In the Old Testament the kingdom of God was with His people Israel, but today His kingdom is spiritually in all those who are regenerated by God with His life. God’s kingdom is not something physical but spiritual; in order to enter into the kingdom of God we need to have the divine life, and for us to know God’s kingdom we need to use our spirit.
The kingdom of God is not only the reign of God but also the realm of the divine life. We enter the kingdom of God through regeneration and we live in the kingdom of God as the realm of the divine life by the sense of the divine life in our spirit.
Furthermore, the Bible reveals that the kingdom of God is the realm of light; Christ came as the light of the world, and in Him was life – and this life was the light of men (see John 3:5; 8:12). We were living in a realm of darkness, which is Satan’s kingdom, but when we heard the word of the gospel, the light of life shone on us to regenerate us and bring us into God’s kingdom.
Light is God shining, God being expressed; when we see God expressed in man, we are under God’s shining and are brought into God’s kingdom of light. God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all, and when we are in God one with Him, we walk in the light as He is in the light and we have fellowship with one another.
The preaching of the gospel is the shining of God’s light, our regeneration is the receiving of the divine light shining, and our living in the kingdom of God as the realm of light is through confessing our sins and remaining in the fellowship of life so that there would be no separation between us and God or darkness in our being.
The kingdom of God is also a realm of truth. Besides God there is no truth in the universe: He is the truth, He is reality, and everything else is a lie. Truth is God, Christ, the Spirit, and the Word of God, and it denotes the revealed reality of God in aspect of the divine light. God is truth; when He shines out, He is light; the source is truth, and the expression is light.
We need to know the truth in the Bible, that is, know God as truth, so that we may become genuine and real as God is. As we get into the truth and allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, the divine reality becomes our genuineness and sincerity so that we may live a life that corresponds to the divine light. Hallelujah!
The Kingdom of God is a Realm of Light – God Shining, God Expressed
When Christ came, He came as a great light to those sitting in the region and shadow of death (Matt. 4:16). He came as the embodiment of the Word of God, and in Him was life and the life was the light of men (John 1:4); He Himself said, I am the light of the world (John 8:12).
When Paul was met by the Lord on the way to Damascus, he saw a light from heaven beyond the brightness of the sun shining round about him (Acts 26:13), and Christ spoke to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Through the shining of the light and the Lord’s speaking, Saul of Tarsus was delivered out of the authority of darkness and was transferred into the realm of the divine light, which is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Col. 1:12). Furthermore, Paul was commissioned by the Lord to be one who cooperates with God to help others be transferred out of darkness and into light.
When we hear the gospel, the word of God, we receive God’s life and this life becomes the light shining within us to enlighten us. When we are regenerated, the divine life comes into us and this life is shining: we have the divine light shining in us.
Light is God’s shining, His expression; light is not merely something natural, shining, and bright which we generally associate with the sun, the moon, the stars, or any other light; when God is expressed, the nature of that expression is light (see 1 John 1:5).
God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all, and all those who believe into the Lord are children of light (Eph. 5:8). We were once in darkness – even darkness itself, but we are now children of light – even light itself (Matt. 5:14). God is light, and Satan is darkness; as light is the nature of God in His expression, so darkness is the nature of Satan in his evil works (1 John 3:8).
Praise the Lord that He has delivered us out of the satanic darkness and transferred us into the divine light (Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9). Now the divine light comes from the divine life of Christ operating in us, and this light shines in the darkness – and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1:4-5).
If we follow the Lord as light and walk in the light, we shall by no means walk in darkness, that is, we will not sin. Oh, may all God’s children realize that they are children of light, those living in God’s kingdom as the realm of light, and may we all walk habitually in the light!
If we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from every sin, and we have fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7). If we sin, we can confess our sins, and the God is faithful in His word and righteous in the blood of Jesus His Son to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, so that we may continue to be in the light and walk in the light.
Lord Jesus, thank You for transferring us out of darkness into Your marvelous light; we are now children of light living in God’s kingdom of light and walking in the light as God is in the light. Thank You for calling us and delivering us out of Satan’s death-realm of darkness into Your life-realm of light. Lord, keep us walking in the light and confessing anything that Your divine light exposes in our fellowship with You. May Your life in us grow and shine in us and through us for others to see You expressed through us as we walk in the light!
The Kingdom of God is a Realm of Truth – God Realized by us
When Christ as the kingdom of God came, He came full of grace and reality (John 1:14), and He Himself said, I am the way, the reality (the truth) and the life (John 14:6), and He came to testify of the truth (John 18:37).
If we walk know the truth, the truth shall set us free (John 8:32). The kingdom of God is a realm of truth. But what is truth? In the world today everything is relative, even the truth, and in Christianity in general the truth has been lost. According to the Bible, truth is:
- God, who is light and love, incarnated to be the reality of the divine things, such as the divine life, the divine nature, the divine power, and the divine glory, for us to possess, that we may enjoy Him as grace, as revealed in John’s Gospel (John 1:1, 4, 14-17).
- Christ, who is God incarnated and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9), as the reality of (a) God and man (John 1:18, 51; 1 Tim. 2:5); (b) all the types, figures, and shadows of the Old Testament (Col. 2:16-17; John 4:23, 24 and notes 4 and 5); and (c) all the divine and spiritual things, such as the divine life and resurrection (John 11:25; 14:6), the divine light (John 8:12; 9:5), the divine way (John 14:6), wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). Hence, Christ is the reality (John 14:6; Eph. 4:21).
- The Spirit, who is Christ transfigured (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17), as the reality of Christ (John 14:16-17; 15:26) and of the divine revelation (John 16:13-15). Hence, the Spirit is the reality (5:6).
- The Word of God as the divine revelation, which not only reveals but also conveys the reality of God and Christ and of all the divine and spiritual things. Hence, the Word of God also is reality (John 17:17 and note 3).
(see more in John 1:6, footnote 6 in Recovery Version Bible)
Truth is reality, and reality is the Triune God; since the Triune God is contained and concealed in His word, God’s word is reality, and when we allow His word to dwell in us richly, we are sanctified in the truth (John 17:17; Col. 3:16). Satan’s word is vanity, a lie (John 8:44), and God’s word is reality, the truth.
Truth denotes the revealed reality of God in its aspect of the divine light. God is truth, reality, and when He reaches us He comes as light – the divine light is the shining of the divine truth. If we abide in the divine light, we practice the truth.
In ourselves we may think we are genuine and true, but we’re quite biased: we’re influenced by how we feel, how we think, what we desire, etc. But when we worship God in spirit and truthfulness (John 4:24), the divine reality becomes our genuineness and sincerity.
In God’s kingdom we practice the truth, we become one with the True One, and we become true in Him who is true and real. Truth is the revealed divine reality – the Triune God dispensed into man in Christ – becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity that man may live a life that corresponds with the divine light (John 3:19-21).
With God there’s no politics and diplomacy: He doesn’t negotiate, He simply is truth. When we are in the light, we are truthful and genuine.
The word of God contains the revealed divine reality, and when we read the word with the exercise of our spirit, we partake of and enjoy the divine reality that is revealed to become our genuineness, sincerity, honesty, and trustworthiness as an excellent virtue in our behavior that enables us to express the God of reality by whom we live.
In this way we become persons living a life of truth, without any falsehood or hypocrisy, a life that corresponds with the truth revealed through creation and the Scripture, a life in the kingdom of God as a realm of truth.
Lord Jesus, keep us in Your sanctifying Word day by day. May we partake of and enjoy the divine reality contained in Your word so that we may live in the kingdom of God as a realm of truth and be genuine, sincere, honest, and trustworthy as an expression of the God of reality by whom we live. Lord, we want to walk in the light as You are in the light and be in the truth in the Word of God so that we may live a life that corresponds to the divine light and is an expression of God as light and truth.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 250-253 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 11 / msg 11, A Portrait of the Kingdom of God (you can buy this morning revival book here via LSM and here via Amazon).
- Further reading on this: see the footnotes in the Recovery Version Bible on the verses above, there are so many riches there with so much light!
- Hymns to strengthen the burden in this article:
# God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all! / Oh, how we love within His presence to dwell! / In this light we enjoy a constant cleansing within— / From every sin! (Song on, God is light)
# Regenerated by the Lord, / Renewed in mind and heart, / He dwells within us as our life / True worship to impart. / In truth we serve and worship too, / In shadows nevermore, / In Christ, the one reality, / The Father we adore. (Hymns #865)
# Little children don’t be led astray, / We will see Him on judgment day; / He who is righteous and lives in light, / Will live Him out as He is right, / Even as He is right. / In this we know that we are Him, / And while in Him we cannot sin; / We live in Him, live side by side, / We walk in Him, with Him abide, / Even as He walked. (Song on Walking in the light)
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When the Word is heard and life is received, the life becomes the light shining within to enlighten us. When Christ, as the divine life, shines within us as the light of life, we are under His enlightening. Having been born of God by receiving the Word, we have the divine life, eternal life, and this life becomes the light shining within us. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 567)
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