I will first note that the ways of God and His Kingdom are not our ways. The bible even says so. We humans have been trained by the world’s knowledge, which is vastly inferior to God’s knowledge. God created everything we can see, touch, smell and hear, therefore He is vastly superior. The carnal mind is enmity against the ways of God. It cannot do otherwise. Romans 8:7. Because God knows everything, and sees everything, even the future, how can our human understanding possibly compete? We must acknowledge that he is far above mere humanity in wisdom, and is far more intelligent. We must accede to that. His wisdom knows no bounds. He is the most intelligent and knowledgeable Being in the universe.

As such, do you not think that knowing His ways and how He thinks would be something valuable to search out and follow so that your life can be a success? Isn’t having a relationship with the Creator God who has such infinite qualities worth the effort? I have said this elsewhere, but I’ll say it again… if I were to give you a very thick book and tell you that the person who wrote the book described great riches that belong to you, would you not search it out diligently to find out what those riches were? If you were given the last will and testament of a wealthy person and told that your name was in it and things of great value had been left for you, would you not search until you found what it was that person left for you?

That book, that will and testament, the bible, says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not fear as in afraid, but fear as in reverence and honor. That book says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength. First of all, before everything…He must be first. The thing that is created (we humans) must stay connected to the Creator. Just as a plant or a tree must stay connected to the dirt that it was made from (see Genesis 1 and 2), human beings, because they were created with a spirit, or breath from God, must stay connected to the Creator. If a tree or plant are disconnected from the dirt, we know what happens. They die.

So exactly what are God’s ways?

In the gospels, we first see Jesus begin to say some strange things about God’s ways in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus began to teach the people about what the Kingdom of God was. He said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven; Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted; Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth (we do not see how the meek can inherit anything); Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled; Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy; Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God; Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God; Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven (but no one likes persecution); Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake ( no one likes this either). Jesus said to rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Forgiving those who hurt you is the Kingdom way. We find forgiveness difficult because forgiving those who have hurt you is a divine attribute, not a human one. Jesus on the cross forgave those who were killing him. But God gives us the ability through HIs spirit to forgive others. Similar to this is praying for, and loving your enemies. Again, this is a divine attribute; we can only do it with His help. I remember a time that someone had offended me deeply and I was going to have to work in proximity with this person. My insides were fighting it. But I knew God wanted me to forgive her. As an act of my will, I said I would choose to forgive. And the Spirit of God removed all the bad feelings in my heart! It was amazing. 

Jesus instructed the people, 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? Again, we will need divine help to accomplish this. The scripture goes on to say, 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? We must believe that we are. Matthew 6:25-26.

Giving away our money to worthy causes to extend God’s Kingdom is the Kingdom way. Jesus said we are laying up treasures in Heaven when we do this. He said where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Giving money when you yourself have needs is the kingdom way. It is not a human attribute to give. We are selfish creatures.

Most things that God asks us to do, make little sense to our minds.

Prayer is the Kingdom Way. We petition God for our needs and we trust Him when we have lack. We don’t break man’s law or God’s commands in order to take care of our needs. He wants us to trust Him and see Him work on our behalf, believing that He is looking out for us

One teacher I know says fasting is the Kingdom way. Feasting on the Word of God instead of food and giving time to prayer is a Kingdom activity. I confess to not having a good understanding of fasting, but it was an activity of the Jewish people and the early church and is said to be an aid in increasing sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. Denying ourselves from anything we enjoy can be a spiritual discipline. We learn we don’t have to have everything we want in order to be happy. We can allow our spirit to dominate our flesh and not allow ourselves to be cranky when we are deprived. Think of those who have suffered famine and hardship and imprisonment in far worse conditions than we have ever experienced.

Speaking words from the bible in our prayers and decrees is the Kingdom Way. Jesus told his disciples to pray this way: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Our words have power. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverb 18:21. Speaking words is the Kingdom Way. God created the world with words. We are made in the image and likeness of God, therefore, we also create with words, for good or for evil. James 3:6 says “the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.” The tongue is powerful indeed.

Dear Jesus, We are not trained in Your ways. Your ways are so foreign to us. We must have Your light and Your understanding to even begin to see the value of closely following after You. We desperately need to see Your plan for our lives so that we can fulfill Your will in the earth. Teach us Your ways. We want to see Your Kingdom come.