Rights And Benefits Of Citizenship!!!!

Ephesians 2

We are walking in today:  Rights And Benefits Of Citizenship!!!!

Witness companion throughout the Bible--H7453 rea'--friend, companion, fellow, another person; friend, intimate; fellow, fellow-citizen

1 Ch 27:33 And Ahithophel was the king's counsellor: and Hushai the Archite was the king's companion: H7453

The Torah Testifies.............................
Exo 32:27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, H7453 and every man his neighbour.

The prophets proclaim...............
*****

The writings bear witness.............
Job 35:4 I will answer thee, and thy companions H7453 with thee.

Psa 122:8 For my brethren and companions' H7453 sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.


Chapter 3--What Is Citizenship?

This is a great question, for those that visited several countries, and really give their passport a workout. Sometimes, even though they have all the right documentation, they can run into difficulties with the customs officials. I suppose they are just doing their jobs, but, maybe sometimes they overdo their jobs. The interrogations can seem endless. When that happens, you may feel like telling the interrogator, “Look, I come from the United States, and you are making me want to not travel to other countries, and just go back home.

Dr. Munroe, who is from the Bahamas, says it is a wonderful place. The average Bahamian citizen has everything. We have everything.” He says, “it is cool, man--no harassment. Times like this make me appreciate the benefits of my citizenship.”

“Back in the Bahamas, we have people from other Caribbean nations such as Haiti clamoring for citizenship. These people want to join themselves with our government or the government of nations like the United States; they are looking for some nearby jurisdiction that is better off than their own. Although Haiti is the oldest black republic in the world and the second oldest republic in the Western hemisphere after the United States, it still struggles economically. Ordinary citizens face a multitude of problems. These are good people, but their governmental system seems to be defective. As is the case in other countries with problems, you will find a very small group of people who are rich and a vast majority who are very poor. For the average Haitian citizen, the benefits of citizenship are limited indeed. They are willing to uproot their families and start over. By some estimates, as many as 40,000 Haitians are now living in the Bahamas, and a very large proportion of that number may be illegal immigrants. They know that legal citizenship status can be hard to get and that people must want it badly enough to work for it. They know that Bahamian citizenship would provide them with opportunities they cannot have any other way.”

By definition, a “citizen” is someone who owes allegiance to a government and who is therefore entitled to receive protection from mistreatment and also to enjoy special rights and privileges that come with citizenship. A citizen is automatically connected with the seat of power of his government. That is why people want to become citizens of successful and wealthy nations; once you are a citizen you can expect your life to improve. Why else would you want to go to all that trouble?


Rights And Benefits Of Citizenship
Citizenship is the most valuable asset of a nation. Because of its power, it is not easily given or obtained and the current citizens of a nation do not readily want to share citizenship with outsiders. We are seeing this play out in many Western European countries at the present time because of the continuing influx of immigrants from Muslim countries. Such a large population shift has the potential to transform the entire religious, social and cultural complexion of Europe. Weekly, we hear of extremist riots and legal power struggles. The Muslim immigrants would not be moving into those countries if they did not offer the prospect of a higher standard of living.

From the United States, we hear reports of Mexican immigration challenges. In spite of checkpoints and an actual fence on the U.S.-Mexican border, illegal immigrants pour into the southwestern states and move northward. Some legislators want to place all illegal aliens on a fast track to American citizenship. Others want to detain and deport them.

Citizenship is such a valuable status that people are willing to do wicked things to obtain it. They falsify documents or marry people they do not even know simply to get the advantages of citizenship. All immigrants, legal or otherwise, are seeking the privileges and benefits of the host country. They want jobs, higher pay, better healthcare, greater educational opportunities, and an overall better quality of life than they can obtain as citizens of their home countries. The best way to obtain improved benefits and rights is to become full citizens of a successful and well-to-do nation.

A citizen is part of an elite, privileged group, and people who were born into their citizenship do not appreciate their status as much as they could. Citizenship is easy to come by if you are born into it, but if you must seek naturalized citizenship you soon find out that it can be a challenging process. Citizenship status is too precious for governments to hand out randomly like flyers on your windshield.

You need to know that the benefits of citizenship in a country with a kingdom system of government can far outweigh the benefits of citizenship in even wealthy nations that have non-kingdom forms of government. This is because, ideally, the king’s wealth will be distributed broadly to his citizens, whereas in a democratic country where capitalism prevails, not everyone can capitalize on the resources to the same degree. (In fact, poverty is necessary for capitalism to work, because you need “have-nots” to sell products and services to.)

The Commonwealth Principle
The word “commonwealth” exists only in kingdoms. When the Bahamas was part of the Commonwealth of Great Britain, the British built the roads and provided them with clean water. They brought them electricity and other upgraded services. They had their warships anchored in Nassau harbor so they could protect the Bahamians!


When the Bahamas, decided to declare their independence, all of those types of assistance ceased. Independence means you have to manage your own affairs, pay your own bills, provide your own clean water, and maintain your own highway system. (Thus, the roads today are famous for being bumpy. They are no longer a part of the commonwealth that pays for improvements.)

Because of the commonwealth principle, the citizenry in a kingdom begins to reflect their king’s qualities, including his wealth. In extreme examples, you see something like the Palace of Versailles, which is so big that it would take three days to walk through all the rooms, with gold everywhere. It is the largest king’s palace in the world. And that’s just the house. King Louis XIV also had stables for his horses that were so extensive they would cover half of the Bahamas. Even today, those stables look better than the house many live in!

Three thousand people lived in the Palace of Versailles at any given time. They wanted to live there, of course, because everything was provided for them. The servant’s quarters had marble floors. Free housing. Free food. Free clothes. Free everything. And when the king moved to his winter house, because the palace at Versailles was just his summer house-everything went with him, all three thousand people, six thousand horses, all of the gold--the whole government had to move.

A citizen of a kingdom who is in good standing with a king has more than enough of everything. The king has more than enough of everything. The king sets the standards and he makes it possible for his citizens to achieve them. Remember our definition of a kingdom: A kingdom is the governing influence of a king over a territory, impacting that territory with his will, his purpose, and his intent, producing a culture and a moral standard for his citizens. Notice, these benefits belong only to his citizens. Citizenship matters greatly. An individual’s welfare depends on it.

The Power Of Citizenship
Citizenship empowers an individual; citizenship provides legitimate access to all the rights and privileges of a constitution and a country. Becoming a citizen, especially a citizen of a kingdom such as the Kingdom of The Most High, means that you become powerful. Your citizenship is the source of your personal authority where those rights are concerned. You have power to demand things. By the power of your citizenship, you can call in constitutional privileges and promises. The constitution is more powerful than the citizens, just as the law is more powerful than the lawyer or the judge that exercises it and certainly more powerful than the politicians who talk about it. Good citizens have access to the full protection and advantage of the law.

Remember what we learned in chapter 2 about citizenship vs. membership: countries do not have members. You cannot be a member of the United States of America! You cannot be a member of Jamaica. You can certainly be a member of a religious group or an organization, but you would never say that you are a member of a country because membership does not entitle you to the full range of rights. Citizens have rights, and they do not have to pay membership dues to keep them. Citizenship is permanent, if you want it to be. Whether or not people around you like you, you cannot be deprived of your constitutional rights by a consensus or somebody’s whim. Once you are a citizen, you are no longer a mere member; you are a legal creature, which means the law protects you. You could even say that citizenship is dangerous. Law means you remove emotions and relationships out of the equation. It doesn’t matter who you like or do not like, or who likes you. You are a citizen, regardless.

You can learn the language of a country and still not have citizenship. You can obtain a working visa and earn money in a country and remain an alien. You can live for decades in a place and never become a citizen. Only by going all the way through the citizenship initiation process can you become a citizen. For your part as a citizen, you need to submit to the rules and regulations of your government. For the government’s part, it agrees to take you in and give you powerful entitlements. You can only become a citizen when the government chooses to make an agreement with you.

Behind citizenship lies a covenant, a legal contract or solemn agreement--between the government and each individual citizen. Citizens, in other words, have a contract with their government.

That citizenship covenant gives you so much power that you can even attack the government. Governments know this, which is one of the reasons they do not give citizenship to everybody who walks by the immigration office! Citizenship is the most powerful gift, to use the term broadly, that a government can give an individual. The constitution of the government guarantees certain valuable rights to its citizens, and each and every citizen has access to the same rights.

Citizens must maintain their access to those rights by complying with a common set of laws. When you move to another country, you do not bring your own laws with you. You must submit to that country’s laws day in and day out if you expect to carry out your part of the bargain. All covenants or contracts have two parties, and the contract of citizenship is no exception. The citizen’s part of the agreement is to comply with the law of the land.

Those rights are guaranteed to you. You do not have to beg for them. You do not have to bribe anybody to manipulate favor. Once you become a citizen of a country, you are responsible to the government to follow the laws. The government is responsible for protecting your rights, but you always remain accountable for your behavior. If you transgress, you may find yourself deprived of some of your rights for a while. When people go to prison, their citizenship does not get revoked, but some of the rights and privileges do- because they did not hold up their side of the contract as law-abiding citizens.

In a very real way, citizenship is power-sharing. A citizen shares the power of the government. Essentially, a citizen becomes one with the government. (A negative example of this power would be when an elected government suddenly extends citizenship to a group of people who will then vote them back into power.)

No greater honor can be bestowed on an individual than the honor or making him or her a citizen. A government could give you a piece of property, and it would not be as secure as citizenship because they could take it back and expel you. They could give you a visa to live in the country for six months, but at the end of that time, you would have to leave. They could give you a five-year working permit and yet you would not be able to exercise the rights of citizenship--and anytime during that five years, they could change their minds, write a new law, and tell you to go home immediately.

Citizenship is a privilege, after all. You can’t just have it for the asking. Citizenship is not a right, but it is a privilege that gives you rights. You cannot demand it and you can't hurry it up. I have spoken with people who have lived in the Bahamas for years and who have applied for citizenship, but they are still waiting. National policy varies from place to place, but the only quick way to become a citizen is to be born into it, either to be born within the borders of the particular country, or to be born elsewhere to parents who are legal citizens. Some people think it is just a piece of paper that has been stamped by the immigration office. It is a lot more than that. It is a piece of the country.

Citizenship is the benefit of a nation on an individual. They take the whole country and they put it on top of you. You walk in with nothing and you leave with everything on you.

Here is my best definition of citizenship:
Citizenship is the constitutional rights and privileges bestowed upon an individual, guaranteeing legal status to the individual, which is protected by the laws of the country.

Citizen And Passport-Holder
Once you are a citizen, you can obtain a passport that says so, and people will have to respect your citizenship everywhere you go because you have the whole power of your government behind you. As a matter of fact, your passport belongs to the government, not to you personally. It’s a crime to deface it and you have to surrender it if the government tells you to do so. When an official asks to see your passport, that is the single confirmation of your citizenship that he wants to see. He does not want your birth certificate or your driver’s license. Your passport tells him that you are a citizen. In most cases, he will ask you a few questions about what you intend to do in their country, and then they will stamp it and wave you through. That passport means that they have to treat you right.

On my passport, I can read something like this: “Allow the bearer of this document to pass freely without, let or hindrance and afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.” When I return back to the country of my citizenship, my passport will let me back in without any problem, either.

My citizenship goes with me wherever I go. I do not have to go to my country or stay in my country to be a citizen.

Entering Into Citizenship
You and I were born into citizenship, and that is the citizenship we had to start with whether we wanted it or not. We were born into both sonship or daughterhood and legal citizenship at the same time. Obviously, physical birth is the primary way to become a citizen of a country. You may not be able to drive a car or vote in an election until you reach a certain age, but you will be considered a citizen from day one of your life.

Soon after you learn how to talk, you learn your family name and the name of your country. Soon you will be able to complete the sentence, “I am a citizen of the Most High's Heavenly Kingdom.” You may not know what that means yet, but you are living it.

You do not have to practice to be a citizen. I never had to practice to be a Bahamian,” says Dr. Munroe. “I don’t have to think, today, I’m going to be a Bahamian. I’m going to think hard about it all day. You also do not have to practice certain rituals as part of your citizenship. No, I became a full Bahamian citizen by virtue of my birth in Bain Town, a humble little place near Freeport on the western end of the island of Grand Bahama. It is my identity, and it is permanent unless I decide to go through a lot of trouble to change it.”

Much of what it means to be a citizen will be a natural part of your life. But sometimes you can appreciate and appropriate more of the benefits of your citizenship by thinking about what it means to enter into it. Here are a few ways you can enter more fully into the already-full citizenship you possess:

Experience it right now. You do not have to wait until you are older and you do not have to visit the capital city. If you are a citizen living in a colony, you do not have to wait until you can travel to that country that colonized your region. You can experience your citizenship right where you are.

Explore your citizenship. Just becoming a citizen does not mean you know everything about your country or its freedoms and restrictions. If you are a citizen of the United States, you have fifty states and the District of Columbia to explore. You have over 300 million people to meet, different languages to learn, different foods to taste. You could spend the rest of your life exploring your country.

Apply your rights. Lay hold of the benefits and ask for your protections. Enjoy what belongs to you. Being a citizen who does not know his or her rights is like being a non-citizen.

Live in the culture where you are a citizen. Embrace more of it. Live a lifestyle that is suitable for a citizen of your country.

Submit to the constitutional laws and codes of conduct of your nation. Not only will you stay out of trouble, you will reinforce your claim on the rights and benefits that are yours by virtue of your citizenship status.

As part of entering more completely into your precious citizenship, you may decide to take a look at a copy of the constitution of your country, in spite of the fact that its legal terminology may be difficult to comprehend. Most people never do this. Many people do not even think about the fact that their citizenship is controlled by a document called a constitution.

Now it’s true that people can interpret the same constitution in different ways, but that does not make it powerless. It is also true that the constitution of your country was written by legislators who are more than likely very elderly if not already dead, so nobody can consult them and get the final word about what they intended when they chose the wording. Nevertheless, it is the only constitution you have, unless you claim dual citizenship.

Keep the word “constitution” in mind as you continue in this series, because I want to make another important point about it later. This is about the most special kind of citizenship you can possess and the attributes of your national citizenship can help you understand your Kingdom citizenship.

Shema Selah learn and walk fully in your citizen status of and from Heaven while on this earthly colony!! https://youtu.be/bzCNhL5NCkU