Kingdom of God vs Church: Purpose, Order, Organizational Snapshot & Cultural Characteristics

It’s now been 6+ years since I was first exposed to true Kingdom of God teaching. Previously, despite 44 years of active participation in many various churches all over the US and Europe, I had heard absolutely NOTHING about what the Kingdom of God was or how it functions. To prove that I’m not an isolated case, in the thousands of emails I receive through this website, the results are the same – almost no one understands what the Kingdom of God is and how the church fits into it.

In today’s blog, I am summarizing some of the most important and foundational facts I’ve compiled from 6+ years of real Kingdom of God training. I’ll show you my own simplified “organizational chart” illustration that depicts how everything in the church and kingdom fits in its proper order and include links to videos and other very comprehensive resources where you can get much more beyond what I can present in a single article.

Attention To Detail

I’ve recently begun a new series of videos I’m calling Supernatural Mentoring and I’ve been talking quite a lot about it in my emails and a few blogs. One of the first topics I bring up is that in order to grow into full maturity, we are required by God to study in such a way that we learn correct distinctions and go beyond the English translation of the Bible. In many of my recent blogs, you have seen how I include extensive concordance references to point out the original meaning of the Hebrew or Greek words.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

In so doing, we all should have noticed a very long time ago that Jesus almost never said anything about the church when He walked here 2,000 years ago. It is a matter of Biblical fact that Jesus used this word “church” only twice in all four Gospels: Matt 16:18 & 18:17. He never says that word again until the book of Revelation. Everything else Jesus preached during His ministry on earth was strictly about the Kingdom of God.

So why is it we hardly ever hear teaching that goes into explicit details beginning with the characteristics of a kingdom and how should a church function within that context?!

Setting Proper Order – FIRST!

To make this point even more clear, one of the most memorized (but not practiced) verses is the one below which explicitly states that we are to put the Kingdom of God first above everything else. AND only then, will we receive all that we need. The obvious inference here is that when you flip everything upside down and get it OUT of proper order, you do NOT get what you need.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33 (KJV)

This is one of many reasons why I started my Supernatural Mentoring video series. Because most people who have emailed me in the last 6+ years have done the same thing I did most of my life – learn all about the church and then lived the same worldly lifestyle like everyone else does. Consequently… we’ve got none of the Biblical results we were supposed to have. And the world is in a complete state of disaster because of our powerless and ineffective state.

Take another look at the verse above and this one below… which order does it say to put the kingdom?? That’s right: FIRST! Nowhere does it say we are to flip this upside down and put the church above the kingdom.

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 1:6 (KJV)

Origin Of Church – Why Was It established?

The church was born out of the kingdom because of the need to deal with the sin problem that came into the world from the fall of Adam and Eve. Before that, there was NO reason or purpose for a church. Adam was NOT made a preacher or prophet. No, he was made a king and expected to rule the entire world. When satan came, he tricked Adam and Eve and stole their crown by getting them to submit to him rather than to God.

That is why the church was established… because it falls into the Matt 6:33 clause, “all things added“. The church was added because now there was a sin problem that did not previously exist. Sin had to be dealt with in such a way that we could choose to go through a correct process to regain our original, lost state as a king and son.

The church was NEVER intended to replace the kingdom or to supersede it. The church is subordinate to the kingdom and is supposed to be a training ground so that we mature from the state of a spiritual baby, to a child, and then to a fully mature son, all within a 20 year process. When you look through the Bible with attention to detail, you will find references in the Gospels to “babes”, “children” and “sons”. I won’t list those here because that is your job to research and study this as I have these last 6+ years.

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Romans 8:19 (KJV)

Purpose of Church – Training For Fully Mature Kings & Sons

The church is a house and clearly you can find that all through the Bible, especially in the Old Testament where the temple was referred to as such. A house is supposed to be a comfortable place, it is not where you fight wars. A house is a place of rest. And that is NOT what a kingdom is.

In Rev 1:6, it clearly says we were made to have both offices (king and priest). That means we sometimes act in the office of a priest (prophet, preacher, apostle, etc) and sometimes we act in the office of a king. There is no either / or. We are required to exercise both and to do that in the proper order – kingdom first!

In the past decades, we’ve had teaching primarily by prophets (priest realm) that say we are not allowed to make war against demonic principalities. There is a major problem with that. They all speak from their office exclusively as a prophet (priest). They all failed to recognize that our FIRST-order estate was to become a king that goes off to fight divine wars. You fight wars as a king, not a priest.

Priests have no Biblical authority to engage in war. Even in the US military, chaplains are prohibited from carrying weapons! They also serve no function whatsoever outside the walls of the church.

That is why we all have dual offices. We are not limited by a priestly office. Our job as kings GREATLY surpasses and extends beyond our job as priests.

When the church properly functions, it develops fully mature kings and sons. Kings develop in spiritual strength and maturity and ultimately reach the point where they can take down demonic princes and kings that have set up their thrones that rule over cities and nations.

This now leads to the next big question: what kind of training is needed to get from the level of a baby and child to that of a fully mature son and king??

Organizational Chart: Kingdom vs Church

Kingdom Culture Characteristics & Training

In the process of studying true Kingdom of God teaching these last few years, I came to the surprising realization that there is only one organization in most countries that approximates the cultural characteristics of a kingdom – that would be the military.

The topic of kingdom culture and training is uniquely suited to me because God required me to spend 20 years as an officer in the US military. I retired in 2015 as a USAF Lt Col (O-5) and I graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 1994. If anyone knows what military training is like, I’m obviously well experienced there.

Below is a brief list of all the commonalities I have observed that you find in both a kingdom and a military service…

Strict order and discipline exists and is enforced.
You must endure hardship and austere conditions.
You are initiated by, and will continue to maintain, a regimen of rigorous training.
When necessary, offensive and defensive wars are fought to save lives or control territory.
There is a clear governmental structure and you are required to obey / honor those in higher levels of authority.
There is no such thing as equalization – various ranks and levels of authority exist and you must strive to earn them.
Loyalty is mandatory and it first goes upward to the highest authority before it extends laterally to anyone else.
Treason, disloyalty and going AWOL are the highest crimes and will earn you the most severe punishment.

You can always recognize a person who has NO understanding of the Kingdom of God by the language they use and the way they describe its characteristics. Anyone who does not acknowledge the list above is stuck in the immature realm of the church (baby or child) and is incapable of functioning as a fully mature king and son.

Seriously: How are you ever going to execute the office, authority and dominion of a king when you don’t even know what a kingdom is and how it functions??

Now take that list above and look at the verses below – they match perfectly! Continue looking for all the other passages that relate to the above and you will see how much we have NOT been taught in 99% of our modern-day churches. This should now explain why I most often talk about “the church” in a less than favorable manner. When it starts functioning properly, I’ll change my characterization of it.

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 2:3 (KJV)

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
Proverbs 23:13-14 (KJV)

This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
Titus 1:13 (KJV)

Videos – The Kingdom of God: Recovering the Message & Culture

Some of you probably noticed that I have increasingly switched to using primarily the King James Version. That requires a brief explanation. The reason I do this is because it is the ONLY translation that maintains the kingdom terminology. All other western translations take that out and water down the meaning, thereby castrating and making void the original kingdom message. If you don’t believe what I’m saying, do what I did and study this yourself.

The following videos are just two of many resources that I consider mandatory in order to correctly understand what the real Kingdom of God is. A separate and comprehensive list is at the bottom of this blog in the image containing the entire Kingdom of God school set by Apostle / General David E. Taylor.