WHAT IS THE KINGDOM?

Last week we dealt with the topic “Invisible Spiritual Kingdom.” Going forward we shall be looking at this question, “What is the kingdom?” When we opened the theme, I told you that there is a separation. And the time will come when we are going to deal with that separation. We will then look at different manifestations of kingdom. What is the kingdom? In answer to that question, the Word says the Kingdom is where God rules and reigns all over the world. Or put in another language, the kingdom is where God reigns over the people, nations, men of every language in all of the world, and in the hearts of people. Jesus spoke to us telling us that the kingdom of God is within you. God is inside of you; He owns you; you belong to Him; you are His temple. When you permit Him, He rules the affairs of your life. It is possible, therefore, for somebody to be born again and still don’t allow God to rule and reign in his life. When God rules and reigns, there is fellowship between your spirit and the Spirit of God; there is communion. The person who is born again and still don’t allow that fellowship, that communion, listens to the voice of the flesh. He hears the voice of the world and he obeys the dictates of the outward voice. Because God is inside you, His voice comes from inside of you. The voice from within, the still small voice, the voice that comes through the communion between your spirit and the Spirit of God, is not outside of you. That voice comes from inside of you. Many will only be hearing the outward voice and they obey. Some even mistake it for the voice from heaven but it is not the voice from heaven. It’s the external force, the forces around you who are seeking to dominate you, to oppress you. That is the voice coming from outside of you. The voice of God comes from within you. 

1st Chronicle 29:10-13, “David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying “Praise be to You, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from You; You are the ruler of all things. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious name.” The Word is telling us that God deserves to be praised. He deserves to be praised because He is the King of heaven and earth and He rules through Jesus. God has appointed Jesus to be the Head over everything for the Church and because Jesus is not physically here, He is doing it through the Church, which is His body, the body of Christ. He is the head; we are the body. God is ruling this world, not directly, but through the Church, and Jesus is the head of the Church. This Lord of our lives deserves to be praised. Hence, David praised the Lord. Secondly, he calls Him our Father. God is our Father, and we are His children. We are born of the Spirit. He is the Spirit. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6). We became Children of God because we are born again; we are born of the Spirit. Most of us identify with our natural history because they gave birth to us through the flesh, in the flesh. You can trace your ancestry through your history, and so they will call Jesus the son of Joseph and Mary. But the time came when they stopped calling Him the son of Joseph and Mary. If you are still doing that, you are in the natural. We don’t call him the son of Joseph and Mary, the brother of James and John; He is the son of God. I shared something in the last chapter, there we saw Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do the people say that I am?” And some said, “You are John the Baptist, you are Elijah, you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Then He asked, ‘What about you? Who do you say that I am?” and Peter stepped forward and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” You too are a child of God. The day you became born again, you became a child of God because when we say you are born again, it means you are born of the Spirit. You are born of the Word; you are born of God; you are born of heaven; you are born of faith. We are the ones who are the children of God. It also tells you that there are those who are not born again; they are the children of the devil. There are many outside, and they are the people responsible for the killing, destruction, stealing, and kidnapping. They are into drugs, violent people, and they are criminally minded. They are working for their father, the devil. But you are working for your Father, the Heavenly Father. Praise be to God! “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness.” All that is glorious and royal is ascribed to our God from the passage we read. And he went on to say, “For you are from everlasting to everlasting.” He is God of the eternity past, God of the eternity present, God of the eternity future. When you look back, you can’t find the beginning. He has no beginning nor end. You are in the present. People who lived some 6,000 years ago, they looked at today as eternity. The present, where we are, they looked at it as very far away, over 6,000 years ago. But we are here in the present, and we still have eternity in the future. We don’t know where the end is. It could be another 2,000 years before Christ, or 4,000 years, or 6,000 years or more. The end can only come in the advent of the second coming. So there is eternity past, eternity present, and eternity in the future. “For You are from everlasting to everlasting” tells us that He has no end. Then he went on to ascribe to Him all the royalty, the splendor, the beauty, the honor, and the glory. Everything was ascribed to Him. “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the majesty, and the splendor.” It is only in royalty you’ll find that He’s the King of heaven. God reigns, and He rules all over the world, and in the hearts of men, in the heart of those who believe in Him, who have received Him into their lives. We must receive Him into our lives then He will reign in our lives. What is this kingdom? The Bible went on to say, “Yours, O Lord, is the Kingdom.” We call the Kingdom ‘the Kingdom of God.’ The Kingdom belongs to Him, hence we call it the kingdom of God. Yet there is a false kingdom, a counterfeit kingdom. We’ll come to that in another chapter. Therefore for today, what is the kingdom? The kingdom belongs to God. It is God’s kingdom. He has everything in the Kingdom. “Wealth and honor comes from you. You are the ruler of all things.” He’s the ruler of all things; things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth. He’s the ruler of all things. Man was supposed to be sub-ruler of this world. He was to be the god of this earth. And God said, “Let’s create man in our own image, after our likeness.” And in the image of God, He created him, male and female, He created them. And God said, “Rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all that creeps and moves on the face of the earth.” (See Genesis 1:26-27). Man was to rule over this world, but he sold out to Satan. God gave charge of this world to man, but man sold it out to Satan. And you now see Satan causing all the evil. He’s jealous of man. God is the ruler of all things and everything belongs to him. “For the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” (See Psalms 24:1). He owns everything, and true riches comes from Him. Whatever you are holding, you are holding it in custody, in trust. One day you will leave it, and somebody else will take it over. And for the time being, when you keep holding that thing, you are accountable unto God. You must use it to bring glory to God and a blessing to people around you. Is it money, the position, the influence, the power, the wisdom? Use it for God’s glory and a blessing to people that are around you. It means you will be accountable. If you don’t use it well, you pay dearly for it. But if you use it well, more will be given to you, and you become blessed. So all the qualities you ascribe to the royalty is in that passage. He owns everything; He rules over everything; the kingdom belongs to Him; He has all the power; He has all the wisdom. And He gives all of this to those who love Him, whose hearts are drawn to Him. 

Reading from the book of 2 Peter 1:11, and it says, “And you will be richly welcomed to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The kingdom of God does not come to an end. It’s an everlasting kingdom because it’s a spiritual kingdom. Everything you see around here is temporary: position is temporary; this body is temporary; knowledge here is temporary; houses, cars, roads, and every other thing here is temporary. Roads are being constructed where there was none before. Houses are being built where there was no house, and the time will come, the house will be demolished and something else will be in place. They are all temporary things, but everything on the other side of life is eternal and everlasting, from generation to generation. Today we are welcoming you to the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the kingdom that is being unveiled to you; your eyes are being opened to see this kingdom. And as many that are not yet born again, will be welcomed to this eternal kingdom. Get ready to welcome yourself to this glorious kingdom. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then you see all the beautiful things, the glorious things that are kept there for you. When you are ready, you are ushered into that kingdom, and all the riches, blessings, prosperity, and success that are kept there waiting for you, you begin to appropriate them into your life. You begin to apply them to your life. Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby they must be saved.” When we are talking about this Kingdom, you can’t get there, see it, or find it unless you go through Jesus; He is the head. God has handed over everything to the Son, who is the heir of all things. So that answers the question about different religions. Are they all connected to the Kingdom we are talking about? The kingdom of God? Are all other religions – African traditional religion, Islamic religion, Judaism, Buddhism, and all of that – connected to this Kingdom we are talking about? Since Christ is the head, He is the King of kings there, and He’s the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father, to the Kingdom, except through Him. (See John 14:6) What is the faith of this other religions? I congratulate you, and I welcome you to this eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. For no one can get to the Father except through Him. When you belong to Him, you are in the right place. That’s why Christianity is not a religion; it’s a confession. It is the great confession! What you say you become. If you say God is my Father, you become His child. Christianity is the great confession; it’s never a religion. What you confess, you receive. Praise be to God!

Reading from the book of Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” The kingdom of God is not about things in the natural; flesh and blood and food and drink. Some pursue it because of what they will eat, what they will drink. And many in the life of Jesus, during His earth walk, were following Him because of the food that they will eat. But seeking after the Kingdom and His righteousness is beyond the physical and natural realm, it is more than food and drink. It is in the Kingdom you find righteousness, peace that is incomprehensive, and joy like a river. He says, “My peace I give unto you.” (See John 14:27). You find righteousness – He says, “God made Him who knew no sin that we may become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2nd Corinthians 5:21). And He will not withhold anything from those who are righteous, upright, and whose hearts are blameless. It is in the Kingdom you find all these. 

1st Corinthians 4:20, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” The Kingdom of God is power in demonstration. It is born out of power through miracles, signs and wonders – giving us grace, strength, ability, and wisdom. It is in the Kingdom you find all of these. And they endure forever; they are not perishable and indestructible. They don’t fade. The Kingdom of God is about power. And Jesus said in Matthew 12:28, “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, it means that the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” That is power. “If I drive out evil spirits it means the Kingdom of God is here. And we have experienced it – that is why you are born again. Anyone who is born again – of the Word, of the Spirit, of God, and of love – has experienced this Kingdom. You experience healing, supply, and deliverance. The love you have, many are looking for it. They are looking for the love. The good health and healing that you enjoy, many are looking for it. They even want to buy it with money, but they can’t have it. But for us, we are healed. It’s given to us freely. How much did you pay for your healing? How much did you pay for your salvation? How much do you pay for the wisdom, the ability, the strength that you received? For out of His fullness, we all have received grace upon grace, blessing upon blessing. The Kingdom of God is power, and it has come upon us. 

John 6:40,47 “My Father’s will is that you will look to the Son, and that he who looks to the Son and believes has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 47, I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has everlasting life.” The will of the Father for every one of us is that we look to the Son. He who looks to the Son and believes has eternal life. For you to experience this Kingdom, for you to see this Kingdom, for you to be blessed in this Kingdom, what do we need? We need to look to the Son and believe. That is the will of the Father, but many have refused to look to the Son. They are looking for something else. He says, “Do not conform yourself to the pattern of this world, but be you transformed by renewing your mind.” (See Romans 12:2). From our soul, we need to be renewed. Our mind needs to be transformed and renewed for us to see the kingdom. For our spirits needs to be born again for us to experience the Kingdom. Without believing, you cannot experience this Kingdom. Believing takes you to the level of experiencing the Kingdom. That is the will of the Father for us. If you look to the Son and believe in Him, you have eternal life, then you belong to the eternal kingdom. Eternal life in the Eternal Kingdom. You will have eternal life, then you begin to enjoy the eternal Kingdom. The people of the world are worldly and of the flesh; they enjoy the world and the things of the world. If anyone loves these things, he has missed the love of the Father. Praise be to God! He says in that verse 47, “Truly I tell you, he who believes has eternal life.” When you believe, you receive. Whatever you believe, you receive. If you believe in healing, you receive it. If you believe in success, you receive it. If you believe in strength, you receive strength. If you believe in prosperity, you receive prosperity. What you believe, you possess. Believing leads to the next level. For you to be engaging in the Kingdom, you need to believe. And it says in the book of Mark 16:15-18, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever that believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will take up serpents with their own hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them at all; they will place their hands upon sick people and they will get well.” Those who believe and are baptized will be saved. For you to get, receive, and enjoy the things of the Kingdom, this Kingdom of God, you need to believe. Believing takes you to that experience of being fulfilled, being satisfied, receiving, possessing, being blessed. Nobody will force you. Salvation is never forced on anyone; it is for those who believe. Those who believe will be saved. And those who further believe, after being saved, take a step further again, they will be driving out devils, speaking in tongues, taking up serpents with their bare hands, and when they drink deadly, poisonous things, they will be harmless. He says, “I give unto you power to trample upon serpent and upon scorpions and over all the powers of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means harm you.” You will be harmless. That is a blessing that is only found in the Kingdom. So believing takes you to a higher realm. In the book of Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith, it is impossible to receive from God. For if anyone must come to God, he must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” You must believe that you will receive your blessing. When you seek Him, you will find Him. When you ask, you receive. When you knock, the door is open. It is all in your believing. You can’t receive anything from Him without faith. You are different from the people of the world. The people of the world can do anything to get what they want. They can kill, kidnap, go into robbery, steal, tell lies, manipulate, be violent to get those things, but you are different. The true things, true riches given by our Father, we receive them by faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him; to do what is acceptable and pleasing to Him. We must come with faith, and the soil where faith grows is in our hearts. Faith is of the spirit; it’s not from the head. We must be transformed; our minds must be renewed by the Word; we must line up with the Word. When we line up with the Word, we receive deliverance, salvation, healing, strength, and power to do whatever we want to do. Everything we need is in the Word. The Word is the source, the connecting point to the Kingdom. We connect the Father through the Word. We connect with everything we desire through the Word. Go through the Word! We can’t go outside of the Word. We must go through the Word to receive what we desire. 

1 Peter 1:3-4, “Praise be to God, the Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. For out of His great mercy, He has given us birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This is kept in heaven for you.” We are born into a living hope, and this happens for the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. That ignites a hope that is in you. It inspires hope in you. Tell yourself, ‘I am inspired.’ Look, many are tired of serving God, praying, reading the Bible, or coming to the church because they have lost hope. They have no hope again. When hope is lost, you lose so many things. They get discouraged because they have no hope and expectation. We must be consciously be inspired by this hope. The hope keeps reviving you, strengthening you, pushing you higher and forward. Be inspired by a living hope, the one that can never perish. When the hope perishes, fails, and disappoints, they look back and become weak. They start looking for other means to be able to achieve their aims, their objectives, their goals, and their purpose in life. We must have a renewed hope; a hope that is alive and living. You are always inspired, energized, and awakened. He gave us the new birth into a living hope, the hope of resurrection from the dead. In Ephesians 1:18, He prayed for us, “That the eye of your heart may be enlightened that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of the glorious inheritance that you have in the saints, and the great and mighty power towards us who believe. That power that is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in the Lord Jesus when He raised Him up from the dead and seated Him at His right hand, far above principalities and powers, rules and authorities, or dominions and any title that can be named, not only in the present time and age, but also in the one to come.” He has called us to a living hope. Let hope inspire you and your prayer and you will never fail. The hope you must have is that yes, things will get better. When you keep hoping that things will get better, it will keep you going. And the nights can only last for the moments. Weeping may last for the night, but joy will come at the dawn of the day. Keep your hope alive. Tell yourself, “I will keep my hope alive.” Keep hope alive; don’t let it fail. And He says from the book of Romans chapter 5, from verse 3, “We rejoice in suffering, for suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does not disappoint because it’s a living hope…” Your hope will never perish in the name of Jesus. It renews itself. Hope will never disappoint, unless it’s a false hope. If it’s a false hope, the wrong, worldly, and selfish one, it will fail because you are not listening to the voice from inside. You are listening to the voice outwards. But you go from the inner voice, the voice from within you, and your hope will never disappoint. When the voice from within you is alerting you, giving you alerts and warning signs about some things, you listen and it will save you. The voice from inside, when you obey it, will save you from so many troubles. You will not have down moments; you will not be in chaos; you will not be confused; you will not be helpless. We must listen to the voice from inside of us. It renews hope in us. And reading further from that verse 5, “…Hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Spirit which He has given us.” He has spread His love in our hearts. One thing that is guaranteed, that is promised you, that you are sure of is love. In the kingdom of God, there is abundance of love. Hope is inspiring you, and it will keep inspiring you until you fall into the realm of love; abundance of it, love everlasting. “Love one another for love is from God. He who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God for God is love.” (See 1st John 4:7-8). Hope will inspire you when you are in love. It will keep you going. That even though things may be difficult and tight now at the moment, it is going to be better every day for you. Where love is suffering, hope keeps it going. Love suffers long; love knows how to endure. Because knowing that the future is going to be great, when love is suffering, it won’t complain. But when the flesh is suffering it will complain. Love suffers; that is why Jesus suffered for us because He loves us. Any love that is not ready to suffer cannot last. Love suffers long and it does not seek its own. It is not selfish or self-centered; it is sacrificial. It suffers all things. In the kingdom, love is imparted on you. Love is imparted on your life. Without love you cannot live in the Kingdom. It is the Kingdom of Love. God’s kingdom is the Kingdom of Love. If you are in hatred, in selfishness, you don’t have a place there. Love does not fear anything. It does not fear sickness, danger or anything that is evil. In heaven there is nothing to fear. There is no death in heaven, so what is there to fear? The lions there are not carnivorous; they don’t eat flesh but straw like the ox. The snake in heaven does not eat flesh; they eat dust. (See Isaiah 65:25) So if you see a snake in heaven, you don’t have to run or start looking for stone or stick to kill it, it’s not going to harm you. But here, even human beings kill. Human beings eat other human beings. Man eats man. Dog eats dog. Human beings will go violent and they start destroying. They are working for their father, the devil, for he came to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Heaven is a totally different place, the life there is the life of love. God is imparting Himself through love. Let love rule your lives: your business, marriage, career, and then you see the glory, greatness, and splendor. Heaven has appeared to you. You are in the Kingdom: The Kingdom of greatness, life, God, and of love. That is the kingdom that we belong, and it will never fail. True love, unconditional love is imparted. God has poured out His love in our hearts. He has poured it out in our lives by His Spirit which He has given unto us, and He commands us to love one another for love is from God. He who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love, he does not know God because God is love. “A new commandment I give unto you, love one another as I have loved you. If you love one another, truly, you are My disciples.” (See John 13:34) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” You are partaking of the love of God, so you too should love. If you have taken, shared in the love of Christ who died for us, then you too must give love. If you are not giving love, it means you are rejecting the love that Jesus gave you. Once you are not ready to love your neighbor, you are rejecting the love that Jesus has imparted on you. He came to share His love. He spread it abroad in our hearts. What are you waiting for? Those people you felt you hated before, go and love them. When you love them, it is a sign that truly you are obedient to the Word. It is the first commandment. 

Talking about the Kingdom, in Daniel 4:1-3, “King Nebuchadnezzar, To the nations and peoples of every language, who live in all the earth: May you prosper greatly! It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation.” That is a testimony, and you also have a testimony about this Kingdom. When you are in the Kingdom, miracles, signs, and wonders will never cease. They are the workings of this Kingdom that we belong to. It is in the Kingdom you hear about wondrous things: miracles, signs and wonders, healings, deliverance, blessings, prosperity, true success, and long life. These are all resources of the Kingdom that we belong: the Kingdom of Love. The great signs and the mighty wonders all happens in the eternal and everlasting Kingdom of God. When you come to this Kingdom, you are welcome to the riches that you can only find in the presence of God. Since we have been raised with Christ, we set our minds on the things above where Christ is seated, and not on the earthly things. This is the Kingdom we belong: it is an eternal Kingdom, the dominion endures from generation to generation. As it was in the beginning, it is now, and forever shall be, life without end. You keep seeing the manifestation of this Kingdom of power; the power moves. It is a Kingdom of Justice; the scepter of Justice is the scepter of God’s Kingdom. (See Psalm 45:6). “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of Your kingdom.” Hallelujah! I am welcoming today to the eternal Kingdom where your blessings are being kept for you. It is the glorious Kingdom, the Kingdom of light and love, and when you belong, you can only thank God that it doesn’t fail. Praise be to God!