Citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

One obtains citizenship in the kingdom of God by faith. As I have said, this makes you an alien and stranger in the world. Heaven becomes your home. You know how people of the world like to control their own destiny; well the citizen of the kingdom is not in control. Rather he is a slave to righteousness. As you know slaves do not control anything, nor do they have any rights. Living by faith excludes rights. It excludes expectations. Instead your steps are ordered by God. It is Christ who lives in you. Remember how Jesus described His life on earth. He said that He did everything the Father told Him to do. And He said everything the Father told Him to say. That is the way of the kingdom as Christ lives in you as God works in you, both to will and to act according to His purposes.

Kingdom living is certainly a different way to live. A citizen is  not subject to his senses, emotions or his brain power. Rather he has the mind of Christ. So as Jesus gave expression to the law of God by reducing it to love; love of the Father and love to one’s neighbor, we  find that it always expresses itself in love. See, humanity cannot do that because it has been totally corrupted by the sinful nature or the flesh. Human love is frankly selfish. God prevents that in the kingdom by living through us and deciding for us, that is if we live by faith.  Wouldn’t you rather be controlled by God than yourself? He is a bit wiser that we are, you know!

By the way, love, as defined by God’s word is to obey the commands of God. This does not refer to the Ten Commandments and all the other commandments that were given to the Israelites. No, these are commands that are given as a result of our lives in the present tense. You see, we live in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the written code. The new way of the Spirit is a love of perfection. This cannot be attained by human effort. It is accomplished by God as he lives through us.

So life in the kingdom is so very different. We should begin by getting used to it. You will find that it comes as you rest from your own labors.  You are tired of doing your thing anyway, right? You have found that your own way doesn’t work most of the time anyway; let alone reach what Christ demanded, which is perfection.

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