Our Victory In Action

            Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it force.   

                                                                                                             Matthew 11:11-12

In the above scripture we are given a description of the kingdom of heaven and those who occupy it. Jesus tells us that there had been no prophet or spiritual leader greater than John the Baptist, but that the nature of the kingdom of heaven was that everyone in it would be greater than John the Baptist, who was as great as any religious leader up to this point. John the Baptist was the last of a long line of prophets and spiritual leaders in Israel. These prophets served God in every capacity and were used mightily but they themselves were not filled with God’s spirit. The Spirit of God came over them as they were used by God but that is different being born again and indwelt by the Spirit of God.  

The kingdom of heaven that Jesus was ushering in would be occupied by people who were filled by the spirit of God and made into ambassadors and representatives of Christ. Once believers were in Christ they became new creations, everything they were and saw and did was transformed and became new. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20. These new residence of the kingdom of God were now little Christs and could go forward in God and destroy the works of the Devil wherever they found them. When Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence he is saying that the kingdom puts up with, or allows doing spiritual, not physical, violence as part of its nature. Jesus was telling us that the kingdom of heaven is now a place to do conquest for God. Through the victory of Christ the kingdom of heaven makes conquest against the kingdom of the enemy at every opportunity.

Those who occupy and expand the kingdom of heaven do so with violent destruction and opposition to the enemy’s kingdom. This violence however is not physical violence. We are told in 2 Corinthians that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that is not of our physical flesh, but mighty through God to pull down the strongholds of everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. It is through tenacious prayer and the word of God that we do our violence against the enemy’s kingdom. To be a Christian is to be spiritually, not physically, violent in our prayer life, and the expression of God’s love in the earth. As we express the love of God through the word of God, and strengthen that word with diligent aggressive prayer, there is nothing that can stand against the kingdom of God and Christ.

Next week: The Love of God in the World