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ENTERING GOD’S KINGDOM

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” JOHN 3:5 (ESV)

When we read the Gospels, we discover that a large part of Jesus’ ministry involved preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. He traveled through towns and villages telling people, essentially, There is a kingdom, and I’m the King. You’re not in the kingdom yet—but if you’ll follow Me, you will be the King’s subject and a citizen of the kingdom.

When we pray “Your kingdom come” (Luke 11:2), therefore, our desire should be that men and women would be brought into Christ’s kingdom by new birth—that they would become committed followers of Jesus. We pray for those who live in rebellion against God to be “delivered … from the domain of darkness and transferred … to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). Jesus made it perfectly clear that the only way to enter into His kingdom is by this new birth.

Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus in John 3 underscores this truth. Nicodemus was a religious man, a man of authority and influence—and yet he was still restless, still seeking. As he engaged Jesus in conversation, Jesus pointed out the necessary prerequisite for both seeing and entering His kingdom: to be born again by the Spirit. This new birth is brought about, He said, not by nature but as a result of God’s Spirit working a miracle in the human heart. No one is able to enter the kingdom without Him working in them; no one is too far away from the kingdom for Him to work in them.

When we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we are asking for eyes to be opened and ears to be unstopped so that men and women may be born again. The King is coming to usher in His everlasting kingdom, and the King is at work today by His Spirit to bring men and women into that kingdom. Until the day of our King’s return, may your awareness of the way people enter Christ’s kingdom produce increasing wonder over your own conversion and a burning passion to pray that the Spirit would do what only He can in the hearts of the lost.

• How is God calling me to think differently?
• How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?
• What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading: JOHN 3:1-15