Hello and welcome back to Wilderness to Wisdom.
Now that we've talked about the first step,
Building our foundation in Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit,
We'll now move on to what's next.
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself,
Why did God create the world?
Why did He create humanity?
Was it just so we could survive,
Work hard,
And try to be good people until we die?
Or is there something more going on here?
Today we're going to talk about step two on the journey,
Understanding why God created the world.
And it is so important because if we don't know why we're here,
It's hard to know how we're supposed to live.
So let's start with talking about the reason for creation.
Isaiah 6 3 says,
Holy,
Holy,
Holy is the Lord Almighty.
The whole earth is full of His glory.
God created the world for His glory.
He wanted to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth,
A place where His presence,
His culture,
And His will could be lived out by us,
His children.
So that means earth isn't random.
Your life isn't random.
God had a purpose for all of it,
And that includes you.
So let's talk about heaven and earth.
Two realms,
One plan.
And this is something that really changed the way I think.
Heaven and earth were always meant to stay connected.
So heaven is the unseen spiritual realm,
And earth is the visible realm we live in.
God's plan when He created the world was to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth in physical form.
Things were to be on earth as they are in heaven,
And they were until sin entered the world through Adam and Eve.
Because of sin here on earth,
The physical realm became out of alignment with the spiritual realm.
So now earth is nothing like heaven.
As we go deeper with God,
He reveals the kingdom of God to us,
Which is the physical manifestation of heaven here on earth.
I don't need to reinvent the wheel,
So I'm going to share something that someone else said.
I love the way Dr.
Miles Monroe explained this.
He said that God is a king,
And kings have territories over which they rule.
The kingdom of heaven is God's home country,
His dominion.
That's in the spiritual realm.
Earth is His territory,
The physical place He created to reflect heaven.
That is the kingdom of God here on earth.
And we,
As His children,
Are meant to live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven,
Our home government in the spiritual realm,
While we're here in the kingdom of God here on earth.
We were created to have dominion and colonize the territory.
So basically,
God established a colony of heaven on the territory that is the earth.
Dr.
Monroe explained a colony in this way.
A colony is a group of citizens established in a foreign territory,
Earth,
To influence that domain for their home government,
Heaven.
A foreign territory inhabited by citizens charged to influence that domain with the culture and values of their home government.
The presence of distinct cultural citizenry in a foreign territory governed by the laws and culture of their home government,
Not by the government of the territory.
We should operate under the laws of our home government,
Heaven.
The benefits of our home government belong to us right now.
It is not about where you are,
But where you are from.
Your wealth is determined by where you are from,
Not where you are.
Now think about that for a moment.
We are meant to bring heaven's culture,
Heaven's values,
And heaven's priorities to earth.
That means we're not just here to get saved and hold on,
Or trudge through life until we die.
We are here to live on earth as it is in heaven,
Now.
When we step into the kingdom,
We are asking God to colonize us.
When a kingdom colonizes you,
Your past is wiped out and you are given the nature of the kingdom.
Your history and earthly nature are put to death and you become a new creation.
So our focus is only on what is above.
When we ask God to colonize us,
We are essentially saying,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
In addition to this episode,
I want to encourage you to read Colossians 3.
It talks about putting our earthly nature to death,
Living in Christ,
And setting our hearts on things above.
You may look at the world and think that this is impossible,
But it's not.
And we'll go deeper into this when we get to step five.
So next I want to talk about free will and the choice to trust in God.
Because it's a beautiful thing,
But it's also a bit challenging.
God didn't make us to be robots.
He gave us free will.
Now why would he do that?
Because he wanted us to choose him.
Real love is always a choice and understanding that changes everything.
Sometimes it feels like life is chaos,
Like evil is winning.
But when you realize God gave us the ability to choose,
You begin to see why the world looks the way it does.
Our choices matter.
Your choices matter.
God has such a perfect plan for our lives.
His mind does not change and he wants us to have on earth as it is in heaven.
Although his mind doesn't change,
The plan changed due to the choices we have made out of free will.
Now some of these choices were made for us before we understood that we were being programmed by the world.
So instead of dwelling on what happened to get us out of alignment,
We should look forward and focus on breaking free from the programming.
The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 that the devil is the god of this world.
This is why there's so much evil,
But we don't have to be moved by it.
Jesus told us in John 16 33 that in this world we would have tribulation,
But he also said to take heart or be of good cheer because he overcame the world.
As a new creation in Christ,
That means you are an overcomer.
We truly do not need to be moved by the things of this world and I'm so excited to go deeper and show you why we don't need to be moved.
I want to give you a moment to think about this.
Consider areas where you can actively choose God's will for your life today.
It may be as simple as spending more time reading or listening to the Bible or maybe listening to true teaching as opposed to preaching that just gets your emotions flowing.
And finally,
I want to leave you with some personal encouragement because for me,
This step changed the way I see everything.
From the way I work,
To relationships,
To the way I spend my time.
When Jesus began his ministry,
The first thing he said is,
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
He meant what he said literally.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
I realized that when I accepted Christ and received the Holy Spirit,
I became a citizen of the kingdom of heaven and that God wants me to have on earth as it is in heaven.
Understanding the reality of this has shifted me out of survival mode and into purpose mode.
I realized that I had no knowledge of how kingdoms operate,
But this new understanding made me want to learn.
I now understand that the spiritual realm is more real than anything we can physically see.
I have learned and I continue to learn to question every single thing I have been programmed to believe,
Whether it was out of ignorance,
Ego,
Religion,
Or tradition.
We must have the courage to question every single thing we do and believe and see what God's word truly says about it.
You are not just here to exist.
You are an ambassador.
You are here to reflect and represent your home government,
Heaven,
And that is a powerful calling.
I am so excited to continue this journey and to continue going deeper.
Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you in the next episode.
