kingdom of God | Stephen Nielsen

Every believer when he is born again and is assured of an everlasting inheritance, is also miraculously, by the power of God, rescued from the domain of darkness and is transferred into the kingdom of God and of His Son. Paul in Colossians 1:13 writes, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”

This kingdom, though it is grand and glorious, is not visible; it is a spiritual kingdom and it is within us—within every believer (Lu. 17:21). Christ sits on His throne in our hearts, and He will lead us and instruct us in right living; but only if we allow Him to. Hence, all who are obedient sons of God are led by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:14).

Now from time to time we will fall into sin; for we still have our sinful flesh. But we remain children of God who live in His kingdom, and because Christ has come into our heart and changed us—given us a new nature—we have His mind. Paul has written in 1 Corinthians 2:15-16,

But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.

And with our new mind and by the powerful strength of God in us and around us we are protected from the devil and all evil—but only if we use that protection. Paul, in Ephesians 6, speaks of this Christian protection as the armor of God. It is available to us if we put it on every day. It is the Christian’s daily and life-long attire.

One of the most powerful pieces of armor available to us is prayer. Paul writes that we are to “pray at all times in the Spirit” (Eph. 1:18). James also writes about prayer. He said, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (Ja. 1:5). But then he goes on to say that we must ask in faith without any doubting. And this is the key to living victoriously in the kingdom of God—having faith in God and in Christ without doubting. It is a life of trust in Him.

In my reading today I was struck by the passage in Mark 4:26-28.

And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows — how, he himself does not know. 28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

My observation here is that God calls us to plant the seeds of the gospel. I think for a Christian that is his primary task. And that task is very simple; just plant the seed and leave it alone. God will do the rest. He will cause it to grow. Too often I think we are too concerned that we will do something wrong or not enough. So, we do nothing out of fear.

The passage says that the farmer planted the seeds in a field and then he left the field and goes about doing whatever he does: he goes to bed and gets up. I grew up on a farm and that is basically what you do. You put the seeds in a planter, then you drive the tractor back and forth over the field planting the seed, until the whole field is planted. Then you go home, put your tractor and planter away, go have supper, and eventually go to bed. There is no more that the farmer needs to do with that field. There is no more that he can do. He trusts that rain will come and water the seeds and that the seeds will grow. And that is exactly what happens—every time!

Now in the meantime, as he waits for the seeds to grow, he continues to work. Perhaps he will plant seeds in another field, or he will cultivate a field that he had previously planted, where the corn seeds had grown. The point is that he will not worry about the seeds growing; he will keep working doing whatever God calls him to do—trusting that the seed will grow as it always does without the farmers help.

I will say again that I think many of us, including myself, are not always doing what we are called to do: we are not planting seeds of the gospel. We do all kinds of Christian things, but we are not planting seeds. We are not sharing our faith: in a conversation, in a blog or tweet or text. It doesn’t take much: a bible verse, a thought from the word, a lesson learned. Any small truth as small as a mustard seed can grow into a very large plant—which represents something very substantial that we may contribute to the kingdom of God.