It was still wet and cold long after winter was supposed to have passed. Then, suddenly, spring arrived. Overnight the “dead” grapevine burst into leaf, grass growth outpaced the lawnmower and trees put forth new leaf.  Within a few days newly planted maize shot up over a foot high.

And, according to the Bible, the kingdom of God will very soon suddenly “spring forth” too. Indeed, Jesus used the very word “spring” to describe the process:

And He said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep and rise, night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up; he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth he immediately putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come (Mark 4:26-29).

Notice that when the full ear of corn appears the husbandman immediately puts in the sickle to harvest it. Jesus is teaching that it is with such suddenness that the kingdom of God, his kingdom, will come upon the world.

In saying so He was confirming Old Testament prophecies that when the kingdom of God abruptly takes over government of all nations it will be like “rivers in the desert giving drink to my people”; it will “spring forth as a new thing”; it will “make a way in the wilderness” (Isaiah 43:19).

Importantly, while miraculous in that it will be entirely brought about by God and not at all by man, it will be a peaceful, gentle, harmless process:

For as the earth bringeth forth her bud and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord will cause righteousness and praise spring forth before all nations (Isaiah 61:11).

Right now we live in a world of lies and strife. We struggle under the curse of sin, death, war, disease and starvation imposed for Adam’s sin. And religion does little to make things better. While trying put the world right by its social programmes, it seems the self-professing “church” has lost sight of the truth that “the kingdom is the Lord’s and He is (will be) the Governor of the nations” (Psalm 22:28).

Amazingly, the biggest denominations in Christendom still claim that they themselves are the kingdom God is bringing on the earth. This falsehood is maintained despite the foolishness of such “churches” repetitively praying “Thy kingdom come” when they apparently believe it already has – in them!

This arrogance problem stems from much of Christianity’s refusal to believe what the Bible actually says and to proclaim its own ideas instead. However, if the “word of truth” is “rightly divided”, as the Apostle Paul urges (2 Tim. 2:15), then it becomes clear that the kingdom of God has yet to take over government of the world (2 Tim. 4:1). The welcome truth is that the “kingdom of his dear Son” (Col. 1:11) will do so at his appearing (Titus 2:13, 1 Tim 6:14-15).

Fact is only the Lord Himself can cause this truth and many others to outshine the darkness covering this “present evil world” (Gal. 1:4). And He will do so at the bringing in of his kingdom on earth while still remaining seated in heaven (See Acts 3:21). That is when…

…Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven (Psalm 85:11).

Lying, now all but a matter of course for governments and those in administration, will only cease and men learn truth in the “Day of Christ” (1 Cor. 1:8, Phil. 2:10). This day is cited seven times in Paul’s epistles and is a synonym for the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:1) at which he will bring in his kingdom.

Thankfully, we are presently in the “dispensation of the grace of God” in which the Lord is treating all who will receive Him with free forgiveness and kindness. But in the next dispensation – that of the kingdom – it will be a different story. The kingdom age will be a time of government, judgement and judicial action to put things right both in the hearts of men and in the world. As Paul told Timothy:

I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom, preach the word … (2 Tim. 4:1).

What the kingdom’s arrival will mean in practice is spelled out by the Prophet Isaiah: First he describes spiritual problem we face now …

Let favour (grace) be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord (Isaiah 26:10).

Then, how the Lord will put it right at “his appearing and his kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:1) …

… when the judgements (of God) are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Isaiah 26:9).

For the world and the few Bible-believing Christians left in it this blazing forth of his glory will follow “a long winter” of seeming inactivity from God. But spring will come. The prophets of old pictured this sudden cosmic change as water springing up in a long dry desert. Fact is, long ago water gushed from a rock and become physical reality for the children of Israel in their journey through the wilderness. It was a prophetic sign of the much greater “watering” of the earth’s deserts that will come in the “Day of Christ”.

And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beasts also (Ex. 20:11).

Based on this, in Isaiah 44:3, God promises, "For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants."

Water is a symbol both of life and of truth. And it is truth, the truth about God and his ruling, power, and glory, that will be restored in the Day of Christ, when Christ rules over the world.

And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness (Isaiah 29:18-19).

Yes, God’s “spring” is about to burst out and blossom abundantly, taking over the world and making it his, turning the hearts of human beings back toward Him and restoring the earth itself to its former created glory.

It’s the day of Christ’s manifested glory when “every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord (i.e. God Almighty) to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).

John Dudley Aldworth

You’re welcome to contact me at the email address below.

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com

Website: https://www.dayofchristmnistries.com/rss/all.xml