A Kingdom Not of this World

“The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is;’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:20-21.

The kingdom of God was not only unrecognized during the times of the past but continues to be an allusive concept even today.  When we think of His kingdom many times the images of heaven with its future reality is where we believe God resides.  With Jesus came the kingdom and its power.  We are to exemplify His walk on earth until heaven is our reality.

‘In His ministry, Jesus taught the kingdom of God, but He also provided a glimpse inside the nature and power of the Kingdom in His compassionate acts of healing.  Jesus testified to the hope and power of the fullness of the kingdom and to the reality of its presence in the world through Him…It means that part of seeing the kingdom of God is sharing about the kingdom and showing the reality of the kingdom at work each day’ Subversive Kingdom, Ed Stetzer, p. 22.

In the time of Jesus, they were looking for the kingdom to be geographical and of political and military might.  They were scanning the horizon for a leader to set up his kingdom right there among them…and He did…and they missed it.  The phrase ‘within you’ is more accurately translated as among you.  He explained to them that the Kingdom was near but it was a spiritual kingdom…not of this world (John 18:36).  It was kingdom that no one could point out but one that could only be personally experienced (Luke 17:21).

I have personally experienced His kingdom as I look into the eyes of an addict as she walks away from her slavery of drugs.  I have caught many glimpses of God’s kingdom through my dad’s fearless journey of cancer.  I have been carried by the Kingdom of God through my valleys and my mountaintops.  We must recognize the Kingdom as it relates to our mission on this earth.  We must not be committed in our opinions in what God should look like, how He should perform or how His kingdom should function.  We don’t want to miss Him like our predecessors.   The Son of the living God with all the glory of His kingdom walked with them and talked with them.  The power of heaven came down with its King…the same King that now indwells each of us. 

‘They saw, heard and touched God in the flesh, yet did not recognize Him.’ Subversive Kingdom, p. 17.