UNDERSTANDING IMMIGRATION AND MIGRATION PART 2

Genesis chapter 4













Today we are walking in: Understanding Immigration And Migration Part 2










Today we look to the word SCEPTRE-H7626-shebet- from an unused root probably meaning to branch off; a scion, i.e. (literally) a stick (for punishing, writing, fighting, ruling, walking, etc.) or (figuratively) a clan: correction, dart, rod, sceptre, staff, tribe.






The Torah Testifies………………………….



Genesis 49:10


The sceptre H7626 shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.




Numbers 24:17


I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre H7626 shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.







The Prophets Proclaim…………………………



Ezekiel 19:4


And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre H7626 to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.



Amos 1:5


I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre H7626 from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.






The Writings witness……………………………..



Esther 8:4


Then the king held out the golden sceptre H7626 toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the king,



Psalm 45:6


Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre H7626 of thy kingdom is a right sceptre H7626.








This King Wants You

The King does not sit idly while illegal immigrants erode the integrity for His realm. In fact, He does not hesitate to display the power of His Kingdom when necessary.



The apostle Paul, whose name used to be Saul, was an “illegal immigrant” at first, someone who was zealous in the extreme for his religion but who did not understand that he was fighting against the Kingdom of the Most High. Having been a student of the Rabbi Gamaliel, who was considered one of the top pharisaical scholars of the day, Saul was well-educated and motivated to make his fellow Jews follow every last one of the Hebrew laws. As a native of Tarsus, which was not a Jewish city, he seems to have been more determined than others to be the best Jew possible, and he was also a Roman citizen.


Saul could quote Greek and Roman and poets. He had been exposed to a broader culture than many other Pharisees, but he was very narrow-minded when it came to the followers of “the Way,” the name the early believers were known by. In fact, he hated the Way with a passion. He felt it was distorting and perverting Judaism, and he was determined to defend his faith from what he considered a dangerous sect.

Using his influence in high circles, he obtained permission to hunt down followers of the Way. He wants to destroy them before they become too influential. He knew he needed to hurry. The original band of eleven men had grown to a hundred and twenty people in the upper room that claimed to have had an encounter with this so-called Mashiach Yahusha after He rose from the dead. Then it had grown to five thousand and it was spreading faster than anybody had expected. The “cult” was infiltrating the synagogues and people talked about miracles. Somebody had to stop them, and Saul wanted to be part of that effort.


He joined forces with others who were persecuting the Way and they killed some of Yahusha’s followers. They drove other followers out of Jerusalem and nearby cities and scattered them across the Roman Empire. To hunt them down, Saul went to the high priest, “breathing out murderous threats against the Most High’s diciples” (Acts 9:1), in order to get a letter of permission to travel to the great trade city of Damascus northeast of Jerusalem.


He and his companions made it into the city, but not as they had expected to. Before they arrived, this is what happened to Saul:
Acts 9:3-9 King James Version (KJV) 3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: 4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Yahusha whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. 7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. 8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.


While he was there, the Most High spoke to one of the disciples who lived in the city, an ordinary man named Ananias. He told him to go to a certain street and to ask for

Saul of Tarsus, who would be expecting him. Ananias was fully aware of how dangerous Saul was, but he obeyed:
Acts 9:17-18 King James Version (KJV) 17 And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Yahusha, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. 18 And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.


Saul’s baptism signaled his switch to the Kingdom of the Most High. His miraculous conversion changed him from being a legalistic, angry, defensive Pharisee into a tireless evangelist for the Way. He had an assignment to fulfill for the King. He was humble and contrite about his past. Soon he became to be known by a different name, Paul, which means “small” or “little.”


He never looked back toward his former status as a leader of the Jews. He had become as much a full citizen of the Kingdom as those who had walked with the Yahusha in person before His crucifixion.


The Power of Kingdom Knowledge



One of the psalms says, “A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you” (Ps 91:7). That means everybody around you can get laid off in a recession, but it does not have to touch you. You can go to bed at night without anxiety. The company you work for can decide to downsize, or “rightsize” the company or go into bankruptcy and you can still sleep at night with confidence that your King is looking after you.



When you place yourself under the government of the Kingdom and understand what that means, you will be living under a power that cannot be shaken by the strongest winds. You will be protected and aided in everything you do.



Kingdom Authority



Yahashua promised that when a person becomes a citizen of Heaven and therefore a member of His household, that he would give that person authority: “Behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). That authority is not meant for overcoming only snakes and scorpions--it covers “all the powers of the enemy.” Because of that authority, nothing will destroy a person who has it. What a deal!



That means that we can have authority to tread on every demonic power, every social resistance, every economic avalanche, every disease, every torment. We can become immune to anything that tries to harm us.



Kingdom authority refers to your personal rights to exercise your power through alignment with constitutional law. I consider it a very important Kingdom secret. You can’t have this kind of authority unless you are a citizen, and unless you exercise it as a citizen. You can’t fake it. The sons of a man named Sceva tried to do that once, and it did not turn out very well:



Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Yahusha over those who had evil spirits, saying “We exorcise you by the Yahusha whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.



And the evil spirit answered and said, “Yahusha I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”



Then the man in whom the evil spirit was in, leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (Acts 19:13-16)



How many times do we step out in what we think of as The Most High’s authority only to find out that it was not? We get mixed up. We confuse power and authority, because we see power and influence all the time, but we see true authority in action less often. A drug kingpin is a powerful person who controls a sizable network of other people and assets. But in truth, all he has is a lot of influence. “The authorities”- the police and higher authorities- have legal authority over his activities, and they can win out over him.



When the police move in on criminal activity, they wear or carry some symbol of their authority such as a uniform or a badge. Even to enforce simple traffic laws, the presence of their authority is indicated by such symbols. If you tried to stop traffic on Miami Highway, you could stand there in your street clothes and hold up your hand, but I do not think the 18-wheelers would stop for you. It sounds like a recipe for self-destruction to me. However, if you went out there dressed as a traffic officer it would be different for you. Your authority to stop traffic would be obvious.



Kingdoms have symbols of authority, such as the crown. The most important symbol of authority is the scepter. Queen Esther knew about that one. She may have been the queen of the land, but she had to follow protocol to the letter if she wanted to save the minority group her family was part of. Unless her husband, the king, extended his golden scepter to her when she entered his throne room, she would be killed for approaching so boldly without permission.



She risked it, and her people were saved. (The entire Old Testament book of Esther tells the story.) We can risk it, too, because we can come before our King as if we have put on the righteous garments of His Son Yahusha, who comes with us. The death order gets cancelled, and we can make our request. The King’s authority goes out with us to accomplish the thing we have requested.



It is all in Whom you know and what you know about His Kingdom! I can assure you--the more you know about the Kingdom of Heaven and the more you step out on that knowledge, the better your life will be.



Your Own Immigration


Although you and I will probably not experience such a dramatic conversion, we are no less called to an assignment in the Kingdom. We are called to become Kingdom immigrants.


It is my prayer that every leader who hears this teaching would be able to capture the spirit of the Kingdom and understand its culture and benefits more than ever before. May nothing stop you in your search of full citizenship. May you be eager to leave behind your old loyalties and seek adoption into the only country that can guarantee both your present and your future.


May nothing get in the way of its life-changing impact. May you attract others to it. (When people ask why you are different, you will have to confess that you are from a different country, because it shows in your actions and your lifestyle that is so high and so unique that people will want to join you in citizenship in your new country. May they ask you how to get in--which is the topic of the next session in this series.