Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Live for Me today and I will take care of your tomorrows.
If you love Me you will follow Me. You follow Me by keeping My Word and in the conversation we will delve into today, I tell you to seek the Kingdom first and do not worry about tomorrow. I will take care of your future, both now and forever, if you live for Me today.
How do you live for Me today? You keep one eye on the Kingdom of Heaven (seek input from the Kingdom first, which involves My Word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit) and one eye on the earth (all daily affairs, business, matters of earthly laws and operations, natural and political, skills for earthly occupations, family issues, and trials of life) and it joins in your spirit into a single, unified perception, that is, into one binocular vision.
Physically you see the world from two eyes with their own optic nerves but the joining of visual information from your two eyes into a single, unified perception happens not at the optic nerve level but through a series of complex crossing over of some nerve fibers in a cross shaped optic chiasm at the base of your brain which results in a series of connections that inputs the information into the visual cortex located in the occipital lobe of the brain. There neurons receive input from both eyes and begin the process of combining the information. The fusion of the slightly different images from each eye into a single, three-dimensional perception in your brain is called binocular vision. This process involves: (i) Stereopsis: the brain compares the slightly different images from each eye to create depth perception; (ii) Visual Field Integration: the brain combines the overlapping visual fields from both eyes into a single, wider field of view; and (iii) Suppression: in cases where the images from the two eyes conflict, the brain may suppress one image to avoid confusion.
Just as the physical realm comes from and mirrors the spiritual realm, your spirit processes what you are seeing in the world with My Words and the Kingdom of Heaven within you by the presence of the Holy Spirit in your spirit. And the Holy Spirit combines spiritual insight and wisdom with what you are seeing in your circumstances on earth so that you may know the things freely given to you by Me, such as healing, provision, authority over demons, and the ability to change the temporal by the spiritual through faith, which things you also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words to make the earthly vision match up with the heavenly vision (binding and loosing). 1 Corinthians 2:6-13.
This is why Jesus told Nicodemus unless he was born again from above, he could not enter or even see the Kingdom. A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. And just as you have a physical brain that appraises the overlapping visual fields of your two eyes and suppresses conflicting images into one image to avoid confusion, you, who are born again from above, have the mind of Christ, the mystery of Christ in you, your hope of glory. I have given you the advantage of processing information through the mind of Christ. He is My gift to you so you can live your life through and in Him.
And it is in your anointed mind that the Spirit combines the overlapping visual fields from both your physical eyes (on the world) and the eyes of your heart (spirit, inner man of the heart, on heavenly realities) into a single, wider field of view giving spiritual insight and understanding into the issues of earthly life, suppressing the conflicting information from the lies of the world, the flesh and the devil to line up with the truth of My Word. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16.
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
By this spiritual process of combining natural with supernatural and temporal with eternal for your vision below and above where Christ is seated at My right hand, and you who are born again, I raised with Him and seated you there in the Spirit in your spirit already, you can see all earthly circumstances and events n the light of the Kingdom and that is wisdom for today and for tomorrow as My divine plan for your life unfolds in all its majesty and glory day by day for length of days. And that is living in the abundance of My house forever.
We shall now consider Jesus’ conversation about provision and priorities. And you know that in hearing Him you are hearing Me.
This conversation takes place early in His ministry, not too long after His baptism by John and His forty days in the wilderness. He was filled with the Spirit and ready to take on any work I showed Him. He was on His mission to save you and undo the works of the devil full time. He had now called Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip and Nathaniel to follow Him, but He had not chosen the twelve out of the many who had begun to follow Him wherever He went to teach and heal the people. He was primarily in Galilee where He had grown up.
So Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.
The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.
Jesus had a lot to share with the crowds so that He could pull them back into My love and My Word, for the religious leaders of that day were leaving the people like sheep with no shepherd and no sound teaching of Scriptures and My power. They had forgotten the benefits that were theirs under their Covenant with Me
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And what began as a conversation with His disciples about the basic principles of discipleship, now known as the “beatitudes,” moved outwards to include the crowd in an in-depth study of the ten commandments that took it beyond an outward restraint to the workings of the motives and thoughts of the heart.
Today, however, we are going to focus on a conversation about the Kingdom that is well into the middle of the conversation about seeking the Kingdom first to have all earthly needs. This was a subject that everyone there among the crowd wanted to know, for they were all running after the necessities of life and all of them had a desire to have more than enough with no wearisome toil that never really brought in enough.
In this teaching conversation with the disciples and the crowd, I want you to see how it the teaching on the Kingdom lines up also with Psalm 23, for they are parallel teachings in many ways. Seeking the Kingdom first is none other than being led by the good Shepherd by His Spirit in you, the Holy Spirit, that He has poured forth from My throne on all believers of open heart. The Holy Spirit now resides in you and it is He who will guide you to all truth and teach you all things, such as how to profit and the way you should go.
So let us begin as we listen in to the conversation with the primarily Jewish crowd on the mountain side above the Sea of Galilee.
The opening to this Kingdom conversation came in His three statements of introduction which led to the concluding teaching which will be our primary focus.
After giving instruction on prayer, which included praying that My Kingdom would come and My Will would be done on earth as it is in Heaven, which also had to do with the supply of your daily bread, so Jesus turned to the focus entirely to the Kingdom and said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21.
What are treasures in Heaven? Go to the book of Revelation and you will find out.
And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” Revelation 14:13.
In Christ Jesus, I have prepared a life of good deeds for you in advance that you may walk in them. And I have a plan for your life that I wrote before I even formed you in your mother’s womb. The treasure in Heaven that I reward you for are your deeds done in the body, but above all, I reward you for what you have done in your life with love of Me and of your neighbor as your motive. Your works do not save you, Jesus paying your judgement and taking your sentence saves you, and that is a gift you receive by faith not by your works. But once you are saved, and I reward for that, you are to do the works Jesus did and greater. You are to be fruitful with what I give you as I blessed you to be since I conceived you within Me at the creation of the world on the sixth day.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10
You do not take money with you that you have in your accounts, there is no need to take that out of the earth to Heaven as I even pave the streets with spun gold, makes gates of pearls, and foundation stones of precious gems, but you do take your tithes and offerings in the respect that I bless you for them beyond what you can contain.
And remember, when you give to the poor you lend to Me and I repay you, with interest. And whatever you have given because of the Gospel I reward you for, even now. And your prayers are on My golden altar of incense and in golden bowls held in worship by the saints even now. Prayers, especially of intercession for sinners, nations, people in authority, are treasures stored in My Kingdom. You are wise to win souls and those who lead others to righteousness in Christ shine like stars in My Kingdom. And I reward you for your service to others, especially those in the household of faith, that is done unto Me. And I reward those who seek Me and long for My coming. I reward you for your faith and for being an overcomer. And especially for your songs of praise and worship. I have a special crown for those who do My Will by rejoicing always in Me, praying to Me without ceasing, and giving constant thanks for all I have done for you in Christ Jesus.
I could go on to far more that I reward you for, even for controlling your thoughts and your words, not complaining, not worrying, rebuking storms, and casting out demons, but let this suffice for now and you can easily find much more I reward you for in the Psalms and Proverbs. Do not neglect to gather your treasures for your account in Heaven every day and more than once. As My Son told you about the man that had such huge harvests and stored it all up for himself alone to enjoy, do not just grow rich unto yourself but grow rich unto Me.
There are two more introductory teachings until that go with seeking the Kingdom first and we will go deeper tomorrow into all of this in our next Life Lesson. But you have received a full supply for today to chew on and ponder in your heart.
I love you and I made all things for you to richly enjoy, but I want you to enjoy them with Me. Never leave Me out of your celebrations And never take your eyes off My Kingdom as your true source of supply. Remember the two eyes, both focusses are essential, inner and outer, but only one should dominate the view. And I think you know: seek the Kingdom first and all else shall be added to you besides.