Two Kingdoms:  Where do You Abide?

There are two kingdoms your soul can abide in; one of this earth, one of heaven; one of man’s wisdom, one of God’s wisdom; one of darkness, one of light; one of death, one of life; one of lies, one of truth. John 8:44, James 3:15-18 One kingdom is governed by evil and the other by righteousness. 1 John 5:19 The kingdoms are each governed by their respective kings;  Satan, Father of lies represented by following our will separate from God, and Christ, the Truth represented by following God’s will.

Whichever kingdom we seek life from is the one we dwell in; life meaning purpose, value, peace, joy, rest, happiness, and love. We seek life from them by listening to their messages (what we consider wisdom) and acting on them. Both kingdoms promise these aspects of abundant life, but one’s ways returns void, and the other’s fulfilled.

We dwell in whichever kingdom based on which one we have cultivated faith in. Faith is knowing a concept, believing it and acting on it with the hopes of fulfillment of what we desire.

These two kingdoms are represented throughout the Bible. From the beginning God made a clear distinction between them and the results of our choice …

Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

Which kingdom’s path we choose to learn of and travel determines the results of our lives, one leads to curses and the other to blessings.

The kingdom of darkness engulfs this world. Satan governs this earth and all the man-made established systems of this earth; economics, politics, financial, education, health, religions, media, and so on. His messaging and instruction of his kingdom are EVERYWHERE full of promises of life, yet never delivering but always creating the hope. He promotes partial truth making it a twisted lie. As a result, people sacrifice, strive and become a slave to many empty philosophies in hope that one day they will find the life they seek.

Conversely, the kingdom of light isn’t dominant in this world, yet. But we can abide in it, if we seek. We are born into the mind of the kingdom of darkness, but if we seek, we can move into the kingdom of light by the knowledge of truth. We have to seek because the kingdom of darkness is consuming. Matthew 6:33 As we seek the truth of the kingdom of light, we know it, believe it and thus act on it. Bit by bit, our faith is transferred to the kingdom of light as our lives bear the fruit of it and we realize it’s where true life abides.  As the kingdom of darkness fades from our lives so does all it created; death, pain, suffering, hardship, unrest, worry, fear and afflictions.

Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

To abundantly aid us in our seeking, God gave us the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, to teach us all things about walking in the kingdom of light down to the very details of our lives so in every way we can abide in His Kingdom of life. We simply have to make time to engage Him, which leads me to my next point.

How do we leave the kingdom of darkness and enter into the kingdom of light?

From the Holy Spirit, we learn to transition into the kingdom of light in two main ways, two ways that work hand-in-hand.

1. Each day we seek the Holy Spirit’s instruction through the Bible with a desire to know the truth, thus to know God as He is. We let Him be our perfect teacher as God gave us Him to be.
2. We listen and follow the Holy Spirit’s counsel in our lives. The Holy Spirit will tell/prompt us to do a certain act. A voice in our head will say, do it this way. At first, we will ignore or justify away the counsel and do what we’ve always done or follow someone else’s counsel. We’ll see the results and realized we should have followed that still small voice. But another day we’ll heed that voice, and witness the perfection of its guidance. We are like an octopus with a vast number of tentacles attached to the kingdom of darkness, but as we listen and follow the Holy Spirit each one is detached and our faith moves to God’s truth.

As we start engaging the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, we will see the perfection of His counsel and it will increase our faith to listen more carefully and follow. His voice is of truth, love, forgiveness, mercy, grace, and contrary to the world’s wisdom.

The door out of the prison of darkness has been opened, so that we can be free. It’s the truth that sets us free; freedom begins with our beliefs. Seek the truth from the One you’ve been given to teach you truth, the Holy Spirit, and begin to enter the kingdom of light, the only place where you will find true life.