In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

John 3:3

It takes faith to see!  Faith is not the definition of being born again, but is a requirement for it, therefore, faith is a prerequisite for seeing.

Consider miracles.  Jesus said that there will be many who had done many great miracles but were not know by the Lord (Matthew 7:22).  The apostles, even Judas the traitor, were casting out devils in His name, yet not all had come to the consistent walk of faith. If the word “faith” in your vocabulary only means miracles, then something is grossly missing in your understanding of the Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Heaven is about a heavenly domain of a King, Jesus.  The Kingdom of Heaven is about the authority, dominion and jurisdiction of God on the Earth.  So much as the heavens belong to the Lord, and the Earth He has given into the sons of men (Psalm 115:16), Jesus Christ, the perfect man, has demonstrated to the Father His own perfect work in His life and death and resurrection, so that, as promised, a man rules over the Earth.

YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

Hebrews 2:8

The Lord Jesus has subjected all things, and yet, in this time, we wait to see the full enforcement of that subjection.  His rule, the rule of a man upon the Earth, is the only Kingdom that will last, and it only makes sense to see that all our efforts are in line with Him.

But, the Kingdom is not the miracles.  Jesus corrected the disciples not to rejoice that demons were subject to them in His name, but rather that their names were written in Heaven.  Jesus always pointed to the Kingdom, to the Eternal.

It takes faith to understand faith.  It takes seeing the Kingdom for the Kingdom to make sense (1 Corinthians 2:14).  The best use of parables is for that which your audience cannot see.  While they conceal, they also reveal, for those who have the eyes to see.

Miracles are relatively easy to come by, on one level, but the Kingdom is worth dying for (Matthew 13:44).

You can have all the miracles in your life, see demons cast out, and blind eyes opened, and still not understand the Kingdom, and still be a worker of iniquity.  You could even be a great seer prophet, and yet still miss the breadth and depth of the Kingdom.  It is not just about understanding faith, for there are many who understand faith but do not operate in love (1 Corinthians 13:2).  But, the test Jesus put forth was those that do the will of His Father (Matthew 7:21).

What man cannot do, God has done.  What man is able to do, God has provided through His son.  Jesus Christ is the mystery of God revealed (Colossians 2:2).

Jesus came demonstrating a level of the miraculous that even God’s own nation had never seen witnessed (Matthew 9:33, Mark 7:37).  Yet the teaching of this man of Faith, the greatest man of the Spirit ever to exist, were directed not towards greater and greater works, but the Kingdom.  This man was not content to commission twelve men who could turn the world upside down with power, only to see the power forfeited and prostituted through sin and even worse adultery than the nation had already participated in.  He was interested in a complete takeover, with love to be the governor, and peace to overrule them all.

What is a church missing when they do not have the power and demonstration of God?  They lack the ability to even get themselves whole.  With the miraculous comes one of the defining marks of the Kingdom, deliverance (Luke 11:20).  A church lacking in this power of the Spirit has no dynamic power to both live in holiness and bring the same grace to others.  Deliverance, a part of healing, is the children’s bread.

So, while without the power and demonstration of God’s Kingdom, a church is left to remain in whatever level of brokenness and bondage they are at, if they fail to step beyond the miraculous into the full heart of the Kingdom, they lack the ability to abide, and will eventually fall away.  Jesus wants lovers full of faith.  It is the ones that do the will of the Father that enter the Kingdom.

Both are required, and if a church lacks either one, they will suffer in the long-term walk.

If we have the faith to walk in the miraculous, let us have the faith to walk in selfless love.  If we desire to be loving, let us demonstrate our perfect love and cast out fear, along with an assortment of other besetting sins in our life and the lives of others by walking in the power of the Gospel.

The Kingdom of God consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).  The Kingdom is not miracles, but supernatural events are what this supernatural Kingdom causes.

But what changes is a man is an encounter with Jesus.  All even the enemy can do in the supernatural realm is to change the exterior, but has no power over the heart of a man.  But, once you let Jesus in, He recreates you, changes you, and forgives you.  The seemingly simple to us is what cost the Father the most.

If the work of grace merely restored all the exterior and did nothing of the heart, then it would be but a temporary work.  But, because the true work of the Kingdom brings Jesus to restore the soul, the heart of a man, it lasts forever.

This is the real work of the Kingdom, changing men’s souls.

There is only one deliverer, and His name is Jesus.