Kingdom At Work
What if you could be assured that your work will matter in eternity? How would it feel to lead, make decisions, and build your business knowing it all would last beyond your earthly existence? At Kingdom at Work, we believe that level of purpose and legacy are the reality for Kingdom leaders.
We explored the Kingdom of God in our previous post What is the “Kingdom” in Kingdom at Work?, learning what the Kingdom is, how we enter it, and what it means for our lives. Now let’s go deeper into what the Kingdom means for your purpose and the different parts of your life, including work.
What is your purpose in the Kingdom?
The Kingdom has unlimited resources. Jesus said in Luke 12:32, “Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” God generously offers the endless, eternal treasures of the Kingdom to His children.
And He’s inviting you to take an active role in re-establishing His Kingdom order.
You have the honor of stewarding the treasures of the Kingdom. You were created to cultivate, to govern, and to reflect God’s glory on the Earth.
But you never have to do it alone. Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Your King never leaves you. He continues to give of His unlimited resources, and His revelation never ceases!
This isn’t abstract theology. It’s the framework for how you lead meetings, steward people, and make decisions under pressure.
What’s the relationship between church and the Kingdom?
Humans have a tendency to reduce concepts into something small enough to explain. But if it can be contained and explained, it’s not the Kingdom; it’s religion.
Religion is a man-made system of rules and behavior that replaces relationship with God. But repentance, which requires relationship, is the entrance to the Kingdom — not religion.
That repentance (also called salvation) is just the entry point. It’s not the whole message. The modern church has often emphasized the message of salvation, but Jesus’ ministry invites us into the fullness of the Kingdom. In other words, the Kingdom is more than the doorway!
In the workplace, repentance might look like choosing humility over control, surrendering the need to be right, or aligning your decisions with God’s truth instead of pressure or fear.
So if you thought repentance was a “church word,” think again. It’s a Kingdom word. And the church fits within the Kingdom, not the other way around. That means God’s rule extends beyond the church walls to…everything. Therefore church is no better than or less than work. It’s all part of the Kingdom of God.
Why does everything about the Kingdom feel backwards?
Because the Kingdom of God is different from the world, everything about it can seem upside-down and backwards. For example, you can’t enter the Kingdom through effort, performance, or control. Instead, it requires humility and surrender.
Romans chapter 9 talks about how Gentiles — non-Israelites — came into relationship with God by having faith in Jesus. Meanwhile Israel — God’s chosen people — tried to obey the law to make themselves right with God. It didn’t work because they tried to do it without faith. And that’s another example of an upside-down Kingdom experience: works-based effort leads to stumbling, and the Kingdom offends human self-sufficiency.
It’s actually easy to enter the Kingdom. The hard part is avoiding the religious spirit that wants to earn its way in.
According to Matthew 6:33, when we seek the Kingdom and God’s righteousness first, we’ll be given everything we need. Everyone is seeking something first. The question is: “Are you seeking the Kingdom first?” And that’s an important question, because what you seek is what you’ll see.
Seeking the Kingdom first, walking in relationship with God, and receiving Kingdom revelation is an ongoing journey. It’s not something anyone “masters.”
Kingdom life is counter-intuitive to our human logic, but what at first seems upside-down and backwards is actually God’s proper design. And as you continue on your Kingdom journey, you’ll discover that it’s actually right-side up! This may not be the way you’ve always approached business, but you’ll come to realize it’s the only way to build something that truly lasts.
If God is King, what is Jesus’ role in the Kingdom?
When you enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you come to know Jesus as Savior. But He’s even more than that. You come to know Him as Lord as you learn to submit everything to Him.
Even Jesus Himself had to practice submitting everything to His Father, like when He was tempted in the desert.
Because God loves you, He will dismantle anything that rules over you. And through this process you’ll learn that submission is actually freedom, not restriction. It protects you from wasting your efforts, and it activates spiritual power. Being guided by Father God and empowered by Holy Spirit in your work brings a peace and effectiveness that can only be found in the Kingdom.
In fact, that kind of submission is how you step into dominion. In Genesis 1:26, God said: “Let Us make man in Our image… let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, all the earth, and every creeping thing.”
So this is another Kingdom principle that can seem upside down: dominion flows from submission.
When you understand Lordship, you embrace that you bear Christ’s image, you operate according to God’s original design, and you bring His right order to every part of life. He will give you the power to properly steward all the treasures of the Kingdom, including business, education, politics, family, and more.
What is a Kingdom business?
What you steward under God’s rule will last because it’s part of the unshakable Kingdom.
Hebrews 12 describes a holy shaking of the earth that will remove everything temporal so that only the Kingdom remains. God invites you to spend your life on things that will survive that shaking!
He empowers you to do exactly that when you release control, lay down religious practices and preconceived expectations, and ask God what He desires. That’s how you welcome His authority, embrace His will, and partner in expressing His nature. Not just at church, but in every part of life. It’s what seeking first the Kingdom looks like.
Since you know the Kingdom is “at hand,” you seek it with confidence that it’s already here and therefore can be found. Plus you know it’s constantly revealing more of itself and will last for eternity.
The role you and your business play in the Kingdom flows from your relationship with the Lord. You’ll walk in humility — in proper alignment with reality as God designed it — and He will continuously renovate your mind. The Kingdom will be revealed through you within the workplace!
Your submission to the King puts you in a place to operate in dominion over all God gives you. And that means the Kingdom isn’t another thing to add to your business plan. The Kingdom is God’s rule over every plan, including how and why you work.
You were created to lead from this reality. Not someday, but today. Step deeper into what it means to advance God’s Kingdom right where He’s placed you. Explore the following resources:
Video: Intro to the Kingdom
Blog Post: Partnering with God in Your Work