You are totally not getting the spiritual nature of the kingdom of God today. You really need to read up on the New Testament and see what Jesus actually described instead of what you've been taught. Entering in to that spiritual kingdom in this life brings an immediate realization in the ‘here and now’ and on this earth of true “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
Jesus said in Luke 17:21: “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
The kingdom of God exists wherever the king – the Lord Jesus Christ – exercises His spiritual jurisdiction. It is a spiritual kingdom and incorporates the whole domain over-which the Lord Jesus Christ exercises His divine kingship, dominion and intimate rule. It relates to all those who belong to His body. His kingdom embodies all those who possess the indwelling Holy Spirit – those who are real believers. Christ’s kingdom is therefore found wherever there are citizens of that kingdom.
The Lord revealed in this passage that the kingdom of God – His kingdom – was not a literal earthly domain neither could it be viewed like other kingdoms with their outward splendor, impressive power and magnitude. It is, rather, a spiritual kingdom, which can only be spiritually entered.
Jesus said in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”
Christ couldn’t have made it clearer. This expectation – of a literal visible territorial political kingdom – was wrong. It exposed the ignorance which controlled the Jews. They had a defective perception of the nature of God’s kingdom and the manner in which it would appear.
The kingdom of God that Christ introduced was of a spiritual nature. This absolutely confounded the Pharisees and their misguided earthly carnal concept of the Messianic kingdom.
As it says in Ephesians 6:12, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”
We fight an invisible enemy. He works in secret. He has to. If he was visible we would immediately recognize him. That is not that he does not work in and through humans, he does.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
To enter into spiritual victory you must pull down everything that is not of God and that does not accord with His Word. Every doubt, every fear, every sin, every hurt, every judgmental thought and every bit of unforgiveness must be evicted. The strongholds must be identified and then pulled down. If they are allowed to remain they will make you a victim instead of a victor. Most of the arrows are imaginary and fanciful. If that is so: he makes the illusion look real. The words translated here “imaginations” is the Greek word logismos (log-is-mos') meaning calculation or reasoning.
Ephesians 6:11 instructs the Christian to “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Verse 13 continues on the same vein, “take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” In Ephesians 6:17 you will find 6 bits of armour for the believer. But “the sword of the Spirit” (the Word of God) is the only offensive part of the Christian armoury.
2 Timothy 2:3-4 declares, “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
Bro/sis, you are a soldier in an army. You are on active duty. If you are going to be impactful then you are going to have to endure hardness! You are to have to take a few punches. You are going to be rejected. You are going to experience warfare. You are going to fight a dark kingdom. You are going to be put in harm’s way. You will feel resistance.
But Paul gives us sound advice in 1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight of faith.”
He directs us in 1 Timothy 1:18 “war a good warfare.”
We are not fighting a physical battle with physical weapons but rather a spiritual battle with spiritual weapons.
