Kingdom Mindset

Living from the throne room, living from the heavenly reality, living under the rule of the King in Heaven beyond all religious and social structure is the most liberating reality one can experience.

The mundane society with all its institutions, social structures, behavior, and standards of all kinds puts an extremely heavy and restricting pressure on people of faith who yearn to live out their aspirations according to their calling, in a way that is most of the time unknown to them. In other words, people feel handicapped without realizing that it is the society and the culture that they live in, and sometimes even love the very thing that keeps them from fulfilling their calling, without even knowing it.

That is why so many pioneers and heroes of the faith meet resistance, criticism, and persecution from the powers that be in the society they live in. It reminds us of what Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke: ""Truly I tell you," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown."" (Luke 4:24), or in the Gospel of Mark: "A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home." (Mark 6:4)

Living according to the flow of the heavenly rule and reign is what is known as Kingdom living, or being obedient to the King, or being led by the Holy Spirit, or keeping the commandments, which is what every Christian is supposed to be doing. Jesus taught this to his disciples when they asked him to teach them how to pray. In the Lord's prayer, we see clearly how the focus of Christ is to bring people in the awareness of the rule of God, seeking active participation in its expansion on earth in the most intimate and engaging way.

The prophets of old did the socially most outrageous things, in obedience to God's Word and led by the Holy Spirit in order to deliver the prophetic messages pinpointing the sins of the people and their promised deliverance through Christ. They were despised, rejected and persecuted; 

"In the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:12)

I am not trying to encourage rebellious, weird or outrageous behavior, but I do want us to be aware of how dangerous social norms can be if we do not keep ourselves aware and alert of the boundaries it should be restricted to in our personal relationship with God. Because in the absence of this awareness the worst types of social ills are formed. That is where nationalism is born. That is where racism is born. That is where pride and discrimination are born.

I am not vilifying social life either. Please don't get me wrong. I strongly believe that a prophet without a social life is a dead prophet, dead to his calling because he has rendered himself ineffective.

As beautiful as society, culture, social structure can be, especially when birthed from heavenly inspiration, they are not to replace the direct rule and reign from Heaven in a believer's life with a valuable calling. Taboos, protocols, and beliefs should never cross the line into the infinite possibility of commands the Lord may entrust his oracles and people with.

Many men in power expect the entire society to follow a certain trend or trends of behaviors. God, once in a while, comes to disrupt the order set by men with an order that is heavenly and seeks to produce much more fruit and push a rusty wagon forward as if in a dashing speed.

Hosea married a whore, Isaiah walked around naked, Ezekiel cooked with human dung, all in obedience to the heavenly King. These are things which are still unacceptable in our days.

Many of us may find it hard to obey God or even doubt that it is God talking to us when facing to do much simpler tasks or even following a certain thought pattern that seems out of the ordinary because of the way we are brought up.

Do you feel that the society and culture you are a part of can restrict you? How? Is there a norm that somehow subconsciously you always try to conform to which may be an obstacle to think or act outside the box and step into your godly inheritance?

These are questions, I believe, we should ask ourselves and try to think, feel, move and have our being in Christ apart from all the restrictive man-made forces around us. God bless you as you journey into your destiny freely!