Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God

Mathew 6:32,33, ‘For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ These are dangerous times for the fellowship of believers’ whose faith and trust in God is like what Jesus warned us of as the seed that fell on good soil but was choked by the weeds – the cares and concerns of this world. We have steered away from the path of salvation, seeking first the desires of our hearts instead of seeking God and His kingdom. Our God is a holy God and all of us that are called to Him must live holy lives in Christ. Salvation We need to re ask ourselves if we know why we are saved. Why did Christ die for you and me? Did He do so for us to have wealth and health only, for us to have big cars, for us to be important or did He shed His blood at the cross, facing its scorn to redeem our relationship with God, to restore our relationship with Him, to experience His boundless love, to give a rebirth to our spirit so that we can have a personal relationship with a spiritual God, to have Him live in us and we in Him forever? The Word of Truth We need to ask ourselves whether we need scripture so that we can find happiness, prosperity and health or is it so that we can become spiritually mature, be transformed in mind, renewed in the likeness of Jesus, to know the truth so we can become holy just like He who called us, be shining lights to the world, share the good news by becoming witnesses of the goodness and power of the gospel of Jesus. Sadly many brethren are spiritually obese, gouging themselves with the word while not living it. We are what Paul calls spiritual babies still feeding on milk for eons while we ought to have graduated to solid food. We receive sermon after sermon yet the power and authority that should be present in our lives is absent, we still live in our former ways, still clinging to the world. We have not yet died to ourselves. So can we truly say that we have been saved. God is holy and cannot live where there is evil, Jesus is the light of the world and cannot be found in darkness. Be warned my dear brother that on that day of when the Son of Man of comes in His full glory, when His angels separate the sheep from the goat, don’t be found among those destined to burn with the devil and His angels, don’t be among those who cry to Him calling Him Lord, claiming to have prophesied in His name, driving out demons and performing many miracles in His name that He will rebuke to depart from His sight for He knows them not for they did not do the will of the Father (Mathew 7:21-23). Antichrists’ We are living in the times when the spirit of the antichrist is so prevalent. So many false churches have sprouted up, claiming to be spreading the good news, the truth of God, but all they do is spread the lies of the devil, focusing of wealth, health and misguiding us to place our treasures in jars of clay that are prone to rust and moths instead of storing up our treasures in heaven that is eternal and everlasting. You should watch out for these false prophets that come to you in sheep clothing but are inwardly ferocious like wolves. Distinguish them by their fruits (Mathew 7:15,16). John warns that even though they went out from us, they never really belonged to us. Anyone who denies that Jesus is Christ, he who dies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. Do not believe every spirit but test the spirit to see whether they are from God, every spirit that recognizes Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God (1 John 4:1-3). Paul warns us to be wary of those that teach false doctrines that is contrary to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching who are conceited and understand nothing. Those false prophets will have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, that have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain (1 Timothy 6:3-5). Grace By His boundless grace we are saved but this does not mean that because of this grace that we should continue to live in sin. When we are saved we are dead to sin and therefore we cannot and should not live in it any longer. We have a new life in Christ, having died to ourselves and risen a new creature in Him and so we should no longer therefore be slaves to sin but alive to God. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires or offer parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness but offer yourselves to God as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:1-14). Remember, you no longer belong to yourselves for a price was paid for you, but are now a temple of God for God now lives in you, your body is the temple of God therefore offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – a spiritual act of worship. Do not conform to this world but be transformed and renewed in the mind so that you may be able to test and approve the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. Conclusion We need to practice the gospel of godliness with contentment which is of great gain for we brought nothing into this world and we will leave with nothing. If your main focus is to get rich you are at the risk of falling into temptation and a trap into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and this eagerness for money will lead you to wander from the faith and to many griefs (1 timothy 6:6-10). God is holy and He does not live in or condone sin, therefore anyone who tells you that you are of God even when you are living in a sinful world is a liar. His word, the bible, is the truth. Be honest to yourself and stop choosing what to believe in. it is either truth as whole or false as a whole, there is no in between, might- haves or could haves in it. It stands now and forever. The great I Am is the same yesterday, today and forever. Dear child of God, don’t allow the deceiver to lead you to eternal death, repent and turn away from sin and you have the power to do so for the Spirit of God that is in you is full of power and authority. Where there is sin, there you will find even greater grace of God but do not think for a moment that the grace of God is license to sin. Listen to the words of Jesus by seeking first the Kingdom of God and in His faithfulness He will bless you with the promises of those that are blameless before His sight in the land of the living.