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Intention

To celebrate the unity we have within God’s family, as we shift our thinking from a ‘church’ mindset into a kingdom mindset.

Scripture

“‘Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’

“So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.”

– Luke 15:23–28

Reflection

C. S. Lewis once said that “Joy is the serious business of heaven”. Global evangelist Leif Hetland put it another way when he observed that “the rhythm of heaven is in the waltz”.

When searching for an insight in Scripture from Jesus about the nature of the kingdom of heaven, I find it hard to go past Luke 15:25 in the story of the prodigal son. The older son “heard music and dancing” in the nearby house.

Yet upon learning this celebration was due to his younger brother’s return, “the older brother became angry and refused to go in” (Luke 15:28). Here we have a division between the two sons of the same father… one as the remorseful offender, and the other as the resentful offended!

The father knew that he needed to get his two sons under the one roof of the banquet hall, where they would be swept up into the great dance of loving unity between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

At the banquet hall, everything changes! Here, we leave our sandals of ‘blame and shame’ out in the foyer and enter in to find God changing the narrative in our hearts from personal deliberation to family celebration. Here we move from a ‘church’ mindset into a kingdom mindset.

Amidst the many streams of the Church, we begin to recognise that my Father is your Father too! Heaven has a way of sweeping us up out of the mirey clay before rewarding the perseverant with a higher perspective on our tired objections.

Here we can begin walking towards oneness that causes us to find together what we could not find alone. Jesus did not implore us to seek first the ‘Church’ of God but to “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). Here Jesus takes the lead in the dance and we find ourselves being more about his perfect righteousness and not our perfect rightness.

Finally, as the bride of Christ, we are surely called to look upon his beauty as the bridegroom not our own. The more we do that, the more his radiance will cause us as the bride to gloriously shine back his presence for the sake of the world.

Here too, we will no longer spectate around the waltz of the Trinity but are pulled right into the centre, where Jesus’ final prayer of John 17:22–23 to the Father, finally makes sense: “I have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity”.

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Prayer

Dear Father, you loved us while we were still sinners and far from perfect in your eyes. We need your grace to work miracles in our hearts to love our spiritual siblings in the same way.

Show us the planks in our own eyes and cause us to have the same yearning in our hearts for the oneness that Jesus prayed in John chapter 17. Please draw us together as the Church into the glorious dance of the Trinity here on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen.

Author Bio

Philip Ryall is an Australian Christian Spirit-filled entrepreneur, husband, father, and the curator of the book Dear Unity, a compilation of more than 30 love letters from renowned Christian leaders including Danny and Leila Abdallah.

He is also the founder of Harvest Journeys, which offers pilgrimages to the Holy Land and other destinations around the world, fostering powerful faith movements and global church related mega-events and gatherings of 3,000+ participants.

Prayer Points for October 2025

1. God to pour out his blessing and Spirit on every church in Australia and its leaders. Hebrews 13:7
2. All churches in Australia to grow in Christlikeness and win people to Christ. Acts 6:7
3. Widespread adoption of Reaching Australia 2033 and its plan to activate every believer in personal evangelism. Acts 1:8
4. Revival for Australia and for millions to come to Christ. Isaiah 64:1–2

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