The idea of 'kingdom' has led, & still plays into the hands of earthly rulers, or would-be. It was behind depraved ideologies (e.g. the crusades) & stll lies behind ideologies of the fundamentalist kind. Neither in physical nor spiritual crusades does God get to rule at all, just human power-brokers of one kind or another. Equally dangerous. Equally foreign to what Jesus is on about. Where God is 'allowed' to rule, God's name is hallowed, there is bread to go around, sins & debts of every kind are forgiven, & tests & trials survived, because Love Rules! OK! Not only the Rule, but the Power, & the Glory, too, are all God's, & God's alone.
Where God rules, the friend who comes by night or any other time with an inconvenient request will have their needs met because they are loved.
Love is the only door worth knocking on, because, paradoxically, it's always open! 'Snakes', 'scorpions', & the evil they represent, all turn into the 'fish' or 'egg' we need to sustain us on our journey when we bring love to bear in the power of the Spirit.
How much time are we wasting trying to conquer the wrong kind of 'kingdoms'? By asking for the wrong things? Searching for the wrong answers? Knocking on the wrong doors? When the real issue is letting God's Rule of Love rule in our life. Not as end, but as new beginning?
