A few weeks ago Jen and I celebrated our twenty-second wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend in a hotel in the city. Apart from shopping, cocktails and a lovely dinner, I spent some time watching CNN. I always watch the news but this particular weekend; from bush fires to the climate crisis, from another stabbing to a shooting, road crashes to drug crimes and with a pro-refugee demonstration in the middle of Sydney it did not feel like a celebration, but rather a culmination of calamities. Something to do with ‘event boundaries’.

I opened my present from her. A book on black dogs and blue days and over dinner we talked about my periodic depression, something that’s very foreign to my beautiful spouse. Perhaps now not so secretly I spend my days carrying around an anvil because no matter how beautiful my personal life is, I am unable to enjoy it because of what’s happening in my peripherals. My hope has become infected, fragile, cowering inside a crumbling castle under constant siege. I find myself focusing more on the relentless wiles of the enemy than on the paradise inside the mote.

Reminiscing I thought back of a time when I was a child, sitting in churches listening to American preachers spending four hours at a time talking about the Kingdom of God. They came across as dreamers to some, but for me their words lingered long in my imagination, pen and brush, as will become apparent. All their inferences were built upon what is revealed in the truth and facts of scripture.

With renewed vigor I’ve come to realize that focusing on the Kingdom of God as a true harmonizing reality written about in almost every book in the Bible, is no longer talked nor written about with the same amount of fervor and frequency as I remember because of the ‘imminent frame’, buffeted by the blustering of carpe diem. My returning hope and desire for the Kingdom instantaneously turned my world of so-called realities into a world of fiction. Just like someone can only know they’ve been asleep when they’re awake, so is this truth that this world of ours is fiction in comparison to all the treasures of this Kingdom written about in scripture.

We live in a time of unprecedented protests. Nations are more often than not calling for a total removal of government in favor of a new one. But protests will continue if the new rulers are not perfect. We know that they will not be perfect if they do not at the very least come under a higher perfect rule of law. Safe to say what the protests are really about, are entire nations’ desire for a perfect ruler.

The world is craving Christ and they don’t even know it.

This Kingdom however, has already arrived, ushered in by its King Jesus when he announced; “The Kingdom of God is already in your midst”. He introduced revolutionary ideas and thoughts that are already governing that Kingdom, winning over hardened hearts first, so that when the buildings, government, dispensation and soldiers arrive, it will be supported by its advocates who are called priests. All Priests are; are the adherents to and enthusiastic supporters of God’s perfect laws for the betterment of our world. Priests pay it forward. It is why their lives are marked by faith. More than that they are already citizens of that Kingdom because they hold a legitimate passport – the Holy Bible.

My aim is to encourage you, and for you to know that each of us have a choice. We can choose to either live in a world of fiction disguised as ‘reality’ on a trajectory that leads to death, or we can choose to live in a world of fact, mistakenly and falsely cloaked as ‘fiction’ but its road leads to a future utopia ruled by a perfect ruler who will make absolutely certain that we will live in joy and in peace, where no one and no thing will ever again make us afraid.

The fullness of the Kingdom will be like the birth of a new country and a new nation. It will be a Kingdom known for its love and righteousness and will provide a beginning for us more satisfying and favourable than any other dispensation because Satan, our adversary, will be bound for a thousand years. Because we will have our very Creator as Ruler, the conditions for living will truly be blessed. From scripture this millennial rule have been called ‘the dispensation of the fullness of time, the day of the Lord, the Kingdom of God and Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven, the regeneration, the times of restitution of all things, the consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem.’ It is unfathomable to think that even after these sublime conditions, when the thousand years have ended and Satan is released for a short time to gather his cohorts, that there will still be those who will reject peace and join forces to fight against God in the final world war, where they will be forever destroyed.

The Kingdom will not be Monarchic, Democratic nor Autocratic, but Theocratic. The ultimate coveted government for being a covenant. God will reign firstly through His Son Jesus Christ who will be both King and Priest. His seat of power will be in the Temple rebuilt in Jerusalem. Scripture stipulates that the priesthood is forever and therefore the feast days and Sabbaths will be observed in Jerusalem during our Messiah’s reign. Secondly God will reign through King David whom He will resurrect specifically for the Nation Israel. Thirdly God will reign through His Saints, all the redeemed who have had part in the first resurrection from Adam to the Millennium.

The laws God had introduced in both old and new testaments will be the laws to govern the Millennial rule. Similar to our current democracies the outward physical laws will be enforced whilst the inward spiritual will not. Breaking outward laws will be punished while the inward laws will not during the thousand year reign, but judged at the end.

The headquarters of the Kingdom will be Jerusalem. It will be the world capital and the center of worship forever. From underneath the temple’s altar a river will flow and divide towards the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, changing the latter to a freshwater sea by also giving it an outlet, bringing back sea life and making its banks proliferate with fruit trees. It should not go unmentioned that even now the Dead Sea serves as a metaphor for man, that without the right outlet, and this instance ‘praise for the Most High’, that man remains dead.

Without a tempter the Glory of God will be continually present. The nation Israel will go out from Jerusalem on missionary programs during this reign to finally fulfill what God had intended for them. Because missionaries will be a governmental enterprise the impact on business, organizations, schools and churches will be immense. It will truly be heaven on earth as the entire world will celebrate a universal religion and the greatest and most anticipated characteristic of this reign will be universal peace.

There will be no taxation to feed our fears by employing a defense force. Universal prosperity will be prolific. There will be no charities, no unemployment, no poverty, no homelessness, no financial crashes, bribery or corruption. Tithing, giving ten percent of our finances, will be the only financial requirement. Tithing is the only activity that God issues a challenge for us to test Him on because He knows that if everybody gave just 10% there will be enough money to go around.

The Kingdom will be known as a just dispensation. Trials will not be prolonged because angels and the Holy Spirit will provide the witness of truth, therefore justice and execution will be swift. It will be a global government that will rule with “an iron scepter” according to the laws of God, not tolerating slavery, exploitation, greed, prostitution, pornography or any other sin or rebellion.

The living conditions of this Kingdom will be like no other. Human life will be prolonged. There will be no infant deaths nor will people fail to live out their years well past a hundred. There will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the Kingdom and as such there will be no sickness and disease. From aids to influenza, cancer to the common cold, salvation and divine healing will be extended to, and accessed by all. The most exciting aspect of the Kingdom is that God will change the nature of the animals. From Lion to Lynx, Grizzly to Leopard, every imaginable creature will behave, approach and interact like a domesticated pet, with the exception of the serpent who will forever be cursed.

The world’s oceans will be removed to make room for more land which will be worked and restored to be absolutely pollutant free receiving its reliable rain in due season. There will be no more earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, drought nor litter. But even though the entire planet will fruitfully flourish it will only be after the thousand years are done and the final war waged, that God will completely renovate earth and heaven by fire. The only exception will be the site of Babylon where the lake of fire will stand as a loathsome monument of the rebellious.

After the thousand years a NEW Jerusalem – the capital city of the Kingdom – will come down from heaven. With its magnificent 2400 square kilometer footprint it will be a city the size of a country like Australia and will fit, merge and rest on the site of the current Jerusalem. If we consider how much we marvel at the natural world around us then we can be assured that this city will defy even our imagination.

Abraham caught a glimpse of this city during his life citing how God Himself was the architect and builder. It has been a city in existence since the world began. Jesus described it as “paradise” to the thief on the cross beside him, and to his disciples as a “place of many rooms” where he is preparing a position for each and every one who believes on him. It will be the galaxy’s most sought after real estate which can only be bought by the Saviour’s blood in this life.

John wrote a few details about this celestial city. A safe haven with massive walls of jasper to protect it against every kind of wickedness and evil. A place where water is abundant and the crystal clear rivers of life flows out from underneath the throne down the center of the twelve main streets through the city towards the twelve gates. How the tree of life proliferates on both sides of the rivers producing twelve kinds of fruit with leaves that will be used for cures of every possible physical and mental ailment. How the city’s twelve foundations are made with slabs of precious and semi-precious stones, its twelve gates made from a single pearl and its streets and buildings made from a new substance not found on earth – pure gold with the transparency of glass.

With its own ecosystem it will have a mountain at its centre and God as the perpetual light, making the sun and the moon not visible nor necessary from within the city. Because of God’s physical presence there will no longer be the need for a temple.

The new Jerusalem is not only where God’s throne will reside, a throne shared with many, but will be the future home for God, Jesus and all those who are redeemed having then their new name written on their foreheads. The city is deemed the ‘Bride of Christ’. The Bride is both the redeemed, old and new testament Saints, as well as the city. It is a combination of the two, the city and its people, that is described as the Bride.

Living in what’s currently known as the Church Age means that we are betrothed to Christ but with the final ceremonies taking place in the future. God dwelling with us in this city will be sublime in every respect because we will see Him face to face, as He is. It will be more than just having access to the universe’s best and most sought after celebrity but because He is our Father, originator, Maker, marriage partner, spouse and lover we will enjoy the thing we all crave most in this life – intimacy with Him. And if we choose and love Him, then ultimately He belongs to us and we belong to Him in a bond that nothing and no-one can ever sever.

No more shall we wrest.
No more shall we wrestle.
We who’ve reached nest,
through mortal and the pestle.

No more shall we wreak.
No more shall ask why.
We who’ve once seek’d,
no more shall we cry.