The Kingdom of God Is Within

Luke 17:20-21 )

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Romans 14:17

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Luke 12:32

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

John 10:10

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

If I am to experience the righteousness, peace and joy (the abundant life) that is the kingdom of God, I must look to the within, not the without. We have all heard of the man who searched the world over to find the blue bird of happiness, only to find it in his own back yard. Likewise, we have searched for righteousness, peace and joy everywhere but where Jesus told us we would find it —within our own innermost being— where God Himself (our Father) dwells (John 14:10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.).

Jesus constantly made reference to His relationship with His Father within, experiencing such oneness with His Father that He could say, I and my Father are one (John 10:30) and If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. We hear the sorrow in His voice as He says to Philip, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? (John 14:9). He wished us to know that we, too, are God in expression. After His resurrection, He instructed Mary Magdalene to go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God (John 20:17).

He came into this world to take us back to our Father from whence we came. We had wandered so far from Father’s house into the world of our own carnal thinking that we could not find our way back. Remember, Jesus was God our Father Himself come into this world in human form to bring us back to Himself.

2Corinthians 5:19  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

That is why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6).

and

John 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

These scriptures which should give us comfort have, through misinterpretation by religion, only served to frighten us and keep us from recognizing the still small voice of the Father within each of us continually beseeching us to recognize His Presence and rest in the righteousness, peace and joy which has always been there for the taking. We have thought that we must get our doctrine right and meet some unknown requirement for God to draw us so that we could do whatever was required of us that would ensure our going to heaven when we die.

Although we talk about Jesus being in our heart, we’ve had little or no concept of the magnitude of what Jesus was really saying when He spoke of our relationship with our Father.

John 14:23

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

John 14:17

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

We haven’t yet allowed Jesus’ John 17 prayer to be answered in our individual lives —because we have not accepted our oneness with our Father.

John 17:21-23  21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

It stills seems to us, as it did to the Pharisees, to be blasphemy to really know God as Father with whom we are one.

John 10:30-36  I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

I must confess that I, too, have found it most difficult to realize Jesus’ prayer for me to know my oneness with my Father. The voice of religion still rings loudly in my ears that I am guilty of blasphemy if I dare believe that God Himself is my true identity —that I came from God and am God in expression in this earth.

Paul was able to let the prayer of Jesus be answered in his life:

Galatians 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

He was able to let the person he thought he was (the one was always doing what he didn’t want to do —(Romans 7:15)) go to the death when he realized that it was not his true identity, but was sin that dwelleth in me (Romans 7:17). Of course that sin is the belief that you are not one with God. Paul tells us earlier in Romans that this false identity is what Jesus took to the cross to destroy:

Romans 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

The writer of Hebrews calls this false identity the devil:

Hebrews 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Going back to Galatians 2:20, we see Paul accepting his true identity, which is Christ living as Paul. He expresses this same concept again in Colossians 3:4 when he speaks of Christ, who is our life.

Until we too can let our false identity (which we have shut up in a body) go to the death and accept the Christ as our true identity (actually know that it is the Christ who is living all of us), we will continue to seek the kingdom of heaven outside ourselves. We will think, as most Christians do, that it is someplace we go after our physical body dies. We will spend our entire sojourn on this planet reading about, talking about, and longing for the harmony and perfection we know to be in that kingdom without ever experiencing it.

We may experience some of the peace that the world gives (John 14:27), some of the joys of this world, and even a feeling or righteousness because of the deeds of the law that we have done (Romans 3:20) —but not the righteousness [that is a free gift of God —(Romans 5:17-18)], peace [that passeth all understanding —(Philippians 4:7)] and [fulness of —(Psalms 16:11)] joy in the Holy Ghost which characterizes the kingdom of God.

If we don’t go within and find the kingdom of God there for us to experience here and now, we will, as Jesus said to His disciples, remain without and never know the mystery of the kingdom of God (Matthew 4:11). Paul tells us what this mystery is:

Colossians 1:26-27  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Until we know that Christ is in us, living as us, as Paul did, we will see and not perceive, hear and not understand so that we cannot be converted and experience forgiveness of sin (Mark 4:11-12).

Sin is nothing more than ignorance of our true Christ identity. Unless we have that knowledge of God (1Corinthians 15:34; 2Corinthians 10:5; Colossians 1:10; 2Peter 1:2), we shall die in our sins (John 8:21,24) —remain ignorant of the truth that the kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:21) and therefore never experience it although it is our Father’s good pleasure to give it to us (Luke 12:32).