This article is the thrid in an occasional series I have entitled, Keys of the Kingdom. The title comes from a promise Jesus famously made to the apostle Simon Peter in Matthew 16:15-19.

He said to them, “But who do you say I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven to you. And whatever you may bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth shall occur, having been loosed in heaven.”

As explained in Part 1: The Foundation Stone, Peter was not the Rock upon which Jesus established his Church, divine revelation by the Holy Spirit was. And the keys of the kingdom, in turn, are those revelations that the Spirit imparts, and in Part Three, we shall re-evaluate the Biblical concept of that Kingdom and the believer's place in it.

In my article House of Prayer we looked at the relationship between what many call the Lord’s Prayer and the Tabernacle of Meeting, described in the book of Exodus. In it I took the reader on a short walk through the Tabernacle to illustrate the parallels between its design and furniture and the order of Jesus’ prayer and concluded by saying:

The reason I began in the Holy of Holies is because...I should like to expand on that theme and explain how it describes the Christians place in the Kingdom of God. I should also add this caveat: God is infinite and eternal and his Word is multilayered and multifaceted, so if you’ve read anything different that’s fine. This work is neither exhaustive nor definitive, merely complementary. We may glean many entirely different truths from Scripture, by examining them from a variety of perspectives and many times they are all correct.

What then is the House of Prayer? Quite simply, you are, and so am I. We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), and seated at the right hand of the Father in Christ Jesus:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’. (Ephesians 2:4-6)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3).

The mistake so many Christians make is in believing the lies of the devils to the contrary. To the contrary of what? - To the contrary of the Word of God.

God, not Satan, is the One who determines our position in the Kingdom of God.

But before we examine that position more closely, we have to establish what we mean by the Kingdom of God. What does it mean? Well, to understand this correctly, let’s first examine what we mean by kingdom.

In the United Nations General Assembly national representatives are seated alphabetically, which places the Britain very close to America, and prior to the collapse of Communism there, similarly near to Russia. Ideology had nothing to do with it. We were all listed under ‘U’ and that was that, because Britain‘s full name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or UK for short, while America is properly known as The United States of America or USA, and while Russia was once the dominant nation within the old Soviet Union - or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR.

So, we have a very clear idea of what a sovereign kingdom is in this world. In Britain’s case it is the land occupied by England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, along with those semi-autonomous tax havens of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. We are a Kingdom because our Head of State is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, whose constitutional function is distinct from our head of government, the Prime Minister. Although a Parliamentary Democracy, no law is enacted without the Royal Assent of the Queen’s signature. And while Parliament is considered constitutionally sovereign, the Sovereign’s person is more than a titular nicety because, as it has been observed, the importance of the Queen is not in the power she wields but in the power she denies to others. So long as she is there, she acts as a curb on the absolute power of government.

As Head of State, the Queen opens Parliament, advises Prime Ministers, embodies the Crown, and is the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces: the Royal Navy, the British Army, the Royal Marines and the Royal Air Force. In the Queen’s name, her ministers govern, her soldiers prosecute war, and the police keep the peace. Once you enter British airspace or territorial waters or land at a British port, international law considers you to have entered the sovereign territory of the United Kingdom. The Crown now has its eye on you.

So, that’s a Kingdom, right?

Well, if you fly on a British registered plane, sail in a British registered vessel, or step into a British Embassy anywhere in the world, international law still considers you to be under British sovereignty, so the Kingdom may extend beyond the borders of the Queen’s realm, because kingdom is about more than territory, it is about something called hegemony. Deriving from the Greek hegemon meaning leader, hegemony basically connotes influence and this is much closer to the idea of the Kingdom of God than the territorial concept most people seem to have.

The territorial concept of kingdom has distorted Christian thinking for too long, whereby many Christians consider it synonymous with Heaven. It’s where believers go when they die; one moment we’re on earth, the next instant we awake in the Kingdom of God, in the presence of Jesus, his angels and a multitude of saints.

And there is an aspect of truth in that but it’s not all that Jesus spoke about. Again it is like the United Kingdom inasmuch as I live there because I live in Glasgow. That’s like living in heaven where the writ of God’s will is absolute. But there is also this ambassadorial aspect to the Kingdom, where God’s representatives take it with them wherever they go.

The apostle Paul said as much in Ephesians 6:19-20,

And pray for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds; so that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

But before you dismiss Paul's words as just pertaining to apostles, he says in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

‘Anyone’, ‘the world’, ‘us’, ‘we’ - this is inclusive language, and that includes you and me.

Yes, but Paul says we are ‘ambassadors of the Gospel’ and ‘for Christ’ but not ‘the Kingdom of God’.

If you believe that, then you can never obey Jesus’ direct commission in Mark 16:15.

And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Gospel means Good News, and Jesus says to proclaim it, but what Gospel? Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:14.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

So, the Gospel is the Good News about the Kingdom of God. But what’s that? - Simply that it’s already here. In Matthew 12:25-28, Jesus said this:

Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Or how about Mark 1:15b, in which Jesus said:

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

Repent means to change ones mind and think in a different way, which here Jesus links to believing the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand, because at that time he was his Father’s Ambassador to the world - what we would call an apostle, from the Greek apostolos, meaning Sent-out-one. But that was not the end of Jesus’ ministry, only the beginning, because in John 20:21 we read:

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."

And, in John 14:12-13:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

And why? Because the Kingdom of God was at hand (in Jesus) and was about to be released. Jesus gave us a glimpse of this truth when he said something quite astounding about John the Baptist in Luke 7:28.

I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

What did Jesus say about John the Baptist? - That he was the greatest prophet born under the Old Covenant, but that made him less that the least in the Kingdom. How so? Because New Covenant believers are established under a covenant ratified in Jesus’ Blood and are born again, which John was not. Meanwhile, further proof that the Kingdom of God was no future abstract is found in Mark 9:1-8.

And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power."

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.

Peter, James and John witnessed right there and then what Jesus himself called ‘the kingdom of God after it has come with power.’

So, the Kingdom of God is not some invisible abstract or vague somewhere, it is the concrete here and now wherever the will of God is believed and made manifest. Or, as Jesus put it in Matthew 6:10 -

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

And, as I explained in my article House of Prayer, Jesus’ model prayer takes us on a journey through the Tabernacle from the inside out: from the Holy of Holies to the Outer Court. This is substantiated in Hebrews 14:14-16, which tells us:

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Since Jesus’ finished work on the Cross, there is no longer any separation between God and believers. We no longer need to shout from a distance or bombard the heavens with our prayers in the hope of being heard, because when Jesus died on the Cross, God the Father ripped the veil of the Temple in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). Now we are seated at his right hand in Christ and need only whisper intimately in his ear and he will hear us.

In what we call the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus takes us on a progress outwards from God’s throne, not inwards from without, because that is where God positioned has the believer, not because of any righteousness or merit on our part but because of the shed Blood of his precious Son sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, or Throne of Grace.

As a result of our new position, we enjoy an entirely new status in the Kingdom, which both Simon Peter and the apostle John refer to:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

…even from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests to God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5-6)

Nor should it come as any surprise to those who believe in the One that Revelation 19:26 calls, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’, or had you never wondered who the kings and lords were, over whom he is King and Lord? But the ultimate secret of the Kingdom of God is in how we enforce his hegemony. In one sense its no secret at all, but has been hidden in plain sight all along. It only takes the open mind of one willing to see to discover it because, as I have long said, God does not hide things from us but for us. Rather like a loving father playing hide-and-seek with his children, when God hides himself in a cupboard it’s not to avoid us, but so that we can experience the joy of discovering him again. Psalm 25:2 puts it this way:

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

So, if the Kingdom of God is his will being done on earth as it is in heaven, how is that actually achieved? Let’s look at the Old Covenant example cited in James 5:17.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

This Scripture is often used to exhort believers to pray fervently or earnestly as the King James Version puts it. Just look at the power his words had, the pastor or priest will say as they cite Elijah’s example in 1 Kings 18:41-45 as a model of prayerful fervency.

And Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain." So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, "Go up now, look toward the sea." And he went up and looked and said, "There is nothing." And he said, "Go again," seven times. And at the seventh time he said, "Behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea." And he said, "Go up, say to Ahab, 'Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.'" And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.

Seven times Elijah prayed, persisting even when nothing seemed to be happening. He even curled up with his face between his knees, like a woman in labour. Man, was Elijah fervent! There’s just one thing wrong with this picture: It wasn’t the instance that James was referring to in his epistle, because James didn’t mention that Elijah ‘prayed fervently that it might rain’, but ‘that it might not rain’. And that was a different prayer altogether, as we can see by turning to 1 Kings 17:1.

Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word."

This time Elijah’s prayer occupies less than one verse of scripture. At only twenty-four words in my English translation, and just seventeen words of Hebrew (fewer, if you discount hyphenated compounds), we might even describe it as terse. I’ve tried it, and far from the seven times he prayed to bring rain, even in English Elijah’s whole prayer to stop it only lasts about seven seconds. Yet even without all the constipated histrionics, the Word of God describes it as fervent. How so? Because Elijah believed God and spoke his word confidently.

And did you notice how Elijah ended his prayer? - ‘…there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’ Whose word? Actually, by God‘s word. But so welded was Elijah to the will and word of God that he had made it a part of himself. It had become Rhema - the spoken Word of God, and it was Elijah who chose to speak it. How do we know? Because we find it in Leviticus Chapter 26, where God promises rain to his faithful people but warns of famine should Israel turn to idolatry, the very sin they had become steeped in under Ahab and Jezebel.

You shall make no idols to yourselves; and you shall not set up for yourselves graven images, or a memorial pillar. And you shall not set up any image of stone in your land in order to bow down to it. For I am Yahweh your God… then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time…But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments…I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain. For your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the field yield their fruits. (Leviticus 26:1, 4, 14, 16, 19-20)

It was this promise that Elijah seized upon and made rhema. And what’s a rhema? Rhema is the second most commonly occurring Greek word in the New Testament to be translated as ‘word’, the most common being ‘logos’. They are very similar in many respects and often interchangeable but rhema is seldom used of anything other than the spoken word. By way of analogy, our son Robert is in the Army and if he’s sent into action he will go equipped with a weapon - that’s logos. But the moment he pulls the trigger - that’s rhema. And that’s what we do when we make the Word of God our own and speak it with authority: We wield a weapon that the apostle Paul calls ‘the Sword of the Spirit’ in Ephesians 6:17.

But how was that rhema put in Elijah’s heart? Through the Holy Spirit, because remember, Elijah was a prophet which was relatively rare under the Old Covenant. However, we are under the New Covenant, and remember what Jesus said about John the Baptist: the least New Covenant believe would be greater than the greatest Old Covenant prophet. The veil has been torn and all believers can now hear from God.

That’s how things are done in the Kingdom of God, because the Lord’s Prayer was not so much a model as a route map showing us the position we start from and the direction we are expected to go from there. But we were never expected to walk that way alone. We see this enacted by another prophet, Ezekiel, much of whose book relates a walk in the spirit on which he is taken by the Lord Jesus until, right at the end he says this:

"These shall be the exits of the city: On the north side, which is to be 4,500 cubits by measure, three gates, the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah, and the gate of Levi, the gates of the city being named after the tribes of Israel. On the east side, which is to be 4,500 cubits, three gates, the gate of Joseph, the gate of Benjamin, and the gate of Dan. On the south side, which is to be 4,500 cubits by measure, three gates, the gate of Simeon, the gate of Issachar, and the gate of Zebulun. On the west side, which is to be 4,500 cubits, three gates, the gate of Gad, the gate of Asher, and the gate of Naphtali. The circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, Yahweh Is There." (Ezekiel 48:30-35)

Ezekiel is perhaps the most mystic of all the prophetic books, and there isn’t time to examine every point here, except to observe that the gates to the city he mentions which represents the presence of God, are not points of entry but exits.

You see, Salvation is gift. We don’t strive to attain it, it is given to us, and when we are born again we already have it. So we are not in the position of supplicants attempting to appease an angry God in order to approach him, but belovè d sons of our heavenly Father who desires that we take what he has given us and go out and use it. Or to repeat once again the words of Jesus in John 20:21, that he spoke to his disciples all those years ago:

"Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."