Thy Kingdom Come: The Nature of the Kingdom

There was a man lying by a pool in Jerusalem who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus finally stood over him, He asked a strange question: “Do you want to be made well?”

The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well.

John 5:7-9 (NKJV)

Notice the man's first answer. It was an excuse. I have no man. Meanwhile the answer to everything he had waited thirty-eight years for was standing right in front of him. Keep that man in mind. We are going to come back to him, because his problem is our problem.

The mystery of a coming kingdom

There is an old story of a king who dreamed of a great statue, and a rock cut out without human hands came and smashed it to pieces, then grew into a mountain that filled the earth. Second Temple Jews understood this much: that God would one day come and upend the works of evil men and the demonic powers behind them. What they could not see clearly was how. How does a kingdom start as a small stone and grow into a mountain?

Jesus, the first Citizen of that kingdom, came and showed us how it works. Kings yield to the King, and when they do, the King begins to rule in them and through them. The whole nature of this kingdom is surrender that becomes strength.

Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry.

Psalm 2:10-12 (NKJV)

The kingdom has already come in you

The kingdom of God does not advance by violence; it advances by love. It suffers violence, but it does not inflict it. So as many of us who are kings surrender our domain, the small territory we actually control, starting with our own body, mind, will, and emotions, and hand it over to God, the kingdom of God has come.

This means that if you are saved, if you have received Jesus as Lord, the kingdom of God has already come. The rock cut without human hands has already taken root in your life. You are the house of God. Remember Jacob, asleep on a stone in the wilderness.

And behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it... Then Jacob awoke and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it... This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

Genesis 28:12-17 (NKJV)

The moment you became the house of God, you became the connecting point between heaven and earth, a place of immense angelic activity, where angels descend on assignment and ascend when the work is done. And here is what moves them: your faith. Your faith is the ladder set on the earth that heaven travels on. Your willingness to take a risk as a carrier of the kingdom is what gives the angels something to climb down.

Some of us have angels who are bored to death, because we cannot bring ourselves to believe God even for a headache. They are begging you to give them a ladder, and you keep refusing. We become like Bethesda itself, whose name means house of mercy, house of God's lovingkindness, and yet it had turned into a house of shame full of sick and hurting people, all waiting for angels to move, when the truth is the angels were waiting for us to move.

But the gates of hell must not prevail

So what holds back an all-powerful God from moving, and keeps the kingdom from advancing? Jesus gives us the clue at Caesarea Philippi, right after Peter confesses Him as the Christ.

And on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 16:18-19 (NKJV)

That a mere man can become so filled with God that God operates from within him is the very revelation the church is built on. It is not flesh and blood. It is supernaturally received from the Father. And with it comes authority, the keys, so that from within you angels go out to enforce on earth what is already God's will in heaven. As it is in heaven, so let it be on earth.

But according to Jesus, there is one thing that tries to hold the kingdom back: the gates of hell. To feel the weight of that, remember that in the city of God the gates are never shut. In Revelation, the holy city has twelve gates with twelve angels, and its gates are never closed by day, so that life can flow out to all the nations. The gates of the kingdom are wide open and the angels are ready to move. What the enemy does is try to slam his own gates shut over your life to stop that flow.

The gate of hell is in your head

So what exactly is this gate of hell? We find out in the very next scene. Jesus begins to explain that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and rise again. And Peter, the same Peter who just spoke by revelation, pulls Him aside.

“Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

Matthew 16:22-23 (NKJV)

Jesus was unveiling how the kingdom really works. In the kingdom, the way to win is by losing. The way to live is by dying. The weak are the strong, and you become rich by becoming poor. Why? Because living like that requires faith, and faith is the ladder that draws heaven to earth. So when the number one Citizen announced He would bring heaven to earth not by saving His life but by losing it, the gate of hell rose up immediately, and it spoke through the lips of a friend. A whole You, die? No way.

And Jesus named it for what it was. Your mind is not full of the things of God; it is full of the things of men. When we think like ordinary men instead of like God, we agree with the devil and set up the gates of hell that hold back the kingdom that has already come. Any way of thinking that is empty of God, that has no God at its core, is the gate of hell, and its only aim is to make you a house of disgrace even though you are a house of grace.

So where is the gate of hell? It is in your head. It is the unrenewed, natural mind set against the thoughts of God. This is why Paul wrote that our weapons are mighty in God to pull down strongholds, “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” It is also why Jesus began His ministry with the word repent, which means change your mind. The kingdom will do you no good until you let Him renew the way you think.

Do not let it rob you

Now go back to the pool. The gate of hell almost robbed that man of his healing, and it did it through a single thought: I have no man. But what does having a man have to do with grace? Nothing. The same gate nearly drowned Peter when he walked on water and started staring at the wind. What does the wind have to do with walking on water? Nothing.

So today, let the miracles of the kingdom be unleashed in your life as you begin to disagree with the natural man and agree with the God who lives in you. Wherever your mind has been quietly agreeing with the enemy, agreeing that it cannot happen, agreeing that it is too late, name it and take it captive. You are the house of God, and no gate of hell has to prevail against the kingdom advancing in your health, your home, your marriage, and your walk with Him. Start there. Change your mind, and let the King move.