Entering the Kingdom Economy
Anchor Scripture for May 10
“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.”
Joel 2:25 NKJV
Scriptures
Ecclesiastes 3:1-17
Ecclesiastes 11
Luke 12:13-48
Joel 2:23-27
Restoration and the kingdom economy
The Lord has been leading me through a lot of foundational topics over the past few months such as Holy Spirit, salvation, tithing, faith, surrender, inheritance, generosity and stewardship. Building off of last month, where we focused on the state of our “spiritual land” and fruitfulness vs barrenness, I believe that the Lord is going to begin restoring and reviving those areas of our lives, especially in the area of finances, inheritances, and stewardship for His kingdom purposes.
Click image to watch
This is the beginning of our journey into the “kingdom economy” which is not subjected to the volatility of the world markets, sitting presidents, world leaders and large corporations. I believe that the Lord is also using this restoration to begin shifting many of us into His “kingdom economy” and giving us wisdom and strategy to be sustained through the social, economic and political shakings that are currently happening (and will continue to happen in the future). Hebrews 12:28-29 NIV says
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
As the phrase “kingdom economy” is not a biblical term nor is it doctrine, but it is concept rooted in biblical teachings that provides language to one of the ‘benefits’ of embracing and walking in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
When researching the “kingdom economy”, I was led to this clip from the late Dr. Myles Munroe.
Additional Resources
* Click the quote above to read the full article *
Entering God’s Kingdom Economy starts with:
Faith
Knowing God for yourself
A pure heart
Surrender
Sacrifice
Trust
Patience
Discernment
Stewardship
Self-control
Integrity
A heart for God’s people
Knowledge, Wisdom and understanding
A renewal of the mind
Selflessness
Humility
Matthew 6:33
Learning to live with little and with much
Not mistaking the ‘resource’ for the ‘source’ (ex: money is a resource, God is the source)
My Testimony
Last year when the Lord first started me on the path of learning about the kingdom economy, He first brought conviction through a worship song at church called “What A God” to show me the true condition of my own heart and faith. There was one part of the song in particular that would always convict me and I knew it was the Holy Spirit drawing me to repentance and thus started my journey. For me, this wilderness season looked like 9 months of no longer working and having to solely rely on the Lord’s provision until the appointed time for me to go back to work. It has been a humbling experience and there have been many times I have asked why, but it’s actually through preparing for this month’s fast 10 that I now have clarity of the purpose of my wilderness season. The lyrics that started it all:
What a God by SEU Worship
“If one word is the only thing You speak (then I've heard it all)
Then I've heard it all
If I feel Your heart and never see Your hand
I still have it all (there is no treasure)
No treasure of this life (could ever satisfy)
Could ever satisfy (You're the one)”
Why we go through wilderness seasons: Deuteronomy 8 MSG
1-5 “Keep and live out the entire commandment that I’m commanding you today so that you’ll live and prosper and enter and own the land that God promised to your ancestors. Remember every road that God led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don’t live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God’s mouth. Your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t blister those forty years. You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.”
Prayer points and reflection
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal what in your life is being restored and why it’s being restored.
What is an area of your life that the Lord is doing a work in? OR What is an area that you know the Lord wants access to, but you aren’t ready to submit it to Him yet? Why might that be?
What are your instructions in this season to ensure that you are in alignment with God and in His perfect will? (if you are unsure, this would be a great time to seek the Lord)
* A footnote based on John 16:8-11 about Holy Spirit that I found interesting *
“To convict means "to convince", "to expose the facts", or "to refute or cross examine". Three important convicting tasks of the Holy Spirit are:
Convincing people of their sinfulness to prepare them to seek repentance and God's mercy.
Revealing the standard of God's righteousness to anyone who believes because Jesus is no longer physically present on earth.
Demonstrating Jesus's authority over Satan and his ultimate judgment and defeat of all evil.
This conviction can convince us that what Jesus promises will come true and give us courage to live out our faith in a fallen world”
Joel 2:23-27 ERV
23 So be happy, people of Zion.
Be joyful in the Lord your God.
He is good and will give you rain.
He will send the early rains and the late rains as before.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with wheat,
and the barrels will overflow with wine and olive oil.
25 “I, the Lord, sent my army against you.
The swarming locusts and the hopping locusts
and the destroying locusts and the cutting locusts[d] ate everything you had.
But I will pay you back
for those years of trouble.
26 Then you will have plenty to eat.
You will be full.
You will praise the name of the Lord your God.
He has done wonderful things for you.
My people will never again be ashamed.
27 You will know that I am with Israel.
You will know that I am the Lord your God.
There is no other God.
My people will never be ashamed again.”