The Colony of Heaven Upon The Earth!!!!

Ezra 7



We are walking in today:  The Colony of Heaven Upon The Earth!!!!



Witness change throughout the Bible:  H2498  chalaph -- to change, substitute, alter, change for better, renew

Genesis 35:2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change H2498 your garments:

The Torah Testifies......................
 Genesis 41:14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed H2498 his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.


The prophets proclaim..................
 2 Samuel 12:20 Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed H2498 his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.

The writings bear witness.......................
****

Isaiah 24:5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed H2498 the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.



The Most Important Person in the Colony

The transformation of a colony into the culture of the kingdom didn’t happen automatically. A purposeful development was involved. The king didn’t usually directly extend his influence to his colony by physically going there. He administrated his will through his personal representative, called a governor or regent. He sent his representative to physically live in the colony in his place. Therefore,the royal governor was the presence of the absent king in the colony.With the governor in the colony, you didn’t need the physical presence of the king to experience and be changed by the king’s influence. I mentioned that the British monarchs who influenced the English-speaking Caribbean nations didn’t frequently visit their colonies. Yet, in the Bahamas, we all learned to speak English, drink tea, wave the Union Jack, and sing the songs of Britain. We became part of the United Kingdom. And the royal governors were the direct instrument of that transformation.The governor was therefore the most important person in the colony. We get a greater appreciation for why this was true when we look at his purpose.


The Governor’s Purpose

The governor’s purpose was sixfold:

1. Relationship: The governor was the guarantee that the kingdom could always have access to the colony. The inter-relationship between king and colony was totally dependent on him.
2. Communication: Anything the king wanted the colony to know or to receive, he would send through his governor, his avenue of communication.
3. Representation: The governor was the chief representative of the king and his kingdom in the colony. He also represented the colony to the king.
4. Interpretation: The governor understood intimately the king’s desires, ideas, intent, purposes, will, and plans; therefore, he was the only one who could effectively interpret these things for the colony.
5. Power: The governor was the only one empowered with the authority and ability to execute the king’s desires and commands for the colony.
6. Partnership: The governor was effectively the king’s partner in rulership.

The Governor’s Qualifications and Roles

The qualifications and roles of a governor were significant in terms of kingdom and colony:
1. The governor was appointed by the king.Unlike the governors of representational governments, the royal governor was not voted in; he was appointed by the king.
2.The governor came only from the kingdom, never the colony.Governors were never chosen from the indigenous peoples of the colonies. They were always appointed from the home countries. Why? A governor had to be steeped in the original culture of the kingdom. He had to be a person who knew the kingdom and understood the heart, mind, desires, will, and intent of the king in carrying out the kingdom’s purposes in the territory.
3. The governor represented only the king.Again, the difference between the governors of colonies and the governors many of us are familiar with in representative governments is like night and day. Every state in the United States has a governor who is voted in by the people and can also be voted out by them. He or she is ultimately account-able to the people of the state, not to the federal government or its leaders. In contrast, the royal governor was responsible and accountable to the king alone in his allegiance, attitude, actions, and responsibility.
4. The governor only expressed the mind and will of the king.The governor was not there to promote his own personal policies or agendas. He was to take the vision and will of the king and communicate that to the people, translating it into policy and law.
5. The governor was responsible for converting the colony into the kingdom. Once more, it was the governor’s job to oversee and carry out the transformation of the colonies according to the character of the kingdom. The governor was “planted” in the colony to sow the seeds of the home country into the culture of the new territory. Colonization was for the purpose of conversion—to exchange the culture of the territory for the culture of the kingdom. Whatever was happening in the kingdom was supposed to happen in the colony, as well.
6. In converting the colony, the governor transferred the kingdom’s culture, values, nature, language, and lifestyle to the people.The governor made sure that every subject of the kingdom took on the kingdom culture in language, attitude, dress, food, and so forth. The colonists were even to take on the history of the kingdom as if it were their own, which in fact it now was, because they had become a part of the chronicles of the nation. The subjects were to take on the mind-set and lifestyle of the kingdom until, if you visited the territory, you would think you were in the home country itself.
7. The governor prepared the subjects for citizenship.When a king took over a colony, the people essentially became his possessions. The inhabitants of the colony did not automatically become citizens; they were called subjects. For example, when the Bahamas was a colony, the people were not citizens of Great Britain. We couldn’t vote, and we didn’t have other rights of British citizens.In a kingdom, citizenship was a privilege. Who became a citizen was the king’s prerogative, and he personally granted it. The reason citizenship wasn’t automatic is that, once a person was appointed a citizen, he had special benefits and protections in the kingdom.

In the Roman Empire, citizenship was a high honor and privilege involving many rights. In the first century, Paul of Tarsus was arrested in Jerusalem by the Roman commander for allegedly disturbing the peace. He was about to be whipped when he declared to a nearby centurion that he was a Roman citizen. Immediately, the soldiers’ attitude toward him changed. The following exchange dramatically reveals the power of kingdom citizenship in the Roman Empire, especially if you were born a citizen:

As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?” When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.” The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes I am,” he answered. Then the commander said, “I had to pay a big price for my citizenship.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied. Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains. Once you are a citizen, your privileges, rights, and demands upon the throne change. The king is responsible for taking care of you. Therefore, the governor’s role of preparing Citizens have special benefits and protections in a kingdom subjects for citizenship was a tremendous responsibility. If the governor believed a subject was ready to be a citizen or especially deserved citizenship, he recommended the subject to the king. Since the governor lived in the colony and knew the subjects firsthand, the king accepted the suggestions of the governor in this regard.

8. The governor lived in a residence built by the government of the home country.A kingdom would build a residence in its colonies specifically for its royal governors to live in. This emphasized that the governor, the chief representative of the kingdom in the colony, was not just a visitor; he lived there, he was there to stay, and this was his legal residence. The British built a governor’s mansion in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, specifically for the royal governor to live in, which today is called the Government House. Great Britain similarly built governors’ houses in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and in every colony where it ruled.
9. The governor’s presence in the colony was evidence that the kingdom itself was in the colony.As long as the governor lived in the colony, the kingdom itself was present. The first time the Bahamas was declared a British colony was when a royal governor drove out the remaining Spanish garrisons, solidifying its ownership by the kingdom of Great Britain.
10. The governor left if the colony declared independence.Either by force or recall, the royal governor would leave a colony if it declared independence and the kingdom was no longer officially governing. In the American Revolution, the royal governors of the colonies were forced to withdraw from their posts. When the Bahamas received independence, it was through negotiation with Great Britain, and the governor was recalled because he no longer had a legal right to be there.

The Value of the Governor

In kingdom terms, then, the governor was the most powerful and important person in the colony. Because he introduced the kingdom’s culture, language, and lifestyle—every unique aspect of the kingdom—to the colony, he had great value for the kingdom and its larger purposes. To summarize, the governor was valuable:

1. As the presence of the government. Without him, the kingdom would not exist in the colony.
2. For representing the government. If he wasn’t there, the king would not be adequately or effectively represented.
3. For the enablement of the colony. He was the one with the authority and ability to supply power and resources to the colony.
4. For protection. As long as the kingdom was represented in a colony by the governor, the king was obligated to protect the territory from outside threats and danger.
5. For his ability to know and communicate the mind of the king. The governor represented the king’s interests and will to the colony and made sure they were carried out.
6. For enabling the colony’s citizens and subjects to fulfill the will of the kingdom. The colony received its instructions only through the governor and therefore was dependent on him for its effectiveness. The citizens and subjects would not be able to carry out their kingdom mandate without the governor’s guidance and empowerment.

The Influence of Another Kingdom

These were the main features of a kingdom-colony relation-ship, including the pivotal role of the governor in the process of transforming colonies into the home country. This brings us back to the kingdom I mentioned earlier in this chapter, which transcends our human governments and speaks to the basis of our very nature and existence as human beings. This kingdom has properties that are similar to, but go beyond, those of the traditional earthly kingdoms we’ve been looking at.Two millennia ago, a startling young teacher described this transcendent kingdom. When Jesus of Nazareth began traveling and speaking around Palestine, the first thing he is recorded as saying is, “The time has come....The kingdom of God is near.”This statement intrigues me and brings up several questions for us to explore in terms of kingdom:

√ What “time” was he speaking about? And why then?
√ What was the nature of the kingdom he was referring to?He was announcing the imminent return of a kingdom and its influence on earth. Notice that he didn’t proclaim the entrance of a new religion, nor did he announce the beginnings of a democratic form of government.

We have to ask:

√ Why would he use this particular governmental reference at the beginning of his public life?
√ What did it signify about his message and purpose?
√ If the influence of a kingdom was entering the world, what new culture would emerge for the citizens of earth?

To understand the context of these thought-provoking statements and their implications, we need to go back to the first book of Moses, the book of Genesis, to the origins of this kingdom. For this wasn’t the first time the transcendent kingdom had entered the world and impacted its inhabitants...

Shema selah  which kingdom have you been rendered a subject to?? The kingdom of Heaven of the kingdom of darkness??