When Yeshua taught His disciples how to pray, He began with praise, then continued with ‘Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’ (Matt 6:10), before praying for our own needs. Sadly, most of our prayer times are filled with the latter and many of us are still in kindergarten when it comes to praying about the Kingdom of God, mainly because we are not taught this kind of prayer and most church prayer meetings are focused on the needs within the immediate church community.
The Kingdom of God
To pray kingdom prayers, we need to know what the Kingdom of God is and what it looks like when it is manifest. But the Bible is very elusive as to what the Kingdom of God actually is. Jesus does not define it, despite spending most of His ministry teaching about it (Matt 6:33, 23:13, Mk 10:15, 12:34, Lk 11:52). In typical Hebrew teaching methods, He gave many pictures to explain facets of its character (Matt:13:1-52). It is not like a political kingdom but is a community of people who have chosen to live under the Lordship of Yeshua as king. The Kingdom of God is not the church. The church is the people of the Kingdom, but the Kingdom is the realm of God’s rule. This is over all the earth, not just in the church.
Joseph Frankovic defines it as, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is about redemption. It is a present reality. It is God’s redemptive power impacting humanity.’1 He sees Yeshua’s agenda as mending lives and redeeming a broken world.
Salvation of people
The Kingdom of God was typically evidenced by the revelation of who Yeshua is, salvation from sin, healing from disease, and deliverance from evil spirits. People who received the message of the Kingdom were changed. The initial change is a matter of the heart. No one can become part this Kingdom unless he or she is ‘born again’ of water and the Spirit (Jn 3:3,5, 1 Cor 15:50, Eph 5:5). Our first step in praying for God’s Kingdom to come is to pray for the salvation of those who have not yet committed their lives to Yeshua as their Saviour and Lord. However, it can not just be a verbal acclamation, but needs a visible change of heart in word and deed. Turning from sinful acts and attitudes are the evidence of a new life in Christ.
Redeeming the world
Christian missions have often stopped at this point of salvation, but the Kingdom is far more than just saving individual souls. Hebrew thought has never divided the religious aspect of life from daily life. It is wholistic. All medical, scientific, or technological advances must keep in mind tikkun olam (repairing the world) to make it a better, safer place for people. This is why the Jews have won a hugely disproportionate number of Nobel prizes. From 1901 to 2024, they had been awarded 217 – 22% of all recipients, despite being 0.2% of the world’s population. This is 110 times their proportion of the world’s population! In science and medicine, the percentage is even higher.2
God’s throne is established on the foundation of righteousness and justice (Ps 89:14). Biblical values and righteousness are not just for Sundays but for every day and every part of our lives. If not, we are in danger of living a hypocritical life. Churches on the whole have functioned more as sheepfold’s, teaching centres or humanitarian aid centres but few have been effective in training their congregants to be equipped to minister Yeshua in their workplaces and society outside the church. This is essential if we are to impact our world.
If there is greed, abuse or dishonesty happening in our work places, or ungodly practices being taught or tolerated in our schools, law courts, or government, then we have a job to do. We need godly wisdom as to how to confront these and God’s help as to how to bring His kingdom rule in their place. When the Kingdom of God is manifest, evil is overthrown and people are set free from oppression. This applies to individuals and also to regions and nations that are under the control of evil entities. Oh, how the people of Iran have suffered under their evil regime! We battle not against flesh and blood but against rulers, powers, world forces of darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12). Few of us learn spiritual warfare to cope with these in our work places and nations and they should not be tackled alone but in groups with a good prayer backing.
Our responsibility
As children of God, we have a royal inheritance and an authority given to us by the Father in order to reign with Yeshua. We, as His disciples, are given the keys of the Kingdom of heaven (Matt 16:19) to bind the power of the enemy and to loose the oppressed from his grip. We need to learn the ways of God’s Kingdom, where rulership is by servant-hood and sacrificing for those whom one serves, just as Yeshua did for us. He gained authority by humility and suffering. God does not need us but He has called us to reign with Christ (Rev 5:10, 20:4), and through Christ (Rom 5:17) on the earth today. We must learn to use that authority wisely to build the Kingdom of God so He will be glorified, and not to build empires that will give us the glory.
When the Kingdom of God is manifest, evil is overthrown and people are set free from oppression.
The prayer of St Francis of Assisi is a good place to start.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.3
Those who read this newspaper, are obviously reaching out to join Yeshua in His kingdom agenda for the nation of Israel. His heart is for the Jewish people to return to God, and come to know Yeshua as their Messiah. Remind the Lord that He has promised them a new heart (Ezek 36:26-28). Pray for all the Israeli pastors and those reaching out to the people with the gospel. Knowing what the prophets have foretold regarding the return of the people to their land will guide our prayers and we can always pray for Israel’s safety and protection from all who wish to wipe them off the face of the earth.
Footnotes: 1. Frankovic, J., The Kingdom of God, HaKesher Inc, Tulsa, OK, 1998, P 18; 2. https://www.jinfo.org/Nobel_Prizes.html 3. https://www.cathedralstm.org/about-our-catholic-faith/expressing-our-faith/treasury-catholic-prayers/prayer-st-francis-assisi-prayer-peace/ This article is adapted from Jill’s book ‘The Many Facets of Prayer Part 2’ which is now in print and available from giftsfortheking.org or by emailing giftsfortheking@gmail.com Part 2 is all about praying for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as in heaven.
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