Establishing the Kingdom of God

UV 1005/ 10,000 Establishing the Kingdom of God “Praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being, praise His holy Name.” Psalm 103 v 1 Praise is the deepest appreciation we can offer to God, first, for being our wonderful Creator and second, for being an even more awesome Redeemer. Praise is the rejoicing of our inward parts to resonate with the heart of our God and our Redeemer. When this kind of spiritual resonance occurs, chains and bondage break. What we see of ourselves is only the hardware part. The soul is the invisible part or the better half of our being. Initially, we need to consciously direct our souls or our deepest being to praise God but over time it will become a natural flow. As one writer put it, “ Regardless of what lies outside us, what lies inside is far greater.” Our inmost being consists of thoughts, emotions, hopes, dreams, desires, plans, goals, ambitions, memories, expressions, self talk, insight, knowledge, wisdom, decisions, visions, prayer, will power, conscience, energy, strength, stamina, qualities of our character and psyche … We need to praise God with our thoughts, emotions and self talk. We need to praise God for our hopes, dreams, ambitions. We need to praise God for our memories. We need to praise God for His knowledge, wisdom and insight. We need to praise God for decisions, plans, goals and the power He has given us to execute and realize these. We need to praise God for the inner compass of the conscience that guides us. We need to praise God for all our inner organs and the health and healing of these organs. All these together constitute the inner temple of God where He expects continual worship and thanksgiving. It is the sanctum sanctorum of our being. The plans and outlines given in the scripture for the construction of the Tabernacle is actually a metaphor and templates for living temples. The outer courtyard where we wash our feet before entering the precincts of the temple are a reference to our inner repentance and confession. The inner tabernacle is the soul of a man surrendered to God. The altar is the place where we place our thanksgiving and offering of sacrifice of our attention, time, talent and resources. We think, speak, do and move in His awesome Name, for the greatness of His Name and with the greatness of His attributes. The greatness of His Name is the sole focus of all of our inner being. The more we attribute greatness to His Name, the more it will manifest in our outer lives and the more our inner being has both occasion and cause to offer praise. Jesus said, “ The kingdom of God lies within you and amongst you.” We need to discern the inner kingdom that lies within us. We need to discern and understand the kingdom that lies within others around us. Is it a kingdom that acknowledges God as Creator and Redeemer? Then we will be well governed. In the absence of God ruling over our inner being, we will be ruled by our blinded egos and it will be anarchic. In the presence of God, where He is given His due place, the hierarchy that is established is orderly, peaceful and progressive with the Spirit of God over our souls and our spirits, our minds and our bodies. Prateep V Philip