The Already But Not Yet

While the Bible writers often assumed that the last days would be shorter, they still believed that they were living in the last days (He 1:2). The Kingdom of Heaven and its king, Jesus, were inaugurated on the cross—and now we wait for His return to bring the Kingdom into its fullness. It is here, but not yet. It is present, but not fully. It’s already at work, but there’s still more to come.

Therefore, sometimes we might pray and things might happen and other times they might not. Sometimes we might try to meet with God and actually find Him and other times we might not. Sometimes we might find the freshness of the Spirit in our church services and sometimes we might not.

However, this should not hinder us from praying for the supernatural and pursuing God; for though there is a chance that we might not find the fullness of Heaven that we desire, there is also a chance that we will. Perhaps there’s even more of a chance that we will, for Heaven is the ultimate reality and the ultimate place to which we are heading. To give up praying for someone because we didn’t see them healed the one time we prayed is to reject the future possibility of the already invading the not yet.

We are to pursue the ways of Heaven regardless of the outcome. There will be plenty of times in this life where you do the thing God called you to do and you don’t feel like Heaven broke through. But the good news is that the seeds of the Kingdom of Heaven always come up eventually. As Jesus said in one of His lesser known parables,

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. (Mk 4:26-29)

Did you notice that the farmer didn’t do anything except throw seeds on the ground? If you’ve ever worked in a garden before then you know that planting and harvesting is not that easy. But that’s the Kingdom of God. Spread the seed of the Kingdom and eventually it will grow. There will be harvest. It is a strong seed.

Therefore, as we live in the “already, but not yet,” we must continually spread seed. Sometimes we will see the harvest happen supernaturally and instantly. Other times we may have to wait for the harvest. But regardless of the pace, we must keep planting the strong seeds of Heaven and continually enlarge the reign of the already, praying that God’s will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. For one day, Earth will, in a sense, become Heaven and all will be right with the world. The not yet will finally become the yet. The already will take on its fullness.

Want to continue the conversation? Take the long journey with my book/audiobook, The Rush and the Rest, or take a shorter path with my condensed version, Fantasy IRL.