THE KINGDOM OF GOD

By Dr Mmachukwu

God is a King (Ps. 22:28 ; 74:12 ; 98:6;145:1,2) and a kingdom is a domain ruled by a king and a king is a sovereign. He is the King of all and Jesus Christ is the Son of God and also a King Who received His Kingship and kingdom from God the Father ( Dan. 7:13,14 ; Eph. 5:5 ; 2Tim. 4:1,18 ; Rev. 1:9 ; Rev. 11:15 )

The Gospel which Jesus Christ preached when He was on earth was the Gospel of the Kingdom, not holiness not prosperity, not faith etc. He came to introduce us to the Gospel of Kingdom of God and to bring us into the Kingdom of God . ( Matt. 4:23 ; Matt. 9:35 : Mk. 1:14,15 ). He Himself said that He was sent to preach the Kingdom of God. ( Lk. 4:43, 44 ; Lk. 8:1 ; Lk. 9:10,11 ).

The Gospel He commanded His disciples/apostles to preach was the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. (Matt. 24:13,14 ; Lk. 9:1,2, 59-62 ; Lk. 10:9-11)

The gospel which the apostles and the early church preached was the Gospel of the Kingdom ( Act. 8:12 ; Act. 19:8-10 ; Act. 20;24-28 ; Act. 28:20-31 ).

He commanded the church to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and after that, the end will come, when the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world ( Matt 24:14 ).

This is the Gospel Paul preached , in which he gave them the whole counsel of God, not just an area of the Gospel like faith, holiness, prosperity which are components of the Gospel ( Act. 20:27 ) .

Even the message that John the Baptist preached was the gospel of the kingdom.

Jesus called the disciples to be trained so He could send them out.

No Kingdom sends out untrained representatives. Jesus Christ through The Holy Ghost, the Scriptures and the events of life, will work on you to transform your character, mindset, language dress code etc so that you can represent Him and His Kingdom.

When Israel demanded for a king, God told the Prophet Samuel to tell them the principles of Kings and Kingdoms , because a king is a sovereign and the people he rules are his subjects, totally loyal to him and his kingdom.

Matters concerning kingdoms are very weighty indeed. God was not impressed when Israel demanded to be ruled by kings. He told Samuel to warn them solemnly over the step they were about to take.

1Sam 8:9: "Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them."

1Sam 8:11-12: "And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots."

Everything has a manner.

V10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people.

So God gave them the pattern for kingship

He will take your son's he will not ask your permission he can take the one he wants to, and appoints them as he desires. For your children belong to the king, once you are in a kingdom you don't own anything . The king has a right to specify what to do with your children and the king does not ask for your consent in this matter . So if we claim that Jesus is our Lord and King, then Jesus has absolute rights over our lives. If God is our King, He has absolute control, authority and permission to do with us as He deems fit and as will profit His kingdom.

From 1 Sam 8: 9-17, we see that you have a role to play in the advancement of the Kingdom.

In Israel after paying the tithe, they also pay 10% to the king ( 1 Sam 8:15, Amos 7: 1 ) . That is why your tithe is non-negotiable and it is different from your offering & other commitments to the Kingdom of God.

If you don't have anything to give, what about your children or yourself ? Those who serve in the army are they farming to give to the king and his kingdom? No. They have given themselves to the nation which they serve so though they have minimal financial contributions, their bodies were presented to the kingdom as reasonable sacrifices and services to the kingdom.

It is better to give to God willingly than for Him to take it by force, God generally tends to take the best. God can pick up brother John and say I will send him as an apostle to a distant nation while retaining another one in the city.

We should not serve God because we want something from Him.

In one church the females in the prayer team went to confront the pastor. They had a meeting, and told him that they have realised that only the choir members are getting married. The pastor explained to them that they are serving God and not man, that God is the One Who rewards. These females in the prayer team were not getting married so eventually most of them left the prayer team and joined the choir. Even though God eventually blessed one of the prayer team members with a very good husband, however the emphasis is not on the reward, it is on the service, the reason for our service to God is not the blessing that God gives us . We serve Him because that is what He demands from us.

One of the things the king does is to fight our battles. The Bible says that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. ( Matt. 6:33 ) What He will do for you comes after you have faithfully fulfilled your duties towards Him.

A man of God gave a testimony of a terrible forest in a particular state in Nigeria . The governor gave them the evil forest to use for a great crusade to be held by a great german evangelist called Reinhard Bonkke . The forest was so terrible that the intercessors and prayer warriors left their houses and camped in the forest to pray. Something very strange took place, the man of God said "I saw it with my eyes, 4 of the trees refused to be cut down, they were even bleeding blood" . Eventually after much prayers they succeeded. Without the Lord backing them up this would have been an impossible if not a disastrous outing. Their commitment to the Kingdom of God impelled God to back them up and made the crusade a huge success despite the powers opposed to it.

The king that will go to war for you what are you doing for him? . We will all serve Jesus, it is when your obedience is complete that He will reward you and judge the disobediences against your life.

One of the reasons we do not enjoy God is because we get familiar with Him, you MUST never get familiar with God. No matter how close Esther is to the king there is no room for familiarity ( Esther 4:11 ) .

We don't have the privilege of negotiating with the King as to whether we will do his bidding or not, if we are among those who say we will serve Jesus.

The king can change your plans without prior notice when you are a subject of the king. it means that at any second God can change your plans, that is what it means to call God your Lord .