Lesson Four • The Lord’s Prayer – Part One
Devotion 3: Powerful Kingdom
Pastor John Carter
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10
Today, we are only going to focus on three words, “your kingdom come.”
As I stated in previous devotions, Jesus is teaching us some absolutely amazing concepts of how we are to approach the Father God in prayer. Each line of the Lord’s Prayer is packed with immensely deep and practical truth that is so hard to unpack in one devotion.
What is the first thing you think of when you consider a kingdom? Some things that come to my mind are that there is a king, the kingdom covers a vast amount of area, and there is an army that enforces the rules or laws. Outside of that, I really do not know that I have a great mental picture of a kingdom. In America, we do not really see our land as a kingdom, so it just does not correlate. I can envision what Hollywood has created as these great kingdoms do battle in movies like “The Hobbit.” Maybe those are good images of what a kingdom looks like. So, when Jesus says, “your kingdom come,” what is he trying to teach us in prayer?
In 1 John 5:18-19, we read, “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”
I think it is important to first understand that we are living in a world that is ruled by the kingdom of darkness. The world is under the power of the evil one. So when Jesus is saying, “your kingdom come,” He knows and is teaching us that we ought to be desiring the return and the presence of God. He is teaching us that when we pray, we ought to be focused and concerned with our own hearts being ready to be with God. We ought not to love the wickedness of the world, but we should be longing to be under the rule and reign of a holy and righteous God.
I want to share with you some prophecies about this Kingdom of God that we are being taught to desire and pray will come.
In Daniel, we see the interpretation of an earthly king’s dream. In that interpretation, there is a prophecy of the future Kingdom of God. Daniel 2:44-45 says, “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
Isaiah describes it like this in Isaiah 2:2-3, “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
Jeremiah articulates it like this in Jeremiah 23:5-6, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”
The Kingdom of Heaven is not some imaginary fantasy. There is a King. There are ways which this Kingdom will operate. This Kingdom will destroy all the earthly kingdoms that operate under the rule of the evil one.
When Jesus is teaching us to pray, He is asking us to recognize the future King. He is the Ruler of the Kingdom that will last forever. Remember the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind. Part of this means that we are to desire His righteous ruling of this Earth.
Your Kingdom come!