The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Rom 14:17

We are the Kingdom of God here on earth. God’s Kingdom is not something we have, it’s something we are. When this is who we are becoming, then we will begin to live and move and have our being in Jesus.

In today’s verse Paul gives us three characteristics of God’s Kingdom:
1) righteousness
2) peace
3) joy

All three of these come from the same source: The Holy Spirit. There is no other source for real righteousness, peace, or joy. They come from our awe of Jesus that occurs within us as we experience Him close up and personal. They come from the renewing of our minds that He performs within us.

All three of these are something we are, not something we have. Jesus is our righteousness. Without Him, our righteousness is simply filth. The same goes for joy and peace. He is our joy and He is our peace.

All three of these are like 3-point identity checks when someone is trying to confirm our identity. They prove who we are. They prove our citizenship in God’s Kingdom.

It wouldn’t be very fair if God told us to get our righteousness, peace and joy in line and if we pass the test, we will be inducted into His Kingdom. Unfair, because we could never do it. These traits only come from Him.

But some people literally teach that we have to do it ourselves. They have people pretending to have peace when they have no peace in hope that peace will become a habit. A tell-tale sign that we don’t have real, Holy Spirit-provided peace is that we can’t share our peace. Somehow, our arrival into any situation does not fill the room with peace (or joy, or righteousness).

You see, we bring God’s Kingdom everywhere we go. We don’t create it once we get there. It is with us because the Holy Spirit is within us. And that changes everything.