The Invisible Kingdom
Read with me, if you will, the following text:
Act 12:21 And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
22 And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.
23 And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.
If we believe that the kingdom of God is simply the rule and authority of God, in heaven and in the earth, then we must understand that the most important thing for us, as Christians, is how to fully walk in the kingdom of God, even when the political system of the day, may be directly opposed to the righteous and holy reign of Jesus, in a particular time and space in the earth.
God only has two authority structures in the earth: The political system (Rom 13:1-5, 1 Tim 2:1-4), and His Church, that rules and reigns with him. (Eph 2:6). In today’s reading, we see how an earthly kingdom, collided with the kingdom of God.
Here is an example of the thoughts and kingdoms of men, colliding with the kingdom of God. Herod, emperor of the Rome, overstepped his earthly authority, in proclaiming himself to be a god. Somewhere in that generation, was a church, on fire for God, praying for God’s power and authority to be released, and it was! God sent an angel, and struck Herod dead, that it might be known there is only one true God, in heaven and earth, and that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of the Father.
Like the old worship song we sing: ‘Kings, and kingdoms, will all pass away, but there’s something about that name’.
Greece, Rome, the Ottoman Empire, have all passed away, but the kingdom of God, still stands. America will too, as long as she stands with the Word of God, and Jesus, but if she would depart, she too would end up in the bone yard of history, another testimony to the unchanging, all powerful invisible reign of Jesus amongst men.
So we pray: that each of us, from the least to the greatest, might meet Jesus personally, and serve him fully in holiness, and in the unique and high calling each of us were created to fulfill. This is where I find myself in the kingdom, using every available resource, influence, and moment of my life to promote, build, establish, and enforce the kingdom of God in the earth, for it is the answer for every situation, every problem, for its nature is love:
“Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.”
He loves you too, and really does have an incredible plan for your life.
If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that the Kingdom of God in the sense of holiness, goodness, beauty is as close as breathing and is crying out to born both within ourselves and within the world; we would know that the Kingdom of God is what we all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers. We glimpse it at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know. We catch sight of it when at some moment of crisis; strength seems to come to us that is greater than our own strength. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it.”
― Frederick Buechner
Let’s pray:
‘Father, you have said that I am to be in this world, but not of it. Bring me to my place in your kingdom, and teach me your way of walking through this life. May I not waste time on other things, but may I settle for nothing less, than the high calling you have placed upon my life, though you Lord Jesus, Amen’
If you have not yet met Jesus, know this. There is a Kingdom, and Jesus is King of it. Here’s how to know Him:https://www.chrisaomministries.com/2017/02/27/do-you-want-to-go-to-heaven/