For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Romans 14:17
The Kingdom of God is … Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost.
What is the Kingdom? It is in the realm of the Holy Spirit, the heavenly realm, the place of heaven.
When Jesus was on the Earth, He taught and described the Kingdom. When Jesus departed the Earth after teaching His disciples, He said they would be witnesses of that Kingdom (Acts 1:8). When Paul preached, He preached the only Gospel, the Gospel of the Kingdom (Acts 28:31).
Yet, the key portion that I want to draw out of this text could easily be overlooked, in the verb “is”. The Kingdom of God is. When Paul was writing, he was not describing something yet to come, but his present reality. When he preached under house guard in Acts 28, he was not preaching two gospels, one of salvation through Christ and one of the Kingdom to come.
No, the Kingdom of God is… wrote Paul. The Kingdom of God, right then, was righteousness, peace and, joy in the Holy Ghost. The implications work both ways. First, Paul was talking about his present understanding of God saying that this is what the Kingdom is. This is reflected both in his explanation and expectation of his intended audience. Yet, the converse is also true. Whenever we enjoy the righteousness of Christ, the Peace that passes all understanding, and the Joy of the Holy Spirit, we are experiencing the Kingdom. Not a part of the Kingdom, but the Kingdom. Not some Kingdom yet to come, but the Kingdom that is right then in our midst.