Basileia
“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven” Matthew 6:10
I can still recall the sound of my childhood church in unison praying the Lord’s prayer. It was a Sunday morning tradition that sealed an hour of the congregation gathering together to petition, intercede, praise, and express gratitude to the Lord. My family tried to attend the hour of prayer regularly, and I didn’t love it as a child. My mom would elbow me if she noticed my lips weren’t moving and then soon I would be stumbling on the Romanian words and pronunciation. Being a bilingual kid was difficult for me. And, somewhere in the mix of translation, depth, and character slipped the meaning of words. But honestly, I don’t think that’s just a bilingual issue. Sometimes, in repetition and monotony, we lose sight of “what” and “why.”
It’s a bit terrifying to think that I am an adult now. Somewhere along the way, I had to choose what my own faith would be. I’ve gained autonomy over what disciplines would be in my rule of life. Prayer is a discipline that I wasn’t directly taught about as a child, but I was always a witness. As I’ve been growing in my faith, I have found discipline isn’t natural for me. If you know me, you know I am a big “go with the flow” type of gal. I never had the deepest love for rules. Therefore, pursuing disciplines to grow my faith was a wrestle for the longest time. I realized that if I wanted to be a disciple of Jesus, I had to find a forming depth and desire to pursue growth through spiritual disciplines.
I needed to believe that what I was pursuing had weight. I needed to see that if I wanted a life in prayer, I needed to believe God is not just managing evil but destroying it. That my prayers mattered and that they release real power into the tangible world to push back the curse that has infected our world. That through Christ, God won our authority back to restore us as intercessors. And that, truly, there is an invitation to storm into the throne room. Tyler Staton worded it best, “Prayer is heaven's highest security clearance—free access to stroll right into the heavenly vault, gather up whatever we can carry, and hand it out to the world.” Prayer is a seed to be sown and a seed that will never die. Through the seasons, prayer has become the ark that has carried me through so that I would remain in Christ through the great depths and trials.
As I prayed throughout my childhood Matthew 6:10, “ Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,” I’ve come to find a deeper weight in the word, “kingdom.” If you asked me what I thought the word meant a couple of years ago, I would’ve probably said it is a territory in which a monarch exercises authority. But, I wanted to understand what the Bible meant by choosing this word. If we dive deeper into the wording of “kingdom,” used in scripture, I truly believe we find something outstanding. In the Old Testament we find the Hebrew word, “Malkuth,” and in the New Testament we find the Greek word, “Basileia.” The central meaning of the word is that a kingdom is an authority to rule. It is the sovereignty of the king.
The Kingdom of God is not just geographically something we wait for to come in Christ’s second coming, it is Christ’s Kingship now and forever. When we pray for His Kingdom to come, we are asking for his perfect authority to touch the earth and bring order back from chaos. The central meaning of it is more than begging for his coming to be expedited, it is waging war on the enemy. It is breaking satanic power, deliverance, and using our authority which we received through Jesus.
For the mystery of the Kingdom of God is that the Messiah came clothed in mercy and grace. The Jews may have had their agenda and expectations of what a savior was and would do. But Jesus had his own. He didn’t come to use his basileia to overcome Rome’s. He came to take away Satan’s. Out of His masterful mind, mercy, and grace, Christ comes to bring order to the spiritual mess so that He could invite us to usher in His basileia (authority; right to rule) in every crevice of Creation.
For this is the mission of the Kingdom: Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” There is meaning in history as God holds her for the church to complete the task at hand. So that all will see His mighty reign, authority, justness, and the deepest love. God comes to prepare places. Through Christ, we have been prepared, armored up, and sent to wage war on the enemy. Christ has ensured the victory. We would be a fool to turn down such an offer.
Loui Giglio once said, “If we could see what happens when we pray, we would never cease to pray.” I’m calling myself out here, I wish I was more intentional about living a life in prayer. It’s been weighing heavily on my heart to thread deeper in prayer and I want to extend that invitation. In what places ought we go to usher in His supreme authority and reign? In what places within us lack His basileia?
Lord,
Search us. Open our eyes to see your reign and sovereignty. Open our eyes to see what you see; our hearts to break for what breaks yours. Convict us into the deepest loyalty and love for you so that, by your mercy, we may lay down our lives as a living sacrifice; may it be a pleasing aroma to you. Give us the boldness to usher in your authority over all of who we are, so that we may be unified. Give us the boldness. Give us the urgency and heart to fall to our knees and weep for the nations that have yet to hear the name of Jesus. Give us the confidence to go and be doorholders and ushers of your kingdom.
Your Kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Amen.