The Case for Kingdom

The Kingdom theme
It has been successfully argued that the concept of the Kingdom of God is the single unifying theme of the Bible. It runs obviously and deeply through Genesis to Revelation. “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God...” Matt 6:33. “..Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come..” Matt 6:9-10. I personally love this from The Message Matt 4:23-25, “…God’s Kingdom was His theme – that beginning right now they were under God’s government…” Through the lenses of Kingdom, the Bible weaves a consistent vibrant life. A life not just barely free; Abundantly free! Without these lenses, the bible has valuable inspirational stories, but it doesn’t engage like Kingdom does.
Yet for so many of us Kingdom concept and Kingdom teaching did not appear until later in our lives. Dr Jack Taylor speaks of the same lack of Kingdom teaching in seminary as well. So why?
We in the Western society have at least 2 strikes against us:
• No visible evidence in our lifetimes of a Kingdom style of governance.
• We live in a Mad-Hatter society – you may recall the Mad Hatter telling Alice "..words mean what I say they mean".
Let's break each of these 2 strikes down just a bit.

The lack of visible evidence of Kingdom

A Republic. Democracy. Rule of Law. Elections. A President. An opposition party, and on and on. We simply have no concept of a Kingdom. A quick story. My wife Kathy and I have been blessed. About 9 months after September 2001 we traveled to London to be part of a conference. Taking a tour on the famous ‘hackney’ as they are referred to in London. Amazing. Fish and Chips; Westminster Abbey; weird accents (theirs not my redneck and Kathy’s Tennessee blend…what accent?). Finally – Buckingham Palace.
Then it happened. Out of nowhere armed guards with automatic weapons converged around our hackney cab. Every direction covered, any escape hopeless. Remember, this was 9 months after 911. So, I just about had a laundry problem if you get my drift. Our driver exclaimed “Ooh..a Royal, a ROYAL!!” Then a really sweet Bentley comes out of the ‘nowhere’ that the guards had poofed from. Blacked out windows, riding low on its wheels due to the armor plating. Kathy and I look at each other like - ”A what?” Our hackney driver – “a Royal; right in front of us! A ROYAL!” Our driver was probably thinking. “Dumb American” or whatever.
Neither Kathy nor I were dumb, just ignorant of a culture with ‘Royals’. No concept of a society with a King. Yet our ignorance of this disruption had zero impact on this fact: "a Royal" had disrupted our lives.
Now years later I better understand Kingdom thinking - but still long ways to go. So, I try and ask myself regularly; am I still not adequately realizing that I live each day in a Kingdom – with a King? More importantly: Am I willfully seeking the King to disrupt my life? How about you?

The Mad Hatter society versus a Timeless God

Secondly, this Mad Hatter society in which we live.  Dr. Mark Rutland coined this label.  Potentially few more dangerous trajectories than the enemy’s reductive attack on our words.  A familiar example is the word ‘love’.  Greek language uses 4 words to deepen and clarify Love, yet our English world just uses 1 word.

Here’s a truth: Our timeless God chose to reveal Himself in a Kingdom culture.  Words are spiritual containers of power; they mean something.  In the Kingdom culture and languages in use when God wrote His Word, there are deep, rich names of God; attributes of God that are described in His names.  I love how Rick Betenbough clarified this: “You must be spending time with the King”.  Only with that time investment will the King shed clarity on His personal mission for His Sons/Daughters.

The result of these Mad Hatter times is that we live almost completely immersed in a Post-Genesis 3 mindset.  We question and lack clarity of our identity.  We lack clarity of our Inheritance.  The net result: we orbit around a system – Worldliness - when we are designed and commanded to orbit around King and His Kingdom.  Seek ye First…