One of the reasons Jesus came to the earth was to teach us about his kingdom. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus would tell us over and over during his time living on the earth. Can we actually experience this kingdom? Yes! Let’s explore how we experience the Kingdom of God right here, right now.
Experiencing the Kingdom
So perhaps I convinced you using Jesus’ own words and the Word of God through the Prophet Daniel that the Kingdom is here right now and advancing.
Now it begs the question: “How do I experience the Kingdom?”
I mean, if it’s a spiritual Kingdom and not a physical Kingdom, how do I know if I have encountered it? And how can I follow the rules and regulations of this spiritual government that I’m supposed to be accountable to?
To answer these questions, we’ll look at a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus. Again, it’s worth mentioning, if you haven’t seen the Chosen episode with this interaction portrayed, I highly recommend it: season 1, episode 7.
Let’s read:
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”” John 3:1-3 (ESV)
Jesus answers for us the question, “How do I experience the Kingdom? How do I see it?”
He says, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” or in the positive sense: “You must be born again in order to see the Kingdom of God.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. Born-again believers can see the Kingdom of God, or wait… why can some born-again believers see and experience the Kingdom of God and others can’t?
Have you noticed this? Have you ever met a blind believer? Someone who can’t see past their own doctrine to have a good conversation with you? Someone who is so closed off from spiritual things that it makes you sick? I have! And all the great teaching in the world will not open that person up to Godly spiritual things. Why is this? Well, let’s go back to Jesus’ words:
“Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”” John 3:5-8 (ESV)
Seeing is one thing; entering is another thing. We must be born of the Spirit of God in order to experience His Kingdom.
But then again, He is so gracious and merciful, that God will allow people to get tastes and glimpses of the Kingdom, even before they’re born again and born of the Spirit.
Now I mention these as separate events, though they don’t have to be. We go through a very real conversion experience, when we invite Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. But then there’s also another amazing experience, when we ask the Lord Jesus to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This subsequent experience leads to and opens us up to a whole new world. The Kingdom of God becomes visible and apparent, and we start making spiritual connections that are foolishness to other people. Remember that first verse I read today?
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They seem like foolishness to them. This is just the way it is, and you will experience this. People will push back against your spiritual belief system, call you all sorts of names, and reject you because of your beliefs about the Spirit. This is part of sharing in the sufferings of Jesus; it’s actually a great honor in God’s Kingdom.
And it’s not scary at all; it can actually be rather fun. Jesus wasn’t scared when the religious leaders pushed back against Him! In fact, He felt empowered to tell ‘em like it is! And of course, He spoke the truth in love, because He is filled with the Spirit of truth and love.
The Holy Spirit fills you to overflowing with love, joy, peace, confidence, conviction, and wisdom and with great boldness, that it becomes a fun and rewarding experience to feel this pushback.
How do you Know You’ve Experienced the Kingdom?
OK, so how do you know you’ve experienced the Kingdom?
Paul gives the Roman church this guideline about the Kingdom:
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 14:17 (ESV)
The Kingdom of God is not a physical Kingdom; it’s spiritual. So you know that you’ve experienced the Kingdom of God when these spiritual attributes are present: righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
If one of these qualities are missing, that’s a big red flag to you. There will always be these three: right living/right thinking, the peace of God Himself, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And remember, “the joy of the Lord is our strength.” Nehemiah 8:10b (ESV)
What we do Affects our Spiritual Perception
This last section is called “What we do affects our spiritual perception.” It’s based on these verses in Galatians and 1 Corinthians. We’re going to bounce between the two of them.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV)
Paul echoes these words in 1 Corinthians 6.
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (ESV)
Now you may be thinking, “Yes this is obvious. These people don’t go to Heaven when they die.” But is that what it says? Even the next verse seems to fly in the face of that belief.
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV)
“And such were some of you.” Logically, if Paul knew people participating in the unrighteous acts he listed, then these same people would be disqualified from inheriting the Kingdom. And verse 11 would not make any sense.
But what if he wasn’t talking about “going to Heaven when you die.” What if he was literally talking about inheriting the spiritual Kingdom.
He is not talking about salvation here; he’s talking about our experience in this life!
And he’s showing us an extremely vital truth: the more we participate in the deeds of darkness and the ways of the flesh, the more we lose sight of the Kingdom of God. Our spiritual vision becomes fuzzy, and we start experiencing the fruit of dead works, which is death and all the things surrounding death.
People are free to participate in whatever evil deeds they want. They have free choice. But if a person wants to inherit the Kingdom of God, there are certain standards to live by, and this is why we partner with the Holy Spirit to live a holy life. This is why we work through our soteria salvation, to get deliverance from demons and dead works, and to press on to experience more of the Kingdom of God.
Going back to Galatians 5, Paul writes for us:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-25 (ESV)
What Happened
These are all benefits of experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven.
Notice what happened when Jesus brought in the Kingdom. He gathered a group of men together for real relationships. Healing followed Jesus wherever He went. He imparted true identity to people and then empowered them to overflow into the people around them.
The Kingdom is right here, with us, within us, within reach. The Kingdom is at hand. We just need to repent, to change our thinking and our pattern of thought to match God’s pattern of thinking. Let’s pray and ask the Lord’s help to see and experience the Kingdom.
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