THIS EXPRESSION IS OFTEN used. People also say: the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God within us.

As to the real meaning of these words there are only vague ideas, which leave open the main questions: In what way is the Kingdom of God within man? Has it always been within us? Or does it only enter into man later, perhaps through the Word of God?

The “Kingdom within us” is closely linked with the Law of the Cycle, which can be easily observed in Nature.

The human spirit also is subject to this Law, which means that each one must return to its origin, just as the blood ever again flows back to the heart.

But where does the origin of the human spirit lie?

In the Spiritual Realm, which we call the Paradise of the human spirits, or “the Kingdom of Heaven;” there is his origin, his true home, the Kingdom of God.

Far above the Spiritual Realm is the Divine Sphere, and God Himself in His Unsubstantiality, eternally unapproachable and incomprehensible to the human spirits.

Hence the human spirit cannot bear within it anything Divine, because its origin lies much lower in the Spiritual Realm.

It lives there as an unconscious spirit seed-grain, which is released (expelled) from Paradise, and plunges into the material substance of the World that lies below. Here the spirit awakens to full consciousness, and in natural development returns to Paradise as conscious of itself, as the “prodigal son” who has found his way back to his homeland.

The core of man, thus what constitutes the essential part of man, his spirit, is of such a kind as exists in the Spiritual Realm.

Through this he is himself a part of the Spiritual Realm, a part which he as earth-man bears within him and which is eternal, whereas all the coverings which envelop the human spirit are transient.

When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees “when the Kingdom of God should come” He answered them: “The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17, 20 and 21).

In the last Wittenberg edition of the Bible of 1545, published during Luther’s lifetime it says, “the Kingdom of God is within you.”

In a 1916 edition of the Bible the same words are still to be found. Later, however, Luther’s translation was changed to, “the Kingdom of God is in your midst”.

The reason given for this by various sources was inaccuracy in the translation of the original text, and the objection that the Kingdom of God could not have been within the Pharisees because they had opposed Jesus.

Nevertheless we have seen that this is so, because spirit, and with it a part of the Kingdom of God, is in every human being. Except that through evil thoughts and actions this “inner kingdom” has been completely buried in some, and in others it is less strong.

But then all is not done with the “Kingdom of Heaven within us”. We must earnestly strive, indeed strive with unflinching diligence, really to maintain the link with the native Luminous Fields.

We are helped to achieve this by the spiritual power that comes from the same spiritual origin and streams through Creation.

The spirit within us, like the physical body, needs its nourishment so that it can grow into the necessary consciousness which alone makes it a complete human spirit. Just as the physical body is unable to do without water, so does the spirit need the “Water of Life”, spiritual power.

It has surely been noticed already by everyone, when a strong inner shock, whether of deep sorrow or great joy, loosened the dense coverings surrounding the spirit. He then sensed for some blissful moments the nearness of this power, of which he hardly becomes conscious in everyday life.

With the help of this spiritual power, and with the gifts and abilities originally vested in him, man would have been in a position to let a Paradise- like condition arise on earth!

Instead of this he is suffering today from an extreme self-estrangement. He has estranged himself from his self, his spirit, by allowing the awareness that he has a spiritual core within him to be extinguished.

Only through a constant good volition shall we be able to reawaken this consciousness. Therefore let us listen within, let us hearken to the inner voice, and heed every gentle urging of the spirit towards what is beautiful and noble, every sorrow over lost spiritual values, every silent reproach of having done little or nothing yet at all to unfold to full blossom the gifts bestowed by the Creator.

When often in the midst of all darkness and all affliction, we are seized by homesickness for bygone beautiful things, for happy hours formerly experienced, for a tender, deeply spiritual mood, as may perhaps have been the case at a Christmas festival, we usually describe this today by the word nostalgia!

But let us just for once examine closely with the inner perception whether behind it there is not hidden the unquenchable longing of the suppressed spirit that strives away from the earth to the Eternal Fields of the Kingdom of God, of which we bear within us the smallest part!

With the awakening of this inner longing we draw ever more luminous rays from the Universe, which gradually loosen and eventually altogether dissolve the self-created dark covering, so that the spirit on earth can again shine forth radiantly, as once it did in the springtime of mankind!