Teaching summary
Pastors Leonard and Lori Rola explain that the kingdom of God is not merely something believers are waiting to experience in the future; it is a present reality that God wants His children to believe, expect, and experience. Praise helps faith rise and releases the anointing, preparing believers to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Because believers no longer belong to the kingdom of darkness, they should renew their minds and learn to live as children of belief rather than children of unbelief. Kingdom living includes healing, wholeness, joy, abundant life, loving relationships, and a growing revelation of God’s love.
Bible verses referenced
Matthew 6:9-10- “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
Luke 12:32- “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Ephesians 2:2- “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”
Teaching notes
Table of Contents
- Introduction: Continuing the Teaching About God’s Kingdom
- Praise, Faith, and the Anointing
- Praying for Heaven’s Reality on Earth
- The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand
- The Father’s Good Pleasure to Give Us the Kingdom
- Understanding the Rule and Reign of God
- Our Former Walk Under the Prince of the Power of the Air
- Disobedience as Disbelief and Unbelief
- Becoming Children Who Believe and Expect
- The Gospel of the Kingdom and the Supernatural
- Renewing the Mind From Former Living to Present Kingdom Living
- God’s Will for Healing, Wholeness, Joy, and Relationships
- Remembering That We Are No Longer Who We Once Were
- Gratitude, Encouragement, and Supporting the Ministry
Introduction: Continuing the Teaching About God’s Kingdom
Pastor Leonard Rola begins by greeting everyone alongside his wife, Pastor Lori Rola. He says they are blessed to be with the audience and explains that this short teaching is an addition to the message delivered the previous Sunday. He encourages anyone who has not heard that message to go back and listen because he believes it will bless them. Leonard explains that they have been thinking, meditating, and talking about the prayer Jesus taught His disciples. Jesus instructed His followers how to pray:
Matthew 6:9-10- “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
The teaching begins with the importance of recognizing God as Father, honoring His name, and praising Him. From there, the prayer directs believers toward the coming of God’s kingdom and the accomplishment of His will on earth as it is in heaven.
Praise, Faith, and the Anointing
Leonard emphasizes that praise is amazingly important. First and foremost, God is worthy of all praise. However, praise also produces something powerful within the person who is praising God. He explains that faith grows through praise and that the anointing begins to flow and increase. When faith rises and the anointing is released, miracles and supernatural manifestations take place.
Pastor Lori shares her personal experience with praise. She says that she is a crier and often begins crying when she praises God. These are not sorrowful tears but happy tears. While praising Him, she feels as though she can touch Him. She knows that He lives within her, but her awareness of His presence becomes so strong that she feels she cannot reach high enough or sing loudly enough. She describes the experience as awesome.
Leonard agrees that this is when touching and connecting with God truly takes place. Praise releases faith and the anointing. He also understands the joyful tears Lori describes because he cries frequently during praise as well. He believes these happy tears are powerful. They wash away guilt, shame, condemnation, and fear. Praise creates an inward experience through which believers become deeply conscious of God’s presence, love, and power.
Praying for Heaven’s Reality on Earth
After beginning with praise, Jesus taught His disciples to pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done:
Matthew 6:9-10- “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
Leonard stresses that Jesus was not teasing His followers when He taught them to pray this way. His words indicate that the conditions and realities present in heaven are what believers should desire and expect to see manifested in their lives on earth. The prayer is not an empty religious expression. Jesus taught His followers to ask for heaven’s reality to become their earthly reality. This understanding has caused Leonard and Lori to spend considerable time studying and discussing the kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand
When Leonard asks Lori what thoughts and revelations have come to her during their recent study of the kingdom, she explains that the revelations are only beginning. More understanding continues to come as she repeatedly hears the message and allows her mind to be renewed.
Lori is increasingly recognizing that the realities found in heaven are available to believers now. Jesus repeatedly proclaimed that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Lori recognizes that she is a part of that kingdom and that Jesus lives in her. Everything Christ has and everything He is are present within the believer. Lori says she wants to experience more and more of that reality. She is learning to believe more, trust more, look for the manifestations of the kingdom, and expect them. Leonard explains that this expectation is one reason Jesus taught His disciples to pray:
Matthew 6:9-10- “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
Jesus wants His followers to experience the realities of the kingdom. He taught them to pray this way because He wants them to expect God’s will to be manifested on earth as it is in heaven.
The Father’s Good Pleasure to Give Us the Kingdom
Leonard and Lori then turn to a verse that is especially meaningful to their daughter Allison:
Luke 12:32: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
They explain that believers often grow up hearing Christian language about “the kingdom” without stopping to consider what the kingdom actually means. The word can become familiar while its reality remains poorly understood.
However, this verse reveals the Father’s heart. It is His good pleasure to give His children the kingdom. Believers do not need to persuade a reluctant God to permit them to experience His kingdom. Giving them the kingdom reflects His pleasure, desire, and loving intention toward them. As the Holy Spirit renews a believer’s mind concerning the meaning of the kingdom, that believer begins to understand the greatness of what the Father has freely given.
Understanding the Rule and Reign of God
Lori describes the kingdom as God’s rule and His reign. The kingdom reveals what is legal for God’s children and also helps them recognize what is illegal for them.
From this kingdom perspective, sickness is illegal for believers. Poverty is illegal for them. Fear, worry, anxiety, and the medical challenges those conditions can produce are also illegal for them. Their point is that these things do not represent the rule and reign of God. They do not reflect heaven’s reality or the Father’s will for His children. As believers learn what belongs to God’s kingdom, they also learn to reject conditions that contradict that kingdom.
Leonard explains that their Sunday message showed how believers can be released into kingdom living. The Lord had placed a particular verse on his heart that Sunday morning, and Lori reads it aloud:
Ephesians 2:2- “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
Leonard says he cannot repeat every detail of the previous Sunday’s teaching during this shorter session. He again encourages the audience to listen to the complete Sunday broadcast for the full explanation.
Our Former Walk Under the Prince of the Power of the Air
Leonard concentrates on the words “in time past” from Paul’s statement:
Ephesians 2:2- “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”
Paul is describing what believers once were, not what they presently are. They were previously enslaved to the domain of darkness, but they have now been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love—the kingdom of God.
Leonard emphasizes the distinction between the believer’s former life and present identity. Walking according to the course of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air belongs to the past. The prince of the power of the air is the enemy, and that spirit continues working in the children of disobedience. However, Paul’s words describe the believer’s former walk. Believers once lived according to the enemy’s direction, but they do not belong to that way of life anymore.
Disobedience as Disbelief and Unbelief
Leonard and Lori examine what “disobedience” means in the verse:
Ephesians 2:2- “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
People frequently hear the word “disobedience” and think only of someone refusing to obey a command. However, Lori explains that an important meaning of the word in this context is disbelief. Leonard adds unbelief as another way of expressing it.
Walking according to the prince of the power of the air is therefore connected to disbelief and unbelief. Paul says believers once lived in that condition, but they are no longer children of disobedience, unbelief, or disbelief. This distinction is essential to kingdom living. Believers must stop defining themselves according to their former relationship with darkness. Their identity and position have changed.
Becoming Children Who Believe and Expect
If believers are no longer children of disbelief and unbelief, Leonard explains that they are now children of belief. They are children who believe, know, and experience the realities of God. He describes this truth as powerful. The Apostle Paul brings the gospel of Christ and the gospel of the kingdom into present reality for believers. Their lives are no longer supposed to be governed by their former unbelief. Believers are now children of obedience and belief. Lori adds that they are children of expectation. They expect the miraculous and supernatural workings of God within His kingdom.
Leonard teaches that the miraculous and supernatural should become normal for believers. Kingdom realities are not meant to appear strange or unreachable. They should become part of the believer’s expected experience as the mind is renewed and faith grows.
The Gospel of the Kingdom and the Supernatural
Leonard explains that Jesus proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom of God and instructed His disciples to preach the gospel of the kingdom.
In the ministry of Jesus, preaching the gospel of the kingdom was consistently accompanied by miraculous and supernatural works. Leonard mentions the healing of lepers, the restoration of sight to the blind, the healing of the deaf, and the raising of people from the dead. He connects these works with the prayer Jesus taught:
Matthew 6:9-10- “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
When Jesus instructed believers to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, He revealed what their experiences should look like. Believers should walk in and experience the gospel of the kingdom, including healing, miracles, and supernatural manifestations of God’s power. Paul then brings this reality home by reminding believers that they once walked according to the prince of the power of the air:
Ephesians 2:2- “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”
That former walk no longer defines them. They are now children of obedience, belief, and expectation who anticipate God’s miraculous and supernatural work.
Renewing the Mind From Former Living to Present Kingdom Living
Leonard explains that one of the things that launches believers into kingdom living is developing the right mindset, the right belief, the right understanding, and the right revelations. Believers must understand the difference between what formerly defined them and what presently defines them. When a person thinks contrary to kingdom living, that person is mentally returning to the former way of life.
The answer is to allow the mind to be renewed by the truth of the Word of God. As believers renew their minds, they learn to live in the present reality of the kingdom. They begin living with an expectation of the miraculous and supernatural. Leonard once again returns to the prayer Jesus taught.
Matthew 6:9-10- “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
The prayer begins with worship and praise. Leonard repeats that great things happen when believers praise God. The miraculous and supernatural spring forth through praise. As praise causes faith to rise and the anointing to flow, believers pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is what God desires and expects for His children.
God’s Will for Healing, Wholeness, Joy, and Relationships
Leonard asks what God’s will looks like for believers. Lori answers that it includes the kingdom of heaven, healing, wholeness, joy, and life to the full until it overflows. God’s will also includes an intimate relationship with Him and loving relationships with other people. It includes blessed marriages, blessed family relationships, and wonderful friendships.
Lori describes the continual renewing of the mind through which believers learn more and more about God’s love for them. As that revelation increases, His love seeps out of them and affects every part of their lives.
Kingdom living is therefore not limited to physical miracles. It influences a believer’s inner life, relationships, marriage, family, friendships, joy, health, and understanding of God’s love. The rule and reign of God touch the whole person and the whole life. Leonard says he had forgotten what he intended to say next, but it did not matter because he could not have said anything better than what Lori had just shared.
Remembering That We Are No Longer Who We Once Were
Leonard and Lori bring the central message back to a simple but powerful truth: believers once lived under the old order, but they no longer do. Paul described that former condition clearly:
Ephesians 2:2- “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
The words “in time past” matter. Believers were once children of disbelief and unbelief, but they are no longer. They now belong to God’s kingdom and are children of belief, obedience, and expectation. Leonard and Lori encourage believers to remember that their former lives no longer define their present reality. God’s kingdom is their reality now.