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Matthew Lilley's avatar

Yes, yes, yes. More of this! Let His kingdom come.

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Ron Ford's avatar

While pastoring Vineyard churches (we planted two, one in Central and another in Southern California, 1983 and 1996) I experienced a cyclical waxing and waning of energy and focus to preach/teach on the Kingdom of God like you describe. I don't think it was for a lack of awareness of the awesomeness of God's authority and power or a disconnect between the reality of His kingdom and the implications this truth should have in our values, ethics, and behavior (those those are real issues, too). It had more to do with a disconnect between these biblical truths and experiences and the identity and everyday lives of the people in our congregations.

As I've been rethinking the issues of the gospel, the kingdom, the power of God and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, I'm coming to the conclusion that, at least in my former preaching and teaching role, I missed a fundamental element in the biblical data regarding God's kingdom. Seeing this element now makes it impossible for me now to not maintain a keen focus and interest in the kingdom of God. It answers the question “Why” is this relevant? Without a clear and compelling answer to this question, it is easy to loose interest no matter how our tradition or respect for John Wimber might pressure us to keep up the momentum.

I would suggest that a fuller (no pun intended) perspective on the kingdom is discipleship to Jesus. The Father, in the son and by the Holy Spirit has done everything necessary to restore us to our originally created relationship with himself and role in his creation. Across the whole story of the bible and all the data points about the king and his kingdom, the focus is ultimately on restoring humans to their relationship and role as those who are God's image, and who have responsibility to manage God’s purposes on earth as in heaven. The kingdom breaking into our present but it’s not aimless or arbitrary. The in-breakings of the kingdom in the bible are not just demonstrations of God's power to show who is the real boss. They are always directed at God’s plan to restore humanity to their intended role with him in the administration of his kingdom.

Consequently, the only time it is easy to keep focus on Kingdom teaching is when there is lots of power happening. If we are in the middle of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit it is easy to say, the kingdom of God is here, see what God is doing. We say, this is what the kingdom is all about; it is the in-breaking of the future rule of God with power into our present experience in this dark and dominated world.

But when you are back home in the mundane day to day of normal church life where the power may not be very present at all, it gets pretty old after a while to keep preaching about a kingdom that breaks in when it isn’t any more. However, when we see the kingdom message of the gospel as all that God has done in Jesus and is continuing to do through Jesus’ spirit, I find it compelling to keep preaching and teaching on the topic because Jesus’ disciples need to know who they are and what their role is in God’s kingdom purposes.

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