Are you now experiencing the Kingdom of God?

Romans Chapter 14:17; "For the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in a Holy Spirit."

The Kingdom of God is living under the domain of the King. It is the rule of the King and wherever the rule of the King takes place there is the Kingdom of God. That is why Jesus could say that the Kingdom of God is within you when the rule of the King is taking place in your heart. The Kingdom of God is there wherever the Kingdom of God is actually manifested in people changing and being changed. The Kingdom of God is in fact what Jesus referred when John the Baptist sent some disciples and asked, "Are you the King and the Messiah or should we look for another?" Jesus answered in Matthew 11:5, "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." You see what Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor of good news preached to them". That's the Kingdom of God when men and women are changed. When blind people see and deaf people hear. When people are healed that's the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is Jesus ruling in life here on earth and changing things.

You and I have a tendency to say; "Oh! if you are born of God then aren't you in the Kingdom". In John 3 Jesus said; "unless you are born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God". Being born again is a vital primary condition for seeing the Kingdom of God. No, everybody who thinks they are born of God is not necessarily experiencing the Kingdom of God. If you say to me; "Oh no you can't be born again and lose your life". It is a very tricky thing to try to prove that you are born again if at this moment you are dead. The way to prove you have been born again is know that you are alive and you are now experiencing all the things that people who are born again experience. Jesus Himself implied through Paul through His Holy Spirit that there are people who thought of themselves as born of God and yet weren't going to be part of the Kingdom of God because they were not at this moment experiencing the rule of the King in their lives.

Look at Galatians 5:19. "Now, the works of the flesh are plain; fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like. I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." There is so much difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this world. The Kingdom of this world is filled with strain, anxiety and worry. It is filled with resentment, bitterness, anger and sarcasm. The Kingdom of God is filled with confidence, faith, peace, joy, love and kindness. Now you can know, which Kingdom you are living in. Stop arguing about whether you are born again or not. Which Kingdom are you living in now? Are you experiencing the domain of the King and the rule of the King and your life? If you are then your life has the freedom from captivity and the freedom from imprisonment to evil habits that Jesus brings.

Now if you are not experiencing this freedom then you are living in the midst of the Kingdom of this world. If your life is constantly being filled with anxiety, worry, strain, bitterness, sarcasm and antagonism, then realize that you are living in the kingdom of this world. Now that is not God's plan for you. If you say to me "Oh, how could I be living in the kingdom of this world if I believe in Christ." In Matthew 7:21, Jesus said; "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven."

It is not enough to have respect for Jesus. It is not enough even to believe in Jesus. Being in the Kingdom of God is doing what He tells us to do. It is obeying His commands. It Is letting His rule and His will be made real in our lives. Then the Kingdom comes into our life and frees us and delivers us from self and from the powers of this world. The Kingdom of God is the actual rule of the King in pour heart. It is not the King who is sitting up there on His throne, and us bowing down to Him and saying yes master, yes master. It is the King having His way in our hearts and lives every single day. It is the moment when something goes wrong in your life and you look up to the King and you say; "Lord I thank you that you are working all things according to your will". Then the peace of the Kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit flows into your heart.

It is saying; "I believe He has made me whole". That is obedience to the rule of the King. That is acting in accordance with your faith. That is fulfilling the condition for the Kingdom and the deliverance of the kingdom life to take place in your life. There's another good verse, it's 1 Corinthians 4:20. "For the Kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power." The Kingdom of God is not talk, talk. It is not about talking about the moral majority, talk about abortion, talk about church life, talk about fairies, talk about heaven or talk about the end days. The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power, power in your life, delivering you from self and from the tempers of self and from the weaknesses of self and from the inadequacies of your life at work and your life at home that's what the Kingdom of God is. It is actual deliverance.

How does it come about all? Through faith. It comes about through faith what God and Christ have already done. In Colossians 1:13. "He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." Faith in that will get up in the morning and when the darkness descents upon you and all the worries and anxieties of the day ahead fill your own heart and at that moment you act because that's what the Kingdom of God is about. It is not about talk, it is not about believing, it is about acting. Faith is action at that moment you act and open your mouth and you say, "Lord I thank you, that in Jesus you have delivered me out of the kingdom of darkness and translated me into the kingdom of Your beloved Son and that is where I dwell at this moment. I am in Him and in His kingdom now and all the difficulties of this day have already been overcome and have already been solved I thank you for that Lord."

The way to experience the Kingdom of God is to act and speak and do the things that you know are true. Take for example the fact that God has raised all of us up in Jesus to His right hand and there He has overcome all the power of the enemy in our lives. The Kingdom of God is made real in your life when you act like that. You just act in absolute faith that God has already done these things in Jesus and then they will appear in your life as you begin to move in the Kingdom of God.

If you say to me; "Do you mean some Christians do not live in the Kingdom of God"? You know they do not, they call themselves Christians but they are just believers. Yes there are believers but they are dead believers, easy believers. They do not live in the Kingdom of God. They do not know its power. They do not see things being changed in their lives or in the lives of their friends. They keep it all inside in their head as theory but they never go out and act on it in absolute faith and confidence. They only move in the room of mental belief and theory and they hop from one place to another and never are delivered.

The Kingdom of God is not food and drink but it is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and it comes through acting and faith. Now, you can begin it this very minute. You can, no matter how you are with your finances, or how you are with the family situation or with your job but at this very moment you can exercise faith that in Jesus, who died for all their for all died. You have been delivered out of the kingdom of darkness, and you have been translated in the kingdom of His beloved Son. In that kingdom all things have been rectified and you can take that stand this very moment in regard to any of those things in your life. You can step into the Kingdom of God and out of the Kingdom of theory and the kingdom of easy believism and mental theories, will you do it?

You have stepped right out now, if the Holy Spirit is giving you true peace right now. The proof is when your anxiety fades away from you, as you have re-orientate all your thoughts and all your feelings in the light of God's Word. The fact that you have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His beloved Son. There Jesus has absolute power and has already rectified all the things in your life.

Do you experience the Kingdom of God in your life do you want to move out of theory and out of easy believism into the Kingdom of God then exercise faith now. Exercise faith now and then tomorrow morning you can face the day with a light heart, and peace.

Rom. 14:17 "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."

Many think that peace, righteousness, and joy are just things that Christ distributes or gives out, but for a kingdom to exist, you must have a king. Only when we are united to King Jesus, do these privileges actually exist. These are not something that Christ just gives away then departs. They only exist as the result of His continual presence within us. I don't think I can emphasize enough the fact that Christ's LIFE can only exist as a result of Christ's actual presence within us. LIFE is not something that Christ just declares or gives out and then leaves. Christ Himself is the only true source of LIFE and we must always be totally dependent on His continual presence within us. Christ ONLY imparts LIFE to us as he lives within us.

When a light bulb is connected to electricity the bulb produces both light and heat. This light and heat only exist as long as the power flows. The light and heat are only the result of being properly connected to the power source. If the electricity is disconnected the light goes out instantly and the bulb will grow cold. The believer is like the light bulb, he can not produce his own light or heat without the electricity flowing. Christ is the believers "electricity" and only true source of spiritual power. Only when we are properly connected to HIM will we experience HIS true life, righteousness, peace and joy.

1 John 5:11-12 "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that does not have the Son of God does not have life."

John 15:1-6 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit He takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: FOR WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING. If any man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

Christ is the vine and we are the branches. Do you know Christ as your only source of continual nourishment and life? Much fruit is the real evidence of this union and fruitlessness is the proof of no union. If a person separates himself from Christ, he has no spiritual life at all. Christ is the inducing cause of a believer's obedience.

Does a true branch get prideful when fruit is produced? NO! It is the fruit of THE VINE, not the branch. It is the LIFE of Christ in the branch that produces the fruit.

From Christian Perfection by Asa Mahan.

No mater what condition we find ourselves in, there is a specific remedy provided in the Gospel for complete and total victory. Do our lusts rebel? We are told, that if "Christ be in us, the body is dead because of sin;" that "the old man is crucified with Him." and that if we will "walk in the spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." Do the world and Satan entice? We are assured that "this is the victory that over comes the world, even our faith;" that "stronger is He that is in us, than he that is in the world; and that, when we have "put on the whole armor of God," we shall be able, with the shield of faith, to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." In short, from whatever source temptation to sin arises, we are assured that God will not "suffer us to be tempted above what we are able," but will, "with the temptation, make way for our escape." With Christ within us, and these "exceeding great and precious promises" around us, we are commanded to "reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin, and alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ." In the presence of such facts and promises, who would dare to say to the Christian, It is impracticable for you to "cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh, and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God?"

This is from CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

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