Royree Jensen preaches on the Kingdom of God as an inward reality to be lived from, not observed from the outside
A sermon delivered at Rivers Apostolic Centre by Royree Jensen on the Kingdom of God dwelling within believers.
Summary
Royree Jensen delivers a sermon prompted by a question from a congregation member — a young mother overwhelmed by busyness who asked where the power of the kingdom is in everyday life, and what distinguishes kingdom reality from the ordinary world. Jensen argues that the Kingdom of God is not a place believers go to but a reality they carry within them and live out of, grounded in Luke 17 where Jesus tells the Pharisees the kingdom is within you. She traces this theme from Jesus's first words after the wilderness, through the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer, to the 40 days of post-resurrection teaching, arguing that Jesus consistently prioritised the inward kingdom above its external manifestations. Jensen also emphasises repentance as an essential prerequisite for entering the kingdom, drawing on John 7:37 and John 6:63 to underline that the Spirit's flow originates from genuine belief rooted in repentance. She briefly reflects on the Road to Emmaus and Jesus appearing in the locked room, suggesting that his post-resurrection appearances manifested out of the disciples themselves as a picture of the kingdom within. The practical application Jensen offers is the discipline of practising the presence of God — not through extended religious observance alone, but through a cultivated habit of moment-by-moment awareness of God in ordinary life, drawing on the example of Brother Lawrence. Jensen concludes that the external manifestations of the kingdom — healing, gifts of the Spirit, signs and wonders — flow naturally from this inward reality once it is nurtured.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Opening Worship and Introduction
Royree Jensen: Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. You love the Lord — is he worthy? Really, what's he worthy of in your life? Have you ever emptied your bank account and given it to him? We're not taking up an offering, so be relaxed. Just asking. Have you ever tried that? I remember the time I had not long been baptised in the Holy Spirit and it was so ridiculously radical. I took everything out of our bank account — I think it was our bank account, Dave, but anyway. It had five hundred dollars in it, which I know is nothing now, but however many decades ago it was a lot of money. That was all we had. And we did it into revival. So that scene's still out there somewhere, because some of those songs got on me — "He's worthy of it all." Oh, really? Really?
Now, I'm not saying you go and do that because you need to pay bills and look after your family. That's not meant to be a pressure point. It's just that when we say these things, in what way can we express that he's worthy of it all? What is it that we would withhold? It may not be finances, of course, because this church is exceptionally generous. But when he's Lord — that's a scary thought.
Well, having said all that, good morning. Last Sunday I was chatting with someone here and they said to me, "When are you preaching?" I said, "As a matter of fact, I'm preaching next week." And they said, "What are you preaching on?" And I said, "I don't know." Sometimes I know a long time in advance because something's been brewing and you're damming it up to spit it all out over everybody. And other times you hope to God something comes before Saturday night. Just being really honest with you. So when I said I wasn't sure yet, I asked, "Are you requesting something?" And it was a bit of a squirm, but through the week I got a text from that person.
They were saying this: that a lot of busy people — in particular mums, young mums — are often overwhelmed with busyness. I get that. You've got kids, you've got a job, you come home, you get the dinner ready, you oversee the homework, you crash into bed only to get up again and get the kids off to school and yourself off to work. And it's not that the blokes don't do that — you do — but you don't do it quite as well, I might say. I don't care. Hallelujah. Bless the men. I love the men.
The Question That Prompted This Message
So when I got this text, it was about young mums being overwhelmed with busyness and not being able to distinguish in the day-to-day between this world and kingdom reality. Where's the power? That was the question. Where's the power, and what's the difference between this world and kingdom reality? And I thought, well, that's a good question. We all think we know the answer, but if we had to articulate it, it's not quite so easy. As I looked at it through the week, I realised this is such a massive subject it could take months to handle. So we're going to jam it into one day, and I promise you'll get out of here on time. 11:30 is the aim. Let's see how we go.
And it's not just the young mums — as I said, it's probably most of us who want to understand more about the kingdom. It's a nicely vague thing. It means something about religion and church and maybe healing the sick and raising the dead, but we don't see a lot of raising the dead, mind you. They don't bring us many dead to raise. But we need to know that what Jesus magnified the most in his ministry was talking about the kingdom.
The Kingdom Is Not What We've Reduced It To
The kingdom is not just healing and deliverance and prosperity, though I believe these are the external manifestations of the kingdom, and we love them. Don't you love it when your foot gets healed? Don't you love it when you get delivered? We love the external expressions of the kingdom, the manifestations. But I want to talk about the kingdom as being different from the everyday world around us from a different aspect. Is that okay? So there'll be a little bit of theology in here, but I know theology is painful, so I've kept that bit short.
Sometimes we want to activate the externals of the kingdom — the spectacular manifestations. We want to activate them. But we want to do it sometimes before we actually allow the yeast to permeate the dough inside us. By dough, I mean dough like dough — not do-re-mi, but the bread-making kind. There's a scripture, Matthew 13:33. It says this: "He told them still another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked its way through all the dough."
The kingdom is like yeast that causes an expansion working from the inside. Working from the inside. I'm going to say that again — working from the inside.
The Kingdom of God Is Within You
Jesus told the Pharisees who asked when the kingdom would come, "When's the kingdom coming, Jesus?" And he said, "The kingdom of God is within you." Like the yeast in the dough, the kingdom of God is within you. That's in Luke 17 for all of those of you who are taking notes to write a book.
The kingdom is not a place you go to. When you come to church, you're not coming to the kingdom — you're bringing it. The kingdom is not a place you go to. It's a place you live out of. Now, I know that you know this, but you don't know this. You know it up here. You have given mental assent to it because you've heard it. But we actually mostly don't live like the kingdom of God is within us and we've got yeast going through the bread of our life.
It's not a place that you go to. It's a place you live out of. Jesus said, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation." He said it doesn't come with your careful observation. "Nor will people say, here it is, or there it is." This is Jesus talking, not me. Then he goes on in Luke 17 to say, "No, it's not here, it's not there — it's within you." That has to be the starting point if we want to know about the kingdom.
The fact and the reality and the understanding that the kingdom of God is within you — that has to be the starting point. And that's a massive statement. We do not go around thinking, "I'm carrying the kingdom." We want to come to church because now we can sort of hope that somebody manifests the kingdom and somebody gets healed. It's a massive statement because it does not compute with our natural thinking.
The Word as Spirit and Life
Here's a truth of the kingdom: as I speak, you should be getting it. That's a part of the kingdom. Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are truth." So as the word goes out, the kingdom is moving around and activating the yeast in you. "The words that I speak unto you are truth and they are life. They are spirit." So open up your heart.
One of the things I've spoken about before is that we have a habit of bringing people down the front to respond to the word, which is a good thing. But sometimes we can get into the habit of not actually hearing the word as it's being spoken, and you miss the rhema. You need to hear the word as it's being spoken because as it's being spoken out, that's where the power is to shift you. And by all means, if an appeal is made that you come and get prayer for whatever, I'm all for that. But don't think, "Oh well, I'll respond later, somebody will pray over me." Grab it while it's coming out of the oven of whoever's belly it's coming out of, while it's fresh and the rhema — the actual activating powerful word of God — is on it.
The Mustard Seed, the Hidden Treasure, and the Ever-Expanding Kingdom
It's the mustard seed that begins almost invisibly but becomes all-consuming. I've got a mustard seed in front of this Bible and you've got to look hard to see it. It's the mustard seed that begins almost invisibly but becomes all-consuming and ends up the biggest tree in the garden. What are you growing? What is the kingdom of God sprouting out of you?
It's the hidden treasure in the field — the hidden treasure in the field which a man found. Then he goes and sells all that he has to buy that field. And in his joy, it says, in his joy he sells everything and buys that field. He pays the price. The kingdom of God is an ever-increasing, ever-expanding kingdom, because "to the increase of his government there shall be no end." This is not a shrivelled-up little nothing. This is an amazing, eternal, unfathomable reality. You are carrying the kingdom inside of you.
Jesus's Ministry Begins and Ends with the Kingdom
Jesus started his ministry speaking about the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God in the New Testament — those expressions are interchangeable. The kingdom of heaven is mostly in Matthew because when Matthew wrote, he was writing to the Jewish people and he didn't want to overuse God's name, so he said "the kingdom of heaven," whereas Mark and Luke used "the kingdom of God," writing to different people. But they are the same spiritual reality, the same divine sovereignty. They're the same thing and they've got the same boss.
So Jesus's ministry starts off with the kingdom. He comes out of the wilderness after 40 days fighting with the devil — and I think he was fighting, though I don't think there was any contest for the devil. He comes out of the wilderness and the first thing he says is, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." After 40 days, first words: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." And you can't get into the kingdom if you don't repent — but I'm not going there today. Then it says he goes throughout Galilee, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing the sick.
The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount
Now we go into chapter 5 of Matthew and he preaches his first full-on sermon. It's called the Beatitudes — the Blessed Attitudes. He preaches that, and what does he say? What's the first thing he says when he starts to preach? "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." We could describe the poor in spirit as talking about the humble, those who are bankrupt over their sin. "Blessed are you" — his first public message was, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." You can read that in Matthew chapter 5.
That Sermon on the Mount was full of spiritual ethics — and the foundation of the kingdom. That whole preach wasn't just the beatitudes. It goes on into the next few chapters and he expands the ethics of the kingdom. He talks about treasure in heaven, he talks about do not worry, he talks about not judging others. This is all in the same sermon. He tells us to ask, seek, and knock. These are principles of the kingdom. They're all part of the principles that we've got to have inside us first. I'm not saying he will not manifest externally without them, but our first concern must be that the kingdom is within us if we want to understand how we are different, or how our outworking of the kingdom is different between the normal pace of life and the normal activities of the world and belonging to God.
The Lord's Prayer and the Priority of the Kingdom
And for the first time, when he taught his disciples to pray, he said, "Pray like this: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be your name — thy kingdom come." First thing. First request. How many of us make it our priority in prayer to say, "Lord, let your kingdom come in me. Give me understanding and revelation about your kingdom within me"? Because I think when we do that, we're going to see more of the external workings as it flows out of us.
God is gracious and merciful. I could be having the world's worst day and having a fight with Dave — not that we do that anymore, we're well past that, hallelujah — but it can be a bad day and you can still lay hands on the sick and they get healed and you think, how did that work? Well, God's not giving you ticks and crosses. There are principles that are operating and flowing in and out. But we forget about the kingdom within us.
He says, "Let your kingdom come." And then he finishes that prayer — he tells them how to finish it: "For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever." He starts with the kingdom. He finishes with the kingdom. His first sermon is all about kingdom principles. And we have reduced the kingdom to what we can see externally. And when we can't see it — because it's not here or there — it's on the inside of you.
Acts Chapter 1: 40 Days After the Resurrection
Acts chapter 1. Luke is writing and he says, "Oh, Theophilus" — we don't know whether that's a person or whatever, it doesn't matter. But he's writing after Jesus has risen from the dead. And it says in the third verse of Acts chapter 1: "He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and he spoke to them about the kingdom of God." 40 days after the resurrection, Jesus is still on earth — there's another 10 days when they're going to wait in the upper room, 50 days for Pentecost — but Jesus spent 40 of them after his resurrection, and what's he talking about? The kingdom. The kingdom. The kingdom.
We've got to understand the kingdom, because out of that will come the things that we desire to see. But first and foremost, it's within you. And that doesn't mean you've got to get religious. The biggest antidote to the kingdom is religion. The biggest antidote to the kingdom is a whole set of rules and a religious mindset. The only people that Jesus really rebuked were the religious ones. Think about that. That's scary. I'm not talking religion here. I'm talking about something on the inside of you that's called the kingdom.
So he appears to them over 40 days and he speaks the kingdom. If he starts his ministry with the kingdom and finishes it on earth with 40 days on the kingdom, Jesus has got a thing about the kingdom. That's because he's the king of the kingdom.
God Always Starts from the Inside
We look for those externals, and when they do not manifest — or if they do and we can't see them, because you have to have the eyes of faith — we decide there is no real difference between what we observe of the kingdom and what we see of this world.
God always starts from the inside. If you look at the Old Testament and how the things in the temple were arranged, he moved from the inside out. The first thing he starts to talk about and wants attention on is the ark of the covenant, which is going to be in the innermost part. And he starts talking about that. Then he shares about the other stuff — the table, the lampstand, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offerings, the basin, the courtyard, and so forth. But he starts in the middle. He always starts there.
And when we're going through tough times, he's after something in the middle. I often say to him, "Can't you go pick on somebody else? Surely there are others with problems or faults." Oh no — he's after yours, because he's working on the kingdom that's inside of you. The kingdom. So it always starts on the inside, and the kingdom does not come by observation. It's within you. You are it. If you are born again, you're it.
Born Again and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
John chapter 3, I think it's verse 3: "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." So you've got to get born again first. But often we go to sleep right there. We got born again — that's it, that's all folks. No. He goes on: "You hear the wind, it blows this way and that, and so is everyone that is born of the Spirit." It's a mystery. You hear a sound, you pick up something in the spirit. You don't know where it comes from and where it's going. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
"This word is being fulfilled in your ears" — Jesus said that when he was speaking. So now it's being fulfilled in your ears. Are you getting it? It's called the rhema that comes out. The Spirit's hovering and drops it into you.
So you can't enter into this kingdom unless you're born again. But you can just enter it and then live the rest of your life with no difference between you and the world. You're born again, you're saved, you're going to go to heaven — that's the main thing. Well, I don't know. You've got a lot of time on earth. You might as well make the most of it.
Let me just shift a little bit and say the Holy Spirit is the administration of the spirit world. Jesus went to heaven — the ascension. After 40 days preaching about the kingdom, he's in heaven. And it's the Holy Spirit who is the administrator of the spirit world. The most powerful entity on earth is the Holy Spirit. It's not the American government. It's not Elon Musk. No. What you're carrying is the most powerful entity on the earth. When you're born again of the Spirit, you are enfolded into the kingdom. Christ in you — the hope of glory.
Now let me condense this as best I can. Two major truths, put into simple language. When we are born again, we receive Christ through the Holy Spirit. You have been birthed into a new kingdom. Then what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? The baptism of the Holy Spirit is that release of what has been put into you, so that it can flow out of you. You want to express what's in you. I remember the first time I raised my hands in worship in this church. What is in you needs to be released out of you. And it's the baptism of the Holy Spirit that comes upon you and in you. You have an outflow from the input.
So you need to get baptised in the Holy Spirit. And the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not just a tongue — I just wanted to clarify that for you today. It's not just a tongue. You get a person. You get the person of the Holy Spirit in his fullness. You don't just get a prophecy. Yes, you can do these things, but that's not the essence of the Holy Spirit. You get the release of what has been in you.
And when you find it hard to actually express something — whether to raise your hands in church, whether to prophesy, whether to speak in tongues, or you don't know what that dream means because you haven't got a gift of interpretation — you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I'm talking about the kingdom still. The baptism of the Holy Spirit should so change you, you'll never be the same again. You will never be the same again.
Some of us are so religious and we've been sitting in churches all our lives and there's nothing flowing. But you've got to carry it, and it's not just a Sunday morning thing where you come and get your little shot along. No. This is for you when you're going off to sleep at night. This is for you when you're eating your cornflakes. This is forever and ever.
Streams of Living Water — John 7
John 7:37 — my favourite. I keep saying they're all my favourite. They are. "On the last and great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture says, streams of living water will flow from within him.'" Will flow from within him. Now listen to this: "By this he meant the Spirit, of whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that point the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."
So you come to Jesus and you believe on him because you repented. You actually don't have the capacity to believe before you repent. And often when we just get people to have a light fluff with Jesus and say, "Now you're born again" — no. You sinner, you should repent. That's what you should do, because you don't have the capacity to believe. And we skip that because repentance is not popular. But without it — the message of Pentecost was: repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive the Holy Spirit.
So we come to Jesus in repentance like he said. "Repent, for the kingdom" — there's the kingdom. So you've got to repent to get into the thing. If you haven't repented, you should start there.
And that Spirit he spoke of — because Jesus said, "You can't have that stuff yet" — he goes on to explain. "This he spoke concerning the Spirit, because it had to wait until Jesus was glorified." Glorified means the Father went, "Good on you. Done good. Perfect job. Amazing. I will fulfil my promise of the Holy Ghost and pour out the Holy Ghost." Anyway, that's the RJ version. It's the flow from Christ in you, and it's the manifesting of the kingdom where the King reigns from within you.
So What? The Practical Question
Next time you're having an argument with your spouse, you could just say, "How's the kingdom manifesting from within you?" And that will extend the argument further because they will say, "Well, how does it be within you?"
So the busy mum says, "So what? I know all that. What's the good of knowing all that? Is that not just doctrine?" No — only if you let it be doctrine. It's doctrine, teaching, rules, regulation, if you let it be. But if it gets into you, it changes you. And most young mums — I get it — you're so busy you don't even know what you're having for dinner tonight, let alone worrying about a kingdom flowing out of you. So you go to the freezer and you grab some old sausages with a years-by date on them and you chuck them and you go, "Oh God, what's all this about the kingdom?" It actually matters. It's not about the sausages — it's about the kingdom.
So you know these things, but it's not just about knowing. It's not just about a knowing in your knower. Because the Pharisees were very knowledgeable and Jesus stood in the midst of them and they did not recognise him. What a bunch of drongos. It's what you recognise of his presence.
Jesus said, "My words are spirit, and they are life." And you can only get what I'm saying today by the power of the Spirit. And that will bring life to you.
John 6:63 — The Spirit Gives Life
John 6:63: "The Spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." He was explaining spiritual principles to them and they got so upset — if you read the previous bits in that chapter, they got so upset that they all left him, because he was speaking things that their mind could not catch. He was speaking spirit and life.
We don't do much in the Spirit. We don't know much about the Spirit. We think we do. I challenge you to ask the Lord to shift your focus into the kingdom of God within you and give you revelation about the Spirit realm.
Their mind couldn't grasp it. They got cranky with him and they left him, to the point where Jesus says to his disciples, "Are you going to go too?" Because the crowds left him. And Peter goes, "Oh, this is a hard saying. We don't get this." And Jesus said, "So are you guys going to go?" And Peter says, "Well, we don't know where to go. We don't know who to go to. We kind of would if we could, but we can't, so we're going to stay. To whom shall we go? Because you have the word — the words of eternal life."
The Simplest Form: Practise the Presence of God
So the busy person says, "I haven't got time or energy or even inclination to unravel all of that." I just did it for you. That saved you a bit of time. So can I just take you back to the simplest form?
Talking about the kingdom of God within you as being eternal — distinct from, but not opposed to, the manifestations of the Spirit. The kingdom of God within you. Here's how you stimulate it. That seed, that yeast — there's your key: practise the presence of God. "Well, I'm too busy." Remember the sausage thingy? Got to get the kids to school and I'm late for work. Practise the presence of God. And not because you have to be on your knees all day. But since he is in you, he is a part of everything that you do and everywhere that you go.
I love the New Guineans. Wherever you go or wherever you stay, the Holy Spirit will be with you. He will walk about with you. Because he can't help it — you are carrying him. He's on the inside. So everywhere you go.
So there is a habit to be formed. I do it well for a while and then I fall off the wagon. There's a habit that's formed that causes the mustard seed to take root — a habit that causes the mustard seed to spring forth, that causes you to find the treasure within, that causes you to flow, that takes away the confusion and the guilt of not doing enough for God or being enough for God. That's not the kingdom. That's the enemy attacking your brain. But there's a habit you can get into.
Brother Lawrence and the Practice of the Presence
Practise the presence of God. Now you say, "Well, that's going to be hard work." No — it's a habit, and it works for you, and you become very conscious of the kingdom of God within you. Brother Lawrence — how many of you have ever read his books? Brother Lawrence was the master of practising the presence of God. But for many years he lived in the vague blah of not really feeling God and feeling he was failing and all this stuff. And the presence of God seemed to be nowhere near him. But he has this thing where he starts to acknowledge God when you're putting the kids in the car, when you're driving down the road, when you're picking your cornflakes up, whatever. It's not like getting religious. It's just, "Thank you, God." It's just a moment in God. It's not only at church.
Brother Lawrence was employed to wash dishes — that's pretty mindless work, so maybe he was a lucky duck — but he was employed to wash dishes at his place of work. And when doing the dishes, he said God was as great as when he was on his knees at the blessed sacraments. He said, "I possessed God in as great a tranquility as if I were on my knees at the blessed sacraments" — and he's washing dishes. That's the kingdom. That's the kingdom within.
Cultivate a culture in yourself that you are in the presence and mindful of the God within, in the ordinary circumstances of life. Start there. It's a habit. Whether you're washing dishes, mowing the lawn, driving the car, putting out the rubbish bins, watering the garden, clothing the baby, or doing the shopping — practise the presence. And it doesn't mean you can't be normal and talk to people. You're not an idiot. You don't have to say to somebody in the supermarket who talks to you, "Oh, I was just giving thanks to God for the cornflakes." Don't be stupid. It's just going to keep flowing. And because you've been mindful of God, something's going to flow out to that person. This is how it works.
That's why God says "within you." It's not over there. It's not in the cornflakes. It's wherever you are. Practise the presence of God. Think about him. Sing to him. Meditate on him. How many of you sing in your own home? It's great. When I used to do that, my kids used to say... okay. Practise the presence of God. Meditate — just means chew the cud. Mull on stuff. We have been made to feel guilty about multitasking, but God knows you've got stuff to do.
You will become so aware of God's presence that then you want to put aside some time to focus on him alone. And you'll find the righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost — and that's the kingdom of God: righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And out of you flows — because now you're primed. Not because you spent three hours a day praying in tongues. I think we should do that from time to time. I think we should have those times when we put it aside and we're just going to get down with God. We should. But it's not, "Oh, I've got to keep putting it off until I've got time to do that." No — do it now. And the flow will come.
The External Evidence Flows from the Internal Reality
Out of you will flow the external evidence of the kingdom, and you will see the difference. The external evidence of the kingdom — because the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness. And the gifts of the Spirit: tongues and prophecies and interpretations and words of wisdom. And then the manifestations of the Spirit will come, and signs and wonders will follow. But it starts with you.
We want to come waltzing in and see God do his thing. How do you think he's going to do it? It's coming out of you. Coming out of your worship. Why do you think people might get healed in worship? Because they were standing next to you. Not because they were watching whoever was doing their thing up there. It's because they were standing next to you.
The Road to Emmaus and the Locked Room
The two on the road to Emmaus — they go back and Jesus in a locked room comes and stands in the midst of them. Does he walk through the door? Does he walk through the wall? It says in the Gospel of John the doors were locked, but yet he came in. And they were testifying of what had happened to them that afternoon as he walked with them on the way and taught them all things from the Old Testament concerning himself. They're telling the story. How do you think he got into it? He manifested out of them. He manifested out of them. And can he come through a wall? Of course he can.
So don't condemn yourself for what you are not seeing or feeling. Don't condemn yourself. Allow yourself to intuitively know his presence around about you. Allow yourself to intuitively know his presence around about you and flowing from you — for intuition is of the Spirit. Intuitive people are functioning in the Spirit. That's what's happening. Get intuitive and you will flow in the Spirit.
If You Can Worry, You Can Meditate
So if you can worry while you are doing things — if you can worry — you can actually meditate on God while you're doing things. Just a different kingdom, that's all. Kingdom of darkness, okay? So if you can do that while you're doing whatever else you're doing, you can also meditate on God while you're doing whatever else you are doing. That's the kingdom.
It's a tiny sliver of the kingdom, because as I prepared this, I'm thinking this is only touching the surface. It does take practice, but the kingdom of God is within you, so you might as well cooperate with it if you want to see the difference between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God.
Closing Prayer
Father, I pray in the name of the King of the Kingdom, in the name of Jesus, that you would teach us about the kingdom of God within us. Thank you for the yeast in me. Lord, thank you for the mustard seed that dropped into me. Thank you for the ways of the Spirit that caused the flow of the work of Jesus that got on the inside of me to flow out from me. Thank you for your word that explains these things so amazingly to us. And I pray that each and everyone in this room will hunger and thirst. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness" — blessed are you if you hunger and you thirst after righteousness, for you shall be filled. Amen.
You don't need to come down unless you need to get born again into the kingdom of God, because you've heard the word. And now if you don't activate it, that's your problem. So let's activate the kingdom within. It's not hard. Just stop for a minute.
I go off to sleep most nights — because I don't go off to sleep easy, Dave's head hits the pillow and he's dead, that's it, me I toss and turn — and I put myself in the lions' den with Daniel. You too can be a lion tamer like Daniel was. And in doing that, you are chewing your cud. You are meditating upon the word. And it's in the little things. And then it will just grow and expand like a tree. And before you know it, the person in front of you in the queue at the checkouts is turning around asking you questions, because you're carrying something that she cannot resist.