Seeing the Kingdom of God with its Entrance, Development and Reality in the Church

The kingdom of God in the aspect of life is Christ as the seed of life sown into us, His believers, and developing into a realm over which God can rule as His kingdom in His divine life.

In the Gospels the Lord Jesus Himself had announced the gospel of the kingdom, and in the book of Acts the kingdom of God is the main subject of the apostles’ preaching.

The resurrected Christ, before His ascension to the heavens, remained for forty days with His disciples, appearing to them and speaking to them concerning the kingdom of God.

What is in the Lord’s heart is to gain His kingdom on earth. In the Gospels the Lord carried out His ministry on earth by Himself, and He sowed Himself as the seed of the kingdom into His believers, but the church was not built up yet.

In the book of Acts, which was also written by Luke, we see how Christ carries out His heavenly ministry in His resurrection and ascension, and He does it with and through His believers on earth, who not only preach the gospel but also spread Him as the development of the kingdom of God.

The result of this spreading of Christ through the believers is the building up of the church as the Body of Christ; the church throughout the entire world is being built up to constitute the Body of Christ, the fulness of Christ, to express Him and be the fulness of God for His expression.

Today the crucial matter in God’s economy and in the Lord’s recovery is the universal building up of the Body of Christ in its reality in and through the local churches.

The kingdom of God is a realm in which God exercises His authority for Him to express His glory for the fulfilment of His purpose.

God is not a dictator or tyrant; He wants to express His glory in a certain realm, and for this He created man in His image so that man would willingly choose God and be part of the kingdom of God.

When we believe into the Lord, we enter into the kingdom of God – we are transferred out of the kingdom of Satan with its authority of darkness, and into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.

Here in the kingdom of God we enjoy God, we are in the love of God, and life and light are present.

The kingdom of God today is in the church life; the kingdom is the life pulse of the church life. Praise the Lord for the church life, where we practice to let the Lord as the kingdom of God grow in us, develop in us, and be expressed through us.

Seeing the Kingdom of God with its Entrance, Development and Reality in the Church Life

In the Gospels the Lord Jesus Himself had announced the gospel of the kingdom (see Luke 4:43).

As seen in the Gospels, the kingdom of God is nothing else but the Savior Himself as the seed of life sown into His believers (who are God’s chosen people) and developing into a realm over which God can rule as His kingdom in His divine life (Luke 17:21; Mark 4:3, 26).

For us to enter into the kingdom of God we need to be born again (John 3:5), and for the kingdom to develop within us is for us to grow in the divine life (2 Pet. 1:3-11).

It is very easy and simple to enter into God’s kingdom: we simply need to believe into the Lord Jesus, and He as the seed of the kingdom will come into us and regenerate us for the kingdom of God.

After being regenerated, we need to grow in the divine life; our growth in the divine life is the development of the kingdom of God. If there’s no growth in life, there’s no development of the kingdom in us.

The kingdom of God is the church life today, in which the faithful believers live (Rom. 14:17; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5); this kingdom will develop into the coming kingdom as a reward to be inherited by the overcoming saints in the millennium (see Rev. 20:4, 6).

Our heavenly Father is very wise; He knows that the entrance into the kingdom of God is very simple – we need to just believe into the Lord Jesus and we receive the divine life, we are born from above, we are born of the Spirit, born of water, and we enter into the kingdom of God.

But the Lord also knows that it is not easy to cooperate with the Lord to grow in the divine life for the development of the kingdom of God.

Only the Lord knows how many of the regenerated believers from the first century until now have grown much beyond their spiritual birth.

Therefore, the Father in His wisdom has made a section of the kingdom – the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, a reward to be an incentive to His believers.

This one thousand-year period is only for those who have experienced the full development of the kingdom in them personally and in the Body life corporately, and they will reign with Christ for one thousand years.

All those who have not experienced the full development of the kingdom of God in them will be matured during the one thousand years, and they will be perfected to become the kingdom, the New Jerusalem.

Eventually, the kingdom of God will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God; the New Jerusalem will be an eternal realm of eternal blessing of God’s eternal life, which all of God’s redeemed will enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14).

When the Lord Jesus announced the gospel, He spoke of the kingdom of God; the kingdom of God is what the Savior announced as the gospel, the good news, to those who were alienated from the life of God (Eph. 4:18).

Thank You Lord Jesus for giving us such a simple way to enter into the kingdom of God, simply by believing into the Lord Jesus as the Savior to have Him sown as the seed of the kingdom in our heart. Lord, we want to continue to grow in the divine life which has regenerated us so that there would be a full development of the kingdom of God in us. Grow in us, Lord, and grow in the saints in the church life for the kingdom of God to have a full development. May we pay the price to have the full development of the kingdom in us both personally and corporately until the church is built up to be the Body of Christ, God’s full expression.

The Kingdom of God the Savior Himself, and today the Kingdom is within the Church

In Luke 17 the Pharisees asked the Lord to show them the kingdom of God, or when will the kingdom come; the Lord’s word in vv. 20-21 indicates that the kingdom of God is not material but spiritual.

The kingdom of God is the Savior Himself in His first coming (vv. 21-22), in His second coming (vv. 23-30), in the rapture of His overcoming believers (vv. 31-36), and in His destroying of the Antichrist (v. 37) to recover the whole earth for His reign there (Rev. 11:15).

The kingdom of God is nothing else but the Savior Himself, who was in the midst of the Pharisees and who is now within the believers (Luke 17:21; 2 Cor. 13:5; Col. 1:27).

Wherever the Savior is, there the kingdom of God is; the kingdom of God is with Jesus Christ, and He brings it to His disciples (Luke 4:43; 17:21). He has come into us as the seed of the kingdom of God to be sown into us and develop into God’s ruling realm (8:5, 10).

When we go out to preach the gospel, we go in the Spirit of Jesus and with the humanity of Jesus, and we announce the words of the kingdom to others; as they open their being, light will shine into them, and they are born of God!

Then, those who believe into Jesus are constituted into the church to be part of the kingdom of God. Since His resurrection, Christ has been within His believers; today the kingdom of God is within the church (John 14:20; Rom. 8:10; 14:17).

The kingdom of God on earth now is not outward but His sovereign ruling within us; We determine how much ground the Lord has to rule in us. The Lord wants to rule in us; He shines in us, He gives us the sense of life, but He will not force us.

When the Lord gains thousands of open vessels today, He can have a way to develop His kingdom on earth. For us to see and enter into the kingdom of God, we need to have spiritual eyes and a spiritual eyesight.

The kingdom of God is not visible – it can’t be seen with the physical eyes. The kingdom of God is the Lord Jesus Himself in His first coming, in His second coming, in the rapture of His overcoming believers, and in His destroying of Antichrist to recover the earth for His reign.

Hallelujah, according to Rev. 11:15, the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Hallelujah, all the nations in Africa, the Arabic countries, North Korea, Albania, Romania, and all the countries will become the kingdom of the Lord!

We want to be there then, and we want to be part of the corporate smiting stone that strikes the image of the human government, smashing it to smithereens, and becomes a mountain filling the whole earth as the kingdom of God.

Hallelujah, our aspiration is to be the overcomers today who allow the Lord Jesus to grow in them as the seed of the kingdom in and for the church, so that God would gain His corporate expression, the church as the Body of Christ.

Our desire is not just to be in the development of the kingdom of God personally but also corporately, to satisfy the desire of the Lord, to meet the Lord’s need, and to end this age!

Thank You Lord for coming as the kingdom of God to be sown into our heart and develop into a realm in which God can rule. Hallelujah, Jesus is in us, so we have the kingdom of God in us. Grow in us, Lord, and develop in us for the development of the kingdom of God. Have more ground in our being. We turn our heart to You, Lord, and we open our being to You. We give You right to every part of our being. Have the freedom to do what You need to do in us, to us, and with us. Make Your home in our heart. and build up and develop the reality of the kingdom in its development within us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 241 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 8, The Development of the Kingdom of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # But now the kingdom to us has been shown, / It is no less than our Jesus alone. / It is the Person of Christ in us all, / And it begins as a seed when we call. (Hymns #1301)
  # God’s Kingdom on the earth is now / His sovereign government within; / ’Tis Christ Himself in us to live / As Lord and King to rule and reign. / His life with His authority / Enthrones Him now within our hearts / To govern all our words and deeds / And regulate our inward parts. (Hymns #942)
  # Yes, Lord, impress our heart / That we must take You in each day; / The seed will have its way; / Your growing brings the kingdom here to stay— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132)