Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
I hope you all had a great weekend. I have been in the woods attempting to harvest some elk. The operative word at the moment is “hunting” because I haven’t had any success yet. I am enjoying my time in the outdoors alone. I have had good days and good sleeps so far. Maybe I will find the blessing of harvest today. In any case, it is a good day to connect with God.
What does it mean to inherit the kingdom of God? I believe that there is a realm of the kingdom of God beyond this life as we know it, but I also believe that the kingdom of God is now. I believe that the kingdom of God is inside of us. Our lives are not determined by what is going on around us, but upon what is going on inside of us. Our worlds should be defined by the kingdom of God that is within us. Our internal relationship with God should shape our world; our world should not shape our relationship with God.
Jesus told us to seek first the kingdom of God and not to seek our own needs or desires. Our Father in heaven knows our needs and our desires and He wants to care for us as a good Father. Life is not about merely getting our needs met or fulfilling our desires. Life is about a personal connection to God in our hearts. Life is about being one with God in heaven so we can be heavenly expressions of God in our world. Life is about a partnership with God in all things that enables us to fulfill God’s purpose in all things. This is the kingdom of God. The apostle Paul said it was righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:17 …for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Righteousness in the Holy Spirit is an internal righteousness. It is a dependency upon God. It is a right relationship with God in our hearts that inspires our minds to think as He thinks. We cannot live our lives as self-seekers and think as God thinks. God is a giver and not a taker. He doesn’t need anything. He gives life, breath, and all things. His focus is outward, and our focus must be as His; a focus of giving life to our world.
We cannot live our lives with being right as our Lord. When being right is our Lord we use what we believe to be right to destroy those that we deem to be wrong. In a justice system of right and wrong it is unjust for an innocent man to die for the guilty. In a justice system of love, it is totally right for an innocent man to die for the guilty. This is what Jesus did for us. The administrations of the world are administrations of a knowledge, or even a perceived knowledge, of good and evil. The administration of the kingdom of God is one of eternal life, an intimate knowing of God as our Father and Jesus the Son. When we embrace the administration of the world in our hearts and minds, we cannot inherit the righteousness of God that is a righteousness of true life and love. The same is true for peace. The kingdom of God is a place of peace in the Holy Spirit. The world’s definition peace is the absence of conflict. True peace is not the absence of conflict. It is a place of no gap or separation from God in every situation of our lives. We are joined to God in heaven, so a heavenly testimony is the only possibility in the outcomes of our lives. He is the word, but we are expressions of Him in and through the testimonies of our lives. If we look to our present circumstances, we will only have peace when there is no conflict. But when we partake of the inheritance of the kingdom of God, we can have peace that surpasses our understanding. The world has peace when everything appears to be right, but we can always have peace because the life of Christ within us will become the testimony we are clothed in on our path of moving forward in life. The kingdom of God is also a matter of joy in the Holy Spirit. Joy is not self-happiness. It is the zeal of true purpose. It is only in the presence of the Lord that we can find the fullness of joy. It is a matter of partnership with God in His purpose in all things. Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. That joy was the fruit of the cross, not an escape from the cross. That fruit was that one seed would become countless seeds of sons and daughters of God in partnership with their heavenly Father in the purpose of eternal life in the earth. The world defines joy as the fulfillment of personal visions and dreams, but true joy is only found in a partnership with God in all things. We cannot live for ourselves and avoid an all-in partnership with God and find the true inheritance of joy. When we open the doors of our hearts to the manifest presence of God in every aspect of our lives, we find ourselves eating, drinking, and partnering with God in all things to reign in life. This is where we find joy in the Holy Spirit.
We can be assured that we are walking in the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven when we find the fruit of His Spirit manifesting in the attitudes, actions, and atmosphere of our lives. These are not realities we find from the outside in. They are the fruit that comes from the inside out.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
We cannot do love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control. These are not disciplines of the flesh. They are the fruit of the Spirit of God living in our hearts and working in our hearts and minds in all things. When we seek first the kingdom of God, we can see the evidence in the fruit of our lives. Let us all be sons of daughters of God who live to know what it is to be partakers of the inheritance of the kingdom of God. It is a righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is internally knowing a right relationship with God in our hearts that inspires us to confess that He is our God. It is internally knowing a divine connection of peace with God in heaven that empowers us to wear the heavenly testimony of sons and daughters of God that overcome the wicked one in all things. It is an internal partnership with God in all things that empowers us to know the joy of His purpose in and through our lives at all times. It is a kingdom inside of us that causes the external expressions of our kingdoms to become expressions of life. By this we will know that the kingdoms of this world have become kingdoms of our Lord and Christ.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:
Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:
House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225
To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.
Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
