ئەپەکە بەدەست بهێنەA Time of Warنموونە
I started to realize that God Himself actually assumes responsibility of building His church. He never wanted us to be responsible for that to begin with.
In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says: “I will build My church .…” (emphasis added).
Never had I considered whether or not I should be planting and building churches on His behalf. This realization didn’t just disrupt the journey I was on, but the trajectory of what I envisioned the rest of my life to look like.
I continued to pray through my conversation with God and quickly came to the conclusion what He was asking from me was very simple—something that had been “hiding in plain sight” all along. I had just never seen it this way.
What God had asked from me was not to help Him plant a bunch of churches, but to help Him establish His kingdom on earth!
Let me repeat that in different words. Sure, God wanted a church, but He didn’t want us to be responsible for building it. However, as the church, He did want us to share the responsibility of governing His kingdom on earth.
I had never seen it this way. But as I read Scripture, now I suddenly saw it everywhere.
All that God ever wanted was a kingdom on earth. And everything that He has ever done since the beginning of creation has been to establish His kingdom on earth as it already is in heaven.
It started in the garden of Eden, where He placed man and gave him the authority to rule on His behalf and expand His domain across the face of the earth (Genesis 1:26).
In fact, the story of David is a story of that same kingdom that God had in mind from the beginning of time. The history of David and his journey to kingship prophetically foreshadows the same journey we are on as His people today.
As His people we are destined to be kings in His kingdom.
Suddenly, I saw that “the kingdom” was all that Jesus ever talked about. Literally EVERYTHING He ever shared tied back to that kingdom. His parables, His preaching, His conversation with Nicodemus, His prayers … literally EVERYTHING He ever said and did related one way or the other to that kingdom that God wanted us to be part of.
About this Plan
In this leadership plan, Martijn van Tilborgh equips readers with the biblical strategies, stories, perspectives, and advice to navigate the cultural shift that is occurring in the church. When we better understand the kingdom culture which we all should be striving for with intentionality, we can more effectively pursue it in our lives and in the church.
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