What is your weightiest prayer request? What is your greatest spiritual desire? A healing? A salvation? A cash infusion?
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He began with worship, then moved to petition. Remember what the first one was? Not food or even forgiveness but:
“Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10).
John the Baptist preached it: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Jesus preached it and then commissioned His disciples to do so as well (Matthew 4:17; 10:5,7). Evidently, this idea of kingdom is something too often overlooked.
In Strong’s Greek Concordance, basileia (kingdom) is defined as a “rule or a realm.” The term “kingdom of heaven” is used about 33 times in Matthew’s Gospel, where Thayer’s Greek Lexicon explains it as something of “heavenly or divine origin and nature;” specifically the “rule of God.”
As both creator and owner of heaven and earth (Psalm 89:11), God purposed man as earth’s deputy to rule over every living thing on the earth (Genesis 1:28). Fruitful and multiplying, man was to fill the earth and subdue its bounty. Yet, he desired self knowledge more than God’s life. Man squandered away his right, granting dominion to the evil one (Genesis 3:1-6).
From this moment on, man was complicit to a two kingdom system — the kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness (Luke 17:20; John 18:36).
Jesus came to deliver man from the domain of darkness into His kingdom (Colossians 1:13). His purpose was to open our eyes to see the difference between darkness and light — between the dominion of satan and the dominion of God (Acts 26:18). He accomplishes this triumphant takeover from the inside out. “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you,” He announced (Luke 17:21).
When we pray “Thy kingdom come,” we are sounding a call to battle. First, we are declaring war against any of our own thoughts and emotions that are “raised up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Any notion that doesn’t align itself with God’s Word is sourced from the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), not the Prince of Peace. No matter how long our past has held us captive to unworthiness or shame, we no longer allow these lies to propagate. We focus the passion of our holy anger toward the kingdom of darkness, thus putting a stop to the devil using our thoughts to deceive (Ephesians 4:26-27). “You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). Stop channeling dark thoughts! Transmit Light.
“Thy kingdom come!” Next, wage war in prayer with the darkness around you. Wherever light shines, darkness is pushed back (John 1:5). Jesus was the light of the world for a short time (John 9:5). Now, it’s your turn (Matthew 5:14). Granted, you live in the “midst of a crooked and perverse generation,” yet your call is to appear as a light in the darkness (Philippians 2:15).
Christ has finished His work (John 19:30). He has disarmed the rulers and the authorities of the kingdom of darkness (Colossians 2:15; 1 Peter 3:22) and rendered the devil powerless (Hebrews 2:11). Now, Jesus sits at the right Hand of God “waiting until His enemies be made a footstool for His Feet” (Hebrews 10:12-13).
What is He waiting for?
He is waiting for you to sound the battle cry: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” Right there within you. Right where your have the most influence.
You are already in the midst of a war. “Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Cowering in fear will not protect you from attack. But, before you can ask Jesus to “deliver you from evil” (Matthew 6:13), you must first ask His kingdom to come. “Do not be afraid little flock, for the Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
One day, the kingdom of this world will totally and completely become the kingdom of our Lord and Christ (Revelation 11:15). Until then, “be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might” (Ephesians 5:10). Suit up to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 1:3). Be one of the many “who know their God (so as to) display strength and take action” (Daniel 11:32). After all, “He has made us to be a kingdom” (Revelation 1:6).
Yes, Lord. “Thy kingdom come.”