The Kingdom of Heaven

We cannot even see it until we are born again–or passed from death unto life. (John 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.)

But to enter it, we must become as little children (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:14-15). A little child doesn’t concern himself with factual truth, but rather with what he is experiencing; he responds positively to that which makes him feel alive and safe and negatively to that which doesn’t. It was the Pharisees who responded negatively to Jesus —because they were concerned about His being right. The Publicans and sinners, on the other hand, simply responded to the Life that He was, without concerning themselves with the correctness of His doctrine. I dare say they probably had very little mental understanding of what He was saying. The woman wiping Jesus’ feet with her tears was just experiencing the joy of knowing that she was accepted and forgiven and was returning to Jesus the love that she was experiencing from Him —something that Simon couldn’t do because he was so busy judging the woman as a sinner (Luke 7:36-50).

Where is this kingdom that we must become like a child to enter? (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.) It is not something we can see with natural eyes. It is within.

Jesus made a distinction between His kingdom and this world. (John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.) He referred to it as being above. (John 8:23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.) And this above is where Paul tells us we are to set our affection. (Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 2Corinthians 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.)

In Philippians Paul gets very specific about what we are to look at and think on and associates thinking thusly with experiencing peace —providing us with a test of sorts. (Philippians 4:6-9 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.)

Can this above (that both Jesus and Paul speak of) refer to a place in the sky somewhere, if it is within us?

Jesus is said to have been in heaven even while walking the earth. John 3:13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

And Jesus taught us to pray that His kingdom would also come in our earth. (Luke 11:2  And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.)

Paul tells us that our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20 (NIV) But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ), that the risen Christ is in heaven (Ephesians 1:20  Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places), and that we are right there with Him (Ephesians 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus).

We must remind ourselves that the natural mind cannot understand spiritual things, and they cannot be seen with the natural eyes; they are spiritually discerned (1Corinthians 2:14). Both Jesus and Paul, and all the writers of the Bible, are continually painting pictures to aid us in our understanding.

There is, on the one hand, the kingdom of heaven, and, on the other, there is this world. One is spiritual, the other natural. What is regarded as wisdom in the one is foolishness in the other. (1Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.) This world is the finite, seen world, that is perceived with the senses, while the kingdom of heaven is the unseen, which we are admonished to set our minds (or affections) on.

Jesus said that He was in the world, but not of it, and John said that we are as Jesus in this world —also in it, but not of it (1John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.). Jesus was appearing to the world to bring light into the darkness, without being subject to its systems and limitations. And that is His intention for us.

To enter into and live in the kingdom of God is not merely to accept Jesus as Savior in order to be able to live in a place of perfection after physical death. The kingdom of heaven can be a now reality for us, as it was for Jesus, if we but let this mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus. The kingdom of heaven is the unseen realm where God rules, while earth is the realm of the visible, which may be ruled by the god of this world (2Corinthians 4:4) (the human mind-set or identity which thinks it is separated from God) or it may be ruled by God Himself, when the kingdom comes on earth as in heaven (in the life of one who has his identity in Christ, knowing that he is one with God).

For the kingdom of God to come and the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven, there must be someone on earth who is able to recognize that it is being done. For the will of God is always being done in heaven (the only reality that there is and which is within each of us) but may not be visible to those on earth whose eyes are veiled by their human belief in the reality of evil.

As Paul told us, it is only in Christ that the veil is removed (2Corinthians 3:14). Only those of us who have appropriated the mind of Christ are able to go within and recognize the kingdom of heaven where God’s will is always being done and bring it into visibility on earth. We don’t cause it to be done by begging or beseeching God. We engage in true prayer —the recognition of that which IS as opposed to that which APPEARS to be. And in that recognition, that which IS manifests itself on the earth.

Jesus showed us what it looks like to live in the kingdom of God, where we know that I and my Father are one. (John 10:30). In the kingdom of God there is no lack (Psalms 23:1); whether Jesus needed wine (John 2), fish and bread (Matthew 14), or tax money (Matthew 17:27), it was there. Life in the kingdom of God is abundant (John 10:10).

In this kingdom, nothing can hurt me (Luke 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.), and there is no death. What the people in this world called death, Jesus referred to as sleep and proceeded to demonstrate that those who were dead needed only to be awakened from sleep (John 11; Mark 5). When people tried to take Jesus’ life, He just walked through their midst —into the realm of the unseen (Luke 4:29-30). He said that no one could take his life, that He would both lay it down and take it up again when He chose to (John 10:17-18). He also said that if they thought they took his life, that He would be back in three days (John 2:19-22), thus demonstrating that death only occurs in this world, not in the kingdom of God.

Who wouldn’t want to live is this wonderful place? The good news is that we can, for Jesus gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father (Galatians 1:4). And that deliverance from this present evil world, is for NOW —not when we die.

The kingdom of God is WITHIN, not WITHOUT. Within is only righteousness, peace, and joy (Romans 14:17 (KJV) For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.) —everything pertaining to life and godliness (2Peter 1:3 (KJV) According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:). In the without you go without.

Mark 4:11

And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

Revelation 22:15

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Without is the world of appearances, but we are told not to judge by the appearance (John 7:24 (KJV) Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.), not to look at the seen (2Corinthians 4:18), but rather to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:2). It APPEARED to Mary and Martha that their brother was dead, because they were looking without —into the world of appearances. But Jesus was looking within and judging with righteous judgment.

We can ask ourselves the same question Jesus asked of Martha.

John 11:23-26  Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Do I believe that I can never die, that the life that I am is truly eternal?

By returning the life that was Lazarus to the form his sisters could recognize, Jesus demonstrated the total unimportance of the form the life appears in. This was again demonstrated by Jesus when He appeared to Mary Magdalene as a gardener (John 20:15), to His disciples as the man on the beach cooking fish (John 21:4) and to the men on the road to Emmaus as a stranger.

Mark 16:12  After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.

Form is merely a tool for appearing to this world of appearances to bring light into the darkness. This is difficult to grasp as long as I think that I am the body that I see in the mirror; I must understand that my body is not me. I am one with that which animates the body (the Christ–Christ is my life (Colossians 3:4); it is not I who live, but Christ lives as me (Galatians 2:20)). This body is a tool, a mask, that the I that I am uses to appear to this world; but I am not the mask. The mask is of the world of appearances and is therefore not reality. This body, like everything else in the world of appearances, is passing away —dissolving. I use this body, but I do not live in it.

The important thing is to realize that there is no death in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus laid his body down, and He took it up again (complete with flesh and bones), just as he said He would.

Luke 24:39  Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

After Jesus’ resurrection, many saints also took up their bodies again to bring light into the darkness.

Matthew 27:50-53  Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

That is the sole purpose of form appearing to this world–to show forth the glory of God. That is why Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14) —He was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (John 1:9).

John 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:

Form (flesh) is necessary if one is to appear to the world, but that which is visible is not life. We have to present ourselves to this world in a body (a living sacrifice) —just as Jesus did, but we are not to be conformed to this world.

Romans 12:1-2  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Adam and Eve (or the Life which appeared as Adam and Eve) before engaging in carnal thinking (thinking that there was God and there was themselves rather than knowing that they were One with God) lived in perfection, knowing that they were perfect and entire, lacking nothing. There were no problems to be solved, no others to straighten out, nothing to correct, heal, make better, evangelize, witness to, or in any way improve upon. They lived in the kingdom of God without fear, mental confusion, disease, sorrow, or pain. They were in a world of appearances, but not of it. Their conversation (or citizenship) was in heaven (God) (Philippians 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:) even as they appeared on the earth. We, like Adam and Eve and like Jesus Himself when He walked this earth, can also live in heaven (John 3:13) from whence we came —as did Jesus. The difference is that Jesus knew where He came from:

John 3:13

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

John 13:3

Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God.

Jesus told us that we would have tribulation in the world, adding that He had overcome the world (John 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.). And Paul was teaching that we enter the kingdom of God through much tribulation (Acts 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.)

I cannot have my identity in both this world and in the kingdom of God. To be of this world is to be carnally minded (which is death), but to live, move, and have my being in God or the kingdom of God is to be spiritually minded (which is life and peace) (Romans 8:6). The tribulation is what I undergo as I renew my mind to truth. It comes both from the battle in my own mind (enmity between flesh and spirit) (Romans 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.) and from the criticism and persecution of those whose minds are not renewed to truth. But we are still to be of good cheer even while undergoing tribulation, knowing the end result is the experiencing of life abundant in the kingdom of God.

Jesus was crucified for saying that He was One with His Father (John 10:33  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.); you will be too. But He endured the cross with joy (Hebrews 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.) knowing that the Life that was living in Him could never die —that though the form would pass away (as do all things that are not eternal), the Life that He was would take any form It deemed necessary (even one with scars from the crucifixion for the doubting Thomases —John 20:27) to continue to bring light into the darkened world.

The choice is mine. I can either continue to be of this world, thinking that this physical body is who I am while waiting for death to release me into the kingdom of heaven

OR

I can, like Jesus, recognize that I am Spirit being which can never die, having my present residence in the kingdom of heaven while appearing to this world in a form which makes me visible to this world —all for the purpose of bringing light into the darkness.