IN the last article, I directed attention to a particular statement of Jesus to drive home the practical import of the kingdom of heaven in the life of man in which He said man ought not to worry about his mundane needs but that he should seek first the kingdom of heaven and everything that he needs will be added unto him. This arguably has meaning in the practical functions of the mind of man and this is where the issue of faith comes into it to make our explanation convincing and we will still rely on the statement of Jesus to help further.
He said ‘consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not neither do they spin and yet I say to you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God do clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little FAITH’. This is a statement that emphasises the critical importance of faith in the whole existence of man.
He went on from that point to say that you should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you’. This statement shows us clearly that there is an intrinsic link between the concept of faith and the notion of the kingdom of heaven. If the lilies of the field grow and they toil not and as Jesus also said, the birds of the air also eat and they have no barn to store any food, why as Jesus noted must man be having problem in these matters?
When He said it is because man is of little faith, that is why he is having the problems other creatures are not having, then you will appreciate what it could mean when it is said that there is an intrinsic link between the concept of faith and the notion of the kingdom of heaven. If a quality of faith is not there between the aforementioned creatures and the source that supplies their needs, Jesus might not have referred to man as of little faith. When Jesus said man should seek first the kingdom of heaven and everything that he needs will be added unto him, it must be a reference to the source where all the other creatures of nature are getting the supplies to their needs.
What this clearly suggests is that these creatures in their relationship with the source of supply to their needs are operating so to speak in the kingdom of heaven. Instinctively, these creatures are not waiting to die so that they can go into the kingdom of heaven. Right here on earth, they are already partaking in its benefits because of an intelligent linkage that they have with it. This is like a rule of operation that intelligently links them with nature and with that rule of operation, they instinctively know that in the God of heaven, they move and have their being. This is how this statement in Act 17:28 in the bible should apply to man in his relationship to heaven. The biblical statement says that in God ‘we live and move and have our being’. If man has effectively linked up in faith to the statement, he would have come to know that his mission is to replicate heaven. That is the tragedy of religious ignorance.
It was Jesus in his Lord’s Prayer who said ‘thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. The implication of this statement is that man should petition the seat of God within him to give him the knowledge to transform this world into what can be called Heaven on earth. The potential for heaven according to Jesus is within man (LK 17:21). What is expected of man is to make that potential dynamic to open his eyes to the fact that he is already potentially in heaven and his duty is to make the potential heaven a dynamic heaven on earth. It has to do with the understanding of faith; the method of the rule of intelligence and man will just be like what the bible said of a righteous man. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth fruit in his season. Its leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper (Ps 1:3).
Ayo-Vaughan, a psychologist, lives in Lagos.
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