Chapter One !!

THE PRIORITY OF THE KINGDOM ,

 It was hot that morning over 90 degrees and humid. I was just five years old, and excited. The heat did not bother me because that day I was chosen to lead the school pledge and national ant hem. There we all stood, over three hundred of us, in our uniforms short brown pants, long knee socks, stiff, starched white shirts, our little necktie sholding the Union Jack. 

As we pledged to honor and submit tothe Queen of our kingdom, we sang the two songs that were the first ones we were required to learn from birth. Every one of us knew every word, and we sang with gusto and pride:“God save our gracious queen, long live our noble queen, God save the queen.

 Send her victorious, happy and glorious, born torule over us, God save the queen.”Next came the waving of the flag of the United Kingdom ofGreat Britain as our voices filled the air with the second song:“Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, Britons never, never,never shall be slaves.”It has taken me almost a lifetime to understand, appreciate, andin some ways overcome the impact of those history-making experi-ences of my childhood. Today I understand that what we went through in those school days illustrates the nature of kingdoms. 

We were in the process of being fully colonized taught to become true subjects of a kingdom and obedient worshipers of sovereignty. We were part of a global kingdom whose culture was different than our heritage. Every day we felt the impact of a foreign kingdom. Even today, 50 years later, the impact of that kingdom is still seen, felt, heard, and experienced in every part of our independent nation of the Bahamas.

 I still wear a tie in 90-degree heat; I still drink tea every day; and I still drive on the left-hand side of the street. In some ways, I suppose, I am still under the influence of that kingdom mentally. When the kingdom became our priority, its impact became a reality. This book is about another Kingdom whose flag weall should hold and another King to whom we should sing praises. 

REDISCOVERING THE PRIORITY 

The greatest secret to living effectively on earth is understand-ing the principle and power of priorities. Life on earth holds no greater challenge than the complicating daily demand of choosing among competing alternatives for our limited time. Our life is the sum total of all the decisions we make every day, and those decisions are determined by our priorities. How we use our time every day eventually defines our lives. Life was designed to be simple, not complicated, and the key to simplifying life is prioritization. Identifying the correct and right priority of life is the key to a suc-cessful and fulfilled life. So then, what is the principle and concept of priority? 

Priority is defined as:

1/The principal thing.

2/Putting first things first.

3/Establishing the most important thing.

4/ Primary focus. 

5/Placing in order of importance. 

6/Placing highest value and worth upon.

7/ First among all others. If our priorities determine the quality of life and dictate all of ouractions and behavior, then it is essential that we understand andidentify our priorities. 

The greatest tragedy in life is not death but life without a purpose life with the wrong priorities. Life’s greatest challenge is in knowing what to do. The greatest mistake in life is to be busy but not effective. Life’s greatest failure is to be successful in the wrong assignment. Success in life is measured by the effective use of one’s time.Time is the true measure of life. 

In fact, time is the currency oflife. How you spend your time determines the quality of your life and death. You become what ever you buy with your time. Always be aware that everything and everyone around you is vying for your time. Your time is important because your time is your life. And the key to effective use of your time is establishing correct priorities.

First things first! When your priorities are correct, you preserve and protect your life. Correct priority is the principle of progress because when you establish your priority according to your purpose and goals then your progress is guaranteed. Correct priority protects your time.When you set the right priorities, then you use your time for inten-tional purposes; your time is not abused or wasted. Correct priority protects your energy. 

Correct priority protects your talents and gifts. Correct priority protects your decisions. Correct priority protects your discipline. Correct priority simplifies your life. Failure to establish correct priority causes you to waste your twomost important commodities: your time and your energy. When your priorities are not correct, you will find yourself busy with the wrong things, majoring on the minor, doing the unnecessary, or becoming preoccupied with the unimportant. 

Incorrect priorities in your life will cause you to invest in the less valuable, engage in inef-fective activity, and abuse your gifts and talents. Ultimately, it will cause you to forfeit purpose, which results in failure. Why is this principle of priority so important to our discussion of the Kingdom? Because if priority is the essence of life, then we should want to know what our priority in life should be so that wecan live effectively. 

It may surprise you to know that most of the peo-ple in the world are driven by incorrect priorities that occupy and control their entire lives. What are these priorities that master mostof the human race? The answer is perhaps found the in the work of behavioral sci-entist and psychologist Abraham Maslow who, after studying the motivations of human behavior, concluded that all human behavioris driven by ....

the same basic “hier archy of needs”: 
1. Water.2. Food.3. Clothes.

4. Housing.5. Protection.6. Security.7. Preservation. 

8. Self-actualization. 9. Significance.

 It is important to note that Maslow listed these motivational needs in order of priority. Perhaps if we are honest, we would agree that the human rat race does indeed strive for all of these things. We go to work every day, and some even hold down two or more jobs,just to secure water, food, clothing, housing, and protection. 

What a tragedy, to think that the basic priority driving most humans is thatof simple survival! Would it surprise you to learn that most religions are built around the promise to meet these very same needs as a priority? Meeting human needs is the premise of all religions. One commondenominator of all religions is the effort to please or appease somedeity in order to secure basic needs such as a good harvest, favor-able weather, protection from enemies, etc.

 Another factor that all religions have in common is that their primary focus is on the needs of the worshiper. Priority in religious prayers and petitionsis for personal needs. Human needs drive religion. Much of whatwe call “faith” is nothing more than striving for the very things onMaslow’s list.

THE PRIORITY OF GOD

God established His priority at the beginning of creation and made it clear by His own declaration to mankind. Jesus Christ cameto earth and rees-tablished God’s number-one priority. Should it sur-prise us to discover that God’s priority for mankind is completely opposite to man’s priorities? Let us read God’s priority for mankind as stated by the Lord Jesus. 

During His first discourse introducing His mission and primary message, Jesus established God’s priority for all mankind with several powerful and straight forward state-ments: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, whatyou will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? (Matthew 6:25).Notice that this statement directly challenges Maslow’s hierar-chy of needs and contradicts its order. 

Jesus’ statement also exposes man’s defective priority and confirms our preoccupation with the less important. His admonition to us not to worry implies that these basic needs for maintenance should not be the primary motivator for human action. The word worry means to consume in thought, toestablish as our first interest, mental preoccupation, priority con-cern, fretting, fear of the unknown, and to rehearse the future over which we have no control. 

Continuing on, Jesus says:Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who ofyou by worrying can add a single hour to his life?(Matthew 6:26-27).This statement implies that our self-worth is more important than our basic needs and should never be sacrificed for the sake ofthose needs.And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies ofthe field grow. They do not labor or spin. 

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like oneof these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?(Matthew 6:28-30).The thrust of these verses is that our confidence in our Creator’s obligation and commitment to sustain His creation should lead us to transfer our priority from our basic human needs to the priority of cultivating and maintaining a healthy relationship with His Kingdom and with Himself.

So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them (Matthew 6:31-32).The word “pagans” here implies that religion should not be motivated by the base drives of human needs for food, water, clothing, shelter, and the like. 

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33,emphasis added).Here Jesus states God’s number-one priority: Seek first His Kingdom.This is the most important statement made by the Lord Jesus,and it establishes what should be the first priority in our lives. Jesus identifies the Kingdom as being more important than food, water,clothing, shelter, and every other basic human need. According toHis assessment, then, what should be mankind’s priority and pri-mary preoccupation in life? The Kingdom of God. 

God’s number-one priority for mankind is that we discover, understand, and enterthe Kingdom of Heaven. It is this priority that motivated me to write this book. The priority of all human beings is concealed in thewords, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything you need for life will be added to you.”

This declaration by Jesus also suggests that there must be some-thing about the Kingdom that all of mankind has missed and misun-derstood. If everything we pursue and strive for to live and surviveare found in the Kingdom, then we have been misguided and perhaps have imposed on ourselves unnecessary hardship, stress, and frustration. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it sown (Matthew 6:34). 

GOD’S PRIORITY ASSIGNMENT FOR MANKIND

For the last 35 years this simple man date laid down by Jesus Christ has been my life’s mission. And it continues to regulate my life decisions today. The benefits that have come from this commit-ment have been beyond my expectations, which is one reason why Iam whole heartedly committed to assisting you in under standing this wonderful reality of Kingdom living. 

Below I have laid out the practical process of fulfilling this mandate so that you can see clear-ly that this is one priority we must reorder. Our first instruction from Jesus is to seek. This means to pursue,study, explore, understand, learn, and consider. Seekers must have a desire to know, and possess a passion for the object of their search.

To seek means to give diligent dedication to and to preoccupy one’sself with that which one is seeking. The Kingdom must be pursued,studied, understood, and learned. Second, Jesus tells us to make the Kingdom first. In other words,the Kingdom must be our top priority, the principal thing to placebefore all others as most important. We must place the highest value on the Kingdom of God, setting it above everything as our primary focus.

 The Kingdom must be placed above everything else and should have no competition. It must be our highest priority. Jesus then instructs us to seek first the Kingdom. This is the most important aspect of the mandate and must be carefully considered.First, it is important to understand that because a kingdom is not areligion, the priority of mankind should not be to seek a religion orsome form of ritual. 

The word for “kingdom” in this verse is basileia(NT: 923), the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew mamlakah(OT:4467), translated in Genesis 1:26 as “dominion.” Both words mean dominion, sovereign rule, kingdom, reign, or royal power. In this book, we will focus on this concept in detail because it should be our priority and because it is generally an unknown or mis understood concept in most modern cultures. 

In practical terms, a kingdom may be defined as “the sovereignrule of a king over territory (domain), impacting it with his will, pur-pose, and intent.” In this biblical text, the word “kingdom” as used by Jesus refers to God’s government, God’s rulership, God’s dominion over the earth. The Kingdom of God means God’s will executed,Gods’ jurisdiction, Heaven’s influence, God’s administration, and God’s impact and influence.

In this book, we will use the following working definition:A kingdom is...The governing influence of a king over his terriroty,impacting it with his personal will, purpose, and intent,producing a culture, values, morals, and lifestyle thatreflect the king’s desires and nature for his citizens.Jesus’ final instruction to us in this verse is to seek also the right-eousness of the Kingdom. 

This is another vitally important concept that has been diluted in the waters of religion and must be recovered if we are to understand the Kingdom and experience the abundant life all humans deserve. The word righteousness is actually from the discipline of law, not religion, and implies right positioning. To be righteous means to be in alignment with authority, to be in rightstanding with authority, to have correct fellowship with authority, to be in right relationship with authority, to be in legal or lawful align-ment, and to be in correct standing with the law or regulations(principles) of and to fulfill the requirements of authority.In essence, righteousness describes the maintenance of therightly aligned relationship with a governing authority so as to qual-ify for the right to receive governmental privileges. 

This is why Jesus emphasizes the Kingdom and the need to be righteous so that you can receive “all things added unto you.” This promise includes allyour physical needs, all your social needs, all your emotional needs,all your psychological needs, all your financial needs, and all your security needs, as well as your need for self significance and a sense of self-worth and purpose. 

Therefore, as we have seen above, God established only two pri-orities for mankind: the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of God. Kingdom refers to the governing influence of Heaven on earthand righteousness refers to right alignment and positioning with that government authority. Our highest priorities and greatest desires should be to enter the Kingdom of God and thirst for a right relationship with God’s heavenly government.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,and all these things shall be added to you (Matthew 6:33NKJV, emphasis added).Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6, emphasis added).

THE CONCEPT OF KINGDOM

The concept of “kingdom” was not invented by mankind but was the first form of government introduced by the Creator. This con-cept appears first in the Book of Genesis at the creation of man.Man’s original assignment from God was a Kingdom assignment:“Let them have dominion over...the earth.” God’s plan for man wasto extend His heavenly Kingdom (government) to the earth throughthe principle of colonization. Man’s assignment was to establish theinfluence and culture of heaven on earth by representing the nature,values, and morality of God in the earth.

 In this way, God’s heaven-ly rule would manifest itself on earth through His extended image in mankind. This was the first Kingdom: Yahweh, the King, extending His heavenly Kingdom to earth through His off spring, man. This isthe wonderful story and message of the Bible—not a religion, but aroyal family. Ever since the Fall of man, he has tried to imitate this concept ofkingdom; but throughout history, man’s every attempt to establish aheavenly kingdom on earth has failed. 

This is why religious govern-ments always fail, whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or any other form. It is for this reason that God Himself had to come to earth to bring the heavenly Kingdom back to this planet. The earth cannot give rise to the Kingdom of Heaven independently; the Kingdom of heaven must issue forth from heaven. Man lost a kingdom, and a kingdom is what he is looking for. Jesus came to bring the Kingdom of Heaven back to the earth, not to establish a religion. 

And mankind seeks not a religion but the Kingdom we lost so long ago.This is why religion cannot satisfy or fulfill man’s spirit. The Kingdom of Heaven has top priority by virtue of its role in the orig-inal purpose of man’s creation. As such, the Kingdom was the first form of government on earth. 

LOSS OF A CONCEPT

The kingdom concept as a whole has been lost to contemporary human culture, especially in the Western world. In his attempt to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, man has opted to design his own forms of government. But his experiments continue to fail: evil kingdoms, empires, dictators, communism, socialism, democra-cy...and the list goes on. The desire for righteous government burn sin the heart of every human. 

All of us are seeking the Kingdom even if we all don’t realize it.Many historical kingdoms of the past contained several compo-nents that resemble the Kingdom of God and can be beneficial to us when studied. I was born in 1954 under a kingdom that at that time ruled the Bahamas and colonized our lives. This experience has made it easier for me to understand the Bible because it is a book about a King and a Kingdom.My goal in this present writing is to reintroduce the concept of the Kingdom to a world that has lost it.

 Most people alive today have never had any contact or relations with a kingdom. Consequently,ignorance of the kingdom concept makes it difficult to understand fully the message of the Bible. In the chapters that follow, I will unveil many of the unique concepts and components of a kingdom that will help you immediately understand the words, claims, prom-ises, and methods of God as well as the life and message of Jesus.

According to Jesus, the most important priority and preoccupa-tion of all mankind should be the seeking and studying of the heav-enly Kingdom government and administration of the Creator God and His purposed plan and program to impact earth. But in a prac-tical sense, how does one go about seeking this Kingdom? How does one explore the concept, nature, function, program, components,principles, and power of the Kingdom? Answering these questions is the purpose and intent of this book. To accomplish this purposewe must: Understand kingdom concept.Understand kingdom philosophy. Understand kingdom government. 

Understand kingdom law.Understand kingdom culture.Understand kingdom society.Understand kingdom economy. Understand kingdom citizenship. Understand kingdom provision.Understand kingdom worship. Understand kingdom protocol.Understand kingdom representation. The secret to a full and fulfilled life is discovery, understanding,and application of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. 

Religion post-pones the Kingdom to a future experience. But you must remember that you cannot appropriate what you postpone. God’s desire for youis that you enter the Kingdom life nowand experience, explore,apply, practice, and enjoy living with the benefits, promises, and privileges of Heaven on earth. Let the adventure begin!

 PRINCIPLES  

1. The greatest secret to living effectively on earth is under-standing

     the principle and power of priorities.

2. The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life withouta purpose

   life with the wrong priorities.

3. Our self-worth is more important than our basic needsand 

    should never be sacrificed for the sake of thoseneeds

.4. God’s number-one priority for mankind is that we dis-cover, 

    understand, and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

5. A kingdom is the governing influence of a king over histerritory, 

   impacting it with his personal will, purpose andintent, producing 
   a culture, values, morals, and lifestylethat reflect the king’s 
    desires and nature for his   citizens.

6. God established only two priorities for mankind: theKingdom 

  of God and the righteousness of God.

7. The concept of “kingdom” was not invented by mankindbut 

   was the first form of government introduced by theCreator

.8. Ignorance of the kingdom concept makes it difficult 
    tounderstand fully the message of the Bible.