Living as if it Were Your Last Day

My friend Ron McGatlin challenged me with this thought that can be asked about any situation that tragedy strikes. "What were the thousands of Japanese people who perished in the recent tsunami doing and thinking the day before the ocean rose up and carried them away?" So we could ask, I wonder what Osama bin Laden was thinking about the day before a bullet found its target ending his life? And what was going on in the lives of the hundreds of people in southern USA the day before a rash of tornadoes took them away? I wonder how different the day might have been for all these and many others if they had known that tomorrow would be the last day of their lives. You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ~ James

It’s almost a certainty that there will be a last day and a day before it for every one of us, including those we love the most. Life and relationships with others are very precious gifts. If we knew that today was our last day or the last day for someone we love, we would probably count every moment as very precious. We would seek to make every minute count to the fullest in loving one another. It would seem so terribly wasteful to use even one minute in worry, strife, or anger.

A day without love is a wasted day. A day without expressing love through praise to God and to the ones next to us is a wasted day. I have the most beautiful and wonderful wife in the world. I need to express that to her, to my wonderful children. A lifetime of days spent without expressing real love and sincere praise to God and then to those around us is a wasted life.

Kingdom of God living is experienced and fulfilled in the expression of real love through our actions that praise God and those around us. This is the most fundamental principle of the kingdom of God on earth. All order of kingdom life is rooted in this principle. Every aspect of life on earth is to be ordered (ruled) by the foundational principle of expressed love. God is love. The expression of God’s love from heaven is released into the earth realm through Christ in His people by the Holy Spirit.

All life in the kingdom emanates from love. All governance of life in the kingdom emanates from love. Love is from God. It is not possible to separate God from love. Without God there is no love, and without love there would be no manifestation of God on earth. God is love. Without real love there is no kingdom of God on earth, and without the Holy Spirit there is no real love on earth. 

• Love produces righteousness.
• Righteousness leads to peace.
• Peace brings joy.

The kingdom of God on earth is righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Spirit. God in the Holy Spirit now abides in His humble people.  Thus, the full potential of the kingdom of God to transform the world into God’s heavenly order rests solidly and firmly within the people of God now on earth.

 All of the saints of God that have gone before have faithfully done their part and brought us to this time. However, they no longer have the potential to bring forth the kingdom on earth. Their time for that has passed. I cannot change the past in any way. I cannot reach the lost of past generations. I cannot think of the missionary need of that age. I only have potential of reaching, changing, winning, and loving today's generation that can change the future. But I cannot effect the future without participation today, right now.

 After our last day on earth, none of us will have the potential to bring forth the kingdom of heaven on earth. Only in the days in which we are alive and in this world do we have the potential to bring forth the kingdom of God on earth. Our time is now. Is there anything of greater importance and significance than fully doing our part to bring forth the kingdom of God in this world?

Our part is to be fully available for God to work in and through us to bring forth His love ruling His kingdom on earth. Two major things involved in our being available are that we are WILLING and that we BELIEVE. It is God by His Holy Spirit who is forming the Spirit of Christ in us to do the supernatural works of love, wisdom, and power to transform the world into the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

A fresh outpouring of life is needed, a fresh surge of life is being poured out in the Spirit – exciting, powerful, and loving kingdom life rushing as a wind from heaven into the hearts and lives of His people.

We do not know how many days or years we have left to bring forth the exciting life of the kingdom of God on earth. Personally, I do not want to waste another one of them. My heart’s desire and passion is to be used of Him every day, including that last one whenever it comes, being fully alive in Him and with all that is within me imparting His love and His kingdom as much as possible to as many as possible.