Why wait for the future to come when you can live in the spirit of it now? The words of Jesus in Matthew 11:12 – “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” are clarified in Luke 16:16 – “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses into it.”
John’s appearance brought to an end the era of the Law and the Prophets, and introduced the kingdom of God. Preached first by John the Baptist, it was then preached by Jesus after John’s imprisonment and his death. Those who received the kingdom message and understood its meaning, seized the opportunity to enter it!
In Matthew 11:13, Jesus reiterates that with John’s appearance the former age had ended, and then adds: “And if you will receive it, this is Elijah, who was to come.” He was making it clear that Malachi’s prophecy: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD”, had appeared in the powerful ministry of John the Baptist (Malachi 4:5).
“Are you Elijah?” some asked John. His answer was clear and unequivocal: “I am not.” (John 1:21) This apparent contradiction is resolved in the words of Gabriel to John’s father, Zechariah: “And he shall go before [the LORD] in the spirit and power of Elijah…” (Luke 1:17)
From this we understand that John came in the spirit and power of that prophet. (Jesus called a woman in the church at Thyatira “Jezebel” because she posed as a prophetess and taught immorality and idolatry. The woman’s influence was due to a spirit from the past possessing a person in the present.)
The spirit of the future is here now, and those who are spiritual are able to perceive it and to seize the opportunities that it presents. Just as many grasped the kingdom message in the time of John, so too we must grasp it, and make the most of it in our time.
Christians look forward to the future kingdom that Christ will establish on earth after he returns, but the kingdom is present in the power of God’s Spirit. We are “partakers of the power of the world to come” – the Messianic era (Hebrews 6:5). Jesus gave Peter “the keys of the kingdom” and the disciple used those keys to open it to 3000 repentant people on the day of Pentecost. A decade or so later, he used them to open the kingdom to a household of non-Jews.
The “key” to Pentecost was Peter’s “this is that” application of Joel’s prophecy, and his then exposition of Psalm 16:10. The “key” Peter used in the house of Cornelius was the inclusive word “whosoever” (which he came to understand after God prepared him during a trance, when a group of non-Jews invited him to come to in their Roman master’s house).
Life in the kingdom of Christ on earth is something that we can look forward to, yet we can enjoy the benefits of his kingdom now, as we live in the spirit of it. The “spirit of Christ” had been present in the Old Testament prophets when they spoke of the coming of the Messiah (1 Peter 1:11).
The Messiah’s coming was far distant when the Spirit of God inspired them to prophesy. Peter writes that God revealed to the prophets that they had spoken of “the things which are now reported to you by those who have preached the gospel to you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven…”
The Holy Spirit in them was “the Spirit of Christ” – and as such was the spirit of the future, because “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10)
Those who see the kingdom as being in the future, and those who see it as present already, should see it as both. Just as the secular spirit of the future is in your child’s ready grasp of technology, so too is the spirit of the future present in younger Christians who are pressing forward to receive the gift of prophecy.
Most believers live in the present reality of things, while keeping an eye on the future. But those who live in the spirit of the future are quick to grasp opportunities that arise while awaiting the coming of the kingdom that will come in full when Jesus returns.
I am one of them, and I hope that you are too.