The Kingdom is Here!

“The time has come”, He said. “The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”. (Mark 1:15) I believe the Spirit of God wants us to acquire a clear understanding of what the Kingdom really is and what it means to be in the Kingdom, especially in the context of our everyday Christian lives.

As a Christian it is not enough to say “Yeah, hallelujah I’m in the Kingdom”.  God wants it to be more than that, He actually wants us to be experiencing the Kingdom day in and day out.  The question is… How do we do it? How do we move from having the knowledge of the Kingdom, to the experience of the Kingdom? Well, firstly we need to ask, “What is the Kingdom?”

Kingship, Dominion & Rule
The word ‘kingdom’ in the original Greek is ‘basileia’ and means “royal power, kingship, dominion and rule”.  Sounds impressive eh? If we take this definition of the Kingdom and work it into Jesus proclamation in Mark 1:15, we can quickly see that Jesus is essentially saying… “the royal power, kingship, dominion and rule of God is at hand”. What this means is, when we became Christians we stepped into the kingship, dominion and rule of Jesus Christ, where He is the Royal One, holding us (His subjects) together by His divine and mighty power. Do you believe His dominion and rule is present in your life?  I hope you answer “yes”, but I also hope that you do, and will, feel the effects of His Kingship in an experiential way.

Your Kingdom Come!
If you’re a Christian, the Kingdom of God is not coming any more, it’s already here!  It’s increasing throughout the world, but it is no longer coming. This really is important to grasp. The Kingdom of God is here!

In Isaiah 9:7,  it says, “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end”, so what is increasing? His rule, reign and authority will increase, there shall be no end to it – it’s continually growing!  Every time someone is saved and grasps the revelation of the Kingdom of God, God’s dominion and rule increases and for that individual, the Kingdom of God comes. So, when Jesus told us to pray… “Your Kingdom come”, we are not praying for ourselves, we are praying that God’s Kingdom will come in the world, in the lives of those who are currently outside of His royal power, kingship, dominion and rule. This is because in our world the Kingdom has come but on earth it still needs to come – in your neighbour’s life and in the life of the people who live in your street. Lets look at another verse that relates to the kingdom.

Experience The Kingdom
In Romans 14:17 the Apostle Paul gives us a detailed description of what the Kingdom of God looks and feels like. He says, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”. Hallelujah!  God wants us to actually experience righteousness, He wants us to experience peace and He wants us to experience joy.

A common problem is… if I were to ask you if you were actually experiencing righteousness, peace and joy right now, how many of you would answer with a positive and resounding, “YES!” Sadly, the response of many Christians, maybe even yourself, would be more like… “Well actually I’m feeling stressed out, anxious and worried and everything is weighing down on me right now.” Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that the Kingdom of God isn’t here. The Kingdom of God is at hand, thats an unchangeable and undeniable fact! However we don’t always experience righteousness, peace and joy because we often exercise behaviours that are not consistent with the culture of the new Kingdom that Jesus has brought us into.

New Kingdom, New Culture
When we became children of God we all received righteousness as a free gift of God’s grace, so because of the blood of Jesus, we are now in right-standing with God. We have been qualified by God’s divine grace to be part of the Kingdom of God. We never saved ourselves, just as Colossians 1:13 says… “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son he loves”. Having been brought into the Kingdom of God, there is now a new culture that guides our lives. It’s a culture characterized by biblical values, such as love, grace, peace, joy, righteousness, etc.

When we do something that is counter Kingdom culture, contrary to the righteousness of Christ, it disrupts our soul and our experience of the free gift of righteousness that we’ve received. It is not that we have lost our free gift of righteousness, but we have rather self abused, creating a war in our soul, which often leads to feelings of condemnation and total loss of righteousness. If we want to maintain our experiential righteousness, we must always look to live according to the culture of the Kingdom of God, making sure we are living in the biblical values of love and grace.

Experiential Peace
Peace is a Kingdom experience that God wants you to have continually. It is, quite simply, a benefit of the Kingdom of God.  “The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking.” (Rom 14:17) The Apostle Paul mentions the Kingdom not being about “eating and drinking” because his readers were arguing about peripheral issues, like what you can and can’t eat in the Kingdom of God! Sadly, we still often squabble about trivial issues that mean nothing, like what colour carpet are we going to get! Who cares? Just get a carpet!!! We get bogged down deliberating over peripheral things. God wants us to focus on the real things, such as, living in experiential righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost – the evidence that the Kingdom (the royal power, kingship, dominion and rule of God) is actively working in our lives.  When we get stressed out, it’s because we’ve lost the sense of the manifest Kingdom of God, where Jesus is the reigning King. Instead we find ourselves acting like we still live in the kingdom of darkness, getting worried, anxious and stressed about the most trivial of things.

Guard Your Peace
You will quickly find your experiential peace disrupted if you begin to criticise and talk negatively about others. When we begin to judge others critically, or harbour unforgiveness, it disrupts the manifest peace of the Kingdom of God that we received by grace. Such actions are more consistent with the kingdom of darkness than the Kingdom of God. When we begin to operate in ways such as these, (being critical, bitter, unforgiving, angry and bringing dissensions against other people) it creates an inner conflict within us and steals our peace. The Spirit of God is literally grieved within us.

If you want to enjoy the experiential peace of God say, “No”, to anything that will disrupt your Kingdom peace from manifesting in your life. The culture of the Kingdom is to love your neighbour, to speak well of others and to encourage others, raising them up – ultimately to love beyond your own desires and wants. At its core, the culture of the Kingdom is to walk in faith, to be of faith and not of sin. When you start to worry about everything and get freaked out because there’s a crisis, you get into anxiety, and that’s not of faith.

It’s an ongoing cycle, because the thing that steals our joy is worry. It is easy to start getting anxious about all manner of issues that come into our world. Lets call it the “Martha syndrome”.  In Luke 10, Jesus is basically saying “Hey Martha, how can you enjoy all these benefits from me and my manifest Kingdom if you’re focussed on everything else? It’s disrupting and interfering with all the benefits I want to give you”.

In The Kingdom
The Kingdom of God has arrived in your life. If you’re a follower of Christ, then the Spirit of God lives in you and “the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you”. The main challenge is remembering that fact when you wake up tomorrow. So, when you go into work and there are a mountain of issues, trying to steal your peace and joy, remember, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you and you can bring God and the Kingdom to all the issues.

Choose to live from your position in the Kingdom of God and bring some righteousness, peace and joy to every situation! Hallelujah!!! Walk with God in the midst of the stuff,  knowing that actually He’s got it all covered anyway.

Enjoy It!
I’m convinced the Lord wants us to reach a place where there is laughter in our lives, not because we’re hysterical, freaky and weird (although that might be true!), but because we get it, we get the truth that Jesus is awesome, we are washed in the blood and there’s absolutely nothing to worry about. We can walk in experiential peace, joy and laughter because, whilst everyone else is stressed out, freaked out and maxed out on whatever pill they need to feel good, we can just relax in the safety of our God. People will ask, “How can you be happy, when there is a recession, economic cuts, plus its raining outside and you’ve forgotten your umbrella!” And you can walk out in the rain, get wet, and have a good laugh about it because you know you have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and that you have the Kingdom manifesting all over you. All of us can walk confidently and enjoy peace, no matter what the storm is doing. You can experience the free gift of righteousness, knowing all you have to do is accept the truth, that God has brought you into His Kingdom by His love and grace.

Don’t disrupt what you’ve received today, righteousness, peace and joy!  God wants you to experience these wonderful benefits.  He wants you to be sitting in your chair at home or in your car and enjoying the manifest Kingdom of God. It’s so liberating knowing that you don’t have to fix everything, that even though you’re responsible, actually it is all covered under the King’s provision and authority.

Pastor Neil Reid