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Issue link: http://magazine.kcm.org/i/762861
SEPT 1979 is when this timeless teaching originally appeared. Seek First the Kingdom by Kenneth Copeland "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (money). Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:24-33). In these verses of scripture, Jesus states the primary goal of the successful Christian life: Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What exactly is the kingdom of God? Some people think it is heaven, but the kingdom of God in its literal sense is not heaven. Heaven is the place where God resides, but the kingdom of God involves more than that. The kingdom of God is basically God Himself because He cannot be separated from His kingdom. He is the kingdom. Without Him, the kingdom would not even exist. The kingdom of God includes more than heaven, just as the kingdom of earth is more than this planet. The kingdom of earth includes the atmosphere around it and the laws that govern it. The kingdom of God is the world of the spirit. It is governed by God and by the laws of God. As Christians, we operate by spiritual laws—the same laws that govern God’s kingdom. In Romans 8:1-2 the Apostle Paul wrote, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” We are to live on this planet, in this time and hour, by the law of life that governs the world of the spirit, rather than by the law of sin and death that governs the world of the natural. 24 : BVOV