Reconsidering

KATHY GABLER—Eventually, I came to a fuller understanding of biblical repentance meaning “to consider things differently and change your thinking”. I came to understand it to be “reconsidering for the purpose of aligning your thoughts with God’s”. As the process of repentance opened my understanding, even the phrase “the Kingdom of Heaven ” came to more meaning. I discovered that the Kingdom of Heaven was not a place with God that we can only reach after death, but that the Bible concept of the Kingdom of Heaven is His authority, power, order and ruling presence everywhere, at all times, both in eternity and the now. According to Psalm 145, His Kingdom always has been and always will be. Another major turn in my understanding then was that when Jesus said “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” it is a major contradiction to think He meant that it is almost time to leave the earth to go to another place when He was actually saying the authority and power of God is within reach on earth! That made me realize that when Jesus healed some people, He said, “The Kingdom has come upon you.” He had a grasp on God’s order in Heaven and was pulling it into earth to heal.