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In the face of this relentless information storm, this is no time for Christians to give up on reading. We need to equip ourselves to weather this information storm, and The Fellowship of Ailbe wants to help.
With and agenda and power.
A Christian Guidebook: What Is the Kingdom of God? (7)
… for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Romans 14.17, 18
Get ready
Following His resurrection, Jesus spent forty days teaching His disciples about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1.3)—what it is, what it’s like, what to expect when it comes, and what its coming will mean for the world.
The disciples got it. I mean, they bit down on it good—hook, line, and sinker. That is evident by their response at the end of this season of instruction and preparation: “Is it now…?” (Acts 1.6) They were ready. They were eager. And they were right so to be.
Jesus’ response is a bit enigmatic. First, He told His fired-up gang that it was not for them to know the details about the specific timing of the Kingdom’s coming. This He said to discourage any vain speculations or specious plans. The details of the full coming of the Kingdom—the full and complete coming, which was, in essence, what they were asking about—are the Father’s remit alone.
But, second, He told them that they were about to receive power. The Holy Spirit was coming, as Jesus had promised in John 14-16, and He would bring with Him holy spiritual power to enable them to bear witness to and advance the Name and rule of Jesus.
In other words, when the Spirit came, He would come to dwell within believers, unleashing a power that had only occasionally been glimpsed in the course of human history, but which would now, with the Spirit’s coming, be distributed among and unleashed through all those who were called to follow Jesus as His disciples and witnesses.
Put even more succinctly, the Kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. The righteousness that characterizes the Kingdom, the peace which is its prevailing condition, and the joy that results from these are all in the Holy Spirit.
And He is in the soul of every Christian, every disciple and follower of Jesus Christ.
The Spirit’s agenda
The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in believers with an agenda. His agenda is not ours, and unless we can put our agendas aside, we will never line up with His to realize more of the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God.
The Spirit has not come to make us ecstatically happy. He has not come to fulfill our every wish. He comes to bring forth in us distinctly Kingdom values and virtues: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He comes to distribute among us spiritual gifts, God-given abilities to serve one another in caring and sharing ways. He comes to empower us as witnesses for Jesus, both in how we live and what we say. And He comes to build our churches up into Christlikeness by our unified and focused work.
Spiritual power, spiritual fruit, spiritual gifts, and spiritual communities. This is the agenda of the Holy Spirit.
And, since He has such a clear Kingdom agenda, we must believe that He also has clear means for fulfilling that agenda. And we would be right to think so.
The Spirit’s means
The first and foundational means the Spirit employs in accomplishing His agenda is to teach those in whom He dwells to understand and obey the Law of God: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezek. 36.26, 27).
As the Spirit teaches us the Law of God, He causes the glory of the Lord to appear in glimpses of Jesus—His beauty, goodness, truth, love, righteousness, peace, and joy. The Spirit uses those glimpses of Jesus, in wondrous and mysterious ways, gradually renewing us in heart, mind, and conscience, so that we think with the mind of Christ, love with the heart of God, and hold fast to the Law of God and all His Word as our highest value and priority. Thus, we are gradually transformed into the image of Jesus Christ: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror [the Law and Word of God, cf. Jms. 1.22-25] the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3.17, 18).
As we grow in Christ, working out our salvation in conjunction with Him Who is at work within us (Phil. 2.12, 13), we submit more completely to His rule, enter more completely into His Kingdom, and demonstrate the evidences of faith (Heb. 11.1) which the Spirit brings forth in us. We improve in our calling as citizens and ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.
This happens because the Spirit of God is always at work within us, showing and leading us onto the path of righteousness, convicting us when we stray, and empowering us for sound judgment to realize more of the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God (Jn. 16.8-11).
The Kingdom of God—the rule of King Jesus!—is in the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is in us, all who believe and are followers and disciples of Jesus Christ.
And that is a reality worth getting excited about every moment of every day.
Search the Scriptures
1. Meditate on Galatians 5.22, 23 and 1 Corinthians 12.7-11. How do you see these works of the Spirit in your own life?
2. Read Matthew 5.17-19. Who is great in the Kingdom of God? How does the Holy Spirit help one to attain such greatness?
3. Meditate on Ephesians 4.3. To what “unity” was Paul referring? What is our duty with respect to that unity?
Next steps—Preparation: Spend some time meditating on the three questions above. Which of the Spirit’s works, mentioned in these questions, would you like to see more of in your life?
T. M. Moore
Additional Resources
If you have found this study helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Three resources can help you in realizing more of the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God. Our books The Kingship of Jesus (click here) and What in Heaven Is Jesus Doing on Earth? (click here for the book or here for the free PDF) explain the rule of King Jesus in our lives and world. The Kingdom Turn (order the book here or the free PDF here) goes into greater detail about what it means to practice the Kingship of Jesus.
Support for ReVision comes from our faithful and generous God, who moves our readers to share financially in our work. If this article was helpful, please give Him thanks and praise.
And please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe with your prayers and gifts. You can contribute online, via PayPal or Anedot, or you may send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore
In the face of this relentless information storm, this is no time for Christians to give up on reading. We need to equip ourselves to weather this information storm, and The Fellowship of Ailbe wants to help.