Being in pentecostal and charismatic churches from a young age I heard people quote this verse in a positive sense :

Matthew 11:12-13

[12] From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. [13] For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John

You might be thinking, why not see this positively? Well, first because we do honour Gods word and we use context. One of the main accusations against the pentecostal/charismatics camps are that they don’t know the word of God, but instead use verses for whatever they want.

So let us not do that? Let’s use the first good practice when reading bible, check audience relevance! He is speaking about the prophets, law and John the baptist to the Jews.

Secondly time period is from John the baptist until now, as in now when Jesus stood and said what He said. We can’t pull that now into our now.

The verses just before this :

Matthew 11:11

[11] Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

So the point was made that the least in the kingdom is greater than John. There is so far no positive point we can gather from kingdom being taken with violence. John was the first prophet who announced the kingdom is at hand. The Jews wanted a Messiah that would rule and conquer the romans, so when they hear the kingdom is here, they do not understand what you and I do regarding the kingdom and it’s spiritual reality, instead they sought a physical ruler ship. This is why John said :

John 6:15

[15] Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Note that the word “force” being used. That is the nature of old covenant Israel. They want to make Jesus king physically so to beat the enemies. Jesus comes and beats the enemies, defeats satan and death by dying on the cross then rising from the grave. He then imparts to us that very Spirit that gave Him victory

Not forgetting he said : Luke 17:21

[21] nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

We are not to take the kingdom violently or by force since it is already within us

If we want verses that talk about attacking or being on the offense against the enemy, we could use : Matthew 16:18

[18] And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Gates are something you attack and break open and you can do that and win since the kingdom of God is in you!