Those that follow this blog on a regular basis will discover a lot of conversation about knowing Christ and about the concept or teaching of the kingdom of God. The gospel Jesus brought with Him was the gospel of the kingdom of God, and yet in 45 years of church I cannot remember a single message taught to me on the subject. Why is it so foreign?
The kingdom of God is Christ in us. It is the practice of His presence in our life. It is the ability to live now, and in the present. It is something that apparently few truly experience, but as I look back in the history of Christianity there are a few who articulate the experience well.
Please meditate on the following. It is a passage from T Austin-Sparks.
"Of course, we are so largely spectators. We have been very nearly more than spectators, and we find ourselves in the position in which a large number of the Lord’s people are today, in the havoc, the chaos, the evil consequences of evil, the very Devil’s work; in a position of utter impotence, helplessness, driven, no home, no place of rest, nothing here but all around the terrific pressure of evil, the domination of iniquity. This is where the challenge to faith comes. It is in conditions like that that the big question arises. But this letter(Hebrews), and, of course, much more in the Word of God, brings at the outset this before the people of God for their faith, that in the appointment of God, His Son is the heir of all things, and He will have His inheritance no matter what intervenes. This very first presentation to faith links with the whole of chapter 11, for that chapter, that great survey of faith through the ages, is linked with the ultimate issue for the people of God, and that issue is the complete, universal sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son. That is the inheritance.
Now that is the first factor of the Kingdom which cannot be shaken. To these Jewish believers, who were passing through such deep trial, persecution, suffering for the faith, for the testimony, receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken meant that they were to rest upon and be established in the fact as a living thing in their own hearts, that finality is bound up with Jesus as heir of all things, and it is presented to us in the same way…
So that the Kingdom which cannot be shaken is a matter of the utter government of the Lord Jesus Christ in what He represents as the embodiment of God’s thoughts and expressions. I can put that much more simply. The Kingdom which cannot be shaken, which we are to receive, is a matter of the complete knowledge of the Lord Jesus. You and I have NOT got to learn all kinds of truths and doctrines, teachings and interpretations. It is not our business, our obligation to be familiar with all the different kinds of doctrinal truths in the Word of God. Of course, it is very useful in a subsidiary way to know these things, but if we know them all they simply become a matter of intellectual knowledge, and they can then become the ground of a good deal of discussion, argument, and dispute; but they do not get you further than that in a spiritual way. They never constitute for us a Kingdom which cannot be shaken: they constitute the kingdom which is never stable; this doctrinal kingdom, this point-of-view kingdom, even in the things of the Bible. The Kingdom which cannot be shaken is knowing Jesus Christ in our own hearts, God speaking in us in His Son…
…but there is a covenant, there is an expression, there is a revelation of God’s thoughts, God’s mind, God’s will for His people; but now it is upon the fleshly tables of the heart, written by the Spirit of the living God. And right in connection with that the apostle says: “God hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” God has spoken in His Son, and now it is a matter of our knowing Christ in an inward way by revelation of the Holy Spirit. That is the Kingdom which cannot be shaken."
So as T Austin-Sparks articulates, the kingdom of God is know Christ in our hearts. It is the awareness that He is in us, wanting for us to follow Him in our day. Ask for awareness of God in your day. If not aware in yourself, then ask to be aware in others, and in other things. See where that takes you with God. The reward spoken of in Hebrews is not something material. The reward for truly seeking Him, for seeking His company, His presence, and nothing more than His face is the awareness He is in you, and all that implies.
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