What Is Meant By “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done?”

We experience kingdom living here and now by:

     1.   Letting love be completely real (without hypocrisy)

     2.   Abhorring what is evil

     3.   Clinging to what is good

     4.   Being devoted to one another in brotherly love

     5.   Preferring that others be honored

     6.   Serving the Lord with fervency and diligence

     7.   Rejoicing in hope

     8.   Being patient in troubles

     9.   Being devoted constantly to prayer

   10.   Contributing to the needs of the saints

   11.   Practicing hospitality

   12.   Blessing persecutors and not cursing them

   13.   Being joyful with those who are rejoicing and being sorrowful with those in sorrow

   14.   Living in harmony with each other

   15.   Not being haughty, but fitting right in with the “lowly” in human terms

   16.   Not being wise in your own estimation

   17.   Never repaying evil for evil

   18.   Respecting what is true, good and right

   19.   Being at peace with everyone, so far as it depends on you

   20.   Never taking revenge but leaving that to whatever God may decide

   21.   Providing for needy enemies

   22.   Not being overwhelmed by evil but overwhelming evil with good – Romans 12:9-21

“This is the most adequate Biblical description of what the details of a spiritually transformed social dimension look like. We should pause to contemplate it. Just think for a moment what it would be like to be a part of a group of disciples in which this list was the conscious, shared intention, and where it was actually lived out, even if with some imperfection. You can see, I think, how it would totally transform the marriage relation and the home and family. Its effect on the community would be incalculable, as it in fact has been wherever realized throughout the history of Christ’s people on earth.”  Renovation of the Heart – Dallas Willard

If we truly want God’s kingdom to rule in our hearts—if we really want people to see Christ in us—we will, in the power of the Holy Spirit, allow these 22 qualities to be displayed in our lives.

John Wallace Miller