The book is framed by the words of its title.
After a brief introduction each of the title’s four words is examined in its own section, before a final section considers how we pray ‘Your Kingdom Come Here’ in practice. The book ends with four distinct exhortations — longings that have shaped its content that David entrusts to the reader.
Your leads the reader from ‘me/my’ prayer to a relational basis for prayer — both with God and with others, with whom we can say ‘Our Father’. It introduces the contemplative tradition to help us ‘see’ our Father in heaven and, from this heavenly perspective, reframes prayer further around a God-centric Your. The section ends with a detailed look at God’s original heaven-earth overlapping place: Eden. The themes introduced here recur throughout the book — people are God’s heavenly representatives, called to rule and steward their place.
We can only have a legitimate influence over that which we love. The extent of our love is also the extent of our spiritual authority. We should not exercise authority independently of love. It is only when we love the land, so it becomes ‘Beulah’ to us, that we have real freedom to pray with authority. So often our limitation when praying is not our authority but the extent of our love for what we are seeking to shape in prayer.
Chapter 1 — Starting with ‘Our’
This section examines what it means to be kingdom-minded, looking at kingdom values, culture, and the Church’s role in influencing society, before clarifying that these are secondary — the kingdom is ultimately about rule and submission. We have authority in God’s kingdom as we are submitted to Him; Jesus’ kingdom gospel was the continuation of the Eden mandates. As we submit and are overshadowed by God’s presence, we overshadow the earth beneath us and, in prayer, ascend to exercise God’s rule, encountering heaven’s thrones, councils, saints, and angels. The reality of heaven is explored through accounts of heaven-earth interactions that demonstrate God’s kingdom as a supernatural, unseen reality that is both coming and is already here.
Kingdom is a word used to describe rule rather than values or culture and we need to be mindful that we do not confuse God’s kingdom rule and His kingdom’s values … To proclaim a gospel that is based upon the values of the kingdom, for example loving our enemies, without including the requirement for submission to His rule, is not a ‘kingdom’ gospel. It is a gospel that has been devalued into a moral philosophy which therefore lacks the spiritual power of His kingdom that is needed to transform lives. … The issue at the heart of the gospel is not the culture, which is an external outworking of values, but who is in charge (internally).
Chapter 4 — A Kingdom Perspective
From the Fall, the enemy has sought to divide the realms of heaven and earth. Church history shows that Gnostic heresies and dualist thinking in particular have impacted the Church. However, Jesus came as the one who united heaven and earth in Himself and, through His flesh, has made a way for us — demonstrating that heaven’s fullness can be contained in the matter of creation. Faith should be embodied: in community, in physical supernatural manifestations, and in concrete answers to prayer. The role of faith in obtaining what already is and making it come is developed, alongside the relationship between the now and the not yet. Come means now; and come means here. Maranatha!
Within the Christian heart is an innate longing for God to dwell with us, for we instinctively know that our true identity is in Him. Although our Lord has come to us already by His Spirit, this only accentuates our desire for our Lord to come. God’s enduring intention is to dwell with us — the desire to be together is mutual. … This yearning is not resolved through our effort to be close to Him in heaven, but rather through realising that heaven comes to us. The ‘come’ of Jesus’ prayer is ultimately fulfilled by His downward return to us on earth.
Chapter 9 — The Realms Divided
We live an embodied, physical existence. Places are meaningful and part of God’s story of how He meets us. Here considers the theology of ‘place’ — including the enduring effects of spiritual activity (good and bad) and God’s creative purposes to form a place’s unique character. The spiritual geography of altars, temple, city, and inheritance is explored from our ‘in Christ’ position. Our inheritance is our place — the here which God enables His Church to consecrate as holy, blessed ground and the place of His presence. The multiplication of mini-Eden heavenly outposts through building altars addresses defiled land and establishes thin places. Understanding land, addressing land issues, and seeing the heavenlies opened so that heaven overlaps earth as His kingdom comes is the Church’s mission in the world.
We should be thin places, people who live under an open heaven. We are the incarnational footprint of God on earth and can recalibrate the experience that people have of God — not as distant, but only skin thickness away. We do not live under the spiritual heaviness of this world but can rise above it, intentionally connecting heaven with earth to dispel the gloom. … Under our care the land can rest. No longer fractured or separated from God’s presence it is overshadowed by His glory. Our place has become the footstool of His throne, His resting place on earth where His name dwells … a place of flourishing — it is blessed.
Chapter 17 — Healing the Land
Having considered the book’s title in detail the themes are practically applied to help us to pray ‘Your kingdom come here.’ Eden’s mandates are expressed by responding to issues with authority and through a systematic diligence that results in listed prayer rhythms. Using stories of prayer, this section illustrates how to work with God and others to see places changed and issues supernaturally resolved. The necessary infrastructure of prayer — prayer spaces, gatherings, scatterings, which includes prayer walking — is exemplified.
Towns have road networks, drainage, shopping areas and green spaces that enable them to function; this interconnected infrastructure facilitates their life and development. Our towns and churches need an equivalent infrastructure of prayer to support their spiritual life and growth — prayer spaces, prayer gatherings and prayer scatterings. This prayer infrastructure can be applied to both geographic locations … and to networks praying for a specific topic … and together they provide prayer that will sustain the city.
Chapter 19 — Building Prayer Infrastructure
Engage with your place in prayer to ensure God’s presence leaves an enduring transformative impact.
Where you are is a defiled garden God has called you to steward, cleanse, restore and protect.
Be people whose gaze is upwards enraptured by His glorious presence yet fully grounded on earth.
Let’s show that we believe in prayer by giving ourselves in complete abandon to it.
A practical guide to help you get started in prayer-walking your streets and neighbourhood.
A resource to help you research and prayerfully discern the character and calling of your place.
Links referred to in the book, its selective bibliography and URLs from the endnotes are listed here so you can explore them without typing them in.
