Accessing the Key of the Kingdom

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God is Government called Your Daily Bread. Taken from Christ's teaching of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting Scripture, but Scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly, advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today's focused discussion will be on understanding how we access the keys of the kingdom. When we access anything of process or value in this physical life, there is a process that occurs both mentally and, physically, that enables access to occur. If we were to ask each of you to identify and describe God's processes, what would you say? In my 60-year adult history, I have yet to find one pastor of any church that could answer this question with any authority. Would you believe that the provisioning of the keys of the kingdom and the ability to access them occurred at creation itself? To be able to not only access the keys of the kingdom, but use them, we must understand how the provisioning of them by God occurred. Without this understanding, we will not be able to build the process of utilizing the keys of the kingdom to obtain the absolute power that God intended for each of us to have in our physical life form. We described in previous Your Daily Bread posts as to how God provisioned the keys of the kingdom through his relationship laws. It is through these relationship laws that we have a face-to-face, individualized relationship with God Himself. However, the access to the keys of the kingdom can only occur when we are living our physical life underneath the structure and authority provided in the covenant God made with humanity through Adam. In order to move forward in identifying the keys themselves and how they are used in accordance with God's intended use, we need to look at our physical makeup and layout, how we first determine the need of accessing the keys to the kingdom. And secondly, the process in accessing them. We find answers to these questions and many more in the relationship laws of God. This process happens, in some cases, without much forethought. In other cases, a lot of time is spent in analyzing, risk assessment, and planning for a change. Regardless of the magnitude of any change, the process individuals go through to make the change are the same. The process is driven from our emotional guidance system, telling our conscious that something is wrong and a change is needed. This change process has been analyzed for hundreds of years by psychologists. Psychologists have identified five stages of change that every individual goes through over and over in their physical life. These five stages of change have been named Transtheoretical Model of Change by Carlo Di Clemente PhD and James O. Prochaska PhD, leaders in the psychology of change. This model has been used in all kinds of medical research, stop smoking, HIV, etc. The model identifies the six steps as follows. 1. Pre-contemplation. This is the stage of denial. Individuals claim that their behavior is not a problem, with no real desire to change. Some individuals are so ingrained in their behavior that they do not realize just how damaging the behavior is to them, as well as to all they come in contact with. They are uniformed or underinformed about the consequences of their actions. A rethinking of the behavior, analyzing of behavior actions, and accessing risks of current behavior are the typical activities in this first step. 2. Contemplation. This is the stage of ambivalence full of conflicted emotions. Individuals have moved from denying a change as needed to becoming more aware of the potential benefits of making a change. Individuals weigh the costs of the change and seek to either substantiate that the costs are too great, or the benefits clearly outweigh the cost of change. Because of the uncertainty about the cost versus the benefit, this stage could last months and even years. In fact, psychologists tell us that many individuals never make it past the contemplation stage. Weighing of pros and cons of the behavior change, confirmation of readiness and ability to change, and the identification of barriers to the change are the typical activities in this second step. 3. Preparation. This is the stage of collecting information about the change required, and even experimenting with small changes to gain a feeling of the outcome of the change itself. Individuals typically make changes in baby steps, eating an elephant one bite at a time. Others go all in and make the change and deal with the fallout after the change. In order to begin this stage, one must establish and set the goals the change would attain. It is in this stage where almost all the information is gathered of the desired change. One would obtain books, talk to friends and family, attend focus/slash support groups, counsellors, and others who either have gone through a similar change or can provide advice or encouragement for the change process. Determining and writing down of goals, preparation of a plan of action, and creating a mental and physical list of motivation activities or affirmations are the typical activities in this third stage. 4. Action. This is the stage where the change actually takes place. Individuals take the steps forward in moving to goal attainment, established in step three. The 80-20 rule applies to this stage. 80% of all change never completes. The primary reason for this failure rate is individuals fail to be committed to the change, fail to adequately plan for the steps in the process of the change, and have not given enough thought or time for the change. Activities in this stage mainly focus on the rewarding of success, either by rewarding oneself or through social support. It is in this stage where most challenges take place toward the change itself. 5. Maintenance. This is the stage where ongoing continued action is required, not to the level of making the change itself, but as a process of reassurance or ongoing activities to maintain the change. This may take the form of ongoing continuous training, meditation of controlling individual thoughts, or any other process that would support the mindset of the individual making the change. Developing coping strategies for previous behavior changes and rewarding oneself are the typical activities in this fifth stage. 6. Termination. This is the final stage where everyone hopes to obtain. However, in many cases, like some form of addiction or abuse, many relapses and return to the original behavior. For those that reach and terminate the change process means they have completed the entire process with the confidence that one can cope without fear or relapse, no matter what the prior behavior may have been. While every change process utilizes these steps, we find that what God laid out in his relationship laws was a process that, when tied to him at the center, moves quickly through the change process and completing the change without issue. When we look to Scripture to provide us the solution to change, we find solace in God's principles and his love and grace to move us forward in total success. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of how we access the keys of the kingdom. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way.