I asked this in a previous thread without an answer. I want to see if anyone had any insight into this. What is the Kingdom of God?

Can anyone speak to what the Kingdom of God is with experience rather than just quoting scripture?

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Tyler

The best teaching I have heard on this is here; there are 11 lectures in the left hand column:

http://www.digitalministries.us/page10.html

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Todd

Tyler,
I am happy to share with you what The Lord has taught.
I have a testimony here on SI, that I shared some time ago,...in it I shared how The Lord worked in my life, and wanted me to know what ‘the kingdom of God’ was/is.

That is the very first thing that He, through His Grace/Spirit,started just drawing me to,in a mighty way.

I was not being disrespectful but I thought, ‘of all subjects, Why the king of God.’... (because there are sooo many good subjects in the Bible)

(By the way, I later realized that there was NO subject more important than this subject on ‘the kingdom of God’ ,... because out of it has flowed the understanding of many other things relating to this subject, making The Word ‘ONE’ thoughout),.... as He continues to open our seeing/understanding / reveals to us.)

Nevertheless, I began compiling and compiling the subject on the kingdom that He continued to draw me to. But after quite some time, ..still not understanding,... I laid it aside and went on to other interesting subjects.
Then, .. maybe month or so, one morning as I was rising out of bed, it just flowed out of my Spirit,...
’The kingdom of God, is the resurrected Lord IN US ‘

So, with much study to confirm this,... by looking then to ‘resurrection, rise , raised,risen,... anything to do with ‘RESURRECTION ‘

I did not know what He told me meant at the first, but then He showed me,...

The Kingdom of God is within us,.. His Spirit came to LIVE within us to do a work of God ,... He is LIVING/ ALIVE,... (He is not a dormant Spirit)
He came to live in us to be King / kingdom rule / be Lord, in our life, through be led by our King, through The Spirit of God.

( Rom. 8:14,
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

Wasn’t ‘Jesus our example ?
He was led by His Father,God in everything,...

*Paul was reaching for, ... pressing into the kingdom,..desiring to keep his body in subjection, lest he preach to others, and he,himself should be a castaway.,,... even though God had revealed this Great knowledge of His Word to Him.
Paul, not only seeked after the ‘kingdom of God, but he was seeking The righteousness of that kingdom.

( “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness “)

To seek the kingdom of God, we know, is to seek The King,.. who is Jesus, and say as Paul,..’What would Thou have for me to do, Lord?,... in all things ,... always.

Jesus came to set up a Spiritual Kingdom now,..
That is not to say that He will not set up a kingdom in the end, I do not know about that,.. all I know is what He has taught me now.

Phil.3:11-12,
“... If by any means I might attain unto “THE RESURRECTION “ of the dead.”

12 ¶” Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.“

Well, I can stop for now,
IN Him we Live,.. Have Life,
—————-
elizabeth

And, thank you Todd,..
I would like to hear what this man says.

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Diane

Martyr: I will give it my best shot from my own experience and what God has been teaching me.

Obviously there are a few places in scripture where His kingdom is a future, literal kingdom over which He reigns. But that would be, I think, the minority of the references.

The kingdom of God is His reign and rule in my life. It is entered into by my death and new life in Him. When I enter His kingdom, He now calls the shots and as a result, I get to operate under the delegated authority of the King. I represent Him to the world as an ambassador, but what an ambassador, because through the power of His Holy Spirit the power and authority of the King now fills me and flows from me as rivers of living water. I can now be a perfect representation of the King to the world around me.

I find it interesting how many times Jesus either preached or commanded the disciples to preach the kingdom of God. Obviously if it were all about being forgiven of sins so we could go to heaven, then He would not have spent so much time preaching the kingdom. He would simply have preached forgiveness of sins. But the kingdom goes so much deeper. Forgiveness of sins is like the doorway we pass through in order to enter the kingdom. In that kingdom, I am no longer my own, but His. And I have full intimacy and fellowship with Him. He is free, because I am His, to work in and through me in the power of His Spirit.

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Travis

Amen, well said!

Without a King there is no kingdom.... where a king is King there is His Kingdom -

So is He the King;
on the throne of our hearts or are we?
in our minds or are we?

Another way to say it is, is He the producer and director of our lives or are we?
Are we part of His production or are we the star of our own all while speaking christianese with Jesus stickers on our set??

So we come to the crux of the matter...

Mostly people believe and therefore live a lie, doesn’t matter what we call it, it is what it is.
The lie says we must work to get something (that has already been given) so we project our programming onto reality and act in response to our projection. Our projection is based on our programming which itself is an amalgam of memories and experiences that “program” us to think things are as we imagine them. We then identify ourselves with this program as “this or that” and then proceed to “act” out the part we’ve imagined for ourselves... it’s all a lie!
Anytime we identify with or as something external we immediately begin to live accordingly ...
Mostly we respond to a sense of lack, which itself is also a lie- “before you have asked, I have already given- exceedingly, abundantly more than you could ever ask or even hope for”

Remember -
“Kingdom is within”
“In your midst”

If He is the Director and Producer of our lives then our only striving is to stay on script, in character, remembering our lines and following His direction- so then nothing is done in and of ourselves but all is of Him.
Then this; “do ALL that you do as unto the Lord” makes perfect sense as it’s the inevitable conclusion of one submitted to His directives.

So (for me), the Kingdom of God is like His Production- and tho I may at times go off script or forget my lines or even get out of character, is my heart settled on studying and striving to please Him.... do I show up and submit myself to His cause,... do I trust His grace and guidance is sufficient,... do I believe that He cast me to play this part and that through His direction, He will draw out of me exactly what He wants... do I believe that even my failings and weaknesses will be used by Him to bring an element, not before considered, that in fact adds to the overall value of His plan and thereby He willl receive glory and be magnified by my testimony...?

That’s what the Kingdom is for me.... the place where He is my eternal King and that place exists right now ~

Edited to add;

Salvation is itself a means to an ends and not an end in itself. What we are being “saved” from is the lie that we have to create a kingdom that is worthy to merit Gods approval by our own efforts. It is simply impossible by definition...
Being “born again” is dying to our petty kingdom life and being reborn into His glorious eternal Kingdom life. This is why - “ya must be born again, else you cannot enter my kingdom”.
Sometimes we get hung up on salvation and miss the kingdom-

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Fletcher

Brother Fletcher! Reading your post was truly refreshing this afternoon! I appreciate your use of allegory!

I believe the Kingdom is God is a crucial reality to meditate on!

Thank you all for this convo (love your tenacity and perseverance for answers Tyler)!

Love you all!

Edited for more love...:

P.s. I wanted to encourage Diane’s rock solid advice and for brother Travis’s post too....ya’ll are so precious...truly thankful for the privilege to read your thoughts here.

I think i will have to add my two cents

A personal and a biblical journey

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1. Biblical

Daniel 2:44 NIV
https://www.biblestudytools.com/daniel/2-44.html

44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

Daniel 2
42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly* strong, and partly* broken.
43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves* with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter*: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

In the bible

15And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. 16And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, 17Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. 18And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

19And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

John 18:36 KJV
https://www.biblestudytools.com/kjv/john/18-36.html

36 Jesus answered,My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

To go through the numerous passages to do with the kingship of the Messiah as Jesus is the king of the Jews and is a King in the lineship of David !

What is hard to explain to people that Jesus has a time when he will reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years before the eternal kingdom!


Isaiah 2
The Mountain of the Lord

1The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

5O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Scriptures regarding the thousand year reign of Christ !

Revelation 20:6 KJV
https://www.biblestudytools.com/kjv/revelation/20-6.html

6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Zechariah 14
All Nations will Worship the King

16And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. 17And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 18And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 19This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

20In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD'S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts

The Bible talks in Zechariah that all the Nations will go up to Jerusalem and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles if they do not there will be no rain.

Can you imagine a future godly kingdom in which there will be no mosques , where god would replenish the earth and creation again.

Can we imagine a kingdom in which Yeshua reigns, where there will be no mosques, no sin, no violence and no temples but a perfect government where he is ruling from Jerusalem!

Where the kings of old like David and all the other famous kings in scripture will be there. All the famous prophets of old.

Can we imagine a kingdom during the time of the Millenium that even thou there is a perfect king that people will still rebel because of there sin

Revelation 20
Satan Cast into the Lake of Fire

7And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 10And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Can you imagine a world in which there will be no more hospitals when a child will live to be 100 during the time of the millennium, where the wolf shall lie with the lamb!

What I find interesting is that

Isaiah 65
17For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

18But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

19And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

20There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

21And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

22They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

23They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.

24And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
mountain, saith the LORD.

John 1:49
Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

I love dwelling on this subject imagining a king a future kingdom in which there will be no more cities and that Yeshua will rule from Zion.

I believe there is a non visible Kingdom in the true church and we are waiting for the true king to come, I do not believe in Domionism that we have the conquer the world before the king comes , We have a Jewish King who is Both God and Man who is coming to rule from Jerusalem.

Where we live under a very different world when he reigns. Imagine a world without crime, where dinosaurs will roam the earth again, where the dead sea will be given life and there will be fishing from En Gedi, Where there will be leaves in Jerusalem that will heal the Nations.

Then on to the Eternal State where there will be a new Heavens and Earth.

Hebrews 11

8By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

13These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

Like Abraham we are desiring a heavenly city and a heavenly country!

Luke 17

20And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

22And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. 23And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. 24For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. 25But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. 26And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.


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2. Personal

One of my recommendation is art katz sermons
Man’s Petty Kingdoms vs. God’s Kingdom
http://artkatzministries.org/audio-messages/man%E2%80%99s-petty-kingdoms-vs-god%E2%80%99s-kingdom/

We are all trying to set up are own kingdoms and essentially unless it ligns up with scriptures even with church work, missionary work and even so called Christian things but does it line up with the Bible! Does it line up with the Future Kingdom that Jesus is going to create when he returns are you as Amos put it, Prepared to meet thy God.

I know I am the worst mess, sinful and without Jesus I can do nothing! Will all my so called Christian work be wood, hay and stubble because I did "so called Kingdom work" and it does not line up with what it says in the Bible.

How can Christians try and set up a Kingdom of there own making that is in direct opposition to the true King and his word (The Bible) even thou in maybe through Sermons and Books, Missions or Christian Things.

Without consulting the Bible we disregard the King of King and Lords of Lords who every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

Another thing I loathe is the type of New Age belief that the Kingdom is within you even thou Jesus does say that, the way that People intepret it is sometimes ethereal and they have no grounding to realise that Jesus is the true King.

To realise that there will be a true kingdom that will make America look like a nightmare, when archaologists from a thousand years from now, dig up our present culture during that millenium reign of Christ. How dark will they see our culture.

I doubt people will even read my post !

What i hate at the moment is when christians use the phrase I am doing kingdom work and it is more like AntiChrist work!

Even using it when the bible forbids it and calling it Kingdom work!

It is amazing to think the true Son of David, who has the royal linage from Kings to Hezekiah to Solomon to Josiah, is engrossed in the churches sometimes blatent disregard of his kingdom.

They are like the Dead sea Scroll essences who want to conquer this world through war as that was what they wanted to do, read the war scroll!

https://www.qumran.org/js/qumran/hss/1qm

God bless

Dom

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Dominic Shiells

Hi Tyler:

Lots of good answers so far, I'll share a readers digest version.

The Kingdom of God is the place of God's rule, the citizens of that Kingdom and the power of God.

One of the exciting things about the Kingdom of God is we are citizens of it, we are ambassadors sent from it, we (the Church) are carriers of that Kingdom.

Since the Spirit of God indwells us, we are citizens under the rule of God, since we are indwelt by the Spirit of God we are empowered to 'bring the kingdom' to whomever God sends us.

In short, when we preach the Kingdom of God or the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, we are in fact declaring Jesus has come into the world and was crucified for us. When Paul said 1 cor 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He was saying in his way what Jesus had taught his disciples.
Find these in Matt 13, "The kingdom of heaven is like"
a man who found a treasure and paid all he had to purchase the field. Or a man who found a great pearl and paid all he had to purchase the pearl. We are that treasure dear brother, we are that pearl that Jesus paid all for. So in declaring the kingdom of God, we declare what Christ has done for us, and this same Christ has sent me ( and the rest of us) to find his treasure he paid for ( the lost) and find the pearl he purchased ( the lost) and love them, declare to them the kingdom of God has come unto them.

The other posters alluded to a great deal more than this tidbit, but for all practical purposes, know the kingdom of God is you and me because Christ lives in me and you. Our lives are to manifest the rule of God, they are to manifest the life of Christ all over again in this sinful age we live in.

Rejoice brother, we are ambassadors declaring "be reconciled to God!" For great grace is abundantly available in Jesus Christ.

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Marvin

Spiritual: God is Spirit and we worship Him in spirit and truth against
Material: Money, lust, things, position etc.
Invisible: The Kingdom of God is within us. It is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit against
Visible: what the eye can see
Eternal: …and of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end against
Temporal: the world and its lusts are fading away but the Word of God endures forever

The Kingdom of God is in His Son, Jesus Christ: All authority in heaven and on earth (and under the earth) has been given to Him. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord!

And, of course, this spiritual and , for now invisible, kingdom will manifest in a visible way when Christ the Lord returns and executes righteous judgement on the earth

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William