Andy Hall writes:
In Matthew 11:12, Jesus said “…the Kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it…”
This is not a permission to be physically violent, as in the Inquisition times but it does give us permission to push into the things of God with force and focus. In the old style January sales bargain hunters could be seen pushing in with force and focus to attain their prized goal!. Gaining the Kingdom is definitely not a matter of apathy, passivity or a “what will be will be…” situation.
We are called to forcefully advance into satan’s Kingdom so that it suffers loss, to inflict payback for all “…the years the locusts have eaten…”. Who are the agents of this Kingdom advance? We are! To quote from the film Gladiator “…what we do in life lives in eternity…”
What are the hallmarks of a forceful advancer?
Firstly, they are focused. They are not vague; they are focused on concrete obtainable objectives. They are focused in prayer for people, often keeping a prayer list of people they are regularly praying for. Prayer acts as a magnifying glass that focus the rays of God’s power and love down onto individuals with great effect.
Secondly, they are people of Faith. Faith is the substance of what we pray for. They expect to see results and will keep going until they see results and breakthroughs.
They will be fierce people. It matters to them that God wins and is seen to win. They are fierce to have a darkness destroying testimony that tells everyone what God has done. For them not to win is to miss out and it matters. To advance the Kingdom we have to be fierce against the enemies of God. We are called to “…wrestle against … power principalities and demonic forces…” We need to fiercely engage with our foe to bring them to a point of submission to our Jesus. We need to be fierce against demons, fierce against sickness and fierce against demonically inspired circumstances in our lives and faith community.
As we do these things constantly with perseverance the Kingdom of darkness will suffer loss and the Kingdom of heaven will advance in Bridlington
Andy Hall
Associate Minister CCBN