How The Kingdom Is Set Up

This is a continuation of our previous discussion on how to proclaim the Kingdom of God and in this article, I explained about how the Kingdom of God is Setup. In this post, I will be talking about three more things that are found in kingdoms and we shall relate them to the Kingdom of God.

We have heard and know that life is spiritual. The bible in Hebrews 11:3, teaches that the visible world was created from the invisible. In 2Corinthians 4:18, Paul said that the invisible is permanent but the visible is temporary.

How does this relate to our discussion? All the kingdoms on earth are a photocopy of the heavenly Kingdom (spiritual) and so when we look at how kingdoms are setup here on earth, we get a clear reflection of the Kingdom of God. In addition to what we discussed previously; the following three aspects are also evident.

1. CITIZENS

Another important aspect of every kingdom is the issue citizens. A kingdom cannot qualify to be valid without citizens who are subjects of their king. There are however two kinds of government systems namely: monarchy and democratic systems.

The monarchy system is the one we are talking about here where the king/queen is the head, and the citizens are his subjects.

The democratic way of government was born from monarchy as a result of rebellion, and we can well understand it from the bible. In Revelation 12:7-11, John in his vision saw that there was war in heaven, and Archangel Michael was given the responsibility to deal with the ancient serpent (Satan) and unfortunately, he was kicked out of heaven together with his angels.

Why was Satan ejected from heaven? Ezekiel 28:14-17 tells us that he was in the Eden (heaven) where he walked on the fiery stones and was adorned with every precious stone since the day he was created. This made him become proud and thought he could share the same glory with God.

Satan became proud and he started the democratic movement in heaven – he thought that he also can seat in God’s throne! Isaiah 42:8 says that God cannot share His glory with any idol or with anyone. So you can imagine what took place in heaven.

After Satan was thrown here on earth, he carried with him PRIDE which is normally the basis for every democratic campaigns. Every democratic leader thinks that he/she is the better than others which is the opposite of Philippians 2:3-4 which teaches that, in humility consider others better than yourself. From verses 5-10, Paul describes how Jesus demonstrated true humility.

If I can talk about the kingdom citizenship, we first become citizens (in the Kingdom) by receiving Jesus Christ as personal Savior. Those who received Him, He gave them the right to become children of God (John 1:12). Through Christ we were predestined for adoption to sonship in the family of God (Ephesians 1:5-7; Romans 8:15-17). For this reason, Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven and so we eagerly await a Savior from there (Philippians 3:20).

What do I really mean? In the Kingdom of our God, the Maker of the heavens and earth, is our King and we (citizens) are His subjects. Psalm 100:3, we are the flock of His pasture because He is the one who made us. Our King does not just sit on His throne in heaven, but He is concerned about our needs, He is our Shepherd (Psalm 23; John 10).

2. KINGDOM REPRESENTATIVE

Every kingdom has representatives that stand in on behalf of the kingdom in occasion or in another country. To make this simpler, we can take for example governor or a chief. They both stand in on behalf of the king, queen or president.

The work of this representative is to make sure that the kingdom agendas is propagated, for example a governor of will ensure that the kingdom’s businesses is carried on in another state on behalf of the king or queen. The governor will ensure that the kingdom’s government law, regulations and practices are practiced to the letter.

Having said that, I’d like to mention that the Holy Spirit is the governor, the heavenly Kingdom representative here on earth who makes sure that the Kingdom is experienced in the hearts of men. The Holy Spirit is simply the Life of God the Father and the Son in us.

In his ministry, Jesus taught people about the Kingdom of heaven – a message which many people didn’t understand and comprehend. After His resurrection, before ascension to heaven, Jesus told His disciples to remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit will come upon them. According to the Lord’s own words in Acts 1:8, they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them.

This is the power the disciples needed to understand exactly how the Kingdom works and the ability to become witnesses of whatever they had received already. According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, when He comes, He would be responsible for activating many functionalities in the life of every believer.

To understand this better, think of any electric appliance which is useless unless it’s plucked in electricity which gives it power to perform the work it was wired to do. In the same way, the Holy Spirit activates us to perform according to the purpose the Lord had planned us to do in advance (Ephesians 2:10). One of the basic works of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin and righteousness (John 16:8). This is what makes one see the need for repentance that leads to salvation.

After Salvation, the Holy Spirit takes charge to help a new believer grow in the Lord. This growth is very important because it’s the one that brings about transformation of mind and character (Romans 12:1-2). A believer must take deliberate measures to read God’s word (spiritual nourishment) regularly, which the Holy Spirit uses to transform by teaching the believer about the operations of the Kingdom.

You may be wondering why a believer requires this transformation. As I said in my previous post, when God created us, He already had in mind what kind of function/work/mandate you will perform here on earth (Ephesians 2:10). However, in order to perform that duty, you must be in a certain version that fits that mandate.

Let me explain what this means. Take for example, a phone, or a computer. For any of these gadgets to perform or accomplish a certain functionality, it’s software must be in a certain version that supports that functionality. A times you will see your phone upgrading software or updating the apps. This happens to accommodate new functionalities and operations of the gadget.

This is the same way the Holy Spirit upgrades us by transforming us through prayer, reading God’s word and also participating in the service of the Lord. You must however allow the Holy Spirit to be your teacher, reminder, advocate, and transformer (John 14:26; 15:26; Romans 8:26).

3. TERRITORIES

I checked in an online dictionary and found that a ‘Territory’ is “an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state.” (Oxford Online Dictionary). Every kingdom is marked with it’s territories or boundaries. Territories are very important because they mark the area of administration.

Every king is concerned about two things about territories: one, how to secure the current territories ensuring no intrusion of enemies, and two, how to extend the territories. This was true with the Old Testament kings, they used to go for war to conquer their enemies. Israelites in particular were promised Canaan as their inheritance, but the land was still occupied (Deuteronomy 1:8).

Even though God gave them the land, He did not promise to give it all at once because they would be overwhelmed, God promised to give it bit by bit (Exodus 23:25-30). What is the point am driving at? Though God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a land inheritance, yet they had to take responsibility to fight, win their enemies and acquire more land. The work of pushing territories was their responsibility but God promised to give them power and authority to do it.

God Himself created the heaves and the earth. According to Psalm 115:16, the heavens belong to God but the earth He has given to man. God created man in His own likeness and image and gave him dominion on the entire creation. In other words, God extended His reign on earth through man who is His representative. Whatever man does here on earth, it’s an extension of God’s reign because he is a god (God’s descendant) here on earth (Psalm 82:6; John 10:34).

As said earlier, man lost dominion after sinning against God (Genesis 3), but since man was a God’s project here on earth, He had to send Jesus (His Son) to come and rescue man from the mess that he had indulged himself into. Jesus on the cross, just before His death, made it clear that “It is FINISTHED!” (John 19:28-30). At His death Jesus triumphed over the Satan and disarmed him on the cross (Colossians 2:15).

Jesus before ascending to heaven, he gave the disciples the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20), to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. This is the Kingdom’s strategy of extending the territories.

Every believer is therefore commissioned to propagate the good news of the Kingdom. Jesus promised to send His Spirit to come upon all believers, and this would be the source of power and authority to carry out the mandate of expanding the territories of the Kingdom. Jesus also assured us that the gates of hell shall never prevail against the church (Matthew 16:18).

As we Conclude

God has released great wisdom to men through His Word (Constitution) by the Holy Spirit who is the representative here on earth. To understand how the Kingdom is set up you must follow Jesus’ teachings written in the scriptures.

On this post we have discussed three important aspects of the Kingdom. The first one is the Kingdom’s citizenship. To qualify to become a true citizen you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him Lord and Savior as indicated in Romans 10:9-10.

Secondly, we have discussed about the Kingdom representative here on earth – the Holy Spirit. Though we can hardly exhaust all the information about the Holy Spirit, one major role He plays in the life of a believer is to convict a sinner about sin and righteousness. This is what brings about repentance.
Finally, we have discussed about the importance of territories in a kingdom. In the Kingdom of God, our King (Jesus) commissioned all followers to become ambassadors here on earth as we preach and tell others about the love of Christ – salvation.

To receive Jesus, click HERE. To know how to grow in salvation, click HERE.