We just want to come in here and reverence to the fact that God is moving and we come in
in a way of honor always. So we're in a spot where we're like ready to make weighty our
praise to Him, ready to make weighty our statements to Him. And even our prayers, you
know, you can go ahead and be seated. Even your prayers can be light prayers, right?
If we're not careful, it's not that we're being weighed down by prayer. What I'm talking about is
honor does this thing where what comes out of your mouth, every word counts. That's when it's heavy,
right? You ever do those prayers? You're like, yes, Father, yes. And you know, you do the thing
and it's kind of light because you don't know where you're going. But eventually it needs
to become heavy before Him. Well, it's hard to have something become heavy before Him if we
don't know the direction we're going. If we haven't yet gotten, I guess, time with Him,
it's hard to make heavy something and really have a potent just like, boom, when we pray,
if we're not sure what the word says about it. And I think that is really why a lot of times
there's a, you know, I've been to everything from the city prayer meetings,
been a part of that. People have their little thing they read or whatever.
And however eloquent they put it together is about as far as the weightiness of it goes. And you
can go, well written, nice, right? Those are the kind of prayers that come forward. But to actively,
like, know the will of God, know what the word is for the day, for the moment, and what you're
going to release on a city. Ooh, that's heavy prayer. A lot of times places like that,
they can't handle it. So it's, we had the privilege of going down to the Capitol and praying.
Those were some weighty prayers. People were in the shoot already knew this is what God wants to
unleash different than like the flowery. We're moving it around. There's a scripture the
Lord told me to go over today that very simple, very much, I could quote it, you know, but I
want to read it different from the amplified. It's the scripture that talks about seeking the kingdom.
Luke 12, 31 talks about that. And the amplified says, but strive for and actively seek his kingdom.
And these things will be given to you as well. Well, what things we probably would have to
go back and read that I'm not going to take the time to do that. But you always pay
attention to if they're referring somewhere back, you better go back and figure it out.
At the same time, I like how the amplified breaks it down, but strive for and actively seek.
Reminds me of there was a young lady in our foster home and she lost something.
And I can't find it. I just can't find it. And I was like, well, have you looked here?
And have you looked there? Well, yeah, but she didn't really actively seek anything.
And then she was sitting on the couch feeling bad that she had lost the thing.
And she's never going to find it. And everything was about how she's never going to find it.
And I'm like, looking at her like, you're not really seeking. And so what she was trying to do,
it was through the emotion without her knowing it just was a habit of manipulative behavior.
It's kind of like, if I sulk enough, if I feel bad enough, then you, as my parent, should go
find it. And so there's things in the kingdom I've already found. And I can even relay those to
to a person. But until you find it personally, until it lights up your world, then it's always
going to be the thing of like, well, I cried and nobody noticed. And I was upset and nobody came
running, right? So there's that. So we need to be strived for and actively seek his kingdom.
You've heard me say before the word kingdom means his domain, his rulership, his ways of
doing things. The sphere of his rule is another one. I like that one. And when God moves, he moves
tornadic, the sphere of his rule. And we're supposed to seek that. And so it's so simple.
And we'll go, yeah, yeah, we know that. We know that. We'll seek it. But at the same time,
when it says ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you, seek and keep on seeking and you
will find. Knock and keep on knocking and the door will be open to you. So we'll use you quote the
King James Version, which is shorter. But the word picture and the amplified is that you're not
doing. I looked under the couch already. I never saw anything. It's not on the counter.
So it's that knock that's like, you ever ripped the whole house apart trying to find your keys?
First you're like, I don't want to make anything a mess, but after a while you don't care because
you've got to get to work. You're like ripping it and you're just trying to find where is
my keys. But there's a strive for and there's a keep on asking and it'll be given to you.
So if you seek and keep on seeking, then you will find. Knock and keep on knocking and the door
will be open to you. So revelation comes across the pulpit right on things that the Lord has
showed us that we found. Like we were seeking and we found and we want to show you how to
find the same thing. Really it's not you sitting there and we say we found and you're
as we hired the pastor. I don't need to actually read or whatever. No, you need to hear about it,
become curious and go find it for yourself. Amen. So the reason the Lord helped me bring
this up is we're going to pray on some different things here this morning.
And we're going to actively strive for and seek how the kingdom deals with this, right?
So we have different things going on both in mission 61 and just an outreach and stuff
where people are in heavy need. There's cars needed, there's baby clothes needed,
there's finances needed, people are coming out of prison and going, where do I go?
People are, there's all kinds of things, right? And so my eyes are always seeking,
Lord, where do you have that? It'll be the craziest places. Maybe it'll be far away
from the church. Somebody will come up to me and say, do you want of these? And I'm like, yes,
we do. And so, but that comes from seeking. And if I don't look, it could be right in front of me
and I won't find it. See, so there's something about the training of the eye, even looking in
the saying, right? When people are talking, sometimes I'll just all of a sudden, I'm zoned
into what they're saying because it's connecting to the thing the Lord told me and I'm just
waiting for them to say, I feel led to and sure enough they do. But I feel that so strongly about
what he told me and about what I'm standing on, that I'm seeking it, even in what people are saying.
Where are you? Blessing of God, where are you? How is this going to get filled? Where are you?
So we have four people dealing with cancer, you know, and we have to stay on that. Not that God
doesn't answer, not that they haven't already received, but you keep the pressure on it.
And so for them, the encouragement is, keep seeking his will, his ways, his precepts,
his commands. Seek first the kingdom. We don't seek the doctor first, we seek the kingdom first,
and then if we need to approach a doctor, we will. But we're approaching them with what
we already heard from the kingdom. So we're coming to the doctor with rulership already happening,
like he's ruling this puppy. I'm going in there and talking to the doctor,
but you've already been ruled inside. It's a better way to go, right? Nobody wants to
all of a sudden end up in the ER and you're like, I don't know what's going on. I don't know
what God's saying to everybody in that spot. You're like, ah, give me a minute. But sometimes
there is no minute. It's always better to have the kingdom having been disclosed to you
beforehand so that it's right there ruling. And when you go in and you operate,
you're operating out of the kingdom. We have to seek that first. Seek that first.
It's a habit for most people to talk about a situation. Let's say something shows up in
the mail, it's a bill, it's something you didn't expect. Somebody's accusing you of something,
whatever. I've seen all of the above. And you see that in the first thing your subconscious
does is protection mode. Must try to figure this out. We've got to get ahead of this. I don't know
what I'm going to say. And then that's part of fear, but subconscious is trying to protect you.
And then it'll use your experience from the past and it'll use what's happened to other people
and use all this because we're going to try to figure this puzzle out. And we haven't yet
sought the kingdom. See, those things might matter, but most of the time they don't.
And they waste a lot of time. I know we had this little hot tub in our basement in Colorado
and we put the kids to bed and sneaked down there because we wanted to have some alone time
just to talk with all the kids and everything. And so we'd get down there and we're just going
to have a conversation about something. And when we didn't hear from the kingdom,
that conversation would go on for hours. And you wake up the next day exhausted, you still
haven't figured it out. And I've learned over the years it's like, all right, well,
we need to stop everything and seek the kingdom. What would God say about this?
How would he approach this? What is his character regarding this?
Just part of his character, for instance, he will never leave us or forsake us. So
if we have abandonment stuff coming up, it's like, well, I know I'm not going to be alone.
Here's his character. I will stand on who he is. Right? You might not know exactly where the
verse is found, but you know he's that God. You've known him enough to know he's not going
to leave me or forsake me. So his very character can sustain you in that moment.
And it's like going to the chiropractor when your head's on crooked and all of a
sudden you come out, you feel taller and as you know, hi, I'm walking straighter, right?
But when it's on crooked, it's like you just only see things this way.
And he wants you to look to the future a certain way, right? And then we're able to
prophesy to something that we call things that are not as though they were. Here we're in the
situation. How do you get out of the situation? Well, we know future is going to come either way,
right? Like you can't stop. Like future, stop. I'm trying to work in the now.
You know, we just moved into the future again and again and again in this moment.
So it's not going to, future's not going to go away. So it's best to seek the kingdom in the
now and prophesy toward the future so that as you've prayed through it, you speak his character,
his love, his ways of doing things, his rulership over it. I just walk into the future.
See, this is a reminder. A lot of you know this, but it's a reminder we're kind of,
all right, look at me. If you've been discussing stuff for way too long, trying to figure it out
in your brain, stop and seek the kingdom. Amen?