Is not that your story too? Yes, that is the story of every saved person. Yet at the time of our salvation we never thought that someone would come into our lives and take control. Many people, when they are first saved, do not understand this, and have asked me for an explanation. I have sought to explain it this way: How did you believe in the Lord? Did you not receive Him into your life? Then do you know that the Lord you received is not only Saviour, but also King? He is not only the Crucified One, He is also the One who has been exalted to the throne. He has received "all authority in heaven and on earth." "God has made Him both Lord and Christ." Today He is no longer the Savior on the cross. He is the Savior on the throne. It is as King that He has become your Savior, so His coming has brought His throne into your life. Every saved person is under an inner government, and this government is the government of the kingdom. Hitherto you have been aware of a restraint upon you, but you have not realized that there is a throne within your life. The kingdom of God is within you.

A few days ago I met someone who said with amazement: "My fellow students can enter heartily into all sorts of recreations, and I long to do the same. Yet when I want to take part in those amusements, there is a strong inner restraint. Why is there all this trouble inside?" We sometimes tell people that there is trouble inside because they have the life of the Lord inside. That is true enough, but it is not the whole truth. The question is not just one of a life within, but of an authority within.

Paul said, "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). What are "eating and drinking"? Very practical matters of daily life. God's kingdom is likewise a practical matter of daily life—as practical a matter as eating and drinking. God's kingdom is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." When the authority of God's kingdom is allowed to operate within us, these three things will characterize our daily life—toward ourselves we shall be strict in all matters of "righteousness"; in our relation to others we shall be characterized by "peace"; and in our walk with God we shall have "joy in the Holy Spirit." If we lack joy in the Holy Spirit, something has gone wrong with us. It is when we throw off the divine restraint that we are silent while others are praising. While they sing their hallelujahs, we cannot even produce an amen. Our spirits become weighted so that we cannot rejoice. When righteousness marks our personal walk, when we have peace in our relation with others, and when we have joy in the presence of God—then the kingdom is manifesting itself in our everyday life.

Let us cease to think of the kingdom as a matter merely of prophecy. The New Testament reveals that as soon as we are saved, the throne of God is brought into our inner beings, so that thereafter our lives are lived in subjection to His kingdom.