A Kingdom Mindset
For the purpose of clarity throughout this article, I’m going to define the words in the title.
Kingdom - A realm or sphere in which one thing is dominant.
Mindset - A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations.
For the past four years my husband and I, along with a few others, have been discovering, exploring, and leaning into the reality that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Doing so we've been developing a Kingdom mindset. We’ve been fixing our mind on all the promises of God that are available to us now in every facet of our humanity and creation.
However, a few months ago, our son-in-law had to have major shoulder surgery. The day following his surgery, I prayed and declared a miraculous and immediate recovery for him. It didn’t happen. Shortly after this, I was thinking, that with all I’d been learning and growing in, how impotent I was in my prayer and declaration. It was in that moment that the Lord revealed two things. First, He gave me an understanding of where my mindset still was regarding His Kingdom. He pointed out that I was still groveling and straining, reaching and trying to attain the Kingdom. He was wanting to transform my mental attitude of “below.” So He gave me a visual. He showed me that I am, at present, in the Kingdom. I am seated with Christ “above.”
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1 emphasis added).
I was soaring! I had been given a fresh revelation that I truly live from a Realm - a heavenly Kingdom - that is dominant on earth, now. Because of the Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I are coming from a present, fixed, and seated position in Christ.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6 emphasis added).
Why did He do this? Why are we present there while still being in our bodies?
…that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7 emphasis added).
The realization of our “above” position is of utmost importance. We have been commanded, authorized (privileged), and empowered, to bring the Kingdom of heaven to earth. To reveal the exceeding riches of God’s grace that He made available to everyone, now. This is why we always need to be renewing our minds. (Romans 12:2) Without doing this, we fall prey to an already defeated enemy (I Peter 5:8), misrepresent God, and stymie the manifestation of His Kingdom.
It’s the renewed mind that realizes our present, fixed, and seated position in Christ. Our viewpoint of where we and the Kingdom operate from, “predetermines our responses to and interpretations of situations,” and what God has promised in His Word.
It’s never been a matter of trying to attain the Kingdom. It’s seeing where we are now and learning how to operate on earth from there. We, like Jesus and the disciples, are to establish and demonstrate the present Kingdom that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always purposed for humanity - regardless of the consequences sin brought. We must have a Kingdom mindset.
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:2,3 emphasis added).
© 2026 Tawna Wilkinson
Resources:
New King James Version
American Heritage Dictionary