So where does God rule? You might answer “Heaven” and you’d be right. But Jesus instructs us to pray for God’s kingdom to come and for his reign to cover the earth as well. You see, Jesus came, initiating God’s kingdom on earth. But it has yet to be fulfilled, and will not be until we experience what we read in Revelation 11:15: “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.” Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (p. 1269). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

When we pray for God’s Kingdom to come, for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, our prayer is an extension of the line from two weeks ago, where we prayed “Hallowed be Thy name.” To properly lift God’s name as Holy means we must obey his word.

It can be easy to say “God, I want your kingdom to come” in one moment and then behave selfishly in the next, but truly praying for God’s kingdom to extend all over the world means first and foremost that each of us who call ourselves Christians must be conformed to His will. 

How do we become conformed to God’s will? By being transformed by the renewing of our minds. By the power of the word of God. There’s a reason our church partners sent Bibles to us; not just so we could all have a Bible, but so we could all use our Bibles.  But it’s not just about knowing the Bible, but also about doing God’s will. James 1:22-25 talks about this: And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself. For if you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law — the law that sets you free — and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

This is exactly what Jesus had in mind when he instructed us to pray: Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

God does not force his will upon us; God forever gives us the choice to follow or not to follow. To obey or not to obey. But Jesus gave us the example to follow in the Garden of Gethsemane, even as he was about to be arrested and crucified. And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

This is a picture of asking God for His will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Sometimes we pray and strive after things we want that don’t glorify God, and sometimes God gives us these things and we find out that they don’t satisfy. Money, human relationships, fancy cars, big houses, all of these are nice, but they won’t satisfy. Some people like to talk about what they’ll have in Heaven, about how fancy their mansion will be, but I believe when we get there, we’ll find that isn’t important at all, because we will have the one thing that is most important. We will have perfect relationship with God. God’s perfect rule will be fulfilled.


But in the meantime, we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And the only way we can see that happen is if each one of us surrenders completely to Him, to allow Him to have His way with us.

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