The Kingdom of Heaven Within

Comment:

Jesus is clearly teaching from an awareness that everyone has the same Christ Presence within them. The statement most often cited is at Luke 17:20-21: "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say 'Look, here it is' or 'There it is!' for, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you." And you cited the familiar John 14:12: "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father." As so often in John, he is speaking not as Jesus of Nazareth but as Jesus the Christ. It is by believing that Jesus is not uniquely the Christ, but that he is demonstrating our own Christ Potential and calling us to follow his example.

There are many instances in the course of his ministry in which Jesus encourages his disciples to focus on what they can do themselves. In Matthew 17:20, for one example, he tells his disciples "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." He doesn't say that he, or God, will move it for them; he affirms that they—and by extension, we—have that Christ Power as well, but we don't believe it. We continue to see ourselves as victims of outside forces, and that victim consciousness tells us that it's no use—we might as well give up. If we can move mountains, we are certainly not powerless over any addiction. I'm a testament to that; I've been living in sobriety within the 12 Steps for more than 40 years. It may sometimes feel like moving a mountain, but it can be done if we allow Jesus to teach us to believe in ourselves.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed