"Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done... on Earth as it is in Heaven." -Jesus

I remember it well. I think of it almost every day.

Sitting by the resort pool on a sweltering summer day outside of Phoenix; my wife to my left, my friends Gary and Emily to my right, and two new friends, a brother and sister from Guatemala across the small table from me all seated underneath the sail cloth... we spoke of the Kingdom.

We were on break at a conference where around 3,000 hardcore Believers had gathered to fellowship, pray, worship, learn, and prophesy of the coming Kingdom of our shared Father. "The Kingdom" was on my mind as usual... it haunts me and stalks me day and night. I can never escape it. Its brilliant light seems drawn to my darkness like flame to a moth. I am utterly compelled and governed by its force, yet struggle to define its basest meaning. It's more than a word, a movement... I fight tears often when I see so many others in one place and can feel the same invisible pulse flowing through our veins. It's not often I feel I truly fit in. It's nice not to have to pretend I'm a regular person.

We sat struggling to articulate and manipulate words to describe this phenomenon. I think in numbers and words. My wife can see pictures. As we all shared her eyes lit up with a memory; an image from her past. She remembered a mission trip to India she went on before we met. While visiting a large city in the southern portion of this vast nation, she was struck by the skyscrapers. Everywhere she looked new enormous steel structures were being erected as the nation's economy evolved and transformed. Even more striking was the chaos, the mixing of old and new. In fact, every direction you looked one could also see old world thatched huts. In the shadow of skyscrapers, right beside and even on the rooftops lived poor citizens in tiny thatched structures, burning wood with no power or technology to speak of. It was a strange and unfamiliar scene to the American team.

As the memory faded, a new picture came to her mind, given by our Father. The whole earth was occupied by men in thatched huts; living ancient lifestyles. She described it to us as she watched. Suddenly, she zoomed out until she could see the circle of our planet from space. As she watched, great steel I-beams came from all directions of the heavens. They collided with Earth embedding deep into the surface of the world like mighty javelins, much to the wonder of all mankind. These great steel beams were beyond comprehension and explanation to the simple humans and extended to the sky higher than they could see. Such an event caused quite a stir on Earth and evoked many responses from man; but three particular responses were highlighted.

The first man peeked out of his thatched hut in fear. He did not and could not understand the objects. He cautioned others to stay away from these things, as surely they must be dangerous. In fact, he was careful not to keep company with those that differed in their views towards the objects; always mindful to hold on to the traditions and way of life he knew so well. He invited all passerby's in to the safety of his hut. He warned others of the signs of coming destruction to man and labored with much zeal to bring as many as he could to the safety of huts.

A second man watched with great joy and excitement as the beams buried themselves in the land. He acknowledged the heavenly objects as a gift from God and quickly moved his hut to the base of the nearest beam. Realizing how sturdy the new objects are; he got a great idea. He began to build. He toiled for days gathering and weaving. Once he gathered enough thatching for MANY huts, he made a ladder and fastened thatching high on the beam. He then continued to toil until he completed the most colossal thatched hut the world had ever seen, with a steel support beam as its central support. Many gathered in this new super-hut regularly and thanked God for the steel beams he sent to earth. Soon others built bigger and better super-huts modeled after the success of the first until the world was dotted with these new thatched structures.

A third man saw the beams coming from the sky. He knew in his heart somehow the world was forever going to be changed and believed this was a sign of a new age. As the beams came down he fell on his face before the Lord asking what he should do; feeling enormously humbled by the magnitude of what he saw. His heavenly Father from which the beams came heard his humble prayer, lifted his head, and handed him tools. Not the axe, rope, and hammer that he was so familiar with. No, these were heavy tools made from the same kind of materials as the beams. They made loud noises and could move and spin on their own accord and accomplish the work of many men. He worked diligently on the beam set before him with the tools he was given. Soon others joined him. Others yet began working on the other beams.

Zooming back out to space she could see a new structure being built and that all the beams began to be connected. This new structure began to cover the whole Earth, and was unlike anything ever built by man... even extending to space and connecting the Earth to the heavens.

As she described this vision, the spirit spoke discernment to my mind. I knew this image was about the church. The first man was the religious man clinging to traditions, denomination, and false doctrine who did not know the Kingdom when he saw it because his rules and religion has departed from the heart of the Father.

The second was the super-church Christian: blending the church traditions with Kingdom revelation, accomplishing great and impressive things, but not tapping into the true power and intention of God, essentially creating a "cool" and super-size version of denomination monopolies with the wisdom of a business man, receiving a part, but not the whole.

The third man is what I regularly refer to as a "Kingdom Christian," ready to receive and be part of restoring and reconciling the world to Light and Truth in every way, realizing it's an honor to be a small part of the big picture, bearing no banner but Christ, uniting instead of dividing, binding the broken-hearted, overcoming the world and conquering the world with love instead of escaping the world.

I believe one of my tasks in this life is to help unite Kingdom Christians to accomplish Kingdom Works on the Earth. I hope this blog has increased your understanding of what that means.

If you are the "third kind", I invite you to joinwww.kingdomspot.com

and be part of a growing online community of the kingdom-minded. Find others, get your tools, and start working on your beams together. It's time Christians became one body with many parts and the mind of Christ. I think that's what He wanted for us, right?

-Clint Fiore

Tags: community, kingdom