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What exactly was Yah’shua referring to when He said, Seek ye first the Kingdom of
Yahweh? Was He referring to a literal Kingdom that they should find somewhere
on the earth? Was He referring to some metaphysical idea, that only becomes a
reality after death of the physical body? Over the years we have heard numerous
ideas expressed about this scripture, let us take a logical and realistic look at this.
One of the scripture passages that people interpret to mean that the Kingdom of
YHWH is a sort of ethereal experience is as follows.
Luke 17:20-21
“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of YHWH should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of Yahweh cometh
not with observation:
Neither shall they say, Lo here, or, lo there! for behold the Kingdom of YHWH
is within you.”
Many think from this that there is no physical kingdom on earth to come and that
you go to heaven. We will see that this is not correct, and that Yahushua was
talking of the situation at that time, and for time prior to His return.
At the time Yahushua was on the earth the Yahudim (Jews) were waiting for the
Messiah, they expected the Messiah to come with great pomp and ceremony. The
Messiah was after all going to be their King. The problem is that they had failed to read prophecy properly and could not see that, the Messiah was not coming with
great ceremony but as a sacrificial lamb. Despite their many years of reading the
scriptures they just could not see it, as is the case with many people right around
the globe.
Therefore Yahushua said that the Kingdom of YHWH came with nothing observable,
there He was, their King, standing right there answering them and they could not
see it. As He was not dressed or living as they thought a King would, they could
not physically observe His Kingship. Yahushua went on to say that “The Kingdom
of Yahweh is within you.” What did He mean? Quite simply that the knowledge
that He was Messiah was spiritually discerned. Those who recognised Him as
Messiah did so by the Revealing of this Truth to them by our Father in Heaven.
They recognised and knew Yahushua was the Messiah in their hearts and minds.
This is still true today, men can write all the books and web pages they want
about the Kingdom of Yahweh, still unless The Father gives people eyes to see
and ears to hear, it is all fruitless. Does that mean that we should stop trying?
No, people who have learnt a few things have a responsibility to Yahweh to try
to pass the message on, as that is Yahweh’s vehicle for passing on Truth to others.
To follow any man blindly thinking that man has a special connection to Yahweh
that no one else has, is a trap for young players. Many fall into it and never see
their error.
The Spirit that leads into all Truth comes from Yahweh, some men have more
Truth than others, but to dogmatically follow a man is idolatry, Yahweh gives
understanding to mankind no one else.
1Corinthians3:4-9
“For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not
carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Master gave to every man?
I have planted, Apollos watered; but Yahweh that giveth the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but
Yahweh that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
For we are labourers together with Yahweh: ye are Yahweh’s husbandry, ye are Yahweh’s building.”
So to “Seek ye First the Kingdom of Yahweh and His righteousness” means
to first seek Yahweh, to learn from Him. If you truly seek Yahweh’s ways and not
merely confirmation that your own ideas are correct. If you seek Yahweh’s Truth in your life, He will lead you to what you most need to learn and understand right
now. When you have found that understanding, at the right time Yahweh will lead you to the next understanding that you need, if you continue to seek Him. One
mistake that most of us have made at sometime is, that after being led by Yahweh
to a place that gives us understanding that we need at that time, we then think
that we should just leave the spiritual instruction to that minister, we then start to
look to the man instead of Yahweh for further understanding, we quench the spirit
and become stuck in a rut. Sometimes following where the Spirit leads means
leaving your old congregation (that congregation might be a church, it might be
breaking away from your circle of friends) and walking a new road. Sometimes it
just means growing in clearer understanding, that all depends are where you are
at the time, both physically and spiritually. Often people find it hard to leave a
group, they fear being alone, however if you are walking with Yahweh you are
never alone, it’s something that many say, to truly be able to know this you first
have to be courageous enough to put it into action.
HEBREWS 11:6
“ But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for He that cometh to
Yahweh must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him.”
To diligently seek Yahweh, is not to diligently ask Him to give us everything we
want, when we want it, as some seem to think. But rather to seek His
understanding, His way to conduct ourselves, and to seek Him for how best we
can be of service to Him. When we do that then Yahweh will reward us with
everything we need (and He knows better than us what we need; Matt.6:25-34)
and some of desires of our heart. So when we diligently seek Him and His will and
His way, then “all else shall be added unto you.” This is not something that we
can pretend, Yahweh knows who is really looking for His way, His Righteousness,
and who is just playing the game to try to get what they want.
.
GALATIONS 6:7
“Be not deceived; Yahweh is not mocked; for whatever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.”
At no time should we be trying to judge others; only Yahweh can see into the
heart of another. We can only discern whether or not another’s current activity
is something we can involve ourselves in or not.
JAMES 4:4
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the
world is enmity with Yahweh? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of Yahweh.”
The above scripture and some others similar are sometimes used to condemn
other people, however it is the actions and activities of the world not the people
that we are not to get involved with.
The Messiah told us to Love our enemies and to do good to those who despitefully
use us. We are not to judge these people, but to continue to walk in Yahweh’s
ways, and to overcome evil with good by responding to bad things that happen
to us in a loving manner. This is not to say that we are to condone bad behaviour,
but that we are to respond, not in kind, giving hate for hate, but by returning love
and forgiveness. To condone bad behaviour is not love. The message is “repent”
not “do as you please”. If we have truly repented ourselves then with the aid of the
Spirit we will be able to forgive instead of retaliating in kind, or refusing to forgive.
For the only heart that we can hope to judge is our own; and even that is
deceptive
JEREMIAH 17:9-10
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can
know it?
I Yahweh search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according
to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
To know ourselves is only possible by Yahweh showing us our true motivations.
MATTHEW 7:1-3
“Judge not , that ye be not judged.
For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what
measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but
considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”
We all come along a different path to the THE WAY, at any point in time some are
closer to the narrow path than others, we cannot judge whom Yahweh is
directing and who He is not. Look at the apostle Paul, Paul had a heart for
Yahweh, as He imprisoned and put to death the saints of Yahweh, Paul zealously
believed he was doing the right thing putting out the heresy; when Paul’s eyes
were opened to the truth He became equally zealous for Yahweh’s Truth.
Previously Paul had a heart for Yahweh but did not have the Truth. Therefore
we cannot judge a persons heart, it may simply be that a person has not yet come
to understanding; tomorrow, next week or next year, who knows to whom the
Spirit will come. We all walked in darkness (most of us still walk in the shadows)
until The Spirit opened our eyes to more understanding.
JOHN 3:8
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but
canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone born
of the Spirit.”
We simply cannot judge the heart of another, only Yahuweh can do that.
To “Seek Ye First The Kingdom of Yahweh and His Righteousness” then is to
diligently seek the Torah of Yahweh, to seek His will in our own life, and to
conduct our lives according to His Torah. This then means that the King in our lives
is Yahweh, and while He is not visible, our heart is toward Him and the Kingdom of
Yahweh is in our hearts. As we seek to put Yahweh foremost in our lives, Yahweh
will reward us with all else that we need, that includes not only our physical needs
but our spiritual needs also. The understanding of prophecy of the Coming Kingdom
of Yahweh on the earth will grow as we grow in grace and knowledge through
seeking Yahweh and His Torah(teaching).
Many people focus on Prophecy first and foremost, they want to know precisely
what is going to happen when, where and how. This is often driven out of fear
of being caught up in the Tribulation. Anything that is not of Faith is sin.
ROMANS 15:23
“And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for
whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Fear is the opposite of faith. That is not to say that we should not fear a truck
coming up the road might hit us if we stand in its path, that is common sense.
Fear drives the world; fear of poverty, fear of being unpopular, fear of him doing
it to you before you get to do it to him, fear of being blamed, fear of not receiving
the credit, fear of life, fear of death, fear causes wars, fear causes most of the
worlds ills.
MATTHEW 10:28
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but
rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
2 TIMOTHY 1:7
“For Yahweh hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love,
and of a sound mind.”
Yahweh will bring His Kingdom on the earth of that we can be certain. This will not
come without a huge spiritual battle, still we can know for certain that the horrific
Anti Messiah New World Order (the beast power) has already LOST.
DANIEL 7: 18
“But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.”
DANIEL 7:21-22
“I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed
against them;
Until the Ancient of days came, and judgement was given to the saints of the
Most High; and the time came that the saints possess the Kingdom.”
Some teach that these ‘saints’ will be all men, that the women followers of Messiah
will be hold up in a place of safety, they base this on Revelation 12:5 “she brought forth a man child” and also on the repeated mention of the ‘sons of God’ in the
New Testament Scriptures. While we are sure that all women would love to believe
that they are going to be kept safe from the trials to come, protected while they
rely on their courageous men folk to battle the beast for them; we don’t think that
women should be lulled with a false sense of security. It could be, that these
people that teach this are right, that would be nice, however it could be that they
are wrong. We say this for the following reasons. Firstly the “man child” if you
check the Greek is a singular person not a group of men, and is a reference to the
Messiah Yahushua himself. Secondly the word “sons”, in Hebrew, where ever there
are a group of people the male plural is always used and unless otherwise indicated
in the text, would be better rendered “children”. Likewise in the Greek, two words
mostly translated as “sons” are not necessarily meaning ‘male’. G5043 in Srong’s is
“Teknon” meaning;a child (as produced):-child, daughter,son. The other word is
G5207 “huios” meaning :- a primary word,a “son” (sometimes of animals) used very
widely of immediate, remote or figurative kinship:- child, foal, son. This same word
is rendered “children” in Galations 3:26. Take the fact that these words for “sons”
do not necessitate being male and couple it with this statement from the Apostle
Paul.
GALATIONS 3:26-28
“For ye are all the children of Yah by faith in Messiah Yahushua.
For as many of you who have been baptised into Messiah have put on
Messiah.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither
male nor female: for ye are all one in Messiah Yahushua.”
One more thing to add, is do not forget the “Deborahs”. Yah has always raised up
women where He chose to, and will do again should He deem to do so.
So folks while it has to be said that the “Bride” will be kept safe through the
tribulation, because Yahushua the Last (or second) Adam will NOT FAIL (as did the
first Adam) to keep His bride safe from the serpent. This does not insure that all
female followers of Messiah will be accounted worthy of escape.These who do
escape, are represented as the “church in Philadelphia”(Rev3:7-13) These will no
doubt be a group of both men and women, and they won’t necessarily be coming
from one church named Philadelphia or from one domiciled in Philadelphia, but they
will be those chosen by Yah as accounted worthy of escape and will come from
those out there in the wilderness of the people. In fact if you are in a corporate
church you would be well advised to get out of it and be led by the Spirit, rather
than follow men.
However there are two other groups that are mentioned that maybe caught up in
the tribulation these are those that are as “The church of the Laodiceans”
(Rev.3:14-22) and those of “the church in Smyrna”(Rev.2:8-11) while both these
groups have been promised a crown, some will have to endure unto death through
the tribulation in order to receive it. These “churches” in Revelation represent the
different spiritual conditions of followers on the earth today as well as in the first
century. However being persecuted for your beliefs and put to death is not
necessarily an indicator of your current spiritual state, it happened to Messiah,
it happened to the Apostles, we doubt any of us today could match the zeal of
the Apostles and we don’t even come close to Messiah.
REVELATION 12:11
‘And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their
testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death.”
Let us pray for the full understanding of the “ the blood of the Lamb” by which we
will be overcomers, only by “the blood of the Lamb” will we overcome we cannot
do it without our Passover Lamb. Those that have entered into the Renewed
Covenant written in the Blood of Yahushua, and keep it; can be assured that
come what may, all things will work together for good for them.
ROMANS 8:28
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love Yah, to
them that are called according to His purpose”
Let us remember the instruction of our King Yahushua, to pray always that we may
be accounted worthy to escape.There will always be some who wish to be ‘heroes’
but this is fool hardy, there is ONLY ONE SUPER HERO in this and He has been and
gone and done it already, that it is Messiah Yahushua, better then to follow His
instruction and hope to be accounted worthy of escape.
LUKE 21:36
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to
escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son
of man.”
There will be some dark days first, but for those who love Yahweh’s Torah, there
will be the peace of knowing the Good news of the Kingdom of Yahweh is about to
be manifest on earth.
ZECHARIAH 14:3-9
“Then shall Yahuweh go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He
fought in the day of battle.
And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before
Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst
thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a great
valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of
it toward the south.
And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the
mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before
the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and Yahweh my Elohiym
shall come, and all the saints with thee.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
But It shall be one day that which shall be known to Yahweh, not day, nor
night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half
of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in
summer and in winter it shall be.
And Yahweh shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one
Yahweh, and His Name one.”
The earth is full of strife and woes right now, and it will get worse, still we can
have the peace that Yahushua Ha Mashiach promised, if we diligently seek Yahweh
and let The Set Apart Spirit teach us all things.
JOHN 14:27.
“ Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth,
give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
The Kingdom of Yahweh will come on earth at Yahweh’s perfect timing, meanwhile
we wait and watch, and learn of Yahweh’s Way, so we will be ready for it when it
comes to all. We seek Yahweh while He may be found, so that in those days of
trouble, we can have the peace of mind and spirit that can only be found in
Yahweh, knowing that the return of the Messiah to the earth is imminent.
With assurance that, that which we sought “first” will be manifest at the end.
MATTHEW 6:33
“ But seek ye First the Kingdom of Yahweh and His Righteousness,.........”
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