9-18 Kingdom Citizenship

➡ Paul, the voiceover for a ministry called Your Daily Bread, discusses the concept of Kingdom citizenship. He explains that Jesus taught that the Kingdom of Heaven exists now, and believers are its citizens. This Kingdom is not a future place, but a present reality within and among us. Paul emphasizes that spiritual growth requires effort and letting go of the past, and that our ultimate home is in the Kingdom of Heaven, not on earth.
➡ As citizens of heaven, we should focus on our purpose and not let our past mistakes or Satan’s influence distract us. We should understand that our time on earth is short compared to eternity, and our actions now will impact our eternal life. Like Israel, who never reached the Promised Land because they kept looking back, we should avoid dwelling on the past and instead strive for spiritual growth and fulfilling our divine purpose. Remember, we are here to do God’s work and should use our time wisely to further His kingdom.

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God Is Government called Your Daily Bread, taken from Christ’s teaching of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting Scripture, but Scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today’s focus discussion will be on understanding Kingdom citizenship. In Matthew 13, verses 11 and 12, KJV, He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Jesus’ frequent use of the words Kingdom of Heaven defined what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. But without explanation, we are mostly fooled by this. Jesus did not mean the Kingdom of God when Jesus returns, as most pastors teach today. Jesus was not talking about the Kingdom of God being a future place. He was speaking about the Kingdom of God being a present place, a place by which the believers live on this earth.

This place is not on earth right now in the form of our government, nation of kingdom. However, the kingdom does exist and it will be here on earth at the return of Jesus. Mark 12, verse 34, KJV. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God, and no man after that durst ask him any question. In Luke 10, verse 9, KJV. And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

Jesus speaks to his disciples of the present tense of the Kingdom of Heaven being here and now. He continues in the present tense in Luke 17, verse 21, KJV. Neither shall they say, Lo here or lo there, for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. Jesus tells us here that the Kingdom is inside of us as well as among us when in a group. In fact, one could translate this last verse meaning that the Kingdom of God is us. What we find in looking at these scriptures and more is that Jesus taught his disciples that the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven exists now.

But it is in a different form from what it will be when Jesus returns and sets up his government. When we yield to God through salvation being accepted by him as his sons and daughters as it were, we become citizens of the Kingdom of God. In this sense, we all are in the Kingdom of God now as citizens. The present reality of citizenship is clearly provided by Paul in his letter to the Philippians. In Philippians 3, verse 20, ESV, but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

God continues to remind us over and over again that our earth presence is not home. In fact, he tells us our citizenship is in heaven and he does not want us to view our physical life on this earth to be viewed any other way than a visitor. He wants us to understand our home is in the Kingdom and this place called earth is a foreign visit for all of believers. Colossians 1, verse 13, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear son.

Translated here should be viewed and transferred. In saying this, we should view ourselves as being temporarily assigned from heaven to earth. We could think of it this way. We live up there, but work down here. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20, KJV. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ’s stead be reconciled to God. As believers, our allegiance is to Christ the King of the Kingdom of God. 1 Peter 2, verse 11, KJV. Dear beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstained from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

We are strangers and pilgrims in an alien nation. In truth, God’s sons and daughters have the Kingdom of God already ruling in them. Some scholars and even pastors of churches are building a case to throw out the words Kingdom and God’s law when they are used. In fact, many pastors today don’t even preach or teach about God’s law. Regardless of their motive, the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven, as stated in Matthew 13, should be understood as the realm, dominion or reign of God now and in the present.

When we speak of Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, God’s constitution and God’s law, we cannot do so without a clear understanding of God’s sovereignty. When we voluntarily accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we immediately came under the sovereignty of God. In thinking about this perspective then, we find that we are in the Kingdom of God and its rules in total apply to us. This means that we are to follow God’s constitution and all of us. Paul writes to the Philippian believers in Philippians 3, verses 12 through 21 KJV.

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Nevertheless, where to we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Paul is telling the Philippians in everyday English that I have not yet arrived. So if we look upon Paul as the most biblical, spiritual, and Holy Spirit-filled individual in the New Testament, telling us that he has not yet obtained all the spiritual maturity needed to be a citizen of God’s kingdom, then where do you think that leaves us? Paul is stating he has not achieved spiritual maturity and divine purpose that he was put here on this earth for. Paul tells us to press on in verse 12 and 14. Our salvation is free.

We get to go to heaven by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. This is free because Jesus died on the cross, buried and resurrected as the propitiation for our sins. He was sacrificed by God. Salvation is free, but spiritual development costs us. We will never come to the knowledge of spiritual maturity as an adult by gliding through life. We have to work for it. Now when have you been told that? We have to prioritize our life in order to focus on obtaining spiritual maturity if we want to have it. It will not just happen overnight.

It requires work. So Paul tells us he presses on as a citizen of heaven. In verse 13 Paul outlines the how to press on. He tells us that we should be forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. We need to let go of the past and look forward to what is to come. If we are ever going to get to tomorrow, we have to let yesterday go. We cannot live in the past. Many of our churches today, including pastors who teach us, are crippled by living in yesterdays.

How many times we are taught and preached to about the past, things that we did of our past. We all have yesterdays that include good things we are proud of, bad things that we are not proud of or even ashamed for and those things that are the ugly stuff. We boast to ourselves about those good things not mentioning the bad stuff and try to forget the ugly. But what Paul tells us is that if we are ever going to achieve spiritual maturity and divine purpose, we have to forget the past.

He goes on to tell us the way to forget the stuff of yesterday is in pursuing what is in front of him. We need to not allow yesterday to define our tomorrow. We need to press on. Because we are a citizen of heaven, we need to press on forgetting about yesterday in our pursuit of the purpose Jesus put us here on this earth. We are not to be a slave here on earth with the baggage of our yesterday. Paul had some great things in his past, but as we all remember, he was also a murderer in the past killing Christians.

In his mind, like many of us, all the good, bad and ugly stay with us in our mind, but we are not to dwell on those things. We are that we will not allow dwelling on those things of Jesus Christ and tomorrow. Had Paul dwelled on his past, he would never have become the great apostle. We should be of the mindset with our thoughts to not allow Satan and his dominion to influence any part of our lives. It is Satan’s job in life to cause us to think of those things of yesterday that will trip us up and not allow us to meet the spiritual activities of today.

He plays with our mind that yesterday owns us, and the guilt of the ugly things haunt us, destroying our focus on pressing on. If we allow this to happen, he will take charge and prevent us from seeing what God has for our purpose for today. We are to press on to achieve what Christ has for our purpose. We are to leave yesterday behind and only look to him and the future. We all have a purpose, and that purpose can only be found in seeking him and looking forward. If you are listening to this, then you are still here on earth.

Therefore, it is not time for you to be done with God’s purpose in life. Paul tells us that we are not citizens of this earth, and therefore we are not subject to this time. We are citizens of God’s kingdom and on his time to do his work here on earth. If we understand that time here on earth is so short compared with eternity that we need to reset our priorities, the only reason we use time to make our priorities is because we try to make time bigger than it really is. God wants us to have the right perspective about eternity, to maximise the use of the time here on earth.

It is our view of eternity that affects our time, and it is our view of time that affects eternity. What we do about our use of time has a direct effect on our eternity. This is not saying those who have been saved will not go to heaven. What it does say is that the work we are to do here on earth in order to further God’s kingdom will have a direct relationship to the other benefits we receive when we do get to heaven. Therefore, God wants us to view our time here on earth as a visitor to continue to have the correct perspective about our citizenship, and to press on as it relates to eternity, and press to make eternity superior to time here on earth.

When we make eternity superior to time, everything regarding time changes. Israel never got to the Promised Land because they kept looking back. They lost sight of where God was trying to take them, and they never went anywhere. See any comparison to our countries today? Many are stuck looking back, and we fail to break through by pressing on to obtain spiritual maturity and divine purpose. This is not only true about us, but our homes, our churches, our communities, and our government. We must press on because we have an enemy in life, Satan, that does not want us to experience it.

Thank you for joining us in this exploration of kingdom citizenship. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].