thy kingdom come, thy will be done--in the micro as it is in the macro

The Word for today:
Acts 13:44-52

Jesus spoke at length about the kingdom of heaven.  And then he said a startling thing: the kingdom of heaven is within you!  (Luke 17:21)

It's a biblical principal that what is true on the macro level is reflected on a micro level:

Thy kingdom come, they will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.  (Matthew 6:10)

On a macro level, the book of Acts depicts the ever-increasing infiltration of the kingdom of God:

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."  (Acts 1:8)

On a micro level, the individual Christian life depicts the same thing.  What started in the heart will eventually permeate the whole person:

"The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened." (Matthew 13:33)

The kingdom of heaven is to be found wherever the rightful king reigns.  So whenever an individual abdicates the throne of his own life and hands Jesus the crown, the kingdom gains a point of entry.

When a person turns to Jesus and makes him sovereign in his life, it may not seem (for a while) like a new kingdom has come. (So don't be dismayed if, like me, Jesus reigns in your heart, but your tongue seems to have missed the memo!) 

But, eventually, what takes  hold in the heart will radiate to head, shoulders, knees, and toes; to emotions, habits, priorities, and lifestyle; and (at last!) to the tongue, too.

And it won't stop there.  His influence, in both the macro kingdom (the cosmos) and the micro kingdom (the individual) will never cease to increase:

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end… (Isaiah 9:7)

Just as more and more of the cosmos will be infiltrated by the kingdom of God, more and more of the unreached "you" will be infiltrated by the character of the King.

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