From the Inside, Out
The kingdom comes from the inside out. Not in a way as to be seen.
Luke 17:20One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?” Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs.
21You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”
22Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns, but you won’t see it.
23People will tell you, ‘Look, there is the Son of Man,’ or ‘Here he is,’ but don’t go out and follow them.
24For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day when the Son of Man comes.
25But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected by this generation.
26“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.
Tribulation is the resistance of the people of the earth and the consequences for that resistance, to the coming of the kingdom.
Many are watching for the kingdom to come from the outside in, and thus, waiting for a visible demonstration of tribulation to mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation. This is the opposite of what the Bible describes.
The Great Tribulation starts inside, and, as the inner tribulation is not responded to, grows tangibly as depravity takes root. This starts in the heart where the kingdom is sought (believers) then goes to the family, then to the church, then to the cities of the earth.
1 Peter 4:17 — For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?
The tangible consequence of depravity come like a flood...war, scarcity, control, manipulation, coersion....these will manifest in days the people of the earth dread, but it rises like flood waters....the storm, the rains, the forecasts, and before you know it, you are over your head.
The entire process will feel normal until it does not and it is literally too late to find higher ground.
God has given us some amazing prophetic markers to watch for, not so we will respond...but so that in the responding we can know the time. An adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign is given, although signs are happening all around them.
What if great tribulation increases delusion? What if the great tribulation seems to the deluded mind to be easy...and therefore not real? What if the same way Peter assumed what Jesus was warning him about was nothing to be concerned with, is the same way the falling away happens?
Matthew 26:1On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say,
‘God will strike the Shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32But after I have been raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.”
33Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.”
34Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”
35“No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same.
Presumption...an imagined future...not faith... causes a believer to wrongly think they are safe.
What if the time we are in and the choices we are making are much more consequential than we ever imagined? What if the most dangerous aspect of the Great Tribulation was it's very deceptive nature to convince us it wasn't even tribulation?
Matthew 24:11 and many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people.
What if we were looking for something that couldn't be seen, and seeing something that could only be spiritually discerned? What if the thing we thought would happen, never will...and the thing plain before us that we refused to recognize was stealing all of our actual faith away?
2 Peter 3:2I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles.
3Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.
4They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
5They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.
6Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.
7And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
8But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
9The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
10But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
11Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,
12looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.
13But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
Matthew 24:37“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.
38In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.
39People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.
Luke 17:20One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?” Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs.
21You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”
22Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns, but you won’t see it.
23People will tell you, ‘Look, there is the Son of Man,’ or ‘Here he is,’ but don’t go out and follow them.
24For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day when the Son of Man comes.
25But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected by this generation.
26“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.
Tribulation is the resistance of the people of the earth and the consequences for that resistance, to the coming of the kingdom.
Many are watching for the kingdom to come from the outside in, and thus, waiting for a visible demonstration of tribulation to mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation. This is the opposite of what the Bible describes.
The Great Tribulation starts inside, and, as the inner tribulation is not responded to, grows tangibly as depravity takes root. This starts in the heart where the kingdom is sought (believers) then goes to the family, then to the church, then to the cities of the earth.
1 Peter 4:17 — For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?
The tangible consequence of depravity come like a flood...war, scarcity, control, manipulation, coersion....these will manifest in days the people of the earth dread, but it rises like flood waters....the storm, the rains, the forecasts, and before you know it, you are over your head.
The entire process will feel normal until it does not and it is literally too late to find higher ground.
God has given us some amazing prophetic markers to watch for, not so we will respond...but so that in the responding we can know the time. An adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign is given, although signs are happening all around them.
What if great tribulation increases delusion? What if the great tribulation seems to the deluded mind to be easy...and therefore not real? What if the same way Peter assumed what Jesus was warning him about was nothing to be concerned with, is the same way the falling away happens?
Matthew 26:1On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say,
‘God will strike the Shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32But after I have been raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.”
33Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.”
34Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”
35“No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same.
Presumption...an imagined future...not faith... causes a believer to wrongly think they are safe.
What if the time we are in and the choices we are making are much more consequential than we ever imagined? What if the most dangerous aspect of the Great Tribulation was it's very deceptive nature to convince us it wasn't even tribulation?
Matthew 24:11 and many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people.
What if we were looking for something that couldn't be seen, and seeing something that could only be spiritually discerned? What if the thing we thought would happen, never will...and the thing plain before us that we refused to recognize was stealing all of our actual faith away?
2 Peter 3:2I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles.
3Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.
4They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
5They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.
6Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.
7And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
8But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
9The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
10But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
11Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,
12looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.
13But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
Matthew 24:37“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.
38In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.
39People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.
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