Kingdom

Kingdom

king⋅dom
Spelled Pronunciation [king-duh m]
–noun
1. a state or government having a king or queen as its head.
2. anything conceived as constituting a realm or sphere of independent action or control: the kingdom of thought.
3. a realm or province of nature, esp. one of the three broad divisions of natural objects: the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms.
4. Biology. a taxonomic category of the highest rank, grouping together all forms of life having certain fundamental characteristics in common: in the five-kingdom classification scheme adopted by many biologists, separate kingdoms are assigned to animals (Animalia), plants (Plantae), fungi (Fungi), protozoa and eucaryotic algae (Protista), and bacteria and blue-green algae (Monera).
5. the spiritual sovereignty of God or Christ.
6. the domain over which the spiritual sovereignty of God or Christ extends, whether in heaven or on earth.

All of the definitions above speak of the meanings of the word, ”kingdom”. Only two, number’s 5 and 6 speak of the kingdom that belongs to God. That is, those are the only two that mention God’s name as the sovereign power.
The other definitions talk about kingdoms governed by man or of kingdoms being separations in science or separations in thought.
If we begin to separate the kingdoms of the earth into animal, vegetable, or mineral, we begin to see the complexity of the creation of the earth. We begin to see the incredible ordering of all the elements and how they work together to cause the changing of the seasons and the cycles of life that abound through them. If you look then, at the classifications of the scientific kingdoms and see the levels of life therein, you can see the mighty power of the creator of all those forms of life. Some of them are not even visible to the naked eye. Some are not visible unless a high powered lens is included the study. Some are too sublime to be understood by the unscientific lay person. Regardless of our understanding, though, they remain an important part of the world, part of the kingdom.
There are countless debates going on today about kingdoms. The obvious debates are the countries who remain at war. There are fights about kingdoms, whose is whose, and what is whose. There are debates about the kingdoms of when life is life and when it is deemed valuable. We, as a people, have a bit of that kingdom over which we lord power too. We get to vote in this country and give voice to the overall governing of our little piece of this kingdom of the earth. With that comes responsibility, especially from those of us who pray the “Our Father”. We pray thy kingdom come, not my kingdom come. He, the Father, has already given us a clear cut set of rules. When next we vote, dear Lord, help us to remember thy kingdom.
When again we look at the definitions, we can see that they are all about God’s Kingdom. Because God’s kingdom is everything and everywhere and everyone, seen and unseen. Thy kingdom come!