Understanding The Kingdom of God
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you”
Matthew 6:33
The message of the cross is the climax of the story of man and this world, however, it is not the final chapter or resolution. The cross is the span that bridges the gap for humanity’s return to God, but the final chapter is the kingdom. However, we know that the kingdom of God is already present here on earth; from the beginning of Jesus’ earthy ministry and all throughout, he preached “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”(Matthew 4:17), and in Luke 17:21 Jesus says, “nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
So if the Kingdom of God is here presently, why does Jesus say in His model prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”(Matt 6:10?) This model prayer is a model that we continue to recite, it’s not a one time prayer, and Jesus teaches us here to pray for the kingdom to come continually. We know that Jesus will come back physically on the clouds some day. At that point, the kingdom of God will have fully come in the presence of its king., so how do we understand the kingdom of God presently?
One of Jesus’ most important commands is regarding the kingdom. He says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you”(Matt 6:33). We need to first understand the Kingdom in order to properly follow this instruction.
Finally, why don’t many Christians seem to experience the benefits of the Kingdom..? The Apostle writes, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”(Romans 14:17), and “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power”(1 Cor 4:20). However, many Christians don’t live in righteousness, joy, or peace, let alone power… If Christians are in the kingdom of God, then why isn’t this the reality they experience? Let’s talk about it.
Living under the Dominion of a King
What is a kingdom?
To understand how to “seek first the kingdom of God,” we need to know what a kingdom is. According to Strong’s Concordance, which provides definitions of words based on the the original Greek/Hebrew texts, a kingdom is the territory subject to the rule of a king and is used in the New Testament to refer to the reign of the Messiah. An easy way to remember this is to think of ‘king-dom’ as the king’s-domain, or the domain in which which a king has dominion/jurisdiction over.
So, practically speaking, seeking first the kingdom of God isn’t necessarily just about seeking Jesus, to be more specific, it is about placing ourselves under Christ’s reign, or simply submitting to Christ as King. This doesn’t simply refer to believing in God and being saved, but rather it’s continually placing our whole selves, every aspect of ourselves, into deeper submission to Christ. That means our time, hearts, concerns, finances, resources, strength, thoughts, beliefs, relationships… literally anything and everything that we could call ‘ours’ ought to be given fully to the King and placed under His rulership.
The Apostle writes, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We have been bought at a price that we could never pay, yet God still gives us the free will to continue to choose Him, to genuinely seek after, and to submit to Him or not.
Result of Submission to the King
One can be a Christian but hold back parts of themselves, and there are natural consequences that follow. I’m not talking about punishment from God, I’m talking about missing out on God’s goodness and blessing that comes from being set apart for Him. One example of this that I used to tell myself is, how could I expect God to bless me with an amazing woman of God if I am not truly a man of God who he can trust with his most precious daughter. This is more of a philosophical approach, but to give you Scripture to explain my point, it reads “without faith it is impossible to please God, because… he rewards those who earnestly seek him”(Hebrews 11:6), so failing to trust in God and earnestly seek Him in any way will mean one will miss out on reward from God.
To relate it back to this kingdom understanding, knowing that the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power, and is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, then lacking submission to Christ in any way will inherently mean that there are areas in which we won’t experience these fruits of the kingdom.
Letting go of our own will and submitting to God’s will is a very difficult and unnatural thing for us to do in most cases because we’ve been so corrupted by sin, but it is something that must be done in order to follow Christ and experience the kingdom of God. Part of this is choosing to submit ourselves to God, but ultimately this is a work of God Himself that enables us to desire to seek Him. For example, without a revelation of his truth we wouldn’t even know that we ought to submit to Him, and without a revelation of His goodness and beauty then we would have no desire to seek Him.
So, it is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit that draws us unto God and breaks our outer man(our stubborn will, our selfish desires, passions, etc.) so that the Spirit may break out from our inner man. It is our job to partner with the Holy Spirit by submitting to the work he is doing in us, so here are some prayer prompts to help you amidst that process.
Prayer Points
- “Show me your beauty Lord, draw me unto yourself by your fragrance.” – The more you’ve tasted and seen of the Lord’s goodness, the more you LONG for His presence, this desire is the fuel for the Christian life.
- ‘Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out.’ Song of Songs 1:3
- “Lord, I desperately need you, without your hand over my life I have no protection, no hope, and no path forward. I recognize that you way is SO much better than mine, so may Your kingdom come and Your will be done in my life.” – Without true, genuine humility before the Lord, we shouldn’t expect an answer at all from God, he doesn’t owe you anything yet he desires to give you life that is only found in Him.
- “ ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:6-8
- “Teach me your ways God and make me to understand them. But when I don’t understand, I will walk by faith and not lean on my own understanding.” – Without knowledge and understanding, we will fall so far short, we will be dull tools in the hands of God. We desperately need spiritual understanding in the body of Christ.
- “Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end. Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart.” Psalms 119:33-34
- “Lord, silence every voice in my mind, including my own, that every voice except the Holy Spirit would be completely drowned out, and bind my mind to the mind of Christ.” – We desperately need to become attuned to the voice of the Lord, this is a prayer of faith in which you lean on the Lord to teach you his voice. After praying this you can ask a question, such as, Lord what do I need to repent for? What do you want to tell me this morning/night? Or you can just be still and sit in stillness, you can begin to worship with whatever song comes to your heart and wait on the Lord . He waits on us all the time, we need to learn to wait on Him.
- “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.” John 14:16-17,26
The Kingdom
Seek first the Kingdom of God. Fall in love with Jesus over and over again. The more you seek Him the more you will taste and see that He is good. The body of Christ experiences so much lack.. because of a lack of submission to Christ, we fail to realize the kingdom of heaven here on earth because of lack of trust and submission to the King, but we’re still citizens of heaven and we need to work that deep into our hearts.
Heavenly Father, may the body of Christ continue to experience a revival in understanding, in power, and experiential knowledge of You. Cultivate within us pure hearts, and a deep growing desire to know you deeply. Lord, have our hearts, have all of us, because we have been bought with a price. We love you and we want to be filled with increased measures of Word and Spirit. May this generation of the church be unlike any other Lord God, pour your Spirit out on your people God. Have dominion over our hearts, minds and wills that we may be united in Your heart, mind and will. In Jesus name, Amen.