We tend to look at the kingdom through the eyes of the world, when we should look at the world through the eyes of the kingdom. We cannot expect kingdom power through worldly sources. Kingdom power comes from kingdom living. Jesus modelled for us at the cross that power comes through sacrifice, not strength. When we trust Christ’s ways and love his kingdom and not ourselves, that’s when we experience Christ’s power most fully on earth.

We fail to recognize who Jesus is, trust His provision and understand His work even when we have abundant evidence before us. Our sin makes us all prone to unbelief and spiritual blindness Believing the gospel is recognizing that you have been spiritually blind and need Jesus to open your eyes to see Him for who he truly is. It is those who recognize their blindness that Jesus delights to help see.

We don’t experience answers to our prayers because we don’t humble ourselves enough to beg for God to move. Our pride keeps us from the humble posture that stirs God’s heart. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. It was Christ’s humility on the cross that most pleased the Father and released his power. When we humbly approach God on our knees like a beggar, we discover how ready God is to bless us with his provision.

Our sin comes from our defiled hearts that twist and distort God’s ways to make them fit our ways. Instead of conforming to His image, we try to make God into our image, and that distorted, man-made God can do us no good. Our hearts are so wicked that Christ had to die to pay for our evil. But he was willing to, and on the third day, he rose from the grave in glorious power by which he can give us a new heart. We must not pretend that we are good when we are bad. We must confess we are bad so that he can make us good!

We tend to trust ourselves or worldly power to satisfy our greatest need. We are spiritually hungry and helpless, and we put our trust in earthly kingdoms when there is only one king who can satisfy and save. Jesus is the compassionate and sovereign king who provides what sinful and broken people cannot provide for themselves. Earthly kings take life, but Jesus does more than just give life; he satisfies it. We can trust our king with all that we have, because his resources never fail.

Doubt cripples even Jesus’s work. When we doubt of what God can do, we forfeit the power of his dominion in our lives. He is infinite in power, but his power is only available to those who believe in what he can do. Doubt dams up the flow of God’s power into our lives and the lives of those around us. Jesus had the faith to face an undeserved death, and he had the power to overcome it. When we remember who Christ is, in all his glory and splendor, and when we have faith in what he can do, we receive his authority to supernaturally advance his mission in this world.

We tend to let fear keep us from experiencing the power of God. We forget that fear is the enemy’s tool to keep us trapped and powerless. The gospel teaches us that freedom is found in faith, not fear. When we approach Jesus with faith, we experience his power and freedom. When we live in fear, we experience despair and powerlessness.

We tend to respond to the unexpected things in life with fear towards our circumstances rather than faith in the one who rules over every circumstance. Jesus calls me to trust Him in the midst of difficult circumstances that he is still in charge and can hold me in perfect peace. When he brings me through great things, I must testify to his goodness in my life wherever I go.

Sin hardens our hearts, ultimately causing us to reject the message of the Kingdom, resist the transformation God wants to bring, and live fruitless lives. Jesus has revealed his kingdom to us, and we have the choice to receive it or reject it. When we receive it in true faith, he supernaturally causes the small, seemingly insignificant seed of the kingdom to grow in us, transform us, and make us bear fruit.

If we don’t recognize Jesus as Lord, we will end up fighting against him. If he is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all. We can’t follow him half-heartedly. Jesus’ defeat of death proved he is Lord of all. We must come to believe it. Sometimes God lets our needs draw us to need him enough to believe him. When we join him and choose to fall under his authority, we get his authority to build his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.