This is something the Lord began to speak with me about a while ago, and I was just released to share it. I know many of you probably know about this, but I want to bring it to the forefront of our thinking.
I think that, as a Body, it is time for the Church to get a revelation. Now, this isn’t something that is wildly new, just something that we have lost sight of, in my opinion.
What are you seeking? Are you seeking healing, or the Healer? Blessing, or the Blesser? Revelation, or the Revealer?
Matthew 6:31-33, Jesus is speaking. He says, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘what shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 BUT SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (emphasis mine)
So, we are to be seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I like the way the Amplified translates verse 33. “But seek ([a]aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness ([b]His way of doing and being right), and then all these things [c]taken together will be given you besides.”
Aim at and strive after not only God’s Kingdom, but His way of doing and being right. What does that mean? That means we don’t get to decide what’s right and wrong. We must bring right and wrong back to a common standard, and that standard must be the Word of God. That is a constant, never changing standard. When we start deciding what is right and wrong based on our opinions, we are left with shifting sand upon which we try to build a house. I like what Jesse Duplantis says about opinions, “Opinions are transitory forms of thought floating on the ocean of life. They change with every passing wave.”
When we strive after God’s Kingdom, we are aiming at Him. That is something we can never lose. You can never know too much of God, or His Love. Paul, one of the greatest apostles that ever lived, wrote to the Philippian church, and said, “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [[a]which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]”
Now, this is after Paul had been walking with the Lord for 31 years, and He still had “progressively becom[ing] more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him” as His determined purpose in Life.
That’s what we lose sight of today, and that’s really the main purpose of this post. I know myself, I often become so engrossed in, “I need to find favor here, I need healing, I need prosperity,” that I stop seeking the Provider, and start seeking the provision. That is not a healthy place for the Body to be, friends. When we stop seeking the One who made it all, we then put something else in it’s place, be it man’s philosophy and reasoning, under the guise of being, “open minded”, or earthly pleasures, and once something is sought instead of the Almighty God, the Source of all good things, it begins to distort our picture of God.
You see, what you put into you will come out of you. In Proverbs, it tells us to, “Guard our heart, for out of it flows the issues of life.” (4:23) Jesus tells us in Luke 6:45 that, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” One translation uses the word “deposit” instead of treasure. So, you will speak based off of what you have deposited in your heart. If you seek the Kingdom of God, His Righteousness, and Jesus Himself, you desire that. You begin to study what Jesus said, and listen for the voice of God. You spend time in the Word, and in prayer. As you do that, you are making deposits in your heart. You are depositing the Kingdom in your heart, and the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! Then, when a situation arises, you immediately, without even stopping to think about it, start to bring forth from the treasure of your heart.
Now, if you start depositing the things of the world in there, your foundation isn’t built upon Jesus, and the whole thing begins to crumble. Then, when a situation rises against you, you either don’t turn to the Word at all, or, you turn to the Word without faith established on it, and it wont work without faith.
I could keep going, and probably will at a later date, but I want to leave you with this thought. If God isn’t real to you right now, it isn’t because He doesn’t exist, or He has pulled away from you. The Word says draw near to God and He will draw near to you. I want to encourage you to draw near to Him. Study the Word, and study the Character of God. Begin to seek first the Kingdom, and God’s way of doing and being right, and everything you have been looking for in the past will be added to you.
