Our first post in this series, on promises of the kingdom, is here and our second one, on Jesus bringing the kingdom, is here.
Jesus gives us authority to do his work the way he worked on earth. We have the Holy Spirit and Spiritual gifts to empower us to invade the kingdom of darkness and conquer it with the kingdom of God. In this way, we begin to fulfill Adam’s original mission to be fruitful and fill the earth while bearing the image of God (Gen. 1:27-28). We are also the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29) and we are fulfilling the promise that God made to Abraham: “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:3, NIV).
Now Jesus’ mission is our mission because we are his agents. In other words, God wants to use you to accomplish many of the promises of the kingdom quoted above from the Old Testament and from Mary and Zechariah. This is our adventure. This is our new life in God, that we can be his channels for sowing the blessings of the kingdom in others. Jesus wants us to “gather” (Luke 11:23). We are his harvesters, inviting and gathering others for the New Creation to come. In other words, he is using us to fulfill the prophecies! He is our head and we, his followers, are his body. We are his arms and legs, responding to the leadings of his divine mind. He is coordinating his followers in his worldwide campaign to bring his kingdom to the whole earth.
Will we be able to complete the fulfillment of the kingdom of God? No. We must wait for Jesus to return and execute a final defeat of evil. But this does not discourage us because he is using us to expand his kingdom and bring history to the time when he returns. In fact, while Jesus is “gone” he makes us so successful that the kingdom of God will grow to be immense like a tiny seed grows into a gigantic tree (Matt. 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19). Even though comparatively few will enter the narrow gate to the kingdom (Matt. 7:14) the actual number of believers will form a “great multitude” (Rev. 7:9). So we succeed because in this overlapping age God empowers us live a kingdom life and to do many works of the kingdom.
