Although the day fell sometime in mid-February, it was blazing hot and fiercely sunny outside. I was sitting in a cozy Starbucks in the middle of Lima, drinking my frothy drink of luxury that was meant to momentarily sweep me away from my reality as a missionary living in Peru. There I was, amidst the typical coffee shop hustle and bustle, engaging in one of those ordinary-turned-monumental moments in my life.
All I could wonder sitting across from Michael and Kathy was why no one had ever told me about this before. He was going on and on in his teaching way, expounding, explaining and exhorting from the very core of his being on this source of passion in his life. My eyes were filled with bewilderment, captivated by every word he spoke. What was it?
The Kingdom.
I knew of it in the prayers I was told to pray since I was young and in the scriptures I memorized, but I had never grasped even an ounce of fullness of dimension to it. Up until that moment, it was a flat word on paper that merely carried letters, not breath. But that day, something drastically shifted. Emerging from deep within me was a rushing river of refreshing life and promise.
I know less about it today than ever, I think. I carry way more questions and ponderings. And yet, on that day that I drank my Peruvian latte, I consciously decided to embark on a journey of discovery into its depth, resurrection power, and earthly presence. I am convinced it will leave me traversing uncharted grounds for the rest of life.
Jesus showed up proclaiming a new day and that the time had come. The time for what, exactly? The time for the Kingdom – for the power and presence of a heavenly realm to come and pour into every fiber of earth. The minute those skies were torn above Him, nothing remained the same – the heavens poured out, the spirit descended and the time was at hand for the kingdom to come forth.
And the beauty of the kingdom is that it’s something words can’t put boxes around and human concepts can’t contain. It’s a collision of process and promise. A messy mash-up of waiting ground, promise land, and desert silence. It was the dawn of a new day, when that which was in Heaven now was to come crashing down… so that kingdom would birth forth in fullness on earth.
Click below to listen into session 3, based on chapter 4, of this crazy journey through Mark.
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