But HOW Do We Make the Earth His Kingdom?
Make the Earth His Kingdom just as Heaven is…
We know God is calling us to make the Earth His kingdom just as Heaven is.
Matthew 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.
We know God is love.
1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
It makes sense then that to make the Earth His kingdom, we are to make the Earth love. Heaven is love, and to make Heaven on Earth we live in love – feeling it, giving it.
We’ve all been given a spiritual gift in order to fulfill God’s desire for us to make the Earth His kingdom.
Romans 12:4-5 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
1 Peter 4:10-11 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
Let’s look at verse 7 again – 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
Related Post: We All Have a Gift. What’s Yours? | Spiritual Gift Assessment
We help in love, not out of duty. When we help only out of duty, our focus is on our works and does not come from our faith.
Regardless of our gift, we are to use it to live Heaven on Earth – love. When our spiritual gifts are active, the presence of God’s Holy Spirit is among us.
There is no gift of rejecting others, no gift of denying others, no gift of judging others.
Jesus took in everybody. He took in the tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers. He loved them and cared for them. Never did He turn them away and refuse to serve them. Never did He tell them, “You’re not welcome here.”
Matthew 9:10-11 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
If we are followers of Christ, why should we be any different?
John 13:35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Another good reminder of how we should be living. Thanks Julie.
I so agree. We need to create His kingdom here so that all can experience and know His love. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Mary!