This is an excellent essay that my wife and I read last night. Once on the page scroll down to the header:
https://www.godfire.net/eby/Kingdom21.html
"When our blessed Lord came teaching the Kingdom of God throughout the province of Galilee, He made it abundantly clear that possessing the Kingdom is not an easy thing. It is not so difficult to see the Kingdom, as Moses saw the promised land from the heights of mount Nebo, but to possess the Kingdom takes a definite effort. Jesus spoke of this when He told the Pharisees, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it” (Lk. 16:16). It is doubtful if any of those who heard these words had the remotest idea of the effort involved in possessing the Kingdom. Let me put it this way. It takes an added effort after you have already put forth an effort! Like a sprinting race, it is that final thrust at the end where the contender puts forth all of his complete energy. He will press forth with all the strength he can muster to win the race. In like manner it takes running, pressing, and even violence in one’s effort to take the Kingdom."
"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Mat. 11:12). Some say that this is a negative statement, that Jesus is not talking about the necessity of taking the Kingdom by violent effort, but that in the hour when the Kingdom was announced many carnal people sought by the violence of carnal effort to seize the Kingdom for their own ends. These words of Jesus in Matthew are, however, a sequel to the words written by Luke. Matthew says that since the days of John the Baptist, the Kingdom of God suffers violence — and the violent take it by force. Luke says that since John the Baptist the Kingdom is preached, and men press into it. Each of the Gospel writers expresses in his own words the thought given by Jesus. The backdrop to this is the conquest of the land of Canaan, the Old Testament type of our possessing our inheritance in Christ. No one can dispute that when Israel went in to possess their inheritance that the land of Canaan suffered violence. Ah, yes! they pressed their way into the land and violently took it by force. That is the picture the Holy Spirit has drawn of what it means to take the Kingdom!
Much more in the link:
Amen!
"Enter a man named Shamgar. Shamgar was not a king, nor a general, nor a sergeant. He was not even a private. There is no record of him ever having been in the army or having any military training or experience. Shamgar was a farmer, a very good farmer, no doubt, but only a farmer. He broke a yoke of oxen and used these oxen to plow his fields. At that time this required great boldness and tenacity because when crops were planted, and after much investment and toil, the harvest finally arrived — then the Philistines would sweep down and carry away the crops. The whole land lay in desolation, the roads were overgrown with grass and weeds, the villages were ghost towns, because the people were hiding in the walled cities where they had at least a modicum of safety. The land was helpless before the Philistines."
"Shamgar was not satisfied to accept this state of affairs and so he went out, plowed his fields with his oxen, and planted his crops. When harvest time arrived six hundred Philistines armed with flashing swords swept down upon this one farmer. The only weapon at Shamgar’s disposal was an ox goad. An ox goad was usually made from the limb of an oak tree. It would be from eight to ten feet long with the bark stripped off and a sharp iron point affixed to the tip. It was used to jab the ox when he tried to get out of the furrow. On the other end of the goad was a flattened piece of metal that was sharpened for the purpose of scraping the dirt off the plow as it collected. Not a very sophisticated weapon of war! But it was all Shamgar had in addition to his fierce determination, his seething resolve, and his violent passion. This situation would not stand! One thing Shamgar was efficient in — the use of an ox goad. In the hands of a man who had handled one from his youth, it could become quite lethal. So when these six hundred Philistines swept down upon Shamgar, he decided that he had had enough; and that he was going to do something about it."
"Excuses would have come easy. There was only one farmer with an ox goad and there were six hundred soldiers with gleaming swords. What could any man do without a sword? There was no way to resist such a formidable foe. The best thing to do would be to hide and just let them have the crops. But that kind of reasoning was not to be found in Shamgar’s heart. Shamgar had a deep and profound faith in God. He also had a compassionate concern for his people, and for his own dignity as an Israelite and a child of God. Armed with this resolve, he determined to take a stand at whatever the cost. He stood in his field and as the Philistines came upon him, he grabbed that ox goad and began to swing it! There must have been some astonished Philistines. And the battle that ensued became the battle of all battles in the annals of military history. There were sculls cracking all over the place. That mighty oak limb with its iron tip on one end and its flat iron on the other was whirling like the propellers of a helicopter. They must have thought that they had come upon a hornet’s nest because they were getting it from all sides. No one could even get close enough to Shamgar to thrust him with a sword! They were jabbed and cut and pounded on. When the dust settled there were six hundred dead Philistines scattered through the fields. Then there is that remarkable little phrase that says it all: “He also delivered Israel.” What a warrior Shamgar was! What a mighty man of God! His popularity soared so high that the people made him a Judge. He was the third Judge that delivered and ruled the people of Israel."
"From this farmer in ancient Israel there rings through the centuries and millenniums a message for each of God’s elect in this vital hour at the end of the age. The first lesson has to do with the crime of low aim. Most Christians never really try to accomplish anything significant in the Kingdom of God because they never really set any high goals. They are satisfied to set their goals low or to set no goals at all and then they generally hit them very accurately. It does not take too much aim to hit the target when there is no target. The target of most Christians is to die and go to heaven. That is not a hard one to miss! It takes no vision, revelation, purpose or violence to die and go to heaven! That has nothing whatever to do with the Kingdom. Being filled with all the fullness of God, conformed to the image of the Son, putting on the mind of Christ, laying hold upon manifested sonship, overcoming death, delivering creation from the bondage of corruption, and bringing in the Kingdom — ah, those are goals that challenge! Those are goals that have the power to change the world and alter the course of history. Kingdom goals! If you have no Kingdom goals in your life you will never possess the Kingdom. Jesus never preached about dying and going to heaven. He said, “Seek ye first THE KINGDOM OF GOD!” It pains me to say it, but I am certain that many in this hour intellectualize the wonderful truths of sonship and the Kingdom of God, but their hearts are not set on those goals; they have another set of goals that are unnamed, undefined, but very real which control their affections and thus, their lives."