04-25-24-ENG.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:9
Getting to see heaven overrule earth when you play by God’s rules and keep His kingdom values first and foremost in your life is one of life’s greatest blessings. Sure, the blessing is preceded by insults and possibly even rejection. But when you get to see God show up in a way you never could have imagined—a way you only heard about on Sunday morning but never experienced for yourself—that’s when God becomes real. That’s when He starts to take shape in your life in such a way that you can say you truly know Him. We are to rejoice and be glad in the face of spiritually based harassment, similar to how disciples in the book of Acts said they rejoiced in the midst of suffering for their identification with Jesus Christ (see Acts 5:41). The reason we rejoice is because it ultimately means that heaven just got on our side. Far too many of us live miserable lives because earth is on our side, not heaven. Eternity and the authority tied to it is not obligated to enter history and act on your behalf if you refuse to live with kingdom values.

God gets involved when He sees that you and I are honoring His goal of advancing His kingdom agenda on earth. A lot of people want to presume that they are blessed and highly favored. They want to speak as if they have the Lord fighting their battles for them. But breathing is not a guarantee of God’s divine intervention. Being alive on earth does not bind Him to your side. The way you get God’s rule to overrule the chaos of the culture and the confusion in your circumstances is by aligning yourself under His rule. You do that by living out the kingdom values based on His truth that we have looked at in this book. It starts with recognizing your own spiritual inadequacy. You begin by being poor in spirit. Then, you add to that a willingness to be honest about your sin and to mourn its existence in your life or in our land. Doing so enables you to then apply the kingdom value of gentleness to your words and your actions. In addition to gentleness, and as you begin to see God’s blessings flow more and more into your life, you develop a greater hunger and thirst for His righteousness.

You pursue Him and His truth at a higher level because you want to apply His thoughts, His perspective, and His rule to your life. As you do, you’ll discover that you have a greater level of mercy to show others. You will also start to live with a purity of heart that allows you to see God and His ways even more clearly than before. This will inspire you to be a peacemaker rather than a troublemaker in all you do and say. And, as you will discover, living according to those kingdom values will usher upon you a level of persecution—insult, rejection, or even harassment—like you’ve never known before. But, as you’ll see, even though it may be hard during the process, God will have your back in the long run. He will show up when you least expect it. And He will turn things around in your favor. Adopting a lifestyle of kingdom values will propel you into a future full of spiritual power, peace, and promise. 

Reaction:
Describe some of the most important spiritual truths you gained from this devotional. In what ways have you experienced any life change during the time you’ve spent studying this topic? Now that you have finished the devotional, what is your action plan to ensure that you do not lose any of the practical spiritual guidance you’ve gained? 

Prayer:
Jesus, give me greater courage to live out these kingdom values for You. Help me stay consistent in my pursuit of righteousness and the advancement of Your kingdom agenda on earth. I love You and praise You for bringing me this far. In Your name I pray, amen.