DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Acts chapter 1




Today we are walking in: Declaration of Independence






Joel 2:28


And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit H7307 upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:



SPIRIT




Today we look to the word-SPIRIT- H7307-RUWACH-wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively, life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension, a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being:—air, anger, blast, breath,





The Torah Testifies……………………….


Genesis 1:2


And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit H7307 of God moved upon the face of the waters.




Genesis 6:3


And the LORD said, My spirit H7307 shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.



Exodus 28:3


And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit H7307 of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.








The Prophets Proclaim……………………….



Isaiah 31:3


Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit H7307. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.



Ezekiel 2:2


And the spirit H7307 entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.




Haggai 1:14


And the LORD stirred up the spirit H7307 of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit H7307 of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit H7307 of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,







The Writings Witness………………………..


Job 10:12


Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit H7307.



Psalm 34:18


The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. H7307



Proverbs 15:4


A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit H7307.




Declaration of Independence


The greatest threat to kingdom privileges and benefits is an independent spirit.


The territory of earth had been created and the colony established. The King’s children were provided with a rich home and given authority to rule and prosper on earth in behalf of the King. However, something happened to disrupt the home country’s plan of expanding the realm of its heavenly kingdom on earth. A rebellion that started in the home country spread to the colony.


A Breach of Trust The Plot: Overthrow


The rebellion had been instigated by one of the King’s top generals, named HaSatan. He had attempted a coup of the heavenly kingdom and been banished from the presence of the King, along with his followers. This disgraced former aide was bent on revenge and still craved the power to rule a kingdom. He thought that if he could gain control over the King’s own children, he could insult the King, thwart the purposes of the heavenly kingdom, and usurp the colony.


The Plan: Detachment


HaSatan’s plan was to sever the relationship between the King’s children and their Father and separate the citizens of the colony from their true government. So he went to the colony in disguise, where the King’s children had just begun to rule, and infiltrated their government using craftiness and deceit.


The Strategy: An Independent Spirit


His strategy to accomplish this broken relationship was to promote a spirit of rebellion and independence. Subtly questioning the integrity and goodwill of the King, he seduced the King’s children to disregard their Father’s authority over the colony and encouraged them in an act of insurrection. The following is an account of this incident from the first book of Moses:


Now the serpent...said to the woman, “Did Yah really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but Yah did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For Yah knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Yah, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.


The children of the King went against his explicit instructions, which he had instituted for their protection. The renegade general had planted doubts about the motivation of the King, and distrust grew in their hearts. They immediately turned their backs on all their Father had given them and instead believed the lie placed before them. The children’s response was contrary to the nature and desires of the King. It was also a corruption of their own nature, which had been made in his likeness. What seemed to be a harmless act to their benefit was actually a disaster; it represented a serious breach of faith and departure from the heart and will of the King. If they could not be trusted with even the simplest aspect of their assignment in the colony, how could they transform the earth into the culture of the kingdom of heaven? Especially now that their minds and hearts were shown to be aligned with the King’s bitter enemy?


The Result: Treason


The King’s own children had declared, “I don’t want to be under the kingdom’s jurisdiction anymore; I don’t want to be under the King of kings; I don’t want to be subjected to heaven’s government.” Yet the earth is heaven’s property. When Adam and Eve rebelled and declared independence, they violated the legal contract the government of heaven had established with human beings. Many people think of “sin” as things a person does. Yet it is both deeper and more specific than that. Sin is rebellion against the essential nature and authority of the heavenly government.


By their rebellion, the children not only took something that wasn’t theirs, but they also handed it over to someone who didn’t deserve it and would never be qualified for it. HaSatan, the unfaithful former general of heaven, would never transform the world into the heavenly kingdom. He would transform it into something completely opposite, a kingdom of darkness.


Renounced Allegiance and Expatriation


How did the King react to his children’s breach? Although he knew what they had done, he gave them a chance to admit their fault. Instead, they blamed each other, as well as the one who had enticed them to revolt. Like many rebellious children exposed for disobedience, they seemed sorry only to have been caught. The King had no choice but to remove them from the garden; they were banished from the special home that had been provided them because they no longer had the nature necessary to live there, and were no longer able to care for it properly.


The first book of Moses says, “After [the Creator-King] drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” The word drove used here means “to drive out from a possession; especially to expatriate or divorce.” It is significant that we find the concept of expatriate here, which means “to renounce allegiance to one’s native country.” Adam and Eve virtually cut themselves off from their own King-Father and home country. Having to drive them out of the garden was as painful to their Father as experiencing a wrenching divorce after the betrayal of a loved one.


Adam and Eve had committed high treason. The King had given them authority under delegated power, but they had instead abused that authority to cut the territory off from the government of heaven.


The Recall of the Governor


Although they were removed from the magnificent garden, their former rule, and their previous kingdom lifestyle, their rejection of the King and his nature led to something far worse. The King had previously alerted them, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” This was the only area on earth over which the King claimed jurisdiction because he knew its misuse would lead to death.


The death the King referred to was not an immediate, bodily death. Adam and Eve did not physically die right away, but they lost their essential source of life as human beings—the King’s Ruach. Remember that the Ruach of the King gave life to their spirits, souls, and bodies. When they rejected the King, they also rejected and lost his Ruach. The Governor alone was their dynamic connection between the seen and the unseen realms. Therefore, their spirits and souls were cut off from the home country, and their physical bodies began to die a slow death. They were still physically alive for a time, but spiritually and soulically, they were dead to the King and his kingdom.


We saw earlier that, whenever a colony becomes independent from the mother country, the governor is either forced out, or the kingdom withdraws him. Likewise, when Adam and Eve declared independence, the Governor had to be recalled to the heavenly kingdom. A striking illustration of this circumstance is the night governing power in the Bahamas was transferred from Great Britain to the new independent government. The Bahamian people had said, “We no longer want to be connected with Britain, as far as direct government control is concerned,” and we won our freedom.


Thousands of emotionally charged Bahamians gathered at Clifford Park a few hours before midnight on the evening before independence. The official change in government was scheduled for 12 a.m. on July 10, 1973. Prince Charles, as the representative of the crown, was present, as well as the premier, whose title would soon change to prime minister. There were various ceremonies, and the musical groups invited to sing as representatives of the youth of the nation.


At 11:50 p.m., the Union Jack was still flying on the flagpole in the middle of the park. The symbol of the kingdom of Great Britain signified that we were still under England’s rule. At 11:59, one of the law enforcement officers stood at that pole and began to lower the flag. Another officer was next to him, pulling up the new flag of the independent Bahamas. They were witnessing a change of kingdoms firsthand. The lower the British flag got, the closer they came to no longer having a royal governor. The higher the new flag got, the closer their premier came to becoming prime minister. When the British flag reached the bottom and the Bahamian flag reached the top, it was over. Early the next morning, the royal governor left the governor’s house, got on a plane, and departed from the Bahamas. The queen had recalled him. He no longer had the authority or legal right to be there.


While I’ve described a joyful period, it was not a jubilant time for the citizens of earth when they rejected the heavenly government. Again, they had not thrown off foreign rule from their lives. They had rejected their own homeland and their beloved King-Father, who desired to give them the riches of his kingdom. As Adam raised the “human independence flag,” the flag of the heavenly kingdom was simultaneously being lowered until humanity was severed from the King and his kingdom.


I mentioned that the governor of the Bahamas had to vacate the governor’s house when he was recalled to the home country. On the colony of earth, the human beings themselves were the house the heavenly Governor had lived in. So when humanity declared independence from their King-Father, this house became a hostile and unclean environment, and the Governor could no longer dwell there. He was recalled to the home country.


Existence without the Governor


What was life like for Adam and Eve after they turned their backs on the kingdom and lost the presence of the Governor? Their act of rebellion is often referred to as “the fall” because of the extreme change in the quality of human existence they experienced. It was like a prince falling from a luxurious royal coach into a muddy ditch and then havingto live there. Independence, in a human political sense, is a positive concept to us. The American Revolution, in which America declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, is celebrated with fireworks and family gatherings. Yet humanity’s independence from heaven’s kingdom is nothing to celebrate. It’s something to mourn because it’s the worst thing that ever happened to human beings, whereas the kingdom was the best thing we could have been given.


We can begin to comprehend the value of the Governor on earth by looking at what existence without him is like.


Loss of the Kingdom


The loss of the Governor meant the loss of the environment of the kingdom on earth. Since the Governor was the evidence of the presence of the kingdom, his absence inevitably meant the absence of the kingdom presence. Earth’s environment changed to the antithesis of the heavenly kingdom.


Cut off from True Life




Although human beings were designed to live from the inside out, this situation was now reversed. Since they had lost the Ruach HaQadesh, which was their connection with their Father, they now had to live from the outside in. They became totally dependant on their five physical senses. The physical world— which could give them only a limited perspective on life’s realities—imposed itself on their inner world. I believe this is why one of the first words we read about Adam and Eve after their rebellion is the word “realized” or “knew.” Suddenly, they realized they were naked. Does this imply they didn’t know this before? I don’t think so. I believe it implies this: nakedness is an external consciousness rather than something that is spiritually discerned. The body and its senses, rather than the Ruach, took over humanity’s focus in life. Human beings no longer had a spiritual perspective at their essence but a sensual one.


A perspective based only on the senses inevitably leads to confusion. Humanity began to depend on the soul—the mind, will, and emotions informed by the senses—to interpret life. From then on, what we saw, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled became the dominant components in our human experience. Consequently, we began to interpret our Creator-King mainly from our physical senses, as well. For example, the field of science attempts to understand the unseen world only from the seen world. This approach is dangerous because human beings were never intended to interpret the physical world from itself but from the spiritual reality of the kingdom.


I am not saying that science is “bad.” Neither am I saying that the intellect is evil, but only that it has been moved out of its proper position. The intellect is a wonderful gift created by Yah. It must be in its right position, however, for it to effectively execute its purpose and fulfill its potential. The things that are seen were made from things that are not seen, and the only way to truly understand something is to relate to how it was made and who made it. The Spirit of the Creator is the only avenue we have for fully understanding ourselves and the physical world since he is the Source, Author, and Manufacturer of creation.


We must grasp the deep significance of this truth: Having the Spirit of the King is not only vital for our relationship with the invisible King, but also for understanding our own humanity. Only through the Governor can we know why we are really here and how to interpret the world in which we live; in other words, how to truly see our environment. The Governor is the key to our being fully human. We can’t express the King’s nature unless we are in relationship with him, and the Governor provided that relationship.


Only the Governor knows the mind of the King. We can’t really be what we were born to be as human beings unless we have a vital connection to his original intent. The Governor is our reference to ourselves; he is the key to our self- understanding. To be true and complete human beings, we must somehow become reconnected to and re-indwelled by the Ruach HaQadesh.


Loss of Authority and Power


We not only lost communication with the home country through the loss of the Governor, but we also lost the power and authority he provided. Remember that power is the ability to control and influence circumstances. One of the first things the King said to Adam after his rebellion was, in effect, “From now on, you will have to fight the earth in order to get food.” Beforehand, he had said, “Rule over...all the earth.” Now the King had to sadly inform him,


Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.


The King wasn’t only speaking of literal thorns. He was saying, “It’s going to be hard for you to provide for yourself. You’re going to have to sweat for it.” Before that, Adam’s work was not exhausting. He had authority and dominion over the natural world. It worked for him, rather than the other way around.


Ramifications of Self-Government


The Governor had been humanity’s connection with the home country, enabling human beings to fulfill their authority and dominion on earth. When he left, the earth basically became an independent nation. A colony without a governor results in self-government. Again, to our contemporary minds, independence and self-determination are positive words. We celebrate freedom and self-government. But again, this was not the triumph of freedom over tyranny. This was not removing the shackles of foreign occupation. It was like rejecting your beloved family, your home country, and your billion-dollar inheritance all at once. To paraphrase the wise King Solomon, “Some paths in life seem right, but they lead to death.”


There’s nothing more dangerous and threatening to a kingdom than a spirit of independence. For human kingdoms, this translates into a loss of power and wealth and probably some pride. For the heavenly kingdom, however, it meant the spiritual death of beloved children who were meant to carry on the family name and legacy. For the children, it meant the introduction of fear, a survival mind-set, and the knowledge of the inevitability of death.


When you are an independent person, you have to survive by your own wits. Likewise, when a country becomes an independent nation, it has to totally pay its own way. When the royal governor left the Bahamas on the morning of July 10, they were totally on their own—in their political and economic life, in caring for their infrastructure, and all aspects of governance. Likewise, humanity was left to fend for itself. Yet human beings weren’t designed to function using only their senses. They weren’t supposed to live like orphans left to survive in a hostile world on what they can scrape by on, or convicts left to scratch out an existence on a remote, punitive island. Human beings were designed to thrive and prosper and use the heights of their creativity through the guidance and power of the Ruach HaQadesh. The recall of the Governor was a devastating loss to the inhabitants of earth.


A Rebellious State


Humanity’s declaration of independence and subsequent loss of the Governor left human beings in a state of rebellion. The government of earth, as exercised in the life of every human being, became essentially one of rebellion that did not have the purposes of the kingdom at heart. Every person has been born into this state since the initial rebellion. Theologian Paul of Tarsus put it this way: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of Yah.” We all fall short of the essential nature of Yah and everything that makes him praiseworthy. He is the perfect King; his kingdom is the perfect government. Yet we have distorted the image of that perfection within us. And all our efforts to execute government on earth in personal and corporate ways have fallen deeply short as well.


A Culture of Darkness and Death


When a country becomes independent after being a colony, it usually elects or appoints its own governor. This governor does not teach the people about the culture of the former home country, but only its own. Similarly, when the heavenly government recalled the Governor, human beings stopped learning the culture of heaven and created their own culture, which they passed along to their children. We stopped living heaven’s values and began to have our own independent ideas about life.


We must ask ourselves: How well are we doing? What has the nature of our culture become? One of the first things that took place after earth lost the Governor was that a man was murdered by his older brother. What a way to start a new culture! Instead of the kingdom of heaven defining and transforming earth, a kingdom and culture of darkness came upon it and began to spread. Adultery, incest, abuse, and domestic violence are all parts of this culture of darkness; it destroys young and old, strong and weak. We are still experiencing crime upon crime, brother killing brother. Wherever the Governor of the King does not rule, you will find murder and other instances of man’s inhumanity to man. The abuse and destruction afflict families, communities, businesses, and government—the whole realm of human existence.


All this transpired because human beings listened to the treacherous lies of a rebellious former aide to our King-Father, who wanted to usurp the colony for himself. Yahusha of Nazareth described HaSatan as the “father of lies” and a “murderer.” He also said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”


When this disgraced former general took authority over the territory of earth, the natural result was devastation and death. His intent as the illegal governor on earth was not to bring freedom. It was to steal people’s lives so he could ultimately destroy them. He is a foreign ruler who has taken over the colony of earth and desires to destroy the original culture of the inhabitants. He rules over a destructive kingdom of darkness in which human beings have become either his willing or unwilling accomplices.


What have we done to this planet? From the time of humanity’s rejection of the King and the loss of the Governor, human beings have been attempting to dominate the King’s colony without the mind and heart of the King. Trying to run the planet without the King’s nature has led to a breakdown in human authority and power to address vital issues. It is the source of the world’s poverty, genocide, terrorism, political corruption, drug addiction, broken homes, and every kind of evil that can be named. We have created a state of rebellion and confusion. This world is a disaster without the Governor.


The Promise of the King


The colony of earth crumbled under the absence of the Governor. Without his presence, the human race lost its dignity and sense of responsibility; it became confused and chaotic. The people experienced a living death. Even though many people still struggle to do good, this is the essence of the culture of earth today. As the descendants of Adam and Eve, we are unable to rule on behalf of the heavenly kingdom because we abdicated our rule to HaSatan’s culture of darkness.


Yet, remarkably, immediately following humanity’s rebellion and the loss of the Governor, the King promised the return of the Governor and the restoration of earth as a territory loyal to the kingdom of heaven. The most important promise the government of heaven ever made to humanity was the return of the Governor because he is what every human being needs for true life. He is what the entire world needs, or the territory would forever remain in a state of chaos and death.


Even in the immediate aftermath of the rebellion, the King gave an indication of how he would restore the Governor. He told HaSatan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” The King’s plan was to send an Offspring, to be born in the colony, who would restore kingdom influence to the colony. He would crush the power of the realm of darkness, take back the kingdom authority that was stolen, and restore power and authority to those to whom it was first given—humanity. We would be reinstated as local rulers on behalf of the heavenly kingdom once again. This would happen because the King would reappoint the Governor to the colony of earth.


Seeking the Governor


I believe that the bottom line in every person’s search for power and meaning in life is this: they are actually seeking the return of the Governor, though they may not realize it. Many people feel they are missing something in their lives yet aren’t sure what it is. They try to fill the emptiness with a variety of things: money, relationships, parties, drugs, sex, alcohol, work, sports, or vacations. In fact, I believe that every person, whether he is Christian, atheist, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Shintoist, Scientologist, animist, or even Satanist ultimately desires the same thing. He wants to fill what is missing in his life, and only the presence of the Governor in his life can accomplish this. A human being without the Governor is dysfunctional because he’s never complete; his very purpose requires the presence of the Ruach HaQadesh.


Therefore, if a message were sent from the kingdom of heaven to earth regarding the fulfillment of the King’s promise—the restoration of the Governor—that message would not be a religion. Neither would it be a self-help method by which human beings could use their own abilities to solve their problems. It would be a message about the kingdom and the return of the King’s Ruach.