Secret of the Master’s Indwelling (5) ... The Kingdom First

by Dale Shumaker
Spirit Savvy Network
www.spiritsavvy.net

Finding your mission, Empowering your life through prayer,
Becoming a Missionary in the Marketplace
Leading others to be Missionaries in the Marketplace

The Secret of the Master's Indwelling is about digging our roots deep into God’s soil that bears fruit abundantly and gives us strength Supernaturally. Andrew Murray shows what we must do and be to become stalwarts of Faith.

Secret of the Master’s Indwelling, Chapter 5, The Kingdom First:

“Seek first the Kingdom of God.” Let me just try to answer two very simple questions; the one: “Why should the Kingdom of God be first?” and the other: “How can it be?”

A young minister once said to me, “Why is it that I have so much more interest in study than in prayer, and how can you teach me the art of fellowship with God?” My answer was: “Oh, my brother, if we have any true conception of what God is, the art of fellowship with Him will come naturally, and will be a delight.”

But, alas! the Kingdom of God looks to many as a burden, and as something unnatural. It looks like a strain, and we seek some relaxation in the world, and God is not our chief joy. I come to you with a message. It is right, on account of what God is as Infinite Love, infinite blessing. It is our highest privilege to listen to Christ’s words, and to seek God and His Kingdom first and above everything.

We were created to be like God, in His perfect righteousness and holiness. What a prospect!  Can you think of a higher nobility; can you think of anything grander than to take the position that God takes, and to be one with God in His Kingdom; i.e., to have His Kingdom fill your heart; to have God Himself as your King and portion?

“It is right. There is no blessedness or glory like that of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God ought to be first in my whole life and being.” But now comes the important question, “How can I attain this?”

The answer is, first of all give up everything for it.

You have heard how in the South African Republic not many years ago the war of liberty was fought.  Every man and woman was ready to die. It was in very deed “Our country first, before everything.” And even so, friends, must it be with you if you want this wonderful Kingdom of God to take possession of you. “Anything, everything, for the Kingdom of God.” Persevere in that, and by the Holy Spirit your God will begin to open to you the double blessing: on the one hand, the blessedness of the Kingdom which comes to possess your heart; and on the other hand, the blessedness of being surrendered to Him, and sacrificing and giving up all for Him. “The Kingdom of God first!” How am I to reach that blessed life? The answer is: “Give up everything for it.”

And then a second answer would be this: Live every day and hour of your life in the humble desire to maintain that position. There are people who hear this test, and who say it is true, and that they want to obey it. But if you were to ask them how much time they spend with God day by day, you would be surprised and grieved to hear how little time they give up to Him. And yet they wonder that the blessedness of the divine life disappears. We prove the value we attach to things by the time we devote to them. The Kingdom should be first every day, and all the day. Let the Kingdom be first every morning. Begin the day with God, and God Himself will maintain His Kingdom in your heart. Do believe that.

The presence of the love of God must every moment be our highest joy. Let us say: “By the help of God, it shall ever be the Kingdom of God first.”

“How can it be?” is this: it can be only by the power of the Holy Ghost. Let us remember that God’s Word comes to us with the language, “Be filled with the Spirit;” and if you are content with less of the Spirit than God offers, not utterly and entirely yielding to be filled with the Spirit, you do not obey the command.

I am afraid sometimes, that in speaking of the Holy Spirit we forget one thing. The Holy Spirit is very much spoken of in connection with power; and it is right that we should seek power. And yet these are always more important than the gifts of power—the holiness, the humility, the meekness, the gentleness, and the lovingness; these are the true marks of the Kingdom.

I think there is a third thing almost more important, that we forget, and that is: in the Spirit, the Father and the Son themselves come. The Kingdom must be within us, and then it is easy to say: “The Kingdom first.” But to have the Kingdom within us in truth, we must have God the Father, and Christ the Son, by the Holy Ghost within us too. No Kingdom without the King.

What is the root of all? That Christ gave Himself up utterly to God, and His Kingdom and glory. He gave His life, that God’s Kingdom might be established. Do you the same to-day and give your life to God to be every moment a living sacrifice, and the Kingdom will come with power into your heart. Give yourself up to Christ. Let Christ the King reign in your heart, and the heavenly Kingdom will come there and the Presence and the Rule of God be known in power. There is coming a day when Christ shall come Himself again to be subjected unto the Father, and He shall give up the Kingdom to the Father, that God may be all, and in that day Christ shall say before the universe: “This is my glory, I give back the Kingdom to the Father!” Shall not you and I come to God to do the same and count anything we have as loss, that the Kingdom of God may be made manifest, and that God may be glorified.”

The complete chapter on  The Kingdom First:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/murray/indwelling.viii.html
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