LIVING UNDER A LORD

Genesis chapter 1













Today we are walking in: Living Under A Lord







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.










Living Under a Lord




It is the lordship aspect of a kingdom that makes living in a kingdom better than a republic or any other form of national administration or rulership. Lordship in a kingdom protects the citizenship from competition with their fellow citizens for national resources. It destroys such elements as jealousy, fear, deceit, and hoarding. In a true kingdom, the lord owns all resources and distributes the same as he determines. Whenever he gives resources to a citizen, it is never for ownership but for stewardship. Submission to a king as lord positions the citizen to receive from the king.




From a kingdom standpoint, then, the most important confession any of us could ever make is to declare, “Yahusha Hamachiach is Lord.” Ambassador Paul stated this explicitly in his letter to the believers in Rome when he wrote:




If you confess with your mouth, “Yahusha is Lord,” and believe in your heart that Yah raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).




By “saved,” Paul means redeemed, bought back, salvaged, restored from the estrangement of our rebellion against Yah the King into a right relationship with Him. The key affirmation in that process is our acknowledgment that Yahusha is Lord of everything, including our lives and our destiny.




But if we say, “Yahusha is Lord,” what does that mean in practical terms? What does it mean to live under a “lord”? The only experience most westerners have with a lord of any kind is with a landlord. If you now live or have ever lived in rental property, you know that the landlord is the landowner (or the landowner’s direct representative who exercises the landowner’s authority, which amounts to the same thing), the person you pay rent to and to whom you are accountable for the way you treat his property. Why? Because you do not own the property; the landlord does.




Dealing with a landlord provides a small taste of what it would be like to live all of your life under a lord. If you say, “Yahusha is Lord,” you are acknowledging His authority over you as well as your responsibility to obey Him. There is no such thing as lordship without obedience. If He is Lord, you cannot say, “Lord...but,” or “Lord...except,” or “Lord...wait.” If He is Lord, the only thing you can say is, “Lord...yes.”




Yahusha Himself reiterated this truth throughout His public ministry:




If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me (Luke 9:23b).




Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me (Matthew 10:37- 38).




Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Yahusha told him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead” (Matthew 8:21-22).




If Yahusha is Lord, He must receive first priority in your life. He is above every other love and every other loyalty. He is above every goal, dream, and ambition. You cannot be a disciple and say, “Lord, first let me...” He must be first...in everything. Otherwise, He is not truly Lord of your life, regardless of what you say. Yahusha said:




Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say?

(Luke 6:46).




You cannot call Him Lord and then start making excuses for not obeying Him. You can’t claim that He owns you and then go ahead and do whatever you please. In the Kingdom of Heaven there is no such thing as a “weekend citizen.” You do not follow Him one time and not another depending on your preference. If Yahusha is Lord, you cannot live for Him on Saturday and for yourself the rest of the week. Yahusha is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. The Lordship of Hamachiach is a 24/7 proposition. There is no other schedule.




Living under a Lord also means giving up all concepts of personal ownership. This does not mean you have to sell your house or sell your car or give away all your personal possessions. It does mean learning not to take a proprietary view toward these things. The King of Heaven is a righteous and benevolent Lord who graciously allows us to use and fully appropriate His riches and resources and all good things. That is one of our rights as Kingdom citizens. We can enjoy all of these things without measure as long as we remember who owns them. The moment we begin to think that they belong to us, however, we set ourselves up for trouble. If we think ownership is ours, we make ourselves a lord. This takes us out of alignment with the will and character of the King because in His Kingdom there can be only one Lord.




What happens when we think of ourselves as owners? In our dog eat-dog culture it means we feel we have to fight for what we get, hoard what we have, and guard it anxiously from fear that someone will take it away. And our neighbors do the same thing. We live in fear of economic downturns, inflation, downsizing, and never having enough. This is not Kingdom thinking!




In the Kingdom of Heaven, there is no economic crisis and there are no shortages. With a King who owns everything, how could there be? When we relinquish our sense of ownership and acknowledge Yah as the Owner and ourselves as stewards, it relieves us of the pressure of having to worry about how we are going to make it because we are now depending on Him for our welfare. And He is a benevolent and generous Lord of infinite resources.




Relinquishing ownership then also puts us into the position of full access to those resources. As we learn to give and receive and transfer at His will, He shares with us freely and abundantly. But a hoarding sense of personal ownership that shouts, “Mine!” cuts us off from those same resources. Which position would you rather be in?




Letting go of personal ownership also nourishes and releases a generous spirit within us. If we are only stewards and not owners, we can give freely as the Lord has given freely to us, knowing that He, who has no limitations, can replace what we give to others. His reputation as King and Lord rides on how well He cares for His citizens and He will give special care to those citizens who reflect His character by giving as He gives.




As a matter of fact, the best time to give is when things are tight personally because that is when you acknowledge that He owns even what you don’t have. The greatest sign that you truly believe that Yahusha is Lord is by how much you are willing to get rid of. You have learned how to live under a Lord when you can give freely without hesitation, regret, or fear and say to the Lord of all with a joyful and willing spirit, “It’s all Yours! It’s all Yours!”




Seven Points in Summary




In summary, here are seven fundamental principles of lordship.




1. A king personally owns everything in his domain. There is no private ownership in a kingdom. Everything belongs to the king.




2. Use of anything in a kingdom is a privilege. If the king owns everything, then anything in that kingdom that we use is not by right but by a privilege granted by the king.




3. A king can give or distribute anything to anyone in his kingdom. Why? Because he owns it. He can shift things around any way he pleases. This is why we need to hold onto “our” possessions lightly. They really are not ours. Sometimes the King will test us by telling us to give up something He has given us. Our response—obedience or disobedience—will reveal whether or not we really believe He is Lord. If we obey, we show that we believe He owns everything and that He not only can replace what we give but even multiply it.




4. Submission to a king’s lordship means that we have no right to ourselves. That is why the greatest confession we can ever make is the confession, “Yahusha Hamachiach is Lord.” The moment we say those words, we are acknowledging that we have no more right to our own life; it now belongs to Hamachiach. We have put ourselves willingly under His control and direction and are at His beck and call. He can help Himself to our lives anytime He wants.




5. Obedience is acknowledgement of lordship. When we obey the King, we are simply saying to Him, “You are Lord and my life is Yours. Your wish is my command.”




6. Thanksgiving is an acknowledgement of the King’s Lordship. Daily thankfulness for food, water, clothing, shelter, and other daily needs reveals that we believe that the King owns all and is the source of all we have.




7. The word “Lord” can never be used with the word “but.” Those two words are impossible together. We cannot say, “I love You, Lord, but...” or else He is not Lord. We cannot claim Him as Lord and then make excuses for not obeying Him. The only appropriate word to go with “Lord” is “Yes!” Either He is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.




Principles




1. All kings are automatically lords.




2. Kingship has to do with authority; lordship has to do with ownership.




3. All true kings must have and own territory.




4. As lord, a king literally and legally owns everything in his domain.




5. If the king owns everything, then no one in the kingdom owns anything.




6. If the king owns everything, he can give anything to anyone at any time according to his own sovereign choice.




7. A king’s wealth is measured by the size and richness of his domain.




8. Yah, the King of Heaven, is King and Lord of all.




9. Yahusha Hamachiach is King and Lord of all.




10. The most important confession any of us could ever make is to declare, “Yahusha Hamachiach is Lord.”




11. There is no such thing as lordship without obedience.




12. If Yahusha is Lord, He must receive first priority in your life.




13. Yahusha is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.




14. Living under a Lord also means giving up all concepts of personal ownership.




15. In the Kingdom of Heaven, there is no economic crisis and there are no shortages.




16. Relinquishing ownership puts us into the position of full access to all of Heaven’s resources.




17. Letting go of personal ownership also nourishes and releases a generous spirit within us.