The Kingdom of God is Within you. Simply Work it Out

What Jesus mean when He said “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you”-Luke 17:20-21. Colossians 1:27 says “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Colossians 2:9-10 goes further to say “in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him”. These verses make us understand that you have everything that you need dwelling “in you”. But you may ask, why am I not living the John 10:10 life that Jesus physically promised? The answer is that while God through Jesus had put everything you need inside you, it is still your job to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”-Philippians 2:12. And how do you “work out your own salvation”? By applying what you have read from The Bible and what The Holy Spirit (which is the tangible embodiment of “Christ in you”) reveals to you as you abide in God’s love. Every information that does not lead to applied transformation is entertainment and The Word of God is no entertainment!

God Forbids ALL Idol Worship.

No one knows what Jesus looked like during his physical incarnation on earth. Also, no one knows what satan looks like? So since we do not know the difference in their physical appearance and since The Bible in 2 Corinthians 11:14 already warns us that satan can transform into an angel of light, how will you know if someone makes an image of satan and calls it an image of Jesus and ask you to worship it? How do you know this is not being done as we speak in churches and places that erect images of someone they allege to be Jesus when God expressly told us in Exodus 20:4 that “You shall not make unto yourself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth”.  Both God the Father and Jesus His Son are in heaven and the command is that we are not to make any image of ANYTHING that is in “heaven above”. An idol is not just an image of a beast or inanimate object. An idol is any image because “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”-John 4:24.

Tomorrow Will Resolve Itself

Try to think about God today. Do it deliberately. The cares of this world will try to attach to your mind. The attention you give them is what gives them power over you. Proverbs 4:23 says all your issues flow from your heart.

So if you use your heart (your mind) to meditate on your bills and your worries, that is what will manifest in your life. Instead, think on God’s promises of provision such as Ps 37:4 and Matthew 6:33. The more you think on those things the more they manifest in your life. For instance, many times we think or talk about a person or a thing and they walk through the door and we say ‘I was just talking/thinking about you’.

Don’t marvel about such occurrences. They are just an actualization of Proverbs 4:23. Some people even say ‘talk of the devil and the devil appears’. Why not reverse that mentality and say instead ‘talk about Godly things and Godly things appear’. It is a principle. It works for good as well as for evil.

Spend so much time thinking about improving yourself through God’s words that you have no time left to think about the cares of this world or criticize yourself and others. You may then-what will happen to those cares if you don’t think about them? Hear Jesus’ answer-“do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself”-Matthew 6:34.

Your Mind is Your Child

Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. This verse is not just limited to children. Your mind is like your child. If you don’t like the issues in your life be aware that they flow from your mind. Proverbs 4:23 says “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (NIV).  Perhaps you were not properly trained as a child in the way of The Lord and you are facing challenges as an adult, you don’t have to settle. You can reparent yourself using The Bible as a your guide. Read Scripture, read books and above all seek knowledge. ‘Train your mind in the way it should go and when it is old, it will not depart from it’.

Receive Times of Refreshing from God

Acts 3:19 says “Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord”. What an amazing Scripture! We learn from this that our sins are like dark clouds which block the rays of the sun from reaching us. There have been occasions when we wanted to go out but we had to change our plans because we saw very dark clouds hovering in the skies. There have been times when we have been in airports ready to take off in a plane but the flight was cancelled because of dark clouds hovering in the horizon. All such hindrances can be a thing of the past when we repent and are converted because God has promised to wipe our sins away so we can sing like Johnny Nash (and later Jimmy Cliff) “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) Sun-Shiny day.”

Applied Truths Set you Free

Jesus never said you shall know the truth and knowledge of the truth shall make you free. What He said is “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”-John 8:32. It sounds like the same thing but wisdom is the ability to discern differences. For instance, the kingdoms of this world through advertising glamorize cigarette smoking. But in actual fact, smoking cigarettes can kill you. But you never hear an advert advertising death, they advertise pleasure when in fact they are really selling death. So, imagine that you are addicted to cigarettes and then you find out that you were lied to in Ads and in fact cigarettes causes cancer, that knowledge does not automatically cure your addiction. You need to apply the knowledge you know by breaking that addiction before you are set free. If you know the truth about cigarettes but you continue to consume them any way…… Thus, you shall know the truth, but only when you apply the truth will it set you free. Thus Christianity is not in what you know, but in what you practice. Our freedom depends not on what we know of the Words of God and of His Christ but on what we practice.

Forget Philosophy, Only Jesus, Can Save!

Colossians 2:8 says “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”. From this verse we understand that though Philosophy is a very important subject, compared with the knowledge of God, it is “vain”. For instance, philosophy says that there is an element of truth in every rumour. But it is not until you have been the victim of a maliciously false rumour that you know that philosophy is vain. Philosophy also says that the voice of the people is the voice of God, but we know from when the people spoke in Babel under Nimrod or in the wilderness when they asked Aaron to fashion a god for them that that philosophy is also vain. So what are we to do? Isaiah 28:16 teaches that “this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic”. Reliance on philosophy will ultimately lead to panic. Socrates, the greatest philosopher that ever lived, faced panic at his trial and execution. But when Jesus was being tried and executed, He was clear minded enough to even pray for His persecutors because He had the assurance that God would deliver Him. Can you have such an assurance with philosophy? Only Jesus can save.

The Devil’s Greatest Trick

Probably the devil’s greatest trick is to deceive people that just being born again guarantees that you make it into The Kingdom of God. But Jesus never promised that. He said “except a man be born again he shall not SEE the Kingdom of God”-John 3:3. Do you want to be like Moses who saw the promised land but never entered? It takes more than being born again to enter God’s Kingdom. Jesus said “except a man be born of water and of The Spirit he cannot ENTER The Kingdom of God”-John 3:5. What does Jesus mean? Spiritual maturity that leads a man to God’s Kingdom is a process not an event. You cannot become born again and go to sleep. You must “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) by applying the principles Jesus and His disciples taught. This is what The Bible means in Proverbs 4:18 “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day”. Believers are on a “path”. That path leads to God’s Kingdom referred to as “the perfect day” and every day our character is meant to shine brighter than it did the previous day. Miracles, financial breakthroughs and prosperity are no substitute for character growth in the life of a Christ Follower because we take our character with us when we leave this world.

Shadows Show the Power of God

How are shadows made? You need light, then something to stand against the light and a surface for the shadow to fall on. Think deeply about this. Now consider what 1 John 1:5 says “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all”. Just as a dark shadow is produced when you stand against light, darkness results in your life when you stand against God. Just as a shadow is never upright but always on the ground or on a surface, when you stand against God, you can never be upright. Jesus gave us a graphic description of this in Luke 10:18 when He said “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”. Satan stood against The Light and fell. Jesus did the Will of The Light “therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name,  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth”-Philippians 2:9-10. If you want salvation, enlightenment and promotion in your life, read and believe The Bible. As Immanuel Kant once said, “the bible is the greatest benefit the human race has ever experienced”. And as President Theodore Roosevelt said, “a thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education”.

The Spiritual Governs the Natural.

The folly of trying to reason out faith comes from thinking that the laws of nature are superior to the supernatural instead of vice versa. God is Supernatural and He spoke the natural into creation. Common sense should dictate that God cannot be limited by what He created. Therefore, the natural cannot limit the supernatural. Biology, physics and medicine may tell you that it is impossible. That’s because they are limited to the laws of nature. In the natural, when you approach a High Court for a remedy and they tell you that your remedy is impossible, you have the option of going to the Supreme Court. Any lawyer will tell you that High Court rules don’t apply in the Supreme Court. The natural is a High Court. The Supernatural is the Supreme Court. Every High Court rule that contradicts the Supreme Court rule is ultimately voidable to the extent of its inconsistency. The High Court rules are based on logic. The Supreme Court rules are based on faith.  Don’t go to a High Court Lawyer when your case is before the Supreme Court because “the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”- 1 Corinthians 2:14.