Making Sense – Seek First

In my early religious upbringing, there was a great emphasis placed on understanding the Kingdom of God. The teachers I followed all expounded on the works offered by the late Dr. Myles Munroe who set the standard for breaking down the various components of the kingdom. I have a number of Dr. Munroe’s books and sermon sets sitting on my library shelves still. And yet there is even something missing for me in these materials – something which doesn’t quite fulfill the whole message.

Often the opening of a revelation is given in a simple thought or word. My recent revelation on the kingdom came through the word “incorporeal.” You wouldn’t think much of it since by its very nature it defines something which isn’t tangible, something not seen, touched, heard, smelt, or tasted. But this concept is vital to truly understanding all scripture. Allow me to demonstrate with the foundational teaching presented by the Master, Jesus.

Mat 6:24-33
(24) No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
(25) Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
(26) Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
(27) Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
(28) And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
(29) And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
(30) Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
(31) Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(32) (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
(33) But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Joh 4:24
(24) God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

According to my past kingdom teachings the most important item to remember is wherever the King is, His kingdom is also. A king can never be separated from His kingdom. When we historically look about our world this truth is evident in the many kingdoms there have been. Remnants of some of these kingdoms, and the royalty which defines them, still abide throughout parts of the world.

This brings us to the second item to remember: The character of the King defines the atmosphere of His kingdom. We have seen kingdoms of this world rise and fall based upon this simple truth. There are several examples of this principle even recorded in the biblical narrative.

Now none of this is earth-shaking new. And the reason is simple: All of us have physical evidence we can reference. This evidence is “corporeal.” It is sense-based. We can touch, see, smell, hear, or taste it. The entirety of our experiences in this world is sense-based. This poses a problem when Jesus tells us to, “…seek ye first the kingdom of God.”

How? What does seeking imply? Using our senses to discover. Is the kingdom of God corporeal? Can you touch, see, smell, hear, or taste it? No. Why? Because God is Spirit, incorporeal. To think otherwise is not Truth and a failure to recognize His righteousness.

Take note how Jesus conveys to the people what their deepest needs are. Money, food, drink, and clothing are our everyday concerns. We spend the vast majority of our waking hours trying to secure these things in some fashion. We are so focused on the corporeal that we miss the whole purpose of what Jesus said was the most important thing: Seek the incorporeal.

God knows you need the corporeal, sense-based items you are expending all your energies upon. How could an omniscient being not know? Yet we don’t think He does. Jesus says that we are doing it all wrong. Search out the incorporeal kingdom of the Spirit and the truth of this incorporeal kingdom and all the corporeal “things” we desire will be added to us. “You have not because you ask amiss.”

This is not the only time Jesus attempted to focus the people on the incorporeal kingdom of God. Consider this passage:

Luk 17:20-21
(20) And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
(21) Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Notice again how Jesus is clearly saying that the sense-based methods of this world are not going to help you locate the kingdom of God. This kingdom is within you. This King is within you. The throne of grace this kingdom functions from is within you. You are incorporeal first and foremost then corporeal only as a manifestation of this kingdom within you. How is this possible? Do you not know you have the Spirit of God within you?

Trying to make sense of it all

I recognize how this is a difficult matter to adjust to. Our entire life has been at the mercy of a sense-based world with a language conformed to this system. Our religious institutions and dogmas are confined to the sense-based arena. They find it impossible to usher in the incorporeal and must utilize crude corporeal representations to depict incorporeal divine truth.

When you begin to try to discuss this truth with people, words often fail to accurately convey the truth we have been so ignorant of. Even when those (Jesus, Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah, Abraham) who understood the truth tried to express it to others, it was often couched in the phrase, “He who has ears to hear…” This confounds sense-based people because they can obviously see that everyone has ears to hear with. This, however, is not a call to be sense-based. It is an appeal to a deeper life found within. A life only discovered through meditation and contemplation.

Therein lies the wrinkle in an otherwise original theological discourse. Seeking the incorporeal requires a sustained effort to still the mind of all the senses which invade the thought life. Notice I didn’t say you had to eradicate random thoughts. That feat is impossible! The effort in meditation is to learn to still the mind.

Almost everyone who starts a meditation cycle is bombarded by thoughts, which if followed, leads down a rabbit trail until at the end of the session, nothing appears to have been accomplished. The key is learning to allow thoughts to come and pass over you without engaging them. Doing this for thirty seconds an hour several times during the day will develop your meditative skill quickly.

Once you have mastered stilling your mind for extended periods of time you can then begin the art of contemplation. This will offer you the opportunity to reflect on the incorporeal realm within and all about you. As you develop your flair for contemplation you will begin to witness how things begin to be super-naturally added to you just as Jesus said they would be.

I hope that I do not need to tell you how this is a lifestyle and not just a one-time event. Most people are looking for something to immediately improve a condition in in their health, relationships, finances, business, or community. They simply want a miracle. By their very nature miracles are rare. And as big as a shock as this might seem, God is not Santa – He doesn’t give things because you want it. You are seriously going to need to ask yourself if you want things or you want God.

Jesus said you can’t serve two masters. You are either going to continue relying on the sense-based world of things which are constantly just beyond your reach; or you’re going to step into the incorporeal realm, and how it is accessed, to see the world super-naturally open up to you. As always, the choice is solely yours. Choose wisely.