Week 6 - Day 3
FILLING - PRAY IT
Our Father in heaven.
I thank you that You are our Father because …
Your name be honored as holy.
In …
Your Kingdom come.
May Your rule and reign come to …
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
THE ALREADY BUT NOT YET
Do you know of someone who was healed through prayer? What happened?
Do you know of someone who wasn’t healed through prayer? What happened? How did you deal with it?
The Way believes that God’s healing power is still available today and that healing prayer is an important part of the ministry of the church.
However, we also know there is tension between the Already and Not Yet of God’s Kingdom. We all struggle with expectations and disappointments. How can we live in this tension and with this struggle?
This is from WHAT IS THE KINGDOM? A Vineyard Perspective on the Kingdom of God:
The Kingdom Not Yet
While the kingdom of God was breaking into the world through Jesus, all human suffering, pain, and difficulty did not disappear. In fact, it still remains with us to this day. For Jesus, while the kingdom of God was happening in the present, it was also yet to come in all its fullness in the future.
Through Jesus, God had inaugurated the kingdom on earth, but he would consummate it one day in the future. In practical terms, this means that when we pray for the sick (a hallmark of the Vineyard from the beginning), some will be healed and others will not. Yet, with faith, we pray confidently for healing and entrust the results to God.
The Dynamic Tension We Live In
In the Vineyard, we embrace this dynamic tension. While we believe that God’s kingdom can invade any moment of our lives, not everyone will experience God’s love the way we want for them. We rejoice when one person experiences a miracle of healing, while we grieve as another person succumbs to the effects of cancer or poverty.
Some Christians respond to this tension between the now and the not yet of the kingdom by saying that God does not do miracles today. They contend that the gifts given by the Spirit of God were just for Jesus’ time and are not available to us now.
Some Christians respond to this tension by largely ignoring the reality that suffering continues in the world. These groups triumphantly declare that the kingdom should always be experienced demonstrably in the here and now—or something is wrong. If we don’t experience a moment of physical healing or personal transformation, it is probably our fault. For them, unanswered prayer reveals a lack of faith in us—and we had better work up more if want to see God do what he has promised to do.
How We Carry This Tension In The Vineyard
In the Vineyard, we choose to respectfully step away from both of these extremes. We believe that a necessary tension will always exist between the now and the not yet of the kingdom. We pray for the sick, and we have seen many healed. We do the work of compassion, and we have seen the poor restored to hope. But we do not always see the results we want to see this side of heaven. Yet we believe that every faith-filled act of prayer puts a deposit of love in to the person who is suffering. And we have testimonies from every corner of the earth that, at times, the kingdom of God does break through with power to heal those who are sick.
As we live in this interim time, the kingdom of God to come is our future hope. It is a day when the Scriptures tell us that “all things will be made new” (Rev. 21:5) and every tear will be wiped away from the face of the brokenhearted (Rev. 21:4). It is the day Isaiah prophesied would come (Is. 35:1-10), and John describes in his vision in Revelation 21:1-5. There will be no more innocent girls enslaved in the sex trafficking industry. There will be no more cancer. There will be an end to poverty. God will one day right this world.
Toward that day, we trust, we hope, and we pray in the way Jesus taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
You can picture the Already but Not Yet of the Kingdom like a massive dam.
At His first coming, Jesus opened the sluice gates—the river of the Kingdom of God is already flowing with great power. Yet there is still so much more to come. When Jesus returns, the dam will burst, and the river of the Kingdom will flood the whole world.
Sound the dam siren! The King has come—and He is coming again!
Stand AND Lean
What stance should we take regarding the Already and the Not Yet of God’s Kingdom? Think of it this way: just as we stand on two feet, we stand on both the Already and the Not Yet of God’s Kingdom. When we stand on both, we remain balanced.
However, as we stand on both legs, let’s lean toward The Already of God’s Kingdom. Let’s boldly pray and believe and hope for God’s Kingdom to come to earth now. Let’s lean, but not fall over.
As we lean into The Already, let’s remain aware—sometimes painfully aware—of The Not Yet. We’re not in heaven yet, but we still pray that heaven will increasingly come to earth in our lives and through our ministry.
How Much Kingdom Now?
The fullness of the Kingdom is still to come, so how much of the Kingdom can we experience in this life? Good question.
Rather than endlessly debating the answer, let’s go find out.
Let’s pray for the sick.
Let’s care for the poor.
Let’s share the good news of Jesus.
As we do, we will sometimes see the Kingdom break in with surprising power. Other times we will wait, hope, and continue to pray. This is what the Vineyard has often called living naturally supernatural lives—simply doing the things Jesus taught us to do while trusting the Holy Spirit to work through us.
One thing is certain though: we will experience far more of the Kingdom by practicing it than by wondering about it. So let’s lean into obedience and pray the prayer Jesus taught us:
Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Lord, I hear You saying …
With Your help, I will …
Give us today our daily bread.
Meet our daily needs of …
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Forgive me of my sin of …. And I forgive … of their sin against me of …
And do not bring us into temptation.
Help me to withstand the temptation of …
But deliver us from the evil one.
Satan is attacking me by … and I need Your help.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Filling’s Memory Work
Acts 4:31 (NIV)
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Buddy Contact
Don’t forget to pray for and connect with your buddy this week.