The Kingdom of God is Here

“What the Spirit gives is the glimpse of the Kingdom of God, which Jesus said is among us right now.” – From The Seekers’ Guide to the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk. 17:21)

There are many spiritual views on how the world is inherently bad, that the world is created by God as a place for “punishment” because we are not worthy of heaven yet. I have no brain capacity to say nor have I the courage to say whether it is totally right or wrong.

However, yes, Jesus reminded His disciples, and us, that the Kingdom of God is here among us. I think the world is not a place for punishment, rather, it is a place where we have the opportunity to know God’s love. We have the opportunity to know God’s faithfulness in the midst of all the hardships that we face in this world. If we never face any hardships and face them with faith, how can we be sure of the true love that God has for us?


By: Indra

I happen to be on the road of marriage, and the episodes that made me so sure that my wife is the one I want to spend the rest of my life with is when I had the opportunity to go through hardships together with her. We stayed faithful to each other. We made each other stronger to face the hardships. With her, even hardships did not feel all that bad (Imagine how we are in happy times then.. hahaha). That’s when my heart became so sure about her love for me.

Does God intentionally create a dreadful environment for us in this world? I do not think so. God intentionally creates us with a free will out of His love. He gives us the opportunity to achieve and to feel a perfect love, not a robotic love (which would have happened if He creates us without free will). We have the opportunity to learn and to struggle to achieve perfect love.

With freedom, also comes responsibility, and many times, we use our freedom irresponsibly, and that what makes this world to be full of hardships. However, it is my personal choice that I refuse to just throw up my hands and relent and just accept that this world is a terrible place of punishment, so there is nothing that we can do to make it better. I choose to believe that this world is created good, for nothing created by God, who is the supreme Goodness himself, can be inherently bad. This world is full of blessings. We just need to give our heart to God so that he can open the eyes of our hearts so that we can see him in all things, and feel him in all things, for better or for worse.

To throw-up our hands and give up on this world, that is what the devil wants. He really wants to trick us into believing that this world is a place of punishment, that there is little hope to make this world better. He wants to trick us into believing that we can never feel the Kingdom of God until the afterlife. When we fall to this trick, then we are opening ourselves and this world to all kinds of temptations. We are just accepting... we are on the defensive... we just roll over and play dead. We no longer tries to make this place better because we keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the blissfulness of the Kingdom of God to come.

If we want to play logic then fine, let’s play a logical game a little bit. If God is omnipotent, then His authority is also omnipotent, which means, His Kingdom is also omnipotent. Then, would it make sense if we think that this world is not a part of the Kingdom of God? Would it make sense if we think that God chooses to just “partially love” this world to punish us? Because God is omnipotent, there is no partiality in God. He can not only “partially” love something or someone. Rather, He always fully and omnipotently loves you, He omnipotently loves me, He omnipotently loves everyone in this world.

The Kingdom of God does not come automatically because He does not create robots. He creates us to be His family. As a family, each member has his/her own part in bringing a good name and blessings to the family. We need to participate in the work of the Kingdom of God. We need to participate in bringing the Kingdom of God INTO this world. Even the Son of God himself has given us an example. While in this world, he work relentlessly to show them that the Kingdom of God is real, that the Kingdom of God is already here.

Work actively to bring the glimpse of the Kingdom of God to this world. We have the Gifts of the Spirit in us. We complete each other as a Church. The Kingdom of God starts HERE in THIS WORLD. Stop waiting and make things happen. AMEN

God bless you all,
Adrianus Indra Setiadi