Chapter Six

KINGDOMCONCEPT (3)
NDERSTANDING THE KINGDOM 
CONCEPT OF TERRITORY 

                        Essence of a kingdom is property. Land or prop-erty is the validation of a king. Land or property defines a king or queen and gives him or her right toclaim kingship. Remember that the first thing God created in the creation narrative was property...the earth. Earth was created before mankind was formed because it was necessary in order for man tobe a legitimate ruler. Man was created to dominate, and it is impos-sible to dominate nothing. Thus the mandate of God to Adam was to be king over a prop-erty. Every kingdom must have territory. The word kingdom derives from the phrase “king domain.” Domain refers to the property, theterritory over which a king exercises his dominion. A “kingdom,”then, is a “king’s territory.” Without territory, a king is not a kingbecause he has nothing to rule over. You cannot be “king” overnothing.Let me give you an example from history. The “discovery” of the new world by Christopher Columbus in 1492 set off a wave of west-ward expansion over the next several centuries. 

            The great maritimeempires of Europe such as England, France, Holland, Spain, and Portugal all competed for new territory in the Western Hemisphere. It was, in fact, the Portuguese monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella whosponsored and financed Columbus’ epic voyage.Portugal focused most of its attention on South America andeventually claimed the area that now comprises the nation of Brazil.For many years Brazil was a colony and a possession of Portugal.That is why to this day Brazilians speak Portuguese. It is a legacy oftheir years under Portuguese influence and control.The story goes that the son of the king of Portugal said to hisfather, “I want to be king.”“Well,” the king replied, “you can’t be.”“Why not?”“I am the king of Portugal, and we are in Portugal. 

               You can’t be king because I am still alive. When I am dead, then you will be king.”“But I want to be king now,” the prince said. “I don’t want to waitthat long.”So the king of Portugal shipped his son off to South America andmade him king over the territory of Brazil. The son was sovereign inBrazil but ruled as a regent under his father, the king of thePortuguese empire, which included Brazil. Whenever the father vis-ited his son in Brazil, the son became the prince again until hisfather left. Then the prince was again king. Whenever the son visit-ed his father in Portugal, he again became the prince until hereturned to his own domain. If the son wanted to rule as king, it was better for him to stay away from his father.That’s how kingdoms work. All kingdoms have territory, butthere can be only one sovereign to rule over it. More than one doesnot mean divided rule; it means revolt.

             This picture also illustrates the relationship between God, theKing of Heaven, and man, His regent on earth. Because God is aKing, and because a kingdom is a country ruled by a king and must therefore have territory, we can draw the conclusion that Heaven is a place. It is not some nebulous, mystical idea from the mind of man.Heaven is a real Kingdom with a real government. The fact that itsprimary realm encompasses the spiritual dimension of creation doesnot make it any less real.But the realm of the Kingdom of Heaven also takes in the natu-ral world. 

              God designed it this way when He created the earth and then fashioned man in His own image to rule it for Him. The sequence of events here is very important. God envisioned man to be a king in his own right, but a king is not a king unless he has ter-ritory over which to rule. So God prepared the territory first the earth and then brought forth man. God placed man on the earth and told him, “I am giving you dominion over this physical domain.You have authority over every acre of land and sea and over everycreature that inhabits the earth. 

             Rule it freely as My legal represen-tative.”God does not want to come here where we are personally, sothat we can retain our authority as earthly kings. This is also why Jesus is not anxious for us to go to the invisible country of Heaven because when we do, we are reduced to princes and princesses. He prayed that we would not be taken out of the world but be kept in itbut away from evil. The earth is man’s key to dominion power and his only legal territory for rulership. 

               A careful review of the model prayer of our Lord Jesus reveals that it specifically identifies the location of the Father and King of Heaven: “Our father who is in Heaven....” His location is the key to our power and authority on earth. If He comes to earth, we lose our privileged position. Mankind was designed to serve as a corporate rulership of kings representing their Father, the King of Heaven, inthe colony called earth. Like the Portuguese prince in the story above, man was sover-eign within the sphere of his own domain, but he acknowledged God’s ultimate sovereignty over all by right of creation and owner-ship. That ideal arrangement was shattered, however, when man rebelled against God, abdicated his regency, and passed control ofhis realm to a demonic usurper, a fallen angel who had no right or authority to take it.God’s purpose is unchanging. 

               He created man for rulership, andso immediately set into motion His plan to restore to man the Kingdom he had lost. The Bible lays out a detailed record of the his-torical outworking of God’s plan. In the fullness of time, when every-thing was in place, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born into human flesh and appeared to men, saying, “Repent change yourmind], for the kingdom of heaven is near[or has arrived]” (Matt.4:17b). The Son of God came to get the Kingdom back for man. He came as a human because earth is man’s God-given domain, and only a human has the legal authority to rule it directly. 

                   SEVEN KINGDOM PRINCIPLES OF TERRITORY 

                Territory is vital to a kingdom because without territory no kingdom can exist. This is why a king is always interested in expand-ing his territory. Why is territory so important? Why can there not be a kingdom without it? Here are seven reasons. 1//No king can rule nothing .A king is a ruler, which by def-inition requires a domain to rule over. No domain, noruler; no ruler, no king. That is why God made the earth before He made man; man could not be a king until he had a domain. 

                 When God set out to establish His Kingdom, He began by creating territory: “In the begin-ning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).First He created Heaven, His territory, and then He cre-ated earth, man’s territory. That way man could be a kinglike his Creator. 

                     2// There is no kingdom without a domain.Why is the terri-tory of a king called his domain? Because he dominates it. A territory dominated by a king is called his “kingdominion,” which is where we get the word “kingdom.” 

                        3//.The essence of a kingdom is the right, the power, and the authority of the king to exercise complete sovereignty overa domain.In other words, a true kingdom is one where the king has the right to rule. Rights are very important because they are the basis for authority. God has theright to rule the universe. Why?  Because He created it. Within His Kingdom God can do whatever He wants because His rights as King give Him absolute power andauthority—infinite power and authority because HisKingdom is infinite. 

                  4//The heart of the kingdom concept is king domain. Thedomain of the king is the key to his kingdom because tobe a king he has to have some domain to rule. 

                  5//.A king is not a king without a domain.I’ve already saidthis, but it bears repeating because many people who have no kingdom concept have trouble understandingthe connection between a king and his domain. Whenthe Shah of Iran was ousted by Islamic fundamentalist revolutionaries in 1979, he fled to another country. Although he was still called the shah (the Iranian wordfor king), it was mainly a courtesy. In reality, he was nolonger a king because he no longer had a domain. He wasa king in exile. You cannot be a king without territory.This is why Christ had to come to earth to get our earth-ly kingdom back. We are supposed to be rulers, but with-out our territory we cannot fulfill our destiny. 

                    6.// The wealth of a king’s domain defines his value. We touched on this in the last chapter. Territory is importantto a king because the more territory he has, the richer heis. A king is only as wealthy as his domain. And as we will see later, territory real estate is important because itis the only form of earthly wealth that never loses itsvalue. 

                       7//.The loss of a domain is the loss of a kingdom. Again, theShah of Iran is a good example. As soon as he lost his domain he was no longer a king except in name. Anotherprime example is Adam. When Adam, the king of the earth, rebelled against God, the High King of Heaven, he lost his kingdom and with it, his place as king.The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the “second Adam”who came to restore what the first Adam lost. BecauseJesus restored the Kingdom, all who are citizens of theKingdom of heaven can now be kings and queens of theearthly realm again. 

                 What does this mean in practicalterms? It means we can control our circumstances andour domain rather than they controlling us. The “goodnews of the Kingdom” that Jesus preached is not just thatwe can have our sins forgiven and become aligned right-ly with God, although these are absolutely essential; thegood news is also the fact that we can have our Kingdomback! 

              FIVE PRINCIPLES OF MAN’S EARTHLY AUTHORITY

Our destiny as human beings is wrapped up in land. God creat-ed us to be kings over the earthly realm, and He will not rest untilwe are fully restored to our rightful place. I want to share with youfive principles that help explain the basis of our authority on earthas God intended it to be. 

         1//.The first thing God gave man was territory.He did notgive man a religion or rules to follow. He gave him land. Before man could be the king God created him to be, hehad to have a king domain to rule over. 

          2//The earth was created to give man kingship legitimacy.God gave us the earth so that our kingship would belegal. He made Adam a king and He made Eve a queen equal to Adam in every way. The rulership of the earth belongs to both men and women. My wife is my partner in rulership. She does not serve me. We dominate the earth together on behalf of our government of Heaven. 

          3//.The domain of earth is mankind’s legal right, power, and authority of rulership.When God said, “Let themhavedominion,” He transferred the legal rights to the earth tous. He did not say, “Let ushave dominion,” including Himself, because He already had His dominion in heav-en. He said, “Let them have dominion over that territory called earth. I’m going to rule heaven; My kids are going to rule earth. I’m going to be King of heaven; they’regoing to be king of the earth. I’m going to be Sovereign of heaven; they’re going to be sovereign of earth.” The dominion of earth is our legal right. We have a right to be here and God gave us that right. So many believers look forward to going to heaven, but I look forward to comingback to rule the “new earth” that God will fashion when this earth passes away! (see Rev. 21:1). Heaven is fine,and it will be a glorious place, but ultimately it is notwhere we belong. In heaven we have no legal authority torule; it is God’s domain. We were made for the earth, andthat is where our place of dominion will be in the life tocome. 

               4//.“Let them” are the key words in the transfer of authority from God to man.God delegated authority to us because He wants us to experience rulership. He wants us toknow what it is like to be in charge. 5//.Man’s kingship is by privilege, not by creative right.God controls the domain because He created it. He rules it by creative rights. We rule it because of privilege. We are kings by delegation, not by creation. God gave us ruler-ship but not ownership. But our rulership “charter”includes a sense of ownership because He gave us sover-eignty within our earthly dominion.

                                     BINDING AND LOOSING 

         This transfer of ruling authority over the earth from God to man has major implications for all of us regarding our daily circum-stances and our relationship to our society and culture. Therefore, itis important that we understand it. God has given us authority over the earth. That means we’re in charge. Whatever we say goes. This gives us a lot of freedom to do what we please within our domain. But it also means that we can’t blame God for everything that goes wrong, yet that is exactly what we do. 

           “Why does God allow so much suffering in the world? Why doesn’t God do away with evil? Whydoes He allow sickness to continue? Doesn’t He care? Why doesn’tGod do something?”Why doesn’t God intervene? Because this is not His domain. Hewill not intervene in the affairs of this earthly domain without the permission of those who hold dominion authority here. And who holds dominion authority? 

             Every human being on earth who is a cit-izen of the Kingdom of Heaven. God is not to blame for human eviland suffering. We brought these things on ourselves by our own self-ishness and rebellious spirit. God wants to help but won’t interveneunless invited to do so by Kingdom citizens who know their domin-ion authority. Through prayer we invite God to act in our domain.This is what Jesus meant when He said I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will beloosed in heaven (Matthew 18:18) 

                   Many believers have been taught that this verse deals with bind-ing and loosing demonic spirits. It has nothing to do with demons.Jesus is using Kingdom language. To “bind” means to lock up or pro-hibit; to “loose” means to unlock or permit. On earth we havedominion authority. Jesus is saying that what we prohibit on earth,heaven will prohibit, and what we permit on earth, Heaven will per-mit. Consider the implications of this. Whatever we allow in socie-ty, Heaven will not stop, and whatever we disallow in society,Heaven will make sure it does not happen.

               Do you understand how serious this is? The management of theearth is totally up to us. Weare responsible for the evil, ills, and suf-fering in our world. These things are reflections of the nature andquality of our management. That is why God needs us to pray. Hecannot interfere on earth unless we release Him to do so because Hehas given us sovereignty here. When we do, Heaven invades our ter-ritory on our behalf. The King of Heaven has given us dominion authority here on earth, and He will not violate it without our permission. This truth holds a critical key to how we should live as Kingdom citizens on earth. 

                  Having been raised in one or another of the vari-ous human systems of government, we all have been “programmed”to think of life and society in terms of the “have’s” and the “havenot’s,” of periodic economic upheavals and downturns, chronic shortages of commodities, corruption, despotism, and the strong preying on the weak. We look at these things, sigh, and then say, “Ohwell, that’s life.”Not in the Kingdom of Heaven! As I said before, in the Kingdom of heaven, there is no economic crisis and there are no shortages because heaven’s resources areinfinite. 

                And because all Kingdom citizens are equal, there are no“have’s” and “have not’s”; everyone is a “have.” There is no corruptionor despotism because our King is a righteous and benevolent ruler.The strong do not prey on the weak because there are no weak. Everyone is strong in the strength and presence and influence of the King and in the secure knowledge of their place and privilege asequal citizens of the Kingdom. Seeing life from this perspective will require a major change ofmind-set for most people.

                 We have to learn, we have to train, we have to be taught to think this way. A change of mind is what the Bible calls “repentance.” So now the words of Jesus become much clearer when He says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near”(Matt. 4:17). He is saying, “Change your mind! Stop thinking like the world with its inadequacies and inequities, and start thinking like a Kingdom citizen! Stop operating from a worldly mind-set of “neverenough” and start operating from a Kingdom mindset of “more than enough”! The Kingdom of Heaven is here and everything has changed .

   . . .              TEN    PRINCIPLES OF THE POWER OF LAND 

I hope that by now it is becoming clear how important territoryis to the kingdom concept. With this in mind, I want to conclude thischapter with a brief discussion of ten principles of the power of land.In this context, land, territory, and domainmean the same thing. 

           1// The first thing God gave man was land. We have already discussed this. God created the earth and then createdman to rule it. Specifically, God placed Adam in a lush, beautiful garden and gave him the responsibility of car-ing for it and all its inhabitants. The King of Heaven gave the king of earth a physical domain landover whichto exercise dominion.   . 2.The first thing man lost was land. When Adam and Eve rebelled against the king, He drove them out of the gar-den. They lost the property God had given them. Having lost their dominion, they discovered that the earthly environment was now hostile to them. 

             3.The first thing God promised Abraham was land, notheaven. The first thing God promised Moses was land, not heaven.Our big dream is to go to Heaven, while God’s big dream is for us to possess land because He created usto be kings, and all kings own property. 4.Real wealth is in the land. That’s why it’s called realestate. All other estates aren’t “real.” So many people expend all their resources acquiring “wealth” that neverlasts—commodities that dissipate through consumptionor are wiped out by economic depression or natural dis-aster. Land never loses its value regardless of what the economy does. In fact, land almost always grows in valueeven during difficult times. If you want to help ensureprosperity for yourself as well as future generations,focus on acquiring real estate. There is power in land,which leads us to the next principle. 5.He who owns the land controls the wealth.Once, I was inOmaha, Nebraska, riding in from the airport, and remarked to my driver about the beauty and impressive-ness of a particular skyscraper that dominated the sky-line. “What is that?” I asked. He chuckled and said,“That’s the disgrace of the city.” “Why?” I asked, sur-prised. He replied, “That’s the tallest building in the city,and it is owned by the Japanese.” Smart people Kingdom-minded people—go after land. Why?

        6.True wealth is in the land. It never loses its value and, infact, almost always increases in value the longer you ownit. I once acquired a small piece of land for $35,000.Several people made offers to buy the land, but I held onto it. A few years later, a wealthy business man built a$3,000,000 estate on an adjacent piece of property. What do you think that did to the value of myland? True wealth lies in real estate. 

        7//.The meek will inherit the earth.And Jesus said that is ablessing: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). “Meek” means “gentle,” but it also means “disciplined.” The Greek word refers to the demeanor of a horse that has been broken for riding. A horse is a very strong animal. After it is broken it is still strong, but that strength is now under control. It is underdiscipline. These kind of people the meek Jesus says,are the ones who will inherit the earth not Heaven 

           8//.Land is the only estate that is real. Real estate is the only property of truly lasting value that we can pass on to our children. Everything else fades away too easily. The Bible says: “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’schildren” (Prov. 13:22a). 

           9// God considers the loss of land a curse.This is very important in the Bible. Every time God cursed the Israelites fortheir rebellion and disobedience, He took land from them. When they repented, He blessed them by restor-ing their land. God uses land to measure blessing orcursing. Therefore...10.The restoration of land is a blessing.Land is important. Land has power because without land there is no domain and without domain there is no king. 

                                    KINGS OF A NEW EARTH 

Many Kingdom citizens have been taught so thoroughly to anticipate and look forward to Heaven as the ultimate “reward” for the life to come that talk of an earthly inheritance makes them uncomfortable. But this is what the Bible says. Isaiah, an ancient and early spokesman for the Kingdom of Heaven, recorded: For this is what the Lord says He who created the heavens, He is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed itto be inhabited—He says: “I am the Lord, and there is noother” (Isaiah 45:18).

               God created the earth for people to live on it. He is so commit-ted to this planet that even when it passes away He will recreate it:Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away....And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them.They will be His people, and God Himself will be withthem and be their God...for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:1,3,4b-5a).God’s program never changes.

                He is committed to His plan forearth, and for earth dwellers, which is why we can’t stay in Heaven.The Bible promises a full resurrection in which all Kingdom citizenswill have a new body, a physical body of some sort, and will reign in the earth forever, just as God intended from the beginning. In the meantime, He wants us to practice—to learn how to take up ruler-ship and exercise wise dominion over this territory called earth that He has given us. The Kingdom of Heaven is here now. 

               We are its cit-izens, representatives of its colonial government, and we possess the authority right now to act in the name of our King and bring theinfluence of His will and desires over this earthly domain.

                     PRINCIPLES ` 

1. Every kingdom has territory. 

2. Heaven is a real Kingdom with a real government. 

3. A king is not a king unless he has territory over whichto rule. 

4. The Son of God came to get the Kingdom back for man. 

5. Without territory no kingdom can exist. 

6. A king is only as wealthy as his domain. 

7. Our destiny as human beings is wrapped up in land. 

8. We were made for the earth, and that is where our 

   placeof dominion will be in the life to come. 

9. We are kings by delegation, not by creation. 

10. God will not intervene in the affairs of this earthly domain

      without the permission of those who hold dominionauthority here. 

11. Through prayer we invite God to act in our domain. 

12. In the Kingdom of Heaven there are no “have’s” 

    and“have not’s”; everyone is a “have.” 

13. The meek will inherit the earth, not Heaven.