Kingdom Motivation by Joe Pinto
“I want to go after the Kingdom of God.”
This is a sentence many people say. According to religion, we should be happy with the number of people that are apparently going after Jesus and His Kingdom. There are people coming to Christ all over, churches that are being filled to the brim with new members.
Though what many don’t understand is that many people are going after the Kingdom with all their strength and will but their motivation to go after it is wrong! Many people are even preaching people into the kingdom but motivating them to God with the wrong motivation, getting them to focus on the by-products of the Kingdom instead of focusing on the King of the Kingdom.
Many people come to Jesus out of a wrong motive.
Maybe they didn’t want to go to hell. Maybe they heard a prosperity preacher, and now they are going after God for His riches. Maybe they heard a false grace message preached and now they’re motivated by the fact that they can have their worldly lifestyle and still have Jesus. Maybe they got motivated because they want to be a big-time minister.
Whatever it is, many people are coming to Jesus for the wrong reasons! Jesus said in the gospel, if any man comes after me, let him FIRST deny himself!
If we do not deny ourselves, our own lusts, wants, cares, and soul ties, we will bring mixture into our Kingdom walk. Many have skipped this step, and the result is they either become a false Christian or they walk away from the faith completely.
Our motivation to go after Him should be based out of our love for Him, out of our desire to please Him and be with Him where He is because of who He is and what he’s done and is doing. Anything else that motivates us will lead us to live in a false faith.
1 Kings 21:25-29
“But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.”
Even Ahab repented, but if you read the next chapter, God sends a prophet to give Ahab truth and guidance. And in the end, Ahab ends up denying God and His prophet again. Even though Ahab repented, it gave forth no fruit. Why? Because Ahab repented with the wrong motivation. He repented out of the sorrow he had for his wrongdoing, though it was never a repentance to be reconciled completely to God. Therefore, he had a sad ending because he denied God. He ended up dying in battle because of it.
Here’s another man!
Acts 8:9-24
“But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.”
Simon even got baptized and believed the gospel! He was a believer! He was following! But then his motivation changed! He saw the power of God and started to covet the power most of all and even revealed that by wanting to pay for it. This is what is happening in the body of Christ. Many have come to Jesus purely out of love for Him, and all of a sudden, their motivation changes. Now they are with Jesus for another reason.
Just like the church in Revelation that left their first love, they began their walk doing things out of a place of pure love for Christ and His Kingdom. And now they left their first love by doing the same things but with the wrong motives.
Jesus said to them you’re doing great. You have patience, you long suffer, and your charity is great though you need to repent because you’re no longer doing this for the right reasons. You used to do this out of love for me, but now you have changed your motive. It was pure, and now it’s defiled because the most important thing of all was intimacy with me.
Proverbs 17:19-20
“The person who courts sin marries trouble; build a wall, invite a burglar. A bad motive can’t achieve a good end; double-talk brings you double trouble.”
The person who courts sin is marrying trouble. The person who still has sin in their heart, whether it’s covertness, lust, envy, bitterness, you name it! They will have trouble because this is what happens. People come to the Kingdom and because they haven’t fully turned away from the world, the mixture of sin in their heart mixes with the Kingdom. Then they do Kingdom things and live a Kingdom lifestyle, but everything is being filtered through that sin in their heart.
Then you have Christians that use the Kingdom as a business. Then you have loverboys who are always trying to use God as a way to get with women. Or even women with men. You have people with bitter hearts that didn’t get healed now taking out their anger on the messengers of God. And they’re striving for the Kingdom but with the wrong heart: Wanting to achieve God’s will, but deeply wanting to achieve their own will by using His. Only one “will” can stand – His or yours!
And that’s why repentance preaching is so important! That is why preaching about being separated from the world is so important. If we don’t preach these things, people will be in your church, people will be a part of your group, but with a heart after the world and themselves…Doing the same things, saying the right things, praying and preaching. But at the end of the day, it’s all fueled by a bad heart.
Yes, they seem like they are a star for the Kingdom, but they are wrongly motivated. A bad motive can’t achieve a good end! In the end, they will crash and burn. Why do people get weary? Why do people fall away from the faith? It’s because they were motivated by the wrong thing. And if you’re motivated by the wrong thing, you will not last. You will not endure this walk. Whatever you’re doing it will fall to the ground if it was motivated by something else. If it’s not empowered by God it will have no strength to stand. Many believers are falling away because they never actually stood on the rock of Jesus, coming to The Kingdom for other reasons.
Roman 8:10
“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
We need grace to run this race. God is not going to come in agreement with you if you have the wrong motives in your heart. God is not going to give you anything if your heart wants it for the wrong reasons. And when God does not give you grace, you start to grow weak. When God does not give you what you’re asking for even if it’s the right thing, you start having to do things in your own strength. You have to strive for everything because God is not backing you.
When God is backing you, things flow and go without resistance. Things are given freely. But you are moving against the grain because He’s not with you. You’re grinding and pushing but there’s no give.
The scripture says he will empower your mortal body. You have to ask yourself, why God is not empowering me in this part of my life or that part. Maybe He’s moving in other areas of your life except just this one. Why? You have to change your heart! You have to change your motive.
Why do you do this? Why do you do that? Why do you say that? Why do you not do or say this?
Yes, it may be the right thing to say or do, but what’s the reason? Is it really for the Kingdom? Is it really a pure motive, or is the motive you have all so that you can fulfill your own lust?
“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
One of the best ways to determine an impure motive in yourself is to ask yourself this question: Is what I’m doing or saying for Him and His glory? Or is it for the glory of another?
And people are doing everything in the name of God or in the name of the Kingdom, but their motivation is for someone or something else. Just like many people who come to the kingdom because of their husband or wife or because of their family and friends. This will not stand before God. And our reward never ends up being the flow of His power and glory in our life. It ends up being the praise of men. And as long as the people we care about are happy with us, we keep going after Jesus because this is how we gain respect, recognition, and glory from the people we care about.
We’re just using God for our agenda!
Matthew 6:1
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
You will have no reward, and that may include the crown of salvation that we receive in the end. Some are going to come to Him in the last day and say I healed the sick, I cast out demons, I fed the poor. Though Jesus will say I never knew you because you came to the kingdom for your own reasons. Yes, you have done everything I would ask from a believer, though the most important thing you missed. And this was supposed to be your foundation. This was supposed to motivate you, which was to KNOW ME!
God is saying, yes, you’re on fire for the Kingdom. Yes, you want me. Yes, you want more of me. That’s good, but we need to get down to the reason why you really want it all because, in the end, you will upset yourself thinking faith has failed you. But you are the one that failed faith by not having a pure heart. The pure in heart will see God, but the one with the impure motive will be let down.
We need to change our heart today and repent. We need to be motivated rightly. We need to do the right things for the right reason.
What motivates you?
What motivates me is the love of God.
What motivates me is eternal life
What motives me is the salvation of lost souls.
What motivates me is the church raising up into the full stature of Christ.
What motivates me is the captives being set free.
Drug addicts being changed.
People giving their life to Jesus!
People turning from evil!
The goodness of God, the mercy, the grace, the truth.
This is what motivates me and anything else is worldly motivation and produces hidden motives.
1 Timothy 1:5
“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
Let the aim of my motivation to go after Him be out of love for Him, and let the aim of my charge to serve the people the Kingdom be out of love for them!
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