Kingdom Power (4)

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord isat hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4.5-7

Kingdom work
In scientific terms, power is related to work. When power is present, work is accomplished. When work needs to be done, power is applied. When the water of a dammed river rushes through turbines, electrons are agitated and electricity is generated. When electrons race against each other in a copper wire, electricity is harnessed, enabling light or machines to accomplish work. Where there’s power, there’s work.

In the same way, when the power of God’s Spirit – which is the Kingdom of God – is welling up and flowing out through the various aspects of our souls and bodies, work gets done – the work of Christ’s Kingdom, work which identifies those who perform it has having made the Kingdom turn.

That work consists in the demonstration of righteousness and love, as we have seen. But where righteousness and love abound, the work of the Kingdom will also take the form of peace. If righteousness defines the character of the Kingdom of God, peace defines the condition that character creates.

The condition of the Kingdom
Peace is not merely a state of mind. Peace is a condition of wellbeing which results from work, from the flow of Kingdom power in and through Kingdom people. The attainment of peace requires diligent effort on the parts of those in whom power is working to accomplish peace (Eph. 4.3).

Power for peace is the second manifestation of the Kingdom of God, the second end toward which Kingdom power operates; and it is a power greatly longed-for by the people of our world. The peace of God’s Kingdom is threefold in nature: it has an objective, subjective, and existential aspect.

Our threefold peace
Objectively, the peace of God’s Kingdom establishes us in a relationship of rest and love with God. We are at peace with God, Paul reminds us, when we have come under the umbrella of Jesus’ saving mercy and received the gift of grace He offers in His Name (Rom. 5.1). This is the work of God’s Spirit, who brings us the gift of faith as we hear and receive the Good News of forgiveness and the Kingdom of God (Gal. 4.6).

The peace we have with God overcomes all sense of fear, dread, indifference, or animosity we might have felt toward Him, and is a permanent and irrevocable condition for all who have made the Kingdom turn. The peace by which Jesus brings His rule to bear in our lives removes whatever hostility may have existed between us and God, making us no longer His enemies, but His friends and children (Rom. 5.10; Jn. 1.12).

Our objective peace with God thus established, we begin to know subjectively the experience of shalom which guards our hearts from fear, our minds from doubt, our consciences from guilt, and our lives from every form of temptation or trial. At peace with God we revel in the peace we know in our souls, and that peace enables us to grow in hope and glory as we continue to rest in and nourish ourselves on the grace of God.

This peace is the fruit of the Spirit of God, Who comes to us with the gift of faith, enabling us to believe and be saved (Gal. 5.22, 23). It is a peace that passes understanding, that no conditions of the world or hatred of men can destroy, and that is unlike any peace we can know by any other means (Phil. 4.6, 7; Jn. 16.33; Jn. 14.27).

Finally, the power of God’s Kingdom works toward existential peace – peace, that is, in all the circumstances, relationships, and situations in which we find ourselves. They who are at peace with God, and know His peace within their souls, become agents of peace in a world where real peace is sorely lacking in many ways. Whatever other powers come into their hands are directed, by Kingdom power, toward the ends of righteousness and peace.

Peace is the fruit of righteousness and love, the extension to others of the reality of the Kingdom of God and the indwelling Spirit. Believers who know God’s peace are called to be at peace with all people (Rom. 12.18). The work of peace-making is one of the great challenges and opportunities with which the citizens of God’s Kingdom are confronted every day.

But where the power of the Kingdom is really at work, making peace will be simply what we do, a labor of love flowing the peace we have within our souls, and the peace we know with God as citizens and ambassadors of His Kingdom.

The power of the Kingdom is the power for peace. They who know God’s peace will work for peace, as the Kingdom comes in and through them in every area of their lives.

Next steps: What kinds of things can keep us from working for peace with others? How might we overcome these challenges so that the power of the Kingdom can flow for peace within and through us? Talk with some Christian friends about these questions.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Kingdom Power, is the sixth of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.