Most of us would consider ourselves, even part of our identities, to be as citizens of our nation. Having just been through a presidential election, our identity as Americans is even more pronounced in our minds. There is no question that we feel a loyalty and love for our country, and a connection to the governing powers of it.
However, as Christians, we are not identified by our nation. Christians are aliens and foreigners in all of the earthly kingdoms:
"These all...confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Heb. 11:13
"Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God...I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul."
1 Pet. 2:10-11
Why is it so important to understand our alien identity? It changes our perception of who we are. It changes how we relate to the LORD, and it changes how we relate to this world, and its circumstances. We are from a Kingdom that is not of this world, nor are we connected to the systems of this world:
"Jesus answered (Pilate), "My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, ...but now is My kingdom not from hence...Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." Jn. 18:36-37
As aliens and pilgrims, we bring into our daily lives the principles of the Kingdom from which we have come. Its Truth is not the same as the ways of this world. Jesus contrasted the Kingdom to the ways of the world as He told His disciples not to be troubled about even the most basic needs found in the world (Mt. 6:25-32). He said:
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Mt. 6:33-34
Focusing on the cares of this world rather than on the Kingdom of God is likened as serving two masters, which no man can successfully do (Mt. 6:24).
What we are to focus upon, seek, and consider has nothing to do with the systems and circumstances of this world:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things that do appear."
Heb. 11:1-3
The unseen is considered a creative substance, and the seen things come from the unseen. These things are part of the Kingdom focus. Natural circumstances are ruled and determined by Kingdom faith and its reality. They exist in the invisible first, and then become manifest in the visible realm (v. 5-9). This focus on the Kingdom allowed Enoch to be translated and changed in body from corruptible to incorruptible, so that he did not see death, but walked with God. Noah could "see" the yet unseen coming flood, and he prepared the salvation of his household. An elderly childless couple, Abraham and Sarah, embraced the Kingdom promise of God, believing and seeing their yet unborn child. As a result, they were restored to their youth, so they could have the strength to conceive and bear that child. That child's generations would bring forth the Messiah. These elders lived and died in this creative faith of the Kingdom, receiving the promises, "seeing" them afar off, being persuaded of the truth of these promises, and embracing them. This single-minded focus on Kingdom promises by faith, before they could ever be seen in the natural, led them to confess that they were indeed aliens in the earth (v. 13).
All of the elders of faith understood that as strangers here on earth, they desired a country that is heavenly, with a city prepared by God, who was not ashamed to be called their God (v. 16).
Similarly, our worship and being is not connected to an earthly visible temple built by men's hands. We are instead, the living stones that create a living temple, inhabited by our spiritual priesthood. This living temple contains the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
(1 Pet. 2:4-5). Walls built by human hands mean nothing, but rather the foundation and walls built of precious jewels of faith and truth of the Kingdom, as we are called to be.
The prophet Ezekiel is told by the LORD to "show the house to the house" of all it is supposed to be, its form, its fashion, its laws and ordinances, its goings in and goings out. The form of the House of God is not like the houses of the earth, and we cannot treat it so (Ez. 43:10).
As we understand and walk based upon a Kingdom focus, Isaiah describes how we strangers and pilgrims bring the Kingdom of God into manifestation in the midst of the kingdoms of men:
"And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Paths to Dwell in....not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words." Isa. 58:11-13
It is this Kingdom focus that brings the unity of the faith, the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ for the work of the ministry and the edifying of the Body (Eph. 4:11-13). We are not there yet, but by changing our focus, we will change our understanding, our nature, and our perfecting in the Kingdom. The thing upon which we focus becomes - us.
Is your focus on the Kingdom?
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