The Kingdom of God is within you.
“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
- Luke 17:21 (King James Version)
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September was a GAMECHANGING month of revelations for me; revelations about my heart, my purpose in the Body of Christ and my business. I have SO much to unpack and share with you but I'll start with one of my biggest revelations of the month, which was essentially that the #1 thing God has called me to build isn't a business at all, it's His Kingdom. And I was last month's years old when He shifted my whole mental paradigm about what that actually means.
The mental paradigm I've had my entire entrepreneurial life of over 10 years has basically been: make a lot of money with my business so that I can fund God's Kingdom. I've found this to be a deep motivation for many, if not most, of the Christian entrepreneurs I've built relationships with over the years too. But, in the midst of the intense heart work God has been doing in me this year and especially these last few months, that old paradigm completely shifted when I sensed Him tell me:
My Kingdom has to reign in YOU as an individual before it can reign in the earth.
That's when Jesus' words in this week's scripture were illuminated in me for the first time and I could finally see that bringing God’s Kingdom to earth is less of a funding issue and more of a heart issue. I’ve always seen funding as the #1 issue God has; like, if we could all just build million-dollar businesses to fund the Kingdom, everything will be solved. But now I see clearly that God’s problem isn’t our money, it’s our hearts. If He can get our hearts though?! Get us to love Him, ourselves & each other right?! That’s His Kingdom come right there! Not to mention how much more trustworthy we’d all be with the money He already has plenty of!
If you're getting these emails from me, I assume it's because you probably have a similar desire to serve God's Kingdom with your business as I do. If that's the case, I hope this week's message is shedding light into your heart like it has done for me. Building God's Kingdom doesn't start with how many millions your business brings in. It starts within you; by actively loving God, yourself & people. In fact, God's "Kingdom" IS God's people. So building it means a commitment to building people—yourself first—because none of our "Kingdom building" matters if our heart and love walk ain't right.
I truly believe God is ready to pour out an abundance of resources to fund HIS work. So if whatever you're doing isn't being funded yet, it may be because He's still working on getting your heart and business ready to receive it. I pray He uses this message to support that work in you this week and for the rest of your entrepreneurial journey.
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Still hungry? Eat some more //
- John 14:15 → How do you love God? Keep His commandments. What are His commandments? Love Him & love people (Matthew 22:37-40). So how do you truly love God? By loving people. Maybe this is an oversimplification but hopefully you understand what I’m saying.
- Matthew 22:39 → It’s impossible to love people if you don’t love yourself. And remember, love requires action.
- Isaiah 58, Matthew 25:31-46, Romans 14, 1 John 4:8 → More Biblical fodder to study what loving God & each other looks like & the blessings that come from it.
- Deuteronomy 5:6-18 → I got a revelation on how keeping the Sabbath and honoring your parents are forms of self love (aka loving your neighbors as yourself) one day that I thought was worth sharing. In case you were looking for Biblical examples of loving yourself.