Keep in mind, the key to obedience is understanding status.  Many people are disobedient and don't even know it.  They are doing good things that are not the right things because they are out of position.  God's attitude toward obedience says that to almost obey, to obey too soon, to obey too late, to obey in the wrong place, and to obey with the wrong person are all disobedience.  This is why the Governor, which is the Holy Spirit, is so important to have dwelling within you.  Once you submit to His guidance He will lead you into all truth.

    The prophet Samuel expressed this truth after God took His anointing from King Saul, who had desired to worship God with offerings obtained through disobedience.  Saul wanted to do a good thing that was not right.

Constitution:  I Samuel 16:1  Now the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?  Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlemite.  For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.

    Keep in mind also, God also had to speak to Moses about trying to do more than his God-given task.  The Lord accomplished this through Jethro, Moses' father-in-law.

Constitution Scripture:  Exodus 18:14, 17-19, 21-22  So when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, "What is this thing that you are doing for the people?  Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning til evening?" 
    17) So Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good. 18) Both you and this people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out.  For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. 19) Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you; Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God.
    21) Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. 22) And let them judge the people at all times.  Then it will be that very great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge.  So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you.

    Remember this, obedience doesn't consist of following the prescribed do's and don'ts.  It involves doing the right thing in the right place at the right time.  When you stray from that place, you hurt yourself and others, because violation of status always causes chaos and destruction.

    Remember, obedience is doing the right thing in the right place at the right time.

    There is a lot of misdirection going on among the citizens of the Kingdom.  This is due to the wrong message they are receiving from our leaders and our so-called leaders.  Remember this, if the leader or leaders of a group isn't giving the right message, the followers of that group will carry the wrong message as well.  It is not enough to have a great leader, but the message must be the exact message that came from his source.

    Because the leaders have failed to teach and preach concerning the kingdom, many kingdom citizens have fallen to the level of teaching and preaching their religious denomination and what they believe.  Jesus never once taught religion or denomination.  In fact, when religious organizations fail to preach and teach the exact message that was given to us to convey to others, we allow other elements to come and mingle with the original message.

    Jesus spoke boldly to the religious leaders concerning the Kingdom:

Constitution:  Matthew 23:13-15
    But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut down the Kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  14) Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  15) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves

    As you may have read, Jesus spoke boldly against those who hindered the Kingdom of heaven from being preached and taught.  Believe me when I say this--the same situation exists in the church today.  Preachers and teachers are afraid to speak against corruption in our society out of being politically correct.

    Look at the evidence of not speaking out against sin:  Homosexuality running rampant in the government and the church.  Men and women deviating from the normal use of a man and woman within the confines of marriage.  When we fail to live a life that the Constitution has laid out for us, we allow other elements, that aren't conducive to our environment, to invade our lives.  This process comes by way of what we see and what we hear.  The end result is our thoughts begin to change.

Constitution:  Matthew 6:22-23  Jesus said it this way:

    The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  23) But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

    The world system puts out its advertisement through media and through what we read.  We should share with others the Kingdom of God without fear of reprisal from others.

Constitution:  Matthew 10:27-28  Jesus made it very plain:

    Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.  28)  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

    Whether you are aware of it or not, God has also given purpose to quality of permanence.  Once a manufacturer designs, produces and markets a product that fulfills a certain purpose, he doesn't change that purpose because a consumer doesn't like the way it works.  The manufacturer may change the design or the materials used in the components, but he will not change the purpose, because the purpose behind the product is what gives it meaning.  Keep in mind, plans might change, but the purpose is constant.  Remember, what God wants is established, but how He gets it done may vary.

Constitution:  Proverbs 19:21  There are many plans in a man's heart, nevertheless the Lord's counsel, that will stand.

Focus:  The Book of Genesis in the Constitution describes both God's promise to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son, and Sarah's frantic effort to assist God in achieving that purpose when the years roll by and she had not yet given birth to a son.  She gave her handmaiden to her husband Abraham.  She hoped to have a son through her.  But keep in mind that God said she would have a son.  Now when Hagai conceived and bore a son, Abraham named him Ishmael.  Abraham tried  to make him the promised son.  But the Lord did not accede to his wishes.  The Lord had promised Abraham a son through his wife Sarah, and that remained God's promise, because His purpose as revealed in His covenant with Abraham was that Sarah would be the mother of the promised son.

Constitution:  Genesis 17:17-22  Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 18) And Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!" 19) Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 20) And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21) But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year." 22) Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

    The closer you stay to the Lord in prayer, fasting, reading and studying the Word; the sooner your purpose will be revealed to you.

    Only the Lord God Knows the Purpose for Your Life

    All manufacturers want the consumers to be satisfied with their product.  The instruction books and labels that come with their product are their way of telling you what they had in mind when they created the product so you can compare that to your expectations when you bought it.  If the purpose of the manufacturer and the expectations of the purchaser don't match, the product can't possibly satisfy both the consumer's desires and the manufacturer's objectives.  Remember this:  purpose dictates performance, which influences satisfaction.  Thus, purpose is the key to fulfillment.

    Remember, your purpose is the key to life.  It tells you what you are supposed to do and why.  It reveals the reason behind life's experiences and demands and supplies a vision for the future.  It also provides a perspective that gives life significance and meaning.  Apart from purpose, life seems fatalistic and haphazard and the events of life become more important than the reasons behind them.

    Keep this in mind:  You will never experience true fulfillment and peace until you are executing the purpose for which you were born to do.

    Obedience is vital in getting your purpose met.  Obedience to what?  Obedience to the Word of God.  The written Word.  It is not enough to just read it, but to act upon what you have read.  Remember what the Constitution says in Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

    It is only through surrendering your will to Him, that you will reach the mind of God.  In submitting to His will, you  discover your purpose for being on this planet called earth.  The reason why the Lord God and King wants us to know His plan and purpose for our life, is because He knows that apart from Him we can't know hope, peace and joy.  In all things, purpose is the key to fulfillment because it establishes the foundation on which all life must be built.

    We who are Kingdom Citizens should have the mind of the King.

Constitution:  Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

Focus:  Remember, all of our godly actions begin with the renewing of your mind.  Right thinking produces right action, and the opposite is true as well.  Our actions is the fruit of our deepest thoughts.  Let us focus on prayer, fasting, reading and studying the Constitution (The Word).

Now that we realize that we are to reflect the nature of our King and Lord, it should cause us to watch what we allow to enter the personal culture of our spirits, souls and bodies.  Paul wrote to the Kingdom citizens in the city of Corinth:

Constitution I Corinthians 6:19-20  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; 20) you were bought with a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.

    Paul was saying in essence, "Don't you know that your body is the Governor's mansion?  He is holy, and He lives in you; therefore, you need tokeep the residence clean for Him and in accordance with His nature.  Remember, we will be held accountable for our actions if we don't repent, meaning to turn to another direction.  Keep in mind, that Jesus paid for the redemption of your spirit, soul and body, so that the Governor could live within you.  Therefore, as steward of the Governor's mansion, you should honor it by taking care of it.

    Allow me to say this one point.  We as humans should make a strong effort not to eat everything that looks good.  Believe it or not, it's killing us.  For some of us, the only exercise we get is walking to the food and moving our hand up to that hole under our nose!  Keep in mind, right is right and wrong is wrong and not eating healthy will eventually kill you.  Now, there, I made an effort to say that as nicely as I could.  And for those who are offended, get mad about it, mad enough to change your eating habits and go to the gym and work out.

    Jesus taught and stated in the Constitution:  Matthew 6:22-23  The eye is the lamp of the body.  If your eyes are good, your body will be full of light. 23) But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness.

    Keep in mind, the culture of the world enters our lives through our eyes and ears.  Whatever we watch on television or the internet or read in a book, affects the quality of our inner personal culture.  Whatever we keep listening to influences our lives.  We must not allow a destructive culture to invade and destroy our lives and our work for the heavenly Kingdom.

    Remember, being a Kingdom Citizen requires that we exist in some degree of tension because we live in the midst of a culture of rebellion and death.  Our old culture is fighting with the demands of the new culture.  yet we live here for the purpose of spreading the kingdom of light and pushing back the kingdom of darkness.  This is why Jesus prayed to the Father, just before He died....

Constitution John 17:15-18  My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. 16) They are not of the world even as I am not of it. 17) Sanctify them by Your truth; Your Word is truth. 18) As You sent Me in to the world, I have sent them into the world.

    Though we live on earth, we are also seated in the heavenly realms of the King who has brought us to live in His heavenly Kingdom, and we have all the resources of this Kingdom to enable us to live out the culture of the Kingdom on earth.

A man that is born, raised and educated in the country of India or China has a much different culture than a man who was born, raised and educated in the United States.  Your culture should reveal your origin.  The way you behave, the way you respond to others, the way you react to problems, and the way you deal with disappointments should all reveal the culture of heaven.  The qualities of the Spirit within you define the uniqueness of your nature.  Your unique nature then links you to your heavenly heritage.

    Keep in mind, that a man from India or China speaks two different languages completely.  The same goes for the citizens of the Kingdom.  Where we were born, raised and educated should reflect the nature of the Kingdom of heaven and not of the kingdom of darkness.

    Now Paul, who was writing to the citizens in Galatia, said it this way:

Constitution Galatians 5:16:21
     I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17) For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19) Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20) idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21) envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

    These are the characteristics of those who do not have the Governor in their lives (meaning the Holy Spirit).  They are being governed and influenced by the kingdom of darkness. 

    These characteristics of the Kingdom Culture are the principles that we possess and learn to live by.  Paul put it this way when he was writing to the citizens of Galatia:

Constitution Galatians 5:22-23
    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

    Jesus our Lord and King put it this way:

Matthew 7:16
"You will know them by their fruits"

    Keep in mind, if you allow yourself to reside and mingle among those who practice those things that are not of your culture without first laying the ground rules of your culture, you will be affected in a negative way.  It is called a "Culture Clash".

    Jesus made this statement again in Matthew 7:20:  "Therefore by their fruits you will know them".

    The Governor--Holy Spirit--comes to instill the nature of the heavenly kingdom in our lives.  That is what the Apostle Paul was instilling in the first century citizens who were learning what it meant for them to be re-aligned with the King.  In his letter to the kingdom citizens in Galatia, he made a list of essential qualities that make up the character of the king:
Love
Joy
Peace
Longsuffering
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control

    These you find in the Constitution in Galatians 5:22-23  Remember, any true manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth will have these characteristics.  Paul referred to these qualities as "the fruit of the Spirit".  He said that because, wherever the Governor was, these qualities should be evident, indicating that the culture of the King was present.

    The apostle Paul used the particular analogy of fruit because fruit doesn't appear overnight, it develops over time, and he wanted them to know that they would have to cultivate the culture of the king in their lives, under the example and leading of the Governor.

    First- the Governor teaches us the nature of the original government in heaven.

    Second- He shows us that, because He lives within us, we have this original nature and need to manifest it in our lives.

    Remember this one thing, when you receive the Holy Spirit, you also receive the seed of the Kingdom nature.  You develop this seed by putting into your life the kingdom elements that allow it to grow.  Here is an example of what I mean:

    An apple tree doesn't have to "work" to produce its fruit.  The seeds of the fruit are within it and eventually, through a process of maturity--enabled by the elements such as the nutrients in the ground and sunlight--what is on the inside of the tree or apple becomes manifested on its branches.

    Keep in mind, the process is somewhat the same.  The spiritual nutrients that enable the fruit to grow in our lives maintaining a continual connection with the King, learning the Constitution of the Kingdom (which is the Bible) and yielding to the direction of the Governor in our lives.

    Remember, just as apples are a natural outgrowth of apple trees, the fruit of the Spirit becomes a natural development in the life of a Kingdom Citizen because he is reflecting the nature of the King.

    Here is another example:  One of the fruits of the Spirit is goodness.  It is therefore natural for us to be good if we're in the Kingdom.  If we are not good, we are unnatural.  The Governor connects us to our original nature, which is true life for us as human beings.  No matter what happens in our lives, we still live out and exhibit all these qualities.

    When we have the Royal Governor resident within us, He renovates our lives by enabling us to reflect the nature of the King.