Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
There is an important principle about receiving the promises of God contained in this verse. Both Satan and the world’s system attack the kingdom of heaven’s system. When we attempt to follow God, Satan will try to throw things at us: financial challenges, the loss of favor, sickness, you name it… in order to get us to question God’s faithfulness. This is how the the kingdom of heaven suffers violence.
Jesus then went on to say, “the violent take the kingdom by force.” The point Jesus was making is we must be violent in our resolve to take the kingdom. For some this means to scream the promises of God out loud, for others this means to leave friends who speak doubt and unbelief, while others will need to spend hours in worship focusing on the presence of God. There isn’t a formula for it. Each of us is different, but the bottom line is we have to do whatever we have to do to keep our heart and mind in a place of faith so we can receive the promises of God! We must be aggressive!
Luke’s account says it a little differently. Luke 16:16 it says to press into the kingdom. In context, it is talking about the people who were baptized by John the Baptist had to travel for miles into the desert and push through crowds of people to get close to John in order to be baptized. They literally had to press in to receive. We still need this same mentality today. We have to press into the promises of God when we are attacked. Press in and believe we are favored, we are accepted, we are loved, and we are healed! Keep pressing until nothing stands in our way!
Be violently resolved to take the kingdom today! It is yours so don’t let the adversary stand in your way!
