Last night at the Hillsong United worship event, one of the leaders from Hillsong gave an amazing 10 minute message about the Kingdom of God. It was a great summary of the essence of Jesus' teaching about the Kingdom. I hope to hit the highlights.
The kingdom of God is his sovereign rule and reign. It exists fully in heaven. The kingdom of God came to earth when Jesus, the Son of God, took on human flesh. He went about preaching "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is here!" I HIGHLY recommend this article to you--in less than two easy pages, it summarizes what the author took two seminary classes to explain to me: The Kingdom of God.
After Jesus ascended into heaven, His Spirit came to be IN us. God the Father dwells in heaven, and Jesus is at his right hand, but the Spirit of God lives inside of us. In this way, heaven is here on earth. We are God's kingdom, his body, his church. Jesus taught us to pray "Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be hallowed ("your name" means "you" in this particular instance; "hallowed"--revered, honored, feared). "Your Kingdom Come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
Here's the thing--not only are we to pray that God's kingdom would come, but we are to make it so. We are his ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20). Because we have his Spirit in us and he works his purposes through us, we bring heaven to earth. We are to proclaim the Kingdom of God every day by our words and our actions.
This happens when you and I lay down all that we are--everything--and give it to Him, and ask Him to be our everything. Almost every song last night spoke about surrendering ourselves, and wanting nothing more than to be what God wants us to be, and do what He wants us to do. Will we not just sing it, but live it?
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