Kingdom Against Kingdom

In Luke chapter 21, Jesus, during His last few days before going to the cross for us, talked to His disciples about things to come. He spoke to them about the coming days when there would not be one temple stone left upon another (v.6), and about people coming and saying that they were the Christ returned to earth. In verse 10, He continued, and said to them that in the last days, “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”. The “nation against nation” we can easily understand, but what about this “kingdom against kingdom” thing? Jesus spoke frequently about the kingdom of God, and I believe that the kingdom vs. kingdom in verse 10 is the kingdom of Light (the kingdom of God) against the kingdom of darkness (the kingdom of Satan). God says through the apostle Paul that our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and spiritual forces of wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). That is exactly what is going on today in our world and society. There is a great battle between the kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness. It is everywhere, in all facets of life--Light vs. darkness.

We are in the fight of our life, and I for one, am tired of being a weary Christian. I keep fighting, but I am ready to win. The truth of the matter is, in Christ, we always win!! (2 Cor. 2:14). I sang a song several weeks ago, because the lyrics were very meaningful to me. The lyrics said:

“I long for the day I believe that all you say you see in me is true.”

They were meaningful, because I was thinking of it as saying-I long for the day that when everything God says about me will be true. The subtle difference in that is that the song actually says that I long for the day that I BELIEVE that what God says about me is true. The day of what God says about us being true is TODAY. It is not a someday thing out there somewhere. What God sees in us IS true. What God says about us IS true. Now. We just need to start believing it and walking in the power of it, and believe me, the revelation of who we are is powerful. We do not need to be weary Christians, beat down by every blow of our enemy. We can stand up and be victorious because of who we are in Jesus Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 5:17 for starters).

What does God say about us? What does He see in us? One of the things God says is that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. ( ). We are, not hope one day to be. We are. God says that we are more than conquerors through Christ. Notice that we are not just conquerors, we are MORE than conquerors. Do you believe, or perhaps more importantly, do you behave like you are more than a conqueror? I sadly confess that I have not been behaving like much of a conqueror lately. I get upset and bruised and try not to get too beat up. I assign more credit (and power) to my enemy than he really has. I realize that the devil comes to steal and destroy and crush us into the ground, but I need to stand on the rest of that verse in John 10:10, that Jesus came that we might have ABUNDANT LIFE. For this purpose was Jesus manifest- to DESTROY the works of the devil (I John 3:8). The One who resides in me is GREATER than my enemy (I John 4:4). I need to STAND on that! Jesus said that we would do greater things even than He did. Have you done any great things lately? The reason I haven’t is that I have not been appropriating God’s word into my life enough. We need to believe God’s words to us, get them into us deeply, and start behaving like who we really are. The word of God is Truth, the blood of Christ is powerful, and the name of Jesus that we claim is above all other names (Philippians 2:9). As we get rooted and grounded in the truth of God’s word, the power of Christ and start appropriating these in our lives, we will walk more in victory and LIFE.

The next time the enemy of my soul slaps me in the face, I intend to slap him right back, and keep slapping him with the WORD of God (Hebrews 4:12) until he backs off. That is part of the “good fight” that Paul talks about fighting (I Timothy 4:7).

Remember, you ARE the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and you can do all things through Christ Jesus, who strengthens you (Philippians4:13), including taking ground back from your enemy. Thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place (II Corinthians 2:14).