In and Within 18 For Thine is the Kingdom

[HKHaugan]

We have already briefly touched on the Kingdom back in “In and Within 11.” But now that Jesus is telling us to pray about it again we need to give it more than a brief look. What have we really been praying for? Note that the little word ‘for’ means the same as ‘because,’ “because it’s God’s Kingdom” we pray the way Jesus taught us, “Thine is the Kingdom.” It implies that we lift up its reality, the One in ultimate authority, the provision and its Provider, the reason and purpose foundational to prayer and that everything we have been taught to pray for is ‘because’ of the One who is teaching. As part of our conclusion then we need to revisit ‘Kingdom.’ The are five ‘becauses.’

First of all because it is “Thine.” “Thine” is ‘His,’ God’s; Father, Son and Holy Spirit’s. The Kingdom is not our right---it is His gift. He owns it. Entry is granted on His terms alone. It is the eternal conscious presence of God, His angels, the abode of His being and all those to whom He has extended Himself in Creation. He is in charge. We are His subjects, His servants and His worshippers. He has blessed us, chosen us and anointed us for an eternal consciousness with Him.

Second, because in His will His Kingdom is transferable. It can be experienced in this world. It can be shifted from its totally spiritual reality and apprehended in our created reality through a relationship with the Lord Jesus. He created us with Heaven in mind. It can be relationally visible in terms of the effects it has on those who have accepted His call to believe in Him. His love is seen in ministry and mission, in the kindness and outreach of changed hearts and in the miracles of transformed lives. Every loving act is a piece of the Kingdom at work.

Third, because the King of the Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus. The Father has given Him all authority in Heaven and earth. Faith in Jesus is our personal key to the Kingdom. Jesus is the glory of God revealed. He, being faithful, full of grace and truth, brings God’s graceful loving acceptance for our heart and living truth for our mind through faith in Him.

Fourth, because the Kingdom is the Kingdom of hearts, a relational experience of hearts in an eternal family, the Heavenly Jerusalem, the fulfilled Body of Christ. When Jesus tells us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come” He is acknowledging the gift of the Father to Him and through Him to us but always us as the Father’s children growing and maturing in an eternity with Him through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Fifth, because the Kingdom is grounded in us through the life and teachings of Jesus. While this has already been mentioned we need to be reminded that when we pray “Thy Kingdom come” we are praying for the immediacy of God’s presence, the work of God for the present moment, the power of God to witness and minister, His will to be done through our obedience to who and what He is. Thus we bid the Holy Spirit to act in us through the recalling, the reminding, the remembering that the presence of the King of hearts is in our heart. Not only our reminded consciousness but the blending awareness of His expected return to which we look forward.

What is the nature of the Kingdom of heaven that we are ‘becausing?’ The closest word, the closest relational word, the closest meaningful word is one that closes the gap in relationships, intimacy. It is that individual vulnerability and openness of hearts to one another. When we see Jesus as He has come to us through the Word and our personal experience what more fitting word than ‘intimacy’ can filter the fact and reality of His love and acceptance? It is an internalizing word bringing personal depth of honesty, of emotion and truth to what we are designed and created for.

The Kingdom of Heaven is a Kingdom of intimacy, intimacy with God and one another in an eternity of growing intimacy. The prime picture is Jesus the Son in total and complete submission on the Cross, arms outstretched for us and eyes lifted to His Heavenly Father. “Father, forgive them” and “Into Your hands I commit my Spirit.” His love for His Father was beyond understanding with our limited mental grasp and when we try to express His compassion and love for us it can only be expressed as, “I just know that I know that I know. Forgive me for what I have been. For we like sheep have gone astray. But Thou O Lord, have mercy upon us.” Repentance is where intimacy begins and continues into eternity. Here is where He pours His forgiveness and love into our hearts.

Intimacy with God is the platform for the return of intimacy with others. It is why we have prayer groups, why we worship together and why we ‘go into our closets, shut the door and pray to our Father in Heaven.’ It is why we study Scripture and wait on the Spirit to shelter us with the insights He brings and fly in the shadow of His wings. We are brought into the Body of Christ by the shed blood Christ to have our intimacy restored to us, expand and be shared among us. Intimacy is the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven.

If the Kingdom’s nature is intimacy then the ‘power’ we yield to as He taught is the power of intimacy that comes in the work of the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of intimacy. His intimacy has the power to restore us to Him and one another. God defines intimacy, provides it and Jesus calls us to clearly understand its source, the Father---‘Thine is the power.’ It is God’s power not ours nor any spirit or force outside of God.

That same declaration is our conscious submission when we add the ‘glory.’ The glory of God is all that He has done, created, purposed and willed and continues as He makes Himself known. Creation is His glory revealed. We, as images of Him, are part of that glory especially when we allow Him to be seen through our witness in worship, discipleship, ministry and mission.

So Heavenly Father, we pray because Jesus revealed you and taught us to yield in prayer to lift you in honor and praise, “For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.”