What is the Kingdom of God?

In my mind, it’s quite simple. These days, I’m prone to

describing it this way:
1) There is a God, the King of the universe.
2) This King has a Kingdom; not referring to a specific
place but, rather, His overall dominion over all things
3) The King is a loving king and He wants YOU in His
Kingdom so he can care for ALL your needs - spiritual,
physical, emotional, financial, etc.- while working WITH
you to advance that ever-increasing Kingdom.
4) The King is your Father; He has adopted you and
offers you everything He gives to His own Son, King
Jesus.
5) Together, we are a Kingdom of Priests and Kings
(take Samuel, for example, a priest that represented his
people to God and a Prophet who spoke the Word of God
to his people. Yet, he served as their king).
6) The King advances His Kingdom THROUGH His
children; we are co-laborers with Him. Our Body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit; literally, we are the Holy of
Holies; the Ark of the New Covenant. the same Spirit
that raised Jesus from the dead dwells WITHIN us
(Rom 8:11).
7) The King takes care of that which is His. As
Solomon’s people were well-dressed and well-fed, as
the Father cared for the children of Israel in the desert,
as Jesus fed the multitudes, this King cares for His
people’s needs TODAY as well.

Unfortunately, most people rarely hear the Good News
(Gospel) about the Kingdom. That’s because it’s a Gospel
of Salvation that is most often preached. Now, the Good
News about salvation is just that: Good News. But it’s not
that which Jesus came to proclaim to mortal man. Instead,
He came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and taught
His disciples to do likewise.

Somewhere along the line, we deviated from the plan.

So, what’s wrong with preaching this Gospel of Salvation?
For starters, it cannot be located anywhere in Scripture. If
that doesn’t raise the red flag, I don’t know what should.
When the Church loses focus on what Jesus taught, we
cannot help but drift into all kinds of other false teachings;
doctrines of demons and doctrines of man. The Gospel of
Salvation is one of those and it’s a BIGGY!

How so? If all of our focus is on “getting people saved” or
“soul winning,” the next logical question is, “What must I
do to be saved?” The answer from Paul and Silas in
Scripture is simply: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:30-31).
Ol’ Cotton Mather said, “This is the Sum of the Gospel;
This is the Charge given to the Ministers of the Gospel;
Mark 16:15,16,”Preach the Gospel to every Creature. He
that believeth… shall be saved.” Faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the Only Saviour; This, this must be found
in all that will be saved.”

Sadly, ask a handful of western Christians that same
question today and you’ll receive a handful of answers.

One will say he was saved through being sprinkled at
infant baptism.

One will say he was saved through total immersion as an
adult at “the age of accountability.”

One will say he was saved when he walked the altar and
made a profession of faith.

Another will say he was saved when he recited a prayer
that he read in a Christian comic book.

The list goes on: Four spiritual Laws, ABC’s of Salvation,
The Roman Road.

So, who’s right? More importantly, who’s wrong? Who
among us, using these “salvation techniques” is truly saved?

When an African woman is starving with a dying baby,
and she hears the white evangelist preach Christ, she raises
her hand and told she is saved as she receives Jesus into her
heart. OK, she’s saved, but what does she do about her child’s
impending doom? Shall we ignore her sad dilemma and force
ourselves to rejoice in her salvation as she starves and dies a slow,
miserable death? To add salt to the wound, after the Christian
evangelist leaves, the Muslims come in and enforce their Sharia
Law, Sharia means “The Way” and addresses all aspects of
day-to-day Islamic life, including politics, economics, business,
sexuality and social issues. Based on the Qur’an, it forces those
who survive how to dress, when to pray, etc. Those who were
acknowledging Jesus one day are submitting to Islamic Law
the next.

What if, instead, that same African woman was taught about the
invisible Kingdom of God? What if she heard that there was a King
who wanted her in His Kingdom so that He could meet her needs?
What if she experienced a miracle from this King…divine healing or
food from out of nowhere? What if she proclaimed her new King’s
providence to others who came to believe and the message spread
and many put their faith in Christ as a result?

Isn’t it obvious how much MORE beneficial it is to all if we preach
the Gospel of the Kingdom instead of towing the party line of a
denomination?

Problem? To do so, we must know the King. We must have
experiences with Him. That’s the kind of stuff we can’t shut up
about. Miracles, we call them. The word “faith” comes from the
Greek “pistis” which is a forensic, experiential term. Therein lies
the rub for most Christians have no experiences with God. Instead,
most experiences are limited to the denomination or, even worse,
what goes on in a church building or at church gatherings.

Do you want to live in The Kingdom? Have YOU experienced God?
It happens only when we allow ourselves to be “detoxed” from so
much of what the world - including the church world - has been
spoon-feeding us all our lives. With all the negatives, including all
the self-sabotaging we do, we can be transformed by renewing our
minds to the Truth. In my own life, nothing had the impact of
studying only the teachings of Jesus.for nearly 3 years, an exercise
I strongly recommend.

I’m a Reformed Soul-Winner. I could get people to say the Sinner’s
Prayer by the truckload. I was bold, assertive, confident that what I
was doing was right. I used to keep score - notches in my Bible, so
to speak - of how many people I could get to repeat a prayer of
salvation after me.

Then, I repented. I noticed that Jesus said He came as an example
and that Paul encouraged his disciples to follow his example as he
followed that of Christ. Then I noticed neither Jesus, Paul, or
anyone in the New Testament is recorded as having led anybody
in a Sinner’s Prayer. Thousands upon thousands of people
throughout the centuries were saints of Christ, even though they
lived before the Sinner’s Prayer concept was invented by revivalists.

My personal convictions certainly do not have to become anyone else’s.
I don’t really have a problem with a person saying a prayer to receive
Jesus, so long as that prayer isn’t the repeat-after-me version. I much
prefer an individual crying out to God.

For example, a 21-year old girl was pregnant with her second child
from her second boyfriend. After counseling her over coffee and pie,
I took her to speak with a Christian woman who had a similar
testimony. We prayed a blessing over her before we left. As we
pulled into her apartment complex, the young lady exploded, “I’m 21
years old, I’m pregnant with my second baby…this has GOT to stop!
I NEED to become a Christian!” She did and is doing fine.

On another occasion, a woman who had been attending a Bible study
I was holding in a delicatessen, grabbed me arm as she was exiting the
elevator and I was getting on. “Mike, I need to be saved!” she pleaded.
We met at the office on Saturday, went to a friend’s house, counseled,
prayed and even baptized her.

In yet another instance, many years ago, a woman came to the mobile
home I was living in. It was close to midnight. I remember her car was
running and the lights were on. It was loaded with all her belongings
and her sleeping sons. “I hear people talk about being saved and I
always heard you talking to [her spouse who was arrested the previous day].
I don’t even know how to be saved.”

Finally, a tall, blonde salesman phoned me late in the day. He told me that
he’d been watching me at work and, he said, “I realized that I’d been
serving the devil the past 19 years.” He was going to rededicate his life to
Christ and be baptized that evening.

See, these people were looking for Jesus. Seeking after Him like the
pressing crowds in a Galilee marketplace. They’ll make up their OWN
Sinner’s Prayer - from the heart - even if all they can muster is, “I need
Jesus!”

These days, I prefer to teach by example, investing time in creating good,
solid disciples by loving them. I can do this in person, by phone or by
eMail. The fruit of this kind of labor tastes so much sweeter than it did
in the past.

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Every blessing,
Michael Tummillo
A servant of God

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