The Invisible Kingdom

Let’s see what have we learned in this series so far?

1. We all have places in our hearts that need Jesus.
2. Jesus seeks us first.
3. Sometimes Jesus uses pressure, flooding, and testing to show us what is in our hearts.
4. We are deeply loved by God.
5. Through Jesus, we can be released from captivity.
6. Jesus came for the feeble, frail, and weak.
7. Jesus prays for me continually as does the Spirit. They are helping me in my weakness.
8. Jesus made Himself nothing.
9. Making ourselves nothing makes us more like Him.
10. Jesus is for us in our grief, for the times when the pressure, flooding, testing seems too much.
11. The Bible is best read in context.
12. The chaos of our hearts show us where we need more Jesus.

Today, I am intrigued by one little verse and in particular one little word, “see.”

In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless He is born again.” John 3:3

This is the Chapter where Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus. We tend to focus on His encounter with Nicodemus and in particular the idea of being born again and of course, John 3:16, but I want to focus on the invisible kingdom.

Have you seen the kingdom of God? It is all around you, yet it is invisible unless the Spirit of God has made it known to you. Not only can we not see it, we cannot enter it unless the Spirit so moves us to do so. Until that movement, we remain in depravity and emptiness and Jesus does not fill the voids in our heart with Himself. If the Spirit has so moved us, well, we’ve already entered the Kingdom.

Imagine – we are sitting together in the throne room of The Most Amazing. We are! The Bible says we already sit at the right hand of Jesus, that we’ve already been made perfect. What if we actually meditated on that truth right there until it sunk into the marrow of our bones? How different would we be?

As I think about this, I close my eyes and imagine heaven – the kingdom of God, the place where there are no more tears, no more pain, no weaknesses. It is hard to imagine being able to relate to God without sin and without weakness because they are used as instruments that draw us close to Him.

It is through my own weak and frail and hard places that God has given me eyes to see and ears to hear. It has been like scales falling off my eyes! Jesus exhorts His followers often, especially in Revelations, which seeks to prepare us for the coming of the kingdom, to have eyes to see and ears to hear. One day, weakness and frailty will no longer be needed to bring us near. No longer will we need Faith, and no longer will we need Hope. Forever we will sit in Love Eternal.

I cannot remember if it was Priscilla Shirer or Beth Moore who said this but everything in the physical world symbolizes something in the spiritual world. It is true, and the more you embrace Jesus and allow Him entrance into your heart, the more you see how this world reflects THAT world, the more the eyes of your heart SEE Jesus.

A few years ago, I led a Bible study my church offered on Beth Moore’s “The Law of Love” in Deuteronomy. This particular study was a lecture study with no homework, but since the ladies wanted something to do, the leadership asked me to write some homework for them. I am fairly certain I did not teach anyone anything near as much as I learned trying to devise meaningful homework questions. What looked liked one line simple questions on the page equated to hours and hours of pursuit of God in the Bible to understand the heart of the Law.

That year I read and reread Deuteronomy 6, and everywhere I went God placed hearts in my path. As I studied, I became convinced, without question, that He came after our hearts. Our heart eyes and ears allow Him entrance there. The Israelites got hung up on the physical world and the things our eyes can see, the things our body can do, but God always said in the Law that it was intended to bring about circumcised hearts – hearts that have been peeled away, stripped of the darkness hidden, so that His Presence would remain.

Perhaps today, I’ve sought the Spirit of God instead of Jesus (even though they are different persons of the same God).

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom of revelation so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints.” Ephesians 1:17-18

How often do we really preach the magnificence of the gospel? the kingdom of God in you now? This indeed is us in Christ, Christ in us, the hope of glory.

This song kept meandering through my mind as I wrote, so enjoy!

This is one in a 31 day series of Seeking Jesus. If you’d like to keep up with each post in this series, subscribe here.