Thy kingdom come

I have been thinking about "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." I have always prayed that as wishing for a distant reality: "Lord, will you someday bring an end to the stranglehold of Satan that is barring the way to the breaking in of your kingdom? Lord, will you hasten the time when your will-all purifying, restoring, and healing-is a present fact? May it be soon. Even in my lifetime."

But what if I have been wrong? What if that is not the main import of the Lord's Prayer at all? Oh, of course, there is a future world we await. But what if Jesus had in mind to give us a prayer guide for exercising daily, to call forth power right now for undoing all kinds of works of Satan? What if the kingdom is meant to come as you and I bring it on by availing ourselves of the Spirit's authority? So many Scriptures that I have given a futuristic twist to now seem to me capable of a present mandate: "For this purpose the Son of God came, that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8).

Try that on for size as a call to present empowerment. Vive la difference! See how good it feels! How much hope it yields for this hour's temptations, fears, and requests! What is the Kingdom, after all, but where Christ is? And He is here with us by His Spirit in us: And He is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than all we ask or imagine, by His power that works in us. There's an exaggeration-proof promise for you, and one impossible to shunt off to the future.