Hello All,

In Matthew 6, Jesus taught the disciples to pray “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  I believe that one of the greatest challenges we face as believers is to keep our focus on His kingdom and not on ours.  Jesus came to establish the kingdom and He left us with the mission of expanding it on the earth. 

Matt 10:7-8
7 And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'  8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. NKJV

As usual, I want to define a few of these words so that we can better understand what is being communicated.

Preach– to be a herald, to publish, to proclaim openly (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon)

Kingdom– a realm, royal power, dominion, rule (Strong’s Concordance & Thayer’s Greek Lexicon)

At Hand– to bring near, to join one thing to another (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon)

I want to take these definitions and give you “Todd’s Amplified Version” of verse 7…

As you go, be a herald and proclaim openly, that the realm and rule of God has been brought near and joined to you.

Wow, that excites me…we have the privilege of not only being in His kingdom but also bringing people into the realms of God…we get to join them to God and His kingdom.  Paul declared that we have been given the “ministry of reconciliation”...

2 Cor 5:18-19
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. NKJV