What Difference Does the Reality of the Kingdom Make in My Life? | God Gets What He’s After

by Alan Smith

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26–28

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away …  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.  Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Revelation 21:1, 4–5

In 1998, I moved to Wichita Falls to plant a church. We labored for a year, and in the end, we had to close it down and move home. As I reflect on that experience, I can easily recall many great things God did through that season—not least of which were some of the precious relationships built. But in the end, I must acknowledge that I did not accomplish what I set out to do. All of us have disappointments like that, but as believers, we are encouraged in our firm expectation that in the end, God will ultimately achieve His purposes. We may lose a battle now and then, but the final victory is secure.

When God created this world, He also had an objective. This objective is described in narrative in Genesis 1 and 2. God set out to have a planet full of people who looked like Him, were filled with His life and exercising His authority as His representative on the earth. This goal is poetically expressed in places like Habakkuk 2:14. God’s glory will cover all the earth.

The ultimate impact of the reality of God’s kingdom is that in the end, God will accomplish all He has purposed. He will get what He’s after. If you envision eternity with clouds, halos and harps, you may consider reshaping your expectation based on what the Bible says. In the end, heaven and earth become the same place. In the end, the earth is full of His glory. In the end, earth is full of people who look like God, are filled with His life and are exercising His authority on the earth as His representatives. God wins.

1. How have you imagined what eternity will be like?

2. How is the biblical picture of eternity different from what you might have thought?

3. How might hope, anchored in the sure reality that God ultimately gets what He is after, change the way you view present difficulties and challenges?

4. What would it be like if you began to live now in light of that future reality?

What Difference Does the Reality of the Kingdom Make in My Life? | I Become an Agent of New Creation in My Family, Church and Community

by Alan Smith

So He said to them, “When you pray, say … Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Luke 11:2

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16

My first paying job in ministry was as a janitor for the church I grew up in. I will never forget what happened one day while I was helping my supervisor do a minor building repair. He told me which screwdriver I should use for the job, but I thought one flat-head was like another, so I just grabbed one. I should have used the one he told me to use—the one insulated to prevent electrical shock. It was a “shocking” lesson. Some materials are designed to be conduits!

God is looking for conduits—places where the heavenly realm and the earthly realm intersect and overlap. He is very interested in heaven invading earth. The temple was like that. It was a building with a special room behind a veil. The room behind that veil was unlike any other room. God lived there. God, who is Spirit and lives in the heavenly realm, dwelt behind that veil on the earth. Behind that veil in the temple, heaven and earth intersected and overlapped. Behind that veil, heaven and earth were the same place.

In Christ, we have become His temple, a temple made without hands. Like the temple of old, our bodies are earthly dwelling places where, behind the veil, God lives. We are now the place where heaven and earth intersect and overlap. We are the conduits through which heaven can invade earth. That is exactly what Jesus has instructed us to ask Him–for heaven to invade earth, for His will to be done on earth as in heaven. God wants to affect our families, churches and communities with the reality and the authority of His kingdom. He wants to do it through you. You are His conduit.

1. How does being a conduit of the kingdom change how you view yourself?

2. How might the kingdom of God invading through you actually work to change things within you?

3. If your family, church and community began to look more like heaven because of God’s kingdom invasion in your life, how would those environments be different than they are now?