Bryan Kessler | July 30, 2026
Jesus taught His followers to pray, “Your kingdom come.” That prayer is rooted in the hope that the righteous reign of God can touch lives and circumstances even before the kingdom arrives in its fullness. Through the Holy Spirit, believers can experience genuine signs of the world that is coming—freedom replacing bondage, peace overcoming anxiety, and the transforming life of Jesus breaking into human need.
At the same time, Scripture calls us to live honestly within the tension between what God is doing now and what remains unfinished. We can expect the King to work powerfully in the present without pretending that sickness, suffering, injustice, and death have already been completely overcome. Holding these truths together protects us from both unbelief and unrealistic expectations.
In this article, I explore:
- How the kingdom entered history through Jesus and continues through the Holy Spirit
- What it means to taste “the powers of the age to come”
- Why present experiences of the kingdom are real but still partial
- How the already and not yet shapes our expectations
- Why encounters with God’s kingdom should increase our hunger for its fullness
- What we are asking when we pray, “Your kingdom come”
God gives us genuine foretastes of the coming kingdom, but they are meant to direct our hearts toward something greater. Every experience of His righteousness, peace, joy, healing, freedom, and restoring power points toward the day when Jesus returns and establishes His reign openly throughout the earth. This article encourages us to welcome the kingdom’s work today while longing confidently for the fullness that is still to come.