"While men and women remain bound by their church traditions, truth kept secret from the foundation of the world remains hidden to them. They read, but perceive nothing. Eyes they have, but they see not. Ears they have, but they hear not. Hearts they have, but they do not understand. Natural-minded men read of the “kings of the earth” and can only conceive of the outward and the literal. To them it bespeaks the actual kings, prime ministers, and presidents of the visible nations of earth. Though there is on one level a fulfillment in the outer world of appearance, the quickening of the spirit upon the truth so vital for God’s elect bids me look beyond the letter of the word, and receiving of the spirit of the word, and turning inwardly, we find that all that pertains to the kingdoms of this world lies within the heart of man, and there have been so many kings which have ruled within us, and as His kingdom unfurls its banner over our lives, these kings are subdued and brought to nought."
"There have been within all of us many usurping kings, possessed of the bestial spirit of this world, who are so very subtle, very powerful warriors, and very acute disputants. Each of us is like a huge, elaborate palace just full of these kings! Beloved! Examine yourself — do you not find this to be true? What mighty, powerful, persuasive, unwearied rulerships and dominions exercise their authorities within the courts of our souls and bodies, what strange, strong, and subtle reasonings are there? Insomuch that the old Adamic man carries all before him, and these lusts, these desires, these emotions, these imaginations, these reasonings, these habits, these religious inclinations, these compromises, these selfish and self-serving tendencies, these ruling kings of carnality bear away the day of it, and tread down all that stands in their way; by their false logic, their cunning sophistry, their deluding craftiness, and their powerful affection they run rough-shod over the voice of the spirit, over the word of God, over the ways of righteousness, and right over the revealed will of the Lord."
Larger study in the link:
"And this you know is, and has been of old, and shall be, my beloved, until Jesus Christ be revealed within His saints, until He be pleased, with His almighty power to arise within the soul and command obedience, and that He will now manifest Himself, and comes forth with regal, conquering power, else our lusts, and thoughts, and reasonings, and emotions make such a noise, such a blustering, such a clamoring in the soul until Christ cannot be heard. But when the King of kings within our spirit commands all the kings to gather on the field of battle He marches forth to command them all, to put them all to silence, answering, convicting, judging, and banishing every fleshly lust and every soulical, religious sentiment, with every vestige of carnal understanding, self-effort and self-will, and then great Babylon falls, the captivity of the spirit is ended, and then His kingdom comes in great power and glory, and He reigns in soul and body, becoming the King of the life. You see, precious friend of mine, before God will judge that great Babylon in the world, He must first bring it to judgment within the firstfruits, the company of His called and chosen elect. What He first makes true within us He shall then manifest mightily through us unto all the ends of the earth. Great is the mystery!"
"I do not hesitate to tell you that the sphere of His kingdom is the individual heart. God’s kingdom can never come in all the earth until it has been thoroughly inworked in each and every individual heart of man. It is impossible to have a reality corporately until it has been established in each member of the corporate body. There is no “mass miracle” by which the individual is somehow by-passed. Oh, no! This is the end for which man was made, the final cause of his creation, that he might be a province and principality of God: the King eternal septering him throughout his whole nature — spirit, soul, and body. When I pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” I do not feel that I am praying solely for my city, my nation, the world, or anything beyond. I do not think first or foremost about harlots, drunkards, drug addicts, criminals, atheists, Moslems, communists, Catholics, Protestants, or the masses of sinners and self-righteous religionists throughout the world. When I pray, “Thy kingdom come,” I am not content with adding to the thought my unpleasant neighbors, those who call me a heretic, or those in our government who I believe are leading our nation to hell. No! When I utter the prayer it is with the deep conviction that I am praying for myself. I am praying that God’s rule may come fully and powerfully in my own heart, mind, nature, and life. Each man and woman of the billions who have lived and died on this planet will be brought to pray that prayer in the same way and in the same spirit as I — and only then shall the kingdom come and God’s will be done in all the earth as it is in heaven! Oh, yes! The “kings of the earth” are within us!"
"There is no department of human life where the kingdom can rule unless first God rules in the heart."
"There are kings of self-will, of worldly ambition, of fleshly zeal, of ruling thoughts, of compelling desires, of religious dogmas, creeds, and traditions and commandments of men, of soulish emotions and impulses spirited by the world, of fleshly appetites dominated by the five senses, of fears, doubts, anger, rebellion, pride, weakness, and sin. The still small voice speaks a word, and immediately carnal reason tries to argue us out of it. We sense His direction and leading to “stand still,” but human sympathy and sentiment tell us to get involved in things He has not led us to do. Oh, how those kings do rule! So we yield and obey these emotions and impulses, and wonder why we miss the joy and blessing of the Lord. But, praise God, in the days of these kings — while they flourish, control, and bear heavy in their rule — shall the God of heaven set up His kingdom and all authority and power shall be subdued before it. Into the midst of these kings has rolled THE STONE, and it is breaking in pieces, consuming all these, bringing all into submission to Him!"
"There is no doubt about it, this prayer has reference to ourselves. There is a problem and that is that we have our own kingdom, the kingdom of man. Within that kingdom is the kingdom of man’s religion. It is my business, my enterprise, my family, my church, my ministry, my elders, my belief, my people, my thing that I am doing, that we are concerned with."
With keen spiritual insight Ray Prinzing wrote: “How we desire that He REIGN IN US until every fragment of that which would rise up against the truth is subdued, until every desire within us is wholly purified, until every root that would defile us has been burned out — yes, until He shall have thoroughly dealt with all of our ‘internal enemies.’ It is not the man on the street, the raging nations around us, but our own INTERNAL REALM that needs to be fully subdued. The kings within us that war against His will. Yes, until we are brought to that place where we can say with Jesus our Lord, ‘the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me’ (Jn. 14:30). Praise God! Then He shall be able to look upon us, and declare — not just from a prophetic point of view, but from our experiential position in Him, ‘He hath not beheld iniquity in this vessel.’”
Again, Ray Prinzing has so beautifully expounded along this line that I am compelled to share a portion. “Many a battle has been fought and won, though devils were not rebuked, and there was no writhing on the floor in intense travail, nor any challenge by an antagonist against the truth believed — it was all INTERNAL. Battles of the mind, battles of inner spirit conflict, a warfare against the vision, against the thing which God had personally revealed, but which the flesh was not ready to receive and walk in. And while we would ‘reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord,’ yet only HE can complete this work in us and make it an experiential reality. So we surrender, and He works it out. ‘Now why dost thou cry aloud? IS THERE NO KING IN THEE? Is thy counselor perished?’ (Micah 4:9). Israel was desperate, she was in travail, in pain to bring forth, and was crying out in her distress. God answered back, ‘IS THERE NO KING IN THEE?’ Praise God, there is One in the midst of us who shall take the reins of the government, and He shall rule in righteousness, so that we eagerly await the emergence of His kingdom. It is our own little INNER KINGDOM that needs the King, so it is to this realm that we ask the question, and praise God, can answer back positively, YES THERE IS A KING WITHIN!”