CITIZENS ORIENTATION

Genesis Chapter 4










Today we are walking in: Citizens Orientation







Today we look to the word- CHANGE- H2015- haphak- a primitive root; to turn about or over; by implication, to change, overturn, return, pervert:—become, change, come, be converted, give, make (a bed), overthrow overturn), perverse, retire, tumble, turn (again, aside, back, to the contrary, every way).












The Torah Testifies…………….






Genesis 35:2




Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that werewith him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change H2015 your garments:








The Prophets Proclaim………






Malachi 3:6




For I am the LORD, I change H2015 not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.










The Writings witness……………





Psalm 102:26




They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change H2015 them, and they shall be changed:







The Need For Citizens’ Orientation




Having just presented the idea that the Bible is the constitution of the Kingdom of The Most High, I want to quote a few statements from that constitution, for the sake of your orientation and alignment with the Kingdom way of doing things. These statements will start to move you into a thought process. The more you read the constitution of the Kingdom with a “Kingdom filter” on your mind, the more the light of understanding will dawn for you. (In the style of legal documents, I will use “sections” and “articles” in place of chapter and verse:)




Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of The Most High. (Section Ephesians, subsection 2, article 19)




For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Most High, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of The Most High; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. (Section Colossians, subsection one, articles 9 through 12)




For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Yahushua Hamashiach… (Section Philippians, subsection 3, article 20)




These words in the constitution of the Kingdom were written to citizens of the Kingdom in the present tense. They explain some of the current and ongoing rights, privileges, and duties that come with Kingdom citizenship. These rights, privileges, and duties belong to every citizen, including you, even if you are a very new citizen. You cannot earn them or improve on them. You can, however, remain ignorant of them and ignore them. That is why it is so important to talk about the Kingdom and to keep reading its constitution in depth in order to understand it.




Many sections of the Kingdom constitution were written by a citizen named Paul. Paul spent most of his adult life preaching, teaching and writing letters to citizens of the Kingdom, helping them adjust to the Kingdom lifestyle. Sometimes he had to correct misunderstandings about theological ideas. Yet he was never inventing anything new or establishing a new gospel. He was always addressing Kingdom issues.




This is because the citizens were always having adjustment problems. They had social problems, cultural problems, relationship problems, money problems--every category of problem you can think of. Paul explained to them, “Look, to live in this Kingdom there are some things you need to do, and some other things you need to stop doing, and here they are.”




You and I have adjustment problems as well. I am glad Paul wrote as much as he did, because today we can use all the help we can get. We need to understand more about our citizenship in the Kingdom.




Mental Transformation

Most of our problems start in our heads. Therefore, we need a mental transformation if we want to become full citizens of the Kingdom. We need to figure out our misconceptions and how to get rid of them, especially those religious concepts that we have been hearing all our lives. You and I want to be citizens of the Kingdom, free from labels and assumptions. I do not want to be Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Catholic, Seventh-Day Adventist, Church of God, Assemblies of God, Charismatic, or Pentecostal anymore. I do not want to think of myself as a businessman, a pastor, an advisor, or any other kind of career person. I want misconceptions to be fully and continually cleaned out of me so I can start over. I want to start fresh as a citizen of the Kingdom of The Most High, and I want you to be able to start fresh, too, looking for the next assignment He will give you.




Turn your thoughts over to the Creator who made you. Let Him reorient your thinking. Turn over all of your possessions to Him. He is your King, and He owns it all anyway. Let Him show you how to redistribute everything you thought you owned.




Correct Concepts

Anybody who has studied communications knows what I mean when I say “noise.” A sender sends a message to an intended receiver, and noise is what happens during the transmission, in between when the message leaves the sender and gets received by the recipient. The noise can be very complicated to understand because it includes your culture, your educational level, your social upbringing, your religious history, your values, your moral status, and your present situation in life.




For something that is called “noise,” a lot of it is very hidden and silent. The most important part of the noise is what I call concepts. A concept is an idea, a thought that has been conceived as a mental picture. Thoughts are very powerful, even the ones that are never expressed in words. ( A word is an exposed thought, but most thoughts never get expressed.)




We think first, then we speak or write. We try to express our thoughts and we want others to understand them--but their own thoughts often alter their comprehension, resulting in misunderstandings or misconceptions.




Nothing is as dangerous as a misconception. Marriages can break up because of them. A husband and wife may actually love one another, but misconceptions arise and they enter into conflict. Governments and churches break up because of misconceptions, too. If you build your whole life on a certain idea and it becomes theory and then philosophy and then doctrine and then a belief system and finally a way of life and a mentality, you will not know that you have basically built your life on a lie. To you, it is not a lie; it’s the truth, and you will strongly defend even your misconception.




When it comes to truth about you and The Most High, most likely much of what you believe has been contaminated. People interpret words about The Most High through their pre-existing concepts. This includes the words in the Bible. Your seminary degree could be contaminated with ignorance of the true concepts about The Most High. You and your pastor and your church friends could all have pieces of the truth, but none of you has asked the original Sender to clear your mind of contaminated concepts so you can get the message right.




The King anticipated this problem. This is why He provided an expert Counselor for us, the Ruach Hakodesh, who can personally help you capture the correct concepts that come to you from the mind of The Most High. “He will guide you into all truth,” said Yahusha’s disciple John (John 16:13).




Correct concepts about The Most High include truth about the Kingdom of The Most High. When you rediscover the truth about your Kingdom citizenship, you rediscover something that has been lost over the years. The average person living in the Western world has no real understanding of the words that Yahusha used. So we superimpose on His words our concepts, which come from our culture and our environment. We build our lives on our own conclusions and we create a belief system called religion.




Instead of reading out of the Bible, we read into the Bible. And we miss the Kingdom because of the noise in our heads.




Humble And Teachable

Yahusha had the perfect remedy for noise. He took and put a child in front of his disciples and He said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3, NIV). Entering the Kingdom requires that you exchange your theology, your doctrine, your old religion, and your independent self-sufficiency for something new. Unless you change, you cannot enter.




Children are like blank pages. They know nothing. To become like a child means you need to stop being an adult. Adults think they know a lot. Adults need to unlearn everything and start over. Unless you change, you will never enter the Kingdom.




When a rich young man asked Yahusha how he could be sure he would go to the Kingdom of Heaven, Yahusha answered, “Obey the laws of the country of Heaven” (see Matthew 19:16-30). But the young man was rich in material possessions. He had obeyed the letter of the law, but he was not humble in his heart. So Yahusha commented, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:23, NIV). The young man was so used to making his own living that he was going to find it difficult to stop taking care of himself and let the King do it. He had been schooled in self-sufficiency, and it was tough for him to believe that The Most High could supply his needs. His good life was getting in the way of Kingdom life.




In a way, we are like that rich young ruler. Our theology and our concepts occupy our minds and hearts. We say we want to enter the Kingdom, but we procrastinate. Not only do we need to listen to Yahusha when He says we should become like children, we need to remember the first words of his public ministry, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). The kingdom has arrived. It is here already. If you do not change your thinking in time, you will miss it.