Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (KJV)
In my teaching ministry I’ve encountered this question many times, “what does seek ye first the Kingdom of God mean?” Many people wonder why their prayers are not getting answered, or why they are not receiving a response of their requests from God.
Receiving from God is an art which needs to be mastered and understood.
There are so many reasons as to why we don’t receive, but in this lesson, I will be talking about only one main reason – Lack of understanding how God’s Kingdom work. In Hosea 4:6, the bible teaches that, God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
We have thousands if not millions of people who profess their faith in the Lord, who claim to be members of God’s Kingdom but yet they don’t even understand how the Kingdom Operates. Before you seek the Kingdom of God, you must first understand how it works.
Think about this…
How do you drive a car and arrive at your destination if in the first place you don’t even understand how it operates. Before you start driving a new car, you need to invest your time in learning how every button, lever, and function works.
Take another example when you buy a new smart phone, a fridge, an oven or any other gadget from the supermarket, what are you supposed to do first? Personally, and I believe this is common with all of us, I grub the manual and take time reading it so that I may understand how to operate it successfully.
What are the dangers of operating anything without first understanding it’s functionality? Of course, you risk damaging the appliance or your gadget for doing things that you are prohibited to.
I once bought new fruit blender and without reading the manual I did put big pieces of carrots then operated it. though my blender would have functioned properly, the big chunks of carrots chocked the machine such that the motor couldn’t run and I ended up damaging the machine.
This is exactly what happens when we operate things the wrong way. To avoid this, you must invest time in learning how everything functions.
The Kingdom of God is no exception…
When you visit any new country, you must invest best of your time in learning how things are done so that you don’t get in trouble once you land. I’ve visited two foreign countries so far i.e South Africa and Qatar. In these two countries one thing is common – each country has it’s own way of operation.
My wife and I once visited South Africa for a medical trip and before our flight, we spend time asking questions via email about what the place looks like, who will receive us, where to sleep, what to eat, etc. Following the purpose of our visit, l personally asked many questions about what procedures will be carried out on our daughter (who had a congenital heart problem).
Even after arrival in Walter Sisulu Pediatric Cardiac Centre, we still continued to ask questions and each time we had somebody to answer us. On the day our daughter was to undergo a surgery, we woke up early and the doctor was ready to take us through explaining to us what exactly the doctors will do.
Though the surgery procedure sounded scary, we were able to understand how everything will take place and so our hearts were somehow at rest because we knew what to expect.
So, what does seek ye first the Kingdom of God mean?
1. Know How God’s Kingdom Operates
Once you know how the Kingdom operates, you will know what, where and when to access anything, you want in the Kingdom. You will know your position, rights and at the same time you will not be like a stranger in the home of your Father.
This will be discussed in detail later
2. Know Who You Are In the Kingdom of God
The bible says that God has made us kings on earth (1Corinthians 4:8; Revelation 5:10). However, it is unfortunate that we are kings but don’t know how our rights or how the kingdom operates.
The purpose of this lesson is to empower you as a king (if you are believer) and make you understand how the kingdom that you belong operates. The only way to become a child of God is to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior as stipulated in Romans 10:9-10.
3. Know The difference between a ‘Kingdom’ and a ‘Republic”
First let’s define the word “kingdom”. In simple terms, a kingdom comes from two words, a ‘king’ and ‘domain’, so it’s a king’s domain ie, a place where the king is dominating. A “kingdom” is a place or a country where a king reigns.
On earth, we have so many countries/nations dominated by kings or queens. So a place or country where the king/queen reigns is referred to as a kingdom.
Take for example countries like England (led by a queen), most of the middle east nations/states/emirates like Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, etc, they are all led by kings (called Emir). ‘Emir’ is an Islamic title which simply means ruler. An Emirate points to the geographical territory of his jurisdiction.
One may ask, what makes a country a kingdom and not republic? We have already discussed that in a kingdom the power belongs to the king/queen. A republic is totally the opposite of that, i.e, the supreme power belongs to the people. In a republic, it’s the people who elect or appoint their representative who become their president.
4. No Democracy In Kingdoms
Another name for republic governance is democratic, whereby people are free to vote in or out any leader of their choice. Unfortunately, this kind of government was begun by Satan himself in Revelation 12:7-11; Ezekiel 28:14-17, whereby he wanted to have a share in God’s Kingdom.
God being the King of kings and the Lord of lords (Deuteronomy 10:17) could not allow this to happen, so he delegated the battle to Archangel Michael who fought the serpent until he was ejected out of heaven.
If you watch Satan very closely, you realize that he doesn’t use new tricks, he just uses the old tricks he has been using (he just incorporates new technology). So, Satan incited the nations of the world to reject the kingdom systems and introduce democratic governments which are normally very chaotic.
5. Seek Ye First The Kingdom Of God Means ‘Repentance’
In this lesson, we will be majoring on “The kingdom” because that’s our point of interest. First, it’s worthwhile noting that when Jesus began his ministry his message was “Repent, for the Kingdom of God has come near” (Matthew 4:17) – simply Jesus meant to access the Kingdom you must be repentant.
We also note that John the Baptist’s message was also about repentance (Matthew 3:1-3) – in preparation for the Messiah. Jesus Himself when He taught about the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-11, he taught about repentance within the Lord’s prayer.
To enter God’s Kingdom involves obedience and doing the will of God in heaven (Matthew 7:21).
6. Seek ye First the Kingdom of God Does Not Mean Sitting in High Places
Jesus gave many parables about the Kingdom of God, but his listeners did not actually understand what He meant, including His own disciples.
In Matthew 20:20-28, we see the cry of a mother (of the sons of Zebedee) who came to beg Jesus to allow her children, one to sit on the right and the other on the left of His Kingdom. This tells you that this mother was thinking about a physical kingdom that Jesus would establish.
The same story is repeated in Mark 10:35-45 whereby now the two sons of Zebedee (James and John) came personally to the Master and made the same request. This shows that even the disciples themselves had gotten it all wrong about the kind of kingdom Jesus had come to establish. What they had in mind was a physical kingdom – in which they expected to sit in high places.
7. The Kingdom of God is Not Physical – It’s Spiritual
The Pharisees wanted to know when this Kingdom would come in Luke 17:20-21 and Jesus answered that the Kingdom of God is amidst them. Jesus was pointing out that He did not come to establish a physical kingdom like David (as people thought) instead a spiritual kingdom which was already within them. Paul said in 1Corinthians 4:20 that the kingdom of God is not about mere talk but about power.
In Acts 1:4-6, before ascension, Jesus was telling His disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they receive the gift He had promised (Holy Spirit) but the disciples still thought that Jesus is going to establish a physical Kingdom in Israel.
In verse 8, Jesus told them that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they will be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and all parts of the world.
In other words, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them was the culmination of the Kingdom upon them. They could not understand these things until the Spirit Jesus promised came upon them in Acts 2.
Watch the video below.
At a glance…
What does seek ye first the Kingdom of God mean? In a nut-shell, as well as answering this question, I’ve also laid a foundation in understanding the operations of the Kingdom. Seeking ye first the Kingdom of God implies that you understand your true identity in the Lord by repentance and seeking His righteousness.
To understand fully what this means, you must know how to receive Jesus as Savior as well as learning how to work out your salvation in fear and trembling (Philippians 2:13). By so doing you will reach spiritual maturity which leads to transformation.
Reading God’s Word regularly, being prayerful and submitting to the guidance of the Holy Spirit will definitely help you discover deep secrets of the Kingdom. In my next article, I will shed more light regarding THE SETUP OF THE KINGDOM
It’s unfortunate that many Christians seek earthly riches more than the Kingdom which is very opposite of that scriptures we are supposed to seek God and know who he is and how to live like him in all ways and all that our heart desires he will meet them for in His kingdom carries everything a human being needs riches,fame,titles and so on the heart of a man is deceitful thinking that they can seek earthly things
You are very right!
Men for being spiritual but living in a physical body tend to major so much on the visible things hence neglecting the most paramount ones. The flesh however desires the physical things because it’s at home at the physical world however the spirit man seeks the spiritual things because that’s where he came from. For this reason if we seek to please the God by obeying Him in every way we shall reap a bountiful spiritual harvest.
We may face circumstances that can pull us away from God’s plan and purposes e.g diseases,fear, sadness, rejection etc but when we seek God first,we surely remain focused ( not double-minded)on His will and purpose for us.
Listening to others(Pastors, friends, family) is often helpful but keeping God’s own instructions is more valuable.
Prov.29.25 – The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever leans on, trusts in, and puts his confidence in the Lord is safe and set on high. — null
Thanks so much Margaret for your comment. Yes as you say in this life many challenges definitively will come our way but what is the solution? Personally I’ve come to learn that total dependence upon the Lord is truly a great gain. I’ve learned that learning to seek first the Kingdom of God ie learning to obey the Lord no matter what and trusting Him all the way is the best reward one can ever get. I better lose everything but remain with God because once you have God you have everything you need in life.