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One Kingdom

07 Saturday Feb 2026

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One Kingdom

(Ps. 2, Dan. 2:43-45)

If we consider the last 2025 years of history, we should note that the political nations of the world have become smaller and weaker.  Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream showed an understanding of this long before it happened.  Babylon had full control as a strong empire in Daniel’s day.  Without going through a full history of the Medes, Persians, Greece, and Rome, we can trace to the time that the Lord called the fullness of times.  Jesus came at the peak of the Roman empire.  Julius Caesar wanted to be the supreme ruler as the spirit of anti-christ was rising.  His son, Caesar Augustus, took that on.

Today, no political power rises that high.  When self-serving, arrogance, and pride rise in a nation, God opposes that nation.  The enemy, who hates mankind, stirs up trouble, and then wars and rumors of wars result.  But as followers of Jesus we need to look up for His kingdom is here and we are citizens of it.  As Daniel saw that His kingdom lays low every other kingdom,  Psalm 2 gives us a thumbnail sketch of where we are today.  Why do the nations rage?  Internal strife on some level is evident in many places across the earth.

And the people imagine a vain thing.  AI is going to fix everything.  That is a laughable thought.  Our technology develops tools that can be used for the advance of the kingdom of Christ.  Or it can be used to destroy people’s lives and keep many in darkness.  In between, it can be a distraction or time waster.  Anything can become an idol.  Our technology creates pastimes and  some are allowable.  I used to play Teris if anyone remembers that.   Some would say every moment must be used in a spiritual endeavor but that can be born of a religious spirit.  I have digressed.

The nations rage within and without.  We can learn to never be surprised but also never be apathetic to trouble.  Rather, pray!  Lord, move on behalf of the oppressed and turn away a spirit of violence and rage.  And pray the Lord turn the hearts of rulers away from their pride.  The prince of the power of the air does not easily let go his grip.  As we are seated with Christ in the heavens, we gain His perspective, and pray with authority.  As He gives us to speak truth to rulers, He, the Lord, can turn hearts.  Yet, be led by the Spirit for we can easily, like Peter, be out of line.  I am thinking when Peter told Jesus He ought not go to the cross. We need to be led by the Spirit, even as we pray.  If we are sensitive to the Spirit, He will align our prayers with the Lord’s heart and wisdom.

We are not seeking destruction but responding to it.  Jesus said, when you see these things look up.  His redemption is drawing nigh.  This is true in our daily lives here.  When opposition comes, when we confront darkness, respond with truth.  When the enemy opposes the light and brings oppression, respond with the truth.  In the West, we continue to think we can repair the world’s systems.  We get active politically, we protest, we march.  Some of these activities are not wrong but they have limited impact.  The greatest impact is through prayer, individual and corporate.  For 2000 years, the kingdom of God has been advancing.  Ultimately, it will displace every earthly dominion.  Those dominions are still influenced by, and can be ruled by the prince of the power of the air.

The kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ is not about this present age, but about bringing into us righteousness, peace and joy.  Jesus Christ has asked the Father for the nations for His inheritance. (Ps. 2)  The Father has said yes, and so given Jesus all authority in heaven and earth.  See Matt. 28:18-20.  By the Spirit, He is with us always right to the end of this age, and, we might say, the beginning of the next.  Even so, come Lord Jesus. Your kingdom come.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

23 Saturday Dec 2023

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

(Matt. 28:19, John 14, 17:20-23)

I began to think about this phrase.  When I searched for it in the Bible, I found it only appeared in one place in that exact form.  Of course, the three persons are mentioned often in different ways.  Our concept of the “trinity” fails to touch the mystery of our God.  Are we settling for some version of Him, or are we pressing in and pressing on to know Him, as He is?  When He does not meet our expectation, do we begin to look for other answers, other solutions?  He is ever desiring us, and drawing us to know Him.  Life is not so slow and ponderous that we can stop to decide which “person” we are crying out to.  Let Him decipher that groan that is too deep to utter.  A fervent cry of “God, help me,” is a powerful prayer.

It is His Spirit, Holy Spirit, who is here now!  And some still discuss cessationism.  Stop!  I mean that. STOP!!  We do not control Him.  We need Him as the ever-present conductor of our lives, individually, and together.  Without His fullness, we leave room for religious spirits.  The fruit of the Spirit includes self-control.  That means the Spirit’s control, not our own reputation-protecting, “good” behavior.  We must allow the Father to be our gardener as Jesus, the Son, taught us.  He would go deep and get at the roots of our troubles.  It is the Spirit who searches the deep things of God and He is the One who searches us.  See Psalm 139.  It is a continual process as we will submit, surrender, and recognize the altar is His cross where we were crucified.  Will we submit daily to the Spirit’s working?

We will not get this perfect.  May we seek Him in our gatherings and fellowship.  We have many forms and traditions.  If we take a critical view, we miss the life-giving flow of the Spirit.  As Jesus spoke to His own little flock concerning His departure and the Holy Spirit’s coming, He spoke about dwelling places.  God wants a place to dwell among us.  And He comes in His fulness.  The Father and the Son, in all that they are, want to dwell with us.  This is more than a visit.  He wants to stay!  He provides all that is needed.  It is for us to say yes.  He says for us to keep His commandments and that He, Jesus, and the Father, will make their home in us.  We know that His commandment is that we love one another.

We can take great encouragement that His desire is for this unity among us.  As we stay tuned in to His Spirit, we remain in a place to be drawn closer.  It is a daily process.  The singleness of His purpose is seen in His work in our lives.  Years ago, I heard the three persons of God expressed as a divine runaround.  The Spirit reveals and glorifies Jesus.  Jesus directs our attention to the Father, saying He is greater than Himself.  The Father commends the Son, saying He is well pleased in Him.  The Father gives all authority to the Son and gives Him the Spirit which He pours out on us.  Receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus says.

So it is the Spirit who dwells with us.  He is the Lord.  He is God with us.  He will take what Jesus gives Him and give it to us.  As we allow Him to work in us, fruit will come.  First the flower and eventually the fruit.  Be patient while He works.  Don’t be too introspective.  It can be like watching grass grow.  We can become frustrated that it is not happening fast enough.  If we find ourselves so, He is more patient, more gracious.  He is never frustrated.  He would work among us so that we would continually confer honor on one another.  Even as the Father, Son, and Spirit do.  Love covers, hides, a multitude of sins.

I found my way back to John 17.  The thoughts here are so high, only God can answer the thoughts Jesus prays.  That we would be one with one another as He and the Father are one.  That singleness of heart, mind, will, and action is so beautiful, so wonderful.  We know it cost Jesus everything in this life so that God might fulfill Jesus’ prayer.  He was on His way to pay a price we cannot comprehend.  The inestimable value of the life of the Son of God was laid down.  After the prayer of John 17, He went on to the garden and prayed again.  His humanity was exposed for us to see.  Now He is highly exalted restored to the place He was with our Father before the world was.  The Father, the Son and the Spirit in one accord.  May we be so also, one with them, and one with one another.