Jesus made the following statement while He was on the Earth, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Now I think that anytime you see Jesus say something, then it probably is something that we should take note of. But I think this statement gets caught up in the religiosity of the Christian community and takes on something other than what Jesus perhaps meant. Here is what I mean, Jesus says, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." and we hear, "Everything you will ever need you will have in Heaven." You've heard it said, and maybe even said it yourself to friends, family members and co-workers that are not born again, "Don't you want to get saved so you can go to Heaven?" (And yes, I too have used that lame line to try and win someone to the Lord. Father forgive me for misrepresenting You in that way.)
Yes I believe that if you die, and have been born again you will go to Heaven, but I don't believe for a minute anymore that that is the end all of what Jesus purchased for us with His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Everything that Jesus did, He did for us here on Earth. He came to return us to the original design. (That would be Adam & Eve in the Garden with a personal relationship with God the Father.) Yet, we cheapen it for so many people when all we try and do is get them saved without telling them what the real purpose is for that.
We were designed to have fellowship with the Father, Son & Holy Spirit, that is God's original idea. But because of the sin of Adam and Eve we fell, and that relationship was cut off. God sent Jesus to die for us, in our place, for the punishment of that sin so that we could return to the fellowship that God had desired in the first place. But until we actually accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we cannot be a part of that.
Look at Luke 4:17 -1 9: And there was delivered to Jesus the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And then He sat down and said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears."
Jesus told the people there that this is why He had come, to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. We have everything that we need right now, are you poor, the Kingdom can make you rich; are you brokenhearted? Jesus was sent to heal your broken heart. Are you bound, then deliverance is yours. Can you not see (Either for real or spiritually?), then you can recover your sight. He has brought us liberty, and the year of jubilee, which when it happened meant you get all your stuff back! Hallelujah! That's good news.
So this whole thing is for the here and now, not in the by and by. We can have all of our needs met, whatever they are in the here and now, if we will just believe and act in faith. I don't know about you, but that makes me want to do a little happy dance. (Something I took time to do just now.) I am getting excited about my future, it is a bright one, and I will be operating in the Kingdom of God today, not when I get to Heaven, how about you?
Get 'em up folks, let's go out and whip something for the Kingdom of God today!
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