Thinking about the Kingdom

Twenty-two years ago in the Homewood Suites conference room, Leighton – or one of his minion – asked the twenty two of us to come up with a definition of the Kingdom of God. I was paired with a crazy Texan named Bob Roberts ( I kid you not, that is his name). Bob had a English bull dog named Bluebell (but that is another story.)

The thing I like most about Bob is that he loves Jesus and not a hell of a lot matters past that. It also helped that whenever I hung out with him I was continually laughing.

The exact definition we came up with is buried in a notebook in a box in my garage. But the essence of what we wrote was that the Kingdom of God existed wherever the rule of God was present. We were a lot more eloquent but that is the substance of what we said.

Recently, I read a post Bob wrote on his blog: www.glocal-net.com. He wrote about the role of the Spirit in Church planting, and in discipleship. So, I’d like to offer the following definition of the Kingdom in light of what we said so long ago, what Bob wrote the other day, and what I now believe about the people of God:

The Kingdom of God exists where the people of God invite the Holy Spirit to enable and empower  them to together be the love of God as one people, even as God is one.

Man, trying to say the right thing in a theologically correct way is hard. I guess I am gearing up for seminary. Let me try to expound on the statement: The Kingdom of God can only exist where the Spirit enables and empowers it. Without the Spirit’s intervention we are condemned to a life of isolation and narcissism. The Spirit’s job is to help us mirror back to God his eternal triune relationship. That reflection is the Kingdom. That reflection is our calling. That reflection is our hope. That reflection is only possible in concert with the Spirit and other disciples walking with us toward Jesus.

Comments

[Diana Symons]

I agree. Living in the kingdom is all about taking our eyes off of ourselves. It's hard to do without the Holy Spirit, and so easy with Him.

[Lisa Hess]

Catching up on friends' blogs -- been thinking about the Kingdom of God a lot lately myself, for some reason. I like your definition, especially the expanded version -- it's as good as any I've seen.