The Kingdom Of God Is Within You: Is the Kingdom of God something in Heaven? Is it a tyrannical government to be forced on the people who are found following God's Law when Jesus returns to earth? Not according to Jesus: "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation:  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21 KJV) If the Kingdom of God is within us, how did it get there? God said to Jeremiah: "...After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:33-34) No man can teach us about God. Since Jesus was crucified, the Law of God has been written on our hearts and inward parts, the Law of the Kingdom of God. "Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40 KJV) Here is the detailed version of the Law of God: Following the first four Commandments with our heart results in keeping our hearts aligned with God, while following the last six Commandments with our heart keep our hearts aligned with the needs of our fellow created beings. These laws work both ways, healing us and healing our iniquity. The Ten Commandments and love for our neighbor have been built into us by God, and these are the Laws of His Spirit within us, the Kingdom of God within us. We fail when we lose the connection between His Law and our heart. Even though we know God's Law, if we don't allow our heart to act on that knowledge, we become dead in the Law. "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the Perfect Law of Liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." (James 1:23-25 KJV) God's Law is Love, not wicked accusatory thoughts and words. Thus if we keep His Commandments, but our hearts do not show the love of God, we may as well not keep the Commandments at all. But it is impossible for us to keep the Law as we are now, as proven throughout the Old Testament. To keep the Law perfectly we have to ask for that ability, and we will not receive the ability until God gives it to us. We cannot achieve perfection ourselves - we can only acknowledge the impossibility of trying! Jesus died so that we could find this out for ourselves through experience. Today we have enough experience - but do we still have faith in Jesus?   How do we keep our hearts alive with the Spirit of God's Law? By believing in Jesus and following Him. We may sin but by following Jesus without the guilt of sin our Spirit will grow stronger and stronger until He returns. By allowing each of God's creations to exercise individual responsibility. Wickedness begins when we judge the relationship that others have with God - something we have no right to do. Knowledge of the life and love of Jesus Christ gives each of His followers enormous insight into the wonderful spiritual results of keeping God's Law with our hearts... Jesus gave us examples and exhortations, promises and love that we can turn to when we're unsure of our dedication to God's Law. No human on earth has the right to judge good from evil for another, for doing so is at the root of iniquity itself. Only God may judge others, for men to do so always leads to vain feelings of superiority, pride, and bigotry of ego.   Since none of us is perfect, how do we avoid the endless iniquity resulting from self-righteousness? Our natural tendency to self-righteousness is responsible for nearly all sin, racism, and crime under human governments. We must begin to address the Truth. Until Jesus comes, here on earth we keep the Law to the best of our abilities in through faith in Jesus, and most importantly, by following His example. The result: "...The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." (Matthew 13:31-32 KJV) But we must DO it! We must be strong the joy and faith of Jesus as we live our lives as sinners. Just as the apostles and their followers did, because they "loved not their lives unto the death". They made the sacrifices, cared for the poor, the fatherless, the widows, the prisoners, and the oppressed. They avoided idols. The cared for the stranger and did not pay or receive interest. These things are the greater part of the Law and righteousness to begin with. "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. "Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." (Matthew 25:31-45 KJV) These are the people God loves, along with us. We must stop teaching the Kingdom of Heaven with words from behind the walls of our fenced cities, and begin living the Kingdom of Heaven as witnesses of Jesus' One True Government. He has been our King for nearly 2000 years, let us show Him we are ready for His return and sing together: "Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!"