Recently in my Notes I have been focusing on how we as the believers in Christ are responsible to the Lord for how we live our Christian life, and will answer to Him for that at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). If our living is approved at the judgment seat, we will enter into the manifestation of the Kingdom of the Heavens in the next age, but if not, we may be cast into the outer darkness for a period of time (Matt. 22:13, 25:30; see the Note, “Just What Is the Outer Darkness?”)

But what is the purpose of the Kingdom of the Heavens? Is it only to serve as an incentive to help the believers seek the Lord? No; rather, it is the means by which God is recovering His right over a world that has rejected Him and His Christ. That is, when we as the believers in Christ live under the heavenly ruling today, we are giving the Lord a way to come back to the earth and claim it as His own (cf. Rev. 11:15). And that is the real purpose of our Christian life.

I was reminded of this recently when I came across the excellent statement below by Witness Lee, at the end of his short book on the Kingdom of the Heavens. So, I wanted to pass that along to you.

Recovering the Earth
for the Lord

When we as Christians are really under the rule, the exercise of the reality of the kingdom, we will be a group of people who will hasten the coming of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:12). This means that our living will hasten the coming of the manifestation of the kingdom or the heavens. The Lord taught the disciples to pray for the coming of the kingdom (Matt. 6:10). We must pray for the kingdom to come and must live in the reality of the kingdom until the earth is fully recovered for God’s will in the coming kingdom age.
— Witness Lee, A Brief Definition of the Kingdom of the Heavens, page 58

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— 29 April 2023 —