We all dwell in a spiritual kingdom.  That is the default for every human on earth.  There are not three or four kingdoms; there are only two: The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan, sometimes called "The World."

During this series I will cover many things about these two kingdoms.  I will compare the two in Scripture, we will show how to leave one and enter the other, and more.

For this chapter, I want to help you obtain a vision for your life; a vision that will perhaps give you not only the incentive but also the power to make sure that everything in your life is anchored in God's kingdom.

Vision is important!

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he"  (Proverbs 29:18, KJV).

 "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law"  (Proverbs 29:18, NKJV).

This passage seems to speak two different messages via the two different translations, but actually they are the same.  When a person does not have a God-given vision for life, which can only come by divine revelation, he will perish.  He will also not have the discipline to live out his life in a meaningful manner.

We may have many God-given visions, but I submit that the most basic is that we may really depend upon God for everything we need in life.  Also, we may depend upon Him for everything He wants out of our life to glorify Him. 

The Kingdom of God.

However, I believe that we need a more narrow and better-defined vision for these provisions, and I believe that that vision is the Kingdom of God.  We have the opportunity not only to go to Heaven when we pass from this life, but in the meantime we can change our kingdoms right here on earth.  We no longer need to be subject to and dependent upon the "World" for our provisions.  We no longer need to trust in our own resources to live a life that glorifies God and accomplishes His work.  "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

Mark Chapter 4:11 says that the secret of the Kingdom of God is embedded in the Parable of the Sower.  That parable is all about bearing fruit.  We can bear fruit for everything we need and for everything He needs in and through our lives.

Jesus does not expect us to trust in our own resources, or the culture of the world system for this life on earth.

"Woe to those who go down to Egypt [being a type for the "World"] for help, And rely on horses, Who trust in chariots because they are many, And in horsemen because they are very strong, But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, Nor seek the LORD!" (Isaiah 31:1).

"He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man"  (Psalms 147:10).

"Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit"  (Jeremiah 17:5-8, KJV). 

When we see that our own strengths do not accomplish much, then our weakness attracts God.  Those who know their weaknesses are candidates for living in God's Kingdom now on earth. 

Jesus made it clear that living in His Kingdom meant bearing fruit &endash; Mark 4:11.

Bearing fruit glorifies God.  It makes Him visible to you and to the world.  ""By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."  John 15:8, NKJV.

I believe that the fruit God has for people falls into three primary categories:

1.  Fruit of character.  He wants His character to become our character; the fruit of the Spirit.  I believe that this includes the prosperity of our souls.  So many of us have been deeply hurt and wounded by "life," and we need peace and well being in our souls.

2.  Fruit for all of our earthly needs, not only materially, but also socially and relationally.

3.   Fruit for reaching out to others in order to accomplish ministry for God.

I submit that this fruit is represented by what is hidden in the Ark of The Covenant.  Why?  Because as believers we are the Temple of God today, and therefore the Ark must already reside in our hearts.

"which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant" (Hebrews 9:4).

The Law or tablets of the covenant represent our character, the manna represents our daily needs, and Aaron's rod represents our outreach or ministry.

Very much like a natural seed which contains the "secret of fruit" or the "fruit's DNA," we contain the potential for fruit through the New Birth received from Jesus Christ.

Fruit depends upon three primary things:

1.  A live and healthy plant.

2.  A healthy branch that is connected to the plant.

3.  An environment that will keep the branch healthy until the fruit appears.

Fruit is the good news, it is the blessing from God.  However, we are obligated to do our part in the fruit bearing process.  Most believers either depend upon their own strengths and talents and/or they do not understand what their obligation is in the fruit bearing process.  God does not just hang fruit on a sick branch.

""Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit"  (John 15:2).

Our fruit-bearing lesson comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

It all depends upon your eye.

""but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. "  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  "The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon"  (Matthew 6:20-24).

Mammon is the world's method of increase.  It can be increase in any area, money, character, significance, anything.  It is confidence in your own or the world's strength as opposed to God's.  Many Bible commentaries state that Jesus has personified Mammon during these talks, i.e. that Mammon is actually a satanic being. 

The promise for fruit of character.

Ephesians 5 confirms the idea of fruit coming from light.  [1]

"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.  Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.  But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible.  This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you"  (Ephesians 5:8-14, NIV).

Ephesians 5:5 confirms that our fruit in the Kingdom of God is not something that we work for, rather it is an inheritance.  "For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God"  (Ephesians 5:5).  Also see Psalms 43:3 and Acts 26:18.

Following Jesus' thoughts then, when we keep our eye on Him as our source, our entire body will be full of light, or in other words, full of His character.  You will for sure take on the character of whatever you trust in. 

Psalm 115:  4 & 8, KJV, says,  "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.  8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them."

Jesus also said that if your eye is evil, or trusting in something tangible, or laying up your treasure here on earth and not in heaven, then your body will be full of darkness, or in other words,  not at all like Jesus.

Having your whole body flooded with light means that you are flooded with God's life, His character. 

You may say,  "What about my broken dreams, my inner brokenness, my inability to make life work, the abuse, etc.?  Jesus makes it clear in the first several beatitudes and also in His mission statement in Isaiah 61, that He first focuses on our inner well being.  He talks about binding up the broken hearted, setting the prisoners free, blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, etc.  He has not forgotten you!  His medicine is light!  When your body is flooded with light, all the darkness has to flee!  Keep your single eye, keep it full of light, and the supernatural healing of God the Creator, will heal your broken heart.  "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers"  (3 John 1:2).

The promise for fruit of provisions, or manna. Jesus promises to take of those with a good eye.

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?   Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;  and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.    Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble"  (Matthew 6:25-34).

Sure, the birds do work hard for their food, but they make no provision for the future; God sees that each day their provisions are available.

Gentiles are those who have no covenant with God.  If you have a covenant with God, you are no longer a Gentile, and you do not need to utilize their culture and system to take care of yourself.  Most unbelievers spend their entire lives working hard for something that God wants to provide through His covenant.  He warns us not to live like them.

The fruit bearing system is ask, seek and knock.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.   For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!   Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets"  (Matthew 7:7-12).

I believe Jesus spoke this as an idea connected to your body being full of light.

When you are single-eyed, when your character begins to line up with His, then you will be able to ask, seek and knock.  I believe as we need provisions, whether they are material, healing, social, or any other need in life, we may ask for it.  However, after we ask, I believe we need to seek.  Seeking, in my opinion, is listening for God to speak about our issue, for Him to speak either the promise, or speaking whatever He wants to say.  When we have the rhema, the promise of God, or in other words, the seed has been planted in our hearts, then we can knock.  Knocking I believe is doing the waiting and the warfare until the seed turns into fruit.

The promise for fruit of ministry or outreach.  Ministry comes by fruit.  God wants us to spread the light. 

We all have a calling, as Paul said, "Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own" (Philippians 3:12 Amplified).  Jesus apprehended us or laid hold of us for a purpose, and now we must lay hold of that purpose.  If we do not, we may be greatly disappointed in the future.

However, often we get our own efforts confused with the potential for fruit which comes through us but created by God.

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.   Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'  "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'    Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.   But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell.  And great was its fall"  (Matthew 7:21-27).

While I am not entirely sure of what Jesus meant to those who said "Lord, Lord," and "depart from Me," I believe it is at least a comparison in ministry by human effort and ministry by fruit bearing.  Note that the unwise believer was just like the unbeliever, who is referred to as the fool, who does not know God at all.

I believe that Scripture supports the idea that real ministry comes from the breakings and trials that you have been through in life.  Certainly our natural gifts and the gifts of the Spirit are used, but real deep ministry comes from our "death and resurrection."  Paul was an example of this.  He stated that in spite of all of his gifts and training, that real ministry took place when he went through something that made him totally disabled.  He even stated that he preferred this, that when he was weak, that Jesus was strong (2 Corinthians 12).

If you have been the wise person who has built his/her house on Jesus, the Word, the Rock, and have survived the storms of life, then you can be sure that those who were washed away will be looking for refuge in your house.  Ministry will seek you out, you don't have to go looking for it!  Notice, there were two kinds of people in this story, and both of them had storms!  Which do you identify with?

Caution!  There are two sides to the Cross!

One needed requirement for any seed is that before it grows into a plant and bears fruit, it must die.

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.  If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.  Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? '  Father, save Me from this hour'?  But for this purpose I came to this hour.  Father, glorify Your name.  Then a voice came from heaven, saying, 'I have both glorified it and will glorify it again'"  (John 12:24-28).

Yes, Jesus is now the victorious Messiah that the crowds back in His days on earth were looking for.  However, He is also the suffering Messiah that few could comprehend back in those days.  I believe that our "prosperity," or our fruit, comes after our trials and suffering, and after our vision and seed "dies."  Refer to the Parable of the Sower in Mark Chapter 4.  Satan comes to steal the seed.  He causes great trials every time we have a single eye and receive a seed-Word, or a rhema and promise from Jesus.  Often we have to see our vision as dead, we have to face hopeless circumstances, but if we persevere with a single eye for Jesus and don't waver, we will inherit the promises of His Kingdom and see Him as the Rider on the White Horse coming as the conquering Messiah into our circumstances in life.  He will turn them from "Junk to Jewels."  His purpose is not so much to bring us our "comfort from problems" as it is to displace Satan's rule with His Kingdom of God rule.

Breakings.

I also believe that as we go through these "breakings" in life that our eye becomes even more single and less evil little by little.  I was 39 years old and had my eye in the wrong place; the place of the world's success, the place of my own abilities, the place of my selfishness.  In 1979 I knew that all that my eye had brought was meaningless, even the "good things."  Most of what I had achieved was failure.  What a blessing to be this broken!  Then when I turned my eye towards Jesus, I saw Him!  I knew and still know for sure that only Him, only His light, only His will and power is worth anything.  My struggle was not over, but my eye was fixed.  I knew the proper direction to keep my eye; toward the light.  I can testify that since that day, God's fruit has overtaken me beyond my greatest dreams and even prayers, in spite of my inabilities, my inadequacies and weaknesses.  However, I can also testify that the fruit only came after "death," or in other words different degrees of suffering and/or discouragement.  First death, then resurrection.  "Never give up; never give up," said Winston Churchill.

Testimony.

My good friend Kingspride Hammond, native born in Ghana, but an American citizen, is now a full time missionary to Northern Sub-Sahara Ghana.  He has a large mission compound consisting of a vocational school, a medical and dental clinic, a fish farm and a land farm.  The area was experiencing a drought.  This is a serious issue in the dessert land, as farms were withering and animals and even humans were dying due to the lack of rain.  King noticed in Genesis Chapter 26 that God told Isaac not to go to Egypt during the famine, but to rather sow in spite of the famine.  King took this as a rhema and a Word directly from the Lord.  He obeyed and sowed the 13 acre farm with corn seed.  He told the Lord, "Lord, I don't know if it will rain or now, but I am not looking to the rain, or to my own efforts, I am looking to You."  All the other farms in the area were withering with no rain in sight.  Animals were dying.  However the mission farm corn crop grew without rain, and yielded even 10% more than the years when the did have rain.  The implications went far beyond the corn.  The Muslims came and wanted to know about this God that caused the corn to grow.  The Juju priests came and told King that they had sacrificed to their god, they had done many incantations, yet their god did not produce like his God. 

The answer?  King had a single eye.  He went through the asking, seeking and knocking.  The storm of drought came,  but as a doer of the Word his house stood on the Rock and others flocked to the house that stood.

Repentance is a powerful force!

"Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away"  (2 Corinthians 3:16).  None of us have perfect "eyes."  However if we repent our way through in life, we will continue to see Him with brighter eyes than before.  We will go from glory to glory.

There is something about a heartfelt repentance that allows God to rush in and give one a real experience of His presence! 

Look at this Scripture in Hosea.  When the backslider said "What have I to do anymore with idols," or in other words, mammon, then suddenly he said, "Your fruit (Lord) is found in me."

"Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; They shall be revived like grain, And grow like a vine.  Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.  Ephraim shall say, 'What have I to do anymore with idols?  I have heard and observed him.  I am like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me'" (Hosea 14:7,8).

[1] Light can be supernatural.  Light not only dispels darkness, but it has about it a speed, that will "warp" time.  Einstein's theory of relativity shows that as an object approaches the speed of light, that its time and age change in a different proportion than that of a stationary object.  Theoretically then, as an object reaches and exceeds the speed of light, then that object is in an eternal realm, one which transcends time.