within the kingdom

the gift of God's Kingdom is internal and eternal

 

 

 

The Scribes and Pharisees asked, “When shall the Kingdom of God come?”

“The Kingdom of God is within you,” so said the Lord.

So then, as a matter of course, it stands to reason that the Kingdom of Heaven, which is God’s Kingdom, does not come to you from without.

It is either in you or it is not in you. Where is grace and truth and humility - holy discernment?

How or why is it then that I, like them, should ever find myself outside of the Kingdom of God, on the other side of the Holy, Divine, and Almighty walls of it? Because of mere thought, strong imagination, evil delight, pleasure, and consent (Thomas Kempis, “The imitation of Christ”).

The Kingdom is real; it is fact. Is it not where your heart is, and thus the place of your treasure? It was verily inside of me. For I did professed before many witnesses�"that I am in the physical and material world, but verily not of it; my life, my love, and truly my citizenship is in the Kingdom of God.

The Lord declared, “You shall in no case enter the Kingdom of Heaven, less you become as little children.” Not ever by vain sacrifices, prayers, fasting, or wailing will you enter: if you be a hypocrite.

If the heart, if the eye, if the light, or if the countenance and motive be darkness, then surely, we are hypocrites.

How can the Kingdom of Heaven, a Kingdom of Light, be inside of me?

I too am revealed as a hypocrite, for I do as they do and speak as they speak; the light of righteousness is not found in me either; in no wise will I precede the Scribes and Pharisees into God’s Kingdom.

How great then is the absence of holy discernment and righteousness.

Vanity and self-righteousness is exactly that light of darkness which unerringly hides the internal reality of the Kingdom of Heaven from my whole mind, heart, and soul.

However, let God be blessed and magnified, because in returning and in rest, in quietness and in hope, the Lord is glorified. That is, “Hear O’ Israel,” for in your God’s judgment, His Mercy and Forgiveness, does the countenance of a broken spirit and the covering of a contrite heart will the Lord not despise us, our voice, nor our tears.

That when you seek, when you ask, and when you knock, so shall the Lord say to you, “I am here,” “I have heard and listened to your prayers,” and “I have open the door: come inside my child.” So shall the Father and the Son, in the Kingdom of Heaven, sit and eat with you.

After all, above all, the children having received the Kingdom as a gift of inheritance, having taken hold of the Promise, having entered the Promised-land, having been blessed with spiritual eyes and ears that seen and heard �" holy light and divine wisdom; verily eternal substance and evidence, visions and sounds, of that Holiness and Holy Faith which is from on High. The children of the Kingdom, being in their “heart of hearts” reborn; that is, in our heart and mind regenerated, and in our human soul - our own portion of the spirit - saved and redeemed. Proven to be the children not of men, but of God’s Will. Hence we have been converted of God, convicted of God, convinced of His Word, and comforted of His Spirit. We are literally, spiritually, and lovingly the children of the Eternal Kingdom of our God and Father in Heaven, and it is within us forevermore.

Amen.