The Kingdom of God is Christ Growing in us until He is Transfigured Within us

The kingdom of God is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, for whenever the Lord Jesus is transfigured within us to be manifested through us, that is the kingdom of God coming in power (see Mark 9:1-2). Amen!

God wants to bring in His kingdom on the earth, and the work of God today is mainly to bring in the kingdom of God.

On on hand, we need to do many works in the church life, works that benefit mainly human beings; on the other hand, we need to do the work of God.

God has a particular work to do on this earth, which has both a positive and a negative side.

On the positive side, God wants to bring in the kingdom of God and establish the kingdom of God on earth today.

He does this through many who cooperate with Him to preach the gospel of the kingdom so that Christ as the seed of the kingdom may be sown into man to grow and develop into a realm in which God can rule and reign.

On the negative side, the coming of the kingdom of God means that the enemy needs to be dealt with and subdued.

We need to not only grow in life and cooperate with the Lord for Him to expand in our being so that we may be under His rule and reign, but we also need to be one with God to deal a death blow to Satan and destroy his works on the earth.

The work among human beings to preach the gospel, shepherd others, and do many things related to the church life, is necessary, and we all need to have part in the service of the church.

But there is also the work of God, the work that God wants to do, even the work that God needs to do.

This work is not just the gospel work or the shepherding work but the work of dealing with the enemy and overcoming him.

Satan is doing his best to hinder God’s work, and we need to stand against him in prayer.

We need to be one with the Lord in what we do and say, and we need to cooperate with Him to do the work of God so that the enemy would be defeated, pushed back, and subdued.

The work of God is not just to save souls but for the kingdom of God to be brought in and for the enemy to be defeated. This is God’s need.

God created man for this dual purpose, that man would express god with His image and represent Him with His dominion.

By preaching the gospel and believing into the Lord, we receive the divine life, and by living by this divine life, we express Christ.

This is half of the purpose we are created for.

We need to fulfil the other half, which is to represent God with His dominion and cause Satan to suffer fatal loss.

For this we cannot love ourselves or live out our soul-life, neither can we live in the flesh or indulge in what our soul desires.

We need to deny the self, put ourselves aside, lose our soul life, and take up our cross.

We need to pay the price of our soul life in order to deal with the enemy to the uttermost. We want to be those cooperating with the Lord to bring in His kingdom today!

The Coming of the Kingdom of God is the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus

Mark 9:1-13 shows us the story of the Lord being transfigured on the mountain.

He told His disciples that there were some there who shall by no means taste death until they see the kingdom of God having come in power.

Then, after six days He took with Him Peter and James and John, went on a high mountain privately, and there He was transfigured before them.

This indicates that the coming of the kingdom of God in power is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus.

What is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus? It is the shining reality of the Lord Jesus.

His face was shining, His glory became visibly manifested, and His garments were like light; His face was like the sun. Wow!

The Lord was transfigured before His disciples; this is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus as the coming of the kingdom of God in power.

The transfiguration of Christ is His glorification, which is equal to His coming in the kingdom.

The Lord told His disciples that the kingdom of God will come in power, and then He took three of them and manifested Himself before them, “unzipped” Himself for them to see the glory of His divinity being expressed. Wow!

They saw Christ transfigured with His shining, for the glory was shining out from Him. This, the transfiguration of Christ, was an expression of the kingdom.

What is described in this portion in Mark 9:1-13 is a picture of the kingdom of God coming in power.

The center of this picture is the glorified Jesus! Amen!

With Him we see Moses and Elijah, representing the Old Testament saints, and also Peter and James and John, representing the New Testament saints (vv. 2-4).

This is a picture of the kingdom of God coming in power with His glorification.

What does it mean for the kingdom of God to come in power? It is for the Lord Jesus to be transfigured.

For the Lord to be transfigured meant that His humanity was saturated and permeated with His divinity. Wow, Amen!

This transfiguration, which was His glorification, was equal to His coming in His kingdom.

The Lord’s word in v. 1 about the coming of the kingdom of God in power was fulfilled by His transfiguration on the mountain.

The shining of the Lord Jesus, the transfiguration of Christ, was His coming in His kingdom; where His transfiguration is, there is the coming of the kingdom (see Matt. 16:28-17:13; Luke 9:27-36).

The transfiguration of the Lord Jesus was the realization of what He is.

He already is God embodied to be a man, but the transfiguration is the manifestation and shining of what He is through humanity.

Whenever the Lord is transfigured, that is the coming of the kingdom of God.

Where the Lord’s transfiguration is, the kingdom is there.

The kingdom of God is the reality of the Lord Jesus shining and being expressed. When we are under the Lord’s shining, we are in the kingdom (Rev. 22:4-5).

The disciples were amazed at this, to the extent that they wanted to remain there, and they also appreciated that they saw Moses and Elijah.

So God the Father had to cover them with a cloud and tell them that He wants only Christ, for this One is His beloved.

Christ, only Christ, is what God wants. He wants this Christ to be sown in us, grow in us, blossom in us, and be transfigured in us so that the kingdom of God would come in us in power.

Lord Jesus, we praise You for coming into us as the kingdom seed to grow in us and develop in us until the kingdom of God is fully established in us. We open to You today. Grow in us a little more today. Oh Lord, may You grow in us until You are transfigured in us! Hallelujah, the coming of the kingdom of God in power is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus! Amen, Lord, we praise You for being transfigured by having Your humanity be permeated and saturated with Your divinity. Grow in us to such an extent today. Be manifested through us. May our humanity be saturated and permeated with Your divinity so that God may be manifested in man and through man! Hallelujah, where the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus is, there is the kingdom of God in power! Amen, Lord, may we be those who allow You to grow in us, shine in us, and be transfigured in us so that the kingdom of God may come in power! We want to pay attention to You, enjoy You, be filled with You, and let You grow in us until You blossom in us!

The Kingdom of God is Christ Growing in us until He is Transfigured within us

It is truly amazing to see both in Matthew, Mark, and Luke that the Lord Jesus was transfigured before His disciples, and that was the coming of the kingdom of God, but how does this relate to us and how can we experience this?

We need to realize that Christ has been sown into our hearts as a seed; He came into us as the seed of the kingdom to grow in us, develop in us, and blossom in us until Christ is transfigured within us for the kingdom of God (Col. 1:27).

Day by day as we contact the Lord and open to Him throughout the situations we’re in and the difficulties we face, the Lord saturates and permeates our humanity with His divinity.

We are all in the process of being transfigured, that is, we’re in the process of Christ being transfigured within us.

The kingdom of God is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, and we need to grow in life and let Christ grow in us until He is transfigured within us.

Many of us do not yet express Christ, for He as the seed of the kingdom did not yet grow in us until blossoming.

The transfiguration of the seed of the kingdom requires the growth of the seed until maturity to blossom and be transfigured.

The Lord in us needs to grow. We need to let Him grow in the soil of our heart.

He needs to make His home in our heart little by little, day by day (Eph. 3:17). He needs to be formed in us (Gal. 4:19) and live in us (Gal. 2:20).

If the Lord Jesus who is in us has not yet been transfigured, others will not be able to see the kingdom of God in us.

But when He is transfigured within us, that blossoming will be the kingdom of God.

In our daily living, we need to contact the Lord, enjoy Him, and be open to Him so that He may grow in us and blossom in us for the kingdom of God.

In Mark 1:15 the Lord Jesus said that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near; later in the parable of the kingdom He likened Himself to a man casting seed on earth (4:26).

Then in 9:1 He told His disciples that some will see the coming of the kingdom of God in power, and He transfigured Himself before them on the mountaintop.

This is a strong indication that the kingdom of God is actually the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus.

How about us: is the Lord Jesus transfigured within us? Does He grow in us to the extent that He is manifested in us and through us?

Many times we meet fellow believers in Christ and see that there’s self-expression but Christ is not expressed there.

Christ as the seed is within them and within us also, but He has not yet been transfigured. Oh, Lord!

We have the Lord Jesus living within us, but do we give Him the opportunity to be transfigured in us?

We need to learn to cooperate with the Lord for Him to grow in us and be transfigured within us.

He needs to be in us not just as a seed or a tender plant but even more, as a blossoming plant that is transfigured.

We need to experience the kingdom of God as the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus in us.

This aspect of the kingdom needs to develop in us and cause us to grow unto maturity.

As the Lord grows in us day by day, He brings us to maturity, and He will shine from within us.

The transfiguration of the Lord Jesus is taking place in all the believers in Christ.

We need to cooperate with the Lord day by day in our daily living with all our activities, turning to Him and giving Him the first place in our being.

We need to realize who He is and what He is.

His coming, which we eagerly expect, is not just from the heavens but also from within us.

We need to let the Lord grow in us and come from within us so that He may be transfigured within us.

The kingdom is the shining of the reality of the Lord Jesus. Day by day we need to be under this shining.

We need to be under the shining of the Lord to be in the kingdom of God.

As we remain under His shining, He brings in the kingdom in us.

As we let the Lord shine in us, He will not only enlighten us and bring His life into us but He will also make us shining, and He will be transfigured within us.

To be under the Lord’s shining today is to be in the kingdom today.

We want to be under the Lord’s shining today.

As He grows in us and matures within us, He is being transfigured within us.

When Christ is transfigured within us, that transfiguration becomes the kingdom of God ruling over everything in our life.

This is how the Lord rules and reigns in us, by Him being transfigured within us.

No matter what environment we are in, no matter what happens around us, we inwardly have the sense that the kingdom of God is developing.

We let the Lord rule and reign in us, for we want the Lord Jesus to be transfigured within us.

We may about to write an email to someone and, upon checking with the Lord within, we delete most of it.

We may be in a conversation with someone and may be about to say something, but the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus within us will not allow us to say certain things.

May we give the Lord the opportunity to be transfigured in us.

May He grow in us unto maturity until He is fully transfigured within us and shines from us!

Lord Jesus, we want to give You the opportunity to be transfigured in us. Thank You for being in us as the seed of the kingdom of God. Grow in us. We open to You. We want to cooperate with You day by day so that You may grow in us and develop within us. Amen, Lord Jesus, may You be transfigured within us! Rule and reign in us. Gain more ground in us. Transform us into Your image. Conform us to what You are. Live in us. Be expressed through us. We want to remain in constant contact with You throughout the day so that we may have Your transfiguration within us. Oh Lord Jesus, how much we love You! We focus our entire being on You! You are the Father’s beloved and You are our Beloved! May the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus within us become the kingdom of God ruling and reigning over everything in our life! Amen, Lord, may Your kingdom come in us today! Gain Your manifestation through all Your saints so that the kingdom of God may be established on the earth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Mark, pp. 550-552, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 4, The Kingdom as the Subduing of Rebellion and as the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – A life fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy, a portion from, Life-Study of Mark, Chapter 66.
  – The Lord Will Be Glorified in Us, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The Glory of God (1): Concealed in the Shell of Christ’s Humanity, via, Living to Him.
  – An entrance into the kingdom, a portion from, The Basic Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, Chapter 6.
  – What Is Transformation in the Bible? More via, Bibles for America blog.
  – A revelation of the kingdom, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 15, by Witness Lee.
  – Christ, the Cross, and the Church, via, Shepherding Words.
  – The coming of the kingdom, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – How Christ in You Becomes Your Hope of Glory, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The coming kingdom: the realization and manifestation of God’s image and God’s dominion, article by John Pester in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Regenerated, Transformed, and Transfigured for New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Lord has been revealed in us, / The kingdom-seed so glorious; / He’s planted deeper than our heart, / And from us He will ne’er depart. / This seed is never satisfied / Just in our spirits to abide; / He wants to grow and spread today / To live in us in every way. (Hymns #1300 stanza 1)
  – Reigning and shining He’s all glorious, / Christ as the seed is the King who has come, / Into our spirit His kingdom He’s sown. / O let Him grow, O let Him grow; / His kingdom life be all we know. / Jesus, the kingdom is sown into us; / Jesus, the kingdom, O how glorious! (Hymns #1301 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Glory is God’s true expression, / All He is, in full, expressed; / Final stage of our redemption, / Bodily made manifest. / Glory is the consummation / Of this life which sanctifies; / Our complete transfiguration / Is the goal which life supplies. (Hymns #1203 stanza 5)