According to Genesis 1, God created man in His own image and gave man His authority to rule over all the created things. In God's creation, two things are very important to man. One is the divine image, and the other is the divine authority. Man is in the image of God in order to express God, and he has received God's authority in order to represent God. We need God's authority to represent God and to subdue His enemy. God desires for man to subdue the earth, and particularly His enemy, Satan.
In order to have the full image of God to express God and to realize the full authority of God to represent God in subduing His enemy, we must have God as life to us. Therefore, in the first two chapters of Genesis, there is not only image and authority, but also life, signified by the tree of life. We need to take in the divine life of God for two reasons: positively, so we can express God; negatively, so we can represent God to subdue His enemy. The authority of God is a matter of the kingdom. Throughout the whole Scriptures there is a line of authority related to the kingdom.
Before God could come into man as life and carry out His purpose, the subtle serpent caused man to fall. Due to the fall, the race of Adam failed God, so he chose another race, that of Noah. That race also failed God, and He chose a third race, the race of Abraham. According to Genesis 12:1-3, God chose Abraham with the intention of having a kingdom. God promised to make Abraham a great nation. This means He would make of him a kingdom.
What is the kingdom of God? It simply means the rule or government of God. God must have the kingdom to exercise His authority in order to fulfill His purpose. This is why in the prayer of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 6, He prayed something at the very beginning and at the very end concerning the kingdom. In the beginning of the prayer He says, "Let Your kingdom come," and at the end of the prayer He says, "For Yours is the kingdom." He prayed concerning the kingdom because God's purpose depends so much on the kingdom. If God does not have a kingdom in which He can exercise His authority, then He is very limited. Therefore, God chose Abraham and his descendants to be a nation, a kingdom. This is how the people of Israel came into being. After the Lord brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, He said to them, "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exo. 19:6).
In the New Testament, when John the Baptist came preaching, his first words were, "Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near" (Matt. 3:2). When the Lord Jesus went out to preach, He said the same thing: "Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near" (Matt. 4:17). When the Lord Jesus sent out the twelve disciples in Luke 9 and the seventy disciples in Luke 10, He told them to preach concerning the kingdom. Eventually, in the last book of the Scriptures, Revelation, we are told that, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever" (Rev. 11:15). The Lord will rule as a King with all of His overcoming saints. Thus, at the very end of the Scriptures we can see that God eventually will have a kingdom in which He can exercise His authority to the fullest extent in accomplishing His eternal purpose. Have you ever realized that there is such a line in the Scriptures? It is only through the kingdom that God can exercise His authority to accomplish His eternal purpose. In nearly every book of the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, the kingdom is covered. The kingdom is such a great matter in the Bible. After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus spoke with the Apostles for forty days concerning the kingdom (Acts 1:3). The Apostle Paul spent three months in the synagogue at Ephesus disputing and persuading concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 19:8).
Although the kingdom is covered throughout the New Testament, most Christians have not seen it in an adequate way. For century after century, the churches have not seen it properly. Most books on this matter of the kingdom say that the kingdom is simply a dispensation or that it is a sphere, a realm, in which God rules. However, if we regard the kingdom as merely a dispensation or a realm, our understanding falls far short. The kingdom is greater, higher, and deeper than this.
We need to see the matter of the kingdom because it is very much related to the inner life and also to the church life. If we would realize and experience the proper church life, we have to see something concerning the kingdom of the heavens. Also, if we would experience the inner life in a practical way, we must know something of the kingdom of the heavens.