Seek First The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness

  The IF.   From what I have observed there is a great lack of understanding or just plain misunderstanding of this simple 2 letter word, if, when it comes to God and His working in our lives. When it comes to if it is very much a powerful word that we must properly understand so that we can receive all that God has for us as His people.   The first thing we must understand about if is that the if is never on God’s part.  He has already done His part. His will is clear and established and in Jesus it is finished.  The believer’s mindset and prayers should never be “if God…..” because there is no “if God”.  To pray “God if it is Your will” prayers is to declare ignorance of God’s Word or unbelief in what God’s Word says.  The good news is that we don’t have to stay in ignorance or unbelief.  We can dig into His Word and be changed. Before praying a what if prayer would it not be more effective to search God’s Word, fin...

  An Honest Confession   Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete  it  until the day of Jesus Christ;   I have a confession to share with you.  Many times, in my life, and something that I still battle from time to time, I have taken the mindset that I could make happen in my life what only God could accomplish.  God would put something into my heart and I would accept it, get excited about it and start to run with it but at some point, I would get this attitude of “OK God, I got it from here” and then try to accomplish it by my strength. Guess how that turned out EVERY SINGLE TIME?  Yes, every single time there was failure.  How could it end any differently?  Me and my abilities doesn’t equal God and His abilities, EVER!  Honestly it is the height of arrogance, and ignorance, that I ever thought that I could complete something that ...

  The Arrogance of the Sin Hierarchy     In my Christian journey I have seen, and been guilty at times, of putting people’s sins in to a hierarchy.  In this hierarchy we classify sins from minor to major based upon our judgements of what is minor or major.  From this we place value upon people, their lives, and testimonies  If God doesn’t use a hierarchy, why do we?   Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—   We tend to forget that the sin that Adam committed was disobedience in eating fruit from a tree God said not to.  It wasn’t murder, sexual, addiction related, lying, cheating, blasphemy.  He ate some fruit, that’s it. From that one act sin and death and all its offspring of sickness, illness, poverty, and every evil vile thing.   Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection was to pay the price...

  In my unpacking of all the Lord showed, gave and taught me during my trip I keep coming back to these 2 verses.   Matthew 6:33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.   For if I do anything else apart from what these verses instruct me to do I get out into my strength, my wisdom and my ability of provision which is not the place for me to be.  During this trip I saw and heard both the wonderful and the horrible.  I encountered things that from a natural perspective would make me run away and hide because there is no way I could add anything positive to keep what I experience going or to change the situation from the bad to the good.   If I see myself as anything more or less than a conduit, a branch, that He can move throug...

  That dirty “C” word. Yes everyone I feel led to talk about that “C” word that is so offensive to so many. CORRECTION! Why do we dread not only receiving correction but giving correction when it is needed? If someone piloting a plane or a ship used applied our attitudes to receiving and giving correction there isn’t a plane or ship would ever make it to the intended destination. Being off just a fraction of a degree can mean missing the destination by miles. Proverbs 3:12 For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights. Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid. Proverbs 13:18 Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, But he who regards a rebuke will be honored. Proverbs 15:5 A fool despises his father’s instruction, But he who receives correction is prudent. Proverbs 15:10 Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, And he who hates correction will die. We see from these...

 Thoughts from  Isaiah 10:27   From Isaiah 10:27 we get the popular, but erroneous, sayings in the church, “the anointing breaks the yoke.” This started from the KJV translation of this verse.  Most of the other English translations have translated it as the anointing oil or fat that breaks the yoke.  The Hebrew word used in this verse is semen, pronounced sheh’-men, which means grease, especially liquid (as from the olive, often perfumed; figuratively, richness:-anointing,xfat (things), x fruitful, oil (-ed) ointment, olive, pine. (Strong’s definition). In looking at every verse where semen is used in the Old Testament it is speaking of the oil or the fat itself and not the specific act of anointing.   Now with a proper understanding of what the verse we can see the real meaning and depth of what it is saying to us even now.  To help with this I have included the verse here from 3 different English translations.    I...

  The Essence of the Kingdom     Recently I have been doing a deep dive into joy.  As I was searching the Bible to see all that it had to say on the subject of joy I came upon this verse, Romans 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. My thoughts then went to Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you In looking at both of these verses I see that, logically, what we need to be seeking first is righteousness, peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit.   Sadly, many today in the church are seeking after so much that is not the kingdom or trying by their efforts to produce a God’s kingdom here on earth through various means but really, they are building their own kingdoms. Luke 17:21, says, “nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”  God’...