12 Ways to Develop a Kingdom Mindset

by Nichole Suvar

Having a Kingdom mindset is a must for serious followers of Christ (which all Christians ought to be). But what is it exactly and how can you have one? Glad you asked! Stick around for these answers and more!

A Growth Opportunity

A few years back we bought a couple of acres in a small town. We loved the property and that we could start a garden, have a few chickens, hang out clothes to dry on the clothesline, and have ample room for our kids to explore. Our little space in the corner of the world felt charming and peaceful.

Then, a little over two years after we arrived, new neighbors moved in next door. I baked cookies with my kids and we took them over, welcoming them to the neighborhood. They were a bit standoffish and communicated by their body language that they would prefer to be left alone.

We would wave and smile to them if we saw them outside, but they never seemed open to conversation.

After about a year of this waving and smiling, the husband made his way over to our yard. We thought this was the chance to finally get to know them! Except the conversation that ensued was him making a list of things that he detested about us, about how we kept our property, and that we were not welcome in this small, quaint town.

We were shocked, hurt, and quite confused. No one else had a problem with our garden, chickens, and clothesline. But suddenly, the person with the loudest, most hurtful words was the one that stuck in our hearts and minds.

No longer did our small corner of the world feel charming and peaceful. We felt violated and belittled.

Kingdom-minded Meaning

Having this run-in with our neighbor caused us to feel unwelcome. We struggled with feelings of anger and dislike towards this man. The world’s answer to this situation would be to scream back in return, to tell him the ways that we didn’t like him, or even get spiteful and do more things on our property that we thought would annoy him. All of these thoughts ran through our minds.

And, though our feelings were valid and real, we knew that it wasn’t God’s best for our lives. As we wrestled with what the best response was to the situation, we kept bringing our pain back to God. It seemed whatever scripture we came across or sermon we heard would keep reminding us to keep our focus Kingdom-minded. So what exactly is a Kingdom mindset?

A Kingdom mindset involves viewing the world from God's vantage point, aligning our lives with His purposes, prioritizing God in our decision-making, and pursuing His honor and glory with our words and actions. -Nichole Suvar Click To Tweet

For us, it was keeping the view that this world is not our permanent home. This property, our neighbors, and our home are just temporary holdings; they are gifts and opportunities from God for this life that will eventually fade away.

Kingdom Mindset Scriptures

Whether we hit opposition or life seems to be moving along well, we can easily get caught up in what is important in this life and start to see our journey from a temporal perspective. Temporal perspective focuses on comparing ourselves to others, rushing to get things done, and looking for the next best thing. This can lead to feelings of anxiety, discontent, and envy.

But, when we turn our focus to the eternal and have a kingdom mindset that recognizes that we are only strangers on this earth longing for a better, heavenly country, we can see our present circumstances from a clearer perspective. Though our day-to-day service and living may be to temporal humans, we are ministering to eternal souls.

When our pursuits are focused on bringing God glory and learning more about Him in the process, then the obsession of this life gets a new lens. We can look at the journey in this life as Abraham did as discussed in Hebrews 11:10 (NIV) “He was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” We can have a Kingdom mentality while still walking in this temporal world.

Philippians 4:4-9

Paul wrote to the Philippians, a new church steeped in economic and cultural diversity. People from different walks of life were attempting to live out a Kingdom mindset together. He wrote these words to them…

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Philippians 4:4-9

This is the essence of a Kingdom mindset – focusing on things that are good, as God is good, and always prioritizing a relationship with Him, trusting Him with everything.

{Related – 5 Ways to Trust God With All Your Heart}

Characteristics of a Kingdom-Minded Person

In these verses, Paul laid out what a Kingdom-minded person looks like. 

People who are focused on God and His glory…

• rejoice in the Lord’s goodness, even in the midst of hard times (v 4).
• are known for their reasonableness; also interpreted as gentleness (v 5).
• acknowledge that the Lord is near at all times, so they go to Him when they feel anxious (v 6).
• pray, asking earnestly and humbly with thanksgiving (v 6).
• go to God first, so they know the peace of God, and it guards their hearts and minds (v 7).
• take note of what they are filling their mind with. Instead of focusing on things that are crooked, unfair, impure, hate-filled, reprehensible, inferior, and disgraceful, they focus on things that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy (vs 8-9).

How to Be More Kingdom Minded

Our incident with our neighbor made us reflect on our own Kingdom mindset and see what areas of our own lives were out of focus. 

When we started focusing on the temporary and seeing our property as our own, we would get defensive and territorial. We’d start to have negative thoughts of taking justice into our own hands, reporting him for things that bugged us, and spreading gossip about him to others.

But, instead, when we would focus on our property as a gift from God that we could steward for His glory, we were able to see the situation in a different light. We were able respond with gentleness, knowing that our neighbor was most likely hurting inside, because hurt people hurt people. We could be slow to speak and slow to anger knowing that God sees all, is just, and that no one gets away with anything in light of His Kingdom.

When we choose to fill our minds with pure, lovely, and commendable things, then there isn’t room for crooked, impure, and disgraceful thinking. As Philippians verse 9 reminds us, when we practice these “pure and lovely” things, the peace of God will be with us.

Developing a Kingdom Mindset

It is important that we, as followers of Christ, work to develop a Kingdom mindset. It’s the only way that God can use us to the fullest extent for His plan and purposes. If we remain too focused on this world, we become blind to opportunities that He puts in front of us and gifts that He wants us to use to carry out our mission of making disciples.

Here are 12 simple things you can do every day to develop a Kingdom mindset…

1. Try to see the world and people from God’s point of view.
2. Make God the focus when making decisions.
3. Pursue God’s honor and glory in all you say and do.
4. Remember that you are ministering to eternal souls, not just human beings.
5. Recognize that everything on earth is a gift or opportunity from God for us to use for His purposes.
6. Focus on good things, as God is good.
7. Prioritize a relationship with God and trust Him with everything.
8. Rejoice in the Lord always.
9. Always attempt to be reasonable and gentle.
10. Be grateful for all of God’s blessings.
11. Think about things of God and take other thoughts captive.
12. Let God be God, and don’t try to take the reigns from Him.

In which of your current situations could you shift your mindset from one that is temporal to one that is Kingdom- (and eternity-) minded? Comment below and let us know!

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