“Remember the reason for for the season,” is a catchy phrase Christians often use to try to remind themselves and others that the commercialization, consumerism and comfortable traditions related to Christmas are not what it’s really all about.

Unfortunately, most Christians don’t know the real, REAL reason for the season. It’s not just about sweet Baby Jesus in a manger, or even about the fact that we can now go to heaven when we die because He came to earth.

God clearly spelled out the real, REAL reason for the season in Isaiah 9:6-7. (You’ll recognize the first line, from countless Christmas cards. Unfortunately, that’s where Hallmark ends it — yet the meat is what comes next…)

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be on His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice, from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” (NKJV, emphasis added.)

This prophetic word was fully echoed by Jesus in Luke 4:43, when He clearly spelled out the reason He came to earth: “I must preach the Kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”

(Brief language lesson here: the Hebrew word translated as government is MISRAH, which means empire. This is the Old Testament version of the Greek word BASILEIA, which we tranlate as kingdom, or “the royal power, kingship, dominion and rule” of God. So these verses are talking about the exact same thing.)

Jesus didn’t come to rescue us from earth. From God’s perspective the cross is not just a means of our salvation, it is a means of His invasion!

From Genesis 1, where God’s first words to mankind are “go and conquer,” to Revelation 21, where God says that “he who conquers will inherit all things,” the message of the Bible is about God working through His sons and daughters to establish His “royal power, kingship, dominion and rule” on earth as it is in Heaven.

Where the first Adam failed, Jesus came as “the last Adam” to give us the keys the Kingdom – to show us The Way, to model, equip, empower and enable us to conquer the world as God desires.

The Apostle Paul said that the Kingdom of God is peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. We are called to fight for our fellow man, against the spiritual enemies that seek to kill, steal and destroy. We are called to expand the Kingdom of Love, as led by Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is the grand purpose of mankind.

From the moment sweet baby Jesus was born in the manger in Bethlehem, the Isaiah passage says that He carried God’s empire, His Kingdom, on His shoulder. And from that moment onwards, the expansion of His Kingdom will have no end — as His ever-expanding Body of brothers and sisters pick up their mandate and zealously follow His lead.

Jesus came to give us everything WE need to accomplish this: 1) An open door, through Him, to a relationship with the Father, 2) and everpresent counselor in the form of the Holy Spirit, and 3) as it says in Luke 10:19 (translated accurately) “behold, I give you superhuman mastery over … all the force of the enemy.”

THESE are the gifts we should remember at Christmastime. Praise God, in Christ we have everything we need to live out our victorious destiny! So what are we waiting for?

The Kingdom of God: The real, REAL reason for the season!

 – You are the salt of the world. Stay salty, my friends!