There is much history and many chronicles written about the rise and fall of earthly kingdoms, nations, families, and organizations. Their foundations were fragile because they were all built and ruled by human hands. From the fall of Egypt when God led the Hebrew nation out of slavery, to the fall of the Roman Empire; and more recently, the fall of the Third Reich after World War II, we see that no matter how strong an earthly kingdom appears, it is susceptible to corruption and decay. There is much evidence in history and in the present to warn us of how tenuous our grip on success is in this fallen world.
There is one kingdom though that is built by God and will never end but will endure for all eternity – for it cannot be shaken. This is the kingdom of God spoken about in “The Lord’s Prayer” from Matthew 5:
Our Father who is in heaven
Hallowed be Your name
Your kingdom come
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
When Christ stood before Pilate, he was asked if he was the King of the Jews; He replied, “My kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:36
In the book of Hebrews we read about that heavenly kingdom that we are called to:
Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
Psalm 84 paints an awesome picture of the saint’s perspective of the kingdom of God:
Psalm 84:1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
This is the kingdom of God that every believer is part of in this life, and in the life to come. When we place our trust in the Savior’s death on our behalf, we are spiritually reborn into His kingdom – that cannot be shaken. As we pray, “on earth as it is in heaven…” we know that our kingdom is also, “not of this world”. We now belong to our Creator and Redeemer – who is described in this same passage as a “consuming fire”. The only difference is, the glorious fire of his presence does not consume the saints – he burns – but we are not burned up. We are like the burning bush Moses encountered in Exodus:
Exodus 3:2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3 So Moses said, “ I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”
Like the song says:
We are part of a Kingdom
That cannot be shaken
With grateful hearts we worship God
With reverence and with awe
For our God is a consuming fire