When the Kingdom of God is within our hearts

Matt 6:31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The Kingdom of God is not the kingdoms on earth, the garden of Eden of old when God said all He created was good. When we view the sunset, and the beautiful scenery, we see a glimpse of the original creation, but a stark reminder of the decay and corruption that came through the fall with its many diseases, and death.

In the Garden of Eden there was no death, no sweat but because of the fall, there is decay, death, and we toil for our food. God did not call us to participate in the first creation, but to usher in a new Kingdom on earth to replace what was fallen and broken from Genesis. When Jesus said that the world seeks after what to eat, to drink, and after tommorow, because all these things are a struggle in a fallen world, post creation in the Garden of Eden.

There are many Christians who want to create their new kindom on earth, to make the road by walking. It would be very tiring for Christians are called to be salt and light to Jesus Christ, in a decaying world under the kingdom of the devil. Their new kindom is futile because this is a fallen world under the devil. They can't overthrow the devil because the first Adam has given authority to Satan.

What is the Kingdom of God then? It was no commonwealth on earth. In Jesus time, He lived under the earthly kingdom of Judea under Herod. In the cities, we have also the presence of the Roman Empire and their gods. Truly, the kingdom of God was not on earth, for He would have called the legions of angels to release Him from the Cross of Calvary. 

The Kingdom of God is where we have citizenship as children of God. We are a child of God and made righteous because of Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is in your heart, when Jesus is King, Lord and Saviour. It is where Jesus reigns in contrast to the various spiritual entities such as the goddess Cybele. We are not called to be spiritual per say, but called to the sons and daughters of God and not of Satan.

Despite the denial of some Christians, this world is in the Kingdom of darkness under Satan's reign. When we pray, thy Kingdom come, we are bringing God's grace, love, and mercy to a particular circumstances because of Jesus Christ. When we pray, it gives the legal right for God to come into the situation because of Christ' redeeming grace.

Liberal Christians tried to create their own kindom on earth in universalism and social justice totally discarding the miraculous, evangelism and the saving Gospel, but Europe fell from their Protestant heights to widespread abandoment of mainline churches in Europe and the US.

The conservatives tried to create their own kingdom on earth, but they ended up corrupted by its power and prosperity. When Europe was ruled by the church hierachal we have the dark ages, repeated crusades and widespread torture and death for dissenters.

When Jesus asked the disciples to seek first the Kingdom of God, it was before the Cross of Calvary. After the Cross, when they believed and exalted God, and in the upper room received the Kingdom of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they changed the world. They received resurrection power, and the reality of heaven in their hearts.

When Jesus said seek yea first the Kingdom of God, it is to understand that our first priority in life is to have the right standing before God, being considered righteous and our sins forgiven. This is the solid Rock of Christianity in the person of Jesus Christ because we come into the right standing to enter spiritually into the new Eden, the kingdom of God to come when Jesus comes back. Jesus is the second Adam, for the first Adam was inherently sinful, but the second Adam wiped out our sins totally clean.

We can't really seek the Kingdom of God or God's righteousness by our own humanistic theology, because it is all of Christ, all of His Grace. What we can do is to lift up our hands on high, to welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives and to be refreshed daily by the living waters.

Therefore, when we see the great scenery on earth, or the sunset, great and wonderful as God's creation is, know that the world is falling and groaning waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ, where the new heaven on earth will be restored. What we see is only a picture to come, for wonderful power and glory of the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is in our hearts if we are indeed of Christ. When we have the baptism of the Holy Spirit, out of our belly, out of our spirit, this world will be touched with God's power, love, mercy and grace like streams of living water. This stream is a rainbow of God grace, a rainbow harvest.

We can't reach out and build growing churches to the GLBT without the power of the Holy Spirit, without the fullness of the Kingdom of God residing in our hearts. We are tapping on the power of the Kingdom to bring into the lives of others, knowing that one day this kingdom shall be no more, and the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God will come on earth.

The Kingdom of God is found in the upper room in prayer, preaching of the Word of God, and manifestation of God's power. It is found in right believing that righteousness is all of His grace and discerning the Word of God carefully. It is centered in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of our souls, and being in the presence of God for the streams of God's grace, love and mercy to flow to the world. Without this, the broken world of God's gay children can never be reached nor restored.