Location of the Kingdom of God on earth.

In this lesson, we want to examine the scriptures to search the location of the Kingdom of God on the earth. Jesus said according to Luke 17:20; “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: but by revelation”. (Emphasis added) This means that the Kingdom of God cannot be seen with the natural eye, but the Kingdom of God is very visible in the spirit realm which is invisible to the natural eyes.

Paul said according to Romans 14:17; “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”   

Jesus was once asked when the kingdom of God would come. The kingdom of God, Jesus replied, is not something people will be able to see and point to. He then spoke these striking words: “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) With these words, Jesus gave a voice to teaching that is universal and timeless. Look into every great religious, spiritual, and wisdom tradition and we will find the same precept that life’s ultimate truth is its ultimate treasure, lies within us.

As Jesus made it unambiguously clear, we can experience this inner treasure — and no experience could be more valuable. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” he declared, “and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). From this interior truth of life, he is saying, we will gain all that is needed. Again Jesus said in Luke 17:20-21; “"The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you"

To help us in locating the Kingdom of God on earth we must understand the makeup of mankind.

Defined the makeup of mankind:

Three-fold Nature of Man: Spirit, Soul, and Body

We are taught to think of ourselves, in the same way, the Bible states.  We are a spirit being who possesses a soul and lives in a body. My spirit is the part of me that was born again. This is where God dwells within us. Therefore, I have the nature of God within me. It is the part of me that desires to live right.

I. Man's First dimension - the Spirit

Man is a spirit and that is the part of him that knows God. He dwells in the same class with God. God is a spirit and man is a spirit, and God has made mankind to have fellowship with Him. In Hebrew 4:12, 13; the separation of the three-fold nature of man; In 1 Thessalonians 5:23; the makeup of man 2 King 6:12-17 Lord opened his eyes. In John 3:7; the rebirth of the human spirit Romans 2:28-29; the spirit of man is the heart of man. 1 Corinthians 14:14, 18; The Spirit of man prayeth.

God made man for his own pleasure. Man is not an animal. In order to have fellowship with God, man must be in the same category with God. Therefore, just as God is Spirit, so is man a spirit according to John 4:24. We cannot know God or touch him physically.

He is not a man; instead, He is Spirit. We cannot communicate with God mentally, for He is a Spirit, and it is through our spirit that we come to know God. So we know that God is a Spirit and yet God, who is a spirit, took upon Himself a man's body.

Jesus was God manifested in the flesh. In John 1:1-3, 14; and Luke 16:19-31 The story of Lazarus and the rich man, and in Ezekiel 36:26-27 Promises of a new Heart. Also see 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; and 2 Corinthians 5:6-8.

Living in this natural and physical world as we do, it is difficult to realize that the spirit world is more real to us than this natural world that we live in. When people think of their existence, they only think of their physical bodies, and when they are dead they no longer exist.

However, the above scriptures tell us that the real man is the inward man. , The hidden man of the heart is an eternal being. He will live on long after his "earthly house" has returned to the dust.  My spirit has a voice and we call that voice our 'conscience,' as I walk according to the Word of God it is by my spirit that God will lead, guide and direct me according to  2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

II Man's Second Dimension - The Soul

Let us look more closely now into the second part of man's threefold nature - the Soul. The soul of man is the part that contains our emotion, mind, and will. It is the part of us that deals with the reasoning mental state of man.

According to Romans 12:2, God is not going to do anything with our body or our mind. God contacts our spirit. We contact God with our spirit (the inward man or the hidden man of the heart) to become a new man in Christ. Now it is up to you and me to do something with our mind.

The battle for the Christian lays in the mind, which is the soulish part of man. This is the area of attack because it is where a man makes a choice. The reason is the voice of the soul. If we are not careful we reason ourselves out of the will of God.

We are to be mindful that the scripture of the Lord invites us to come and reason together. When we are first to get born again, our flesh carries the bulk of the weight.   After growing spiritually the spirit starts pulling more of that weight. The decision-making element that is often caught in the middle is our soul which contain our mind, will, and emotions).

We decide what we will do and we make our own choices. For this reason alone is why we must feed the Word of God into our minds. We must 'restore our souls.' If the mind does not have an understanding of the Bible, it will always go with the flesh. When we put the Word of God in us it will completely drive out all things that are contrary to the will of God. Start saying to yourself: I am a spirit, I have a soul, and I live in a physical body. My mind is renewed and my body is subdued.

Paul said we need according to Romans 12:1-2;

• Do something with our bodies - "present your bodies a living sacrifice'"
• Do something with our minds – “be ye transformed by the renewing of your Mind"

God has given us his word and we are supposed to feed upon that word. This will renew our minds. However, He also put teachers in the church to renew our minds and to bring us the revelation of the kingdom of God’s words. So our mind is renewed by two methods: Feeding upon God's word in our own private time through study and meditation.

Being taught by the Holy Spirit - anointed teachers in James 1:21 and Psalm 23:3 it shows the way we can grow in strength and knowledge of the word, and we can walk in its light as our minds are renewed daily with the word of God.

III Man's Third Dimension - The Body

Let us look now at what the scripture has to say about our bodies. As we have said, man's spirit is the inward man the part of him that knows God.

The body is the outward man, the physical house that we live in. Our body has a voice and we call that voice a 'feeling.' Our body is the physical suit (or house) that we live in while we are on this earth. If we go by our feelings we will get into a lot of trouble, for satan is the god of this world according to 2 Corinthians 4:4; and if we let our bodies dominate our feelings, he can and will gain entrance into our lives. It makes no difference if we feel like it or not. We do what God tells us to do in His Word.

The body itself is not evil, but it can and will be used for evil. We are the ones who control it. If we allow our bodies to control us, we are letting our flesh rule. The flesh has been defined as the sinful nature, the lower nature, the old nature, the selfish nature, the human nature, the carnal nature, and the old self. To sum it all up, the flesh is the sinful desires or feelings that a person can have, saved or unsaved!

You may think that you can never control your flesh, but you can in accordance with Romans 6:14. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. So we must nail ourselves to the same cross and be crucified with Christ according to Galatians 2:20. In 1 Corinthians 9:27; it is clear that the choice is ours.

We can let our body continue to dominate us if we want but there will always be a price to pay because of this decision the body if we let it, will want to go on doing the things that it has always done. On the other hand, we can choose to keep our body under control. Our inward man can dominate it and present it to God as a living sacrifice.

In Romans 12:1, He said for us to do something with our bodies to "present your bodies a living sacrifice...." It is up to us if we don't do anything with our bodies; nothing will be done with them. In Romans 1:17, Paul is not writing to sinners but to believers.

According to 1 Corinthians 6:19; “ What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” In examine the Tabernacle in the Old Testament you that the components or compartments of the Tabernacle was the outer court, the Inner court, and the Holy of Holies, now in comparison to the makeup of mankind; our body is the outer court, our soul is the inner court, and our spirit is the holy of holies, and the Holy Spirit is within the spirit of citizens (believers) of the Kingdom of God, and the Holy Spirit who is the third member of the Godhead is who lead us and reveal things unto pertaining to the Kingdom of God. 

According to 2 Corinthians 5:17; the body is not new; however, at the coming of Christ, we will have a new body. Right now God expects us to do something with our bodies.

As we have shared with you from the word of God concerning the three-fold nature of man, we are the decision-makers. We decide what we will or will not do. Let us decide to let Christ rule.  Let us be victorious, be overcomers, and be spirit-led believers in every area of life. Amen.

Walking in the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23 states; these are the characteristics that should be in your life (which shows what kingdom principles and guidelines you are operating by): love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.

The kingdom of this world (the natural) and satan deal with us through the lust of our flesh walking after the lust of the flesh, according to Galatians 5:19-22;

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunken- ness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

These are the characteristics that shouldn’t  be in your life (which show what kingdom principles and guidelines you are operating by): adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, and reveling.

One last important note: satan through his wicked devices and his kingdom is out to destroy mankind simply because mankind is the creation of God and him, the devil finds pleasure in destroying what God has created. For everything that God has, satan has a counterfeit or he has perverted what God has created. Now we can understand what Paul was saying in writing to the Galatians in 5:16-25.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. Galatians in 5:16-25;

Again walking in the Spirit, in Galatians 5:22-23; these are the characteristics that should be in your life (which shows what kingdom principles and guidelines you are operating by): love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.

The kingdom of this world (the natural) and satan deal with us through the lust of our flesh walking after the lust of the flesh, according to Galatians 5:19-22.

In Ephesians 1:16-18; “do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” We need to really understand of whom we are and what we have been blessed with, and the true comprehension come through real meditation on these scriptures verses and allowing the Holy Spirit reveal give the revelation of who you and what you have been blessed with.

We Jesus said in Luke 17:21, that the Kingdom of God is within you, is defined here in Romans 8:11; “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Again Jesus in John 14:16, 17 and 26 defined the role of the person of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believers, and we have clarification in Romans 8:14-16; “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” 

When you get born-again you are a new creation in Christ, according to 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; and this includes a new heart.

Listen to your Heart.

Paul did not say, “The Lord told me” that this voyage will be with much hurt and damage. He simply said, “I perceive” that it will. In his spirit, Paul had an inward perception, inward premonition, and an inward witness that the voyage would be dangerous. This is the primary way God leads all of us. Paul did not perceive this physically. In his spirit, he had a witness. Acts 27:9-10 (NKJV)

Summary 

The Holy Spirit abides in our spirits. That is why our spirit knows things our head does not know. But we have not been taught to listen to our spirits, and sometimes we are reluctant to do so. Spirit-filled believers continually miss it, make mistakes, and fail is because our spirits which should guide us are kept locked away in prison, so to speak. Knowledge, or intellect, has taken the throne. Any person who shuts his spirit away and never listens to it – because the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord become crippled in life. Proverbs 20:27; If you are citizens of the Kingdom of God, a born-again believer, the Kingdom is within your spirit. I heard this illustration in identifying the location of God; most of us have a desktop computer and a cell phone, and we think of God has a desktop, when God in us is like have a cell phone.

For addition information

 please see my book

(01) Come and Learn of Me