You enter the kingdom of God—the spiritual family of God—with the faith and trusting dependence of a little child. This is the only way that anyone can enter the spiritual family of God.
And it is such a perfect way. This faith and trusting dependence opens you to begin recognizing more truth and more things to do to put truth into action. You begin to discover the love and mercy of God our Father. You begin to sense his spirit within you—bringing you the possibility of personal spiritual experience, an intimate friendship with God. You begin to actually want to know the Father’s will. You begin to taste liberation from the things that have been holding you back. You begin to experience a new quality of joy. You actually start to desire to serve, to do good to others; and love motivates your life more and more. It is an amazing transformation that is underway. But in order to stay connected, you have to keep moving forward.
A living faith is a growing faith. And, yes, it takes work. Every person of faith deals with increased challenges as time goes on. As the years and decades go by, we do struggle at times to re-connect with God. We still need to depend wholly on him for safe conduct through the ups and downs of life. But we also need something more. We need the faith of a mature adult.
It is in this sense that the kingdom of God is a moving target. There are times when we cannot simply go back to where we started, shift into relaxed spiritual receptivity, and expect our difficulties to be dissolved. We need another arrow in our quiver. We need spiritual force to break through all the obstacles to living as a true son or daughter of God.
Samurai dramas on television sometimes portray a battle when an army takes a castle, as footsoldiers climb over a wall and break through a door, every man shouting at the top of his lungs. That scene symbolizes the supreme effort it can take to break through to the advancing life of the family of God.
Why don’t we end with a couple sports metphors? World ping-pong champion Victor Barna said, “Points are won or lost in groups. After you lose a point, try extra hard to win the next one.” And at age 11, 12, and 13, when I was learning to ride horseback, whenever I would fall off the horse, I was always expected to get back up on the horse—as the best practice for both rider and horse.
Photo credit: By South African Tourism from South Africa – Bushman demostrating bow hunting, Northern Cape, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67616464
For me “the kingdom of God” is more like riding a bucking wild horse in a group rodeo. I’m fighting to stay in the saddle along with millions of other people. I’m all bruised up from this lifelong, never ending “sports” event. However, I do agree it is a “moving target” as well. Thank you Jeffrey. As always, you are “right on the mark” with your commentary.
Mark, what a pleasure to see your good humor manifest. And I appreciate the support. This is not the easiest topic to get clear on. Thanks
For me “the kingdom of God” is more like riding a bucking wild horse in a group rodeo. I’m fighting to stay in the saddle along with millions of other people. I’m all bruised up from this lifelong, never ending “sports” event. However, I do agree it is a “moving target” as well. Thank you Jeffrey. As always, you are “right on the mark” with your commentary.
Mark, what a pleasure to see your good humor manifest. And I appreciate the support. This is not the easiest topic to get clear on. Thanks
Great perspective on a difficult topic. Jesus said the “kingdom of God is within you” and also told Nicodemas ” unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom and cannot enter the kingdom”. I believe both the seeing and entering are referencing our sojourn here on earth and not the hereafter, We see the kingdom when we view the world with the eyes of Christ and see the need and the potential knowing we are now fully equipped to serve Him in a capacity of Soldier, Minister and Guide as the scripture defines. We enter the kingdom when we leave behind the old way and put on the new way and as Jesus put it ” seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things will be added unto you”. our new mission and purpose! The kingdom is the very life of Christ within the mind of Christ the Zoe life of Christ with the fruit of the Spirit The scripture again confirms ” those who have Christ have Life and those who do not have Christ do not have Life. Life is in His name! So it truly comes down to ” Christ in you , your hope of glory.
Dave, what a pleasure to see you manifest here! As usual, your spiritual thinking operates on a sublime plane.
Great perspective on a difficult topic. Jesus said the “kingdom of God is within you” and also told Nicodemas ” unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom and cannot enter the kingdom”. I believe both the seeing and entering are referencing our sojourn here on earth and not the hereafter, We see the kingdom when we view the world with the eyes of Christ and see the need and the potential knowing we are now fully equipped to serve Him in a capacity of Soldier, Minister and Guide as the scripture defines. We enter the kingdom when we leave behind the old way and put on the new way and as Jesus put it ” seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things will be added unto you”. our new mission and purpose! The kingdom is the very life of Christ within the mind of Christ the Zoe life of Christ with the fruit of the Spirit The scripture again confirms ” those who have Christ have Life and those who do not have Christ do not have Life. Life is in His name! So it truly comes down to ” Christ in you , your hope of glory.
Dave, what a pleasure to see you manifest here! As usual, your spiritual thinking operates on a sublime plane.