The Kingdom part 3
I want to build off of yesterday's revelation that the Kingdom (righteousness, peace, and joy) is not of this world. It it within us. So when I see a passage like Matthew 6:31-33, "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," I see something internal. Don't look in external places for external things. Don't seek the Kingdom as if you don't have it. Seek it to understand what you DO have. Seek it WITHIN. Within yourself, and within others. Stop judging by appearance. Judge righteous judgment. Stop looking AT people--at what they do--and start looking INTO people--who they are. Let the Jesus in you line up with the Jesus in me and in that way we automatically line up with each other. Not necessarily on every single little thing. But on the important things. Righteousness, peace, and joy. Grace, and mercy, and truth. LOVE. Those things we can agree on. And those things are the foundation that we build on. Not building our own kingdom, but letting the Kingdom of God (the Kingdom of Love) fill us to overflowing and come out of us naturally. The deep calls out to the deep, right? Surface stuff keeps us apart, but what's deep inside binds us together. The tie that binds is love. But if you don't seek it, you probably won't find it. Even Saul, when he was knocked off his donkey and blinded by the light, he was seeking. He was doing a pretty terrible job, but he was doing the best he could with what he knew. That's what Jesus said the greatest commandment was, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" (Matthew 22:37). And I know we're not under the Law but under grace. I'm simply saying... there's a lot to be said for doing the best you can. Even when Saul was changed to Paul... that wasn't punishment. That was correction. Jesus showed him a more excellent way and he went on to write most of the New Testament of the Bible. He went from persecuting Christians to teaching them. Because he stopped looking for the external things and started to seek within. Stopped trying to get something and started to receive and release what he had been given. The gift of God. Which is eternal life. Which is knowing the Father and the One whom He sent. Living in the context of Sonship. Knowing and believing the love of Christ and filling yourself to overflowing with what you've been filled with. Experiencing the Kingdom by displaying it to others. Receiving and releasing. Receiving BY releasing. If you want to find the Kingdom, you have to find the King. Because the Kingdom is the realm where the King rules and reigns. And it's within you. He lives in you just as you live in Him. So in order to find, you have to seek. But you have to seek in the right place. Within. Where else could the Kingdom of Love be, but in your heart. In GOD'S heart beating with love in your chest. That's what the circumcision made without hands did; it cut away the flesh of human effort and revealed the unlimited source of love. Within you. Bursting at the seams to come out. And coming out as we LET it out. As we let what's already true... be true for us. As we love one another. Because that's what it's all about. It's all about love!