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Like many ministers, I taught for years that the Kingdom of God is within us and that the Kingdom is entirely present in the here and now. Recently, I’ve reevaluated the biblical accuracy of my assertions. My findings don’t nullify the potential for the presence of the Kingdom internally and externally. But, they do dictate that qualifying conditions must be activated for such to become functional realities.
Luk 17:20-21 is the passage upon which the Kingdom within teaching is based. The context reveals several relevant things: Jesus was not responding to a question asked by one of His disciples about the location of the Kingdom. He was answering a Pharisee’s question about the timing of the coming of the Kingdom.
Jesus was not identifying the location of the Kingdom as a permanent fixture within everyone’s inner-man/psyche. The Pharisees whom He was addressing were particularly unqualified to possess the Kingdom within. They were Jesus’ antagonists who haunted His meetings looking for opportunities to accuse Him of doctrinal blunders. One of their primary condemnations was that He claimed that God indwelt Him. His assertion of He and His Father as one in unity infuriated them. The Kingdom within demands the indwelling presence of the Godhead through faith, the accompanying fruit of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and miraculous signs and wonders (Joh 14:23, Rom 14:17, Mat 12:28).
It would have been contradictory for Jesus to suggest that the Pharisees’ psyches housed the Kingdom. His stated perception of them by no means credited them with Kingdom qualities. It described them as the spawn of the Devil, a generation of vipers who were totally incapable of speaking well of anything, mush less the glories of the Kingdom (Joh 8:44, Mat 12:34).
It’s far more likely that Jesus was inferring that while the Pharisees were looking for the coming Kingdom; they were ignoring the Kingdom’s Messiah who was in their midst exemplifying the fruits of the Kingdom. It’s also important to discern that since Jesus was not specifically addressing His disciples; it’s not kosher to assume that He meant that every successive generation of church-goers have innately possessed within everything relevant to the Kingdom in its entirety.
Jesus’ later communication to His disciples about the topic begins at Luk 17:22. He explicitly stated that times were coming wherein they would desire to see days like those when He was physically among them, but wouldn’t. This implies that the measure of the Kingdom’s presence has dependant variables.
- Jesus commanded us to pray “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. If all aspects of His Kingdom were always with us/within to the same extent and His will happening in our lives in a consistent manner, this would be a needless petition.
- Mat 18:19-20 is often quoted to endorse the premise of the Kingdom in our midst. The verses contain things that must be in process for that eventuality. Believers must be meeting in His name and be engaged in prayers of agreement. The Greek definition for agree, is to be in symphony/to harmonize. Most Christians can testify that they occasionally attend prayer meetings that are anything but symphonies of agreement. In such instances some of those present undoubtedly have the Kingdom within them. However, there is little evidence that all of those in attendance have the Kingdom as a functional reality in their circumstances and hearts.
- Rev 12:7-11 has interesting implications. It is speaking of people who would overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimonies. Timeline considerations put this event after Jesus’ uttered the Kingdom within phrase of Luk 17:21. The timing is post the Church’s endowment with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost; and in the future well beyond the days of the First Century Church. After the victory depicted, a heavenly voice declares, "…Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.”
- The implications are that the Kingdom will not come in fuller dimensions until the events described have been accomplished. Such will require a global generation of Christians who value the purposes of the Kingdom over their own lives. It is that vintage of saints that possess the Kingdom authority to dislodge the powers of Satan as they testify about that which the blood of the Lamb has accomplished in their lives.
- In Eph 3:14-19 Paul spoke that he prayed that all believers would be filled with all of the fullness of God. The indwelling fullness of the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit is certainly a significant indication that the Kingdom of God is within. If that was the invariable status of every believer, Paul’s prayer would have been needless.
- Among other things, the Bible symbolizes the inner-man as a house and a city. Some people’s inner-lives don’t speak well of the Kingdom. The walls of their inner-cities are broken down and their inner-houses are built upon sand (Pro 25:28, Mat 7:24-27). Should they lackadaisically rely on the Kingdom within; they might be leaning on something that is carnally unstable and corrupt rather than that which is spiritually stable and incorruptible. It takes disciplined faith and the activation of God’s unfailing Word to repair the heart’s breeched walls and to establish lives on the solid rock of the Kingdom.
All of the aforementioned indicate that the Kingdom can be established within believers and it can come in greater dimensions to this planet. However, both are progressive processes. Neither should be presumed as automatically complete due to salvation and a Christian presence on earth that is disproportionably nominal. The more that God’s people demonstrate the exploits of the Kingdom and the character of Christ within; the more it denotes the presence of the Kingdom internally and externally.
The cumulative scriptures about the Kingdom indicate that its coming happens in stages and that its fullness will not entirely be experienced until the end of the age.
- On one hand: Unquestionably, in the Spirit those who have been truly converted are in the Kingdom (Col 1:13). Through faith all have come to and dwell within the features of the Kingdom mentioned in Heb 12:22-24. The heavenly Jerusalem, myriads of angels, the spirits of the redeemed in heaven and so forth.
- When a fellowship and/or a Christian functions properly in faith, such sit in heavenly places with Christ and can make governmental decrees about God-assigned spheres of authority. Believers have the authority and responsibility to bring the Kingdom’s righteousness, peace and joy to arenas pertinent to their lives. They can perform the Kingdom’s miraculous acts for their own and as an aid for converting unbelievers (1Co 4:20, Rom 15:18-19).
- On the other hand: Paul constantly admonished his constituents to flee wicked works as such could prevent them from inheriting the Kingdom. Terms associated with inherit, infer coming into something that is not yet fully possessed. His warnings would have been hallow, if believers already fully possessed the Kingdom in its fullness.
- Paul declared that he was confident of continuous deliverances from evil and of the eventuality of being brought safely to the heavenly Kingdom (2Ti 4:18). The fact is that though he had been translated into the Kingdom at salvation, there were yet futuristic aspects that he anticipated.
- A very weighty matter is that it is not unusual for some Christians to boast bringing every earthly Kingdom under the Lordship of Jesus prior to His coming. In light of the Scriptures, I don’t think that such boasts are appropriate. Rev 17 & 18 speaks about how some rulers of the earth will submit their kingdoms to the beast, the anti-Christ. They could not do so if their administrations were under the reign and rule of believers on behalf of Christ.
- The people of God will be urged to come out of Babylon lest they be plagued with her punishments. All things relevant to the cited chapters dictate that there will continue to be wicked earthy kingdoms until the Lord Himself obliterates them with the glory of His Coming. Such nullifies the notion that believers, solely by virtue of their Kingdom giftings, will subdue every earthly nation prior to the Lord’s personal presence.
Presumptuous pride spawns embarrassment, as those who flaunt it don’t have the stuff within to back-up their boasts. Meekness is a superior alternative. Meekness is strength under discipline. Those who have it quietly cultivate the Kingdom within. This positions them to be recipients of the anointing to demonstrate the Kingdom in power rather than words. It is the meek members of the Body of Christ who will perform unprecedented exploits of the Kingdom in this generation.
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