Scripture Reading: John 3:3, 5, 15; 1 Cor. 2:11; Eph. 4:18; Rom. 8:6
Ⅰ
The kingdom of God is God Himself—Mark 1:15; Matt. 6:33; John 3:3:
A
God's kingdom has God as its content; God Himself is everything as the content of His kingdom—1 Cor. 4:20; 15:28.
B
God is life, having the nature, ability, and shape of the divine life, which forms the realm of God's ruling—Eph. 4:18; John 3:15.
C
The life of God is the kingdom of God and also our entrance into the kingdom of God; we must see this basic principle—vv. 3, 5, 15.
D
The nature of the kingdom of God is divine because it is the kingdom of God.
E
In actuality, God's reigning over us is not an outward matter but a matter of the innate ability of the divine life—Rom. 8:2.
Ⅱ
The kingdom of God is the realm of the divine life for this life to move, work, rule, and govern so that life may accomplish its purpose— Matt. 6:13b; John 3:3, 5, 15-16:
A
The kingdom of God is an organism constituted with God's life as the realm of life for His ruling, in which He reigns by His life and expresses Himself as the Divine Trinity in the divine life—v. 5; 15:1-8, 16, 26.
B
The unique way to enter into the kingdom of God is to receive God as life and gain God Himself; this is regeneration—3:5, 15; 1 John 5:11-12.
C
Because through regeneration we receive the divine life, the life of God, regeneration is the unique entrance into the kingdom—John 3:3, 5, 15.
Ⅲ
As those who have been born of God to enter into the kingdom of God, we need to be recovered to the direct rule of God by the intuition of our spirit—Matt. 5:3; 1 Cor. 2:11; Mark 2:8:
A
In the dispensation of innocence we see the principle of God's rule; in the dispensation of conscience, the principle of self-rule; and in the dispensa-tion of human government, the principle of man's rule:
１
Before the fall man was ruled directly by God; he lived before God and was responsible to God—Gen. 2:16-17.
２
From the time of Adam's expulsion from the garden of Eden to the time of Noah's departure from the ark, God established the conscience within man to represent Himself in ruling over man—Acts 24:16.
３
After the flood, because man was subject neither to God's rule nor to self-rule, God authorized man to represent Himself in ruling over man—Gen. 9:6; Rom. 13:1.
B
From the point of view of government, man's fall was a fall from God's rule to self-rule and then from self-rule to man's rule.
C
Because man has been degraded from God's rule to human rule, God, in saving man, must recover him from human rule to divine rule so that once again man may live before God in simplicity and under His direct authority—Matt. 5:3, 8; 6:33.
D
In God's plan of recovery man must retrace his steps from human rule to God's rule, passing through self-rule in between.
E
The final goal of dealing with the conscience is not merely to restore us to self-rule but to bring us back to God's rule and to recover us to God Himself and, thus, to live in the presence of God—5:3.
F
There is a great difference between self-rule and God's rule:
１
Self-rule means that we live by the feelings of our conscience, being responsible to our conscience—Acts 24:16.
２
God's rule means that we live by the intuition of our spirit, being responsible to the intuition, that is, being responsible to God:
ａ
Within our spirit there is a function to have a direct sense, to realize, discern, and perceive things; this is the intuition in our spirit— 1 Cor. 2:11; Mark 2:8:
⑴
Intuition is a direct sense of God and a direct knowledge of God.
⑵
The intuition in our spirit is the feeling of God, and it accepts only that which is of God, of the Spirit, and of life—Rom. 8:2.
ｂ
When we live by our intuition and are controlled by our intuition, we are living in the presence of God and are ruled directly by Him.
Ⅳ
When we are under God's rule, we live by the intuition of our spirit according to the sense of life—v. 6:
A
The divine life is the highest life, with the richest, strongest, and keenest feeling (Eph. 4:18); this feeling is the sense of life.
B
The sense of life makes us know whether we are living in the natural life or in the divine life, whether we are living in the flesh or in the Spirit— Rom. 8:6.
C
The sense of life guides, governs, controls, and directs us—v. 4.
D
We live in the reality of the kingdom of God by the sense of life, with the positive feelings of peace, rest, strength, satisfaction, release, liveliness, watering, brightness, and comfort—v. 6.
E
The divine life in our spirit knows the kingdom of God—John 3:3, 5-6, 15.
F
The kingdom of God has its reality, and this reality is the living of the divine life under the direct rule of God—Matt. 5:3, 8, 20; 6:33; 7:21.