Recently, at a meeting called “The School of Glory” I had an interesting experience, I had an epiphany? That’s a funny way of saying something that you’ve known for a long time suddenly becomes new or real. Another way of saying it is, “I never saw that before!” As you might expect this whole series of gatherings was devoted to encountering the Glory of God thus the name, School of Glory. However, as I sat there singing about Jesus being on the throne and everyone in heaven bowing down in worship to him, it happened. One of those moments when the air becomes what I call “rarified” and suddenly something you though you knew seems as though you just understood it for the first time. For a moment, and that’s all it takes, a moment when you are in that realm of rarified I saw the throne of God like I have never seen it before. I always thought of Jesus and the Father sitting side by side until that moment, but as I looked all I could see was light so intense and unapproachable that I couldn’t distinguish between their forms — they were one. What was more amazing was that it didn’t hurt to look at the light.

Then I suddenly became aware of the reason there was such celebration around the throne, but I wasn’t ready for what I was privy too. Masked, as it were, by all the joy was such a terrible presence of holiness that it took my breath away and suddenly the easy to breathe rarified air became deadly. I mean this awesome reality, without words, basically declared if you are here without invitation you’re dead. There are no words in any language spoken on the earth to express the power and absolute authority emanating from the unapproachable light enshrouding the one who sat on the throne. If a demon was forced to look that way the horror would cause them to come apart at the molecular level. I suddenly thought of the Scripture, “…and I saw him who sat upon the throne from whose face the heavens and the earth fled…” it was this absolute authority that was the cause of the joy and peace in this kingdom. The one who wielded it was worthy of such power and could be completely trusted with the righteous rule that was on his shoulders.

No wonder Jesus is called the great Potentate! He is omnipotent. He is absolute ruler of his kingdom. He is unchallenged by demon, angel or anything else in all of creation. I remember watching the Lord of the Rings series and being impressed with the power of Mordor, yet two little hobbits were able to sneak into the kingdom of Sauron, the dark Lord of Mordor and bring about his demise and the destruction of his kingdom. Well let me tell you when Jesus sat down on the throne his absolute authority was established and there is no sneaking around in his kingdom. There will be no overthrow in the kingdom of heaven. It is an everlasting kingdom and of his government there is no end.

What happened next answered a lot of questions I have had for years. It was like the camera panned out and I saw a bigger picture. I could see the throne room in heaven and I could see the earth or dimension I was living in. What I am trying to say is that I realized that there are not two kingdoms or ages but one. The same king that rules with such complete and absolute power up there rules the same kingdom the same way in our time space world. However, things did not look or feel like they did in heaven. Before I could ask the question why, the answer came. “When the King is enthroned his power and authority are absolute and his rule is undisputed, but the King is not always allowed to sit on his throne.” I thought, is it possible that such a potentate could not be allowed to sit on his own throne. Then I remembered that the will of man was the only thing that could defeat the purpose of God because of its ability to choose life or death, blessing or cursing. Jesus was basically telling me that many of the things that had happened in my life were the result of me sitting on the throne instead of him. It made sense. I realized how subtle and yet how easy we can usurp his place on the throne of our individual kingdoms or lives not to mention the corporate application as the body of Christ. We are always encouraged to look at the “Big Picture” but I want to encourage you to look at the smaller one in this case.

Our life is a kingdom by itself and as such it like the rest of the kingdoms of this world must become the kingdom of our God and his Christ.
I began to ask for his forgiveness and for the spotlight of his Spirit to help me understand the power this revelation had to change my life and the lives of his people still here on the earth. I believe that meditation on this simple yet powerful reality will make it a reality in our lives. There are not two Kings. There are not two kingdoms of God, just one on heaven and earth that is eternal. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray he said, “…thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” I don’t know about you, but this prayer definitely has new meaning to me. Jesus declared to the Father in Gethsemane, “…never-the-less, not my will but thy will be done.” I pray that the kingdom of God that my individual life represents would join in fully with the true kingdom of God and that I would become a place from where the King of kings can execute his righteous rule without any hindrance from me. How about you? Will you join me in praying, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Will you appropriate the protection and authority of his kingdom for your life until the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ? In our personal experience it might be best said that Jesus is either Lord of all or not Lord at all. Who’s on your throne?