The Kingdom is Now

Stop Waiting for the Kingdom: Jesus Says It Is Here

Living Today With Christ as King of Our Hearts

If you had walked beside Jesus during His ministry,

you would have heard Him speak again and again about one magnificent subject:

The Kingdom of God.

John the Baptist announced:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

Then Jesus began His own ministry proclaiming:

“Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Jesus preached the Good News of the Kingdom.

Then He sent His twelve disciples out with instructions to proclaim:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

Apparently Jesus didn't want anyone to miss the announcement.

John said it.

Jesus said it.

The disciples said it.

And then Jesus taught us to pray:

“Let Your Kingdom come.      Let Your will be done,      on earth      as it is in heaven.”

When I put these scriptures together,

I hear an invitation that is enormously important:

Don't spend your entire life looking into the distance for God's Kingdom,      while overlooking what Christ is calling you into today.

“The Kingdom of God Is Within You”

Then Jesus makes an extraordinary statement in Luke 17.

The Pharisees ask Him   when   God's Kingdom will come.

It sounds like a perfectly reasonable question.

Perhaps they were expecting Jesus to provide a date.

Maybe a location.

Possibly a few advance reservations.

Instead,      Jesus tells them:

“God's Kingdom doesn't come with observation;      neither will they say,      ‘Look, here!’      or,      ‘Look, there!’      for behold,      God's Kingdom is within you.”

That changes everything.

People were looking for something they could point toward.

Jesus pointed somewhere entirely different.

Within.

This Kingdom would not be merely another earthly government.

Jesus later tells Pilate:

“My Kingdom is not of this world.”

That doesn't mean His Kingdom has nothing to do with our lives on Earth.

Quite the opposite.

Jesus taught us to pray that God's will would be done:

“on earth      as it is in heaven.”

The Kingdom begins wherever   God's will   becomes more important to us than   our own will.

And for me,

that begins in the heart.

The Kingdom Was “At Hand”

I think we should pay close attention to the words Jesus actually used.

He didn't say:

“The Kingdom might eventually be somewhere in the neighborhood.”

He said:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

John the Baptist said it.

Jesus said it.

Jesus told His disciples to say it.

Then Jesus made another remarkable promise:

“There are some standing here      who will in no way taste death      until they see God's Kingdom come with power.”

Those words were spoken to real people standing in front of Him.

That is one of the passages that caused me to look much more seriously at the Kingdom as a spiritual reality that Christ's followers were already being invited to experience.

And Luke tells us something else remarkable about Jesus before He was even born:

“He will reign...      forever;      His Kingdom will never end.”

His Kingdom isn't temporary.

Christ is King.

And His Kingdom has no closing time.

No election cycle.

No term limits.

No palace coup.

No sign on the heavenly door saying:

“Management will return at a later date.”

So Where Is the King?

This brings us directly to Centering Prayer.

Paul writes in Galatians 4:6:

“God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.”

Think about that.

The Spirit of His Son.

Into our hearts.

If Christ's Spirit has been sent into our hearts,

then Jesus is not merely someone for us to remember from two thousand years ago.

Nor do I believe we should live as though our only relationship with Christ is waiting for Him to become relevant sometime in the future.

Through the Holy Spirit,

Christ is present with His people   now.

He teaches.

He comforts.

He corrects.

He strengthens.

He leads.

And we can develop a loving relationship with Him.

But every relationship requires something very basic:

communication.

If I do all the talking,

that isn't much of a conversation.

I know this because I spent many years being remarkably good at giving God information He presumably already had.

“Lord Jesus,   How May I Serve You Today?”

This is why Centering Prayer has become so precious to me.

Each morning I begin with one simple question:

“Lord Jesus, how may I serve You today?”

Then I listen.

I am acknowledging something before my feet even touch the floor:

Jesus is King.

And I am not.

That's actually quite liberating.

I don't have to run the universe before breakfast.

I don't even have to run my own little corner of it without help.

I simply ask the King what He wants me to do today.

Sometimes His guidance leads me to encourage someone.

Sometimes it reminds me to be patient when I'd much rather be irritated.

Sometimes it nudges me toward generosity.

Sometimes it tells me to forgive.

And sometimes it asks me to keep my mouth shut precisely when I have prepared what I consider to be an absolutely magnificent speech.

Those can be particularly painful acts of obedience.

My Ego Would Like to File an Appeal

I've discovered that my ego is a remarkably talented attorney.

When Christ's leading conflicts with what I want,

my ego immediately opens its law office.

It can produce evidence.

It can find witnesses.

It can prepare exhibits.

It can argue both sides of the case.

It can file three appeals.

And somehow,

after all of that,

it always reaches the same verdict:

Bill was right.

Fortunately,

the Holy Spirit is much better at telling the truth than my ego is at presenting its case.

Centering Prayer teaches me to stop allowing my own will to occupy the throne.

That's where the Kingdom becomes intensely personal.

The question is no longer merely:

“Where is God's Kingdom?”

The question becomes:

“Who is King of my heart today?”

“Let Your Will Be Done”

Jesus connected the Kingdom with God's will when He taught us to pray:

“Let Your Kingdom come.      Let Your will be done,      on earth      as it is in heaven.”

Those two ideas belong beautifully together.

God's Kingdom.

God's will.

When I insist on my will,

I am trying to occupy the throne.

When I surrender my will to Christ,

I am acknowledging my King.

This is why Centering Prayer   isn't   simply about becoming relaxed.

It   isn't   Christian nap time.

It   isn't   merely sitting quietly because silence feels pleasant.

It is surrender.

I become still because I want to listen.

I listen because I want to know Christ's will.

I seek His will because I love Him.

And because I love Him,

I want to serve Him.

The Kingdom Begins Changing Us

Little by little,

something beautiful begins happening.

As we surrender our plans and become willing to follow Christ's leading,

His character begins growing within us.

Love becomes more natural.

Joy becomes steadier.

Peace begins replacing anxiety.

Patience quietly appears in conversations where it used to be nowhere on the guest list.

Kindness becomes less of an obligation and more of a habit.

Gentleness begins replacing anger.

Self-control starts telling our mouths      —

“Perhaps we don't need to say that.”

The fruit of the Spirit doesn't usually appear all at once like popcorn in a microwave.

It grows more like an oak tree      —

slowly,

steadily,

sometimes almost unnoticed from one day to the next.

Then one day we look backward and realize:

God has been changing us all along.

That is the Kingdom becoming visible in a human life.

The King Gives Gifts to His People

Scripture also teaches that the Holy Spirit distributes different gifts to different members of Christ's Body for the common good.

Paul describes wisdom,

knowledge,

faith,

healing,

miraculous powers,

prophecy,

discernment of spirits,

languages,

and interpretation.

Different people receive different gifts.

That's important.

You don't have to receive my assignment.

I don't have to receive yours.

And neither of us needs to become spiritually jealous because somebody else's job looks more impressive.

A foot doesn't need to spend its life furious because it wasn't promoted to eyeball.

Every part belongs to the same Body.

Every gift comes from the same Spirit.

And every gift is meant to serve God's purposes.

God delights in working through ordinary people.

That's very encouraging to me.

Because if God were waiting for perfect people before allowing anyone to serve in His Kingdom,

heaven's Help Wanted department would have a serious staffing problem.

Instead,

God takes willing hearts.

He teaches them.

He transforms them.

He gives them what they need.

And then He sends them out to love and serve His children.

Don't Miss Today While Waiting for Tomorrow

Christians have understood the Bible's passages about the Kingdom and Christ's coming in different ways for centuries.

I respect Christians who sincerely read some of those passages differently than I do.

But whatever we believe about events still to come,

we should never allow tomorrow to make us miss Jesus today.

That is the danger I want this article to address.

If I spend my whole life believing that Christ's Kingdom is only something that will arrive later,

I may overlook the invitation Christ has placed before me,      in my heart,   right now.

Jesus is calling me to love now.

Forgive now.

Serve now.

Trust now.

Listen now.

Follow now.

Do God's will   on Earth   now.

We don't need to settle every question about the future before beginning a relationship with Christ in the present.

The King is calling us today.

The Kingdom Is Not Another Earthly Government

Jesus told Pilate:

“My Kingdom is not of this world.”

That statement is enormously important.

Jesus didn't come simply to establish another human political system.

Earth has had plenty of those.

Empires rise.

Empires fall.

Kings are crowned.

Kings die.

Governments change.

Borders move.

Flags change.

History books get thicker.

But Jesus' Kingdom:

“will never end.”

His Kingdom is of a different nature.

It reaches into human hearts.

It transforms people from within.

It changes how we love.

It changes how we forgive.

It changes how we use power.

It changes how we treat strangers.

It changes how we respond to enemies.

It changes what we value.

And when Christ becomes King within us,

His Kingdom begins affecting everything around us.

The Kingdom Starts in My Heart

For me,

the Kingdom of God is no longer simply a destination on tomorrow's calendar.

It is where Christ becomes King of my heart today.

It is where His peace begins replacing my worry.

His wisdom begins replacing my confusion.

His love begins replacing my selfishness.

His patience begins replacing my irritation.

His forgiveness begins replacing my resentment.

And His will slowly becomes more precious than my own.

That is why I believe Jesus' words      —

“God's Kingdom is within you”

are so important to Centering Prayer.

If God's Kingdom is within us,

and God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts,

then we shouldn't spend our entire spiritual lives staring toward the horizon.

We should also look within our hearts and listen.

Centering Prayer Is Learning to Serve the King

From Genesis to Revelation      —

I see one beautiful invitation woven throughout Scripture.

God desires to dwell with His people.

He calls us into relationship.

He transforms us through His Spirit.

He gives us gifts with which to serve.

And He invites us to participate in His Kingdom.

Centering Prayer, as I understand it, is our response to that invitation.

We become still before Christ.

We listen with humility.

We discern.

We surrender our own will.

And then we joyfully follow wherever our King leads.

It is not merely a method of prayer.

It is learning to live every day serving King Jesus.

It is waking each morning and recognizing:

The King is here.

His Spirit is in our hearts.

His Kingdom is at hand.

And I have been given another day in which to serve Him.

So instead of spending all of my time asking:

“Lord,      when will Your Kingdom come?”

I have learned to begin with another question:

“Lord Jesus...      how may I serve You in Your Kingdom today?”

Then I become still.

I stop trying to run the Kingdom for Him.

I listen.

And when He leads...

I follow.

Questions for prayer:
          What do these passages reveal about God?
          What response does it ask of me?
          Is the impression I receive consistent with the character and teaching of Jesus?
          What loving and faithful action should follow?

Daily prayer:

How may I serve You this day?”