The Treasure in your Field

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The kingdom of God is like treasure hidden in a field that a man found. He covered it up again, and in his joy he went out and sold everything he had and bought that field.

What was this treasure in the field? I think it’s what Jesus was talking about when he said, “The kingdom of God is within you.”

Watch the 2:39 video or listen to the podcast episode.

God has sent his spirit to live within you. Thanks to the indwelling spirit, we can know God in our own personal experience. The Psalmist said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” The Proverb said, “The spirit in man is the candle of the Lord.” The prophet Ezekiel said in the name of God, “A new spirit I will put within you.”

If we want to experience the love of God, it is there. If we want to know the will of God, it is there.

We need to make friends with this spirit of God within. It takes sincerity, wholeheartedness, and persistence. Without sincerity, wholeheartedness cannot happen. Without persistence, we give up too easily.

God’s spirit within is a source of energy, strength, and power; wisdom, understanding, and meaning in life; insight and truth; beauty, love, creativity, and inspiration; and goodness, purpose, guidance, and friendship every step of the way.

Happy hunting for the treasure in your field!

In A Taste of Joy and Liberty, chapter 4, I introduce the spirit of God within this way. “When the world seems crazy and life feels hectic, there is a divine alternative—to live in a way that is increasingly centered in what countless persons have discovered. I often call it “the wonderfulness within”; this is an idea that is attractive to many people who do not believe in God. The reality of the spirit of God within each person is also the one of the most widely shared truths among the world’s religions.[i] Interpretations differ, but they also overlap. In Jesus’s concept of the kingdom of God, this is an essential teaching.

Many truths in Jesus’ original gospel overlap with teachings in other religions. For example, in my previous book, Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, pp. 80-81, I introduced the indwelling spirit of God this way. “God is the center of everything, and spiritual centering means, above all, centering on God. His presence within us establishes a nucleus that makes it meaningful to speak of centering as also an inner process. A number of spiritual paths teach a practice of centering. One way to begin to center ourselves is to move from the mind into the soul. We do this by stepping back from being caught up in the mind’s immediate concerns, its passing thoughts and emotions. We take time to allow ourselves to abide in and as our true and deeper self. The soul is deeper than the mind; the soul is the true self. The soul expresses itself in the book of Psalms, from the depths of agony to the heights of celebration. . . .

“The ultimate goal of inward centering is to realize the indwelling presence of God. Countless persons have discovered an inner source of energy, power, wisdom, insight, peace, love, joy, creativity, purpose, and guidance. Despite differences in vocabulary, concept, context, and practice, many religions recognize what is called the indwelling spirit of God. Hinduism speaks of the atman, the (eternal, spirit) self. Buddhism calls it Buddha-nature. Judaism speaks of the spirit in man, “the candle of the Lord.” Jesus proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is within you.” The Qur’an says, “We created man. We know the promptings of his soul, and are closer to him than his jugular vein.”[1] Knowing the inner life deeply, the Chinese philosopher Mencius (Mengzi) (371–289 BCE) summarized a spiritual path centered on the tao(the way). “A noble man steeps himself in the Way because he wishes to find it in himself. When he finds it in himself, he will be at ease in it; when he is at ease in it, he can draw deeply upon it; when he can draw deeply upon it, he finds its source wherever he turns.”[2] Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, wrote, “Behold the Lord within yourself”; “Thou art concealed within”; “Thy light shines in every heart.”[3] It is encouraging to see harmony on such a basic truth.”

                  My photo symbolizing treasure shows a Buddhist singing bowl from New Zealand, a napkin holder from Sri Lanka, and a brass fork from Konya in Turkey where Rumi, the mystic Sufi poet, stayed. The three words mean, “I was raw, I was cooked, I was burnt to a crisp.”

[1] See the BhagavadGita 2.18-25, 6.47, 9.29, and 18.61; the Mahaparinirvana Sutra,Proverbs 20.27, Luke 17.21, and the Qur’an 50.16.

[2] Mencius, 4B14.

[3] Guru Nanak quoted in McLeod, “Teachings of Guru Nanak,” 174–75.

[i] The quotations are found in the Hindu Bhagavad Gita 2.18–25, 6.47, 9.29, 18.61; the Buddhist Mahaparinirvana Sutra; the Confucian Mencius 4B14; and Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, quoted in W. H. McLeod, Sikhs and Sikhism (Oxford University Press, 1984), 174–75.

1 thought on “The Treasure in your Field”

  1. Thank you dear brother for this! The kingdom of God within, the treasure in the field, the pearl of great price, and all the other descriptions given to us by the world’s religions of the divine nature choosing to indwell us, is for me the central teaching….the cardinal concept if you like. It is indeed as the UB states, “the Mystery of Mysteries”.

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