Noted preacher and writer, Dr Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas and the voice behind the radio programme and US ministry, ‘The Urban Alternative’, shared with locals last weekend at the ‘Kingdom Man and Woman’ conference hosted by the local group, United for Change.To understand what a Kingdom man or woman is, one must first understand what the Bible means by the word, kingdom.“The Kingdom can be defined as the visible demonstration of the comprehensive rule of God over area of life,” explained Dr Evans. “That means that [the Christian] comes under divine authority in every realm, that in every realm you first, and foremost, want to see what God says about it, what He thinks about it, and how He wants you to operate regarding it. Unless that question is first, you’re not operating as a Kingdom person.”Living such a passionate and conformed life can be very challenge for the modern Christian, however, as there are, in fact, two kingdoms vying for the Christian’s attention. As a result, sadly, many Christians have become almost indistinguishable from the world around them.“The appeal of competing kingdoms has drawn us from our sole allegiance to [God’s] Kingdom and, as a result, that’s created a conflict because the Bible says, if you love the world, you lose the Father. So we’ve actually lost intimacy with God by aligning ourselves or trying to be dually aligned to both kingdoms.”Through the course of the conference, Dr Evans shared with people how they can develop this into their lives.“We’re talking about ... what it means to operate under the rule of God as a man, what it means to operate under the rule of God as a woman. God has specific guidelines for men and specific guidelines for women, specific guidelines for marriage and for singles, and when you operate under those guidelines, you get God’s involvement.But many men and women have been so corrupted by the culture, and so secularised in their thinking, that we’re losing the involvement of God in our lives and we’re seeing it in the fraying of the lives of men and women in the culture.”“Today we’re facing a crisis of identity where men and women have lost their identity, have adopted the wrong identity, chaos has set in, so our records are exactly like the world’s records in terms of divorce and in terms of all that.“I think we must recommit ourselves to a Kingdom world view where God’s rule, on the front end, dominates every issue. Then you will see God’s involvement in every issue on our behalf.”Bringing one’s life and one’s marriage into alignment with God’s plan for you can have great benefits.“First of all, it brings order. Instead of chaos, there’s going to be order, because God is a God of order. Second of all, there’s going to be dominion, because the whole point of the family was dominion; that is ruling on God’s behalf.“Instead of being ruled by circumstances, you’ll see yourself overcoming them, rather than being controlled by them. And then the preparation for the future, raising a generation of children who are perpetuating God’s values rather than the competing values of the society.”“We tell families that the main way you raise a family is around the table, because you don’t use the table just for eating, you use it for leading. There, you find out what [your children are] learning, good or bad, that contradicts your value system and thwart it.“Children have got to be constantly bombarded with God’s point of view to counteract the world’s point of view that they are being bombarded with every day.”Parents need to be involved in every aspect of their children’s lives, attending parent/teacher association meetings, meeting with teachers and principals. “You need to know what they are learning, so that you can know what you need to address.”Christians are also needed to get involved in schools for the benefit of other children.“You’ve got to come up with surrogate parenting. If the young men don’t have fathers or don’t have the right kind of fathers, that’s why our big programme is teaching churches how to adopt schools, because then you get access to students.“ When you get access to students, you can influence them, or at least attempt to influence them, in another way. They need to hear different voices in their heads.“That’s where Christians have to engage them where they can and the school is one of the best places to do that.”Singles also have a challenge ahead of them.“The key to successful single-hood, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, is don’t be distracted, don’t try to be married in your mind when you aren’t married in your life.“In fact, he says, give yourself even more fully to Kingdom activity. The successful Kingdom singles I know, are so operating in their calling, that while they may still want to get married, and desire to get married, they’re not desperate, because they are fulfilled by their primary calling for right now.”Becoming a Kingdom man or woman does not mean that God will guarantee you prosperity or health.“God’s kingdom does prosper, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t mean everybody’s rich. It means you get to live out the fulfilled purpose for which God has created and redeemed you.“And that’s going to vary from person to person, just as it did in scripture. Not everybody lived at the same level, not everybody had the same resources, everybody didn’t all have the same position, but it meant that they were able to fulfil their divine purpose, and that is what the kingdom offers.”