Where is the kingdom of God found?  Not here (on earth), but up above where Christ is seated with God, Col 3:1-3.  All business that is to be conducted is done there.  We as citizens can seek God and His counsel through Christ – there.  When we understand that we are no longer of the world, we must live no longer as ones who belong to the world.  Why?  Because the world belongs to Satan and is where he can gain authority over us if we entangle ourselves in his kingdom.  When we live by the world’s rules, we are subject to its laws which are founded on Satan.  The world is sense/feeling based, the kingdom of God is spirit ruled Gal 5:16-26.  What we sow and where we sow is where we will reap from Gal 6:7-8.  We as born-again believers and followers of God are comprised of 2 natures; our carnal (sense-based) and our spirit (Spirit-filled).  When we say ‘I do’ to God in accepting and receiving Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior we make a covenant with Him which involves forsaking our old carnal nature and this is when the battle begins.

A great deal of our issues as believers stems not from persecution for standing firm in our faith – but because we do not live according to the Kingdom of God and still live as citizens of the world.  We have not severed the tie but try to live as dual citizens and so, we live lives that fall flat as far as an overcoming saint of God.  We remain as friends to the world, we seek the pleasures (entertainment) that the world offers and adjust to what is acceptable to what the world deems.

Our walk as believers in Christ here on this earth is to be confronted daily with the reality of how we are NOT citizens of this world and that we will not ever fit into it.  If we do not see this or feel this animosity, I think it a good time to refresh ourselves in what God says about it through the scriptures –

The Kingdom of God

• Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” John 18:36
• the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Rom 14:7
• For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. 1 Cor 4:20
• Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5:19-21, Ephes 5:3-7
• giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins Col 1:12-14
• Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Heb 11:28

The World

• Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever 1 John 2:15-17
• And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Rom 12:2
• Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4
• For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matt 16:26
• For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. ⁵ Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. 1 John 5-6