In the previous issue of Skjulte Skatte it was pointed out that we would draw from the fountains of our dear father’s life of faith. His thoughts were mostly occupied with God’s kingdom, which God by His great grace had established in him. It was especially the scriptures about being raised up and sat in heavenly places and that we had come to Mount Zion that rejoiced his heart and filled his mind with thankful thoughts of his Lord and Master. Since these truths are a blessing and mighty to establish those who have already come to this point, and since they can also help those who are seeking, I will, by the grace that God gives, develop them as I see them in the light of the Spirit. “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Col. 2:9-10. Let us consider the word “bodily.” In the old covenant, all the promises pertained to things that were outside the body: a good land, Canaan; a land that was filled with grain and wine, flowing with milk and honey; and a good city, Jerusalem, with a priesthood that was appointed by men. These things were outside the body. But now Christ came, and God’s kingdom—the fullness of the Godhead—had come to dwell in His body; in other words, within His body. And so Jesus came and proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt. 4:17. It was in their very midst. “Now when He was asked . . . when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, “‘See here!” or “See there!” For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.’” Luke 17:20-21. “For Indeed, the Kingdom of God Is Within You.” Within the body is where God’s kingdom is. That is where the covenants and the promises and all the blessings are according to God’s Word: He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Eph. 1:3. All this is within us. We cannot look around, neither here nor there, and say: Behold, it is here or there. They could do that in the old covenant. They could see an earthly kingdom outside their body with their eyes, but Jesus said that God’s kingdom was within them. Unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3. Unless a person is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5. This is the way that Jesus pointed out, so that they could both see and enter into the kingdom that was being established within them. What a marvelous way to God’s kingdom! All the eyes of the world are fixed on outward things: on what they shall eat, what they shall drink, and what they shall wear. Their thoughts stray to all the things of this world that are outside of the body. However, Jesus came with a glory that surpassed the glory of all the kingdoms of this world, and this glory is in His body, for it was God’s will that all His fullness should dwell in Him. Col. 1:19. In Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Col. 2:9. What purpose does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions. Gal. 3:19. Every sin that a man commits is outside the body, but he who commits adultery sins against his own body. 1 Cor. 6:18. The law prohibited them from sinning and punished sins and transgressions. “You shall not covet!” The law was outside the body, demanding a pure life and conduct in the environment in which they lived. This was the outward. This was sin and the law outside the body. But God’s kingdom was to be revealed within us. Therefore it says in Hebrews 12:18-24: “For you have not come to the mountain that can be touched” [notice: “that can be touched”—it was something on the outside] “and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.” Those who come to Mount Sinai (to the law) enter into darkness—blackness and darkness—for they hear the Lord’s strong demands, praying that such words should not be spoken to them anymore. They complain of the darkness and sigh that they cannot manage to live this life before God. And they are like Moses—exceedingly afraid and trembling. We have not come to where the law judges sin outside the body, but: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” All this is in the kingdom of God that dwells within us. God has made us alive in Christ, raised us up together with Him, and made us sit together with Him in the heavenly places. Eph. 2:5-6. We no longer walk according to outward things, and we no longer look for outward things as before, because our eyes have been anointed so that we can look inwardly into the kingdom and see its glory and experience its power. Hidden to the world and to the many believers who still live in the outward, you can live a life in child-like simplicity and confidence. There we can drink from the well. It is so good to have the fount In our soul both night and day, And know the Spirit’s pow’r and fire— The new life’s pulse, our heart’s desire. To see yourself seated in the heavenly places, within you in reality, produces a firm state that is assured of victory. You will receive an unshakable faith, because you know where you are. The person who lives in God’s kingdom that is within him does not occupy his mind and his entire being with outward things. He lives his inner life, and from the perspective of this inner, firm viewpoint he sees the outward things that surround him and with which he is occupied. He sees them and possesses them as if he did not possess them. 1 Cor. 7:29, 31. For the things of this world pass away. However, the kingdom that we have received within us is a kingdom that does not pass away. It cannot be shaken. Heb. 12:28. It is a kingdom with solid foundations; therefore we do not get involved in the things that pass away, the things that are unsafe, the things that already contain the “woes” of destruction within themselves; because as soon as people get involved in outward things, they become uneasy and restless. This world is fleeting, and all those who love it become like it. Their mind is like shifting sand. God’s kingdom within us consists of pure power; therefore it is firm and secure. The one who stays inside it lives by virtue of its power. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be transformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” Phil. 3:20-21. Pay attention to what Paul says: “Our citizenship is in heaven”—in God’s kingdom that is within us, from which we also eagerly wait for the Lord Jesus Christ. From this position in heaven we expect Jesus’ return, for only the one who lives this hidden, inner life is in reality waiting for his Bridegroom. So it is only on the basis of being in this position that we are prepared to meet the Lord, He who will transform our lowly bodies into incorruptible bodies. For it is in His power to subdue all things to Himself. He has the power to overcome all the deadly sprouts in our body with which we have sinned and against which we have sinned, and to transform it so that it is in conformity with His glorious body. We have come to the city of the living God. God had Jerusalem built as the center for all His earthly promises to our fathers, if they kept His laws. This Jerusalem was for the outer man just as the law was. Gal. 4:21-22. This corresponds to Mount Sinai. However, God is building a New Jerusalem with living stones for the spiritual Israel. That is the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, which is the mother of us all. For we rest in her bosom, born from above of incorruptible seed by God’s Word that lives and abides forever. This is where we are being built up as living stones to be a spiritual house. 1 Pet. 2:5. We are being built together with the others for a habitation of God in the Spirit (Eph. 2:22), and we grow up into a holy temple in the Lord. It is the bride who now lives in the kingdom and who will be caught up in the clouds and who will return. “But you have come . . . to an innumerable company of angels.” Pay attention to the expressions: “You have come,” “raised us up . . . and made us sit together in the heavenly places”; “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” In the old covenant, angels often revealed themselves individually, but in God’s kingdom there is an innumerable company of angels. They are ministering spirits sent out to minister for those who will inherit salvation. Heb. 1:14. In Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily; not spiritually, for then the angels—who are spirits—could have proclaimed the gospel. But the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, so that we who have a body could be saved by a body, because the entire man needed salvation. The innumerable company of angels comprises the principalities and powers of which Jesus is the head. Col. 2:10. And now God’s manifold wisdom is to be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. Eph. 3:10. The person who lives the inner life in God’s kingdom can also experience the truth of the innumerable company of angels. When we come together and the general assembly has meetings in the spirit, and we are built up on—and grow in— our most holy faith, it is as if we don’t see the outward things and the vessels of clay because here we meet in the spirit and converse about invisible things; we speak about things that pertain to God’s kingdom within. There we serve each other in a spiritual way and lead each other forward to greater, spiritual treasures. For we have received the Spirit of God so that we may know the things that have been given to us by God. There spiritual things are interpreted with words that the Spirit teaches. This is the fellowship of the general assembly in divine mutual esteem and reverence, which is so often lacking among believers. The general assembly is as one, because the enmity was put to death on the cross. Eph. 2:16. We come together with the unleavened bread of truth and purity. What was impossible for the law, because it was powerless through the flesh, God did by condemning sin in the flesh. Rom. 8:3. The law condemned sin outside the flesh, but in Christ, God went into the body and condemned sin in the flesh. Here lies the stumbling stone and the rock of offense as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense . . . .” Rom. 9:33. This is the cross and death to the old man. Many people take exception to the fact that the body of sin should now be destroyed by God’s judgment. The death of Christ must work in us. At this point, many people who have been baptized with the Spirit come to a halt. They have come away from the law and to Christ, but they do not want to let Christ accomplish in them what was impossible for the law—namely, to condemn sin in the flesh by letting the light shine over what they are, thus being led deeper into the death of Christ through fellowship in the sufferings of Christ. Phil. 3:10, ff. We have not come to Mount Sinai where this is impossible for the law, but we have come to Mount Zion where it is possible for the Judge. God did it. Rom. 8:3. And He does it in everyone who enters into God’s kingdom and is willing to be dealt with there. For judgment is to begin with the house of God, whose house we are. 1 Pet. 4:17. David says, “Let Your judgments help me.” For there is salvation in God’s judgments over sin in the flesh. Many people want to have God’s kingdom as an amusement park without laws and judgments—without anything being judged within them. They do not want to come to the Judge, for that entails pain in the flesh (see 1 Pet. 4:1), but joy in the spirit because you love all God’s laws. People don’t want to hear about this. There is a certain emptiness in much of this vaunted liberty. Liberty is not the same as lawlessness. There is just one body of Christ. We are a body; we are one spirit. Whether we live or fall asleep, we are in the body of Christ to which we have come. We fall asleep in Christ, in the body, in the church. The body is one whether we have fallen asleep in Christ or not. Christ comes to fetch His bride, who is one. A soul who leaves his earthly tabernacle is just as much in the body—the bride of Christ. We have come to the spirits of just men made perfect. This is a fact that we discover in the kingdom of God. Being made perfect does not mean that we could not have gone further in God’s kingdom, but that we are made perfect in that stage of our development that we have attained. Those who come to Mount Sinai come to the mediator of the old covenant, to Moses; but we have come to Jesus. He is our Mediator to all the heavenly treasures. Therefore we pay homage to Him and praise Him. Paul prays that the Ephesians might have the eyes of their heart enlightened, so that they may know what is the hope of their calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Eph. 1:17-19. How great is His power toward us who believe! God’s kingdom does not consist of words, but of power. This power is not just the Holy Spirit’s palpable flowing through our body. God’s kingdom to which we have come consists of power, and these powers are: Mount Zion (the city with firm foundations), an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, God the Judge of all, the spirits of just men made perfect, Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, and finally there is this power: These are the powers of heaven to which we have come. Which powers are greater? Why do we need the blood of sprinkling? According to the old covenant, the blood of calves and goats was sprinkled on the people, on the tabernacle, and on all the vessels of the ministry. Heb. 9:19-21. But all these things were only copies of the heavenly things that were worthy of better sacrifices, and this better sacrifice was Christ. And we are the vessels with which to serve in God’s kingdom. This occurs in our inner man, in God’s kingdom, for it is hidden to the world and transpires through the Holy Spirit. This blood speaks better things than Abel’s, because Abel’s blood spoke of Cain’s guilt, whereas the blood of Christ is an atonement for our sins. Jesus entered the Most Holy Place—not with the blood of another, but with His own blood—and obtained an eternal redemption. Therefore, since we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and thereby serve God according to His pleasure with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. Ch. 12:28-29. There is a consuming fire in God’s kingdom, a jealous flame that consumes sin in the flesh. Such a kingdom with such powers can never be shaken, for who can shake God, Christ, all the ministering angels, the entire general assembly and church of the firstborn, and the spirits of just men made perfect? This is what it means to have your feet planted on the rock. The person who trusts in the Lord is like Mount Zion that cannot be moved. We have this great treasure in vessels of clay. 2 Cor. 4:7. Even if we die and must leave the vessel of clay behind, we take the treasure with us.* * * Jesus says to His disciples that to them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. They are not given to everyone, for the kingdom is full of mysteries, just as the way to it is. The Jerusalem above is free, and is the mother of us all. Gal. 4:26, ff. The heavenly Jerusalem is our mother. This is an amazing mother. Nicodemus asked, “‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’” John 3:4-5. Concerning this kingdom—the Jerusalem that is above, our mother—it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who do not travail! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.” Gal. 4:27. Here there is a mother who does not give birth and has no birth pangs and has no husband, and yet she has numerous children. How is this possible? Nicodemus asked if it was possible to enter into one’s mother’s womb a second time and be born? “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said, The natural man is born out of his mother’s womb, but we are born into God’s kingdom, into the heavenly Jerusalem which is our mother. There we are nourished by the pure, spiritual milk. This is the spiritual Canaan that flows with milk and honey, as Paul also says: We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Eph. 1:3. We have come to where every spiritual blessing is found. Therefore Paul can say: I have been raised up and placed in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Raised up from sin and placed into the fullness of blessings.* * * Just as Jesus had His ministry in God’s kingdom, so do we. We have been placed in God’s kingdom to be kings and priests to our God. However, just as Christ did not bestow on Himself the honor of being High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek but was called by God, so also the priests that minister in God’s kingdom. And as Christ had something to bring, so we, too, have something: namely, our own life. Christ offered Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit as a blameless sacrifice to God. Heb. 9:14. As priests we must offer ourselves in the same way in the power of the same Spirit. What an amazing priestly ministry this is in the heavenly sanctuary, hidden in the depths of the heart. Jesus said, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” John 4:21, 23. In the old covenant, they went up to Jerusalem every year to worship, but now we have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God. And we take this city along wherever we go; therefore we can worship the Father in every place in spirit and in truth. We avoid having to travel to a certain place in order to fetch Christ, for He is very near to us, namely, in our mouth and in our heart. Even though we have been raised up and have been placed in heavenly places and have become priests according to the power of an endless life (Heb. 7:16), we are not thereby perfect in our life, although we are that in our conscience. Even though the law did not lead anyone to perfection, this priestly ministry does that in that we, by offering ourselves, run the race in the fear of God until the end of our life. We have a High Priest who can have compassion with our weaknesses. Some people say that the body of sin has been taken away when we have received the baptism of the Spirit. But what shall we then do with the High Priest, the blood, and with exhortations if the body of sin has been taken away? Our priestly ministry before God consists primarily in offering ourselves; and since we are in the body during the time of this ministry, we need a High Priest. We have the treasures and the light, the powers, the ministry and the race toward the goal in God’s kingdom. And this kingdom is within us. The children of the world walk according to the prince of the powers in the air, i.e., outside the body, but Christ dwells in the heart, i.e., in the body of those who have been born again. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Be obedient to Him by putting off everything that hinders, and the sin, and run in the race that is set before us, obtaining the goal of your faith, the salvation of your soul.Aksel Smith