A fundamental calling of Christians is to experience heaven, and bring heaven to earth. The prayer the Lord gave us to pray is for His kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Daniel gave a very specific prophecy about how this would happen when he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
This dream is remarkable for its accurate foretelling of the coming great empires of men, which have now been fulfilled just as he foresaw. Now, it is time for the rest of it to be fulfilled—for the little stone to grow into a mountain that fills the whole earth. To understand what the Lord is doing in the earth today it is important to understand this dream, along with Daniel's interpretation, which we will read in brief from Daniel 2:28, 31-45:
"However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries,
and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar
what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions
in your mind while on your bed.
You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue;
that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor,
was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.
The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver,
its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron,
its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands,
and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them.
Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold
were crushed all at the same time, and became like chaff
from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away
so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue
became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
This was the dream; now we shall tell its interpretation before the king.
You, O king . . . are the head of gold.
And after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you,
then another third kingdom of bronze...
Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron;
inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces,
it will crush and break all these in pieces.
And in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron,
it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron,
inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. . .
And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay,
they will combine with one another in the seed of men;
but they will not adhere to one another,
even as iron does not combine with pottery.
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people;
it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.
Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain
without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver,
and the gold, the great God has made known to the king
what will take place in the future; so the dream is true,
and its interpretation is trustworthy."
The history of the following empires of men remarkably followed thepattern of this dream. Theologians and historians almost universally agree that these kingdoms were Media Persia, Greece, the Roman Empire, then the Holy Roman Empire, which was represented by feet of iron and clay because it was a mixture of Rome (iron) and the church (clay).
These kingdoms were all much more than just their periods of domain in history. They were humanistic philosophies, doctrines, customs, cultural, and religious influences that were passed down and continue to have an influence on the entire earth. This statue was of a man because it represents the kingdoms of man. As Daniel asserted, in "the latter days" there will be a "little stone" that will strike the feet of this statue and bring it all down.
Here we see that the kingdom of God will begin very small, but even a small stone from heaven can easily overthrow all of the kingdoms, philosophies, doctrines, and religions of men. When we confront such things we often feel compelled to attack the whole statue, but all the Lord does is cast a little stone at their feet and all that man has built in opposition or rebellion to God will collapse.
The stone is Christ, and the mountain is His government, which is "the kingdom of God." This speaks of His authority and dominion growing until it fills the earth. This is now taking place. We are called to be a part of it, by taking dominion for the kingdom of God wherever He has placed us. We are called to turn our homes into a piece of heaven. We are called to turn our jobs, schools, places where we shop, everywhere we go, into part of the domain of heaven.
To do this we must understand the kingdom of God will not be established like the kingdoms of men. It will not come with carnal weapons, carnal force, political alliances, or other human means, such as the statue that the king of Babylon saw in his dream. It will come by a love so strong that hatred collapses before it. It will come by a joy so powerful that depression dissipates like fog before the sun. It will come through a peace so profound that fear flees from it. It will come with such patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that all authority and influence based on anything man has tried to build on will not be able to stand before it.
The time will soon be upon us when everything man has tried to build will be seen as the fragile idol it is, and it will come down. Our job is to simply grow in the kingdom of God that is "…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17). We have a kingdom that cannot be shaken, which is irresistible, and which will prevail. Your purpose for being on the earth is to bring the kingdom of heaven to it. Seal Daniel 2:44 in your heart:
"And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom
will not be left for another people;
it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms,
but it will itself endure forever."