God's Kingdom or My Kingdom?

God’s Message:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9-10)

A country’s welfare depends more on the character of its society rather than the type of its government

If in the period of the first 50 years after Jesus ascended to heaven, 30% of the people in the world had received the good news, in 200 years, 100% of the people in the world should have at least heard the good news. But the fact tells us that after 2,000 years; only about 32% people have heard about the good news. So a question arises: what is the ultimate hindrance of the spreading of good news? A research done by David Barrett and James Raspsome states that: “Two-third of the world mission is a plan that stands alone; each of them sees itself as the center of world mission. 96% of all the ministries do not even care about the things that are done by other Christian organizations which are not in the same line with them. Only 4% of these world missions cooperate or have a relationship with other groups or denominations.”

Therefore they concluded that the main hindrance of spreading the good news is the lack of cooperation (in term of networking and partnership) between churches and Christian organizations. Why is it so difficult for the churches and Christian organizations to have cooperation and networking among them? Because each church and organization has the concept of my kingdom, my church, my organization, etc. Churches should understand and realize that they exist as the representation of Christ on the earth; the Bible tells us clearly that all churches are one body and the head of the body is Christ. When the church realizes this concept, the church will unite to build the body of Christ on the earth. We know that no part of the body has the same function. All parts of the body are different, they have their own function. There must be difference that exists between the parts of the body; but this difference actually exists to complement each other.

In a prayer taught by Lord Jesus, our request is started by these words: “Our father in heaven, hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What is the meaning of “Your kingdom come?” A kingdom is related to king, authority and power. If the Kingdom of God comes, it means that the authority or supremacy of God applies to a group of people or an area. So this prayer is actually asking the Kingdom of God to come upon us, upon our family, upon our society or our nation. This prayer is asking His government to come and penetrate our life (personal and congregation) and our “world”. From our part, Lord Jesus teaches us to: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, and everything shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33).

The Kingdom of Christ is not from this world. In this world, a kingdom will become stronger if there are more people or groups are conquered. (Matthew 20:25). The Kingdom of God is not about the quantity of its supporters. It is talking about the power and truth. Therefore, the King was born; and He came with the purpose the see this righteousness. (John 18:37b). If we want to build the Kingdom of God and not our own kingdom, we have to change our life’s paradigm that our church or organization is only the tool to establish His Kingdom.

There are some steps to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth:

• Place God as the head of the church
• Every church should unite and cooperate to share the good news.

Essence:
Church exists on the earth as God’s representative to preach about His kingdom. Therefore every church should unite to bring the Kingdom of God to this earth, and not to bring his own kingdom to this earth.

Reflection:
Have we realized that we exist on this earth to tell and reveal His kingdom and not to build our own kingdom? Are you ready to do this?

Commitment:
Let’s preach and reveal the Kingdom of God.

Taken from the book “Transformation Journey”
By Dr. Ir. Niko Njotorahardjo & Iman Santoso Ph.D