The Kingdom part 5
It's not until we repent--or think about things differently in light of something that happened--that we can begin to experience the Kingdom. You know, righteousness, peace, and joy found in the Holy Ghost. Not what we do, or where we are, but WHO we are. Because the Kingdom is the realm where the King rules and reigns. And He rules and reigns--He lives and moves and has His being--in us. So we ARE the Kingdom. We just have to receive it and release it in order to experience it. Because the truth will set you free and make you free, but only if you know it and believe it. That's when the truth becomes true... for you. That's when you can stop trying to earn something that was freely given. Remember I said thinking differently in light of something that happened? That something that happened was the cross. God became a man and died so that all men could die the second death. Then He rose again so that all men could live HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life as HE lives it in us, and through us, and as us. He did it all so we could get it all. It was His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom--again, righteousness, peace, and joy--by giving us the King. So that we might have something (someONE, Jesus, LOVE) to believe in. So that we could stop looking for love in all the wrong places and instead realize that we are connected to the source. He is the vine and we are the branches. He produced the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, and now we get to bear that fruit. Enjoy it, and share it with those we come into contact with. But not with the same old same old religious mindset that says you have to do in order to be. We don't do IN ORDER to be. We do BECAUSE we be. Everything we need is already inside us. The Kingdom is within you. And when we fill ourselves with the fulness of God... when what's inside comes out naturally because it's too big and too good to keep in... that's when the ever-expanding Kingdom expands. I've been hinting at that idea this whole Rant series so I want to quote Isaiah 9:7, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." Did you catch that? WE don't make the Kingdom do anything. HIS zeal will perform this. Because He's the King, right? It's not us trying to live Jesus' life. Nobody can do that except Jesus. So the only way it works--works don't work!--is for Him to live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. That's how we experience it. By being ourselves. By letting Jesus be Himself. By letting what's inside us come out. Naturally. Not forcing it out, but simply knowing and believing that it's in there. Knowing and believing that HE'S in there. Knowing and believing that LOVE is in there. Because, more than anything else, that's what the Kingdom is. The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Love. It is the realm where LOVE rules and reigns. It takes a different kind of mindset to let love rule. It takes the mind of Christ. Letting the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us. Letting God love us, and loving each other with that same love. Receiving and releasing the gift we've been given.