What is the kingdom of God?

When we speak, not with our own tongues, but as the Spirit gives us utterance (Acts 2:4), we are establishing the kingdom of God. Why is this establishing the kingdom of God? What is the kingdom of God? Where is the kingdom of God? For the Lord says He is establishing His kingdom. When this kingdom of God is established in time, the Lord will return to us.

In Luke 17:20-21, “Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” The KJV and various other translations says, “…the kingdom of God is within you.” The word in Greek for “in the midst” is “entos” meaning within or among. It is the same word used in Matt. 23:26, where the Lord tells the Pharisees to “first clean the inside of the cup”. “You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.” (Matt. 23:26) So the Lord was using a double meaning here. Realize when the kingdom of God is coming is now, as Jesus was standing in the midst of the Pharisees that were asking the question. Jesus was establishing the entrance to the kingdom by His death, resurrection and ascension. This allows man to enter into and become a part of His kingdom. But it also answers the question of where the kingdom of God is established. It is established within us. When we are cleansed on the inside of our cups, the outside will be cleaned. When the desires and intents of our heart are cleansed, the outward expression will be in His reality. It will be Christ expressed in us. That is the establishment of His kingdom. That is why when the Spirit gives us utterance, the kingdom of God is established.

That is why you cannot see the kingdom of God coming as something to be observed. The kingdom of God is the hidden reality of God dwelling within man, bringing man into glory. When man gives up his own desires and intents of his heart, and allows God to be expressed in Him, Christ has aligned our hearts to God. The good that is expressed in man becomes just Christ expressed in us. We become one spirit with the Lord. “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.” (1 Cor. 6:17) When we have the mind of Christ and express His nature – His love, His light, His holiness and His righteousness – the very reality of who God is will be expressed within us. That is the kingdom of God. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” (Rom. 14:17-19)

The expression of Christ from our spirit, from within, produces works that are acceptable to God and approved by men. That is how we make peace and build the kingdom of God. In building the kingdom of God, man is transformed into a dwelling place for Him. The invisible God has no physical form but the incarnated Jesus has. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Col. 1:15) Realize God made Himself visible in Christ. Jesus made God – His love, His light, His holiness and His righteousness – visible. “For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Col. 16:17) Realize all things, whether physical or not, were created through Him and for Him. “And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.” (Col. 1:17-18) The establishment of the church, His body, is the establishment of His kingdom. In time, He is the beginning of all creation because it is a realm in which God resides in man, as His body, and His nature is expressed through man. “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,” (Col. 1:19) and this fullness is in us all who are Christians and have received the fullness of His Spirit. “For from His fullness we have all received” (John 1:16) being “filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:4) We are filled with His divine nature so we express Him. “And through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.” (Col. 1:20) When all things are reconciled to Himself, then earth, this physical world, will be the same as in heaven, in the invisible world of God the Father. The two will be reconciled into one, so the expression of the divine nature will be visible, on this earth, as one. That is why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Mat. 6:10)

“Our Father who is in heaven,” (Mat. 6:9), when we finally honour and worship Him in reality, surrendering our own wills to be one with Him, we will “Hallowed be thy name,” (Mat. 6:9) Then His kingdom will be established. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.” His kingdom comes when His will is done so that we on earth express what is in the realm of the Spirit, the reality of what God the Father is, living within us. That is why the kingdom of God is within us.

The combination of God in man is the establishment of His kingdom as the New Jerusalem. That is why it has four sides with three doors on each side. Three is the number of God now combined with one more, man, to make four. When we are transformed into the living and precious stones that form its walls, we express God’s nature, jasper, and not our own in the flesh. We will eat of Him, depending on Him for our strength, feeding on the tree of life which bears fruit continuously every month, and drink of Him as the living water. The thirst God has put into man’s heart is finally satisfied.

“As a deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Psa. 42:1-2)

It all starts with a drink at the well. “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14) This water is none other than God Himself, returned to us for our possession. “But an hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” (John 4:23-24 – Recovery Version) When we worship in our spirits and live out this physical life on earth through the power of His Spirit within, the Lord has established His kingdom.

Where the kingdom of God is established is within our spirits. That is why the Lord was answering the woman’s question of where we should worship God. “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” (John 4:20) It is no longer in Jerusalem or any high mountain. His kingdom is no longer established in any physical place or a place with some high theology. It is no longer in the way we refer to “churches” today with all their high levels of thoughts. “O mighty mountain, O mountain of Bashan / O many-peaked mountain, O mountain of Bashan: / Why do you look with envy, O many-peaked mountains / At the mountain on which God desires to dwell? / Indeed Jehovah will dwell there forever.” (Psa. 68:15-16) The place where God wishes to dwell is within our spirits and in truthfulness (in reality). Within our spirits is where the Spirit today is establishing His kingdom. Worship Him in the place of your spirit. Worship Him is truthfulness. Find the group of people in your locality who live by their spirit in one accord with the Spirit. They have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). That is His body. That is His church today. That is Christ establishing His kingdom.

“The kingdom of God does not consist of talk but in power.” (1 Cor. 4:20)