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What will Kingdom life look like?

As aspiring overcomers, we say with the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:12, 13,

¹² Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet…

Paul was speaking of the first resurrection, which is the promise given to the overcomers. He was not speaking of salvation itself but of the high calling of God, which is receiving immortality in the first squadron at the end of the present age. For this reason, we say that we are aspiring overcomers, having faith in the promise of God (Romans 4:21, and having hope in “the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).

Romans 8:24, 25 tells us,

²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Paul’s uncertainty has often been interpreted (mistakenly) to mean that he was uncertain of his salvation. For this reason, some have said that one cannot know for sure if he/she has been saved until he has passed from this life to the next. Others have taught that one can lose his/her salvation which Jesus obtained for the world through His death and resurrection. The truth is that salvation cannot be lost, but it can be postponed to a later resurrection or even to the end of time at the Creation Jubilee.

The New Covenant Promise

A promise is not the inheritance per se but is a guarantee that one will receive it in the future. The New Covenant, when received, guarantees that we will no longer have to be taught the ways of God, because, as God says, “all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them” (Hebrews 8:11). The fact that I am still led to teach the Word and the ways of God is evidence that the New Covenant still remains as a promise that is not yet realized in actual experience.

In other words, while we now aspire to fulfill the feast of Tabernacles, we are still in need of the baptism of fire which is burning the chaff from our hearts (Matthew 3:11). Our flesh is still in need of being consumed by the fiery nature of God and His law. Paul understood this, and so he could not claim perfection when writing to the saints in Philippi.

Conditions in the Age to Come

The first resurrection of the dead overcomers and the “change” that the living overcomers will see (1 Corinthians 15:51) will mark the point in time that they will know Christ and understand His mind perfectly (1 John 3:2). That is when the promise of the New Covenant will become a reality in their hearts and in their experience.

But what about everyone else? What about those who must wait for the general resurrection a thousand years later (Revelation 20:5)? Obviously, most of those living in the age to come will be much like we are today. There will be believers and unbelievers. Isaiah 2:3 speaks of that age, saying,

³ And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths”; for the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

The witness of the perfected overcomers will spark the greatest move of the Holy Spirit ever seen in world history. Whole nations will accept Christ as their King. However, these people will still have to wait a thousand years for the general resurrection when they are summoned to the great White Throne. There every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess/profess Christ to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10, 11).

Those who were raised in faith will receive life (immortality), while the (former) unbelievers will have to undergo the baptism of fire to bring them into spiritual maturity (John 5:28, 29). These too will be given life at the end of that final age of judgment when the great Creation Jubilee is declared and everyone returns to his inheritance.

The Work of the Overcomers

It is clear, then, that it will take a long time for the New Covenant to be implemented in all of humanity so that all things are put under the feet of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:27). While the overcomers will experience the provisions of the New Covenant, the vast majority of humanity will remain under the Old Covenant, even while learning the promises of the New Covenant.

Hence, there will still be a need for authority with all of its layers. Revelation 20:6 says that the overcomers “will reign with Him for a thousand years.” Such authority is irrelevant when all men know Christ and have no further need of teaching and training in righteousness. Jesus affirmed this in a parable in Luke 19, where we read that the faithful servants will be given authority over five or ten cities (Luke 19:17, 19).

The nations will need to learn the New Order of the Kingdom in practical ways. One of the most basic foundations of the Kingdom is that of land inheritance. While the overcomers’ inheritance will be the redemption of the body, which is their “land,” the rest of humanity will need an inheritance in the land, similar to what God gave the Israelite families in Canaan. This land inheritance was the foundation of their economy. It gave them roots, stability, and went far to prevent poverty and homelessness.

One of the big economic problems of the modern world is that most people have no land inheritance. This puts them at a disadvantage, and it is a major reason why people gather into large cities. This in itself creates a psychological dissonance and a herd mentality that is generally not conducive to Kingdom culture. When people become unemployed, they often have no backstop, because they have no family inheritance where they can return. Many end up living under a bridge among the homeless.

Micah 4:4 gives us a glimpse of Kingdom life for the majority of the people in the age to come, saying,

⁴ Each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree, with no one to make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of host has spoken.

This applies not to the overcomers but to the non-overcomers who are part of the Kingdom Order in the age to come. They will benefit greatly from an earthly land inheritance but will not yet experience the full promise of the feast of Tabernacles. This will be an age of peace and prosperity “with no one to make them afraid,” so even though they may be disappointed at having missed the first opportunity to be changed into His likeness, they will still be blessed by Kingdom culture, laws, and its way of life.

Land will be valued in terms of its production, rather than in a speculative value. Likewise, all Kingdom land will be held in a Kingdom Trust, owned by God, but given to each family as an inheritance (Leviticus 25:23). This will prevent people from selling land unwisely for short-term gains and losing their inheritance as a long-term consequence.

Under such circumstances, there will also be a need for some medium of exchange for goods and services, as each inheritance will be capable of producing food, minerals, or a factory product that others will want to buy. God’s money is gold and silver (Haggai 2:7, 8), and currencies will be valued in units of such metals. The value of gold and silver is in the amount of labor it takes to mine it, refine it, and turn it into a standard of value. The result of this is that no one will lose money to inflation. Saving money will not result in a loss of purchasing power over the years.

The laws of land inheritance and money are foundational to a Kingdom economy. It also ends the ungodly principle of colonialism, where men steal land and its wealth while leaving indigenous people in abject poverty.

Finally, how do we get there from here? How will we transition from Babylonian practice to Kingdom life? Those who are Old Covenant minded tend to think that Jesus is coming back to make war, to kill and to confiscate their land for the believers. Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites confiscated land from the Canaanites, but under the New Covenant, there is equal justice for all. Land will be purchased at a fair price. As men become believers, with faith in Jesus Christ, they will gladly recognize that their land belongs to God and that they are mere stewards. They will gladly exchange their claim of ownership for a claim of stewardship.

As aspiring overcomers, these are a few things that we should know so that we can carry a Kingdom vision.