GOD’S KINGDOM IS IN POWER

Marcella Ward July 31, 2024

What is God’s Kingdom and what is the power that God speaks about?  Have we missed God’s message throughout the ages because we have not obeyed His Word and therefore become a Church that is powerless?

God’s Kingdom Is Within You

²⁰ Some of the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the kingdom of God come?”

Jesus answered, “God’s kingdom is coming, but not in a way that you will be able to see with your eyes. ²¹ People will not say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ because God’s kingdom is within you.  Luke 17:20-21  (NCV)

WHAT DID JESUS MEANS WHEN HE SAID, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU?

“Jesus’ answer was that the kingdom of God was not coming in the manner the Pharisees were expecting. The kingdom would not be inaugurated with spectacle or splendor; there would be no great and magnificent leader who staked out a geographical claim and routed the Romans; rather, the kingdom would come silently and unseen, much as leaven works in a batch of dough (see Matthew 13:33). In fact, Jesus says, the kingdom had already begun, right under the Pharisees’ noses. God was ruling in the hearts of some people, and the King Himself was standing among them, although the Pharisees were oblivious to that fact.

There are three popular interpretations of Jesus’ words in Luke 17:21 that the kingdom of God is within you (or among you): 1) the kingdom of God is essentially inward, within man’s heart; 2) the kingdom is within your reach if you make the right choices; and 3) the kingdom of God is in your midst in the person and presence of Jesus. The best of these interpretations, it seems, is the third: Jesus was inaugurating the kingdom as He changed the hearts of men, one at a time.” (Got Questions: “WHAT DID JESUS MEANS WHEN HE SAID, “THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU?” March 13, 2023)

I Corinthians 4:18-20  (Peter’s response to the Corinthian Church)

¹⁸ Some of you have become proud, thinking that I will not come to you again. ¹⁹ But I will come to you very soon if the Lord wishes. Then I will know what the proud ones do, not what they say, ²⁰ because the kingdom of God is present not in talk but in power. ²¹ Which do you want: that I come to you with punishment or with love and gentleness?  (NCV)

ACTS 1:6-11 NIV

 ⁶ Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

¹⁰ They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES AT PENTECOST

ACTS 2:2-4   NIV

2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

MATTHEW 10:8   NIV

⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

Have we become a powerless Church?  How many churches do we see that welcome the powerful Gifts of the Holy Spirit?

9 SPIRITUAL GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT:  1 Corinthians 12:4-11

1. Word of wisdom
2. Word of knowledge
3. Gift of faith
4. Gift of healing
5. Working of miracles
6. Prophecy
7. Distinguishing between spirits
8. Speaking in tongues
9. Interpreting tongues

 

Before Jesus was taken up into Heaven, He gave us, as believers, authority to heal, cast out demons, and use the 9 Spiritual Gifts that would be given on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles which included 120 gathered in the Upper Room waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:2-4)

GOD IS NOT DEAD AND NEITHER IS THE BODY OF CHRIST!  The Gospel, the Good News, is present here today because Jesus lives in each believer. 

ROMANS 8:11  NIV

¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

THEREFORE, AS CHRIST LIVED IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, SO WE MUST LIVE IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRT SO WE CAN BE A WITNESS TO THE WORLD AND GIVE GLORY TO ALMIGHTY GOD!!

Marcella Ward    Author of “Stolen Identity: Plan of the Evil One”

www.solaceinGodsworld.blogspot.com