The Kingdom Within You -2

For those joining in, read my first post 'The Kingdom Within You', especially the sections treating 'The Kingdom Within Me'-my testimony, and How to enter the Kingdom.
God made man to be a container and expressor of Deity - an embodiment of Divinity, to bring down the Kingdom of heaven to earth. This should have remained the normal state of affairs had it not been for the disobedience and fall of Adam. Clearly, Adam was an incarnation of God Himself - for God breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. This is why the Scriptures say "in the image of God made He them". Thus man had rule over all of creation, he had dominion over all the works of God's hands. In a better sense, God was in man governing His universe!

However, God did not give up on man after the fall. The Bible clearly says that Christ came to restitute all things to the former order, to take all things to the original state of affairs, to restore unto man that dominion.. . This He accomplished by dying on the Cross, and every one who has received Christ has received this Kingdom within their spirits. The Bible teaches that in Christ's death we died with him, were buried with him, and rose with him to walk in newness of life. We have become united with him at the highest level of our beings such that it is recorded of us that we are indeed dead. That is we are no longer the ones living, but Christ lives in us. Gal 2:20

This clearly demonstrates the fact of a Kingdom residing within us. To put it in other words, 'We are incarnations of Christ', 'unique expressions of the One within us'. The Bible calls us vessels, temples of the Living God, God's dwelling place/tabernacle/house. Thus, any emphasis on Kingdom living based primarily on external conformity by human efforts to the demands of Scripture, or of growth in the Kingdom as contingent on our ability to produce more visible character change is out of place. If that is how the Kingdom life can be produced or 'performed' or yet 'simulated' then there was no need to believe in God/Christ Jesus for our birth into the Kingdom.
This is the basic reason why many people who have accepted Christ for sometime and confess that they are Kingdom citizens find their walk with God rather frustrating, unfulfilling and impossible. They try to simulate the life of Christ by external impossible rules. I am not in this wise supporting licentious living and permissiveness. Rather, it is high time we realise that the Kingdom life is born out of our union with the King of the Kingdom residing on the inside of us. He is the Principle by whom outer change is born in us. Once you grasp this truth of God's Kingdom fully present within you, you will realise how that your very unconscious tendencies coincide with the effectual striving of the power of Jesus Christ within you, such that it becomes gloriously impossible for you to live a life contrary to The Law of the Spirit / The Law of the Kingdom.
If there wasn't a Kingdom Within us, then it would have been possible to live the Christian life by dwelling on the teachings of the Lord/King (as an external authority to whom we owe allegiance partly because of fear of His impeding doom on all disloyal subjects). However we all know this is not the case. God is not a bully or demanding King on His subjects; rather He would pick up a wounded subject of His. This shows intimate relationship and Fatherhood that brings us to a point of maturity. We can successfully live the Kingdom Life because The Lord/King of the teachings relives His life in us.

The Kingdom Within You

The contents of this website "The Kingdom Within You" are designed to help the following categories of persons

• You have been born again (are a child of God) for a number of years, but find your Christian life somehow frustrating. You find yourself ever falling short of the demands of scripture and unable to abide by the principles of Kingdom living as outlined in Scriptures
• You are newly born again and are very interested to grow in the Kingdom. You want to fully grasp the meaning of being a member of God's Kingdom, and to grow in Kingdom living. You are welcome into the Kingdom. This is seldom taught or at best hardly emphasised, explaining why older persons in the Kingdom can still live a frustrationg life as if they weren't in the Kingdom; living without really knowing who they are, why they were called into God's Kingdom, nor do they experience the fullness of blessings and glory promised possessors of the Kingdom within. So take your time not to be 'uninformed' like them. To be 'uninformed is to be deformed'. Why should I suffer all my life when i have an enormous inheritance in the bank, worst still, not knowing about it? I don't wish this for you.
• You are skeptical about the teaching of a 'Kingdom Within'. 'Is the Kingdom of God truly within us, or is it just a convenient notation to cover up permissiveness and error? Does the Bible really support this position or is it all heretical?' - These might be the questions you have been asking yourself.
• You have been involved in otherworldly or 'spiritual' activities not necessarily of God's Kingdom. You are just curious about this new kind of life, this other form of being, the changes that are known to follow those in the Kingdom Way or to experience the same.
• You have never been a Christian and you really want to belong to and possess this Kingdom Within You.

You are all Welcome once again to this site. I am ready to help you achieve those goals, and i promise you fulfillment at the end of your tour through this website. Besides, i will be sharing with you my own personal experiences, the difficulties i encountered trying to live the Kingdom life, how i felt before about the kingdom within, the spontaneous changes that followed me on The Kingdom way, and what i presently stand for. I believe the Liberating Truths about the Kingdom of God should be given the widest and wildest circulation, a Church-wide expansion in this generation .... For they make you what they talk about, and enable you see yourself through the eyes of God. So I am committed to teach you every thing i now know about the Kingdom Within me and how to live out fully from this High position. So you wouldn't regret you spent some of your time reading this article and subsequent posts.

Rather, you will be saying a thousand thanks to God for letting you 'stumble' on this site. Let us get started right away.

I will begin by sharing my own experience about the Kingdom like i mentioned above.

Already you can begin to email me if you have any questions etc. I certainly will not take more than a week to reply. Sometimes it may be immediate, the same day or just one and two days after. Write to personaldevelopments@ymail.com

ENTERING THE KINGDOM

First and foremost, how does one enter the Kingdom of God? To answer this question, each of us must first understand what is our essential nature.

Scripture teaches that all of us are sinners by nature and have fallen short of God's glory. This clearly stipulates that until a definite change has taken place, we are out of the Kingdom of God. The word 'sin' in the best of contexts refers to a state of being alienated from God. So our sinfulness (sinful nature) takes away the presence of God from us or better still takes us away from the Kingdom of God. By inference therefore, the unregenerate man or sinner does not live by God's control and so has no part whatsoever in God's Kingdom. In this condition, his inherent nature disables him from pleasing God. They belong to the Kingdom of the devil.

Jesus did not mix words therefore when addressing the pharisees and Jews who felt they were already members of God's Kingdom. " And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. " John 8:23. The two kingdoms were not two geographical locations but two different realms of spiritual life; the Kingdom of Jesus being superior/'above' Satan's kingdom from 'beneath'. The Kingdom of Jesus producing eternal life in those embodying it, and the kingdom from beneath producing spiritual death in those who served it.

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" John 8:44.

Yes, they were ruled by the devil and his principles of evil. For what came out from their nature portrayed the kingdom or god they were serving. e.g deeds of fornication, murder, lies telling etc. They belonged to a spiritual sphere of life wherein they had no relationship with God. They needed a change of gods, the step into the Kingdom of God.

Paul referring to sinners said it his own way, that they are 'ruled by the spirit of disobedience, or the spirit of error'.

Another point Jesus made clear was that "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.... except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of God" John 3:3-5

True? Yes! You must be born again. This intails a spiritual transformation, a regeneration of your sinful spirit - before you qualify for or enter the Kingdom of God.

How To Be Born Into The Kingdom

All they had to do (what we should do) to enter the Kingdom of God was to renounce their past life by confessing their sins and accepting Jesus through a personal invitation into their hearts/spirits/lives. So doing, they would have broken fellowship with their former god and kingdom, and now would have made Jesus Christ lord/king and saviour of their lives. "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation". Romans 10:9,10. So it takes a consummate heart's desire and faith to become a citizen in God's Kingdom.

Once in the Kingdom, Jesus Christ starts to live His life from within you. The life of heaven is reproduced in you and you know in your spirit that you are a child of God. God Himself testifies to us that we are now different, that we have inherited the Kingdom of God, and that we have His Kingdom Within Us. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ". Romans 8:16,17.

HOW CAN WE BE SURE OF THE KINGDOM WITHIN?

Watch out for my next post. I am sure you have been blessed readingthekingdomwithinyou