Seek First The Kingdom
Cheril Goodrich ã
Where is this Kingdom?
Perhaps if we knew where the Kingdom of God was we would know how to seek it. Back in the time of the Old Testament God lead His people into the land of milk and honey. But today finding the land of milk and honey is a little different. We may think that having a lot of money is the land of mild and honey because if we have it, then we can experience the things we want to experience. But the Kingdom of God is not material wealth. Rather it is a mind set that shows us other realms of possibilities. If we do not know where to look for this mind set, it can be rather frustrating. It is kind of like seeking Florida or California without a map. If there is no map or some idea of where we are, we will just have to guess and hope we are in the right place. But what if the guess is wrong and we want Florida oranges, but end up in California. Then what is desired will have to be put aside for something I really don’t want. But we can try to convince ourselves that what we have settled for is what we have been looking for even when we don’t feel that way inside. We can also deceive ourselves into believing that what we have is what we want. The truth is in the pudding. If I am seeking the Kingdom of God, then there would have to be telltale signs, and these signs would have to far succeed my expectations of what I think the Kingdom of God is. These signs would not come from someone else’s explanation, but instead come from an inner knowing and also from our fruits, or a new found ability that supercedes what we knew before. In other words, the direction one would take would be one that included miracles, both for the individual and for others. It would also have to come from a total lack of judgment, not the way we understand judgment, but the way Heaven understands it. After all, if we are seeking the Kingdom of God, then the Laws would come out of Heaven and they would be Laws that would be interpreted by Heaven, not by man. We would also have access to the same Laws that Christ did and be able to show that we had the ability to use them. But to access these Laws, we must first understand how to reach them.
What is it?
We, as individuals, do not understand where to look for The Kingdom of God, so we make an idea that has a picture and that picture holds a place in our mind. Once that picture has been made and the spot has been marked where to find that picture, we seldom question the picture or the place that we are looking may be wrong. We continually “look” at this picture when we conjure up the idea of the Kingdom of God in our mind. The statement, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all of these things will be added unto you,” is without meaning unless we find the right place in our mind where the Kingdom is. It is like looking for Florida oranges in another state other than Florida and deceiving ourselves into believing that we have Florida oranges when they have been purchased in California because that is where we are.
What is state of mind?
Love is a state of mind and so is hate. Are we in the same state of mind when we feel love vs. hate? Obviously not, so there are different states that our mind can be in, just like being in another state in the union. A picture of hate brings up memories that we have instilled into our mind, just as love does. Because these memories are held in different areas of the mind or states, it is impossible to feel love and hate at the same time, unless of course we believe that love is hate. Then we would hold them together, and whenever love showed up, hate would show up along with our false interpretation of love. The two ideas are opposed to one another in nature, so our love nature and hate nature, being in the same place, would constantly be in conflict with one another. This is called dysfunctional. We can see this played out in our physical reality all of the time. We want love, but when love shows up and hate is an issue because of our learning how to join the two opposites, we attract someone who we eventually end up hating, or hates us.
To get back to the Kingdom of God, Jesus was quite specific when he explained spiritual truth to the apostles and the crowds. Many who heard His words did not understand His teachings but they assumed that they did. They conjured up a picture of what He was saying and held that picture believing what they had was truth. If their truth was corrupted by any physical associations that they placed on His Words, then the Kingdom that He spoke about was not totally uncorrupted. It is the same today. This is why there can be dissention between different religions. Each religion believing that theirs is the truth, but defining that truth according to what their particular religion teaches. Jesus would not condemn either. Real truth does not defend itself. There is no need. He would also not condemn what an individual held in his/her mind, even if He knew that it was not the truth. The fact of the matter is that truth can not be explained, it can only be experienced. So it is an intense personal experience that far transcends any meaning that we can give to it on a physical level. Now that, to my mind, is the Kingdom of God. To catch a glimpse of this kind of truth is beyond anything we can even imagine because it is direct link to the eternal state of love so it transcends the physical expression and also has the ability to give a new meaning to the physical expression.
A picture of truth
We can’t get a picture of truth because we have forgotten what truth is, so we try to use a physical moral standard in order to understand a spiritual truth. This does not give us an accurate interpretation and because we are under the illusion that we know what the truth is, we do not look further. We are fearful of upsetting the truth the way we have set it up or how it has been established for us. We may have a feeling in our own mind that we will displease God if we question “The Kingdom” the way we have set it up. This may lead to feeling as if God has not heard us when in fact we may be trying to reach Him where He is not located. The location of God has not changed, but we believe we have changed His location by looking for Him where He is not. He does not dwell in a house built on sand, or in a location that dies when the body does. Instead, His Home is eternal, and if we are not in eternity when we are addressing Him, chances are He is not our audience. It takes practice to learn how to communicate with God on His terms. Do not be deceived, there is a part of our own mind that would prefer that we do not get in touch with the Kingdom, and it takes practice to discern the difference. Do not be fooled, God does not accept the dwelling place we have established for Him. He has created His Own. Much of the time, the “no” that we believe He gives us when we pray is not Him at all, but instead the false God we have set up to take His place. If we do not receive an answer to our prayer, it is because we are not in God’s Temple or we have looked away from His dwelling place to the one that we believe He is in.
Setting up the Kingdom
Do we really believe that God would establish His Kingdom based on what we believe to be true ? God’s Wisdom is beyond our belief, so in order to enter and establish ourselves as part of the Kingdom, we must move beyond our own belief system. We do this in the proper way that has been arranged for us. This proper arrangement began at the moment the first sin began. This first sin was a way of looking for God where He was not, so another way of looking had to be established by man so he could maintain some kind of order. This is the deception we hear so much about and is how we deceive ourselves into believing the Kingdom is where we have placed it in our own mind.
God has not left our interpretation of His Kingdom in our hands. If He had, then there would be no hope. Instead He devised a perfect Plan to help us reach past our own beliefs to another part of our mind that encompasses much more than we could even imagine. It is here we find the true meaning of His Kingdom, and begin to understand that there is another way. It is here we find the Laws that the rest of creation lives by, and they have nothing to do with the way we physically associate with the laws that have been established in time.
Looking at this from a physical perspective, we would not even remotely believe that a new nation could be established and then have the interpretation of that government be left up to each individual that the new government ruled. This would be insane and also very chaotic. As we can see by the movements of the planets God is not a God of chaos, He is a God of order, so it is up to each of us to find Him in our own mind so we can build our house upon a rock and it will not be washed away by the winds of change that echo chaotically in time. We are dealing with the most evolved intellectual Being that far surpasses our understanding, so to presume that we can offer Him assistance in our own way is absurd.
Miracles
The way to gain entry into the Kingdom is to establish the idea that miracles can and do happen, but not the way we understand miracles. Miracles happen everyday, but when we do not recognize the moment that a miracle occurs, we miss the opportunity to re-connect to our spiritual nature and thus misunderstand the miracle as perhaps just a coincidence. God’s Love is very non-invasive and non-intrusive. We seldom recognize a moment with Him because we chock it up to “something else” that can be explained physically. It seems we have spent a lot of time explaining His Love in physical terms, thereby leaving Him out of our physical experience.
The miracle is the gift that has been given to mankind to help him heal the world. With the gift of understanding the miracle comes a certain responsibility, and that responsibility amounts to purchasing a piece of the Kingdom and giving it to the world so the world can heal, but we do not understand how to do this so we must learn to rely on Guidance that does not come from us, but instead comes out of Heaven and is extended to us.
The Commitment
The process is not an easy one because it defies the physical experience. It involves learning anew what we have forgotten because of the physical experience. It is called the journey and it is this journey that leads us to the Kingdom.
We all have a certain responsibility in regards to helping establish the Kingdom on earth. I wish I could hand you the process and make it extremely easy for you to make the journey, but before the journey can begin a commitment must occur. It is this commitment that begins the process. Once the commitment is made you can be sure that there is Someone listening that will lead you on your journey. You can expect coincidences that defy rational explanation. Your dreams will become vivid, and people will enter your life that will help you find your way.
The journey is not without pitfalls. There is a force that does not want us to find our way to the Kingdom. This force is evil, and many define the force as the devil. I am not sure if I define it at this, but the concept certainly defines what we are up against. The only claim that this force has over us is fear, so the process involves finding a way to eliminate fear from our lives. Because only Love is real, fear must be eliminated from our lives and the path to the Kingdom becomes evident.
The Spiritual History
The spiritual history of the world is not the physical history of the world. The spiritual history is different because it defies the physical experience by moving us beyond it. The physical history explains our doing nature. The spiritual history defines our being nature. It is up to us to find a way to use these in conjunction with one another so they do not conflict with one another. We can only resolve this issue by understanding that we are spiritual “beings” first, and the doing comes second. It is this that will place us under the Laws of the Kingdom, and earth and Heaven will be as one. It is only our being nature that recognizes Love as our true nature and fear as an unreal state that can only be experienced by man.
