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?

What difference Will the Reality of the Kingdom Make in My Life? | Old Things Will Pass Away and New Things Will Come

by Alan Smith

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17

For a long time, the land of Canaan belonged to God’s people, but they didn’t live there. There were no Jewish farms, vineyards, settlements or cities. There was just the promise from God given to patriarchs long ago. The land was theirs. They did not possess it, but it nevertheless belonged to them. The book of Joshua details the long process of laying hold and taking possession of that which was theirs all along. Inheritance comes from the promise. Possession comes from faith and obedience.

We also have an inheritance that comes from the promise. In Christ, all old things pass away and everything is made new—this is the land that belongs to us in Christ. Many believers who recognize they are not living in this land make the mistake of questioning the validity of the promise. Yet the promise remains. Our inheritance of new creation lies before us to possess through faith and obedience.

The long process of the Israelites conquering Canaan’s former occupants and settling in the land illustrates for us the process of discipleship. When we first believed in Christ, something brand-new was given to us—the very life and nature of Jesus himself. His life and nature provide us with all we need to displace all old things that still occupy but do not belong. Like the children of Israel, these old things are not displaced all at once, but gradually, in a process of faith and obedience whereby we respond to God’s presence and voice. In His power, we lay hold of all the new creation He has fully provided for us in Christ. As we experience life within His kingdom in this manner, we can truly begin to experience the falling away of the old things, and we can possess the inheritance that belongs to us through the promise.

1. What ways have you questioned the promise because did not match your experience?

2. How do you relate the old things in your life to the giants who occupied the land God had promised His people?

3. How does the truth—that we lay hold of our inheritance by faith and obedience—change the way you view and apply 2 Corinthians 5:17 in your life?

4. How will your life be different once you take possession of your inheritance?