Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32

A previous post got me to thinking about the word “kingdom,” and how it is a word that is a bit abstract and foreign to those of us who live in the United States because our government is not a kingdom. What picture comes to your mind when you hear that word?

I realized that I don’t really have a good mental picture, having never actually lived in a kingdom. I have been in the kingdom of God for the past almost 40 years, having been saved since 1984 and have been learning about it and living under it ever since. I live in it by my surrender to the will of God and my relationship to Him every day. I study the scriptures and pray to ascertain what the will of God is for my life and what His purpose is for me. As a believer I am a citizen of two kingdoms. I live in a body here on the earth, but the scriptures say I am now also a citizen of heaven.

In Ephesians 2:19, Paul tells us, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,”

The system of government we live under in the United States is a republic where we choose the people who are supposed to represent us in an assembly that creates our laws. In a kingdom, it’s entirely different. There is no voting; there is one Boss…the King! And He makes the laws! We don’t get to vote on it.

But the cool thing about this Boss is, He is entirely fair. He is entirely good. He is also love. He really does love us, like a good parent would, and we can trust everything about Him. It is not a hardship to go by His rules. We don’t always understand everything about His rules, but we can trust one thing:  He is true, and He is love. He is always for us, never against us. He takes care of us and provides for us. That doesn’t mean we don’t have to work or do anything. It just means He is looking out for us.

So when I wrote in a previous chapter about when the gospel of the kingdom is preached, there should be people getting healed, I was referring to how Jesus not only taught the people about the kingdom with His words, but afterward God showed His own approval and confirmation of Jesus’s words by healing people. This is seen in both examples in Matthew 4 and Matthew 9. The healings were proof that what Jesus was saying was true. Everyone could receive healing. Their faith was aroused and God bore witness to the teaching of Jesus. He does the same today.

Hebrews 2:3-4 “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?”

The Passion Translation says it this way:

“Then how would we expect to escape punishment if we despise the very truths that give us life? The Lord himself was the first to announce these things, and those who heard him firsthand confirmed their accuracy. Then God added his witness to theirs. He validated their ministry with signs, astonishing wonders, all kinds of powerful miracles, and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which he distributed as he desired.”

So back to the kingdom…there are many scriptures referring to the kingdom. When Jesus taught the people, He would say, the Kingdom of Heaven is like….and He would give the people a picture of something in the natural world demonstrating how the kingdom operated. These “pictures,” or stories were called parables. He told these stories to illustrate and paint a picture in people’s minds what the kingdom was and how it functioned.

In describing the kingdom of heaven to the Pharisees who asked when the kingdom of God would come, He said “The kingdom of God does not come with observation….For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:20-21, meaning it is invisible. When it comes, it dwells in the heart of the person. It is not a visible kingdom….yet. But it can be seen in the new life that the believer experiences and demonstrates when he enters the kingdom. So when we accept the sacrifice of Jesus as payment for our sins, we get a heart change. We are translated from the kingdom of darkness (that is satan’s kingdom) in our thoughts and beliefs and are placed in the kingdom of light where we can now see and understand truth through learning how God thinks and believes. We are now in the light. Colossians 1:13.

In the next post, we will examine what the kingdom is, as Jesus taught.