the lion and the lamb: Seek ye first the kingdom of God

"...For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21

Just take a moment to think about what you just read.

The kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU. The kingdom of God is not just some place that you will one day be find yourself if you live a good life. The kingdom of God is not just a place you read about in the bible. It is within you!

Sounds profound and a tad bit abstract at first, but what is it to have 'the kingdom of God within you'?

In the bible the term Kingdom of God is loaded with any number of meanings:
- the time of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants.A time of a restored earth where the faithful will worship and serve their God
- the seed that must be sown in the hearts of men.
- the destination for the righteous in the end of days.

In the context of the above verse it is pretty obvious that it is not referring to the fulfillment of the covenants nor to the final destination of believers. What then about this seed that has to be sown in the heart of all believers? In the Parable of the Sower the seed that had to be sown was the Word of God.

The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"

He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand."

We see here that the seed that fell on good ground represented a man who HEARS the Word AND UNDERSTANDS it. And the man who understands the Word produces a bumper crop!

But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

But what exactly is this Word that produces such dramatic results? And what are rewards to the man who takes the Word to his heart?

Charles Spurgeon described it thus:

The ground is described as "good": not that it was good by nature, but it had been made good by grace. God had ploughed it; he had stirred it up with the plough of conviction, and there it lay in ridge and furrow as it should lie....In some cases it produced fervency of love, largeness of heart, devotedness of purpose of a noble kind, like seed which produces a hundredfold. .."

Love....a heart that gives...and a noble sense of purpose... all without effort from the man (who is represented by the seed), on good ground only by reason of God's grace.
Bear in mind that all these (love,big heart,noble purpose) are the fruits and not the seed. So we can surmise that the Kingdom of God can be the state wherein a believer listens to the Word,understands the Word and then the man grows in the Word, and then exhibits all the virtues mentioned.

But then you may ask how does one reach that state where one starts to display all these good deeds. Secure and grounded (no pun intended) in the Word. How exactly does one have the Kingdom of God fully manifests in his thoughts and deeds?

As is often the case in all matters of things concerning the things of God, it is so simple yet so few fully comprehend it. The key lies in first listening to the Word and then understanding it. But how many of us really make an effort to just listen. The key to understanding the Word is through listening first.

One of my favourite verses is this:

"what is the breadth, and the length, and the depth, and the height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge"- Ephesians 3:18,19

Therein lies the dilemma that every believer has to grapple with to get the Kingdom of God manifest in him and through him. We all read the same Bible. Read the same scripture and memorise the same verses. Yet it seems that some of us seem more blessed than others. Some of us have favour in all we set our hands to do, yet others seem to be toiling seemingly without any gain.

So what is the breadth, the length, the depth and the height of your perception of the love of Christ? Everyone is familiar with how we should love Christ et al. But the part that is often overlooked and is key to unlocking the Kingdom of God in the lives of every believer is Christ's love for us! In your heart and mind how do you think Christ perceives you? As a dirty sinner whom God is displeased with and whom you have to make things right to? Someone whose holiness you dare not dream to partake and whose standards of righteousness who can never hope to reach? Or as someone so beloved of God, that God himself came down from heaven in human form to die for every sinful thought and deed you ever did, to fully pay the price of sin and redeem you fully from the wages of your sin? A God filled the love of a father upon his children, who wants for his children every good thing within His power to give?

An analogy I like to use here is to liken the blessings of God in our lives to water flowing in a hose pipe. The tap is on and the water is flowing through the pipe. Yet nothing seems to be coming out of the other end of the hose. It is because the end of the tube is blocked or closed. Or other times the flow out of the tube is slow and like a trickle for much the same reasons. And then you find a hose with water flowing freely and forcefully being expelled out. With this hose you can water your plants and fill up the water dishes for your dog.
Likewise in the hearts and minds of the believer, are the waters of God's blessing favour flowing freely? How do you release that power to overcome your inner struggles and outward circumstances? The answer is simple: the flow is only as slow or as fast as you believe it to be.

As Jesus in his ministry on earth often said to those who displayed their faith,"Your faith has made you well", "..as you have believed so be it unto you.." and "never have I seen such faith...". The answer to every situation is what do you believe God to be. Do you think that God loves you enough to find a life partner fit for you? That God has bestowed upon favour in that job interview for that job you really want. That God has provided the financial breakthrough that will give you the standard of living you aspire to have. Do you feel that God cares enough to let that cancer inside of you remain there, or to remove every trace of it?

Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows;Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

The part of the believer is to rest in the finished work of Christ at the Cross.
At the Cross blood was shed to wash away our sin. Not to just cover our sin just to be uncovered later on, but washed away for all of eternity. But still many believers still maintain a consciousness of their sin, yet have little or no revelation of their right standing before God.
At the Cross, our healing was provided by Jesus stripes. Yet many amongst us still show the effects of the curse. We see sickness and disease as our just desserts for some sin in our lives or some manner of discipline imposed on us by God because we have failed Him in some manner.
At the cross our griefs and sorrows were carried by Jesus, yet many believers choose to still carry their pains and their sorrows with them wherever they go. We just find it hard to let go of our pains and sorrow. Ironically we refer to them as 'or crosses to bear'.

The question every believer has to answer is where is his or her sin now? Was sin paid for at Calvary, or is a sinner still found accountable for his actions. Does sickness and disease have any right of place in the body of the believer? Does grief,sorrow and disquiet have any place in the thoughts of the christian after the Cross?
The answer to all those questions were answered in the verse above. His blood paid for our sin, His stripes paid for our healing, At the Cross all our worries and anxieties,concerns and pain were carried by Jesus so that we do not have to carry them ourselves anymore.

What releases righteousness,healing and a sound mind is our faith in the finished work of Christ. And what inhibits our standing in righteousness,healing and a soundness of mind is our lack of faith and lack of rest that God is both willing and able to deliver on what He said he has already done.

How do we inhibit God's plan for us? By allowing worry and fear to rule our hearts and minds. We circumvent God's ideal for us by allowing a medical report or a runny nose to dictate that we are sick or beset by some incurable disease. We fill our thoughts with thoughts of the what-if's of life. The news reports of terrorism, natural disasters and accidents consume our thoughts. Everywhere around us we see people overwhelmed by their circumstances and their lot in life. We allow insecurities and the fear of the unknown an unmerited place in what we believe our future to be. We let our physical appearance, social status, financial situation and academic achievements be the indicators of how successful(or not) we will be.

The key to having the Kingdom of God and all its fruits is to let go, and let God. To see what God has already done for you and that your only part is to claim the righteousness, healing and peace of mind that was already yours to begin with. To see yourself as what you really are: righteous and favoured before God, healthy, strong,favoured and blessed in the sight of men, financially secure, filled with wisdom, peace of mind, blessed in your working and family life and filled with the Holy Spirit.