What Is The Kingdom Of God?

He said, therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like, and what can I compare it to?
Luke 13:18

In 2022, I looked into what it meant to pray “Thy kingdom come” in the Lord’s prayer. Why did Jesus tell His disciples to pray this way?

First, I had to know what the kingdom of God was. I’d heard it all my life and realized I wasn’t sure what it meant. So, I found a book on my bookshelf by J. Dwight Pentecost entitled “Thy Kingdom Come” and thought, “Great! This will give me the answer.”

This is what I found out.

Table of Contents

The Nature of a Kingdom

Any kingdom must have three things (including God’s kingdom):

1 – Someone who has the right to rule. This right belongs to them or has been given to them. In the case of God, He has the right to rule because He is eternal and there is no one higher than Him.

2 – Someone who has subjects to rule over. This is the realm.

3 – Someone who actually rules. You can have the right to rule and subjects to rule over, but if no one is ruling, it’s not an actual kingdom.

Two Additional Aspects of the Kingdom of God

Pentecost says:

There is an eternal aspect as well as a temporal aspect; it has a universal nature as well as a local nature, or there is an immediate sense of the kingdom in which God rules directly, and a mediated sense of the kingdom in which God rules indirectly through appointed representatives.

Four Truths About God’s Eternal Kingdom

God’s Kingdom is Timeless

Since God is eternal, He rules outside of time. Consider the following verses:

Psalm 10:16a The Lord is King forever and ever…

Psalm 29:10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned, King forever.

Jeremiah 10:10a But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and eternal King…

Psalm 145:13a Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; your rule is for all generations…

Matthew 6:13b For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

1 Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

His Kingdom is Everywhere

Since God is omnipresent, His kingdom is in every realm. Here are a few verses that confirm it:

1 Chronicles 29:11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and the earth belong to you. Your, Lord, is the kingdom, and you are exalted as head over all. Riches and honor come from you, and you are the ruler of everything.

Psalm 139:7-8 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

Proverbs 15:11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord–how much more, human hearts?

His Kingdom Uses Human Administrators

Although God is the supreme ruler of His kingdom and has absolute authority over all things, He often uses humans to accomplish His purposes. You can see this in the following Scriptures:

Genesis 45:5 And now don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.

Psalm 105:26-27 He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen. They performed his miraculous signs among them and wonders in the land of Ham [Egypt].

Isaiah 44:28 It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’

His Kingdom is Seen Through Miracles

God doesn’t always use humans to do His will; sometimes, He intervenes Himself without the help of any person. We call His actions miracles, and they can be seen throughout Scripture. Here are three examples:

Genesis 1:1, 3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Psalm 135:6, 8 The Lord does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths. He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both people and animals.

Matthew 1:18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit.

Final Thoughts

In the kingdom of God, God has the right to rule, and He rules over everything because His kingdom is everywhere. God is sovereign.

His kingdom is also eternal. Sometimes, He uses humans to accomplish His will, and other times, He performs miracles without the help of any person.

Before God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1), His kingdom existed in the heavenlies. It comprised God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

God the Father is the sovereign ruler. God the Son is equal in person but is subordinate to the Father. God the Holy Spirit is also equal but is the One who executes the will of the Father.

Because the Father had the right to rule, the Son and Spirit were subject to the Father’s rule, and the Father was actively ruling, it met all the qualifications of a kingdom.

The Bible has much more to say about the Kingdom of God, so this is just a starting point.

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Sources: J. Dwight Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1990), 15