In this piece, we will be looking at Kingdom Pursuit. I believe center in the heart of God for us in this season is our understanding of kingdom pursuit. What does it mean? And what does it lead to? Kingdom pursuit will always get us to the place where we have coordinated spiritual management. So, we are looking at kingdom pursuit to the end of achieving coordinated spiritual management. And we are going to start by looking at the meaning of that word pursuit. What is the meaning of pursuit? Pursuit means to seek, it means to hunt, it means to inquire, it means to chase, it also means to go on a quest for something. So, whether you are pursuing someone, or you are pursuing something, it is about a quest for something or a quest for a someone. So, inherent in the meaning of pursuit is quest, search, chase.
So, you are chasing after something, you are searching for something, you are having a quest for something, that’s what pursuit mean. So, we are looking at Kingdom Pursuit. What does it mean to quest for the kingdom? What does it mean to search for the kingdom? What does it mean to chase after the kingdom? What does it mean also to dream of or to run after or to seek the kingdom? So, that’s what this is about. So, we will start our observation from Matthew 13 and we will read verse 44. The Bible says: “again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. Which a man found” That means he was seeking for it. You don’t find what you are not seeking for. That means there was a man that was seeking for treasure, so he found it. So, the Bible says: “Again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, because its precious, and for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
Jesus said again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. So, the kingdom of heaven is the treasure. A man, a woman finds it! It was hidden, but a man finds it, because he is searching for it, because he is pursuing or chasing after it, because he is on a quest for it, he now finds it, and he did not just treat it anyhow, the Bible says; he found it, he hid it, talking about how valuable and precious it is, and it says for the joy of what he has found, he said nothing can be compared with what I have found. He said nothing can match what I have found. The Bible says; he sold all other things he had, he gave up all other things that he has and what did he do? He buys that field. What does this mean to us? What does this mean about kingdom pursuit? This Matthew 13:44 is very apt. Because the description is very detailed. It said the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, until you understand it as a treasure, you will not pursue. Until you see it as a treasure you will not pursue.
So, what is the attraction for us? You must see the kingdom as a treasure. Until you start seeing the kingdom in that light, you will not pursue. It must become so precious, so valuable, so important, so glorious, that you can’t do without it, that you can afford to sell all that you have for the sake of the kingdom. Mathew 6:33, Jesus saying something about the kingdom in this line, we are familiar with this Scripture, but see what it says. Beginning from verse 32, He was mentioning what the gentiles seek after, remember there is a word seek. In fact, for the sake of our understanding, let us read verse 32. “For after all these things the gentiles seek.” That means they pursue it. The pursuit of the gentiles is about what to eat, what to drink, and what to wear. That’s their pursuit, that’s their quest, that’s their chase, that’s their race, that’s what they pant after. He said after these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
Yesterday at the Evening Bible School, we were made to see vividly, the Fatherhood of God. It said your heavenly Father, your source, your sustainer, He knows you have need of these things, so, don’t chase it. He knows you have needs for these things, so don’t quest for it. He knows you have quest for these things, don’t search for it. Let it not be your pursuit, but what did He say your pursuit should be? It said “but” meaning that He was connecting the first statement to this one. It does not stand alone; after these things the gentiles seek. But seek first, pursue first, chase after, this should be your quest. As a child and a citizen in the kingdom, as a son of God, this should be your quest. This may not be the first time we are hearing this, but this is the truth. If we are going to walk in kingdom and not religion, then our quest must be different.
When we were looking at the difference between religion and the kingdom, we realized that the quest in religion is about selfish gain; me, myself and I, materialism, what will I eat, what will I wear? It’s about competition, it’s about I want to be the best, I want to stand out, I want to be the talk of the town, I want to be the center of attention. But in the kingdom, it is different. That’s why it said let your pursuit not be in the things the gentiles pursue. But you seek first, make it a priority. Anything that comes first is priority. Make this pursuit your priority. Kingdom pursuit must become a priority for you. Kingdom quest must be a priority for you. Chasing after the kingdom must be a priority for you. Just like we read in Matthew 13, that there was a man that found the kingdom as a treasure, he sold everything, kingdom became his priority. And the Bible says make it your priority. Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things that the Gentiles seek after, that the Gentiles pursue will be an addition to you. Seek first, make the kingdom your priority, and you will get as complementary, what the Gentiles are seeking after.
The kingdom will never be complementary to anyone. You can’t seek first the things of the world and get the kingdom as complementary, no it doesn’t work. Seek first the kingdom, making it your priority, you will get all other things as complementary. You must seek it first, Jesus made it clear. The kingdom must be your first priority; it must be the priority of your pursuit. So, as a citizen in the kingdom, as a child of God, what are you chasing after? What’s your quest? What’s your search?
Is it just about getting married? Is it just about getting a job? Those things will come as complementary. Your first desire must be for God. Every time we want to see how it was from the beginning, we go back to how God related with Adam. When God realized that there was no help suitable for Adam, Adam was not in quest, was not in search for Eve. Every evening, Adam was available for God. And in his availability for God, Eve came to him as complementary. The Bible says and when God discovered, He said I will make a help suitable for him, and man slept. And that’s why when you make the kingdom of God your priority, you will always pray and live your life from the place of rest. Because that’s the kind of life Adam lived. He was operating from the place of rest. Was he sitting down idle doing nothing? No! but his pursuit and priority were clear, seeking first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and every other thing was added. His help meet was added. His dominion was complementary.
Adam’s priority was God, and immediately his priority shifted, he lost what he had. Apostle Paul was saying something, he said how can you now start in the Spirit and end in the flesh? You can’t start by making the kingdom of God your priority, and suddenly you now changed allegiance and you expect all things to be well, it won’t be. There are many of us we need to really reflect and go back to the drawing board with God and ask questions, when I was actually living in favor, when I was living my life in the fullness of God, what was I doing? We must frequently go back on that journey with the Holy Spirit.
He will make it clear to you, that the minute you started struggling was the minute you stepped out of the garden of Eden experience. Man never toiled for one day, until he sinned. Until he shifted priority from God to himself. When Eve saw that the fruit was good for food, one that was pleasant to the eyes, attention shifted from God to self. That was why it’s different from religion. In the kingdom, your attention is on God. That’s why it says seek first the kingdom. When we are talking about the kingdom, we are talking about the domain of the king. You can’t be seeking the domain of the king and not seek the king.
So, your focus and attention are on the king and its righteousness. The Bible says we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So, its righteousness is in Christ. When you seek the kingdom and Christ, every other thing will become complementary. Anyone that truly seeks the Lord, making God their priority, God attends to them. It’s not in doubt, it’s the truth of the word. See what apostle Paul said, when people started boasting and started talking about certain achievement that they have had, he said see I am Hebrew, I am a Jew, when it talks about the law I studied under Gamaliel, when we talk about passion and zeal, they were laying things at my feet when they were stoning Stephen. He said I was circumcised, when it talks about the list of things that were done, when it talks about achievement, I have achievement to boast.
But he said something, all these things, I count as dung, Matthew 13:44 a man found a kingdom as a treasure, and he sold everything that He had. It’s not just a parable, It’s an experience, real life experience. Apostle Paul said I count everything as dung that I may obtain, that I may gain Christ. What is he talking about? The kingdom became my priority, all these things don’t make sense, they are no longer my priority, I used to make them my priority, but they are no longer. I count them as dung, as rubbish, they take the back seat in my life. Who takes the front seat in my life is Christ, He is my priority; so, what is your pursuit?
What you pursue will determine what you will want to secure. What do you want to secure? Is it your houses, your cars, your children, your money? What do you want to secure? In your heart, what takes the priority? This message is about a personal evaluation between ourselves and the Holy Spirit. See we can’t lie to God, God knows our heart, when He x-rays us, He knows what the priority is, or what the priorities are. It is for our sake that He brings His word, so that His word can try us, test us, purge us, and cleanse us. Then we can come out clean. And haven gone through all these things we can say yes, Lord before you were not my priority, but now you are my priority, you are my treasure. There is this song I love;
“you are my treasure, my priority…
Who can compare with you…?
Great is the measure…of your royalty….
O morning star, you truly are everything”
We must get to that point. Where is our treasure? Where is our priority? Where we can say take everything and give me Jesus. Take everything, but see this is what I want to secure, and that’s what gave the apostles that strength and conviction. They said what can separate us from the love of Christ? Is it persecutions? Is it trials? They said see what we secure, what we hold unto, what our priority is, is Christ. Take us before the Pharisees, before the chief priest, before the rulers, in the threat of death, what we want to secure is Christ. So, your pursuit will show what you want to secure, what you are holding unto. What are you holding unto dearly? Is it the money in your bank account? Is it the house you just built? Is it the car you just bought? What are you holding unto dearly? Your pursuit will show what you are securing and what you are holding unto. Psalm 42:1-2. Your pursuit in the kingdom shows your heart. It says: “as the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you ‘O’ God”
As the deer always longs for, always desires the refreshing of the water brooks, so my soul desires you. As the deer desires the water brooks, “so my soul” can we say the same thing? Is this confession our own confession? Is this profession our own profession? Because your pursuit also talks about your occupation. Your pursuit also talks about your business, calling. You pursue your business if you are doing one, you pursue your calling if you have one. You pursue an employment if you have one. You pursue an occupation if you have one. As the deer pants after the water brooks, seeking for refreshing, so my soul longs after you. I pant, I thirst for you. It said my soul thirst for God. Is this our profession too? My soul thirst for God, my soul is not thirsting for Big Brother Nigeria, my soul is not thirsting for movies, my soul thirst for God.
For the living God, when shall I come and appear before God? See the anxiety, see the curiosity, see the expectation. My soul thirst, what is the most exciting time of your day? Is it the day you are with people, or you are with the television, or when you are with God? What is the most exciting time in your life, is it when you hear the voice of the Lord, or when you are listening to yourself and listening to people around you? My soul thirst for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before Him? Psalm 63:1-2. O God, you are my God. We are reading this Scripture so that we can see the heart of those that are actually pursuing God, what our heart should be like, what our confession should be like. What our expectation, our quest, our search; what it should be like. O God, you are my God, early will I seek you.
Because I can’t rest, I am thirsty; early will I seek you. My soul thirst for you, I will seek you, I will pursue you. That is; you are my place of satisfaction, you are my place of refreshing, you are my place of renewal. It’s in you that I am satisfied. So, my soul thirst for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Is that not where we are on the earth? Is it not a dry and thirsty land? Is there water? So why are we running away from God? We should run into Him; He is our place of satisfaction. So, I have looked for you in the sanctuary to look for your power and your glory. My soul thirst for you, my flesh longs for you, that’s pursuit. Are we longing for the Lord? Are we longing for Him? How much do we long for Him? Is God the place of our rest or we have found rest elsewhere? How thirsty, how hungry are we for God?
In John 4:13-14, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman “whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.” Whoever drinks of the water of the world, the water of this cosmos that we are, will thirst again. So, whether you are drinking from philosophies, or religion, or you are drinking from scientist, Jesus said you will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give to him, Jesus said will never thirst again. It’s a bold statement of truth. There’s no fallacy there. He said will never thirst again. So, what kind of water is Jesus talking about here? It says but the water that I shall give him will become in him; I will not leave you in such a way that you are not sustainable. So, you will not just have an encounter with me and you will continue in your perpetual state. An encounter with me is an encounter that will sustain you. You will be sustained. The kind of water I will give to you, will be a sustaining one.
It says the water will become in him a fountain of water, springing up unto everlasting life. So, why won’t you pursue that? Why won’t you chase after that? Why won’t you make that your quest? If somebody gives you one million naira today, just remove hundred naira, it has gone in the realm of thousands and that’s how it will keep going until it becomes zero. So, why do you want to have somebody feed you with fish when you can go to the water yourself where its inexhaustible; where you will continue to have it regularly supplied? The life in God is sustainable. I want us to see that promise again; John 7:37, lets listen to what Jesus said; “and on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out” For Jesus to cry out it’s an important matter.
He cried out saying; “if anyone thirst” because that’s why He came, He came because some people are thirsty, He came because the world is hungry. Jesus came because the world is thirsty. He said if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He cried out, there was an agony in His heart, that don’t you understand it? You people are thirsty. Jesus said it is bad enough that you are blind, then He said its worse that you don’t know that you are blind. So, it’s bad enough that you are thirsty, but its worst when you don’t know that you are thirsty. The world is thirsty, human beings are thirsty, we are hungry and the only one that can satisfy is Christ. He said I am the way, the truth and the life, if you pursue Me, you will see the Father. Every human being on the face of the earth is in a quest to search for God.
We are questing to see God, know His power, see His glory. Why do you think wherever there is any act of the supernatural, people are always drifted? Because inherent in the heart of every man, is a vacuum for the supernatural. I have asked a question severally and the Holy Spirit has answered me. Why is it that people would do business and do a lot of things, have money and they still want to go into politics? They want to get power. And the Holy Spirit said to me that, it’s because there’s a vacuum, every man will continue to search until they are satisfied. So, the devil has the false, but the truth is in Christ. So, he lures men with the vacuum in their heart. Because you will ask yourself, why are men gullible like this? They have been seeing it since, that anybody that does blood money dies young, why do people still do blood money? They are lured by the vacuum in them.
Every human being is unsatisfied, until that vacuum is filled. Something must fill that vacuum. And see what Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, so that you will know that the whole world is thirsty, the whole world is hungry. It says; “it says blessed are those who hunger and thirst, but after righteousness” So, flip it around, cursed are those who hunger and thirst for unrighteousness, what did the Bible say will happen to them? Those that hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled, but those that thirst and hunger for unrighteousness will still go hungry and will be thirsty.
That was why Jesus said that the life of a man does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. What is the joy when you gain all the world and lose your soul? What can you use in exchange? Nothing! That’s why in that Matthew 13:44, the wise man that found the kingdom as a treasure sold all he had to hold unto it. He said I will hold unto it, I won’t lose it, it’s my security. That’s why the Bible says lay for yourselves treasures in heaven, when you lay for yourselves treasures in heaven, that means you are pursuing heaven. You are pursuing the kingdom of heaven. It says where moth does not destroy, where thieves does not steal. He said because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What is your treasure? When they shake you, what is that thing that thieves in this world cannot collect from you? What is that thing that cannot be destroyed in this realm? That’s what you should hold onto. That’s your security. So, Jesus said blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, they will be filled. Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and every other thing will be complementary (emphasis added). Hunger and thirst are kingdom pursuit. When you are hungry after righteousness, you are pursuing the kingdom. When you are thirsty after righteousness, you are pursuing the kingdom. The Bible says; the kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking, but in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That’s kingdom.
So, when you are pursuing righteousness, you are pursuing the kingdom. And He said when you pursue it, you will be filled. Meaning you will be satisfied. You will have rest, the vacuum in your life will be filled. That’s why the Bible says with joy, you will draw from the wells of salvation, because it’s something that happens to your spirit. When you are connected with Christ, something happens to you, money cannot buy it, gold, silver cannot be given in exchange, it’s a spiritual bond of perfection. Money can’t buy it. That’s why our pursuit for the kingdom must be real. You can’t pay God lip service. The heart of every man is bare before God. So, you can try to deceive yourself, but you can’t deceive Him. You can deceive people and look sanctimonious and sing hallelujah amen, but you can’t deceive the one that made you. He knows whether your soul is longing for Him or not.
When God said concerning David, He said I have found David, a man after my heart. And when Samuel got to the house of Jesse and wanted to anoint the elder brother, God said I have rejected him, this one his soul is not longing for Me, this one is not thirsty for me. Until the one that is thirsty for me comes, they will stand. Let them go and fetch him. And David came and he was anointed. God knows the heart that belongs to Him. So, quit religion and focus on the kingdom. So, it is important that we put our trust and our confidence in Christ. John 6:27, you can write down 35 to 51, Jesus said I am the bread of life, whoever feeds on Me will not die. When you eat bread, you are satisfied, do you say because I am eating bread today that’s okay for my lifetime? No! You continually eat the bread if you want to continue to live. So, that’s how we must continually be in Christ, for us to continue to live. You can’t be in Christ once and say I am okay, I am fine. You must always be in Christ because He is the bread of life.
In Revelations 22:17, very interesting Scripture there, an invitation from Christ to us. “and the Spirit and the bride say come” If you read Isaiah 55 verse 1, you will see the invitation of the Lord, it says; “come ‘o’ you that are thirsty, come buy without money and without price” And the Spirit and the bride say come, and let him who hears say come. And let Him who thirst say come. So, there is a spiritual invitation from Christ to us, from God to us, to come. Pursue, come here, whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely, it is without money, it is without price. Isaiah 55:1. Come and partake from what Adam lost. In Genesis chapter 3, the Bible says; and when Adam was sent out of the garden, God put cherubim with flaming sword, at the east of the garden, making sure that the tree of life become inaccessible for man. But that is the same thing Christ has come to give to us freely. So, when you come and pursue after Christ, you are gaining back what Adam lost in the garden of Eden. It says come, let him who hears, say come and let him who thirst come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
So, it is important that we understand this. Jesus said My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. He said anyone that takes of this have a part in Me. So, the satisfaction is; when you are hungry, go for the flesh of Jesus, when you are thirsty, go for the drink of His blood. And He said you will be filled. Is it physically? That is why apostle Paul was angry about concerning a church. He said if you want to eat, eat at home, before you come and think communion will give you physical satisfaction. You are coming for a spiritual experience. You are coming for a spiritual filling. So, in Christ Jesus, is where our spiritual management is coordinated. So, in Him we live, in Him we move, in Him we have our being. We have full expression. The Bible says where the Spirit of God is there is liberty. The Spirit of God is in Christ. When you come into Christ, you have that Spirit.
You are partaking of the water of life freely. So, what should be our pursuit? Christ! Apostle Paul said for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. So, Christ is my pursuit, He is the reason I am here. If Christ say I am done, I am done. If Christ say I am exiting, I am exiting; no hard feelings, because I am here for Him, I am here because of Him. So, he must be our pursuit. And you know what that will do for you? It will give you peace, it will give you rest. You will operate from the place of rest. Because, in Christ is your rest. He said come unto Me all yeah that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. I will give you because I have it. He said take my yoke upon you, it’s easy and my burden is light. So, pursue My yoke and My burden and come to this place of rest. Every time you pursue the kingdom, you are stepping into rest. The pursuit of the kingdom is the pursuit of rest.
Christ is the one stop shop for your spiritual management. You grow in Him, you live in Him, you express yourself in Him. Everything is inside Christ, He is the border of our expression, He is the border of our lives. We are contained in Him and He is big enough to house us. So, what’s our treasure? Who is our treasure? Who is our priority? What are we longing after? What are we chasing after? Seek first and every other thing will be complementary.
May the Lord bless His word in our hearts in Jesus’ name!
