In the entire Scriptures we see that God’s ultimate goal and His purpose is to build a temple a dwelling place, which is mutual abode for Himself and His elect. This is what is on His heart, and this is what He desires.
In order for Him to build up such a dwelling place, God must firstly have a kingdom, a dominion on the earth. In the church life today in all the local churches we need to restore and recover the reality of the kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17).
Without having a kingdom, without the walls to protect God’s interest without the rule of God, there is no realm, no situation, and no condition for the building up of the church as the dwelling place of God.
The conditions of the kingdom of God in which the church is built up are righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. God needs to gain His kingdom first in all the churches, so that He might have His dwelling place!
The kingdom of God in the church life today
Today the church has a great role to play in the accomplishing of God’s heart desire – we all need to wake up, rise up, and receive a revelation – God desires to have a kingdom, so that He may build up His church, His Body, His dwelling place!
The Lord Jesus prophesied about it in Matt 16:18, and He gave Peter the keys of the kingdom (here we see that the church and the kingdom are synonymous).
Peter used one key on the day of Pentecost (the Jewish believers were included) and the second in the house of Cornelius (the Gentile believers were added).
Now today God needs to have a kingdom in the church composed of the saved Jews and Gentiles.
The kingdom needs to be here today in the church life, in all the local churches today! We need to be in the kingdom of God today by being one with The King, the One who holds the Key of David!
The Lord spoke to Philadelphia, the church of the brotherly love, the recovered church, “I am the One with the key of David, the Holy One, the True One, the One who opens and shuts… – I give you an open door. Hold fast to what you have.” (paraphrasing Rev. 3:7)
Today we have been granted this key, and we have David, the Holy and True One, and His speaking to the recovered church.
If you read more attentively the record in Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord doesn’t require this from the other churches – but He wants the recovered church to bring in God’s kingdom and end this age!
The Lord has opened a door that no one can shut, so that people may enter into the church and be transformed into pillars for the house of God.
Our Christ is holding the key of David, and He builds God’s house by bringing in His kingdom into the church today!
Our responsibility as the church: PRAY!
How do we exercise God’s authority which was given to the Body of Christ? How do we exercise the oneness with the real David who holds the key today? How do we fulfill our responsibility as the builded church today?
We need to see, know, and exercise the keys of the kingdom, and the greatest exercise is PRAYER.
The kind of prayer we need to exercise is not a general one, and is not even an intercessory one.
We need to pray to fight in the warfare, a prayer to fight the battle, to rout the enemy and deal him a death blow! We need to pray a prayer to subdue Satan and conquer him, to bind him and cast him away!
We need to pray prayers to open the doors of the kingdom and release the prisoners! Oh, how we need to corporately pray prayers that bring in the kingdom of God!
We lack such prayer, but the Lord gave this authority to the church – to bind and loose. There’s doors that need to be opened, and there’s gates to be shut!
We need to open the door of the kingdom of the kingdom a little more (Matt. 16:19). We need to pray for a door of faith (Acts 14:27), a door for the gospel (2 Cor. 2:12), a door for the Lord’s work (1 Cor. 16:9), and pray for a door for the Word of God to be spoken (Col. 4:3).
The church today has an open door!
Today the Lord has put before us an open door, but before the kingdom age comes, we are still in an age where Satan and his armies are arrayed to fight with their full might against God’s kingdom.
Satan knows that the strategic part of the kingdom is NOT in the apostate Christendom, but it must be in the recovered church, in Philadelphia.
He is lining up all his forces in a full front assault in that direction, with the clear aim to shut it down, to delay the kingdom’s coming, and to preserve his evil rule just a little more…
The enemy will not let the gospel go out, he would not let the faith spread, and he would not let the word go forth. We are in a battle today, and we fight for the coming in of the kingdom of God!
We stand one with Christ, the real and greater David, the one who has the key of David and who can open and shut, and we exercise His authority as the church!
When the Lord has mercy on us and shows us such a vision, we will pray in a different way!
Why would we do so much and pray so little, when it is clear that prayer can accomplish so much more than our own works (as brother Nee said)?
The Lord is calling us today to come and pray, exercise the key of David, and be one with David in the Lord’s recovery!
We need to bind the gates of hell and shut them, we need to reject the attacks of the power of darkness, and we need to bind anything that would be stumbling or weakening the saints.
Satan may attack us in our body, soul, and spirit – he may even oppress us or try to deceive us, weaken us, or do all kinds of damage…
He just wants death to spread. But today as the church we need to stand up and BIND and LOOSE with the key of David! Lord, open the doors! Close the gates!
WHO will do this? Who will be an overcomer?
This question resounds again with fresh encouragement and new light. The enemy may allow us to do a lot of things but he hates our prayer!
Nothing can solve problems, swallow death, open doors, sort out complicated situations, release saints from bondage and sin, as much as our prayer one with the Lord can!
There’s an evil power behind all the problems in the families today, in the marriage… The enemy wants to wear up the saints of the most high, rendering them useless…
But we as the church are here to bring in the kingdom of God and usher in the millennium!
Saints, WHO will do this? Who will be an overcomer? May we all in the churches in the Lord’s recovery rise up and say,
Lord, we want to be these ones who meet Your need and defeat Your enemy! Lord, we want to rise up and exercise the keys of the kingdom. We want to fight Your enemy in our being, in our environment, in the church life, in the family life, at work, and everywhere – until we descend with You as the accompanying mighty ones to finally destroy Satan together! Lord, today it is time to fight! It’s time to rise up and be one with Christ! Lord, open the doors! Lord, shut the gates! Lord, bring in the kingdom!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother M. Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, partially quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of the Minor Prophets, week 7 (entitled, Christ Coming Back as the Real David to Restore His Kingdom).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Our mouth shut up defeats us / And wins the Devil’s smile; / So why not open battle / And chase him all the while.
# Therefore you must declare / Christ’s victory; / The situation dark / Soon changed will be.
# Oh, the Lord is quickly coming, / He has spoken in His Word; / And confirmed it by the churches, / For His Spirit we have heard.
# Glorious things to thee are spoken, / Philadelphia, church of love. - Picture credit: prayer.
Amen!!!
amen!
God needs to gain His kingdom first in all churches.God desires to have a kingdom,so that He may build up His church,His body,His dwelling place.