Kingdom Come

”Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.“
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭28‬-‭29‬ ‭ESV‬‬

It’s crazy that today marks 100 days remaining, more than halfway through my 4-month deployment. As I’ve said before time is flying by. Yet even though life feels like it’s moving at 2x speed, the past weeks have been somewhat slow. With some scheduling change-ups and Ramadan beginning, it’s been harder to get a hold of people and maintain a solid rhythm like before. I’ve found myself with a lot of free time during the days, yet I’ve struggled to focus and use it wisely and productively for God. However, through this frustration of being unproductive, and continually reminders of my mortal frailty, God has shown me a key concept that I’m continuing to dive deeper into day by day. That concept is the action of prayer.

As I’ve been sharing, and praying for souls to come to Christ, I’ve begun to ask myself some important questions. What should I expect out of God, specifically in prayer and his answering in bringing souls to himself? For a week I struggled with this, knowing that I was striving in obedience by sharing and growing others in their faith, but frustrated in the doubt that I wasn’t doing things correctly in some way. That I wasn’t initiating God in prayer, that I wasn’t praying big enough, that I wasn’t trusting in God’s ability to do great things. What if I prayed for something too big and God didn’t answer, what would I do then? I know he is the one that changes hearts and brings people to him, but with free will how could God answer my prayers and bring specified people to himself? Because I struggled with what to ask of God and what to expect in response from him, I decided to tackle the first of these issues with a book on prayer. The book simply called “Prayer” by Timothy Keller and its key thoughts transformed the way I looked and perceived prayer. As I unpacked Keller’s words, I found answers to my doubts of being confident that what I prayed would be answered, while also submitting its outcome to God. These answers came through studying the Lord’s prayer. Specifically, the two parts are “Your kingdom come, and your will be done”. What does it mean for God’s kingdom to come? What does it mean for God’s kingdom to be present in someone’s life, or in an entire rural area? As I prayed through this question to God after reading this book God began to answer. When God’s kingdom comes, everything else must submit. When God’s kingdom is present in my life it means that Christ is ruling, that I am his and he is mine, and that nothing (and I mean nothing) can shake the foundation that he has given me to stand on in him. And as the kingdom’s control is represented in the life of a believer, for Christ’s kingdom to come to a people group, or into a rural area like the one I am living in, it would mean that everything else is pushed back in submission to his authority. Every evil spiritual force, selfish ambition, controlling fear, or tactical lie would be utterly helpless in light of God’s control and spiritual presence in that area. When God’s kingdom has come the enemy no longer has control or the ability to deceive and retain us from the love of the Father. God gives us the ability, without the enemy’s influences and hold, to experience his love and grace and choose to follow him. That is what it means for his kingdom to come. And the second part for his will to be done? God makes it very clear through scripture, especially in Revelation 7:9 that his will is for people from every nation, tribe, and tongue to praise him and be a part of his kingdom forever. These two understandings brought about through prayer, and God’s response to me in scripture along with the Holy Spirit, changed my perception of prayer completely. As I began to understand the coming of his kingdom and my role in initiating that request in prayer, I grasped how important it was to pray. And, because I saw God’s will and intentions for the nations, I had that assurance that God would answer my prayer, that he would bring souls to him through his kingdoms coming. Along with this God also showed me some other key truths being; that God is my Father and he is committed to my good. Jesus is my advocate, mediator, and priest. And, the Holy Spirit which is God in me, prompts and helps me to pray. Within a single quiet time, God transformed my view of prayer and showed me the vitalness of participating in it with him. He assured me of his love for the nations, and his power to bring souls to himself. He affirmed that he was with me and that he was actively helping me and teaching me how to pray. Prayer is so important, not only in its groundbreaking power throughout the world but also as the source of union with God. I’ve always had the idea that in the representation of breathing, scripture is inhaling, and prayer is exhaling. To breathe and ultimately live we need both of these things. To abide in God, to be in a relationship with him, means we have to talk with him. Communication is how relationships remain healthy and grow. To grow in God, to truly abide in him, we have to both be seeking his word (in scripture) and responding to it (in prayer). That is how we grow closer to our Father who loves us and sent his son to rescue us so that we could be a part of his intimate unshakable eternal kingdom.

While God has made this concept clearer to me and spoken to me in such a vivid way, I still find myself struggling to put aside intentional time to abide in him. As a result of this, along with the subsequent choice of passively filling myself with worldly and material thoughts and ideas instead of God’s powerful word, I’ve found myself struggling with temptation and sin specifically this past week. I’ve fallen several times, and my frustration grows at my inability to ward off these attacks, however again I recognize my need for Jesus. I can’t do this alone; I need him. I need his words; I need to call out to him. As I head into this final stretch, these remaining 100 days, one of my goals driven in need is to intentionally spend time with God. I know this sounds simple, “I need to read my bible more”, but I’m specifically focused on this idea of intimate time with God. Not just a quick read and a short prayer but a truly open heart ready to receive and respond to the divine word of God. That is what I need, and that is what I hope to dive into these next few weeks.

Along with all these spiritual thoughts and experiences, some fun things that I got to take part in this week were;

-Riding elephants!

-Playing some new board games with some new friends

-Confronting Christian students on their faith and encouraging them

-Feet washing ceremony and the spirit of conviction at work

-Randomly teaching people frisbee

-Making Carbonara for my Supervisor and his kids (Another Success)

-Lake day and sunset

-Biggest Frisbee turnout yet!

-Meeting David’s family

-Playing disc golf for the second and third time in Asia and not sucking

-Meeting some awesome Ultimate frisbee people

-Singapore light shows and cityscape sunset

-Flying back to jump back into it again

I know I said at the beginning that it’s been slow these two weeks, but there have been some events characterized by God’s faithfulness and mighty hand and I’m super grateful for that. As I jump back into things some requests y’all could be interceding on for me are:

• Intentional time with God characterized my deep prayer and praise to God
•  God’s kingdom to come to my city and for his will to be done in the people we’re working with
•  For spiritual protection against temptation and for such attacks to lead me to run to God
•  For patience and peace among my team and within my soul
•  For wisdom in ministry focus, and for God to use our remaining time most usefully for his glory

Only 100 days left. It sounds like a lot, but it feels like such a short amount of time. I’ve already learned so much over this trip and I still have so much left to grow in. As I watch the days tick away and continue to abide in God, I pray that God’s power will work through me and that I will continue to truly see the steadfast love of God towards the lost people in bondage to the enemy. Therefore, I pray that his kingdom will come, that his will will be done, and that as I enter deeper into conversation with my savior, that I might grow to be more like him including showing the love he has so clearly shown to me. May God show you another level of the deepness of his love and grow you, as you continue to abide in him and his overflowing, unshakable, everlasting kingdom. As we push forward, continue to pray, Jesus let your kingdom come.