Welcome back to Wilderness to Wisdom.
Today we're diving into a verse that may be familiar to you and it holds the key to how we should live every single day.
Matthew 6 33 says,
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
This is step 5 on our journey.
Seek God's kingdom and His righteousness.
And this step is everything.
When we get this right,
Everything else begins to fall into place.
In this episode and the next two,
We're going to talk details regarding what it means to seek God's kingdom and righteousness,
Like how to actually apply this to your life.
I knew this Bible verse,
But when I began to go deeper in my walk,
I realized that no one had ever taught me how to actually seek the kingdom and His righteousness.
And that is why my life was out of order and filled with dysfunction.
The kingdom isn't just a place we go when we die.
It's God's way of doing things.
It's His government,
His authority,
His culture being lived out here on earth.
When we seek the kingdom first,
We're saying,
God your priorities are my priorities.
Your ways are higher than mine.
And I want to live according to your plan,
Not mine.
The verse also says to seek His righteousness.
Righteousness simply means being in right standing with God.
Not because of what we've done,
But because of what Jesus has done for us.
So this is not about trying harder to be a good person.
It's about living from the place of being made right with God and allowing that truth to shape the way we live,
Think,
And make decisions.
In the beginning and at times throughout our journey,
We may have moments where we are trying harder to be a good person,
Meaning using our willpower to control our flesh and do better.
The goal,
However,
Is to put on the nature of Christ so that His nature becomes our nature and we find that we no longer need to rely on willpower to help us walk righteously.
When we understand the truth of our identity and what we have available to us as a result,
Our desire to walk in it becomes greater.
There's a continual separation from the ways of the world and a continual renewal of our minds.
When we make God's kingdom and His righteousness our top priority,
It changes how we live.
Our prayers begin to shift from,
God bless what I'm doing,
To God show me how to walk according to your will and plan for my life.
Our values start aligning with heaven's values and we begin to trust that God will take care of our needs,
Our provision,
Our health,
Our relationships,
Because that's what kingdom citizens can expect from their king.
This is also where we decide there is no plan B.
We desire to discontinue the insanity of going back and forth between the kingdom and the world.
Sometimes we say we trust God,
But we keep backup plans in case He doesn't come through.
Seeking the kingdom means trusting God fully,
Even when it feels risky.
And this is where faith gets real,
When we choose to rely on the King as our source instead of relying on ourselves.
I want you to remember though that we are walking in correction,
Not perfection.
Navigating the flesh is no easy task.
This is all very easy to understand,
But it can be difficult to walk out,
So don't feel bad if it takes some time for you to break free from the insanity.
But at the same time,
Don't excuse your behavior away with phrases like,
God knows my heart or God is still working on me.
We must take full responsibility and allow God to course-correct.
This is a continual process that we will do over and over again,
With each new day and each new challenge from the world that comes our way.
So the question for me was,
How do I actually seek the kingdom?
And this part right here was important,
And it's the key to understanding how we should live.
We seek God's kingdom through reading,
Talking,
Listening,
And obedience.
In the next two episodes,
We're going to discuss what that actually looks like.
I'm not going to just leave you with that and expect you to figure it out.
We're in this together,
And we will take it one step at a time.
I want to do a recap from step two,
And I don't want to skim over this,
Because this is what made it click for me,
And it helped me to understand how to live and what I should expect.
And it was a big piece of the puzzle that helped me to learn how to break free from the religious indoctrination.
I never understood what it means to be a kingdom citizen.
It's important to understand how a kingdom operates and what that means for us as kingdom citizens.
Sometimes I describe the Bible as a book about a king and his kingdom,
And the Bible is our Constitution.
In step two,
I referred to Dr.
Miles Monroe's teaching,
And I'll link to a couple of videos in the description,
Because they really helped the concept of a kingdom to click with me.
But for now,
We'll review it again and take it a little deeper.
So,
Heaven and earth were meant to stay connected.
Heaven is the unseen spiritual realm.
Earth is the visible one.
God is king,
And kings have territories.
The kingdom of heaven is God's home country,
Which is in the spiritual realm.
Earth is his territory,
The physical realm.
And we are citizens of heaven living in God's territory here on earth.
So,
We are citizens and ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven.
As ambassadors,
Our job is to take dominion and influence the territory.
We are charged to influence earth with the culture and values of the kingdom of heaven,
Our home government.
God's original plan was for earth to reflect heaven,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Sin,
However,
Disrupted the alignment.
Earth no longer looked like heaven,
But that doesn't mean on earth as it is in heaven isn't still available to us.
Now,
It looks different than the original plan,
But we can have the best version of it considering we live in a world that is dominated by sin.
There was an illustration I saw that really helped me to understand this clearly,
And I'm going to describe it for you for those who don't have the image available through the platform you're listening on.
Imagine two circles.
One is labeled heaven,
That's the spiritual realm.
The other is labeled earth,
That's the physical realm we live in.
Now,
In God's original design,
Those circles weren't just side by side.
They were perfectly aligned,
Almost like one circle is on top of the other.
Heaven and earth fully connected.
But then sin entered the world and the circles shifted.
They didn't completely separate,
But they moved out of alignment.
So now,
Picture those two circles sliding apart,
But with just a small overlap in the middle,
Kind of like when you see a partial eclipse.
That overlapping space in the middle,
That's the kingdom of God here on earth.
Scripture also calls it the secret place.
Psalm 91.
1 says,
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
It's not a physical place,
But a spiritual state of dwelling in God's presence.
And here's the good news.
Even though sin caused separation,
The kingdom isn't out of reach.
As we seek God's kingdom and his righteousness,
And as we start to put on more of the nature of Christ in our daily lives,
We enter into that overlap,
That secret place where heaven touches earth.
And that is where we begin to experience the kingdom right here,
Right now.
John 15.
19 says,
If you were of the world,
The world would love you as its own.
But because you are not of the world,
But I chose you out of the world,
Therefore the world hates you.
See,
We are in this world,
But we are not of it.
Because we need to navigate life here on earth,
We keep allowing ourselves to get pulled into operating the way a normal human being does in the world.
But we are not just normal human beings.
With the Holy Spirit,
We are co-heirs with Christ and have everything that he has at our disposal.
The unfortunate thing is that we have been so programmed by the world that we don't understand the power we have within us.
If we say we believe the Bible,
We must stop excusing away why we're not doing the very same things Jesus did and more.
If we're not doing it,
We must question why we're not,
And once we understand that we've been lied to about our identity,
We can break free from the and walk in the fullness of what it means to be a new creation in Christ.
So when we step into the kingdom,
We have a new identity.
When God colonizes us,
Our old nature is wiped away,
We become new creations.
In step 2,
I encourage listeners to read Colossians 3.
Because it's so important to understand this,
I'll read verses 1-17 to you from the English Standard Version.
If then you have been raised with Christ,
Seek the things that are above,
Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on things that are above,
Not on things that are on earth.
For you have died,
And your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ,
Who is your life,
Appears,
Then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death,
Therefore,
What is earthly in you,
Sexual immorality,
Impurity,
Passion,
Evil desire and covetousness,
Which is idolatry.
On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
In these you too once walked when you were living in them,
But now you must put them all away.
Anger,
Wrath,
Malice,
Slander,
And obscene talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another,
Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices,
And have put on the new self,
Which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
Circumcised and uncircumcised,
Barbarian,
Scythian,
Slave,
Free,
But Christ is all and in all.
Put on then,
As God's chosen ones,
Holy and beloved,
Compassionate hearts,
Kindness,
Humility,
Meekness,
And patience,
Bearing with one another,
And if one has a complaint against another,
Forgiving each other,
As the Lord has forgiven you,
So you also must forgive.
And above all these put on love,
Which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
To which indeed you were called in one body,
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do,
In word or deed,
Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
Giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
I want to give you some personal encouragement.
I remember a time when I was holding on to my own plans so tightly,
Because I was afraid to trust God completely.
It wasn't until I surrendered and made God's kingdom my priority,
That I saw His provision show up in ways I never expected.
When you put God first,
He really does take care of the rest.
There are still moments where I want to do things my way,
Based on what I see,
And I still make mistakes,
But I'm getting better each day with truly trusting God in every area,
Without hesitation.
As I continue to put on the nature of Christ and break free from being controlled by the flesh,
It'll become my default setting to trust Him.
Galatians 5,
16 and 17 says,
But I say,
Walk by the Spirit,
And you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,
And the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.
For these are opposed to each other,
To keep you from doing the things you want to do.
I know life is hard to navigate,
So please do not think I'm just being dreamy here about how things should work ideally.
In this world,
We deal with very difficult things,
People,
And circumstances.
Jesus even told us that in this world we would have tribulation,
But then He went on to say,
Be of good cheer,
Because He has overcome the world.
As a co-heir with Christ,
You too have overcome the world,
And we just need to learn to walk in that.
We go through trials and tribulation because we live in a fallen world.
That doesn't mean you have to remain trapped in the insanity of it.
It really is possible to get off the hamster wheel,
To step out of the matrix,
And walk forward toward the narrow path.
I want to leave you with some things to reflect on.
Think about where you can start or continue today to break free from what the world has programmed you to believe.
Are there areas where you still have a backup plan instead of full trust in God?
And how might your life look different if you truly believed and lived as though you believed the entire Bible?
And finally,
Imagine the freedom that comes with trusting that God will take care of everything you need.
In the next episode,
We'll discuss how to seek the kingdom through reading God's word and talking with Him.
Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Wilderness to Wisdom.
