September 24th.

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, `Here it is,' or `There it is,' because the kingdom of God is in your midst."

Jesus said to the humans while pointing to himself, "Here is the kingdom of God, do you see it?" All they saw was a guy who didn't look like much, just some below average looking Israelite from an undesirable part of the country, where the insurrectionists were from. There was no glow or anything about him that they could see that would convince or even suggest to them that he was one of the figures promised by the prophets—the prophet Moses said would be raised up, the Son of David who would come to rule on David's throne, the return of Elijah or Isaiah's Messiah. Turns out he was all of them wrapped up into one human body—the hope and dream of the Father all resting on this one guy's shoulders—who was being inhabited by the life of the spirit of the living God. That condition of being inhabited meant he was specifically chosen by God, and that condition of being chosen meant he was destined to be in the kingdom of God and His true sons, His perpetual purpose from the beginning.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

In other words God said, "Make me a family." The humans responded, "No, we don't want that, we want this other thing, what the snake was telling us would be so good for us to have" (even though God had told them that it would cause them to die). But they didn't care, and they didn't want what God was offering them. They wanted more to trust what the snake was offering them (death), so they were given both—a nature like the wild animal and a temporary existence with the snake and separated from God.

The kingdom of God is in your midst.

Who or what was in their midst already, even while they were talking to him? The life of God, as the pure eternal spirit, living in the body of Jesus. That was the kingdom of God, of heaven, which just means the spirit, the space that God occupies who is spiritual, not natural, matter. It's a different dimension than we are aware of. Therefore, kingdom of heaven should read kingdom of the spirit, which is the same as kingdom of God, because God=spirit. The kingdom of God is not seen or observable, held or controllable to the humans, because they only have the capacity to observe and comprehend natural things, which means the things that don't pertain to God, who eludes them on purpose.

The humans were looking for this kingdom that they thought would be a rejuvenated natural kingdom, an extension of David's kingdom when Israel was great. That's what the Pharisees had in mind when they asked Jesus when it would come. He responded by saying that it cannot be observed by the humans, nor can it be seen and identified by them ("Here it is," or "There it is.") Why? Because "The kingdom of God isn't what you think it is, even though it's true that it is coming, and has been predicted by God from a long time ago, that which He has been telling His prophets to speak about for all these hundreds of years. It's already here in the form of the condition of the unseen God living in the hearts of His sons. It is happening in me right now, but you can't see it. It is the reason I am able to do miracles—not by my own strength or power, but only because that life of God which you will never be able to see, is living in this body of flesh and blood."

Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Men will tell you, `There he is!' or `Here he is!' Do not go running off after them.

Now he speaks to his disciples about the same thing, what is going to happen to them, because they've been chosen to become citizens of that kingdom, just as he was. He tells them they'll be longing for him, and looking for him, but here again, when he comes back he will not be flesh and blood that can be seen, observed, or identified in the same way he was before. He warns them not to go running off after another human, or listen to the humans who say they know.

For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

He tells them, "When I come back, I'll come and reveal myself to whomever I choose. I won't be obliged or limited by anything natural, or any of the systems the humans are limited by. I am going to go where I want and do what I want, because God is not limited by anything natural, just like the lightening flashes without warning and wherever it wants to, and cannot be controlled by the humans, so will be my coming back to you, my being revealed to you." It's the same type of thing he tried to tell Nicodemus about when he was explaining the unexplainable kingdom of the spirit to one with human ears:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

The wind is not controlled by the humans. They cannot catch it or make it go in another direction, which was also Solomon's observation in Ecclesiastes about that which the humans always try to hang on to, what they spend their lives planning and doing, working, and buying, getting and controlling that which they own, as though it were some great treasure they would own forever. Just as soon as they have spent all their life doing all these things, it's gone, and their ability to enjoy all they have accumulated is gone, just like themselves—put into the ground where no one can see them.

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

God will do and be whatever He wants; He is not limited, contained, controlled; or even properly observed by the humans, even especially the "experts,' the so called leaders of His people who claim to know the way to Him (like Nicodemus in the John account, or the Pharisees here—or any contemporary self-appointed leader, pastor, shepherd who thinks he knows what God is doing or what He will do based on anything). The wind and the lightening are both used by Jesus to illustrate how God works without the humans' consent, approval, or control—not even a proper understanding of the words, times, and especially Him. They will just go about their lives doing what they're going to do, totally blind to what God does.

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

Human life is going to just go along seem like it's always been, even while God is doing what He is and will be doing, and the humans will be unaware. They can't keep track of Him or predict what He's doing or even explain it because they remain unaware, just living out their lives in their little bubble of existence. Everyone who claims to know the way to God always assumes that it's got to be mixed in with their human experience (because they're smack dab in the middle of the universe and everything revolves around them). There will be no apparent knowledge or understanding of what God's doing, and no way to promote, limit predict or control it. It will just happen, like the wind blowing and the lightening striking. You who have been chosen to be citizens of the kingdom of the spirit will be caught up into it, not by your effort but because you were chosen—just as the Son of God was chosen by God. You who have been chosen cannot come to me, but I will come back to you, not in the way you see me now but in the form of unseen, unobservable and uncontrollable spirit, which is the makeup of the life and body of God, and how He works among the humans.

It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

Who is Jesus talking to here, if not his chosen disciples. What's he talking about, some far off end time that hasn't even happened yet, 2000 years after they were living, which has nothing relevant to do with them and all the things he was teaching them for 3 years?

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

He's talking about coming back to them, about revealing himself to them in the near future from when he spoke the words to them. He was talking about something especially for them, not some generic thing that applies to everyone. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by that generation of humans. After that he would come back for them, and show himself to them. It's something about which he's already been speaking to them, extensively.

Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

Jesus promises this coming back, the revealing of himself to whomever had been chosen, showing himself to those disciples who kept his commands, who were faithful to and believed in him that he was true and would come back, even though it looked like he was gone forever—which would have been the natural and logical thing to think (we can't see him, so he must be gone forever). But what he was able to do was clearly not natural because he had the life of God living in him, which was in fact the promised kingdom that had been preached by God's prophets, that which came with John and Jesus. The life of God living in or among a natural human heart (body/mind) was that promised kingdom.

If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 

As God lived in Jesus' body of flesh and blood, so too "another counselor" was going to be sent to them—the spirit of truth, which would guide them into all truth about the things he had taught them, who would teach them how to be good children for the Father's sake and enjoyment. In fact it would be the new body of the Son of God in spirit form (just as the Father is), after he went to the Father was made One with Him to become the buffer between God and unclean human flesh and blood. He and the Father—because of the addition of the Son to the body of the Father—would soon be able to live in their bodies, just as the Father was living in his body.

If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

That was what the kingdom of God was and looked like, unable to be looked upon by the humans. Not natural, but of the essence that the humans could not observe or know about—unless they were inhabited by this unobservable spirit. It would happen when Jesus came back for them as he promised, to live in their bodies as promised. When that happened, they would be reminded of all the things he taught them.

All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Without that counselor counseling them about what he had taught them, they would have just forgotten. He had already told them many things about how to become a good son, clean and able to be inhabited by the Father. They were already clean because of the teaching he had given them about the intention of God to make them His own true, yet secret and hidden sons. However, they were not yet inhabited by the spirit, as he was, which was why they were still bound and led by the animal nature in them, because the freedom hadn't come yet.

Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

Peter asked, "Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?"

The Lord answered, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, `My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

"That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

He is telling them about the near future time when he comes to them to inhabit their bodies of flesh and blood. He is telling them about how important it will be for them to be ready for that time, and to recognize what's happening when it does happen; reminding them that when it happens, it will be the actual realization of what the preserved words were for, as copies. God desires to pull His sons out from what is bad (the natural, temporary creation ruled by animals), and into the place where they can be His; near Him so He can walk amongst His sons in the cool of the morning and enjoy them, love them, be pleased with them—hold them like the loved children they actually are to Him and be loved back by them who have been given the ability to love Him because they can see Him and be near Him who is unseen.

It won't be as unclean animals, the gnarly old humans who are arrogant and self-contained, haughty and who think they know everything and can control what goes on. They won't be able to come to Him as humans, because humans are just the unclean sons of Adam, animals who would rather hiss and snarl at Him than love Him. They will have to be transformed into another type of creature before that can happen, those who don't look like humans at all in regards to how their Father sees them. They will have to become creatures who will look more like newborn infants to Him than what they grow up looking like—mature, adult animals who are dead to God. Although to the humans around them, they won't look any different and they won't be recognized as what they were chosen to become.

I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.

As he keeps telling them about coming back to them, they will have to be taken from one thing, one existence,or nature; and brought into another definition of being. The act of God pulling His people out of Egypt and delivering them to the place where He could be in their midst and live amongst them in peace is what Jesus is talking about. Being pulled out from something bad, and delivered to something good is the kingdom of God, what all the stuff of the old covenant kept pointing to, but because the natural things are not the spiritual reality, they can only serve as copies. And what about the natural creation ruled by the animals, what all the humans think is the beginning and the end?

"Where, Lord?" they asked. He replied, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather."

"Where will we be taken to?" is a logical thing to ask him after he tells them about one being taken and the other left. He answers by telling them where they will be taken from. Death, the realm of the natural, where the humans live and rule, observe and control their existences. The natural creation exists as so many repeating cycles of death all the time, overlapping each other. The vultures know when they're about to feed off something that dies, and they're just another part of this creation of death waiting to happen. Where the humans live, move and have their being is what keeps them unclean, because it's not like God, but like death always waiting to happen.

On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.

When Jesus comes back for them, they will be being pulled away from the natural creation and into another kingdom, where God is. But it won't be a natural one, and it won't be about what the humans do and love. The kingdom of God is not where His sons remain human, and continue to run after the things they used to, continue to love what the humans love.

Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 

Remember what happened to Lot's wife, which is yet another copy and warning about being pulled out from what's bad, and into the place God desires His sons to be. She loved the old way, and was warned about looking back. She had no ability to comprehend the good place God was delivering them to, for Abraham's sake. The same is true about the Israelites, who kept looking back to the abundance of Egypt, what they all of a sudden fell in love with, but had no ability to trust God, that He was taking them to a better place. But they had to trust them, just like Adam had to trust God that He knew what was good for them, and they being ignorant had no idea. So many times His people didn't trust Him to provide for them and lead them to the place that was best for them, where He wanted them to be.

And I said to them, "Each of you, get rid of the vile images you have set your eyes on, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."

Also with uplifted hand I swore to them in the desert that I would not bring them into the land I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, most beautiful of all lands—because they rejected my laws and did not follow my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths.

For their hearts were devoted to their idols.

I will purge you of those who revolt and rebel against me.

The times God promises to destroy His people for their unfaithfulness are often countered with another promise, that He will save His people, and one day He will have that people, a family of sons who all love Him like He deserves to be loved, who turn away from the snake and instead toward Him. They will not love what all the rest of the humans love and run after, but will love to do His will, to please Him and make Him happy. They will be like Jesus because His law would be living in their hearts, as per Jeremiah 31. His life would inhabit their bodies, and teach them His ways from the inside, and cut through all the human garbage, loves and distractions.

You say, "We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone." But what you have in mind will never happen. As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will rule over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered—with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. I will bring you into the desert of the nations and there, face to face, I will execute judgment upon you. As I judged your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will take note of you as you pass under my rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will purge you of those who revolt and rebel against me. Although I will bring them out of the land where they are living, yet they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

That's what happened in the first century, when the life and power of God lived in the bodies of some of the humans, with whom He chose to make this new covenant. These are the sons who were predicted, the real people of God, those who would have His law written down not with pen and ink on tablets of stone, but written on their hearts—spiritual covenants between God and each and every one of those who were chosen to come in to that new covenant, which could only be discerned by those who had that life living in them, which was the mechanism of the new covenant (the life of God living in the bodies of His sons—the kingdom of God). Paul knew that he was living in that promised time, and that he was being inhabited by God along with the others who shared in that spiritual phenomenon, who were along with him the place God desired to live. Not in man made houses of hides, stone or wood but in the living hearts and minds of His own sons—as close as He the unseen spirit could ever get to them (living in their hearts).

Then (after I come back to you) you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At (after) that (period of) time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end (of the condition of God living in the bodies of men) will come.

Then it went away and what had been happening in the world for this period became no more, as per the predictions of Daniel then Jesus, Paul and Peter, as per the warnings contained in the preserved accounts and letters. The kingdom of the spirit, the life of God inhabiting the bodies of His sons—the next version of the copy of the real temple—would be taken over by the unclean animals as an abomination, and that condition which existed in the earth would be made desolate i.e., it would be taken out of the earth as the animals (the humans) took it over and turned the truth into a lie for their own gain—christianity in every form it has taken since the holy Roman church (great whore of babylon, the mother of all prostitutes) to all the spin-off religious groups who claim to know what the words say (all the whore's daughters who believe their mother's lies). What was purely spiritual and ruled by the Father and Son (pure spirit beings) was turned into what became totally natural, ruled and controlled by the humans. That's why the things that are written about in the first century aren't happening now, because they went away. All the daughter whores who claim to the otherwise are just easily identified frauds, because they can't accept that it just went away.

Back to the warning Jesus was giving to his disciples, when he was promising to come back to them. It is not an easy thing to not be led by the things of the world, the old way, what we love and serve in our heart. It's what we know, so of course we're going to want to keep going back there, because we love those things—we learned to love them when we were fully human, before we even had the beginnings of life in us. There is a tendency to think that we cannot let go of them, or we should not, or don't have to for this and that reason—whatever we can use to justify and rationalize. It's because they are too much a stronghold in us, and we love them too much and we don't want to let go of them. Our experience has shown us, though, that when we deny our selves the pleasure of whatever things we lust after, crave, and think we need in our heart, the Lord is faithful to reward us with more of a knowledge of his life in us, which is the good gift and understanding of what's happening in the place that our humans minds can't ever get to.

For their hearts were devoted to their idols.

Whatever we serve in our hearts, whatever we love and run after, whatever things that used to give us contentment and life, is an idol for us, because we love it and even if we say one thing about serving God with our mouth, that's not as true as what we love in our hearts. What we love in our hearts is what we run after, whether it's the things that the humans love, or the love of our true Father—and we can't mix the two. We'll always have to hate one to serve the other, or despise one to love the other.That is why we will be judged not by the actions of our mouth but of our heart.

This (men being declared as righteous or not) will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

It makes sense, because he replaces those things with himself. He lives in our heart instead of the things of the world that we used to serve, even without our knowledge. It's never instantaneous, and sometimes it's even followed by a trial because of it so that we have the opportunity to suffer for the sake of the word, in whatever small way we are able to stand, in our present state of immaturity. The process, though, is the same for all sons as it was also for Jesus. We are so immature, but we have to continue to move toward the Father, toward having His life in us, toward being in the kingdom where the crap of the humans and their ways doesn't pollute. We must be continuing to have more of the life that Jesus had or we die.

Sometimes it's easier than other times, and in the very beginning the word will be quickly snatched away from us. We will hear it and rejoice over the marvelous miracle of the Lord speaking to us, then in the next minute it will be gone. We are susceptible to all of the conditions in the parable of the sower. The second and third conditions stand a little apart from the first and fourth. The second is about us not having roots enough to hold us up when those trials come. Trouble and persecution are designed by the Lord for us. They aren't just haphazard attacks from "unbelievers," persecuting us about what we believe (though they can be, although not haphazardly). The third is about us loving the things of the world and worrying that we won't have enough.

All say something valuable about the new way of the spirit. First, we have to be able to hear the word or it will just be lost and never have the chance to affect us. Second, we have to have roots strong and healthy enough to keep us faithful when trials come, which are designed to build our faith. Third, we have to understand about the worries of life and how they have the tendency to make us serve and love the things of the world—to the end that we aren't deceived by the deceiver. Fourth, we have to be "good soil," which is a negation of the limitations of the first three—that which caused those to not believe, to get blown over, or to be choked.

This fourth one is the position of blessedness, of a man who is pleasing to God, who produces fruit for Him as a tree should. That means he is useful to God—he can be brought near to God, and can be enjoyed and loved, and can love Him back—instead of being utterly useless, remaining a mere animal who cannot ever know Him. John the baptist, Jesus the anointed, David the king and Paul the apostle are all examples of lives which were useful to God, who became their reward. That is, He chose them to become sons, to make them clean by His word living in them, which made them clean.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Judas the zealot, Saul the deposed king, Pharisees the hypocrites—all examples from the preserved words of sterile trees which produced no fruit for God, what were useless to Him. They served themselves, they looked after their interests and disregarded His. They loved the things of the world and satisfied their own indulgences. They enjoyed the temporary riches of this world, they vaulted themselves forward past everyone else and acted like mere animals in the forest, driven by their survival instinct to get and acquire more, to hoard, to keep and control.

Those who would become sons of God must go against the animal instinct and every way it wants to blow them. The living word will teach them, if He lives in them. They must learn to despise the things that the humans love and run after because of the instincts that are in them, which keep them defined as unclean animals, not sons of God. The constant sex games all around them, the security and allure of wealth, the celebration of their independent nature and their own self-protection and greatness. Easier said than done, but done it must be if we are to claim the title of son of God. Even as I write this I think it's impossible, because that nature is always geared toward making me believe the lie, that the only thing I can count on is what I can see, observe or verify by my natural faculties.

I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Lord is speaking about having a righteousness not on the outside, but in our heart. This is not just some cliche or concept that we nod our head to and ironically say, "Oh yes, It's our heart that matters," with our mouth and think that means we also say it in our heart. The heart is a specific place; it's not just some intangible concept that automatically follows our outward actions. It's where the life of God either lives or doesn't live—our thoughts and motives, the source of  love or hate, and all kind of other things whether "clean" or "unclean."

Our heart has to be changed by understanding, knowledge, and discipline. Without these that sin nature will just go running around, doing whatever it wants to in us. It will just continue, as before, to lead us around and keep defining us as animals. There is no shortage of temptation in the world, but it will go better for us if we were to isolate ourselves from all those influences of the world, which won't lead us to the Father. The only One who will lead us the our Father is the good Son, who will be living in us to teach us the new way, and show us how to turn away from the old way. The humans will only serve to enforce and strengthen the animal nature and the propensity to be ruled by it if we allow it to live in our heart, which continues to make us "unclean."

The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'

The idea is to understand the things that drag us away and entice us to serve that animal nature and do what it instinctually demands from us. Not just to understand, though, but to go against the instincts of that nature, to discipline ourselves to not allow it to rule us, thereby serving it instead of the Master we desire to serve.

This is a concept that we can understand, and which has to be employed in our attempt to please the Lord and to become a son of our Father. The Father's sons are more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees, because their heart is clean so that He can dwell there in Peace, without the constant chaos of the flesh with which He would otherwise have to contend. That is the place where He desires to deliver us to. It is accomplished by the process that is necessary for us to make our eyes good so that our heart, and in turn our whole body, will be full of light instead of darkness.

No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.