Thy Kingdom Is Here And There

There has been much confusion about the kingdom of God and when is it going to come or has it already come.

First I would like to talk just a little about the future kingdom that everybody has hope for. True born again believers will go to heaven after we leave this physical body and we will go to live with our loving God forever. God has promised with many scriptures that the eternal heaven will be glorious. God also says this is when we enter His rest.

Rev 14:13 NIV - Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."

Let us also remember that for any that do not have the faith to listen and obey His teachings and warnings, there will be eternal unrest for their souls.

Heb 3:16-4:1 NIV - Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

Since the future eternal kingdom is the kingdom that most preachers and teachers teach on, I want to concentrate instead on Jesus’ kingdom that is here now, a kingdom that every true born again believer is part of. If people only hear about the future eternal kingdom and not the kingdom that is here and now, people will be mislead to believe that they have to wait to be made “Christ like” until after they physically die. On the contrary, we have to be made Christ like before we physically die and we must be part of the kingdom of God here on earth while we are still in our fleshly body before we can transfer to God’s eternal kingdom.

The kingdom of God that every born again believer is part of, is a spiritual kingdom. Since people have a hard time understanding anything they cannot see or feel, we sometimes have a hard time understanding anything in the spiritual since we can’t see it to analyze and reason it out with our minds or logic. In this message I will attempt to simplify what many have made very complicated.

I would like to start with defining what a kingdom is. A kingdom is where you have an absolute ruler, a king or lord, and the kingdom having people as subjects to that king. For any person willing to live in the area in which that king has rule, that person must agree to be totally subject to the presiding king’s laws and rules. So when did this happen for God’s kingdom here on earth? We need to take a look at scripture to find this out.

Mark 1:14-15 NIV - After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Matt 12:28 NIV - But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

In Mark 1 the scriptures are telling the story about how John the Baptist was proclaiming the coming of our savior and after Jesus was baptized Jesus went into the nearby town of Galilee and started proclaiming that the time had come for the kingdom of God. Jesus said “The kingdom of God is near”. In Matt 12 we see Jesus telling the Pharisees that “the kingdom of God has come upon you”, meaning it was there when Jesus spoke those words to the Pharisees. Some people will say how can that be, there was no absolute rule or totally obedient subjects for the kingdom. We have to understand that Jesus Christ is the king and where ever Jesus Christ is, there the kingdom is also. Jesus could say the kingdom of God had come because He was the King and Lord and He had a totally committed subject, which was himself, since He was both God and also a human. So since he was human and was totally committed and obedient to His Father’s will, He was His own subject.

Anytime Jesus Christ was on this earth doing His ministry, the kingdom of God was also on earth with Him. After Christ was crucified, the kingdom of God left the earth until Jesus Christ was resurrected. After Christ’s resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days with His 11 disciples and during this time the kingdom of God was also on earth since Jesus Christ was on earth. After these 40 days with His disciples, Jesus ascended into Heaven and the kingdom of God went with Him. After 10 days the kingdom of God returned to earth again through the Spirit’s filling of the disciples at Pentecost. This time the spiritual kingdom of God was here to stay on earth until Jesus’ final return. It was to be a kingdom within the hearts of men. Christ would now rule the hearts of men from the inside of their very souls.

Luke 17:20-21 NIV - Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

Remember - Jesus Christ is the king and where ever Jesus Christ is, there the kingdom is also. We can say that the kingdom of God is within us because the very Spirit of Jesus Christ is in us, that is if anyone is a true born again believer. If we have been baptized by His Spirit, then we have been given a totally new heart filled with His love and desires and Jesus Christ Spirit is within us.

John 3:6 NIV - Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

John 15:5 NIV - “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit”

John 14:19-21 NIV - Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

When we are a true born again believer, our heart has been totally transformed. The old man or sinful nature which is comprised of any selfishness in us has totally been replaced with the new man or God’s Spirit which is comprised of only love. Since no sin can originate out of true love, we only have desires to love and please God and love our fellow man. It is this total change of heart that drives our every desire and action. It is with Jesus Christ’s Spirit and love inside of us that God rules our lives. Our heart’s desires are in turn the same as God’s desires. Because of the love He has put in us, we only have the desire to obey His commandments and full heartedly go about doing His will.

Jesus Christ is now our high priest, Lord and King while we are living in this fleshly earthly body, but when we leave this earthly body, He is no longer our high priest because we won’t need any priest to intercede for us anymore. We will have already made our decision before we die, which will decide where we spend eternity. If we have chosen the way of Jesus as our Lord, then we will spend eternity with our brother Jesus Christ and Jesus’ Father as our Father for ever and ever. They will be the constant loving light we will continue living by and praising forever and ever.

If we have died to our selfishness and have spiritually been born into His kingdom while we are here on earth, we will never spiritually die; we will just transition from Christ’s earthly reigning kingdom to God’s eternal kingdom.

John 11:25-26 NIV - Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

In His Kingdom by faith - Michael Reid