And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

The concept of kingdom building has been somewhat controversial in the church. There are many who believe it is strictly forbidden somehow to mix religion with politics, not just around the family table at Thanksgiving, but in society as a whole. The church should be only about loving people, not about governing people. But does this ideology align with scripture?

Picture this: All He is, He is within us! In the moment of your personal salvation when He took up residence within you, He brought His world, His kingdom with Him. Although His kingdom is in the invisible realm (it has no physical borders), it is very real, nonetheless. Wherever you are, there is He and there is His kingdom! Grasping this concept may challenge us to think differently about what we see and experience in this life, because otherwise we’ll think what we see in the natural is more superior than the kingdom He brought with Him in the supernatural. It is not.

In a post I shared last week I mentioned that Proverbs 29:18 tells us that where there is no vision, the people perish.  In the sense that America has gone completely off the rails in what feels like to many to be only the last few years, we are perishing!

Evil is being furiously driven by principalities and powers that want our society to collapse, as if it were a giant Jenga game waiting to see which piece finally makes it happen. The breakdown of the United States is the only way to usher in a globally unified form of government, which if you believe in prophecy is the platform for the antichrist and his prophet. For this to succeed, people must be scattered, with their eyes drawn to chaos rather than a unifying vision.

The vision we are no longer seeing is that in Christ we ARE Kingdom Builders.

If you think about this on an individual level, Daniel continued to be a Kingdom Builder even while in Babylonian captivity regardless of the circumstances of his nation (Israel). It dawned on me that being a Kingdom Builder is not necessarily tied to the nation we live in but impacts the nation we live in.  

It is this vision that provides us with the structure that gives direction and a hope for our future.  We’re living through what happens when a nation as a whole does not benefit from the Kingdom Builders knowing their destiny and purpose.

As we live our lives being shaped by the Holy Spirit, that God-sense of morality is brought with us into every major sphere of society and in turn both impacts and shapes culture and laws. The more Kingdom Builders there are within a nation, the better off things will be for the nation they are in.

So how do we reconcile the fact that so many Christian leaders fail to see the importance of not only loving people but also impacting and governing society?

Priests and Kings: Revelation 1:5-6

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

What does it mean to be both priest and king?

With the exception of Melchizedek, the offices of priest and king were generally regarded as separate until Christ Himself entered the picture.  The two very rarely crossed circles, and if some in our society today had their way, they would continue being separate (so-called “separation of church and state”).  In today’s society it might be easier for us to get a clearer understanding if we look at it as a cross. 

• The priestly office represents the vertical: our relationship and union with God Himself (as ministers to and lovers of God) – relationship Heavenward.
• The kingly office represents the horizontal: our relationship with one another (as rulers and warriors against the forces of evil for the sake of ourselves and others) – relationship earthbound.

I believe one time in history when this priest-king vision was most solidly cast were the years leading up to, during, and shortly following the American Revolution. If you consider the sheer miracle of the United States and all the blessing that has flowed through us to other nations in years past, realizing the heritage of the United States and the faith required at the time to obtain it, you may begin to glimpse how many Kingdom Builders were concentrated in one single area at the time. They were not set out to build a physical kingdom or empire here on earth, no, they were simply being who God had created them to be, fulfilling God’s purpose and plan in their lives for that day and age. They too worked in every major sphere of society and were vocal and active about God’s law being prominent and becoming established. Generations around the world have been richly blessed as a result.

Our purpose on this earth is to disciple the nations (Matthew 28:19), to engage and shape every sphere within society so that the Kingdom of God is revealed in us and through us, bringing the Heavenly realm into our earthly one.  When this does not happen, society falls apart.