“When will the Kingdom of God come?”

Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God isn’t ushered in with visible signs. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!” or “It’s over there!” For the Kingdom of God is among you.”
– Luke 17:20-21

We have become much too obvious about identifying what is “Christian” in the world. In fact, we have lost ground trying to gain ground. We have labeled and marketed a subculture and an agenda in the world. Christians have become much too visible. If you can say, “Here it is!” or “It’s over there!” then chances are you’ve got something other than the Kingdom of God. Not sure what it is but it isn’t that. Trying to identify and establish what is Christian in culture can easily work at cross-purposes with what God is already doing in the world.

The Kingdom of God is not something you can buy or sell or purchase a ticket to. You can’t market it or vote it in. You can’t put it in power because it is already in charge. You can’t call it out because God hasn’t called it out. There will come a time when every eye will see it, but this is not that time. To pray “Thy Kingdom come” as Jesus taught us to pray is not to bring it as if it weren’t here. He told us already that it is here. It means to pray that we might be agents of doing His will on earth “as it is in heaven.”

God has been announcing the arrival of His Kingdom ever since Christ showed up in the flesh. On numerous occasions He announced the Kingdom had come, or was at hand, or was, as He said here: “among you,” or even “in you.” And if there are “no visible signs,” then the Kingdom He’s talking about must be more subtle than the “Christian” stuff we have all around us. To be sure, having all this stuff is probably a detriment to believers who need to be training themselves to find and further the Kingdom in other ways than naming it or labeling it or trying to establish it within the confines of existing social structures.

The Kingdom of God is what you see in the world when you see through the eyes of the Spirit. It is all about tuning in to God’s wavelength and participating in what He is already doing in the world. It’s quiet, subtle, more subversive than anything we can create or put in power. It is more in the wold than it is marginalized alongside it. It is God at work right off your right or left elbow. It is a dimension. It is where Christ rules as King and not ushered in by any government on earth. If you think you’ve got it; you haven’t got it.