The Kingdom of God

The phrase 'the Kingdom of God' is used over 60 times in the New Testament and I've been thinking about it a lot. From what I've noticed through looking it up is that there seem to be several different meanings or circumstances that it's used after my initial thought of Heaven being the literal and physical Kingdom. 

The first mention of this certain phrase is in Matthew 12, when Jesus says "But if it is by the spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you [Verse 12]).

So this made me think, well, it can't JUST be a physical place or in one fixed area called heaven.  But Jesus also taught and preached  about the kingdom :


Luke 4:43
 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent. 

and He gave instructions on how to inherit or enter the kingdom

Mark 1:15 
"The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" 

and

  Mark 10:15
"Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."


Now, since the phrase seemed to be all over the place I decided to look up the word Kingdom, in the dictionary... (Trust me, I felt pretty silly because I know what it means.. but was hoping for a little more insight) 
And the definition is:

1. a country, state, or territory ruled by a king or queen.
2. the spiritual reign or authority of God



The concept of it being a spiritual kingdom (as well as a physical kingdom) had crossed my mind and it  makes a lot of sense and I found was backed up by previous verses that say 
we muct become like little children to enter it and the ever-famous 'it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom' verse. Along with two more verses that I found 


John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit 

And 

1 Corinthians 15:50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.


What also caught my attention in the definition of Kingdom was the word ruled', yes, it makes sense that a kingdom has to have a ruler.
That being said when I was reading through Luke 17:20 -21 this part really caught my attention(and was the birth of this whole blog post):
Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed,  nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

*Some versions say 'The kingdom of God is with in you' 
and that made me think... if the kingdom of God is a spiritual reign, with in us, who has a ruler (Jesus), then that means that we have a pretty important job- like being the mayor of a very small area in one part of the whole kingdom! And I believe that job is to help maintain the kingdom, whether in our own lives and hearts, the church or the general body of believers. 

Now if a mayor breaks the law or is corrupt usually what happens is things go downhill...pretty quickly... and people hear of it, that's why bad politician jokes exist right? Which leads to convicting, get-you-thinking kind of questions... 

Are you submitted to the rule of Jesus... or are you thinking you can do things pretty well without obeying the King and His words/ laws?

What kind of mayor for the kingdom are you going to be?