Chapter Three

THEORIGINAL KINGDOM CONCEPT:
COLONIZATION OF EARTH ,

From our discussions thus far, two things at leastshould be perfectly clear at this point. First, everyperson on earth, without exception, is seeking akingdom. Consciously or unconsciously, every human activity andendeavor is directed in one way or another toward this pursuit.

And second, as we have just seen, the kingdom concept of govern-ment, the original and first governmental concept, is far superiorto any governmental system devised by man. The caveat, of course,is that such a kingdom be ruled by a righteous and benevolentking. Otherwise, a kingdom will prove to be no better than anyother system.

The inherent superiority of a kingdom over other systems ofgovernment is an especially difficult concept for many people in thewest. As I stated earlier, few westerners have ever lived under a king-dom and thus know little or nothing of how one operates. This dif-ficulty is even more acute for citizens of the United States whosenation, after all, was established in rebellion against a kingdom.Nevertheless, a kingdom ruled by a sovereign, righteous, andbenevolent king remains the best system of government humanity could ever hope for. The reason is simple: The kingdom concept is ofheavenly, not earthly, origin. Its appearance on earth is due to anoth-er concept that originated in heaven the concept of colonization.Simply stated, colonization is Heaven’s system for earthlyinfluence.

SEEING THE BIG PICTURE

In order to understand this, it is important to look at the bigpicture.We humans, divided as we are by religion, ethnicity, geography,national identity, and differing governmental systems andeconomies, have trouble grasping the overall picture that we are oneglobal village. Religious and cultural differences and territorial loy-alties often prevent us from seeing how much we truly have in com-mon with one another.

 At heart, we all share the same fears, hopes,dreams, and longings. We all share a common desire to be able tocontrol the circumstances of our lives. Consciously or not, we all aresearching for a kingdom in which all are equal, enjoying the samerights, benefits, liberty, security, health, and abundance lives withmeaning and purpose and fulfilled potential.In the midst of our myopic pursuit of self-advancement, we failto recognize that such a kingdom is available for the having. 

But wewill never see it until we step back to take in the big picture.When I studied art in college, one of the fundamental conceptsI learned is always to see the end first and then work my way back.In other words, a good artist sees the finished product in his or hermind before beginning to paint or sculpt or draw. That is what itmeans to get the big picture—to see the end from the beginning andkeep that end clearly in view throughout the creative process. Onlythen can the artist ensure that the finished product conforms to hisor her original vision or design. 

A casual observer of any given phase of the process often cannotmake any sense out of it because he or she lacks the big picture ofthe finished product that is in the mind of the artist. A few brushstrokes on a canvas may mean nothing to someone watching thepainter, but a good artist will know exactly what he is doing. He willknow exactly where he is going and how to get there because healready sees the end result in his mind. He sees the big picture. 

That is why you should never judge an artist while he is working. It is onlyin the finished product where his full vision and intent can be seen.Whether you are painting a picture, carving a sculpture, orbuilding a house, it is critical to keep the big picture the finishedproduct clearly in view. Otherwise, your original dream or visionwill never be realized, and you will end up with something quite dif-ferent from what you intended.The biggest problem in our world today, including the religiousworld, is that we are so preoccupied with the phases that we cannotsee the big picture. We are so caught up with our own little part and with fighting and arguing with everybody else over their littlepart that we have lost sight of our purpose. The most importantthing in life is the big picture. 

But all we have are snapshots.Somewhere along the way humanity lost the big picture of our pur-pose, and all we were left with were tiny snapshots that provide onlya narrow and very misleading impression of the whole. Long ago welost the end of our existence. Now all we have to work with are dis-connected means—futile pursuits with no significance. Purpose defines the big picture. In other words, the big pictureis the original purpose or intent of the artist or builder—the desiredend result. What was God’s purpose as the Artist who createdhumanity? What was the end result He desired? As Designer of thehuman race, what was God’s original intent? 

This is a critical issuefor us because without purpose, human life has no meaning or sig-nificance. And that is exactly what the philosophers of our day aresaying: Human life has no purpose or significance, so each of usmust create or derive meaning for our lives wherever we can find it. We have lost the big picture—God’s original intent for mankind—and without it our lives are nothing more than disjointed phases thatmake no sense.If our lives are to have meaning, we must recover the big pictureof God’s original intent for us. In the beginning, God undertook awonderful building project called the human race. Why? 

God’s orig-inal purpose in creating mankind—His big picture—was to extendHis invisible rulership to the visible world. He wanted to extend Hisheavenly country to another territory. His desire, then, was to estab-lish on earth a colony of Heaven.GOD’S BIG PICTUREColonization as a concept was not invented by man. It is not theproduct of any human kingdom or culture. Colonization originatedin the mind of God. It was His idea. God’s original purpose was toestablish a manifestation of His heavenly Kingdom on earth withoutcoming to earth Himself.A colonizing authority, such as a king, does not have to be pres-ent physically for colonization to occur. 

The mere presence of theinfluenceof that authority is sufficient. As long as God could extendHis kingly governing authority over the earth through delegatedrepresentatives, His influence would hold sway here without thenecessity of His physical presence.God’s original intent was to extend His heavenly governmentoverthe earth, and His plan for accomplishing this was to establisha colony of heaven onthe earth. This was God’s big picture. TheKing of Heaven has a big agenda, bigger than national or interna-tional affairs. His is an inter-realmagenda. 

God deals with inter-realm affairs, the relationship between the invisible realm of Heavenand the visible realm of earth. His plan was to connect these twothrough colonization. However, God was not content merely to establish His influence on the earth; He wanted to take some citi-zens out of heaven and put them on earth to establish the colony.How did He accomplish this? Let’s examine some statementsfrom the Bible, which is the constitutionof the Kingdom of Heaven.Like any other constitution, the Bible lays out the laws, principles,and characteristics that define God’s Kingdom. 

Consider first theopening words of this constitution—its “preamble”:In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth(Genesis 1:1).This opening statement establishes God’s universal kingship bydivine right of creation with absolute authority to do whatever Hepleases. A little further down we find earth’s “colonial charter”:Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, in Ourlikeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and thebirds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, andover all the creatures that move along the ground.” So Godcreated man in His own image, in the image of God Hecreated him; male and female He created them. 

Godblessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increasein number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fishof the sea and the birds of the air and over every livingcreature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:26-28).With these words God, the King and Lord of Heaven, declaredHis colonial intent. This colonial charter delineated the purpose anddefined the parameters of the colony. It also designated the personswho received responsibility for carrying out the King’s desire.Notice that this statement says nothing about religion. Thischarter is not a religious declaration; it is a government documentthat defines governmental intent and establishes governmentalauthority. 

So the King, in this one statement, declares His big pic-ture—to create some beings just like Himself, place them on the earth, and let them rule it for Him as vice-regents of His heavenlygovernment. This was His plan and His purpose for creating man.Because the purposes of God are unchanging, this is still His pur-pose and plan today. HEAVEN’S CROWN LAND God created the earth as a place over which to extend His influ-ence, but He intended to do it through mankind, not Himself. 

Hedesigned man to be a fit colonizer of the physical world He wantedto colonize. That is why we humans are so well suited physically forlife in this world. The Bible says that God created man “from the dustof the ground” (see Gen. 2:7). Scientific evidence confirms this. Ourbodies are made of the same stuff as the earth. Before God createdus, He fashioned a physical world that would be a perfect environ-ment for us to fulfill our purpose and destiny. Then He formed ourphysical bodies from the same material. Man is a triune being justlike his Creator. 

We reflect His image even in our composition. Manis a spirit being after the nature and essence of his source, FatherGod; he lives in a body, which is his earth suit that allows him torelate to the physical environment; and he possesses a soul, which ishis intellect, will, and emotional faculties. We are suited for theearth as perfectly as God is suited for Heaven.As we discussed earlier, the foundation and qualification forkingship is rightful ownership of land. 

In a kingdom, the land is thepersonal property of the king, and it is this ownership right that des-ignates him as lord. In a kingdom, when referring to the physicalland, the territory is called “crown land.” This implies the land isproperty of “the crown,” referring to the king himself. By creativeright, the earth is heaven’s “crown land.” In a kingdom, all the landwithin the kingdom belongs to the king. Every square foot of terri-tory is his personal property—his “king-domain.” In a true kingdom,therefore, there is no such thing as private property owned by thecitizens; the king owns all. 

The Bahamas, where I live, was once part of the UnitedKingdom of the British Empire. When the British seized theBahamas from the Spanish, all 700-plus islands immediately becamethe personal property of the king of England. They did not becomethe property of the British government; there’s a difference. Theseislands became the personal property of the British sovereign. All ofus who grew up under that arrangement understood that all the landwas known as crown land, meaning it belonged to the one who worethe crown.

 As a matter of fact, during those years, it was not uncom-mon for the king or queen of England to give an island as a birthdaypresent to a son or daughter or niece or nephew. Since the islandswere crown land, the monarchs, on their own prerogative, couldgive them away at any time to anyone they wished as personal gifts.As a matter of fact, this land could be given to any citizen as a per-sonal gift of the government at the authority of the king, and manypeople in our colony received large parcels of land for personal use.The same is true in God’s Kingdom. 

God owns the earth andeverything on it; the earth is His crown land. As an ancient poetwrote:The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world,and all who live in it; for He founded it upon the seas andestablished it upon the waters (Psalm 24:1-2).Because God owns the earth, He can do with it however Hepleases. And it pleased Him to give it to man. Again, in the words ofthe ancient poet:The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth Hehas given to man (Psalm 115:16).Don’t make the mistake of equating this with ownership.

 Crownland given to someone by the king remains crown land. At any timethe king can take it back and give it to someone else. That is theking’s prerogative. So when God “gave” the earth to man, He did not relinquish ownership. We possess the earth as a trust, as stewards,as “kings” under the High King of Heaven. The King gave us domin-ion over the earth, not as owners but as vassal-kings to extend Hisheavenly government to the earthly realm. He gave us rulership, notownership. We have the privilege to rule the earth, and with thatprivilege also comes the responsibility of wise and righteous man-agement. 

And we are accountable to the King for how we manageour domain.It is also on this prerogative of Kingship and Lordship that Godcould, without the permission of its current inhabitants, promiseAbraham the land of Canaan as a birthright. Today we see this understanding of crown land applied in thenation of Israel. The ancient Jewish law handed down throughMoses stipulated that no property sales in Israel were permanentbecause the land belonged to God:The land must not be sold permanently, because the landis Mine and you are but aliens and My tenants.Throughout the country that you hold as a possession,you must provide for the redemption of the land(Leviticus 25:23-24).

Israelites were free to occupy their own plot of land, develop it,cultivate it, live off of it, and even pass it on to their heirs. They werenot to sell it, however, especially to non-Israelites. If financial cir-cumstances necessitated selling the property to a fellow Israelite, thelaw made provision for the land to be returned. Every 50 years Israelcelebrated a Year of Jubilee, during which time any land that hadchanged hands since the previous jubilee year automatically revert-ed to the original possessor.In Israel today, a similar principle is in effect. When youngcouples in Israel marry, the Israeli government provides or assiststhem with their first house. Why? 

Because there is no private own-ership of property in Israel. Officially, the land belongs to God The principle here is that in a kingdom, living on and using theland is a privilege, not a right. This practice reflects a kingdom consciousness that we all needto cultivate. It is critical for our understanding of the Kingdom andhow it works that we recognize that the whole earth is Heaven’scrown land and that we are merely “aliens” and stewards of God’sproperty. 

GOD’S COLONIAL INTENT

God never does anything to no purpose. From the very begin-ning, God’s intent for the earth was that it be colonized. Isaiah, anancient scribe and spokesman for the King, wrote:...He who created the heavens, He is God; He who fash-ioned and made the earth, He founded it; He did not cre-ate it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited... (Isaiah45:18).Our presence on earth was a colonial decision by our King. 

Hecreated this planet as new territory, fashioned us out of the samematerial, planted us here, and issued the colonial charter giving usdominion. We own nothing but have access to everything, as long aswe operate within the parameters of the governing principles theKing has established for His Kingdom. This is what it means to be acolony of Heaven.The concept of colonization is the most important componentof a kingdom that we must understand or else it will be impossibleto fully grasp the essence of the message of the Bible, the prophets,and the focus and priority of Jesus Christ. 

It is the misunderstand-ing or ignorance of this kingdom concept of colonization that hasproduced all human religions and sects. Christianity as a religionis itself a product of this misunderstanding. The primary purpose motive, plan, and program of God the Creator was to colonizeearth with Heaven.Understanding the concept of colonization is key because oncewe understand what God intended, we will understand what God isdoing. He put people on this planet for the purpose of expandingHis influence and authority from the supernatural realm to the nat-ural realm. A colony, by definition, is populated by people who orig-inally came from another place. 

It is an outpost inhabited by citizensof a faraway country whose allegiance remains with their home gov-ernment. Stated another way, a colony is “a group of emigrants ortheir descendants who settle in a distant land but remain subject tothe parent country.”1Colonization involves citizens of one country inhabiting foreignterritory for the purpose of influencing that domain with the cultureand values of their native country and governing it with the laws oftheir home government. For example, the message of Jesus as statedin His mission statement recorded in Matthew 4:17, “...the kingdomof heaven has arrived” (author’s paraphrase), would indicate that thefirst colony of Heaven had returned to earth through Him. 

As citi-zens of heaven, we inhabit the earth for the purpose of influencing it with the culture and values of Heaven and bringing it under thegovernment of the King of Heaven.Paul of Tarsus, a first-century ambassador and colonizer for theKing of heaven, described the King’s colonial intent this way:...to make plain to everyone the administration of thismystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, whocreated all things. His intent was that now, through thechurch, the manifold wisdom of God should be madeknown to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlyrealms, according to His eternal purpose which Heaccomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:9-11). 

God’s intent was to plant a colony of His citizens on the earth tomake His “manifold wisdom”—His heart, mind, will, and desires—known to “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.” Inother words, to the spirit world. His purpose in colonizing earth wasto show the spiritual powers of darkness how beings created in Hisown image could be planted on the earth and bring in the govern-ment and culture of Heaven so that in the end, the earth would lookjust like Heaven.In summary: 1. A colony is a group of citizens established in a foreign ter-ritory to influence that domain for their home govern-ment. 2. A colony is a foreign territory inhabited by citizenscharged to influence that domain with the culture andvalues of their government. 3. A colony is the presence of a distinct cultural citizenry ina foreign territory governed by the laws and culture oftheir home government.Such is the concept of kingdom colonization.

UNDERSTANDING KINGDOM CONCEPTS

Studying the concept of kingdoms is important for a couple ofreasons. First, because most of us today, particularly in the west,have never lived in a kingdom, the concept is completely foreign tous. We simply do not know what it is like to live under a king. This might not be a problem were it not for the second reason for study-ing the Kingdom: God’s government, the government of Heaven, is akingdom, and God is the King. 

And because His Kingdom extendsthrough all creation, encompassing both the supernatural and thenatural realms, it covers us also, which is why we need to understandit. A third and critical reason to study and restore this concept of kingdom is because the Bible is not about a religion or an organiza-tion but a King and His Kingdom. Therefore, in order to correctlyunderstand, interpret, and apply the Scriptures, knowledge of king-doms is necessary. 

The kingdom is the oldest of all forms of government and theonly one that is of divine origin. God “invented” the kingdom con-cept and established it first in Heaven. Simply stated, a kingdom issimply a domain over which a king has rulership. Heaven was thefirst domain that God created. Although invisible, it is a very realplace, even more real than what we call reality. The natural camefrom the supernatural; therefore, the supernatural is always morereal than the natural. Heaven is more real than earth, even thoughwe cannot see it with our physical eyes. In the beginning, God estab-lished a kingdom as the governmental system for ruling the super-natural realm of Heaven.Once His Kingdom was established in Heaven, God desired toextend it to another realm. With this end in mind (the big picture) Hecreated a visible, physical universe with billions of stars, including theone we call Sol, the sun around which revolves this planet we callEarth. 

The King chose this planet specifically as the location of HisKingdom colony in the natural realm. He created it for that purpose.Then He placed on it human beings created in His image to run thecolony for Him. In this way, God also established the first earthlykingdom, which was merely an extension of His Kingdom in Heaven.

Through rebellion against the King, however, man lost his ruler-ship. We have been trying to get it back ever since. Even though welost our earthly kingdom, we still retain the original kingdom ideathat the King implanted in our spirit. We are searching for theKingdom all the time, but without God we can never find it becauseit is from Him.In our Kingdom search through the ages, man has developedand experimented with many different systems of government, aswe saw earlier in this chapter. Every one of them, including those we call kingdoms, are defective because mankind is defective. 

But theyall are driven by our desire to regain and restore the original Kingdom. This is not a “utopian” fantasy. In the beginning, Godestablished utopia in heaven and then extended it to earth. Ourutopian dreams are simply expressions of our yearning to regain theKingdom we once had but lost.According to the “colonial charter” stated in Genesis 1:26 thatwe looked at earlier, man originally was given an earthly kingdom torule over, which was perfect. Adam and Eve were overlords of thephysical domain, corulers who themselves were ruled only by God,their Creator-King. 

They were His people, and He was their God;there was no intermediary rulership.Human kingdoms, which at best were but dim and flawed reflec-tions of God’s Kingdom, had citizens who were also subjects of theking, meaning that they were “subject” to the king’s personal ambi-tions, goals, whims, and desires. 

God’s Kingdom is different. In theKingdom of God there are no subjects, only citizens but every cit-izen is a king (or queen) in his or her own right. This is why the Biblerefers to God as the “King of kings.” He is the High King of Heavenwho rules over the human kings He created in turn to rule over theearthly domain.THE KINGDOM IS HEREAdam and Eve’s rebellion cost them their kingdom. Chapter 3 ofGenesis relates the sad story of how the human pair fell victim to thelies and deceptions of the serpent, which embodied the prince ofdarkness, that fallen angel known as satan or lucifer. With Adam andEve’s abdication, lucifer seized control of their earthly domain as abrazen, arrogant, and illegal pretender to the throne.Immediately the King of Heaven put in motion His plan torestore what man had lost.

 And what did man lose? A kingdom.Adam and Eve did not lose a religion because they had never had a religion; they had a kingdom. So when God set out to restore whatthey had lost, He set out to restore a kingdom, not a religion.Religion is an invention of man, born of his efforts to find God andrestore the kingdom on his own. But only God can restore the king-dom man lost.After the disaster in Eden, the King confronted His rebelliouscorulers and their deceiver and addressed each one in turn. Ofgreatest interest to us in this context is what the King said to the ser-pent, because it has kingdom implications:I will put enmity between you and the woman, andbetween your offspring and hers; He will crush your head,and you will strike His heel (Genesis 3:15).

Referring to the woman’s “offspring” by the singular pronoun“He,” indicates that the King was speaking of one specificoffspring—one who would strike a fatal blow against lucifer and his schemes by“crushing” his head. As the rest of Scripture makes abundantly clear,this one specific offspring appeared thousands of years later as theman Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who was the Son of God embodied inhuman flesh.When Jesus appeared on the scene in real, space-time history,He brought a message not of a religion, new or old, but of theKingdom:From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for thekingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17).These are the first recorded words of Jesus. The phrase “thattime” refers to the arrest of John the Baptist, a prophet whose mis-sion was to announce the arrival of the King. Now the King Himselfwas on the scene, and He was announcing the arrival of the Kingdom.This was the only message Jesus preached. 

Search all four of the NewTestament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you will find that Jesus always talked about the Kingdom. Everything He saidand did related to the Kingdom and its arrival on earth.Jesus said, “Repent” (which means to change your mind or adopta new way of thinking), “for the kingdom of heaven is near” (whichmeans, in effect, that it has arrived). In other words, Jesus was say-ing, “Change your way of thinking! The Kingdom of Heaven is here!I brought it with me!” When Jesus brought the Kingdom of Heavento earth, He brought also the promise of restoring to mankind thedominion over the earth that Adam and Eve had lost in Eden. 

Hebrought back our rulership.Before we could be fully restored to our Kingdom, however, thematter of our rebellion against God had to be dealt with. This rebel-lion is what the Bible calls sin, and it is universal in human nature, alegacy of Adam and Eve’s treason in Eden so long ago. Jesus’ death onthe cross paid the price for our rebellion so that we could be restoredto a right standing with God, our King, and be reinstalled in our orig-inal and rightful place as rulers of the earthly domain. The “gospel”message the “good news”—is more than the Cross. The Cross is thedoorway that gets us back into the Kingdom. The Cross of Christ,therefore, is all about Kingdom restoration. 

It is about restoration ofpower and authority. It is about regaining rulership, not religion.SONS, NOT SERVANTSWhy did God wait thousands of years from the promise inEden of Kingdom restoration to its realization with the coming ofJesus? He had to allow the course of human history to flow untilthe timing was right. In order for us to understand what we lostwhen we lost the Kingdom, much less understand kingdom princi-ples, God needed the right prototype as an example. Across themillennia, many human civilizations and kingdoms rose and felluntil finally a kingdom appeared that had everything God neededto show how His Kingdom was supposed to work. 

When theRoman Empire came to power, it had a concept of citizenship. It had a concept of lordship (ownership). It had a king and a domain.It practiced colonization. Rome had such an influence that wher-ever it advanced, that part of the world became like Rome. WhenGod saw Rome, He said, “That’s exactly what I want.”When the time was right, the King of Heaven sent His Son torestore His Kingdom on earth. Paul of Tarsus stated it this way:But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son,born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those underlaw, that we might receive the full rights of sons(Galatians 4:4-5).

The fullness of time has nothing to do with clocks but every-thing to do with seasons. When the season of history was right,when the Roman Empire had risen to serve as a living example,when everything was in place according to divine purpose, God sentHis Son into the physical world with the message that the Kingdomof Heaven had arrived. What was His purpose in restoring theKingdom? Not to give us a religion but to restore to us our “fullrights” as sons and daughters of the King.The King of Heaven wants sons and daughters, not servants.Religion produces servants. It revels in the spirit of servitude. Pleasedon’t misunderstand me. A servant heart is, as Jesus said, the key togreatness in the Kingdom of God (see Matt. 20:26-27). And He saidthat He Himself came to serve rather than to be served (see Matt.20:28)

. But this kind of service should always proceed from the placeof security in our knowledge that we are sons and daughters of theKing and simply are following His example. Servanthood in the reli-gious spirit, on the other hand, proceeds from a sense of false humil-ity and self-deprecation where one sees oneself not as a son ordaughter, but as a slave. Sons and daughters of the King see serviceas a privilege; religious people see it as an obligation.

 And thereinlies the difference. Sons and daughters serve willingly becausetheyare sons and daughters. Religious people serve grudgingly because they feel they have no choice if they hope to win the approval of theKing. Never confuse servingwith being a servant.Jesus came that we might “receive the full rights of sons.” This islegal language. There is not a bit of religion in these words. Theyrefer to legalrights and entitlements based on relationship of birth.We are sons and daughters of God. 

Sonship is our right by creation.Christ did not die to improve us; He died to regain and confirm us.The price He paid in His own blood was not to make us worthy butto prove our worth. He did not come to earth to enlist an army ofservants. He came to restore the King’s sons and daughters to theirrightful position—rulership as heirs of His Kingdom.If we are heirs and are destined to rule in our Father’s Kingdom,then we had better learn to understand His Kingdom and how itoperates. We had better learn its principles and concepts. We mustlearn how to think, talk, and live like Kingdom citizens. 

TheKingdom is the most important message of our age and the answerto the dilemma of ancient and modern man. According to JesusChrist, everyone is trying all they can to find it and forcing their waythrough life to lay hold on it:Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God isbeing preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it(Luke 16:16b).Everyone of the over six billion people on earth are searching forthis Kingdom. This book is to help you and your fellow planetdwellers discover and understand it. With this end in mind, theremaining chapters of this book will examine in detail key conceptsof the Kingdom of Heaven. 

PRINCIPLES 

1. Colonization is Heaven’s system for earthly influence.

2. God’s original intent was to extend His heavenly govern-ment over the earth, and His plan for accomplishing thiswas to establish a colony of Heaven on the earth.

3. By creative right, the earth is Heaven’s “crown land.”

4. The King gave man rulership of the earth, not ownership.

5. A colony is “a group of emigrants or their descendantswho settle in a distant land but remain subject to the par-ent country.”

6. As citizens of Heaven, we inhabit the earth for the pur-pose of influencing it with the culture and values of heav-en and bringing it under the government of the King ofHeaven.

7. God’s government, the government of Heaven, is aKingdom, and God is the King.

8. A kingdom is simply a domain over which a king hasrulership.9. In the Kingdom of God there are no subjects, only citi-zens—but every citizen is a king (or queen) in his or herown right.10. When Jesus brought the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, Hebrought also the promise of restoring to mankind thedominion over the earth that Adam and Eve had lost in Eden.

11. The King of Heaven wants sons and daughters, not servants.

12. Jesus came that we might “receive the full rights of sons.”