THE POWER OF INFLUENCE!!! PART 2

Matthew chapter 6













Today we are walking in: The Power Of Influence Part 2!!!!







Today we look to the word-KINGDOM- H4467 mamlâkâh, (mam-law-kaw') -dominion, (abstractly) the estate (rule) or (concretely) the country (realm):—kingdom, king's, reign, royal





The Torah testifies...............





Numbers 32:33




And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom H4467 of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom H4467 of Og king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about.







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






Jeremiah 18:9




And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom H4467, to build and to plant it;









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





1 Kings 9:5




Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom H4467 upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.




The Roman Empire had a specific way of ensuring the permanency and effectiveness of kingdom influence over its colonies. When the Romans conquered a region, they planted a group of about three hundred of their own citizens, as well as a larger number of those allied with the empire, and a number of settlers, within it to serve as a type of military outpost. These constituted a “colony of Romans citizens” (colonia civium Roma- norum) or a “little Rome.” A colony of Roman citizens was free from taxation and military duty. It had its own constitution based on the Roman constitution and was allowed to elect its own senate and other offices of state. The original inhabitants had to adhere to this new government and its constitution. These “little Romes'' brought the culture and values of the Roman empire throughout Europe and northern Africa. A striking picture of the power and influence of kingdoms over a territory and the lifestyle of its inhabitants can be seen in the various nations of the Caribbean and West Indies. You can always tell who controlled a colony by studying its culture. The Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados are former colonies of the United Kingdom. Cuba was a colony of Spain. Haiti was a colony of France. The cultures of all these islands are distinctly characteristic of the countries that claimed them.

You can still see the kingdoms’ influence in the daily lives of the peoples’ customs. If you visited the Bahamas, you’d see the influence of Great Britain in our narrow streets, our driving on the left-hand side of the road, and our habit of drinking tea. When I was a young boy attending school, my classmates and I grew up singing “Yah Save the Queen.” We were being taught to be a “little Britain.” Similarly, if you went to Cuba, you might think you were in Spain as you observed its architecture and food. Significantly for their cultures, each of these former colonies speaks the language of the kingdom that conquered it.

Most kingdoms in the colonial period had to fight for new territory because there was a limited amount of land in the world. Under European control, the Bahamas was initially claimed by the Spaniards. The French tried to conquer it, but the Spaniards held them off. Finally, the British won out over the Spanish. If the British Empire hadn’t won, I might be speaking Spanish today. So even though the Bahamas, Haiti, and Cuba are all part of a chain of islands, whoever controlled the domain controlled the language and culture of the people. If you really want to investigate the power of kingdoms, study the island of Hispaniola, home of both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Two kingdoms grabbed the same island, and there’s a line right down the middle of the island; one side speaks French, while the other side speaks Spanish.

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 accountable 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 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 relationship, 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 Yahusha of Nazareth began traveling and speaking around Palestine, the first thing he is recorded as saying is, “The time has come....The kingdom of Yah 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...




The Adamic Administration




The principle and purpose of delegated authority is accountability and responsibility.




The first government on earth came from a kingdom outside it. The world was governed in a way similar to the colonies we have been looking at. Yet the transcendent kingdom had significant differences:




√ The territory of earth was created by the home country rather than taken by force. It was not anyone else’s possession beforehand.




√ There were no inhabitants on earth at first, which was designed with them in mind; it was specifically prepared for those who would live here.




√ The original inhabitants were not of a different culture from the home country but were actually the offspring of the King himself.




The similarities are these:




√ The home country desired to expand the realm of its influence by bringing the nature, mind-set, and purposes of the kingdom to the colony of earth.




√ The King’s Governor was present in the colony to oversee the transformation process. He was to guide the King’s children—his local governors—who were to convert the colony into a replica of the kingdom.




Let’s take a closer look at the creation of this colony of earth.




The Original Government




The first book of Moses begins with these words: “In the beginning Yah [the Creator-King] created the heavens and the earth [the physical universe].” The Creator-King is described by first-century theologian Paul of Tarsus as “the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Most High of Most Highs, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.” The eternal King of an unseen kingdom conceptualized and made the entire physical universe. By creation rights, it is his property.




It would be impossible to grasp the vastness of the unseen kingdom that encompasses our universe—especially when we consider that the physical realm in which the earth exists is too immense for us to comprehend. Our universe is so enormous that we’re still trying to find out where it ends. Astronomers have discovered billions (some say up to 200 billion) of galaxies in the observable universe. It is estimated that each of these galaxies has tens or hundreds of billions of stars. Multiply billions of galaxies by billions of stars in each galaxy and you have a staggering number of stars in the universe. If these sheer numbers were not enough to astound us, consider the way they are held together. As NASA records,




Almost every object in space orbits around something. The planets orbit the Sun; our Moon and the moons of other planets orbit their planets; comets orbit the Sun....Even the Sun is orbiting around the center of our galaxy....




An orbit is the result of a precise balance between the forward motion of an object in space (such as a planet or moon) and the pull of gravity from the body it orbits. An object in motion will stay in motion unless something pushes or pulls on it. This is Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion. Without gravity, an Earth-orbiting satellite would go off into space along a straight line. With gravity, it is pulled back toward the Earth. There is a continuous tug-of-war between the one object’s tendency to move in a straight line and the tug of gravity pulling it back.




The universe exists in remarkable balance. This is why the Scripture says, in essence, that only a fool thinks, Nobody is keeping this universe in order. Clearly, an orderly government of vast ability and power maintains our universe.




Expanding the Invisible Kingdom




One of the New Testament writers said, “The universe was formed at Yah’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” The King of the invisible world decided to create a physical world. He did this for the purpose of expanding his heavenly domain as an extension of himself and his government. He created the physical universe so there would be additional territory to rule and to transform into the expression of his nature and desires. Returning to our definition of kingdom, we can say that the invisible kingdom is the governing influence of Yah over the territory of earth, impacting and influencing it with his will, his purpose, and his intent. Heaven is Yah’s kingdom or home country, and earth is his colony.




We see various types of governing influence in our everyday human experience, not just in a political context:




√ An artist extends the domain of his mind and heart by expressing himself in physical paintings or sculptures, which can have an impact on those who view them.




√ A writer expresses the vision of his inner world through the printed word, and these words can influence the thoughts and attitudes of those who read them.




√ A businessman transforms his entrepreneurial concepts into specific companies that reflect his personal philosophy and provide new products and services that change the way others live.




All these are examples of individuals enlarging their personal influence in the world.




What people create, express, or build is usually a reflection of their personalities and outlook. Therefore, as we look at the Creator-King’s desire to extend the influence of the invisible kingdom to earth, it is natural for us to want to know the nature of this King and his kingdom. What influence did he want to bring to earth?




The Nature of the King: A Perfect Government




The nature of the invisible kingdom becomes especially significant when we learn that the inhabitants of earth are to have this very nature themselves. The first book of Moses records these words of the Creator-King:




“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule [“have dominion”] over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So Yah created man in his own image, in the image of Yah he created him; male and female he created them.




Human beings were not made as machines or as beings with no direct relationship to the Creator. They were drawn out of his own person: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule...over all the earth.”



After creating the universe by his own divine prerogative, the Creator chose one planet amid all the planets of the universe as the practical and unique extension of his influence—earth. Then he extended rulership of earth to those made in his own image, his royal “children.”




The original Hebrew word for “image,” selem, “means ‘image’ in the sense of essential nature.” The Hebrew word for likeness is demuth, which “signifies the original after which a thing is patterned.” These words define and describe our design, capacity, potential, and value as human beings made to reflect the personhood of our Creator.




The nature of our Creator-King was recorded by Moses as “the compassionate and gracious Yah, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” The only way a kingdom can function perfectly is if it is ruled by a perfect king who will not betray his citizens through corruption or oppression. If he does, he is not a true king but a tyrant and dictator. Since a king is the source and owner of everyone and everything in his kingdom, the key to a true kingdom is benevolence. A perfect government does not exist for itself; it exists for its citizens.