The latter part of Jesus' statement is sometimes translated 'the Kingdom of God is within you', and I had this phrase running through my mind all morning. When I looked it up (on my phone in a work meeting!) to see where it was from I realised that the passage goes beyond emphasising that the Kingdom means the Presence of the King, or that Jesus and the Father make their home in me (John 14:23, and something I've been dwelling on recently). It also describes some of the dynamics of the way God is working in the UK at the moment. Let me explain what I mean...
Every so often I'm reminded that I only observe a small part of what God is doing - I see what He does in my life and those of my friends, my Home Group, our Church. It's easy to become bogged down in these day to day battles (and victories :-), but every once in a while I feel privileged to gain a wider perspective, catch a glimpse of the national or global or even universal strategy that our Father is working out, and which we are each a part of. This is super-encouraging because there is a lot going on, but a lot of it is below the radar...
It's not being picked up by the people the BBC employs as 'horizon scanners', and there are no leading articles in the Times; what's happening in one place is not even being noticed by other parts of God's Church because it's not centred around inspirational individuals or one particular Church movement. There is no 'one big thing', or single conference or Church group where everything is happening. Whereas in the past, moves of God have often seemed to revolve largely around a very small group of anointed individuals (who often set up a new denomination or group) I'm convinced that this is not the case with what God is doing in the UK at the moment.
Instead of this old pattern, it seems to me that the Kingdom is coming in power across all the denominations, new and old, with loads of inspirational individuals catching the fire and local Churches coming alive, seeing people healed and transformed in their communities. The stories are exciting, but they're below the radar, only God has the complete picture. And He can show it to us when we ask. This isn't so much a revival as something even better - a widespread breaking through of the Kingdom. There are inspirational people and movements out there to learn from, it's just that (perhaps in contrast to the past) there are a great many of them, few of them famous but all of them moving powerfully in the Spirit.
If we watch with human eyes for the next 'big thing' or 'anointed individual' we may miss out. The Pharisees that Jesus was speaking to were very keen on putting God in a box. We need to make sure that we don't put God in the box described by previous moves of the Spirit; He is always bigger than we think. Let's ask God to point out what He's doing below the radar all around us so that we can join in.
And this takes me right back to the verse at the beginning of this post: 'the Kingdom of God is within you'. Jesus said He only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19 and elsewhere). If we want to do the same works that He did (or 'even greater things') as He promises his believers will (John 14:12) then we too need to see what the Father is doing. How can we do this? We can do this because He is within us. We tune in to Him moment by moment and live out His life, the same life that Jesus lived out 2000 years ago. Easy to say, but hard to do moment by moment. God can show us how, and who to learn from.
So let's keep our spiritual eyes open - the Kingdom of God is closer than you think - it is right in your midst.
