Seeking First the Kingdom: Stable in a Time of Shaking
Jake Wetherbee | The Resting Place Apostolic Family | Matthew 6:33; Matthew 7:24–27; Psalm 110:3–4; Hebrews 12:23–29; John 10:25–28; John 15:13–16
WE ARE IN A THRESHOLD SEASON
We have been speaking to the fact that we are in a threshold season. We are walking through a doorway that we cannot come back through, and there is something different on the other side. I believe that is a word for the church as a whole. I believe it is a word for The Resting Place, meaning that there is transformation taking place.
And what is on the flip side of that threshold? I think many things. But I think this passage touches it. Caleb brought up the order of Melchizedek, and what he did not know is that I had placed Psalm 110:3–4 right there. It is not going to be on the screen because I just added it.
“Your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of your power. In the day of your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array, out of the womb of the morning, to you will spring forth your young men who are as dew. The Lord has sworn and will not revoke or change it: You are a priest forever after the manner and the order of Melchizedek.” — Psalm 110:3–4
What is on the flip side of this threshold is the day of the Lord’s power. And what is the first key? Your people will willingly offer themselves in the day of your power.
THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK AND OUR PRIESTLY CALLING
This is not what the sermon is about, but we have to understand something. There was the Levitical priesthood established under the law. But when the Lord came, he fulfilled the law and he actually restored us back to something that predated the law. What was that? It was the order of Melchizedek.
The difference between the Levitical law and the order of Melchizedek is this: the Levitical priesthood had to be installed for the benefit of the people because they could not keep the covenant they had with God. The Melchizedek priesthood is not about whether you can keep the law or not. It is about something that God made a new covenant with himself to invite you into who he is as a priest.
Jesus is our high priest, and you are a priest under the high priest. Operating in your priestly function as an order under the order of Melchizedek is actually you ministering to the Father with Jesus. The Levitical priesthood had the priests ministering on behalf of the people because the people were not good enough. The Melchizedek order is this: Jesus has made you good enough. He has imparted his life to you, and you actually get the high privilege and honor to minister to Father God himself.
In fact, when the heavens and the earth are all wrapped up, do you know what is going to remain? A family who is in love with each other, and the love that they have to love each other with is the love that the Father gave us that we are just sharing out with each other. And then it multiplies, and then you get to pour it right back to the Father. The Father releases love to his family. It is multiplied greatly, and then it comes right back to him.
MATURITY IS THE REQUIREMENT
This threshold of maturity we are entering over is coming out of infancy. When you are an infant, you cry and you need milk, you need mom, you need dad, you need nurture. There is nothing wrong with that. But there comes a point where little Timmy is 25 and he needs to get out of the house and go do something.
What has happened is we have had 2,000 years of the church being filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Lord is saying, “All right, little Timmy, it is time for you to get out of the house.” There is a higher ministry that the Lord is inviting us into. Maturity is the absolute requirement. The threshold we are stepping over is God in this season exposing the deficiencies of his church so that we might be honest with ourselves. We might assess ourselves on a personal and corporate level and say, “Wow, I am strong there. And wow, we are really deficient here.”
And when we see our deficiencies, it is not about striving to make ourselves look better. It is, “Hey Lord, thank you for showing me where I actually need you more. Would you take me, take your church, through whatever process we have to go through so that we might become like you in a greater way.”
How many people are waiting for you to mature into a place where you are going to bless those around you in a way you cannot even think of right now? But if we remain immature, what is being missed out on in the long-term outworkings of history? The Lord is wanting to mature us beyond narcissism. Your dad has to tell you who you are when you are little, but at some point you have to become what he is speaking to you. And now you do not have to remind yourself. You just are what you are.
THE ONLY STABLE THING IS THE WORD OF THE LORD
Our core emphasis today comes from two passages out of the Sermon on the Mount. The strand throughout this entire message is this: seeking first the kingdom strategically aligns you with heaven and keeps you stable in a time of shaking.
“But first and most importantly, seek, aim, and strive after his kingdom and his righteousness — his way of doing and being right, the attitude and character of God — and all these things will be given to you also.” — Matthew 6:33 (Amplified)
“So everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man — a far-sighted, practical, sensible man — who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods and torrents came and the winds blew and slammed against that house, yet it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish, stupid man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods and torrents came and the winds blew and slammed against that house, and it fell, and great and complete was its fall.” — Matthew 7:24–27 (Amplified)
The only stable thing in the earth is the word of the Lord. Even on a cellular level, scientists have discovered something called laminin. It is a cross. There is literally a cross at the core of your being holding you together. The word of God is holding you together.
Wisdom would tell you that you should put everything you have on the word of the Lord. You are not going to go wrong.
HIS KINGDOM IS THE ONLY THING THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN
“And as members of the church of the firstborn, all of our names have been legally registered as citizens of heaven. And we have come before God who judges all and who lives among the spirits of the righteous who have been made perfect in his eyes. And we have come to Jesus who established a new covenant with his blood sprinkled upon the mercy seat. Blood that continues to speak from heaven — forgiveness, a better message than Abel’s blood, which cries from the earth, justice. Make very sure that you never refuse to listen to him who speaks. For God spoke on earth from Sinai and is the same God who now speaks from heaven. Those who heard him speak his living word on earth found nowhere to hide. So what chance is there for us to escape if we turn our backs on God and refuse to hear his warnings as he speaks from heaven? The earth was rocked at the sound of his voice from the mountain. But now he has promised once and for all: I will not only shake the systems of the world, but also the unseen powers in the heavenly realm. Now this phrase once and for all clearly indicates the final removal of things that are shaking — that is the old order. So only what is unshakable will remain. Since we are receiving our rights to an unshakable kingdom, we should be extremely thankful and offer God the purest worship that delights his heart as we lay down our lives in absolute surrender, filled with awe, for our God is a holy devouring fire.” — Hebrews 12:23–29 (Passion)
What is the only thing that cannot be shaken? It is the kingdom. And to understand kingdom, you must be relationally connected to the king, because the king is the one who rules over a territory or a domain. How that king is will be reflected in his people and his land. If he is an evil and wicked king, his people will not prosper. They will have a heavy burden on themselves. But if you have a good king, you have a king who empowers his people, builds them up, and his land prospers.
Who is the perfect king? It is Jesus. And if you want to be aligned with heaven, if you want to be stable, if you want to know where you need to be right now — there is so much happening every day. Economic shifts, global shifts, industries changing, AI changing how our lives operate. It is only those who are aligned with heaven who will actually be a blessing in the hour to come because there is an old system that is passing. We have to walk through that threshold and do whatever the Lord shows us to grow and mature so that we can leave childish things behind and mature into who we are as kings and priests in the order of Melchizedek.
God is shaking. He shakes through government. He shakes through business. He shakes the heavenlies through his church. And our lack of enforcing his victory is why darkness is gaining ground. We have to mature, because our children are growing up, and the only way to keep someone from being tempted by a counterfeit is to feed them the real deal.
HIS SHEEP HEAR HIS VOICE
“I have told you so. Yet you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify concerning me. They are my credentials and the evidence declaring who I am. But you do not believe me, so you do not trust and follow me, because you are not my sheep. The sheep that are my own hear my voice and listen to me. I know them and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever by any means perish, and no one will ever snatch them out of my hand.” — John 10:25–28 (Amplified)
It is so interesting how all of us are sheep and the church claims to be sheep, but we can identify more with the first portion of this passage than the second. And that is something the Lord is rectifying in this hour. He is saying, “Okay, we are going to go into the promised land.” And either you are going to be a generation that gets left in the wilderness, walking to nowhere, or you are going to be someone who springs forth from the dawn like young men. Do you know who were the only people who entered into the promised land? Everyone who was 20 and under — plus Caleb and Joshua.
I am not speaking chronologically. Spiritually, there are those who will be like children who trust the Lord, who believe him when he speaks. And there are those who will fight him all along the way. He has been super gracious, but he is saying, “If you want to continue in the wrong kind of childlikeness, you will stay here. I need the right kind of childlikeness.” And if you want to be a part of what he does next, there is a day of his power that is available now. But will you willfully surrender your life so that you might be a conduit of his radical power showing up in every facet of your life?
If you are his sheep, then you have the ability to hear his voice. If you do not feel confident in that, it is this simple: Lord, teach me to be confident in hearing your voice that I may respond to you. Some of you are really good at it. Some of you are new to it. It does not matter where you are. Just say, “Lord, I am your sheep. Teach me to hear your voice.”
GOD’S DEFINITION OF FRIENDSHIP
“No one has greater love nor stronger commitment than to lay down his own life for his friends. You are my friends if you keep doing what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you my friends because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name as my representative, he may give to you.” — John 15:13–16 (Amplified)
You are his friends if you keep on doing what he commands you. Not just once — if you keep on doing it. This is a house that is a friend to God. But you need to understand there is a definition to that friendship. And the definition is found right here.
So I will leave you with this question to process: Do you feel confident that you have continued to do what he has called you to? And if you do not, I am not beating you up. Go before the Lord and say, “Hey, if there is something I have left along the road that you asked me to do, if it is possible to go back to it, would you give me grace to do that, Lord? Empower me to be obedient, because I want to be your friend, and I want to move on into maturity. I want to adorn myself with the righteous acts of the saints.”
That is our wedding clothes. You can read it in Revelation 19. It is the righteous acts of the saints. What are those righteous acts you are walking in right now? And if you cannot clearly point at your life and state them, that is okay. I am not beating you up. But maybe it is time to grow, because the Lord has some righteous acts he wants you to walk in.
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Transcript of a message delivered at The Resting Place Apostolic Family — Tampa Bay, FL — trpfamily.org