The kingdom of Christ

(J. C. Philpot, "Jesus, the Enthroned King")

"The kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21

A true experimental knowledge of Christ as Lord
and King, has a holy sanctifying influence over a
believer's heart and life!

That Christ may reign and rule in the heart, there
must be a previous breaking to pieces of all other
authority and power . . .
  the reign of sin must give way to the reign of grace;
  idols must be dethroned;
  rivals banished;
  lusts subdued;
  the flesh mortified and crucified;
  the old man put off, the new man put on.

Pride and self-righteousness,
unbelief and infidelity,
hypocrisy and vain confidence,
carnality and worldly mindedness,
sin and self in all their various shapes and forms,
must be smitten as with a deadly blow,
and scattered to the winds of heaven!

This fall and ruin of self, makes way for the
setting up of the kingdom of Christ in the heart.
Jesus reveals Himself to the soul, thus broken
and humbled, as its Lord and King.

But who is sufficient for these things? Who will pluck
out his own right eye, or cut off his own right hand?
Who will drive the nails of crucifixion into his own
quivering flesh? No one! The Lord, then, must do it
all for and in us by His Spirit and grace.

"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,"
 says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6