Building God's Kingdom

God walks with us to show us His ways. He knows that our human nature is not intent on servanthood, but on building our own little kingdoms and ruling in them. Because His intention is for us to act under His rulership, He will not bless us in our own intentions. Though we be gifted and skilled, Jesus will direct us continually back to the road He walked; serving the Father.


It is our nature to make things our “own”. So often, even if we to begin a venture with God, we eventually let our own desires crowd Him out. In God’s kindness He will let failure, loss, desertion, and other trials come into our lives until we once again render unto Him what is rightfully His. In fact, when He fulfills His promises to us, God will most likely test our hearts to see if we will serve Him with the fulfillment, or be busy building our own kingdom with them. We see an example of this in Abraham’s story.

We read that God promised Abraham a son. The Lord saw Abraham as a man of integrity. He said, “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken by him.” (Gen 18:19) Because Abraham would teach his children about God, he would be given a child from whom a whole nation would spring forth.

Abraham and Sarah did not have a son right away, and we know from reading their story that Sarah gave her maid Hagar to Abraham to bear a son. So Ishmael was born. Sarah & Abraham were trying to do their part to bring God’s promises to pass. However, the Lord told Abraham “my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you, by this time next year.” (Gen 17:21).

Abraham couldn’t say “Oops, I made a mistake.” Indeed, Abraham loved his son Ishmael, and asked the Lord for His blessing on him (Gen 17:18). Abraham wasn’t asking for the Lord to bless Ishmael along with blessing Isaac; he was asking for the covenant promise to come through Ishmael. When it came down to it, he was saying that his attempt at establishing God’s promise had been good, and his good was good enough. Ishmael, had he stayed in Abraham’s household, would have been the child Abraham would build his kingdom through.

The Lord gave Abraham a son through Sarah, which was the fulfillment of God’s promise and the vessel from which the promise of the nations would come. Hagar and Ishmael were sent away. It was as if all things fell into place for Abraham to begin his ministry of teaching his son, and household, the ways of the Lord. But because Abraham had been content with Ishmael, God tested Abraham’s heart (Gen 22:1). He now had the real heir, Isaac. Would Abraham set his will to serve God and build His kingdom His way, or would he insist on doing his own will again? Abraham submitted to God’s way and passed the test. Therefore God built His nation of Israel through Abraham’s son Isaac, as He foretold. It was God’s kingdom beginnings.

This is an important lesson. God does test the intentions of our hearts to see what we will do with what He gives us. His earthly promises have everything to do with the fulfillment of our destinies and furthering His Kingdom here. When Jesus returns it isn’t to give everyone what He has promised them, for we will receive that here. Jesus will return to a kingdom that is His to rule in. Today let us be sure we are not building our own little kingdoms, but may we be found to serving the Lord in His. Amen.