What’s
Happening on the Inside?
-Roy Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow
A familiar
prayer in Scripture is “Thy kingdom come...” Where does God want to
establish His kingdom? Our tendency is to only think of His Kingdom
coming outside of ourselves—a kingdom that He will establish when Jesus Christ
returns. As we wait for His kingdom to come upon the earth in the future, God
wants to establish His kingdom within us today.
Romans 14:18
tells us that the kingdom of God within us is established in only one way,
through the person of the Holy Spirit. Our problems come when we try to
establish God’s kingdom in our lives through our own efforts or systems. We
cannot produce or establish anything that is of God.
We cannot,
by doing outward things, however good they appear, make ourselves into what God
wants us to be.
There are
three things the Holy Spirit works within us to establish God’s kingdom: righteousness,
peace, and joy. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to produce all three. God
does not want one-third of His kingdom established within us, or two-thirds,
but the whole. The kingdom does not come within us in sections or on the
installment plan. God doesn’t say, “Be good and I will give you righteousness.
Be very good for a long time and I will give you peace. Be very, very good for
a long, long time and I will give you joy.”
People
become restless and joyless when they try to establish their own righteousness.
What we do outwardly does not change us inwardly. The Scribes and Pharisees who
lived during the years of Jesus’ ministry were a group of outwardly religious
people who went about trying to establish their own righteousness through their
works and by keeping their man-made rules and traditions.
They worked
hard at it, but it did not produce any joy or peace within them. Instead, they
were without faith, hard, demanding, angry, critical, and judgmental. Their
outward form of righteousness left them empty. And, when they were confronted with
the reality of the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ, they became more
miserable.
We cannot
walk in daily peace and joy if we carry unrighteousness in our hearts. The unrighteousness
of bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, will rob us of our peace and joy;
the unrighteousness of worry, fear, and anxiety will quench the flow of the
Holy Spirit within us.
Everything
about righteousness is good, pure, clean, wholesome, and healthy to our
inner-man.
Attitudes of
unrighteousness will quench the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit, but
righteousness will release them. The fruit of righteousness is not sour grapes.
Inward
righteousness comes from the Holy Spirit, not disciplines or rituals.
Inward peace comes from the Holy Spirit, not from ideal circumstances or times
of silence. Inward joy comes from the Holy Spirit, not from entertainment or good
times. As believers in Jesus Christ we need to yield to the Holy Spirit and
allow Him to produce the life of the Kingdom within us. Let Him anoint you with
the oil of joy and clothe you with the garment of praise; let His peace rule in
your heart and guard your mind; let His righteousness bring health and
wholeness to your spirit.
Today, may
your prayer be, “Lord, let your kingdom come in me.”
The kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:18 NASB).
#devotional #kingdom #roylessin #meetinginthemeadow
©2024 Roy Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow. Photo by Marina Bromley. Used with permission, all rights reserved.
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